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Event Build: Liturgy of Affliction

Tags: #Race:Nord  #Character Build Elementalist  #Character Build Mage  #Character Build Enchanter  #Karver Builds  #Event:Against Type  #Teineeva  #"Teem Karveena"  #MM 2016 Winner 
  • November 27, 2016

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    I won´t be making any secret of this. Litturgy of Affliction is one of my favourite books in TES, coming from the Shivering Isles DLC for Oblivion. It is, in my opinion, one of the most creepy, sick, intriguing and mad books in the Elder Scrolls, and when I showed Teineeva the picture below, we knew what we had to do. We created an apprentice character who stumbled on this book and in his lust for power, he became expanding on it, making it more viable. Equilibrium,  Necromancer´s Amulet and pure Destruction. What else does a mad wizard need? So, “Teem Karveena” proudly presents this to you, dearest reader.

     

    Dearest reader, the tome that you hold in your hand is a chronicle of pain, of torment, and of discovery. In these memoirs, I shall impart to you an autobiography of a foolish and failed attempt to achieve a great power. Walk with me as I break the bonds of propriety, throw off the restraints of the ancient laws of the arcane, and cast aside the bonds of magical ethics. For contained herein, you shall find the dying words of Vexis Velruan.

    Let it be known to you, loyal reader, that I remain until my dying moment, a student of Magicka. But no typical apprentice, am I. I am one who has forged a unique path to the deeper understanding of the mechanics of Magicka. Through the infliction of destruction magic upon my own flesh, I have accomplished more than any student before me has.

     

    Race: Nord

    Stone: Mage, then Lord

    Stats: Full Health

    Skills: Destruction, Enchanting, Alteration, Restoration

    Equipment: Necromancer´s Amulet, Mage Hood, Ragged Robes (Common Clothes robes)

    Spells: Ice Storm, Chain Lightning, Fireball, Cloaks, Walls,, Flesh Spells, Paralysis, Whirlwind Cloak, Healing

    Shouts: Drain Vitality

    Quests: Blood on the Ice, College of Winterhold, Mora´s Daedric Quest, Shalidor´s Insights, Potema, Black Books

     
     

    The Build

    It is by that folly that I come to you now, lucid as ever, fully alert in my faculties, and acutely cognizant of the sacrifices that I have made in my quest. I have long since lost the capacity to feel any physical sensation beyond absolute agony. I've become so accustomed to it, so detached from the feeling, that to me, pain is simply always there. You do not think of the air around you as a sensation, do you?

    The lust for power, the urge to be better than your superiors, the need to take over the control of your life. That´s what this character is about. A young Nord who wants to be a mage, therefore becoming an apprentice, yet he´s not patient enough to wait for his powers to grow. He always wants more, he needs more.

    And after getting his hands on the book; Liturgy of Affliction, the realization of what his destruction magic is capable off, by fueling it with his own health, turns him into one power craving arse-burning mage.

    It was an absolute blast to mess around with all elements of Destruction School of Magic, switching between them freely, using different elements against different enemies and in various situations.

    To sum it up, what we have here is Mage with low Magicka pool, investing everything into his Health, which combined with Alteration´s Flesh Spells makes him a very durable opponent on battlefield, all that supported by full blown Enchanting and Destruction skills, with some added Equilibrium in the mix.

    Another important thing we decided to go with was to completely avoid Magicka Regeneration enchantments, going only with the basic Regen, which is slow as a snail taking a piss. Instead, we focused on enchantments reducing the cost of spells and increasing the maximum Magicka.

    Add to the mix Necromancer´s Amulet for shitty regen of both Health and Stamina, very weak Healing Spells, and of course, reliance on Equilibrium and the Staff of Magnus as the only ways to regenerate your Magicka fast…and you´re set for a very enjoyable megalomaniac mage playthrough.

     

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    How is it, you ask, that I came to be what I am? It began innocently enough. I was once a healer, one of the most promising students of the temple. Which one? It doesn't matter. I was eventually expelled. Fools. You see, we had a number of patients interred in our humble sanctuary who had been infected with the Red Fever. My attempts to use the magical arts to turn the disease on itself were less than successful in their early stages. For trying to find a cure, I was cast out.

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    Destruction

    It was not long after my exile that I discovered the means to eradicate infection using the destructive energies of magicka. In my explorations of the school of Destruction I discovered that by pulling the elemental energies through my own body, I was able to increase the raw output of energy. From the experience of a lighting bolt surging through my own body, I was able to deepen my understanding of the raw forces of magicka.

