Note: I'll just throw this up here and edit the layout when I get the time. Feel free to add feedback! I will be adding an Arsenal (weapons, armors, enchantments etc).
If you enjoy the archetypical Monster Hunter but wish it had more humph to it, you have come to the right place. The Headhunter is a build that combines the savagery of an axe wielding barbarian with the overwhelming power of a fully fledged battlemage by fusing destructive magics with martial prowess through a clever combination of synergising skills and perks. So if you wish to go about Skyrim as a grim faced slayer of beasts and collector of bountyheads, you need look no further than...
The Headhunter
As the headhunter your profession is blood. You hunt the creatures other men dare not, you collect the bounties of wicked outlaws, dark wizards and twisted heretics alike. You carve a living by carving the heads from the corpses that you make.
With the blade of your axe, the potency of your magic and the grimness of your experience, Skyrim proves nothing but a hunting ground in which you shall thrive.
The Headhunter is my answer to the unorthodox spellsword, with a (if I may say so myself) brilliant playstyle centered around a few underrated perks and synergies that I stumbled across by accident. The character is somewhat grim, and -as The Vault has proved several times in the past- Skyrim is a game brilliantly suited to monster hunting characters with countless quests that revolve around the slaying of trolls, undead, werewolves (sorry Sotek), vampires and many other beasts.
-
Race: Any, I rolled with Orc for the attitude and athstetics.
-
Stone: Atronach - we don't use any magicka but with Andromeda The Atronach stone makes our spells 25% stronger which, as you will discover, is a massive boost to this build’s damage.
-
Shouts: Any that help you slay dragons, however drain vitality is insane for this build. Dragonrend also makes killing the scaly creatures much easier.
-
Mods: Ordinator and Andromeda are the only essential mods, however I play with
Imperious, TK dodge and Apocalypse / more apocalypse on top of that as well.
As you can see The Headhunter is primarily a warrior, however, magic plays a key part of the build but we go about utilizing it in a rather roundabout way so typical casting and magicka issues becomes a non existent factor.
All in all we seek to maintain a nicely spread out distribution of stat points and various beefy enchantments, so resource management stays an easy task and we can focus on the truly important things: manly killing, lots of killing.
Gameplay
The main theory behind this build is dead simple (or, maybe not so much): the “Bleed like A Lamb” perk from Ordinator states that regular attacks with war axes cause a bleeding debuff for 3 seconds -this debuff is renewed with each attack- and when the bleeding ends the target will take damage equal to 15-25% of the health they lost whilst bleeding.
This is all good and well, but imagine the synergy of this build when “Bleed Like a Lamb” is combined with the “Spellscribe” perk from enchanting used in conjunction with a dual-cast fire spell from the destruction school (lots of hard hitting spells to pick from there) - incinerate, for example, is a particularly nasty spell for our purposes.
These two perks allow us to apply the bleeding debuff with a regular attack, then power attack to unleash a burst of fire damage as well as burning our targets with the Damage over Time effeckt that flame magic applies. Then, when the bleeding ends, the target will take yet another chunk of damage equal to 15-25% of the health they have already lost.
But it gets even better, for the true power of The Headhunter lies neither within his skill with an axe, nor the heat of his fire magic, but rather in the cleverness of a highly underrated perk: “Static Field” - Shock spells that would leave their target above 75% Health deal enough additional damage to make up the difference... In other words this spell allows even novice level shock magic to instantly deal 25% of a target's maximum health as pure, unavoidable damage.
To sum everything up: The Headhunter will hit an enemy with a regular axe attack applying “Bleed Like a Lamb”, after having done so he will immediately cast the novice level shock spell in his off-hand to ravage an enemy for 25% of their maximum life, followed by a power attack to unleash the spell stored by spellscribe. Attack + shock spell + power attack (aka the A.S.P Combo) and when the bleeding stops… well, you can probably imagine the violence… BOOM!
With this combination The Headhunter can devastate most foes in a heartbeat. And let me tell you, damn is it satisfying to watch the healthpar of a Frost Troll go from all red to all black in three massive chunks of damage. Smack, Smack, Smack! Dead. In those rare occasions where you don't manage to dominate your enemies The Headhunter has a vast arsenal of defensive mechanics and buffs that allow him to carry on fighting even when vastly outnumbered; our high healthpool serves as a nice way to carry on fighting in these situations and enchantments that boost our survivability above and beyond render The Headhunter almost as unkillable as he is deadly.
