Skyrim Character Building » Discussions


Character Build: The Sunder Mage Part 2

Tags: #Character Build Shouts  #Character Build Mage  #Character Build Illusionist  #Character Build Vampire  #Race:Imperial  #Mods  #Ordinator  #SE Rank:Novice  #Furrion 17 
  • Member
    November 13, 2019

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    3175483009?profile=RESIZE_710xBlood Magic: Nothing inspires as much wild-eyed terror as the Blood Mage. Mages of this type take the raw energy of life and twist it to their own purposes. They can corrupt and control, and sustain their power by consuming the health of others, willing or not. The effects can be vile, but this specialization isn't limited to madmen and monsters. Many see it as the only form of magic that is truly free, because it's tied to the physical, not favors to spirits or demons. It remains an undeniably violent and self-destructive discipline, however, the Blood Mage must be careful. The temptation to take just a little more is always there. - Dragon Age 2 Blood Mage Specialization.

    3253873068?profile=RESIZE_180x180Dark Sustenance – Empathic Agony + Equilibrium

    •  Ceryse, creates a sinster psychic bond, allowing her blood fueled spells to tap into the life force of her enemies and restore her mana.

     3254022781?profile=RESIZE_180x180Hemorrhage - Empathic Agony + Blooboil + Equilibrium

    • A seductively powerful spell combo that tears enemies assunder but also rapidly drains Ceryse's own life force.  

     3253428966?profile=RESIZE_180x180Blood Aura – Blood Revel + Wassail + Empathic Agony

    •  Ceryse's Blood Magic is so potent it harms any nearby. 

     

    3253480466?profile=RESIZE_180x180Death Hex – Welling Blood + Blood Brand

    •  Cursing her target with a powerful hex Ceryse, ensures her foes will fall swifly in a bloody explosion of gore. 

     

    3253500313?profile=RESIZE_180x180Bloody Grasp – Mage Grip + Blood Boil or Malsiver’s Gauntlet + Blood Boil

    •  Enemies are held helplessly in a Deathgrip while Ceryse boils the blood in their veins. 

     

    3253794717?profile=RESIZE_180x180Thrall Plague – Calm + Compelling Whispers, Dream Thrall or Bend Will+ Blood Brand + Blood Scourge

    •  Ceryse enslaves the mind of an enemy or uses one of her thralls. She then imbues them with potent blood magic that will quickly obliterate them and any nearby foes.  

     

    3253737597?profile=RESIZE_180x180Corpse Curse -  Dead Body + Tumble magnet+ Paralyisis Rune + Blood Ankh.

    • Ceryse pulls enemies into the middle of a gravatic surge paralyzing them while a corpse is infected with a potent curse that explodes for high damage. 

     

    3574781138?profile=RESIZE_180x180Deaths Finale - Ring of the Erudite + Tumble Magnet + Blood Garden + Curtain Call

    • Ceryse tears her enemies  into a vortex and corrupts them with an intense surge of Blood Magic, slaying them violently. 

     

    3253474628?profile=RESIZE_180x180Reign in Blood – Ultimate Power + Blood Revel + Dual Cast Blood Boil

    • Tapping into the very darkest depths of her vampiric blood, Ceryse unleashes a devastating torrent of unbriddled blood magic.

     

    3570200409?profile=RESIZE_710x3253929527?profile=RESIZE_180x180Maelstrom of Chaos – Tumble Magnet + Frenzy+ AOE spell

    •  Enemies are torn toward the centre of a gravatic maelstrom and are infected with mind bending blood magic, that forces them to fight one another. They are also left open to number of AOE spells like Blood Garden or Blood Scourge.  

    3253689470?profile=RESIZE_180x180Telekinetic Barrier – Ocatos Recital (Loaded with Flesh Spell, Resurgence and Whirlwind Cloak).

    • A powerful barrier envelopes Ceryse against incoming damage, and even has a chance of sending foes reeling.  

