I have now mastered the conjuration school of magic and I was planning to have ulfric stormcloak, but his level is too high, and i am about to go to the dawnstar sanctuary and kill+enthrall cicero. I think arondil, a fellow necromancer may be a good thrall, because like cicero he also keeps normal voice clips, but that isnt too important, so who should my second thrall be, if not arondil, who i have not killed yet, but have to for the misc thieves guild quest

I think http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Orchendor. My toughest fight in the game. Also http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Malkoran who I'm thralling right now, but it's irritating to defeat his shade each time after he dies again.

Still don't have Conjuration at 100 so I can't use two thralls. And how can you use six or more thralls with The Ritual Stone? Have I misunderstood? You can raise six bodies for some times with it, but you can't permanently enthrall them, can you?

If you're on master level I would use a couple of http://elderscrolls.wikia.com/wiki/Bandit_Marauder's as your permanent thralls. They're actually quite useful. IMO I think you should find a couple of archers who are quite known to kill you on 1 shot. Good hunting.

Thrall Cicero is less useful than legitimate follower Cicero, considering that CiceroDawnstar has a higher level cap (50 vs. normal Cicero's constant level of 40), will sneak, and is essential.

You may be able to thrall Ulfric if you use the Necromage plus vampire trick. You should be able to thrall Galmar.

They are not, however, ideal: Galmar is a one-handed warrior with light armor and a two-handed weapon, and Ulfric is a terrible fighter with a terrible weapon, will likely have bugged low stats (equivalent to a level ten NPC), and his shouts are no better than a common Draugr.

But if you wanted a nifty thrall, you should have joined the Stormcloaks: Rikke may only cap at level 30, but she has a 500 point health offset, and has the most advanced melee combat style.

When I made a thrall of General Tallius on my Stormcloak playthrough, he was the only thrall that I made that actually still used his human lines instead of zombie moans and groans. You can't have any conversations or anything with him, but if he sees an enemy or something like that, he'll say his fighting line instead of just moaning and groaning like most thralls do.

I say bandit cheifs are alot better use bandit cheifs instead

Orchendor, in my experience, is a terrible thrall. His AI svcks and he usually reverts to using frostbite for some reason.

The best thralls I have found thus far are high-level vampires. Ancient vamps, and, if you have necromage, Volkihars. They are super aggressive, have large health and magicka pools, cast two elements, can resurrect bodies to fight (huge force multiplier), have good one-handed skill, and can spawn with armor.

Could you elaborate on the health and combat style parts?

NPCs have health calculated by their level and class. It's pretty simple -- obviously, as level goes up, so does health (and stamina and magicka, if their class permits it).

Some NPCs, however, have "extra" health, magicka, or stamina; for example, Astrid and Mercer Frey both have a health offset of 200. That means that they have whatever their calculated health is plus 200.

So, Rikke is minimum level 10, maximum 30, and her level mult is one (level mult times player level is the NPC's level; so Rikke is the player's level). Her health offset is a whopping 500 points, so to give you an idea of how tough she is, from player level one to ten, she has 622 health, and at her max level, she has 782 health.

Now, Rikke is a level-offset NPC, so her stats stick to whatever they are when you first see her. If you never saw her until level 30, she would have level 30 statistics*; if you met her at level one, she'd have level ten statistics. This is bad for Ulfric and Tullius -- they make bad thralls because their level goes up to 50, but their stats stay the same as when you first saw them at Helgen.** Rikke gives you more bang for your buck because Dead Thrall always works on her (her level will always be lower than Dead Thrall's max level of 40), and it doesn't matter if you met her at a low level because of her health offset -- she can simply sponge up damage.

Combat styles are difficult to explain -- they're templates that help NPCs make fighting decisions. They control if they use ranged attacks or dual wield and things like that. I can't guarantee that Rikke is the "best" melee fighter in the game***, but she will, supposedbly, make the best combat decisions an NPC can possibly make.

*Statistics meaning skills, health, magicka, et cetera.

**Ulfric is unarmored, Tullius wears mis-matched weak armor; they both have steel weapons and Ulfric's has a useless enchantment.

***That honor goes, in my experience, to Mercer Frey. You can't thrall him, but he will follow you in addition to any other followers during "Speakin with Silence."

Great info, thanks man! Is Mercer unable to be thralled period? I tried to thrall him once, and got something like "Mercer Frey cannot be thralled," which is quite different than most other NPCs that can't be thralled. It's usually "NPC is too powerful for Dead Thrall" or "NPC resists Dead Thrall (for non-NPCs/white souls)." I'm using Better Magic now, which removes the level cap restriction.

Another monster melee thrall is Krev the Skinner. I suspect that Krev is just a named Bandit Chief like Rigel Strong-Arm, as the help function returned nothing re:Krev. He/she (radiant) seems considerably more powerful than a run of the mill Bandit Chief, but I haven't tested anything. I gave Krev an absorb health sword and he solo'ed a pair of giants.

so i think i'll try out a orchendor and then a volkiharis vampire when i get necromage.