Skills and their Uses
One Handed: The Headhunter’s simplest form of damage, with a war axe in one hand and a destruction spell in the other, this build plays out like most other spellswords at its core. Yet, the Axe branch of the Ordinator tree gives the build a vast array of interesting melee tricks: Mangle allows us to ignore armor, Shieldbreaker is an absolutely golden tool for dealing with shielded enemies and Wolftooth grants a flat 15% global damage multiplier… yes that includes our magic.
Destruction: The fire branch of the destruction school is designed to do one thing and one thing only: deal damage. With perks such as Combustion, Flash Fire and Pyromancer Ascension The Headhunter can stack debuffs and damage like crazy. The Atronach Stone and The Wolftooth perk increases the damage of these spells by an extra 40%. Furthermore, we use a low level shock spell to deal that sweet 25% max health damage instantly.
Enchanting: A skill that brings boatloads of utility to the build. Drain health enchantments, increased health, stamina, life regen… I could keep going. Not only does Enchanting allow us to devastate our opponents, it also makes us near unkillable. Thunderstruck, Might and Magic, Power Echoes are but a few of the perks that make this build what it is.
Light Armor: The Headhunter’s choice of armor allows him to stay swift, evasive and dangerous. My only problem with The Light Armor skill in Ordinator is that it is much more powerful than heavy armor. Unlimited stamina (almost), increased movement speed, damage bonuses… Light Armor gives us everything we need. On top of that The Orcish racials synergies nicely with The Light armor skill when Imperious is installed.
Alteration: My favorite skill in ordinator! Vancian Magic makes all spells free and as we will only be casting a novice lightning spell once every 3 hits we needn't not worry about running low on charges. On top of that, Vancian Magic allows us to store any spell with spellscribe for free, no matter its magicka cost. To make Alteration even more overpowered is the fact that we can autocast flesh spells when entering combat, for free, and improve our stats and resistances. Good stuff, very good.
The Hunt
No build of mine would be complete without a certain roleplaying aspect to it, and fear not The Headhunter has a great deal of potential for some in-depth roleplay and immersion. My character, Headhunter Knolt, had an irrational fear of necromancy despite his profession. He was a no-nonsense, self important prick to be sure but damn he was good at his job. For some reason unbenounced to any of them a useless orc named Lob decided to accompany Knolt through his travels, being a constant source of irritation and occasional humor.
But enough about Knolt, the important thing here is the guidebook to monster hunting. Fortunately for me, I stumbled across an old tome perfect for this very purpose:
Note: I'll just throw this up here and edit the layout when I get the time. Feel free to add feedback! I will be adding an Arsenal (weapons, armors, enchantments etc).
If you enjoy the archetypical Monster Hunter but wish it had more humph to it, you have come to the right place. The Headhunter is a build that combines the savagery of an axe wielding barbarian with the overwhelming power of a fully fledged battlemage by fusing destructive magics with martial prowess through a clever combination of synergising skills and perks. So if you wish to go about Skyrim as a grim faced slayer of beasts and collector of bountyheads, you need look no further than...
The Headhunter
As the headhunter your profession is blood. You hunt the creatures other men dare not, you collect the bounties of wicked outlaws, dark wizards and twisted heretics alike. You carve a living by carving the heads from the corpses that you make.
With the blade of your axe, the potency of your magic and the grimness of your experience, Skyrim proves nothing but a hunting ground in which you shall thrive.
The Headhunter is my answer to the unorthodox spellsword, with a (if I may say so myself) brilliant playstyle centered around a few underrated perks and synergies that I stumbled across by accident. The character is somewhat grim, and -as The Vault has proved several times in the past- Skyrim is a game brilliantly suited to monster hunting characters with countless quests that revolve around the slaying of trolls, undead, werewolves (sorry Sotek), vampires and many other beasts.
-
Race: Any, I rolled with Orc for the attitude and athstetics.
-
Stone: Atronach - we don't use any magicka but with Andromeda The Atronach stone makes our spells 25% stronger which, as you will discover, is a massive boost to this build’s damage.
-
Shouts: Any that help you slay dragons, however drain vitality is insane for this build. Dragonrend also makes killing the scaly creatures much easier.
-
Mods: Ordinator and Andromeda are the only essential mods, however I play with
Imperious, TK dodge and Apocalypse / more apocalypse on top of that as well.
As you can see The Headhunter is primarily a warrior, however, magic plays a key part of the build but we go about utilizing it in a rather roundabout way so typical casting and magicka issues becomes a non existent factor.
All in all we seek to maintain a nicely spread out distribution of stat points and various beefy enchantments, so resource management stays an easy task and we can focus on the truly important things: manly killing, lots of killing.
