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WiP Event Build: The Corrupted Knight

  • September 12, 2019

    The core inspiration behind this build is the Moth Priestess by Phil, it's going to be heavily, heavily referenced during the entire build here and I'd highly recommend checking it out before reading anymore of my content. It still functions completely by itself, but I think is heightened because it's directly inspired by his build. 

    Opening

    This entire build is based around essentially a single mechanic, and the synergy around creating a character that absolutely defines that mechanic. What mechanic am I talking about? Well, it's the incredibly simple mechanic of Power Attacking. Yep, that's right, just holding down a button is what makes this build unique and interesting to me. She does more damage when she's low on health, when she's recently been hit, when fighting specific enemies, just for having Stamina. Her enchanted weaponry, her spells, her weapons - all boost her ability to smack things really hard. Is it hilariously simple? Yeah it is kinda, but at the same time there's enough complexity in the skill, perk and power synergies that really boost this build into an incredibly enjoyable experience.

    So, read on and enjoy a character that pushes Power Attacks into a complex and fascinating direction.

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    Race: Nord 

    • Daughter of Skyrim: Resistance to frost, increased while Avatar is active.
    • The Purge: At levels 10/20/30, choose a race to deal bonus damage to 
    • Warrior's Heart: In combat, deal more damage as Health decreases.

    Quest reward - Rediscover Skyrim's past by clearing 8 dungeons to unlock...

    • Avatar: 1/day - Grants very fast Magicka and Stamina regeneration for a short time.

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    First Standing Stone: The Lord (Aetherial Crown)

    • Crown of Autumn: Stamina does not regenerate in combat, but power attacks deal 20% more damage and stagger.
    • Old Stone: The Lord graciously allows you to power attack when out of Stamina, dealing 30% less damage and stagger.

    Unlockable...

    • Kneel or Be Knelt: 1/day - Throws targets to the ground, dealing 15 magic damage and absorbing that much Stamina for 10 seconds.

     Second Standing Stone: The Warrior

    • Fierce Spirit: Power attacks do 15% more damage, and ranged weapons do up to 15% more damage based on distance.
    • Warrior's Path: Learn all Warrior skills 10% faster.

    Unlockable...

    • Star of the West: 1/day - Invoke the Warrior to refill Health and Stamina and fortify them by the amount restored for 30 seconds.

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    Stats: 3 Health, 5 Stamina, 2 Magicka    |    Skills: Enchanting, Two-Handed, Heavy Armour, Destruction and Alteration

    Here the basics of the build start to reveal themselves. Nords are probably not the only race worth choosing but, the art for the build probably reveals a pretty clear image that I had for the character. Orcs and Redguards are arguably both valid options, but Nords benefit extremely from higher damage at almost all times and the Avatar ability is a pretty nifty regeneration ability that lets us chain together even more Power Attacks.

    This is where things get a little tricky, because technically Avatar doesn't work with The Lord Stone. Crown of Autumn sort of conflicts with the idea of, you know regenerating Stamina but this is where The Warrior and Aetherial Crown comes into play. Around 99% of the time, you'll have the Crown equipped with the Lord active but if you find yourself really needing Stamina (for example the damage boost the Lord Stone provides being required) you can just shrug the crown off, activate Avatar and then re-equip the Crown when your filled up. 
    If it was just that, I'd probably agree with the sentiment that it might be useless, but the 15% increase in damage, boosted levelling speed and of course the Star of the West power really adds another layer to the build by providing a potentially massive boost to the character's health and damage due to the Fortify Stamina effect (which will be discussed in the skills section.)

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    Red Perks are our key perks for each tree while Blue Perks indicate synergy with other skills

    Alteration

    Rend Resistances is a really interesting perk that may not actually work with this build. The idea behind it is to reduce magic resistance everytime we hit, and well no matter what choices we make below (see Enchanting) that's going to benefit us pretty heavily by adding even more damage on to an already stacked build. However, I might drop it if we really don't need the power because I need to pick up two useless perks in order to earn it. Nullifier however, is a staple skill because it stops enemies within 25 feet of regenerating Magicka or Stamina. Obviously just really solid by itself but it has really nice synergy with Battle Weary from Heavy Armour, which reduces enemy damage when they're low on stamina. 

