Alright, so I don't have a name for it yet, sue me. Anyway, the key focus of this build is to create a character that's focused on the skills that Orcs aren't really known for, and what better focus than to do an atypical Orcish Mage. When I picture an Orcish Mage, I picture a very shamanistic kind of fella, along the lines of The Orc Shaman King, maybe not exactly the same skillset, but the magic is very primal and natural. That just seems to be a very common kind of build in my eyes, there are a fair few builds I've seen over the years that have the same kind of focus, and it seems to fit in faily well with Orcish Lore (especially with a female Orc).
However, my build isn't going to follow that path, I wanted magic to be both a secondary and primary focus of this build in a very strange way. You aren't going to have any other weapons to use, simply whatever magic is best suited but what makes this build interesting (to me) is the use and reliance on abilities to buff the Orc, and that's the only way you aren't going to die. The main ability of note, is Berserker Rage, which I think is too often focused on for it's offensive boosts, and rarely talked about in consideration of the amazing defensive boost it grants for that 60 seconds, I mean resisting 50% of all physical damage, that's just insane as shit.
Anyway enough prattling on, time to start off with the build
Difficulty: Master or Legendary (probably the second one, I want this build to be a challenge)
Crafting: None
Grinding: It isn't needed, but you can if you want
Max Level: 40
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The Build:
Race: Orc
Stats: 1 Magicka, 1 Health and 0 Stamina
Stone: Atronach Stone
Defensvie Powers: Berserker Rage, Bones of the Earth, Waters of Life, Secret of Protection and Force Without Effort
Bersker Rage is interesting to me, it's more often than not used as a purely offensive ability in builds, granting a massive boost to damage for a short period of time. But I wanted to focus on the defensive boost it grants, being able to resists a straight 50% of all physical damage is a pretty awesome ability, even if you can only use it once a day.
Bones of the Earth is incredibly interesting, it gives the same effect as the Dragonhide spell (effectively giving you the max armour cap) with no Magicka cost, a faster casting time (haven't used it in awhile, it is faster, right?) and it doesn't take up both hands, making it a great ability to be able to tank everything for 30 seconds.
Waters of Life is a pretty basic AoE healing spell which can help you in a pickle, it isn't the best ability this build has access to, but it definitely is a good one nontheless.
Secret of Protection is essentially the defensive half of Berserker Rage, but it lasts for a shorter time and doesn't have everything that red glow. It's still useul as another trick in the bag, and works amazingly, but the shorter time does really hinder it from being our go-to Ability.
Force Without Effort is another ability that's mostly used as n offensive one, with very little thought going towards the defensive appplication of it (Or so it seems...), personally I think the fact that you stagger lesss is just an amazing ability for any squishy character, and doubly so for one that wants to try and tank enemies (remember, just because you don't take much damage, doesn't mean you can't be staggered.)
Offensive Powers: Seeker of Sorcery and Root of Power
Seeker of Sorcery I suppose this is an offensive ability, at least it does help our offensive combat by reducing the cost of our spells and increasing the rate that our magic skill level.
Root of Power is an awesome ability, I mean being able to reduce casting costs for an entire 30 seconds by 75%, that's pretty freaking great for a character that otherwise doesn't get any bonuses from enchantments. I list it as an offensive ability because it primarly will effect our offensive output, but it isn't exactly your typical offensive boost is it?
Skills:
Alteration: Novice - Expert Alteration, Magic Resistance 3/3, Stability and Atronach
Alteration is very much my "eh" skill. This build isn't designed to revolve around massively increasing it's defenses using compliacted applications of the Flesh Spells, really the only spell I plan to be using much of at all is Equilibrium, with some early use of the Ash Shell spell. The main point of perking Alteration is for the Atronach Perk, granting us a total of 80% Spell Absorption, making us already pretty much immune to any kind of magical damage, while our abilities and powers focus on boosting up our physical defenses.
Destruction: Novice - Expert Adept, Augmented Frost 2/2, Augmented Shock 2/2, Deep Freeze and Disintergrate
Destruction is where we start getting real. I always tend to focus on the earlier spells (in other words Flames/Firebolt) to deal out the bulk of my damage when playing as a mage, but due to the defensive nature of this character I wanted to really focus on one spell that's quite insane. Ice Storm, is an AoE spell that slows all enemies down that are hit by hit, with it's range and AoE that's actually really useful when compared to anything else this character does to slow enemis down. The other, smaller use is actually in the Staff of Chain Lightning, which has the interesting effect of having the Impact Perk (or the equivelent) for some reason, which is pretty insane when you consider the fact that it hits a lot of enemis if they're bunched together enough.
