Better Daedric Artifacts Skyrim

Azura's Star or The Black Star. Visit the Shrine of Azura. Shrine of Azura, south of Winterhold, east. Oct 222014 The Daedric Artifacts are some of the best rare items you can find in Skyrim, so to give them the love they deserve, here are 6 mods that will make them look even more legendary. All these mods can be found on the Nexus and since they are only retextures, no esps will be added to your load order. Daedric Artifacts are very rare, unique and powerful items granted to the player from Daedric Lords. Players must complete quests to earn these Artifacts in. Savior's Hide is the first of two daedric artifacts of Hircine. While the game tries to make you choose between them, this is easily circumvented by helping Sinding, leaving the Hunting Grounds to. The Daedric Princes are known for their impressive artifacts, but the Mace of Molag Bal is easily one of the best. Maces are already strong weapons, since they are able to pierce through armor and are one-handed. Molag Bal's artifact is even better because it deals direct damage to an enemy's stamina and magicka.

Last week we listed the top 10 artifacts scattered across Skyrim but here’s the thing. While yes finding those exclusive artifacts can be great, the daedric quests are a real highlight and there rewards are some of the best items in the game.

For this list I’m counting down all fifteen daedric artifacts and while yes I know there’s more than fifteen I’m only using one artifact per prince and which daedric princes your going to have to suck up to. I’m also not including the Skeleton Key from Noctural because a) it doesn’t count towards the ‘Oblivion Walker’ achievement/trophy and b) you need to give it back in order to the Thieves Guild questline.

15) Masque of Clavicus Vile

In every entry in the series the Masque of Clavicus Vile has appeared and ever time it has always been enchanted in some way to improve your personality/speech. This by the way is a pretty useless enchantment in most causes. To get your own masque you’ll need to talk to the blacksmith in Falkreach once your level 10 or higher.

To be fair in Skyrim they added a 5% Magicka regeneration but that’s not exactly alot and since its a heavy helmet it will counteract the Mage Armour Alteration therefore limiting what builds can use it. On the plus side however if your trying to get the best deals for your goods the Masque is very useful since it increases both your persuasion and barter. your personality/speech. This by the way is a pretty useless enchantment in most causes. To get your own masque you’ll need to talk to the blacksmith in Falkreach once your level 10 or higher.

Also I do like the fact that the Masque is based off of Clavicus Viles own face which fits his personality perfectly but what happened to Umbra, that sword was badass and pretty easy to find in Oblivion.

14) Oghma Infinium

Wait a minute I hear you say how did a item that gives up a plus 5 increase to any set of skills in one of the three groups. This practically guarantees at least one level up and its a guarantee that your going to active this quest anyway during the main questline once you pick up the Elder Scroll.

Here’s the thing though for all the use that a level up and a perk can be, the book vanishes after you read it once and you’d think that you’d at least get something extra like a bonus effect. Sadly no which is a shame because the Oghma Infinium quest is one of the longest especially if you started the quest before needing the scrolls in either the main questline or Dawnguard.

Also while the book is nice a ring or necklace would have honestly been more useful at least in the long run. Oh and thanks for getting my hopes up Septimus, when I first started this quest I was kind of hoping for something linked to the Heart of Lorkhan from Morrowind.

13) Mace of Molag Bal

Ah the Mace of Molag Bal, your so overpowered at lower levels and its look badass to boot. The quest for the mace is available from the very start of the game after you enter Markarth for the second time as the first triggers a separate quest.

One of the reasons I placed the Mace at number 13 is because I find its enchantments a little weird. It’s enchantments means it causes damage to anyone you hits stamina and magicka as well as soul trapping. Something weird about the mace is that these enchantments are increased with the Augmented Flames perks despite it not having any fire damage.

You see the Mace of Molag Bal also goes by another name, the vampires mace. This is partly due to the fact that Molag Bal is the lord of vampires. For this reason I wish the mace had its absorb magicka ability from Morrowind or at least something fire related to make sense of the Augmented Flames thing.

While the mace itself has the standard damage output of a dwarven mace you’ll need a ebony ingot to temper it. Now as any Skyrim player knows by the time you start running into ebony ingots chances are your not using a dwarven weapon any more unless your role-playing of course. This means that by the time you can improve the mace your probably already using a better weapon.

Finally can I point out that it’s weird that despite being the vampire mace of Molag Bal Harkon doesn’t even react to the fact that you have it.

“That mace… get it away from me. Get it away…”

12) Wabbajack

Easily one of the most unperdicatable weapons in gaming the Wabbajack is easily one of the most fun if dangerous weapons to take for a test drive whenever your a little bored or in a bind. To get your hands on Wabbajack you need to complete ‘The Mind of Madness’ quest in Solitude available again from the start.

