The Workshop » Discussions


WIP Character Build: The Black Cat

  • March 3, 2018

    Intro

    The idea for this build came to me at work while I was daydreaming at work ( a common occurrence) and decided to get it down on paper.

    I have never used dual-wielding, mostly out of not being a fan of the full offensive style and using combat overhauls where not blocking or getting out of the way gets you killed quickly. So I thought of a build that focused on a mix of the classic stealth role we know and love, but able to dart into combat and slice an enemy into ribbons which incredible speed. As well as using potions/poisons and some handy traps to make sure they control the battlefield.

    Thus, The Black Cat was born. Though we need some mods to do this.

    Mods

    OrdinatorA staple of this build. A massive overhaul that makes too many changes to mention, but needless to say it opens up so many possibilities for different builds while being fairly balanced as well. I can’t recommend it enough.

    Andromeda Standing Stones - Changes up the standing stones to offer two abilities each that are unique and can fit into different builds. Each also has a unique power unlocked once you discover all the stones. The Shadow stone bonuses in particular really play into this build.

    Imperious - Races of SkyrimThis makes each of the races unique in that the stats and regeneration rates of them are different (Orcs have higher health and regen than a high elf etc) as well as some unique and much more interesting abilities. There is also, much like with Andromeda, a unique power to unlock via a race specific quest.

    Immersive Armours – A small mention to his goliath as we will be using the Tribunal Ebony Mask for our character’s look.

    Alternate Start – Again, huge mod, small mention. Going to be using an alternate start to join up with the Thieves Guild smoothly and provide easy access to our stone – The Shadow.

    Backstory

    TBC

    Race, Standing Stone and Attributes

    Race: Khajiit

    Health: 90 Magicka: 105 Stamina: 105

    Health regeneration: 0.5% Magicka regeneration: 3.125% Stamina regeneration: 5.25%

    Recommended Distribution 4/6 or 3/7 depending on difficulty. More stamina means more damage, but the low health can be a risk. Stealth is the main part of this build, but some fights, whether due to bad luck, scripting or the area can limit this. Speed is also key, so with any luck you’ll be able to just move out of the way of heavy hitting power attacks. Though the extra health for slightly less damage output can provided a nice buffer and room for error. Your call in the end.

    Carry weight: 300

    Abilities:

    Feline Agility: Move faster at all times (15%), and sprint 40% faster at the cost of 15 more Stamina per second.

    Ah Imperious, how I love you. The racials are part of what gave me the idea for this build. It’s the perfect blend of enhancing stealth while also allowing for agility and speed in open combat. That 15% buff applies to sneaking, walking, running, the works. Means you can get up closer and stab people that much easier. The extra sprint speed is also good for when you need to either close or expand a gap between an opponent and your Whirlwind Sprint is on cool-down. The extra stamina cost is covered by the high stamina nature of this build.

    Prowl: Sneak silently (0.5 muffle) and perform power leaps while sneaking for 60 stamina

    Again, sneaking faster as well as better. Not too sure how the muffle stacks (if at all) but that muffle from the get-go makes the starting out sneak game much easier and keeps it going for the whole game. The power leap is unique as well. The way it works is that when you jump while sneaking, you surge forward a sizeable different silently at the cost of the stamina. It’s more horizontal than vertical, but again it helps you cover distance. Think of it as a silent roll, but travels much further than the roll. It’s not totally useful, but it’s another tool in the belt you can use.

    Rawlith Khaj: Claw power attacks deal bonus damage based on your Stamina as well as extra base damage

    The least useful of the new abilities. This is self-explanatory, with your claws hitting harder by default and the two hand double attack doing extra damage based on 25% of your total stamina. Handy with the duels though, so not all that bad.

    Quest: Acquire 50000 lifetime gold to unlock Perception: At will - Improves night vision and dampens non-essential sounds.

    So this is the unique quest and rather fittingly it’s about getting money. Seems like a lot, but pretty sure we all know that money isn’t exactly hard to come by in Skyrim. Just play normally and you’ll get there. As for the ability, it's more or less just a clearer night eye that knocks out most sound other than footsteps, speech and so on. It’s nothing special, but we’re playing Khajiit for those first two big hitters. I personally never really use night-eye, but again it’s something that may have more use for you if you have darkness mods etc.

