For this event we chose a faction that can be met in Mournhould thanks to the Tribunal DLC. Of course, we had to adjust the lore a little to fit the character, but the result was a Dunmer Spellsword that I can say we truly enjoyed playing.
The End of Times Cultists believe that the powers of the Tribunal gods Almalexia, Sotha Sil, and Vivec, are waning. Their leader, Eno Romari, foresees the death of the three gods, which will only be a prelude to the end of the entire era. This transition time, according to him, will be a time of “great horror”, as the Oblivion Gates open and the Daedra enter the world of Nirn. The End of Times Cult members reject the idea that the Daedra are the true ancestors of the Dunmer and thus believe that this invasion from Oblivion will be a serious threat to the ones living on the mortal plane. The aim of their organization is to make themselves and the whole mortal plane ready to combat this threat by alerting their real ancestors. To do so, their members commit ritual suicide by drinking poison to enter the realms of the ancestors. Their hope is that by doing so, they can unite enough of their ancestors, alerted by the dedicated cultists, to fight off this daedric excursion.
And so we come to the events of Oblivion; it would appear that Eno’s predictions came true! But the question is: What if one member decided that instead of sacrificing himself and warning the ancestors, he would prepare himself to fight the Daedra? What if one Dunmer decided to make a weapon of himself in battle against the Daedric hordes and, more importantly, to win against them? What if...one Dunmer became...the ultimate Daedra hunter?
Race: Dunmer
Birthsign: Tower
Skills: Blade, Light Armor, Destruction, Mysticism, Conjuration, Athletics, Acrobatics
Specialization: Combat
Primary Attributes: Speed and Intelligence
Quests: Main Quest, Gaining entrance to Arcane University, The Wayward Knight
Equipment: Brusef Amelion’s Armor (Enchanted with Fortify Magicka), the Thornblade
Signature Spells: Drain, Disintegrate Armor/Weapon, Reflect Damage, Reflect Spell
Blade: Using a one-handed sword really complements quick feet, and given that the Thorn is a master swordsman, he uses the Thornblade (geddit? Thornblade!) as his main weapon; he can seldom be found without it in his hand. The Thornblade works very well with our signature spells due to it having a Disintegrate Armor enchantment. Before you get your hands on this sword, however, Brusef Amelion’s Sword can be picked up at the same time as his Armor (Yes, his sword can also be found in his crypt - shock horror!)
Light Armor, Athletics: These two skills, combined with Speed as your main attribute, make this character super fast! Why would you use brute force when you could use Speed and Finesse to accomplish the exact same thing, but in a much more elegant fashion? Precise cuts and slashes that even a Surgeon would envy can take down any opponent just as well as heavy swings, maybe even better. Why? Because you won’t get hit!
Destruction: The Thorn´s magic is most definitely not for damaging purpose - our sword more than accounts for that - but rather to supplement his impressive swordplay. Drain spells can slow down your enemies, cause them to do less damage or even lower their health pool so they can be more easily sliced and diced. Disintegrate supplements our Drain spells very well, reducing both our enemies’ offence and defence!
Mysticism: The Daedra use powerful magic and Mysticism gives the Thorn an option to turn their powers against them or to power himself to be more effective - Know thy enemy, yes?
Conjuration: Much like our use of Mysticism, fighting fire with fire gives you a necessary edge over the demonic hordes of Oblivion and other Daedric monsters invading Tamriel. Binding creatures from other planes and using them as cannon fodder will give you more room for lightning fast attacks - at least, that’s how Karver saw it. Me, I found myself summoning pretty much anything aside from the Daedra - there’s a limit to using the tools of your enemy, Karver.
Acrobatics: Acrobatics can be useful in those very rare occasions when you need more breathing room; jumping out of your opponent´s reach and closing in again just as your feet touch the ground. Of course, that’s the combat aspect of it. Don’t we all love randomly jumping around Cyrodiil?
With this build we decided to use spells that are not commonly used (like in all Karver’s other builds - no surprises here), which are Drain and Disintegrate. So let´s take a look at Drain first.