    Bread and butter of this guy. If you look at the perks you can see that we went right up to Expert spells, which are Walls, Incinerate and others. The Build should be complete with them, but Master Spells certainly aren´t prohibited - hell, we would even suggest them to anyone who haven´t tried them yet. This character is perfect for that. Otherwise, Cloak spells, such as Fire or Whirwind, are suggested, even some Runes here and there are good. Combination of all elements certainly is what makes this character so fun to play.

     
     

    Enchanting

    At first, the pain was bearable. I directed only a minor amount of the energy back in towards myself. I learned to couple the destruction with restorative energies. It helped to abate the damage done to my body, but did nothing to stop the pain itself.

    As a character which doesn´t put a single point into Magicka it needs some way to offset that, and there´s nothing more powerful than Enchanting. Increasing your low arcane potency through science and use of souls? Yes please! Add to that some dagger with Absorb Health and Absorb Magicka as last resort and you´re fine even when you run out of Magicka.

     
     
     

    Alteration

    As my tolerance for the pain increased, I began to channel more and more through my own body. My understanding of Destruction outgrew my knowledge of Restoration. While it could still lessen the damage, it could not stop it. My skin became charred and blackened; it dried, flaked off, and cracked. I stunk of cooked meat. But I could not resist the draw of more and more energy.

    Mage Armor perks are the key here, for Flesh Spells, but the addition of Resist Magic combined with the Lord Stone manages to turn magic users into less of a danger, plus small Absorb comes in handy too. Paralysis is also quite useful later in game too, against powerful enemies you just want to put out of the fight.

     
     
     
     
     

    Restoration

    I became like a skooma fiend of the worst sort. I no longer used magic for any practical purpose. I simply sought out more and more energy -- I relished the pain. Anticipated the moment when the energy and the pain would wash over me as one, freezing my flesh, burning it beyond recognition. My skin became a network of scars, sores, lesions, and burns. But it was never enough. Never. I needed more. More pain. More power.

    Restoration was taken to get at least some sort of health regeneration, otherwise you could consider it a minor skill. The key here is actually Regeneration perk, which balances Equilibrium a little bit. We were playing on Expert, so with Regeneration perk the ratio should be 37 Health points for 37 Magicka points. (Shoutout to Noodles and his Advanced Equilibrium glitch)

     
     
     

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    I lost my sight. My eyes melted into boiling pools of vitreous humor so hot that they left streaks of blistered skin as they ran down my face like burning tears. My right hand froze solid and shattered into a thousand pieces, when I carelessly bashed it against a doorjamb in terror, once I realized what had happened. The bones of both my legs shattered outward like broken glass, shredding the flesh and muscle surrounding them.

    Nothing complicated with equipment here. Mage´s Hood which can be bought from Collete in the College - and yes, it is an unechanted one - combined with Ragged Robes give this character a nice ragged look, but until you get your hands on Extra Effect from Enchanting we recommend using any enchanted gear you stumble upon, mostly focusing on Fortify Destruction and Fortify Magicka.

    I would like to mention an awesome mod here. Bandoliers. This mod adds cool bandoliers increasing your Carry Weight, but more importantly it adds Book Holders and Book Notes. What are those? Well, they are items that can be enchanted and which you can wear FOUR of them at the same time. They can be enchanted with Fortify Magicka, so when you think about it… The maximum enchant for Magicka is 62 points. Now 4x62 bonus Magicka… there’s absolutely no reason to put a single point into Magicka.

    Also, we actually used staves quite extensively here, namely a Staff of Atronachs (making one in Atronach Forge is really easy) and the Staff of Jyrik Gauldurson - at least until we got our hands on the ultimate prize which is the Staff of Magnus! The staff combined with Equilibrium completely negated the need for any kind of Magicka regeneration, turning you into a Magicka leech that´s hurls the wild force of the elements at any who dares to stand in your way.

     

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    While this may sound like a fate of terrible consequence, my dearest reader, I can assure you that you will never know what it is to be a creature of flesh and bone like I have. You will never have the degree of knowledge of frailty of the flesh that I have grown to know. I achieved a level of understanding of Magicka beyond that of the grand masters of the guild, but that accomplishment pales in comparison to the grander discoveries that this experience has bestowed upon me.

    Combat with this character isn´t anything really groundbreaking, special tactics aren´t exactly required. But there is something we thoroughly enjoyed about this build: the use of all three elements.

    Think about it, you have the power of Shock, Ice and Fire magicks at your fingertips...what will you do with it? Combine! Go nuts! Dual Casted Ice Storm closely followed by Chain Lighting and Fireball, Walls of various effects, Cloaks! Why not have fun with all that?