    3254000306?profile=RESIZE_180x180Winters Ruin – Frost Runes (Ancient Seals) + Mage Grip

    • Ceryse rips an enemy across several frost runes and holds them while they ravaged by the bitter cold. 

    3574857748?profile=RESIZE_180x180Blood Pact - Knowledge is Power + Conjure Dremora Lord or Wrathman

    • Through the art of a dark ritual Ceryse is able to call upon a denizen of Oblivion to aid her in battle once a day.

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    Gameplay:

    Taking direct inspiration from Dragon Age's Force and Blood Magic specializations, Ceryse is capable of of a myriad of devastatingly effective spell combinations, making her a true force to be reckoned with. Adept at crowd control, sustained damage and a slew of mitigating debuffs there is rarely a situation that her magic cannot handle. Able to easily switch between dealing heavy amounts damage and locking enemies down, her repertoire of skills makes for an exciting gameplay experience with a multitude of approaches to different combat scenarios. 

    3499032006?profile=RESIZE_710xFueled by Blood: 

    With the inclusion of the Haemomancy spells from Sacrosanct and several spells from Apocalypse and the base game there are plenty of Blood Magic themed spells for Ceryse to play with. 

    At its heart there are four very essential spells and powers that make this build work. EquilibriumEmpathic Agony, Blood Revel and wassail. As you have well guessed by now everything The Sunder Mage is capable of relies on Blood Magic. Ceryse’s mana pool is very low by design, but her Health is extremely high thus she needs to replenish her mana regularly by sacrificing her life force with the use Equilibrium.  Enter - Empathic Agony. With this awesome spell I have made a very effective way of making sure Ceryse’s enemies are always hurting. Empathic Agony is an AOE expert level Illusion spell added by Apocalypse. When cast on a target it will ensure that 40% of any damage felt by the caster is reflected back at the target. This is where the use Equilibruium and the power of Blood Revel to activate Wassail comes in handy, as they will act as a constant health drain on enemies so as long they are under the effect of Empathic Agony.Making this an extremely effective way to make the most out of Equilibrium's and Wassail's self harming effects.

    But the power of Blood Magic does not stop there. With the many buffs to Restoration, the “Arcane Thesis” perk, Blood Revel and the “Ultimate Power” power from the Mage Stone; Ceryse is capable of pushing her Blood Boil spell to the extreme. When the spell is dual cast it has the potential of reaching numbers that exceed more than 600 DPS and boasts an extremely wide area of effect. It is worth noting that this is only sustainable once a day and for a short period due to her low mana pool, though most things will have well and truly perished by then. 

    A note on the Equilibrium spell. If you have Console Commands or the Cheat Room mod it is highly recommended that you add this spell to your knowledge as soon as possible. Failing that, prioritize doing the College of Winterholds questline as early as possible so that you can obtain the spell from within Labyrinthian.

    The Force Unleashed: 

    The true capability of Telekinetic Force is fully realised and explored with this builds plethora of ways to slow, stagger, stun and send enemies flying in surges of raw telekinetic power. Ceryse has tapped into a truly unmatched and dark side of Force Magic that many mages only dream of weilding. With spells and shouts like Mage Grip, Tumble Magnet, Unrelenting Force and King’s Bane, Ceryse can rip foes off their feet with a powerful force choke, group them together to set up extremely effective and devastating combos or cast them aside like dust in the wind.

    Complete Control: 

    Illusion magic and enchantments offer Ceryse the abilty to enrapture, terrorize or utterly unhinge her adversaries. She is capable of enthralling her targets to fight for her, turning foes on each other creating a psychic blood bond that ensures any pain she feels they do too. This school of magic ensures she remains in complete control of the battlefield at all times. 

