Highlights
- Novice-level spells like Sparks and Muffle are impractical compared to easily obtained enchantments in Skyrim .
- Master-level spells like Summon Unbound Dremora and Vision of the Tenth Eye have limited in-game use.
- Spells like Telekinesis and Waterbreathing, while cool in concept, are often rendered useless in practical gameplay.
The world of Skyrim is a fascinating one that has managed to capture the fascination of players for over a decade. With new content having been added on numerous occasions, most recently in the 10th-anniversary edition, which brought a huge variety of mods to the game, it can be hard to keep track of the mountain of content that has been added over the years.
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While many Skyrim players prefer overpowered builds like that of the sneak archer, some players love the magic of this world. Many spells and spellcasters can become vastly powerful, although they might want to avoid these spells if they intend to become one of the more powerful figures in Tamriel.
7 Sparks
Worst Of The Starting Spells
- Destruction Type Spell
- Novice Level Spell
There are three destruction school spells that can be gained early in the game: one that uses fire, one that uses ice, and Sparks, which deals lightning damage. The reason why Sparks is a truly terrible spell is simply that the other novice-level options are so much better.
The frost version slows enemies and damages their stamina as well as their health, and the fire version deals initial damage and more damage to health over time. Sparks instead do damage and drain Magicka from opponents. Even if players want to use lightning spells against fellow spell-casters later in the game, there’s no use in doing it at the beginning, when the rare spell-casters that players run into don’t have much stamina anyway, and using fire damage to finish them quickly is the best use of a player’s resources.
6 Summon Unbound Dremora
Useless Outside Of A Mission
- Conjuration Type Spell
- Novice Level Spell
A spell that is necessary for and can only be unlocked during the master-level quest for the school of Conjuration, Summon Unbound Dremora simply conjures a powerful creature that will not hesitate to attack anybody, including the player who conjured it. While this is a pretty amusing idea, it isn’t useful for anything.
Players have to summon and defeat the creature during the Conjuration master-level quest before they are allowed to buy master-level Conjuration spells from Phinis Gestor. This challenge completed, having the spell becomes essentially useless to the player unless they love complete chaos.
5 Muffle
Better Using Enchantments
- Illusion Type Spell
- Apprentice Level Spell
There are some spells that do actually have useful effects but quickly become so impractical compared to the easily obtained enchantments that achieve the same effect. Muffle is one of these spells, proving quickly ineffective since players can just find known pieces of armor fairly early in the game, which is guaranteed to come with this enchantment.
Skyrim: Best Illusion Spells, Ranked
Skyrim has several Illusion spells that mages should never ignore.
Muffle is a spell most players either won’t bother learning or will be quickly dumped since it is impractical to loudly cast a spell to move more quietly. Random vendors can have items with the enchantment and other unique armor items found throughout the game also include the effect.
4 Detect Dead
Only For Loot-Crazed Players
- Alteration Type Spell
- Expert Level Spell
A particularly strange alteration spell, Detect Dead, allows players to find dead bodies nearby through walls. The general use of this is to discover the location of nearby bodies that can be looted or to potentially seek out where the draugr are in dungeons. It isn’t completely useless, but the similar detect life spell will be used much more frequently throughout the game.
Additionally, sound queues normally tell players where Draugr are up ahead, so half of the use of this spell vanishes if players have the sound turned up. Unless players who want to loot everybody have lost track of some bodies, this spell won’t come up frequently in Skyrim.
3 Vision Of The Tenth Eye
Useless Besides The Quest
- Illusion Type Spell
- Novice Level Spell
Another spell involved in one of the master-level spell quests, Vision of the Tenth Eye, is given to the player by Drevis Neloren to help them find the lost illusion texts that have been scattered around the college. When the player succeeds in finding them, they are given the reward of a Night Eye effect, useful for players unless they are a vampire or playing as a Khajiit.
Skyrim: Best Destruction Spells, Ranked
The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim allows players to create magic builds focused on Destruction, with these spells being the best to deal the most damage.
However, all the spell does, apart from helping find those lost texts in this single mission, is give players' vision a slight light blue tint, making it completely and utterly useless to the Dragonborn after the mission has been completed. Other illusion spells have great effects, but Vision of the Tenth Eye has been all but forgotten about in favor of other types of Illusion magic.
2 Telekinesis
Cool Concept But Useless In Practice
- Alteration Type Spell
- Adept Level Spell
One of the many common superpowers that even video game players don’t often get to play with, telekinesis, is the power to move objects with one’s mind. It is a very cool idea. This, unfortunately, isn’t actually that useful a spell to be able to cast within the confines of Skyrim due to it having such stringent limits on it.
Players can move an object from afar but have to be quite specific in doing so, and will often be noticed while casting the spell. This makes it hard to even use telekinesis to grab something that’s near a guard, and since most objects that players will be looking to locate have to be searched for in chests, telekinesis becomes a very specific spell that can’t do anything for players besides make them feel like they’re a Jedi.
1 Waterbreathing
Better To Use An Enchantment
- Alteration Type Spell
- Adept Level Spell
Breathing underwater is actually an incredibly useful skill. Players will find various reasons in Skyrim, whether it is escaping from guards into watery depths or searching for treasure or wrecks for a lengthy time, for needing to stay underwater for a while. However, waterbreathing is, unfortunately, an incredibly weak spell for two major reasons.
Firstly, waterbreathing can be found as an enchantment on various objects and learned. Therefore, players will find it much easier to carry such an item with them instead of worrying about casting the spell quickly before jumping in the water. This leads to another significant problem with the spell: players can’t cast spells underwater in the game. This means if a player needs to escape into the water and then use waterbreathing, it’s already too late. Fortunately, there are many more useful spells to be found throughout Skyrim.
