Character build Group: Five Year Retrospective

  • While it isn’t the longest-running group (that honor belongs to Elder Scrolls Lore), Skyrim Character Building has been a feature of the site for almost as long as the site has been on Ning. With over a thousand builds counted amongst its ranks, the CB Group continues to be at the forefront of quality content on the site. For the site’s fifth anniversary we’d thought it’d be nice to take a look at Skyrim CB over the years, discussing how both the group and the way we approach character building has changed over the years, and also take a look at a featured build from each year.

    2011

    If you go into the CB group right now and take a look at the group’s oldest discussions, you’d see that every character build posted in 2011 was by Ponty, with the oldest non-Ponty build not showing up until January 10th of 2012. While this may seem baffling at first (it’s not like Ponty had a monopoly on character building at the time), taking a look at archived versions of the group reveals why this is the case. At the time, the CB group didn’t have the high standards that it does now and most of the 2011 builds would barely, if at all, meet the minimum requirements that we have today, which meant that most of them were deleted later on as the result of deathmatches, purges, or the builder simply deciding that their build wasn’t worth keeping on the site.

    Featured Build: The Paladin – As the site’s oldest surviving build, it’s only fitting to make this the 2011 build feature.  Predating even the release of Skyrim itself, Ponty has changed, modified, and revamped the Paladin on more than one occasion, but it has always been known as one of the site’s quality builds and certainly one of its most famous.

    2012

    This was certainly a busy year for the CB Group; since Skyrim was released close to the end of 2011 the majority of players were still exploring everything it had to offer by the time 2012 rolled around. Bethesda also made sure to continue supporting Skyrim during this time, with various patches and all three of Skyrim’s DLCs coming out this year. The CB Group also continued to evolve as well with features such as build rankings and deathmatches appearing during this time.

    2012 also saw the release of many builds that are nowadays considered classics, such as the Demonhunter and the Sorcerer. While nowadays you practically need super innovative gameplay mechanics, detailed and in-depth roleplay, a really fancy presentation style with character artwork and screenshots, or some combination of the three to really impress the CB Group, back then builds tended to be more basic than what we usually get nowadays. Of course, this is to be expected; Skyrim was still very much a new game in 2012 so it was much easier to come up with fresh concepts for character building, and many glitches and exploits that make certain character builds possible had yet to be discovered or were not yet widely known (though builds like the Revakriid and the Obsidian Sentinel were definitely pushing the envelope in that regard).

    Featured Build: The Akaviri Bloodlord – As the first build I ever saw on the site it holds a special place in my heart. It might not be as advanced in its presentation, gameplay, or roleplay mechanics compared to some of the builds we get nowadays but “bloodthirsty warrior of the ancient Dragonguard” is enough to sell me on this build.

    2013

    While 2013 saw the end of Bethesda’s support for Skyrim with the release of the Legendary Edition and the 1.9 patch, the CB group was far from through with it, as this year saw the debut of both Character Building Contests and the Hidden Gem Spotlight. The Character Build Archives were also created during this time, giving the group a proper tagging system.

    Character builders still had plenty of material to work with during this time, as the Dragonborn DLC had was only just released at the end of the year before and our collective knowledge of Skyrim was still expanding. Builds continued to evolve in different ways, constantly finding new ways to keep Skyrim entertaining.

    Featured Build: The Infiltrator – Made by current CB host Curse Never Dying back when he was still relatively new to character building, the Infiltrator is a great example of how builders have found different ways to make their builds stand out from the crowd. Combining a badass aesthetic, an exciting playstyle backed by a variety of tactics and special moves, and a cool looking piece of character art Curse made himself (a rarity even today in the CB group), it’s no wonder why it has as many likes as it does.

