Skyrim Tips and Tricks » Discussions


Ordinator Tip: Firing up yo Flames

  • September 14, 2017

    Yeah, yeah, not the most amazing name but I want to keep it fresh sometimes :D Anyway, today I'm going to be looking into Flames and explaining all of the perks that directly boost the damage of the spell. What I mean by that, is that I won't be looking into Archery feats because "oh hey, if you mostly kill them with a bow they'll die easier to flames" because that's an indirect boost. I might look at it if there's a perk that reduced fire resistance, but even then not with Archery because it's illogical in combat (swapping from bow to spell is kinda hard when Ordinator focuses on smaller duration effects.)

    Vanilla Flames Spell:

    8 damage for 14 Magicka/second. Can be dropped down to 8.26 Magicka per second with 100 Destruction. Can be boosted to 12 damage for 4.13 Magicka/second with Shalidor's Insights (Destruction) and can be boosted to 21 damage for 4.13 Magicka/second with a Fortify Destruction potion made with anything other than Nightshade. Final boost is 25% through Azhidal meaning we're hitting a total base of

    26.25 damage for 4.13 Magicka/second.

    This doesn't include taper damage, because that's something I still need to work my head around, and doesn't account for anything weak/strong against Fire (because I believe you'll can work that out yourselves :D) 

    Ordinator Destruction Boosts

    Straight off the bat, we get to deal with Destruction Mastery which ends up at a 50% reduction in cost and 50% boost Level 100.

    39.375 damage for 2.065 Magicka/second

    Combustion has a maximum of a 50% boost, though it is dependent on the target's Health but I'm not sure to what extent. 

    59.0625 damage for 2.065 Magicka/second

    Force of Nature is the next boost and again this isn't one that's always going to apply. It only works in Sunlight but does reduce the cost of all Fire spells by 30% when outside when it's sunny. 

    59.0625 damage for 1.4455 Magicka/second

    Scarring Burns reduces the targets' Fire Resistance by 25% and while I'm going to assume it doesn't stack (I hope not because man that math would be hard) but would constantly apply every 5 seconds so we can assume it'll almost always apply while Flames is active.

    73.828125 damage for 1.4455 Magicka/second

    It does trigger Conflagration, but since that's essentially adding another spell effect I won't be considering it here. Do not that it would probably trigger Scarring Burns and will increase your overall damage by a fair bit, but since it's random, completely dependent on essentially another spell and hard to calculate I won't be counting it here. I'm treating Flash Fire the same, it's unpredictable and here we're essentially going with Pure Flames and nothing else.

    Robe of the Magi will increase your damage by 25% more as long as you aren't wearing any armour (so Robes or Clothes).

    92.28515625 damage for 1.4455 Magicka/second

    Elemental Specialization increases your damage by 15% more (I'm assuming here your choosing fire as your element...if you want you could choose Frost and reduce your damage by 15% but that doesn't make sense here so).

    106.127929688 damage for 1.4455 Magicka/second

    World in Flames would boost your damage by 25% if an enemy is affected by Burning Grounds (another perk that is being treated like Flash Fire and Conflagaration but comes into play here). This is the final upgrade of the base Destruction tree, but there are still other indirect methods of increasing your damage (which technically will have something to do with Flames). 

    132.65991211 damage for 1.4455 Magicka/second

    So the end result is doing roughly 133 damage for 1.5 Magicka/second (I don't know if it's rounded). That's kind of insane. 

    Misc. Boosts

    There is more, there's a lot more. While Destruction does apply the most useful benefits (obviously) it's important to note that there are other skils that boost your damage without being too insane. I won't go into detail on everything because some things don't work entirely well with just using Flames (and require you to do things like smack things with a sword which is boring).

    Pact Magic from Conjuration increases your damage by 15% for each elemental Atronach within 30 feet. Now from what I can gather, you can summon 3 Atronachs with the Conjuration Perks (which does require 100 Conjuration) but it might, in fact, be a total of 6 when considering that March of Oblivion will give you an additional minion for every 250 Magicka you have. But 750 is admittedly a bit of a stretch any way you look at it without items. Not impossible but not plausible. So I'll stick with 4 total, that only requires 250 Magicka which is really easy to get.

    212.255859376 damage for 1.4455 Magicka/second

    Doombringer + Rallying Standard from Heavy Armour will give you a 15% boost within its small area.

    244.094238282 damage for 1.4455 Magicka/second

     

    Demolition Job increases your damage by 300% at 100 Sneak if the enemy has no idea you're there (it's 3% per level). It is technically possible to be next to invisible even while using Flames for 10 seconds (very, very, very, very unlikely but theoretically possbile) so I'll be counting this.