    Standing Stone: The Shadow

     

     

    Blur: The Shadow increases movement speed by 20% in combat.

    Hide in Shadows: When near a wall or obstacle, sneaking and sneak attacks are 20% more effective.

    Unlockable - Shadow Step: At will - Expend 50 points of Stamina to dash to a nearby target within 75 feet.

    Beautiful. Hopefully you can see where I'm going with this build. Blur is yet another boost to our speed, adding 20% on top of the natural 15% Khajiit get. This is going to get higher, but already we're pretty damn speedy and this should allow for dodging a lot of power attacks and provide mobility in combat. HiS is also brilliant for stealth, as when sneaking I already tend to hug walls or pillars or whatever is around. This works for narrow corridors as well where enemies like to patrol - sneak up behind them easier and enjoy that 20% damage boost. The unlockable, once all standing stones are discovered, is pretty much a Blink. Mage giving you trouble and don't feel like charging him with your insane speed? No need, blink and lodge numerous pointy and sharp complaints with his use of magic.

    Perks

     

     

    There is no set order for perks - pick and choose them to whatever fits you at the time. Feel like you're not hitting hard? Try some One-Handed. Getting caught a lot? Bump some into Sneak. Though I would personally recommend that you put perk points into Sneak and Lockpicking (and just hear me out on that) as they provide you some key tools in your belt. The trees we will be going through are: One-handed, Sneak, Light Armor, Alchemy, Archery, and Lockpicking. 6 trees, with some more invested in than others. So, let's go through these starting with the core skills.

    Sneak

     

    Gear

    TBC

    Playstyle/RP

    TBC

     

  • Member
    March 3, 2018

    Shadow step brings back memories of my WoW days as a rogue...

  • March 3, 2018

    ^Reminds me more of Kingdoms of Amalur, you play a Mage/Rogue combination in that game and you get all sorts of crazy abilities (my favourite is a Poison Blink...) Hoh, now that's something to consider, got absolutely nothing to do with your build Superstorm so I'll move on, but got thoughts based on reading this, which is always excellent :D

    Anyway, I'm loving the idea so far already, and the presentation (even if it's text-based only for now) is really well done. I would consider the idea of bumping the size of your sub-titles (Race, Standing Stone and Attributes, Abilities and Standing Stone: The Shadow) up just to 10/12 so that they stand out a little more. You could possibly centre them, and add a small image to them...maybe This One scaled down to about 50 - 43 (that's what it is below.)

    Here's just a quick example of what it can look like. 

    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Standing Stone: The Shadow

    Blur: The Shadow increases movement speed by 20% in combat.

    Hide in Shadows: When near a wall or obstacle, sneaking and sneak attacks are 20% more effective.

    Unlockable - Shadow StepAt will - Expend 50 points of Stamina to dash to a nearby target within 75 feet.

    Beautiful. Hopefully, you can see where I'm going with this build. Blur is yet another boost to our speed, adding 20% on top of the natural 15% Khajiit get. This is going to get higher, but already we're pretty damn speedy and this should allow for dodging a lot of power attacks and provide mobility in combat. HiS is also brilliant for stealth, as when sneaking I already tend to hug walls or pillars or whatever is around. This works for narrow corridors as well where enemies like to patrol - sneak up behind them easier and enjoy that 20% damage boost. The unlockable, once all standing stones are discovered, is pretty much a Blink. Mage giving you trouble and don't feel like charging him with your insane speed? No need, blink and lodge numerous pointy and sharp complaints with his use of magic.

    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Yeah, just something that I think can look good, but your current set-up looks really good as well so it isn't a 'required' change or anything, just a quick suggestion :) Anyway, yeah super excited to see where this goes because it's already looking really good, and the build seems fascinating based on what you've got here already. 

  • March 4, 2018

    Thanks for the positive feedback so far. Work keeps me busy but I plan to add and mess with this in my free time. And thanks for the advice Dragon, that set-up and image looks and sounds pretty solid. I'll make some changes and get it formatted with that image, fits the build rather nicely. :)