Wabbajack lives up to its unperdicatable nature because when its hits something, it can case any number of effects ranging from elemental explosions, instantly killing enemies or turning them into wine or coins. It can also turn them into a range of creatures ranging from rabbits, mudcrabs and a freaking Dremora or even heal whoever it hits.

Thankfully you can reverse these transformations by hitting them either with the staff or your fists though this is also a problem if say you turn a Dragon Priest into a rabbit which by the way is totally possible. Unfortunately its this unpredictable nature that sadly keeps it from being any higher, the other items are just more reliable.

11) Spellbreaker

At number 11 we have the Spellbreaker, a uniquely enchanted dwarven shield belonging to the Daedric Prince Peryite, who is one of the weaker Daedric Princes “despite being depicted as a dragon”. Thank you loading screens for that constant reminder.

For Spellbreaker you’ll need to find the shrine of Peryite, located near Markarth and don’t forget to bring some vampire dust, one silver ingot, a flawless ruby and a deathbell flower too. One hallucination and a wiped out cult later and Spellbreakers yours.

What sets Spellbreaker apart from the countless other shields of Skyrim is that comes with its own automatic warding spell when you block. By the way this ward works very well against dragons just saying.

Unfortunately if the ward breaks than your staggered and considering that it protects up to 50 damage, Adept level or higher spells are going to be a pain. Odd that the Daedric Prince of pestilence and diseases has a artifact that protects you from harm by the way.

10) Skull of Corruption

Out of all the daedric artifacts in Skyrim the Skull of Corruption has had one of the weirder changes in effects. I say this because till Skyrim the Skull of Corruption cloned however you hit with it. Now its powered by dreams and leaves nightmares in their place which honestly I think is better especially since you can now resurrect corpses.

Like the Mace of Molag Bal before it the Skull of Corruption quest can be started at level 1 in Dawnstar by talking to the Jarl. Along with this however you need to kill Erandur at the end of the quest or he’ll destroy the artifact for redemption reasons and we don’t want that.

The Skull of Corruption does a base damage rating of just 20 points by itself. Going along with the whole stealing dreams thing that Varmenia the daedric prince of nightmares is known for the staff itself is actually powered by them. You can steal peoples dreams by casting it on someone sleeping and when you do so it boosts its power level up to 50.

The thing that bugs me however about the Skull of Corruption is that despite being powered by dreams you still need to recharge the damn thing. Don’t get me wrong it makes sense but still maybe the dreams could have helped charge it, maybe giving you 5 or 6 extra casts per dream. Still though the staff has a great design and it was hard putting it only at number 10.

“What a foul and unnatural weapon you wield. Never have I seen its like”

9) Ebony Mail

Now hitting single figures we have Boethiah’s Ebony Mail, one of only two Daedric armour as well as the highest level cap at 30 unless you walk off and find the shrine anyway.

In order to get your hands on the Ebony Mail you’ll need to sacrifice one of your followers at her shrine. This being said though you can just sacrifice some hired mercenary instead if your too attached to your followers. One battle royal with her cultists later and Boethiah will tell you to silently kill her previous champion which also serves as a nice reminder to players that Boethiah’s not to be messed with.Now while Boethiah claims that we have to kill her champion from behind which if your not a stealth character is a god send.

The Ebony Mail has two very useful enchantments applied to it. The first one is that the armour completely muffles your footsteps while your sneaking and it has the highest muffle effect in the game meaning you can save your other pieces of armour for other effects.

On top of this it also has a completely unique enchantment, the poison cloak which damages anyone stupid enough to stand next to the person covered in black/grean smoke. If the damage isn’t enough you can also throw a cloak spell on top to increase the damage done making this a very useful armour piece for tanking. Its also heavy armour to boot.

Unfortunately the poison cloak is also the armours greatest weakness as it only does 5 points of damage compared to the cloak spells 8. Adding to this it also works on NPC’s meaning you’ll need to unequip it every time you walk into town and that can get annoying quickly.

Better Daedric Artifacts Skyrim Armor

8) Ebony Blade

Found on level 20 and the artifact of Mephala we have the Ebony Blade, this health draining two handed katana that won’t take more than 15 minutes to grab.

To get this blade you’ll need to talk to Jarl Balgruuf the Greater in Whiterun about his kids. After you talk to his son Nelkir and either killing Farengar or stealing the key from him or Balgruuf open the door and take the sword. Unfortunately some selfish person sealed the swords true power so Mephala will ask you to kill your friends/ followers to do unlock its power. In order to get its full power kill 10 people and yes mercenaries do count.

For a sword that’s so easy to get its really powerful if your willing to kill those who trusted you, you monster (just kidding we’ve all probably used it at one point). At it’s weakest the Ebony Blade absorbs 10 points of health per hit but 10 kills later and your absorbing a pretty sizeable 30 points of health. Seriously fully empowered the Ebony Blade can let you tank nearly any type of dragon in vanilla Skyrim.