Drain (Health for example) reduces the maximum health of your enemy for a period of time. Once the duration runs out and your target is still alive, that amount will be restored. It works the same way for Drain Fatigue, Magicka, Skill and Attribute. Drain spells don´t stack, which means that casting Drain Health twice would only cause the duration of the effect to be refreshed. I could liken it to Ravage Health, Magicka or Stamina to help you Skyrimers understand.
As for Drain Attribute and Skill, your target can be affected by multiple versions of these. You can cast Drain Strength followed by Drain Blade and reduce your opponent´s effectiveness in melee, but you can cast Drain Strength and Drain Speed on your target as well. You just can´t make a custom spell combining two Drain Attribute or two Drain Skill effects.
Using Drain Endurance on your target has no benefit, because it won´t reduce his maximum health. To put it bluntly: It´s absolutely useless because it does...guess what?
You guessed correctly...absolutely nothing.
Drain Speed can literally stop your enemy. Most creatures in game have very low Speed, so even Drain Speed 20pts will prevent them from moving. Drain Strength might freeze enemies on spot too, because Strength affects their maximum carry weight.
Disintegrate Weapon and Armor are both very useful against any non-caster enemies. Disintegrate weapon is slightly more powerful than Disintegrate armor, because this spell targets the weapon which your enemy currently has equipped - and they can have only one equipped. Disintegrate Armor targets one of the five armor pieces randomly, so to completely destroy your enemies’ armor, you’d need to cast this spell multiple times. That´s why we chose to implement this spell in most of our Spell Combos.
The Thorn is a Daedra hunter first and foremost, but any mage needs a place to improve his magic skills. Speaking of which - what better place is there than the Arcane University?
Worshipping the Daedra is a foolish thing to do, especially when the Daedra are invading Tamriel. No matter who the worshipper is, for the Thorn, worshipping the Daedra is punishable by death. He would kill any Conjurer, Necromancer and everyone around Daedric Shrines on sight.
The Oblivion Crisis is just a thing the Thorn was preparing for. He would help Martin Septim in putting an end to it; but more than that, he would close any Gate he just happens to stumble across in the wilds. Especially Oblivion Gates around cities. Most important is the Cheydinhal Gate, where you must complete the quest The Wayward Son, while keeping Farwil alive, to obtain the Thornblade - isn’t that convenient? Just make sure you ask for the Thornblade and not the Staff of Indarys...
Also, the Thorn would refuse to help anyone in need, for his main objective is hunting the Daedra and saving the world. The Thorn has got priorities...just like you.
And your first priority is playing this build!
Combat is fast and the approach is similar to that of an Acrobat. The Thorn relies primarily on his sword and fast movement, dodging his opponent´s attacks only to jump as he exploits an opening in his enemy’s defence.
But his most powerful tool is magic. Summoning Daedra or summoning your true ancestors (ie, Ghosts or Wraiths) to fight the hordes of Oblivon will prevent you from getting hit as well as adding some chaos to the battle. Ghosts and Wraiths are not very strong, but they are immune to most physical damage, except for silver, enchanted and daedric weapons.
As for dealing with various enemies, we´ve decided to let the Abilites section do the talking for us. Also note that you can hotkey only 8 spells, so we tried to put as many effects into these Spell Combos which resulted in some badass end game combinations. From early-midgame, combining very few effects is advised.
Leech Soul: Sap your enemy's vitality with a soulrending finisher!
Drain Health xx for 1s + Soul Trap for 2s
Leech Soul is your main - and probably most powerful - damaging spell. The purpose of this spell is to serve as a finishing move, but with a very low cost. You want to create Drain Health with the highest possible Magnitude and 1 second duration. If your enemy has more Health than your Magnitude, it’s useless because that lost health will immediately be restored! Soul Trap is very useful for this finishing move, just use a duration of 2 seconds. So then what do we do with all those souls? We charge the Thornblade, of course!
Vulnerability: Render your foes vulnerable with this simple cantrip!
Weakness to Magic
Vulnerability will be the spell which you most commonly use as your opener. Weakness to Magic will increase the magnitude of all your other spells, which is especially useful for Damage Health when it has a magnitude of 100pts on it...
Exposure: Expose your enemy to your flurry of strikes!