    Destruction

    Our use of Destruction really is just designed to work with Spellscribe from the Enchanting tree. Dual Casting is required to actually use Spellscribe and the Mastery perk boosts the damage of all spells we're going to be using but neither of them are what I'd call core perks, just required to make the build function.

    Enchanting

    An interesting skill that I'm not entirely sure how to handle. Our primary skill is definitely going to be Spellscribe, which stores a spell in our weapon, allowing us to cast it for free anytime we Power Attack. Thunderstruck is another core perk that enhances the already stupid damage of power attacks by boosting the magnitude of the enchantment by 50%. I was debating the idea of ending it there. At the moment I love the idea of having a stupidly powerful primary weapon boosted to all hell through Miracle (Chaos, Drain Health, Drain Magicka sounds absolutely brutal for this build, or maybe looking into Summermyst enchantments can break that further) but if things feel like too much of a drain I'm going to drop the enchanting focused perks and just use the Bloodskal Blade with Spellscribe. 

    Heavy Armour

    Obviously this is one of the core aspects of this build, a sheer undivided attempt to ignore enemies like flies on a wall and just continue wading through battle without a care in the world. There are plenty of defensive skills here, passively reducing, avoiding or just flat out ignoring incoming blows but there are a few unique perks that boost our damage. Rise Above reduces the attack of all enemies within 15 feet by 5% while increasing your own by 5% per enemey effected while Reap the Whirlwind boosts your damage for 5 seconds after getting hit with a power attack (the damage from them is reduced by other perks). The final major perk here, Revel in Battle is just an effect that boosts your overall damage by 3% each time an enemy hits you. Combined, you can start gaining some really powerful buffs just by getting hit (and then ignoring said damage because you are just too bulky).

    Two-Handed

    Ferocious Strength is our first major perk increasing Power Attack damage by 15% plus 0.1% per point of Stamina. Let me read that again, plus 0.1% per point of Stamina. Base 10.5% increase, and by the time you hit 300 Stamina your going to be dealing over 45% more damage with just this perk alone (and honestly, I'm really thinking that we're going to be approaching 500 stamina with this build). It's stupidly great, and a perfectly simple skill for this build. Enter the Arena and Massacre combine to give us a fairly effective attack speed boost (10% chance to increase speed by 175% with a guarentee on your first attack). Death or Glory is an awesome, truly end-game level perk that provides a huge damage boost when we're lower on health which pairs quite nicely with perks like Rise AboveRevel in Battle and Reap the Whirlwind from Heavy Armour, and possibly some of our enchantments (Cheat Death from Summermyst looks incredibly attractive)

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    Enchanting:

    When I first started the build I'd intended for Enchanting to be a minor note, I figured that it'd be important to the character due to the way it enables us to use spells when attacking and just stacking more damage on our Power Attacks. That changed as I started learning more enchantments and just generally focusing on how to make the character more effecient, powerful or defensive in nature, because until you start really stacking up the Heavy Armour perks (which, is a skill that will level slower even with Ordinator's very handy extra boost to skill XP) the character can feel a bit flakey at times. The build is simply made more functional, or interesting due to some of the really interesting enchantments found in Summermyst - Enchantments of Skyrim. We honestly have too many options, so instead of providing a definitive list of enchantments right away, I wanted to break down all the ones I've experimented with so far and let you mix and match (I will include my own armour set later on, but...yeah there are just so many viable options)

    Vanilla Enchantments: 

    This list really boils down to Fortify Stamina, Fortify Two-Handed/Destruction/Alteration and Resist Fire/Shock/Magic. Outside of these, you really don't need to use any vanilla enchantments at any point because, well they aren't that useful. That said, this build is simplistic enough that Fortify Stamina is actually a staple enchantment even at end-game and Two-Handed can always be useful. Resist Fire could also fit into that list because...we're a Vampire but I like having a weakness most of the time so it isn't crucial.

     

     

    Image 1 Source - Still Looking for Original Artist

    Possible Image 2 Source - Original Artist, Miv4t deserves all the credit for this artwork.

    Possible Image 3 Source - Freaking awesome image, full credit to Raiko the original artist. Having a tough time finding artwork for the build honestly and there's a certain... appeal to me with these characters that's countered by my dislike of using anime based artwork in a build that...you know it doesn't really make sense in. The first image is literally too perfect to pass on, and honestly you can tell there's an anime inspiration but it isn't as...obvious as others. 

