For this one, we're going back to basics. Even though this is a rather obvious build, it has taken me 7 years and nearly 2,000 hours of gameplay to finally get around to making this build; and let me tell you, it's one of my favorites I've played yet. This is a classic Sword and Board warrior build. It's usually one of the first types of builds a new player will use, but surprisingly I never have until now.
Backstory and Roleplaying: The Mercenary grew up in Skyrim. At a young age he was orphaned and left to live on the streets. Here he learned to do whatever it took to survive. He began taking on odd jobs to earn money and as he grew, established himself as an accomplished mercenary. He was known to never turn down a job as long as the money was good. Morality never entered the equation for him.
He spend years in this way of life until one day he met a young Imperial woman who wanted to hire him to find a family heirloom. There was something special about this girl and he resolved to keep in touch with her even after the job was done. As it turns out, a few years later he married that girl and they moved back to Cyrodiill. He gave up his mercenary life and started a farm. They spent several happy years together and even had two children. Unfortunately, as fate would have it, the Imperial woman contracted a deadly disease that left the mercenary alone to raise their son and daughter.
Years pass and the Mercenary is struggling to provide for his children. Farming wasn't making enough money and they had just lost most of their livestock to sickness. It was at this time that the Mercenary got word of a heft bounty placed on the head of a Redgard woman who had fled from Hammerfell. He didn't want to return to his former way of life, but he know he didn't have any other way to provide for his children. So it was resolved; he sent his children to stay at a friend's farm and set out to the northern boarder of Cyrodiil to track down his prey. He had always wanted to return to his homeland, but he never thought it would be in this way.
As he approached the boarder he heard the familiar sounds of battle. As he looked out over the valley before him, a grizzly scene lay sprawled over the countryside. A small regiment of Nord warriors were fighting tooth and nail against a much larger Imperial force who had them surrounded. He barely had time to take in the full scene when he was thrown from his horse and knocked unconscious. The next thing he knew, he was being carted to Helgen for execution.
As he approached the chopping block, he sent up one last prayer to Talos and filled his head with thoughts of the children he thought he would never see again and the wife that he would be joining soon. However, this was not his time to die. As if Akatosh himself had ordained it, a dragon interrupted the executor mid swing, giving the Mercenary enough time to escape to safety before the town was reduced to rubble.
Race: This one doesn't matter so much. There are several options, but I think Breton is the best class to use for most tank-related builds due to it's 25% resistance to magic and the ability to reach 100% spell absorption when combining their racial ability with the Atronach Stone. However, on my playthrough I chose a Nord for role-playing reasons that I will detail later in this post. Nords are probably the second best choice due to their 50% resistance to frost damage. Frost damage is the most deadly form of damage for a warrior because it depletes stamina and slows them down, so having a resistance to frost is quite useful. Orcs would be a good third choice because of their Berserker Rage ability that gives them double-damage output and half-damage intake for one minute, however you can only use this one per day, so it's usefulness is limited. Finally a Dark Elf can services just fine due to their racial passive and gives them 50% resistance to fire, but it is significantly less useful then the aforementioned abilities.
Standing Stone: In the early game, choose the Warrior Stone for faster leveling, but eventually you will want to take either the Lord Stone or the Atronach Stone. I give the advantage to the Atronach Stone because it stays useful for longer. The Lord stone will give you better spell and physical resistance which is great in the early to mid game, but eventually you will hit the armor cap and the Lord Stone will only be half as useful. The Atronach Stone gives you a 50% chance to absorb a spell rather than take damage, and as we all know, magic is the bane of a warrior. I know that at this point the Atronach Stone is kind of a cliche, but it is literally the best standing stone for 99% of all builds.
Major Skills: This one is a rather simple build. All you really have to worry about is Heavy Armor, Block, and One-Handed. If you plan on playing this build on legendary, I would throw in Alteration, Enchanting, and Alchemy.
Level Heavy Armor to 100 and take the following perks: Juggernaut 5/5 (increase armor by 100%), Well Fitted (25% armor boost if wearing all heavy armor), Tower of Strength (50% less stagger), Matching Set (25% armor boost if wearing a matching armor set), and Reflecting Blows (a chance to reflect damage back at the enemy).