Disintegrate Armor + Disintegrate Weapon
Disintegrate Weapon is best used against melee enemies, but forcing archers to switch to a melee weapon is always useful - forcing them out of their comfort zone, am I right? Casting it in conjunction with Disintegrate armor will lower both their offensive and defensive capabilities...so why on earth wouldn’t you cast them together?
Debilitation: Watch in glee as your enemies struggle to assault you!
Drain Strength + Drain Blade/Blunt + Drain Fatigue + Disintegrate Armor
Best used against melee enemies to reduce their effectiveness. Drain Strength can also encumber some enemies and Disintegrate is useful against any enemy wearing armor.
Ignorance: Confuse spellcasters as they find their minds blank and their spells weakened!
Drain Intelligence + Drain Destruction + Drain Magicka
Very effective against spellcasters. Drain Intelligence and Magicka will lower their Magicka pool drastically and Drain Destruction will increase the cost of their offensive spells, causing the spells to deplete their Magicka at a quicker rate.
Lethargy: Laugh mockingly as your enemies lose the will to even try to chase you!
Drain Speed + Drain Athletics + Disintegrate Armor
Lightly armored, fast enemies can be really tiresome, especially archers. Because enemies usually don´t have a lot of Speed, however, Draining it to 0 can effectively freeze them on the spot. Even if not, it will drastically slow their movement, especially when combined with Drain Athletics. Disintegrate Armor is always useful, so why not have it included here?
Thorn Barrier: Project a reflective barrier of Thorns around yourself!
Reflect Spell + Reflect Damage + Spell Absorption
A well rounded spell, built to offer you maximum protection against anyone who wishes you harm. This works best against spellcasters and their summoned creatures. Against anyone else, it´s a better idea to cast only Reflect Damage against enemies who only deal physical damage.
Purge: Cleanse yourself and your surroundings of all things evil!
Dispel + Turn Undead
This spell is very effective against any summoner or undead. If you cast Dispel on a summoner, it will dispel his summoned creature. Turn Undead...well, does it really need to be explained?
Thanks to Karver for being such a great guy to work with...collaborating with him was a great experience!
Thanks to the Classics Hosts for hosting this great event!
But most of all, thanks to you, the reader!
For this event we chose a faction that can be met in Mournhould thanks to the Tribunal DLC. Of course, we had to adjust the lore a little to fit the character, but the result was a Dunmer Spellsword that I can say we truly enjoyed playing.
The End of Times Cultists believe that the powers of the Tribunal gods Almalexia, Sotha Sil, and Vivec, are waning. Their leader, Eno Romari, foresees the death of the three gods, which will only be a prelude to the end of the entire era. This transition time, according to him, will be a time of “great horror”, as the Oblivion Gates open and the Daedra enter the world of Nirn. The End of Times Cult members reject the idea that the Daedra are the true ancestors of the Dunmer and thus believe that this invasion from Oblivion will be a serious threat to the ones living on the mortal plane. The aim of their organization is to make themselves and the whole mortal plane ready to combat this threat by alerting their real ancestors. To do so, their members commit ritual suicide by drinking poison to enter the realms of the ancestors. Their hope is that by doing so, they can unite enough of their ancestors, alerted by the dedicated cultists, to fight off this daedric excursion.
And so we come to the events of Oblivion; it would appear that Eno’s predictions came true! But the question is: What if one member decided that instead of sacrificing himself and warning the ancestors, he would prepare himself to fight the Daedra? What if one Dunmer decided to make a weapon of himself in battle against the Daedric hordes and, more importantly, to win against them? What if...one Dunmer became...the ultimate Daedra hunter?
Race: Dunmer
Birthsign: Tower
Skills: Blade, Light Armor, Destruction, Mysticism, Conjuration, Athletics, Acrobatics
Specialization: Combat
Primary Attributes: Speed and Intelligence
Quests: Main Quest, Gaining entrance to Arcane University, The Wayward Knight
Equipment: Brusef Amelion’s Armor (Enchanted with Fortify Magicka), the Thornblade
Signature Spells: Drain, Disintegrate Armor/Weapon, Reflect Damage, Reflect Spell
Blade: Using a one-handed sword really complements quick feet, and given that the Thorn is a master swordsman, he uses the Thornblade (geddit? Thornblade!) as his main weapon; he can seldom be found without it in his hand. The Thornblade works very well with our signature spells due to it having a Disintegrate Armor enchantment. Before you get your hands on this sword, however, Brusef Amelion’s Sword can be picked up at the same time as his Armor (Yes, his sword can also be found in his crypt - shock horror!)