  • Member
    September 13, 2019

    Longhammer + Elemental Fury for crazy DPS? Probably want texture replacer for longhammer, such as Unique Uniques. Just a quick thought before I have time to digest the build a little more.

  • September 13, 2019

    Nah, the build is going to have plenty of damage without really needing to boost the speed and I think...maybe aren't Greatswords still about as fast as the Longhammer? Plus I think the heavy use of Enchanting would make E-Fury a little pointless, like I could use an unenchanted weapon but at the moment the damge drop is much larger than anything I could pick up by boosting attack speeds. 

  • September 22, 2019

    So, at the moment I'm heavily debating the possible addition of Restoration Mastery 2/2 and gutting Alteration. I've already decided that Smithing adds too much grinding too the build and, at least in my opinion ruins the core playstyle. I do wish I could grab the Specialization perk and uh, Sandstone Sheath because they add a lot to the core concept (technically so does upgrading weapons) but it just doesn't feel like it'll be worth the grind, plus I struggle to justify actually...smithing stuff.

    I've hit Level 20 in more of a gameplay focused playthrough (playing through a quest mod that I've never touched before, quite interesting but has nothing to do with my character and would corrupt the path) so the actual idea of 'Smacking things Real Hard' has proven to actually be quite entertaining, there's something really fun about the character tanking a blow only to unleash a stupidly powerful counter that (currently) shoots out a fireball and kills all the stupid enemies. Spellscribe feels a bit broken honestly, but it's fun. Will restart and plot out a bit more of the actual path of this character. Honestly I'm half debating the idea of completely ignoring any structured quests and essentially just tearing through the world, killing any strong enemies I stumble across. 

  • September 23, 2019

    I've decided against Restoration Mastery just because I think it does...sorta ruin the idea of just smashing stuff. You could argue that it would be worth adding but I think it just adds more fluff to the build and sort of takes away from the core build. Uh, Alteration will be staying just because I think Nullifier is totally worth it (and the boost to Stamina).

    Funnily enough I think, the build is actually approaching a complete write up. All I really need to do is detail actual Combat and even then I've already explained most of the elements I just need to bind them together at the end. So, it's weird but I think really I just need to play the build, and shine a light on Vamparism a little more because that's obviously a really underdeveloped part of the build.

  • Member
    September 24, 2019

    The Lord Stone with Andromeda is something I've wanted to play around with more. It's like, I go up to the stone and really want it because there's something about the name Crown of Autumn that I find quite inspiring. I'm not sure where my head is at there, but it sort of makes me want to explore that theme. Like, you think of that word and all the associations it brings on an emotional level... Maybe Arkay and the turning of the year, the wheel and the cycle, the colours of gold and reds in the trees, and the slight melancholy unique to this time of year. It's a very rich and evocative word that almost begs to be explored as you ask yourself what does it mean to wear the Crown of Autumn? It's almost Reman-esque and Fisher King in a way I can't quite articulate but brings a feeling that the Lord and the Crown represents a land in need of healing, and that vaguely brings to mind the Fall Forest and the plight of Riften, and all the associations we have with that region. 

    However, it's the lack of stamina regen in combat that's put me off. So I like the way you've gotten around that by putting the Crown of Autumn into an actual crown. Very clever and you've just made the concept I'm noodling that much more viable :)

  • September 24, 2019

    The Lord Stone with Andromeda is something I've wanted to play around with more. It's like, I go up to the stone and really want it because there's something about the name Crown of Autumn that I find quite inspiring. I'm not sure where my head is at there, but it sort of makes me want to explore that theme. Like, you think of that word and all the associations it brings on an emotional level... Maybe Arkay and the turning of the year, the wheel and the cycle, the colours of gold and reds in the trees, and the slight melancholy unique to this time of year. It's a very rich and evocative word that almost begs to be explored as you ask yourself what does it mean to wear the Crown of Autumn? It's almost Reman-esque and Fisher King in a way I can't quite articulate but brings a feeling that the Lord and the Crown represents a land in need of healing, and that vaguely brings to mind the Fall Forest and the plight of Riften, and all the associations we have with that region. 