    Of course there are various approaches with this character, but what every wizard - either humble or megalomaniac - doesn´t like? People getting near to him. The Stagger perk here is absolutely kicking arse in this area. Almost every Dual Casted Destruction spell will make your enemies stop in their tracks, staggering, allowing you to release yet another furious storm of magic. And if someone gets too close? Whirlwind Cloak will toss them away again.

    There´s one thing that always annoys me when I´m playing a mage. Other mages using Wards. I mean, you cast a spell, they block it with a Ward, you cast another, they barely rise the Ward and block it. And so on and on. Well, not anymore. Have you ever tried to combine Chain Lighting and Ice Storm against these buggers? Chain Lighting has the instant travel time while Ice Storm has very slow one. So what happens? You hit the mage with Chain Lighting, destroying his Ward, he gets staggered. But before he manages to rise another one, Ice Storm hits him. Take that, sucker!

    If I sum it all up, this character is all about offensive. Your weak healing spells won´t exactly save you in the middle of combat, so you have to kill everyone else before they kill you. You run out of Magicka? Equilibrium and Staff of Magnus will get you back in the game so you can rain more destructive power on your enemies in the space of an instant.

    In this same trend don’t hesitate to fall back on other staffs or artefacts you may have come across. This is especially crucial when you haven’t managed to get Equilibrium yet and your magicka pool is still rather small.

     

     

     

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    People like you think that pain is to be avoided. Hidden from. Feared. Through my suffering and the numbness that now robs me of the ability to feel it, I can say this to you: Pain is a simple factor of human existence. It affords us the opportunity to feel -- to appreciate the temporary shell that our spirits occupy. Pain is the greatest gift that the gods have ever given mortal man.

     

    When our mage joined the Synod, he hoped to find great power, something that would leave a mark on history. But much to his dissapointment he found out he had only been admitted so that the other mages would have someone around that could clean up after their experiments. Not even an apprentice, just a mere groundskeeper. What those idiots at the synod never came to realize however is that a groundskeeper happens to have acces to a lot more interesting tomes than a mere apprentice. The mage spent months cleaning up after alchemical explosions, sweeping the mud off floors and the dust off old tomes, but in the end he did manage to come across a rather interesting book. The preface mentioned the text had been found on a mage who claimed he had been transported to the shivering isles after walking through a gate made out of cheese… Horsecrap the lot of it, the text itself was way more interesting however: Litturgy of Affliction it was called.

    Once the last page was turned and the final word uttered, the mage had made his decision. His days of janitoring for this bunch of lousy politicians were done. He needed to study, and fitting the odd hour of reading in between two tasks just wasn’t going to do it anymore. His only way out was the College of Winterhold, the only place in the empire where mages were still taught. The next day the other mages at the Synod found a note in his chambers complete with a list of works he “borrowed” on his way out.

    When playing this character keep in mind that you’re a megalomaniac and an ambitious one at that. Power is what you want and through the lessons from the book you found at the Synod, power is what you’ll get. No matter the price. As a nord you’re not predisposed to magic like a breton or an altmer, and you’ve spent many a day with those arrogant milkdrinkers breathing down your neck. They’ll see the true power of the affliction soon enough.

    As to quest:

    Blood on the ice:" Well, here I was thinking Skyrim could polish my lance! Bloody dragons and border patrols… At least there’s this weird amulet this collector here in Windhelm told me about, might as well stay in town before I continue to the college."

    College of Winterhold: "Finally, a place of learning worthy of that name… What’s all that bullshit about wards though?"

    Shalidor’s Insights/Hermeus Mora’s Quest/ Blackbooks: "Well at least their Arcaneum is better stocked than the Synod’s library, at least as far as interesting artefacts are concerned. I might want to look into all this."

    The Wolf Queen Awakened: "I received a note from a courier this morning, apparently they need my help with some ghost. Normally I wouldn’t be too interested but I’m intrigued that they need my help specifically… I might as well go, testing my skills against mountain goats and bandits has become a bit of a bore; I need a challenge… Or at least a change of pace."

     

     

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    And now, as I tell you this story by way of a scribe, I am a stump of a man, wrapped in seeping bandages, never to know pleasure again. Even still, I have but one message to impart to you: Embrace what you are.

    Glory to lord Sheogorath, for he has opened my eyes.

     

  • November 27, 2016

    I really like the concept behind this mage, having read liturgy of affliction on my many adventures. I have a mod that puts Oblivion and Morrowind books in skyrim, so that's where I was exposed to it. Very cool to see yet another use for the Necromancery's amulet. 

    How did you approach enchanting? Staves actually save me a lot here cause they seem to guzzle. I mean even Henantier has enchanting at 50 just recharging weapons. 