    2014

    As Skyrim was no longer receiving any new content (with the obvious exception of mods) and even its newest DLC (Dragonborn) was over a year old at this point, there were some who thought that Skyrim CB would slowly die out before the year ended. As it turned out, that was hardly the case. While at this point in Skyrim’s life we had exhausted most, if not all, of the basic build concepts that could be made in Skyrim, many builders took that as a challenge to make their builds even better and more unique through things such as including advanced gameplay mechanics that were being discovered or delving deep into Elder Scrolls lore for build ideas. 2014 also saw the debut of Character Building Events, which also helped to inspire builders and ensure a steady flow of new builds in the group.

    Featured Build: Azra Nightwielder – One of my favorite builds by Elysium also happens to be one of her oldest. Azra Nightwielder is a great example of how one can utilize Elder Scrolls lore and creative roleplay to make a fantastic build. The way the build itself evolves throughout the playthrough makes for an interesting approach as well.

    2015

    Like the years before it, 2015 saw a slew of great builds. To commemorate them all, The Character Building Hall of Fame was finally completed. While Crossworlds (by far our most successful Character Building Event to date) was announced the year before, it wasn’t until the beginning of 2015 that the builds for it were released. It has since become an annual event for the CB Group, with Crossworlds 2 happening at the end of the very same year. 2015 also saw the triumphant return of the Character Building Contests, two years after they were last seen. Most notably, however, The Workshop was launched in 2015. While technically its own separate group from Skyrim Character Building, it has since become an invaluable resource for builders, newer ones especially, looking for advice on their work-in-progress builds before they get posted in their finished forms in the CB Group.

    Featured Build: The Twilight Warden – This is what I’m talking about when I say that builds have gotten really advanced with their gameplay mechanics. 100% Spell Absorption! Aetherial Crown + Ritual Stone glitch! Necromage Vampirism shenanigans! Lots and lots of Alchemy! Raid combined all of this and more to create the ultimate slayer of undead.

    2016

    We’re a third of the way through 2016 and so far it’s been shaping up to be a good year for the CB Group. We’ve had an event and a contest, both of which met with success. Looking into the future, you can count on Crossworlds 3 happening at the end of the year and we’ll be announcing another Character Building Contest within the next couple of weeks. With the release of a couple of modded builds recently, a couple more sitting in the Workshop, and the Modder’s Conclave revival going on, 2016 may very well be the year we really start to see mods getting incorporated into the CB Group. While there’s no way to be sure about how the year will ultimately play out I’m sure that 2016 will be another great year for Skyrim Character Building.

    Featured Build: The Freelancer – Lissette’s debut into character building seamlessly weaves gameplay and roleplay together along with a fantastic presentation. The future of Skyrim CB looks bright when first-time builders put out stuff like this.

Comments

7 Comments
  • Teccam
    Teccam   ·  April 4, 2016
    Great writeup, Al. I somehow completely missed that Lissette had made a build -- definitely glad you brought some attention to it, as it looks wonderful! Thanks for giving me a quick plug as well with the mention of the Revakriid. UNLIMITED POWAHHHH
  • Albino
    Albino   ·  April 3, 2016
    Thanks Phil! Yeah, the first contest was certainly interesting, to say the least. I was originally going to use the actual screenshot of the Freelancer at the top of the build, but it seemed out of place with the rest of the images chosen (seeing as it ha...  more
  • Paws
    Paws   ·  April 3, 2016
    This a nice retrospective guys, well done.  You have some great links in there, although it shames me to admit I have only played on of these builds.
    Nice to see Lissette's build featured, it is a beauty (that picture isn't actually of Lis' characte...  more
  • The Lone Prisoner
    The Lone Prisoner   ·  April 2, 2016
    Yeah, I thought that line about the first build Paul read was released in 2012 a bit odd.
  • Albino
    Albino   ·  April 2, 2016
    You're welcome Paul. Might want to put Written by the CB Hosts or something to that effect up at the top.
  • Chris
    Chris   ·  April 2, 2016
    God, its so weird to think I´ve been part of this site for three years now.
  • Paul
    Paul   ·  April 2, 2016
    Thanks to Albino, Curse and Tae for writing this (although the post looks like it came from me, all I did was post it!)