Speaking of charging the blade don’t let it get confiscated because this resets the blade and you’ll have to find another 10 people stupid enough to trust you. Oh you don’t need to power up the blade for the Oblivion Walker achievement/trophy in case your curious.

Unfortunately Bethesda had to balance the blade somehow so for starters you can’t improve it but unlike Wuuthrad at least they explain that “Not even the hottest fires of the Skyforge could melt it”. The biggest problems with it however is that it’s normal damage is effected by the One-Handed perks, not the Two Handed ones you’d expect with a large two handed katana but this does mean you can use one-handed enchantments to improve your damage for what its worth.

“At last, my blade is returned to its full glory. Now go forth, child. Continue your tiny subversions against the orders of trust and intimacy.

7) Ring of Namira

Feeling hunger because at number 7 we have a ring with a twist, the Ring of Namira and guess with Daedric Prince owns this artifact. The Ring of Namira is part of that exclusive group of artifacts obtainable at level 1 and out of all artifacts this is the one your most likely to accidentally run into.

The reason for this is because instead of looking for shrines or demonic doors (?) this quest starts with you doing a favour for a priest of Arkay. Listening to the women in the Hall of the Dead will start ‘The Taste of Death’ and after you finish eating the priest you talked to begin the quest, Namira will grant you her ring.

Skyrim Better Daedric Artifacts

Because eating something often causes you to get a taste for it, wearing the Ring of Namira allows you to eat the corpses of any humanoid enemies. Do so gives you 50 bonus health and 50% extra health regeneration for five minutes. On top of this the ring also grants the wielder 50 bonus points in Stamina meaning that with the right build this ring can really increase your longevity.

To be honest there’s nothing wrong with the Ring of Namira expect that it won’t suit all play styles but besides that it just down to personal preferences as I never really find myself using this as much as the next artifacts.

“Ugh your breath is foul. What’ve you been eating?

6) Mehrunes Razor

Barely missing the top 5 we have Mehrunes Razor, prized dagger of Mehrunes Dagon and it can be yours for the low low price of one (kind of) innocent persons life, two dead bandits and a easily bribed logger.

The Mehrunes Razor’s quest ‘Pieces of the Past’ can be started from level 20 after meeting the head of the Dawnstar Mystic Dawn museum. As mentioned above your going to need to do a lot of killing to get your hands on this prized dagger but once you meet Mehrunes Dagon you have to kill Silus Vesuius as well otherwise you’ll miss the dagger. By the way no matter what you choose Dagon summons two Dremora to attack you after your decision is made and they re-spawn to making Daedra hearts a little easier to farm.

Mehrunes Razor is a dagger that historically has been coveted by the Dark Brotherhood and with its instant kill enchantment its not hard to see why. The chances of this happening is only 2% than again its on a dagger.

Considering for a second that daggers are the fastest weapons in the game then chances are that if you use it like your supposed to use a dagger i.e. wait for a opportunity than run in and swing like a manic than chances are your going to either a) get the instant kill or b) do a ton of damage considering that its a daedric quality dagger and it only weights half the amount. Add a cloak spell or the Ebony Mail and your going to do alot of damage very quickly especially if your a stealth character and your going for the back stab.

“Who did you have to kill to get that blade?”

5) Volendrung

Moving into the Top 5 we have one of the easiest artifacts to miss, the Hammer of Might and the artifact of the Orc God Malacath, Volendrung. From level 9 onwards you can get your hands on Volendrung by visiting the Orc stronghold Largashbur, located south-west from Riften and help deal with their Giants problem.

Your reward for doing so is Volendrung, one of the more practical Daedric artifacts, at least in terms of enchantment. You see Volendrung absorbs 50 points of Stamina with every hit. While yes this is a change from Oblivion where it could paralysis and drain health I honestly prefer Stamina. Unfortunately it loses its charge after around 23 swings but then again souls aren’t in short supply in Skyrim.

While Volendrung’s enchantment is really useful, even better is the fact that it swings just as fast as a battleaxe and a greatsword, just what you need if your put off by the warhammer’s slow swing speeds. The hammer is also the same weight as a Orcish warhammer too but because of its lack of unique enchantment and because it can be easy to miss Volendrung lands at number 5.

“What do you aim to do with that hammer friend? Knock down a house”

4) Ring of Hircine

Starting of this lists top 5 we have the Ring of Hircine and I’m going to cut straight to the case her and just say that if your playing as a werewolf, this ring is practically essential but before I explain why here’s where to find one.

You can grab the Ring of Hircine by going to Falkreach and talking to the prisoner Sinding from the very start of the game if you want. After talking to him you’ll get the cursed ring of Hircine, a unique ring that can turn you into a werewolf completely at random which can be fun in its own rights. Hunt one giant white stag and Hircine will tell you to kill Sinding but here’s the thing. If you choose to hunter Hircines hunters instead Hircine won’t get mad, instead he’ll be impressed and give you the regular Ring of Hircine.