Illusion: Novice - Adept Illusion, Dual Casting, Animage, Kindred Mage, Silent Casting, Hypnotic Gaze, Aspect of Terror, Rage and Master of the Mind
You might see the massive perk list here and think, well Illusion sure is a focus here. Well to be honest, it really isn't a primary, or even secondary focus of the build's perks. It's actually what I'd consider overall the most easily ditchable skill here. What I wanted to do was really abuse the crap out of Frenzy (not Fury, but the AoE one-handed version) and be able to cause massive panic.
But there's also the usage of Fury, now I haven't fully tested this, but Fury has the interesting ability of forcing an enemy (at least on console) to redraw their weapon (or re-ingage you in combat) durinng the early levels this can be insanely useful for giving you a couple of extra seconds to back away, and if you time it correctly you can force enemies to never actually be able to attack you even when they're engaged.
Restoration: Novice Restoration, Respite, Regeneration and Necromage
We're going with Healing here to heal, and Necromage to deal more damage to Undead. There's no NecroVamp trick, or use of Wards, so there isn't much more to say here.
Sneak: Stealth 1/5, Muffled Movement, Light Foot, Silent Roll, Silence and Shadow Warrior
So...Sneaking? With the sheer power behind this build, and the defensive focus it seems like an odd choice doesn't it? I mean, at it's core this build is supposed to be a kind of short-term tank, capable of taking a near infinite amount of hits over the 30-60 seconds that an ability lasts for. But Stealth is a very valuable tool for such a character, whenever you don't have an active defensive ability up, your very vulnerable to attacks, and stealth can make it a hell of a lot easier to not get hit by the more powerful enemies. With Shadow Warrior you could basically chuck on a power up, fight for as long as it lasts, disappear, pop another one up and then rinse and repeat.
Equipment:
I have to be honest, with this build you can put on literally anything you like. We don't need to go with Robes, and armour won't effect any of our abilities from taking root, and we're not bound by a single armour skill, so you can go with whatever you want. For console players, I'd recommend grabbing either Forsword Armour (which is bloody awesome looking) but ditching the helmet, or just going full badass and go with the Blades Armour (again minus the helmet). I just think Orcs look better without hoods or helmets covering them, and the Forsword Armour is still badass without it, just less shamanistic in my eye.
For Skyrim SE players, I'm not sure but some of the modded armour sets I'm going to mention might end up being available for us. As far as I can tell it uses Vanilla resources (Fur, Forsworn, Thieve's Guild and Orcish Armour seem to make up most of the armour, with maybe some Dragonscale? Dunno but it looks vanilla to me) which I think is the restriction modders have. Don't hold me to it of course, but it could happen.
For PC players I have one main suggestion... The Warchief Armour set from Immersive Armours (I'm linking the standalone set, but grab the entire mod if your PC can run it) This armour set is just freaking beast on this character, especially without either of the headpieces. It's large, bulky and just seems to be made to fit an Orc (even though they've pretty much only got screenshots of Nords). I'd recommend running the lighter version, since it's not quite as strong and still makes you pretty weak in combat if you don't have an ability active.
The Spellbinder Armour (also from Immersive Armours) is pretty interesting looking, and personally I love how it looks with this character. If you aren't goinig for a more feral, beastiel look then this can give you a more...refined? official? armour set.
Recommended Mods:
RaceMenu: Alright, I always recommend this mod, but here I had a very set reason for using it. Using RaceMenu's height slide, I gave this guy a bit of extra height (and bulk) to make him that much larger and imposing than anyone else. It's really quite interesting from an RP standpoint to be running arounnd as a massive Orc, who looks like he's designed to rip things to shreds, only for him to be a mage instead.
Immersive Armors: I might not like every set here, but Immersive Armors is probably my favorite armour mod, the diversity it brings to Skyrim at times is just plain awesome, and you get some freaking amazing sets like the ones I mentioned in the Equipment section that can really make a character shine.
More coming.........
----------------------------------------------------------
To-Do List:
- Start playing the dang build (Which won't happen for 2 more days).
- Begin writing the Backstory
- Name the Build (pretty important step, looking for suggestions).