Light Armor, Athletics: These two skills, combined with Speed as your main attribute, make this character super fast! Why would you use brute force when you could use Speed and Finesse to accomplish the exact same thing, but in a much more elegant fashion? Precise cuts and slashes that even a Surgeon would envy can take down any opponent just as well as heavy swings, maybe even better. Why? Because you won’t get hit!
Destruction: The Thorn´s magic is most definitely not for damaging purpose - our sword more than accounts for that - but rather to supplement his impressive swordplay. Drain spells can slow down your enemies, cause them to do less damage or even lower their health pool so they can be more easily sliced and diced. Disintegrate supplements our Drain spells very well, reducing both our enemies’ offence and defence!
Mysticism: The Daedra use powerful magic and Mysticism gives the Thorn an option to turn their powers against them or to power himself to be more effective - Know thy enemy, yes?
Conjuration: Much like our use of Mysticism, fighting fire with fire gives you a necessary edge over the demonic hordes of Oblivion and other Daedric monsters invading Tamriel. Binding creatures from other planes and using them as cannon fodder will give you more room for lightning fast attacks - at least, that’s how Karver saw it. Me, I found myself summoning pretty much anything aside from the Daedra - there’s a limit to using the tools of your enemy, Karver.
Acrobatics: Acrobatics can be useful in those very rare occasions when you need more breathing room; jumping out of your opponent´s reach and closing in again just as your feet touch the ground. Of course, that’s the combat aspect of it. Don’t we all love randomly jumping around Cyrodiil?
With this build we decided to use spells that are not commonly used (like in all Karver’s other builds - no surprises here), which are Drain and Disintegrate. So let´s take a look at Drain first.
Drain (Health for example) reduces the maximum health of your enemy for a period of time. Once the duration runs out and your target is still alive, that amount will be restored. It works the same way for Drain Fatigue, Magicka, Skill and Attribute. Drain spells don´t stack, which means that casting Drain Health twice would only cause the duration of the effect to be refreshed. I could liken it to Ravage Health, Magicka or Stamina to help you Skyrimers understand.
As for Drain Attribute and Skill, your target can be affected by multiple versions of these. You can cast Drain Strength followed by Drain Blade and reduce your opponent´s effectiveness in melee, but you can cast Drain Strength and Drain Speed on your target as well. You just can´t make a custom spell combining two Drain Attribute or two Drain Skill effects.
Using Drain Endurance on your target has no benefit, because it won´t reduce his maximum health. To put it bluntly: It´s absolutely useless because it does...guess what?
You guessed correctly...absolutely nothing.
Drain Speed can literally stop your enemy. Most creatures in game have very low Speed, so even Drain Speed 20pts will prevent them from moving. Drain Strength might freeze enemies on spot too, because Strength affects their maximum carry weight.
Disintegrate Weapon and Armor are both very useful against any non-caster enemies. Disintegrate weapon is slightly more powerful than Disintegrate armor, because this spell targets the weapon which your enemy currently has equipped - and they can have only one equipped. Disintegrate Armor targets one of the five armor pieces randomly, so to completely destroy your enemies’ armor, you’d need to cast this spell multiple times. That´s why we chose to implement this spell in most of our Spell Combos.
The Thorn is a Daedra hunter first and foremost, but any mage needs a place to improve his magic skills. Speaking of which - what better place is there than the Arcane University?
Worshipping the Daedra is a foolish thing to do, especially when the Daedra are invading Tamriel. No matter who the worshipper is, for the Thorn, worshipping the Daedra is punishable by death. He would kill any Conjurer, Necromancer and everyone around Daedric Shrines on sight.
The Oblivion Crisis is just a thing the Thorn was preparing for. He would help Martin Septim in putting an end to it; but more than that, he would close any Gate he just happens to stumble across in the wilds. Especially Oblivion Gates around cities. Most important is the Cheydinhal Gate, where you must complete the quest The Wayward Son, while keeping Farwil alive, to obtain the Thornblade - isn’t that convenient? Just make sure you ask for the Thornblade and not the Staff of Indarys...
