The Elder Scrolls: Arena – Master the Art of Building a Better Warrior

The time old tale. You’ve just finished your thousandth magic user playthrough, or you’ve never played a game like this before and you just want to smack stuff with a sword. You’ve probably heard the classic “I recommend a magic user” for beating that pesky main quest.

Well, here’s some motivation directly from the official Player’s Guide

It seems like playing certain characters gives me an advantage. Can the game be won, say with a Thief?
Yes. While it is certainly true that certain classes have advantages over
others, they are balanced out by needing more experience points at each
level. As a result a Thief class character will generally be of a higher level
than say a Spellsword. This directly translates into a better chance to hit
an opponent, better saving throws, and higher base stats. It is imperative
however that you adequately prepare for a dungeon by stocking up on
potions and magic items. They can make the difference between life and
death. We know there are a number of ways through each puzzle / area
in the game that are achievable by any class. In your travels you will
probably come across others.

So feel not the sting of fear, but instead the song of victory. Here are some helpful tips to build a better warrior.

First, we need to pick a class. Warriors and their sub classes are all adherent to the same principal:
You cannot use spells.
But that doesn’t mean you don’t have access to magic. We’ll get to that in a little bit.

So what can a warrior do?
Warriors and their subclasses (excluding Archer) can all wear plate armor. That by extension means they are the only classes that can wear enchanted armor. They have the highest health rolls among all classes, and their bonuses all include buffs to combat.

What are the differences between a warrior and the subclasses?

-Warrior main class rises in experience at the second fastest rate next to Mages.

-Knights are immune to Paralysis and will automatically repair their own gear, but can’t wear leather. They also can’t use the Oghma Infinium.

-Rangers have faster time to travel between cities, and get a damage bonus equal to their level. They cannot use Tower Shields.

-Archers can only wear Leather and Chain armor. They cannot use shields. Bow critical chance % increases with every level.

-Monks cannot wear any armor. Critical chance % goes up and enemy hit% goes down per level. They also take no damage from spells when a saving throw is successful.

-Barbarians roll the highest HP. They are immune to poison, and get bonus to healing based on endurance. Can only wear armor up to Chain.

Pick your class for the bonus you want.

Next, the races. Every different race has a different bonus, but only three are ideal for a good Warrior. You can pick whatever you want, but from my experience these are s-tier.

-Nords get blade hit% bonus and shield block% bonus. They also take half damage from cold (no damage on successful saving throw)

-Khajits have bonus to base agility + jumping and climbing bonus.

-Dark Elves get damage bonus to melee and ranged weapons +INT bonus (good for locked doors while dungeon crawling)

Personally, a Dark Elf is probably my favorite choice. The bonuses allow better allocation of stats for a much more convenient early game.

This is the easiest portion of this guide to follow.

For the early game, we want to stack Agility and Luck. The first roll should be re-rolled until you have a comfortable health. From there, for the first 4 level ups, stack every point you get into Agility and Luck.

YOUR LUCK SHOULD BE HIGHER THAN YOUR AGILITY

By the time you start stacking points into STR and END, you should already have a Luck of 70
and Agility of 60. AT LEAST. This SHOULD net you a +3 to hit. You’re absolutely going to need it.

Why is Luck higher than Agility?

For the treasure, of course. Both of those stats directly impact the global combat formula, so a 70 to Agility and 60 to Luck would still net a +3 to hit. But your loot rolls will be a lot worse. In this early part of the game, you want to find as many enchanted items as you can. It also never hurts to have a little extra gold. A higher Luck stat will give you the loot advantage without taking away the hit advantage.

Apparently spellcasters have never heard of an Enchanted Item before. If you believe the reviews, you may be inclined to believe that this game is heavily biased toward spellcasting classes.

THAT ISN’T TRUE

Not only is it not true, it’s outright misleading. Spellcasters do a ton of magic damage, sure. But they also have extremely low + to hit and medium low health rolls. What you gain in power, you sacrifice in survival ability. You’re more likely to miss and die because you’ve likely spent your entire run focusing magic DPS instead of + to hit. But you don’t need that much DPS if you don’t miss that much.

The warrior sacrifices nothing.
Sure, you might not be able to cast spells like a mage or whatever. But what you can do is find enchanted items that have equally powerful spells. Can’t find a high ground to rest on? Get yourself an enchanted item of healing. Have a problem with a specific creature who’s weak to a specific magic? Get an enchanted item that can cast that magic. Is your magic resistance just too damn low to fight that vampire and rescue the maiden from the Thieves Guild? Get yourself some enchanted armor to counter that. This is why the luck stat is so important. You want the best possible loot rolls you can get, because Warriors have to be resourceful. You NEED enchanted items. Another great luck stat bonus is a greater success rate with enchanted items. If your ring doesn’t heal you enough, you may just need a higher luck stat.

ARTIFACTS ARE NICE, BUT THE RUMORS ARE NOT TRUE. YOU DO NOT NEED ANY OF
THE ARTIFACTS TO BEAT THE GAME. THEY ARE ENTIRELY OPTIONAL.

I get it. Not everybody is in Arena for the procedural generated wilderness and dungeons. Many players come for the main quest and nothing else beyond that. But to be a great warrior, you have to make use of your world. You need to ransack dungeons. You need to adventure.

-The first dungeon is there. USE IT. The devs recommended being level 3 before leaving. I also find that to be comfortable.

-There is a dungeon directly south of Ebonheart in the Morrowind Province. Handy information from the players guide. This is an easier dungeon, and will net good early game loot. (Or at least stuff you can sell to buy good loot.)

-There are many dungeons hidden within cities. Breaking into a house might net you a dungeon, or it might net you a swift death from the guards. Thankfully, we’ve been stacking that luck stat.

-Purposely dawdle. Taking a couple of extra days before doing a quest that you’ve started might trigger some wild encounters. With a good enough luck stat, you might get really great loot. (Or you might get dead, if it’s the Dark Brotherhood.)

-SELL SELL SELL. You might not always be buying weapons and armor, but you should definitely be paying the Mages Guild to check your items for enchantments. Some of them are insanely expensive, but you’re going to want to know what your enchanted items do. You can trial-and-error some of them, like healing stuff or some spells. But any item that casts a damage reducer or something needs to be identified, and you really do want to know what you have.