- Plan out Roleplay
- Write Combat Section
- Pictures...lot's of Pictures
- Get Golden to do something and then forget to thank him for it :P
- Write an extra item on the list just for the hell of it
- Banners, gotta have Banners (not Bruce Banner, Banner Banners to make it look better)
Alright, so I don't have a name for it yet, sue me. Anyway, the key focus of this build is to create a character that's focused on the skills that Orcs aren't really known for, and what better focus than to do an atypical Orcish Mage. When I picture an Orcish Mage, I picture a very shamanistic kind of fella, along the lines of The Orc Shaman King, maybe not exactly the same skillset, but the magic is very primal and natural. That just seems to be a very common kind of build in my eyes, there are a fair few builds I've seen over the years that have the same kind of focus, and it seems to fit in faily well with Orcish Lore (especially with a female Orc).
However, my build isn't going to follow that path, I wanted magic to be both a secondary and primary focus of this build in a very strange way. You aren't going to have any other weapons to use, simply whatever magic is best suited but what makes this build interesting (to me) is the use and reliance on abilities to buff the Orc, and that's the only way you aren't going to die. The main ability of note, is Berserker Rage, which I think is too often focused on for it's offensive boosts, and rarely talked about in consideration of the amazing defensive boost it grants for that 60 seconds, I mean resisting 50% of all physical damage, that's just insane as shit.
Anyway enough prattling on, time to start off with the build
Difficulty: Master or Legendary (probably the second one, I want this build to be a challenge)
Crafting: None
Grinding: It isn't needed, but you can if you want
Max Level: 40
----------------------------------------------------------
The Build:
Race: Orc
Stats: 1 Magicka, 1 Health and 0 Stamina
Stone: Atronach Stone
Defensvie Powers: Berserker Rage, Bones of the Earth, Waters of Life, Secret of Protection and Force Without Effort
Bersker Rage is interesting to me, it's more often than not used as a purely offensive ability in builds, granting a massive boost to damage for a short period of time. But I wanted to focus on the defensive boost it grants, being able to resists a straight 50% of all physical damage is a pretty awesome ability, even if you can only use it once a day.
Bones of the Earth is incredibly interesting, it gives the same effect as the Dragonhide spell (effectively giving you the max armour cap) with no Magicka cost, a faster casting time (haven't used it in awhile, it is faster, right?) and it doesn't take up both hands, making it a great ability to be able to tank everything for 30 seconds.
Waters of Life is a pretty basic AoE healing spell which can help you in a pickle, it isn't the best ability this build has access to, but it definitely is a good one nontheless.
Secret of Protection is essentially the defensive half of Berserker Rage, but it lasts for a shorter time and doesn't have everything that red glow. It's still useul as another trick in the bag, and works amazingly, but the shorter time does really hinder it from being our go-to Ability.
Force Without Effort is another ability that's mostly used as n offensive one, with very little thought going towards the defensive appplication of it (Or so it seems...), personally I think the fact that you stagger lesss is just an amazing ability for any squishy character, and doubly so for one that wants to try and tank enemies (remember, just because you don't take much damage, doesn't mean you can't be staggered.)
Offensive Powers: Seeker of Sorcery and Root of Power
Seeker of Sorcery I suppose this is an offensive ability, at least it does help our offensive combat by reducing the cost of our spells and increasing the rate that our magic skill level.
Root of Power is an awesome ability, I mean being able to reduce casting costs for an entire 30 seconds by 75%, that's pretty freaking great for a character that otherwise doesn't get any bonuses from enchantments. I list it as an offensive ability because it primarly will effect our offensive output, but it isn't exactly your typical offensive boost is it?
Skills:
Alteration: Novice - Expert Alteration, Magic Resistance 3/3, Stability and Atronach
Alteration is very much my "eh" skill. This build isn't designed to revolve around massively increasing it's defenses using compliacted applications of the Flesh Spells, really the only spell I plan to be using much of at all is Equilibrium, with some early use of the Ash Shell spell. The main point of perking Alteration is for the Atronach Perk, granting us a total of 80% Spell Absorption, making us already pretty much immune to any kind of magical damage, while our abilities and powers focus on boosting up our physical defenses.
Destruction: Novice - Expert Adept, Augmented Frost 2/2, Augmented Shock 2/2, Deep Freeze and Disintergrate
Destruction is where we start getting real. I always tend to focus on the earlier spells (in other words Flames/Firebolt) to deal out the bulk of my damage when playing as a mage, but due to the defensive nature of this character I wanted to really focus on one spell that's quite insane. Ice Storm, is an AoE spell that slows all enemies down that are hit by hit, with it's range and AoE that's actually really useful when compared to anything else this character does to slow enemis down. The other, smaller use is actually in the Staff of Chain Lightning, which has the interesting effect of having the Impact Perk (or the equivelent) for some reason, which is pretty insane when you consider the fact that it hits a lot of enemis if they're bunched together enough.
