One of the great things about Skyrim is that there are a ton of different customizable options throughout the game, one of which is enchantments. In the game, you have the option of enchanting virtually any essential item given to you and some unique items.
Here, we’ve found 10 of the best and most useful enchantments available for the Dragonborn. This list, while semi-objective, is primarily determined by its overall value. That said, how they stack up for you will significantly depend on your build and play style.
10. Fortify Smithing
Starting our list at #10 is Fortify Smithing. Though only at the lowest in the Top 10, Fortify Smithing is an essential inclusion for any person looking to create an item of value. While it does not make any item incredibly powerful in magical abilities, it allows you to improve the item’s base stats and skills much more effectively.
This means that a common thing that is enchanted will always be weaker than that same item after refined from smithing. The Fortify Smithing enchantment allows you to get much of the smithing benefits without dumping a bunch of points into the skill. Because of this, while not at the highest on our list, it is still essential for anyone looking to have an adequately enchanted item.
9. Muffle
This enchantment is pretty straightforward. Following the spell that goes by the same name, the Muffle Enchantment will allow you to move quietly no matter where you are at all times. In exchange for this highly beneficial effect, the enchantment can only be used on boots and only has half the Muffle Spell’s overall effectiveness.
8. Fiery Soul Trap
A pretty rare weapon enchantment that most people will probably take a few playthroughs or a 100% completion run to come across. Still, it’s well worth the investment as it makes the standard Soul Trap enchantment not only redundant but entirely obsolete.
Fiery Soul Trap combines the effects of the Soul Trap enchantment with the Fire Damage enchantment. Like the standard Soul Trap Enchantment, it comes from the Conjuration school, meaning that Fortify Conjuration magic will improve its abilities.
What makes it superior to the standard Soul Trap enchantment is that it deals fire damage and grants the weapon more charges per attack by comparison. This means that each strike is increased in effectiveness by the fire damage and has more opportunities to trap them per swing.
7. Fortify Destruction
Arguably one of the best Fortify Magic armor enchantments in the game, Fortify Destruction is something that every player should set aside for at least one item in their armory.
Acting slightly different from the Fortify Destruction spell that increases your spell’s strength, the enchantment reduces the Magicka cost of them.
Why is this important? Basically, in addition to Magicka’s cost, this enchantment also reduces the consumption cost of charges on a weapon with a Destruction Spell. This means that if you could reduce the cost by 100%, you could essentially use any magical weapon indefinitely without worrying about it losing its charge.
Yeah, pretty freaking awesome.
6. Absorb Magicka
Following after Fortify Destruction, the Absorb Magicka enchantment is incredibly useful throughout the game. Using a weapon, each strike essentially robs your opponent off their magical strength and feeds that to you.
Why not Absorb Health or Absorb Stamina instead? Well, while we’ll get to Absorb Health later on this list, the fact of the matter is that there are far too many opponents in the game that strongly rely on Magicka for their attacks. Magicka is continuously thrown at the player from various high-level undead to Mages to even Dragons and Dragon Priests. Absorb Magicka essentially handicaps all of these opponents while actively giving you a leg up over on them, something Absorb Stamina isn’t nearly as capable of doing.
5. Paralyze
Now in the Top 5, the Paralyze Enchantment follows closely to the spell of the same name. As such, the ability to instantly immobilize your opponent for several seconds is pretty killer. Add to that the fact that you don’t need to worry about reducing your Magicka or being exceptionally high in the Alteration spell, which makes this enchantment extremely useful for any playstyle.
4. Resist Magic
Another incredible enchantment that works EXTREMELY well with the Absorb Magicka weapon enchantment is that the Resist Magic armor enchantment essentially reduces the amount of damage you take from magical spell attacks. As said earlier, the vast majority of enemies you will ever have trouble with will be magical ones. This enchantment, alongside the Absorb Magic enchantment, basically strips them of ALL their power so that a super-powerful Mage is little more than a random guy trying his best to kill you with a knife.
3. Absorb Health
Now in the Top 3, you had to know we’d be coming across Absorb Health somewhere soon. As the name states, this enchantment drains an opponent dry, literally turning them into a health potion at their own expense.
As this is part of the Destruction Magic school, if paired with the Fortify Destruction enchantment, you can essentially turn into a day-walking vampire. Pretty well worth the #3 spot.
2. Chaos Damage
While not as reliable as the Fire, Frost, or Shock Damage enchantment, Chaos Damage still is their superior in every other way. Chaos Damage damage combines the effects of all three enchantment above types and will give you a randomized outcome per attack used. That means, for each swing you perform, you’re likely to get 1 of 8 different outcomes. When combined with Fortify Destruction, you’re just breaking the game at this point.
1. Fortify Alchemy
And for our #1 spot, we have the only enchantment, Fortify Alchemy.
Now, before you curse me out and consider this whole list a joke, hear me out.
While all the other enchantments are incredible, Fortify Alchemy essentially makes all of their jobs infinitely more comfortable. How? By the use of the potion, “Fortify Enchantment”.
Only available in potion form, Fortify enchantment, by its very nature, can dramatically improve your ability to create enchantments, essentially making every one of the other enchantments on this list considerably more potent as a result.
Now is this starting to make sense? Unless you are doing an Alchemist build or are looking to put an excessive amount of time into improving your Alchemy skill. The Fortify Alchemy enchantment will make all your potions (yes, including the Fortify Enchantment potion) much more substantial than they would be only a second before without it active.
By improving your Alchemy skills with Fortify Alchemy, you are improving your Fortify Enchantment potions. These improved potions will make your enchanted items much more powerful as a result. This means a person who doesn’t use Fortify Alchemy and has dramatically different items in terms of strength, even if everything else was the same.