    However, it's the lack of stamina regen in combat that's put me off. So I like the way you've gotten around that by putting the Crown of Autumn into an actual crown. Very clever and you've just made the concept I'm noodling that much more viable :)

    Would you believe that the idea was completely accidental? It took me a few weeks for some reason to understand that Avatar and Crown of Autumn clash and then I guess I was spurred on by that same logic as you, Crown and Crown, boom makes sense. So we'll go with clever but in reality it was probably more a casual disregard for careful reading :P

    But yeah I get where your going with that, there's an incredibly nice thematic idea behind a lot of the Standing Stones in Andromeda that would be really fascinating. But I love the Lord Stone and have kept trying to use it in stuff because there is this ideal behind it of, the idea of a relentless King marching forth constantly, never wavering, faltering or halting. Just a continous, eternal march (with a bunch of sword-smacks thrown in). It's very...Tiber Septim really is what it makes me think of. 

  • October 13, 2019

    I love the concept of the build, but I feel like you may have over thought it. A large portion of your build seems to be dedicated to removing a weakness that frankly, I think balanced things better than your have now.

    A limited stamina pool during combat is a REALLY interesting restriction for a berserker style character to have. In fact, having a limited window of OP-ness before wearing themselves out is pretty standard roleplay for such a character...you have an opportunity to make it your actual gameplay mechanics.

    Unlike your opponents, you basically get incrementally stronger the longer battle wears on and you start to build all those situational buffs you have. Having to manage your stamina in the beginning of battle on order to take advantage of those buffs later on would bring a bit of strategy to a build with otherwise largely automatic abilities.

    It also balances some of your very powerful and always-on power attack buffs and gives you a better incentive to save those stamina draining attacks for the end of battle, helping them fit the theme of the build a little better.

    What I might look into instead is a way of greatly boosting stat regeneration when out of battle so that each new fight can start fresh and you don't run into any long term issues with your limited stamina or low health buffs becoming tedious.

    In fact, unlike unequipping a crown, using an active power, then re-equiping it once the effect is over, this would be another automatic ability that only requires strategic consideration from the player, maintaining the nice streamlined menu-less combat you've developed with the rest of your abilities.

  • October 13, 2019

    Just wanted to jump in thank you for dropping a comment Tyso, means a lot to me.

    I love the concept of the build, but I feel like you may have over thought it. A large portion of your build seems to be dedicated to removing a weakness that frankly, I think balanced things better than your have now.

    A limited stamina pool during combat is a REALLY interesting restriction for a berserker style character to have. In fact, having a limited window of OP-ness before wearing themselves out is pretty standard roleplay for such a character...you have an opportunity to make it your actual gameplay mechanics.

    Unlike your opponents, you basically get incrementally stronger the longer battle wears on and you start to build all those situational buffs you have. Having to manage your stamina in the beginning of battle on order to take advantage of those buffs later on would bring a bit of strategy to a build with otherwise largely automatic abilities.

    It also balances some of your very powerful and always-on power attack buffs and gives you a better incentive to save those stamina draining attacks for the end of battle, helping them fit the theme of the build a little better.

    What I might look into instead is a way of greatly boosting stat regeneration when out of battle so that each new fight can start fresh and you don't run into any long term issues with your limited stamina or low health buffs becoming tedious.

    In fact, unlike unequipping a crown, using an active power, then re-equiping it once the effect is over, this would be another automatic ability that only requires strategic consideration from the player, maintaining the nice streamlined menu-less combat you've developed with the rest of your abilities.

    So, not sure if it effects everything else I've said but I am planning on removing the Lord/Crown combo. At the end of the day, for some reason the infinite Power Attacks doesn't actually seem to work with the Crown so the only real benefit the combo had is basically removed from the build, thus it's pointless. Also, yeah rewrites as well because this is both out-of-date and mostly sort of...pre-gameplay discussion rather than comments based on actually playing the build. I'm around level 30 now, and trust me, a lot of what you've mentioned, technically true at end-game but for most of the gameplay so far all those little buffs have been out of reach, and the major ones aren't quite powerful. 

    I would normally address each point a bit more, but yeah basically it's kind of my fault for not having a proper mod-list/breakdown sort of thing so all your points are fair based on the write-up but not the actual build you know. 

  • October 13, 2019
    Yeah, that's the problem when you have a great idea like this for balancing some of the more OP abilities...they're often skill tree cappers. I can't think of any good abilities for a sudo-berserker that would play similarly early game, but you could always create a roleplay excuse for developing your berserker rage later. You'd have to come up with a different gameplay for the early game that fits the roleplay, develops the right skills, and is interesting in it's own right. That's a bit more work, but I'd bet money you could pull it off.