Gameplay
The main theory behind this build is dead simple (or, maybe not so much): the “Bleed like A Lamb” perk from Ordinator states that regular attacks with war axes cause a bleeding debuff for 3 seconds -this debuff is renewed with each attack- and when the bleeding ends the target will take damage equal to 15-25% of the health they lost whilst bleeding.
This is all good and well, but imagine the synergy of this build when “Bleed Like a Lamb” is combined with the “Spellscribe” perk from enchanting used in conjunction with a dual-cast fire spell from the destruction school (lots of hard hitting spells to pick from there) - incinerate, for example, is a particularly nasty spell for our purposes.
These two perks allow us to apply the bleeding debuff with a regular attack, then power attack to unleash a burst of fire damage as well as burning our targets with the Damage over Time effeckt that flame magic applies. Then, when the bleeding ends, the target will take yet another chunk of damage equal to 15-25% of the health they have already lost.
But it gets even better, for the true power of The Headhunter lies neither within his skill with an axe, nor the heat of his fire magic, but rather in the cleverness of a highly underrated perk: “Static Field” - Shock spells that would leave their target above 75% Health deal enough additional damage to make up the difference... In other words this spell allows even novice level shock magic to instantly deal 25% of a target's maximum health as pure, unavoidable damage.
To sum everything up: The Headhunter will hit an enemy with a regular axe attack applying “Bleed Like a Lamb”, after having done so he will immediately cast the novice level shock spell in his off-hand to ravage an enemy for 25% of their maximum life, followed by a power attack to unleash the spell stored by spellscribe. Attack + shock spell + power attack (aka the A.S.P Combo) and when the bleeding stops… well, you can probably imagine the violence… BOOM!
With this combination The Headhunter can devastate most foes in a heartbeat. And let me tell you, damn is it satisfying to watch the healthpar of a Frost Troll go from all red to all black in three massive chunks of damage. Smack, Smack, Smack! Dead. In those rare occasions where you don't manage to dominate your enemies The Headhunter has a vast arsenal of defensive mechanics and buffs that allow him to carry on fighting even when vastly outnumbered; our high healthpool serves as a nice way to carry on fighting in these situations and enchantments that boost our survivability above and beyond render The Headhunter almost as unkillable as he is deadly.
Skills and their Uses
One Handed: The Headhunter’s simplest form of damage, with a war axe in one hand and a destruction spell in the other, this build plays out like most other spellswords at its core. Yet, the Axe branch of the Ordinator tree gives the build a vast array of interesting melee tricks: Mangle allows us to ignore armor, Shieldbreaker is an absolutely golden tool for dealing with shielded enemies and Wolftooth grants a flat 15% global damage multiplier… yes that includes our magic.
Destruction: The fire branch of the destruction school is designed to do one thing and one thing only: deal damage. With perks such as Combustion, Flash Fire and Pyromancer Ascension The Headhunter can stack debuffs and damage like crazy. The Atronach Stone and The Wolftooth perk increases the damage of these spells by an extra 40%. Furthermore, we use a low level shock spell to deal that sweet 25% max health damage instantly.
Enchanting: A skill that brings boatloads of utility to the build. Drain health enchantments, increased health, stamina, life regen… I could keep going. Not only does Enchanting allow us to devastate our opponents, it also makes us near unkillable. Thunderstruck, Might and Magic, Power Echoes are but a few of the perks that make this build what it is.
Light Armor: The Headhunter’s choice of armor allows him to stay swift, evasive and dangerous. My only problem with The Light Armor skill in Ordinator is that it is much more powerful than heavy armor. Unlimited stamina (almost), increased movement speed, damage bonuses… Light Armor gives us everything we need. On top of that The Orcish racials synergies nicely with The Light armor skill when Imperious is installed.
Alteration: My favorite skill in ordinator! Vancian Magic makes all spells free and as we will only be casting a novice lightning spell once every 3 hits we needn't not worry about running low on charges. On top of that, Vancian Magic allows us to store any spell with spellscribe for free, no matter its magicka cost. To make Alteration even more overpowered is the fact that we can autocast flesh spells when entering combat, for free, and improve our stats and resistances. Good stuff, very good.
The Hunt
No build of mine would be complete without a certain roleplaying aspect to it, and fear not The Headhunter has a great deal of potential for some in-depth roleplay and immersion. My character, Headhunter Knolt, had an irrational fear of necromancy despite his profession. He was a no-nonsense, self important prick to be sure but damn he was good at his job. For some reason unbenounced to any of them a useless orc named Lob decided to accompany Knolt through his travels, being a constant source of irritation and occasional humor.
But enough about Knolt, the important thing here is the guidebook to monster hunting. Fortunately for me, I stumbled across an old tome perfect for this very purpose:
