By Garrett Babb
Staff Writer
The Daedric Princes are very prevalent beings in Bethesda’s Elder Scrolls V Skyrim and serve as otherworldly influences on the player that give them oftentimes morally questionable tasks to complete in return for becoming their champion and obtaining powerful unique artifacts. In this article, I’ll be ranking my personal top five Daedric artifacts in the game based on their usefulness to the player, unique designs, and overall viability in any given playthrough. So without further ado, let’s start the list at number five.
#5 – Wabbajack
This staff is acquired from Sheogorath, Daedric Prince of madness during his questline “The Mind Of Madness”. The staff itself has a very cool unique design but is comparatively lacking in flash compared to some of the other entries on the list. As for its effects, however, the staff can both be easily the most powerful but also the weakest of the artifacts at the same time. This is because the wabbajack’s effect is that its effect is completely random – sometimes it will fire huge balls of energy doing insane damage, and other times it will make the enemy you use it on even more powerful and dangerous. The staff is really cool, and despite the fact that it can be detrimental to the player at times the fact that it fits the theme of madness so well and that it can be extremely powerful if the player is lucky keeps me from putting it any lower than number 5.
#4 – Ebony Mail
This beautiful set of ebony armor is obtained from Boethiah, the Daedric Prince of deceit and treachery during his quest “Boethiah’s Calling”. The armor is very similar to a normal set of Ebony armor but has slight differences that give it a very unique and lighter sleek look to it that give it more assassin-type vibes instead of the regular heavily clad black knight you get with the normal set. The armor provides its user with two completely unique enchantments, the first being that the player wearing it will inflict 5 poison damage per second to enemies around them and the second being that the player will be covered in a dark shroud at all times which allows for stealth to become much easier. The armor with its already pretty stellar defense rating and great stealth-based enchantments makes it a great pick for any player.
#3 -Dawnbreaker
This legendary gilded undead slaying blade is obtained from Meridia, the Daedric Prince of life and energy during her infamous quest “The Break of Dawn”. This sword makes the #3 spot mostly for its absolutely stellar design and useful stats (but mostly the design). This sword is in my opinion the coolest looking of all the Daedric artifacts in the entire game, and not only does it look great it had the stats to back it up with its base damage scaling with an ebony sword and its enchantments doing intense fire damage and makes the undead explode in a fiery blue explosion when killed with it. Overall, the sword is viable even in the late game and is a great addition to any blade user’s arsenal for all these reasons deserves its number 3 spot.
#2 Spellbreaker
This incredible Daedric shield is obtained from Peryite, the god of disease and pestilence and it is obtained from his fantastic questline “The Only Cure”. The shield has very good base stats giving it a base armor rating edge over your typical ebony shield (ebony items are usually what Daedric artifacts scale off of) which makes it slightly more viable than most other artifacts in the late game. Not only this, but the shield’s unique effect is arguably one of the best in the game. The shield when blocking creates an award that allows the player to not only block incoming physical damage but also to block up to fifty points of magical damage as well, meaning that the player can block adept level magic and dragon’s breath attacks by using the shield alone. This effect negates a shield-using warrior’s biggest weakness in Skyrim, as typically a warrior class character will have no means of defending themselves from non-physical damage. This in my opinion puts spell breaker easily in the #2 spot for the Daedric artifacts.
#1 Oghma Infinium
And at our highly esteemed number one spot, we have the ever-illusive Oghma Infinium. A tome of incredible knowledge and created by the appropriate Daedric prince of fate and knowledge Hermaeus Mora, this book although not a usable piece of equipment in the game and only a one-time use item it is still in my opinion the most useful artifact to the player. The book grants the player a five-point boost to all skills associated with either the thief stat tree, the mage stat tree, or the warrior stat tree allowing the player to get an incredible amount of experience points in the area of his choosing on command. You all may be wondering why an item such as this is favored over something like the legendary Spellbreaker or the undead destroying Dawnbreaker, and you’d be valid for wondering. My reasoning is the fact that by the end of the game you can easily create weapons and armor many times more powerful than any of the Daedric items by a wide margin and when making my list the number one thing I looked for was viability, and the fact stands that the ogham Infinium is the only Daedric artifact that remains incredibly useful even after the player has beaten the game and entered the late endgame.