Illusion: Novice - Adept Illusion, Dual Casting, Animage, Kindred Mage, Silent Casting, Hypnotic Gaze, Aspect of Terror, Rage and Master of the Mind
You might see the massive perk list here and think, well Illusion sure is a focus here. Well to be honest, it really isn't a primary, or even secondary focus of the build's perks. It's actually what I'd consider overall the most easily ditchable skill here. What I wanted to do was really abuse the crap out of Frenzy (not Fury, but the AoE one-handed version) and be able to cause massive panic.
But there's also the usage of Fury, now I haven't fully tested this, but Fury has the interesting ability of forcing an enemy (at least on console) to redraw their weapon (or re-ingage you in combat) durinng the early levels this can be insanely useful for giving you a couple of extra seconds to back away, and if you time it correctly you can force enemies to never actually be able to attack you even when they're engaged.
Restoration: Novice Restoration, Respite, Regeneration and Necromage
We're going with Healing here to heal, and Necromage to deal more damage to Undead. There's no NecroVamp trick, or use of Wards, so there isn't much more to say here.
Sneak: Stealth 1/5, Muffled Movement, Light Foot, Silent Roll, Silence and Shadow Warrior
So...Sneaking? With the sheer power behind this build, and the defensive focus it seems like an odd choice doesn't it? I mean, at it's core this build is supposed to be a kind of short-term tank, capable of taking a near infinite amount of hits over the 30-60 seconds that an ability lasts for. But Stealth is a very valuable tool for such a character, whenever you don't have an active defensive ability up, your very vulnerable to attacks, and stealth can make it a hell of a lot easier to not get hit by the more powerful enemies. With Shadow Warrior you could basically chuck on a power up, fight for as long as it lasts, disappear, pop another one up and then rinse and repeat.
Equipment:
I have to be honest, with this build you can put on literally anything you like. We don't need to go with Robes, and armour won't effect any of our abilities from taking root, and we're not bound by a single armour skill, so you can go with whatever you want. For console players, I'd recommend grabbing either Forsword Armour (which is bloody awesome looking) but ditching the helmet, or just going full badass and go with the Blades Armour (again minus the helmet). I just think Orcs look better without hoods or helmets covering them, and the Forsword Armour is still badass without it, just less shamanistic in my eye.
For Skyrim SE players, I'm not sure but some of the modded armour sets I'm going to mention might end up being available for us. As far as I can tell it uses Vanilla resources (Fur, Forsworn, Thieve's Guild and Orcish Armour seem to make up most of the armour, with maybe some Dragonscale? Dunno but it looks vanilla to me) which I think is the restriction modders have. Don't hold me to it of course, but it could happen.
For PC players I have one main suggestion... The Warchief Armour set from Immersive Armours (I'm linking the standalone set, but grab the entire mod if your PC can run it) This armour set is just freaking beast on this character, especially without either of the headpieces. It's large, bulky and just seems to be made to fit an Orc (even though they've pretty much only got screenshots of Nords). I'd recommend running the lighter version, since it's not quite as strong and still makes you pretty weak in combat if you don't have an ability active.
The Spellbinder Armour (also from Immersive Armours) is pretty interesting looking, and personally I love how it looks with this character. If you aren't goinig for a more feral, beastiel look then this can give you a more...refined? official? armour set.
Recommended Mods:
RaceMenu: Alright, I always recommend this mod, but here I had a very set reason for using it. Using RaceMenu's height slide, I gave this guy a bit of extra height (and bulk) to make him that much larger and imposing than anyone else. It's really quite interesting from an RP standpoint to be running arounnd as a massive Orc, who looks like he's designed to rip things to shreds, only for him to be a mage instead.
Immersive Armors: I might not like every set here, but Immersive Armors is probably my favorite armour mod, the diversity it brings to Skyrim at times is just plain awesome, and you get some freaking amazing sets like the ones I mentioned in the Equipment section that can really make a character shine.
More coming.........
----------------------------------------------------------
To-Do List:
- Start playing the dang build (Which won't happen for 2 more days).
- Begin writing the Backstory
- Name the Build (pretty important step, looking for suggestions).
- Plan out Roleplay
- Write Combat Section
- Pictures...lot's of Pictures
- Get Golden to do something and then forget to thank him for it :P
- Write an extra item on the list just for the hell of it
- Banners, gotta have Banners (not Bruce Banner, Banner Banners to make it look better)
