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Ordinator Guide: Conjuration - Creating your Skeleton Army

Tags: #Tips and Tricks Magic  #Tips and Tricks Ordinator  #Tips and Tricks Guide 
  • September 3, 2017

    So it's been a couple weeks since my last Ordinator tip but I wanted to focus on this one because it pairs rather well with a build I'm playing at the moment (in fact it's the basis for the build). In Ordinator, the Conjuration skill allows you access a new type of summoning that focuses on combining the bones of multiple dead enemies together to create a Skeleton. It isn't a massively powerful undead, at least not at the beginning but it's rather cool because they level with you, they operate in a different system to the normal summons (meaning you could have a Fire Atronach summoned and a Skeleton minion) And they can only be temporarily defeated but not destroyed. There are a few negatives, they don't last very long (8 hours) at the start and can be rather difficult to create.

    Disclaimer: I've only tested this up to the Reap and Sow perk, everything pat that is based purely on Enai Siaion's descriptions, changelog and my knowledge of Vanilla Mechanics. 

    Bone Collector - Find 11 types of bones on humanoid corpses. 4 Bone Altars are marked on the map. At a Bone Altar, convert 1 of each bone into a Skeleton Warrior. Skeletons do not count against your summon limit. Enemies can only temporarily defeat them, not destroy them.

    This perk is the starting point and what makes it rather difficult to gather the Skeleton. Needing to find 11 bones each time you want to summon a Skeleton can be rather painful, to be honest, but ultimately you do start to gain a lot of them from fighting Bandits and the sort. Draugr do not give you bones despite being humanoid. At this point, you can still only summon one Skeleton Warrior.

    Dead Tide (2) - Maximum number of Skeletons increased by 1 for each 75/50 points of base Magicka

    Dead Tide, is just frankly a little too overpowered IMO. Being able to start off just summoning 1/2 extra undead and that only increasing with each level up. A pure Altmer Necromancer who puts all his stats into Magicka would end up having 250 Magicka by Level 11, meaning they could get an army of 6 Skeletons running around with them. 

    Barrow Lord - You may give commands to all Skeletons within 150 feet at once, instead of one at a time. Skeletons take 25% less damage from attacks.

    Look, Barrow Lord is mostly just a useful skill to add but isn't anything amazing. Well, the second effect is genuinely great, a reduction in damage that large is fairly good but I think it might only apply to physical attacks and not spells.

    Reap and Sow (2) - You loot 60/100% more bones from corpses and recover 50% more/all bones when you destroy a created Skeleton. Created Skeletons last 75/200% longer.

    Alright, now here we go. This is the best perk by far because it's just excellent. Being able to recover all of the bones whenever you destroy your Skeleton is excellent, being able to find more bones, in general, is excellent and being able to cause them to last 200% times longer is just excellent. Lasting an entire day and just getting more materials to summon a larger area is all around amazing for any character focusing on this skill line.

    Skeleton Mages (2) - Able to create Skeleton Mages (Fire, Frost, Shock/, Poison, Drain Armor, Stagger) at a Bone Altar. /You may choose their element at the time of creation.

    This just adds a bit of variety to your line up and allows you to start really crafting some interesting undead armies. From what I can tell, these follow all the same rules mentioned earlier but instead of being warriors are mages (yeah seems obvious but things like how many you can summon would be crucial). Pairing a few mages with the Warriors is just an excellent combination and this skill really is quite good.

    Undead Crown - Restores 10 points of Health and Magicka per second to summoned or reanimated undead within 15 feet.

    So this isn't technically a part of the Skeleton skills, but I believe that it'll still work with them. Being able to regenerate their health at that speed is just excellent, especially for the Mages who are probably going to be further back (meaning your safer).

    Conjure Altar - Grants the "Conjure Altar" power. At will, summons a Bone Altar for 60 seconds.

    I just have less to say, it's useful but nothing earth-shattering and is designed purely to reduce travel time.

    Fire Ritual - Able to ritually burn 1 of each bone at a Bone Altar, strengthening all Skeletons within 150 feet. Lasts until the Skeleton is destroyed and increases weapon damage by 15%, spell damage by 30% and Health by 50 points. This effect stacks.

    Okay, okay, okay. This is by far the most insane perk yet. Look at that, having a stacking effect that can give 15% increased weapon damage, 30% spell damage and 50 Health is just downright amazing. At this point you should be collecting plenty of bones and being able to get rid of the spare ones is just useful.

    Puppet Master - Your created Skeletons take 25% less damage when you are blocking, deal 25% more attack damage when you are attacking, and their spells are 25% more powerful when you are casting a spell.

    This is a kind of weird perk and I don't know how useful it is. I mean it's fine but I don't think it's as powerful or useful as Reap and Sow or Fire Ritual. It requires some sort of coordination and I think the most useful bonus (by far) is the first one that activates when you're blocking. It's probably the easiest to time just because you can sit there and block, meaning it can simply be in effect longer. It's fine, but just harder to use than the rest of the perks.

    King of Bones - Assume Control of a Skeleton while becoming invulnerable. The Skeleton does quadruple damage and takes half damage. Unless commanded to remain passive, it automatically attacks foes in range. Lasts up to 45 seconds.

    Like this is useful but also a bit less impressive than the first line sounds. You think 'oh cool, I get to be a Skeleton' but nah, apparently it really just means you grant it that increase to stats but it still seems to be AI controlled which vastly reduces how useful it is. Again not bad, but it's nowhere near as good as what you think.

  • Member
    September 5, 2017

    This makes me almost want to go necro. Six skeletons + summons? Bone shields! Great Ordinator spotlight Deebs, very handy :)

  • September 11, 2017

    As a former Necromancer and worshipper of Mannimarco, I love this guide.