    Did you do Sheogorath's quest?

    Great job Team Karveeva

  • November 27, 2016

    Lissette Long-Chapper said:

    I really like the concept behind this mage, having read liturgy of affliction on my many adventures. I have a mod that puts Oblivion and Morrowind books in skyrim, so that's where I was exposed to it. Very cool to see yet another use for the Necromancery's amulet. 

    How did you approach enchanting? Staves actually save me a lot here cause they seem to guzzle. I mean even Henantier has enchanting at 50 just recharging weapons. 

    Did you do Sheogorath's quest?

    Great job Team Karveeva

    Well, I approached the enchanting like I always do. Buy empty soul gems, go into the world, level conjuration with soul trap, take a stop at city, level enchanting. And yes, recharging the Staff of Gauldurson levels enchanting quite nicely too, because that thing eats through charges like Sheogorath through house sized eidar cheese. 

    And no, I haven´t done Sheogorath´s quest because while the author of the book was clearly mad, this mage wasn´t. 

  • November 27, 2016

    I like the side peechur things you and Teineeva used for skillz.  Where, where did you gets them? Tells me. :D

  • November 27, 2016

    I think that those are originally from...Shalidor´s Insights and Immersive College. You must remember them. There are in various rooms and such.

  • November 27, 2016

    Yes, yes, yes. I remember. :D

  • Member
    November 27, 2016

    Karver the Afflicted said:

    Lissette Long-Chapper said:

    I really like the concept behind this mage, having read liturgy of affliction on my many adventures. I have a mod that puts Oblivion and Morrowind books in skyrim, so that's where I was exposed to it. Very cool to see yet another use for the Necromancery's amulet. 

    How did you approach enchanting? Staves actually save me a lot here cause they seem to guzzle. I mean even Henantier has enchanting at 50 just recharging weapons. 

    Did you do Sheogorath's quest?

    Great job Team Karveeva

    Well, I approached the enchanting like I always do. Buy empty soul gems, go into the world, level conjuration with soul trap, take a stop at city, level enchanting. And yes, recharging the Staff of Gauldurson levels enchanting quite nicely too, because that thing eats through charges like Sheogorath through house sized eidar cheese. 

    And no, I haven´t done Sheogorath´s quest because while the author of the book was clearly mad, this mage wasn´t. 

    I would like to add to that, that in case Soul trap is slightly too costly a spell for your battle strategy; there's a few alternatives. Karver went with soul trap, while I tracked down bloodthornn (a unique dagger with soul trap and absorb health). As we mentioned in the gameplay section: never forget to utilize any items you may have at your disposal.
    The rest of the enchanting went pretty similarly, in other words: Farengar has a lot of nice and shiny new trinkets thanks to me.

  • Member
    November 27, 2016

    Ermac!!!!! :D :D :D

  • November 27, 2016

    Teineeva the Afflicted said:

    Karver the Afflicted said:

    Lissette Long-Chapper said:

    I really like the concept behind this mage, having read liturgy of affliction on my many adventures. I have a mod that puts Oblivion and Morrowind books in skyrim, so that's where I was exposed to it. Very cool to see yet another use for the Necromancery's amulet. 

    How did you approach enchanting? Staves actually save me a lot here cause they seem to guzzle. I mean even Henantier has enchanting at 50 just recharging weapons. 

    Did you do Sheogorath's quest?

    Great job Team Karveeva

    Well, I approached the enchanting like I always do. Buy empty soul gems, go into the world, level conjuration with soul trap, take a stop at city, level enchanting. And yes, recharging the Staff of Gauldurson levels enchanting quite nicely too, because that thing eats through charges like Sheogorath through house sized eidar cheese. 

    And no, I haven´t done Sheogorath´s quest because while the author of the book was clearly mad, this mage wasn´t. 

    I would like to add to that, that in case Soul trap is slightly too costly a spell for your battle strategy; there's a few alternatives. Karver went with soul trap, while I tracked down bloodthornn (a unique dagger with soul trap and absorb health). As we mentioned in the gameplay section: never forget to utilize any items you may have at your disposal.
    The rest of the enchanting went pretty similarly, in other words: Farengar has a lot of nice and shiny new trinkets thanks to me.

    It is always nice to help the local economy. Whiterun is in your debt. :D

  • Member
    November 27, 2016

    Hey, this is a fantastic build! I'm starting it now, just made level 7. I have to modify it a bit because I am using Ordinator, but I am following the general idea and theme!

    But I am curious about something, I have the Bandoliers mod and I see the book holders, but I see nothing called book notes. What are these book notes?