What makes the Ring of Hircine should a valued ring is that it allows you to turn into a werewolf as many times as you want instead of the once a day limit your usually stuck with. If your playing as a werewolf there’s no real reason not to grab it as to be fair its not that hard to locate.

However since the ring is required to be worn to use its power you can’t use it in conjunction with the werewolf rings in Solstheim because someone at Bethesda decided that two rings is too many for anyone to wear. It’s probably a balancing thing but along with this if you don’t want to be a werewolf than there’s no reason to bother with it as there’s no other effects tied to the ring.

3) Sanguine Rose

Now entering the final three we have the final of the games three staffs and the item tied to the funniest Daedric quest we have the Sanguine Rose, property of the Daedric Prince of debauchery himself Sanguine.

In order to get the Sanguine Rose you will need to run into a mage called Sam Guevenne, a mage who will randomly sqawn in a tavern across Skyrim from level 14 onwards. He’ll offer you to take part in a drinking contest and agreeing leads to one of the weirdest nights in your characters life starting with you waking up hungover in the Chapel of Dibella. I’m not going to spoil what happens next for the three people reading this who are using it as a guide (hi by the way) but at the end of the quest your rewarded with the Sanguine Rose and boy is it worth the effort.

The Sanguine Rose is a staff of conjuration but unlike most that summons flame or frost atronach this one summons a dremora, the last thing available for summoning in Vanilla Skyrim or those conjuration spells that last till the creature or corpse dies. Your follower can use it as well but try and avoid doing so will piss off your dremora and I’m pretty sure your followers don’t realise that summoning another gets rid of the pissed off one.

Along with giving you access to a high level conjuration spell early dremora make perfect tanks and the dremora summoned by the staff is effected by perks such as the summoner and Atromancy. Atromancy being especially usefull as it keeps them around for twice as long but try and not hit him as there easily pissed off. On top of this the staff doesn’t have as many charges as others but again there isn’t really a soul collecting problem in Skyrim.

2) Dawnbreaker

Landing itself at the number 2 spot we have Dawnbreaker, the sword of burning light (not a in game title) and artifact of the Daedric Prince Meridia and boy does it fit with her whole I hate the undead thing.

In order to start ‘The Break of Dawn’ quest you either need to find Meridia’s beacon hidden somewhere randomly in Skyrim or visit her Shrine in which case she’ll tell you where to look. You need to be level 12 before you can start this quest and in the event that you don’t want to search the entirety of Skyrim (it is pretty big after all) I recommend the second option. By the way the Shrine is located to the West of Solitude.

In exchange for killing a necromancer corrupting her temple you gain the Dawnbreaker, one of the most useful weapons when it comes to killing vampires and undead in general because along with setting them on fire it can blow them up.

Okay okay it doesn’t actually blow up the undead but it does cause a pretty big explosion every so often when you set one on fire. This explosion only deals damage to the undead which includes you by the way if your playing as a vampire or a werewolf because for some reason Skyrim counts Lycanthropes as undead.

Now here’s the thing, while the Dawnbreaker is a great sword it doesn’t get the number one spot because its fire effect only does 10 points of damage which is something you could easily do yourself with basic enchantment skills. It does however have a really long charge to the point where I wonder why they bothered with one to begin with and the explosion effect is great fun if alittle annoying in dungeons as it sends everything flying so it barely missed out on the number 1 spot.

1) The Black Star

Seriously it had to be The Black Star. No matter how you plan to play Skyrim chances are you’ll be using enchanting so you’ll need this and you can straight away at level 1.

In order to get the Black Star you need to side with the mage Nelacar during ‘The Black Star’ quest. Doing so will cut the artifact from Azura’s influences meaning that after having to grovel to Daedric Princes in order to get their items, this quest allows you to practical spit in one of their faces and that makes a nice change.

The thing about The Black Star that sets it apart from Azura’s version is that it allows the use of human souls which are always of a Grand quality meaning you don’t have to hord Grand Stars around looking for the right ceature because any bandit will do. All you need to worry about is what effect do you want on your prized item and if your okay with sending souls to the Soul Cairn unless its a bandit of course in which case its their fault probably.

The Black Star reached number 1 because no matter what style your playing as enchanting is always going to be useful and The Black Star guarentess that you’ll always have a reusable black soul gem on you which can also capture the souls of animals for some reason.

So that’s the Top 15 Daedric artifacts in Skyrim and while yes my number 1 pick was probably obvious from the start why not tell us your favourite items in the comments and don’t forget to come back next week when I reveal the locations of every Dragon Priest.

This list was made with the help of the Unoffical Elder Scrolls Pages (and plenty of hours in Skyrim).