    732.282714847 damage for 1.4455 Magicka/second

    Closing Notes:

    Yeah...so it's technically possible to go even higher with items and some less direct perks, I think when you're looking at 730 damage for 1.5 Magicka/Second you're looking at enough damage. I mean even at 75% fire resistance your going to be feeling the burn from this spell, so while I could go further into it, I believe that would start getting into some less exact effects. Even at the moment this would require a bit of set up by summoning an army of Atronachs, being Stealthy and of course the ole Rallying Standard but it is possible, plausible and relatively easy with the right character (Illusion + Destruction + Conjuration + Sneak = Insanity.)

     

  • Member
    September 14, 2017

    Sweet write-up! Can you imagine running a straight-up flames-only build? It's like The Transient Sorcerer all over again :D

    I was running Kael's Wooded Eye, and noticed that there are perks in Enchanting that made single-cast fireballs with a staff hit harder than slinging fireballs with both hands. I wonder if it would have the same effect with Flames?

  • September 15, 2017
    Sweet write-up! Can you imagine running a straight-up flames-only build? It's like The Transient Sorcerer all over again :D

    I was running Kael's Wooded Eye, and noticed that there are perks in Enchanting that made single-cast fireballs with a staff hit harder than slinging fireballs with both hands. I wonder if it would have the same effect with Flames?

    Oh it'd be sweet to run the Flamecaster..nah, lame name but yeah I could see a lot of fun being possible with this. Just going around burning everything with Super Flames XD

    Hmm, I'll have to take a look at it. From what I just checked Staves only seem to boost attack damage, not the actual staff damage, but I haven't tested it personally so I'll have to wait until I can give it a proper shot to test (it sounds cool). Scrolls can be boosted really well 600% total increase in damage from destruction scrolls and up to 1200% increase in duration for other spells but yeah don't see anything about staff damage.

  • January 26, 2018

    Dragonborn1921 said:

    Sweet write-up! Can you imagine running a straight-up flames-only build? It's like The Transient Sorcerer all over again :D

    I was running Kael's Wooded Eye, and noticed that there are perks in Enchanting that made single-cast fireballs with a staff hit harder than slinging fireballs with both hands. I wonder if it would have the same effect with Flames?

    Oh it'd be sweet to run the Flamecaster..nah, lame name but yeah I could see a lot of fun being possible with this. Just going around burning everything with Super Flames XD

    Hmm, I'll have to take a look at it. From what I just checked Staves only seem to boost attack damage, not the actual staff damage, but I haven't tested it personally so I'll have to wait until I can give it a proper shot to test (it sounds cool). Scrolls can be boosted really well 600% total increase in damage from destruction scrolls and up to 1200% increase in duration for other spells but yeah don't see anything about staff damage.

    Glad, you posted this. See, this is the shit I read when I'm planning the only Destruction build. :D

  • Member
    January 28, 2018

    I forgot how insane early destruction spells can be on Ordinator.

    I can just see it... running around, burning everything in sight, dual-casting novice Flame spell (flamethrower-style) and maniacal laughter in the background.

    ..Aahh, good times.

  • January 28, 2018

    I forgot how insane early destruction spells can be on Ordinator.

    I can just see it... running around, burning everything in sight, dual-casting novice Flame spell (flamethrower-style) and maniacal laughter in the background.

    ..Aahh, good times.

    If it helps, you can really easily get free Novice Spells in Ordinator too so you can run around with 0 Magicka Flames that do over 130 DPS, it's only slightly broken :P

  • Member
    February 1, 2018

    I forgot about this tip! I see myself running a build sometime in 2018 using a beefed-up Flames spell (maybe not 732 dps beefy, but beefy enough to to make the baddies wish they'd stayed in bed that morning ;D).

    This tip is currently featured on the Vault's Twitter and Facebook pages--just so ya know ;D

  • May 14, 2018

    I don't want to ruin your mojo, but there's also an Alteration perk (I don't remember the name) that makes all Novice spells cost no mana. Hence, the final build's damage/magicka output rises to infinity.

     

    Edit: The perk is "Intuitive Magic", and its second rank allows you to cast Apprentice spells for no magicka, meaning you could actually do this with Firebolt as well.

  • May 14, 2018

    Ah, that's true (and something I did know about) but I was only listing the 'direct boosts' to Fire Magic/Destruction Damage rather than every perk that has an effect. Maybe not an ideal way to showcase the mod but the idea was sort of just showing the minimal side of the perk.