Also, the Thorn would refuse to help anyone in need, for his main objective is hunting the Daedra and saving the world. The Thorn has got priorities...just like you.
And your first priority is playing this build!
Combat is fast and the approach is similar to that of an Acrobat. The Thorn relies primarily on his sword and fast movement, dodging his opponent´s attacks only to jump as he exploits an opening in his enemy’s defence.
But his most powerful tool is magic. Summoning Daedra or summoning your true ancestors (ie, Ghosts or Wraiths) to fight the hordes of Oblivon will prevent you from getting hit as well as adding some chaos to the battle. Ghosts and Wraiths are not very strong, but they are immune to most physical damage, except for silver, enchanted and daedric weapons.
As for dealing with various enemies, we´ve decided to let the Abilites section do the talking for us. Also note that you can hotkey only 8 spells, so we tried to put as many effects into these Spell Combos which resulted in some badass end game combinations. From early-midgame, combining very few effects is advised.
Leech Soul: Sap your enemy's vitality with a soulrending finisher!
Drain Health xx for 1s + Soul Trap for 2s
Leech Soul is your main - and probably most powerful - damaging spell. The purpose of this spell is to serve as a finishing move, but with a very low cost. You want to create Drain Health with the highest possible Magnitude and 1 second duration. If your enemy has more Health than your Magnitude, it’s useless because that lost health will immediately be restored! Soul Trap is very useful for this finishing move, just use a duration of 2 seconds. So then what do we do with all those souls? We charge the Thornblade, of course!
Vulnerability: Render your foes vulnerable with this simple cantrip!
Weakness to Magic
Vulnerability will be the spell which you most commonly use as your opener. Weakness to Magic will increase the magnitude of all your other spells, which is especially useful for Damage Health when it has a magnitude of 100pts on it...
Exposure: Expose your enemy to your flurry of strikes!
Disintegrate Armor + Disintegrate Weapon
Disintegrate Weapon is best used against melee enemies, but forcing archers to switch to a melee weapon is always useful - forcing them out of their comfort zone, am I right? Casting it in conjunction with Disintegrate armor will lower both their offensive and defensive capabilities...so why on earth wouldn’t you cast them together?
Debilitation: Watch in glee as your enemies struggle to assault you!
Drain Strength + Drain Blade/Blunt + Drain Fatigue + Disintegrate Armor
Best used against melee enemies to reduce their effectiveness. Drain Strength can also encumber some enemies and Disintegrate is useful against any enemy wearing armor.
Ignorance: Confuse spellcasters as they find their minds blank and their spells weakened!
Drain Intelligence + Drain Destruction + Drain Magicka
Very effective against spellcasters. Drain Intelligence and Magicka will lower their Magicka pool drastically and Drain Destruction will increase the cost of their offensive spells, causing the spells to deplete their Magicka at a quicker rate.
Lethargy: Laugh mockingly as your enemies lose the will to even try to chase you!
Drain Speed + Drain Athletics + Disintegrate Armor
Lightly armored, fast enemies can be really tiresome, especially archers. Because enemies usually don´t have a lot of Speed, however, Draining it to 0 can effectively freeze them on the spot. Even if not, it will drastically slow their movement, especially when combined with Drain Athletics. Disintegrate Armor is always useful, so why not have it included here?
Thorn Barrier: Project a reflective barrier of Thorns around yourself!
Reflect Spell + Reflect Damage + Spell Absorption
A well rounded spell, built to offer you maximum protection against anyone who wishes you harm. This works best against spellcasters and their summoned creatures. Against anyone else, it´s a better idea to cast only Reflect Damage against enemies who only deal physical damage.
Purge: Cleanse yourself and your surroundings of all things evil!
Dispel + Turn Undead
This spell is very effective against any summoner or undead. If you cast Dispel on a summoner, it will dispel his summoned creature. Turn Undead...well, does it really need to be explained?
Thanks to Karver for being such a great guy to work with...collaborating with him was a great experience!
Thanks to the Classics Hosts for hosting this great event!
But most of all, thanks to you, the reader!
