UESP Forums

What is the way to advance through the arcane university fastest. (I’m finishing up Leyawinn or whatever the city that is south of Bravil is called ‘s recommendation and want to kinda get arch-mage quickly and haven’t done it before, just kinda asking for pointers here)

I don't know about fastest, as I usually just advance through multiple factions at the same time. But in my last playthrough I decided to be different and progress through each faction by itself before moving on to a different faction. I think I started with Thieves Guild, then the Arena, then Fighters Guild, before starting Mages Guild, so I was already leveled-up fairly well when I finally started Mages Guild. If you want to do it as fast as possible, I suppose you should fast-travel everywhere.

You do not want to do the university tasks quickly. You want to wait to get the staff (paralyze) until level 15 when it can help you at upper levels, and you do not want to go into necro dungeons until level 17 when master level alchemy equipment shows up in their boss chests. In the end you don't get crap for being the arch mage.

Each guild quest line is designed to be interwoven with the search for deadric shrines and Aid for Bruma in the main quest (plus city quests). Together they will get you leveled and set up to go into Paradise at level 22 for the good ring.

Why the rush to be Arch-Mage?

tbh I found:

1. The Mage Guild quest-line was pretty good
2. Being Arch-Mage was a complete non-event

So it's like you are wanting to rush through the good bits to get to the 'meh' bit.

I mean sure you want to get into the AU quickly to get enchanting and spell-crafting, and then there's the when and what of choosing a staff (I go for Soul Trap) but apart from that I'd recommend just chilling and enjoying the quest-line. And definitely NO fast-travelling!