Level Block to at least 70 and take the following perks: Shield Wall 5/5 (blocking is 40% more effective), Deflect Arrows (take no damage from arrows that hit your shield), Elemental Protection (increase magic defense by 50% when blocking), Block Runner (move at full speed while blocking), Power Bash (stun the enemy with a shield bash), Deadly Bash (shield bash does 5x more damage), and Disarming Bash (a chance to disarm the enemy). Quick Reflexes and Shield Charge are optional, but not necessary.
Level One-Handed to 100 and take the following perks: Armsmen 5/5 (weapons do 100% more damage), Fighting Stance (power attacks cost 25% less stamina), Savage Strike (25% more damage with standing power attacks and have the chance to decapitate enemy), Paralyzing Strike (a chance to paralyze an enemy). Don't bother with perks like Bladesmen, Hack & Slash, and Bone Breaker. The game calculates critical damage weird, so the extra critical chance from Bladesmen is completely pointless. The bleed damage from Hack and Slash will become inconsequential once you reach mid-game. And finally, the majority of enemies in the game aren't wearing much armor, so the ignoring armor benefit from Bone Breaker wont give you that much benefit.
If you are playing on Legendary - Level Alteration to 100 and follow the tree up until you get Magic Resistance 3/3 (20% more magic resistance) and Atronach (30% more magicka absorption). Then level Alchemy to 60 and take Alchemist 4/5 (80% stronger potions), Physician (25% more powerful health and stamina potions), Benefactor (25% more powerful self-buff potions), Poisoner (25% more powerful poisons), Concentrated Poison (poisons last longer). Finally, level Enchanting to 100 and take Enchanter 5/5 (100% stronger Enchantments), Fire/Frost/Shock Enchanter (25% stronger elemental enchantments), Insightful Enchanter (25% stronger armor enchantments), Corpus Enchanter (Stamina/Health enchantments are 25% more powerful), and finally Extra Effect (enchant an item with 2 enchantments).
Stat Distribution: Evenly level Stamina and Health until you feel like your stamina is at a level you are comfortable with and then dump the rest into Health. Don't touch Magicka. Only milk-drinkers level Magicka.
Weapons: For an Adept play-through, I chose to use Chillrend along side the Mace of Molag Bal. I kept the black variant of Azura's Star on hand so that I could use the Mace to soul trap enemies to recharge my weapons. While not the most powerful sword stat-wise, Chillrend is still about the best sword in the game. Not only doe sit have a respectable base damage, but it inflicts frost damage (amount of damage is dependent on the level at which you find the weapon) as well as has the chance to paralyze the enemy. The Nightingale blade is also a good choice. It has slightly less base damage and also absorbs health and stamina. I would have used this, but I didn't like the way it looked. Also, the best one-handed weapon in the game is actually Windshear because it staggers the enemy every hit, but it's game-breaking so I didn't use it.
For the shield I used the Shield of Ysgramor. It has 20% resist magic and fortify health. Spell Breaker would probably be a better choice because it can be upgraded, has higher defense, and creates a ward; however I also didn't like the way it looked, so it was a no-go for me.
If you are playing on Legendary difficulty: It is important on this difficulty to craft and enchant your own gear. It will be far more powerful in the long run. I would craft a stalhrim weapon (sword, mace, or axe depending on your preference) and enchant it with Chaos Damage and Absorb Health. Chaos damage counts as a frost enchantment, so it will get a boost from being on a stalhrim weapon and that boost will extend to the Absorb Health enchantment. For the shield, you are rather limited on the enchantments that you can apply to it, so I would just stick with Spell Breaker. The ward it provides is more useful than any of the resistance enchantments you can put on a regular shield.
Armor: On my play-through, I own several Creation Club creations, so for the majority of my game I used the Silver Hand Vigilant Armor and eventually the Stormcloak Champion armor. However if you don't have these, Ancient Nord armor from the Dragonborn DLC is a great substitute.
If you are playing on Legendary difficulty: Enchant your own armor with Fortify Destruction and Fortify One-Handed on any piece you can. You can get 100% reduction of destruction magic spell cost buy doing this and it will extend to your enchantments so that you will never lose charge on your weapon.
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