    3175660189?profile=RESIZE_710xCombat:

    • Initiating Combat: Whenever entering combat “Telekinetic Barrier” will automatically activate granting Ceryse an instant buff. When facing a large group, it is optimal to open with casting Maelstrom of Chaos followed up by “Dark Sustenance” or “Hemorrhage”. If the group is full of particularly high-level adversaries “Deaths Finale” is preferential. Singular tough enemies are perfect targets for the “Thrall Plague” ability when they are backed by weaker allies. Lone enemies are prime targets for “Bloody Grasp”, Winters Ruin or “Death Hex”.
    • Melee Enemies: Melee enemies are among the easiest for Ceryse to deal with. She has a number of very useful spells and abilities to ensure that they never get close enough to swing a blade at her. Try to group these types together or frenzy them they will fall quick and easy to any of Ceryse’s many talents.
    • Magic Users/Dragons: With Ceryse’s high resistance to elemental damage Mages are seldom too much of an issue apart from Lightning Wielders. When facing such foes paralysis, fear and calm spells and the “Bloody Grasp” ability are quite useful at disabling them. When against dragons Ceryse can stand before most of their frost and Fire attacks and can engage them openly with powerful Hemomancy spells making the most of “Vicissitude’s” bonus and a liberal use of the Become Ethereal shout.

    • Archers: Archers pose a relative hassle, though can be dealt with easily. Abilities like “Winters Ruin” and “Death Hex” are Perfect for taking them out of the picture.

    • Dwemer Automatons: Dwemer machines are among the toughest bunch for Ceryse to deal with at low levels with many of her skills useless against them until later. It is advised to get the “Blood from a Stone” and “Master of the Mind” perks as soon as possible to overcome this weakness. Once these skills have been acquired they can be dealt with like most ranged or melee opponents.

    Gameplay Videos:

    Below I have two gameplay videos for you to view at your leisure. They show a fair bit but not all of what this character is capable of. Watch and Enjoy. 



     

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     3175600788?profile=RESIZE_710xEarly Game Gear:

    • Black Mage Robes - Simple robes found commonly in mage camps.
    • Ring of Fortify Restoration/Destruction/Alteration or Illusion - An easy to find trinket, found as loot or purchased from Radiant Raiment.
    • Amulet of Resist fire - An essential enchantment to have early game, it is easily found as loot or is purchaseable from merchants.

    Mid to End Game Gear:

    • Sunder Mage Robes (Enchanted) -  Necromage Robes enchanted with; Deep Breath (X % chance to reduce shout cool down to 3 seconds), and Fortify Health Regeneration.
    • Sunder Mage Gloves (Enchanted) - Necromage Gloves enchented with; Fortify Illusion and Destruction.
    • Sunder Mage Boots (Enchanted) - Necromage boots enchanted with; Fortify Health Regeneration and Illusion
    • Life Drinker (Enchanted) - Yennefer's Amulet Enchanted with; Fortify Restoration and Fortify Health Regeneration.
    • Sanguine Circlet - Gold Ruby Circlet enchanted with; Fortify Alteration and Health Regeneration.
    • Blood Ring (Enchanted) -  Bone Hawk Ring enchanted with; Fortify Restoration and Influence: Fear (Enemies within X distance have a chance to flee in terror), or...
    • Ring of the Erudite - A powerful vampiric trinket which greatly augments magicka and magic regenerarion, or...
    •  Ring of the Beast - An ancient vampiric artifact that raises health by 100 points.   

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    3570304789?profile=RESIZE_710xFind All Standing StonesThe Standing Stones of Skyrim are said to contain ancient and powerful magic. And ancient and powerful magic is undoubtably something The Vampyrum Order is interested in. Find them all. 

    Dawnguard (Volkihar): Ceryse’s main reason for coming to the Northern province. Harkon’s foolish blundering is putting vampire existence at risk. Infiltrate and assimilate into his court to put an end to his idiocy once and for all. 

    Hunt down Feral Vampires: By quelling the feral scum that hide in caves and ruins, Ceryse can assert The Orders supremacy over these lesser “creatures”. 

    Thane Quests: No stranger to courtly intrigue, Ceryse will gain the trust of those in power, coveting their knowledge and secrets for the betterment of The Order. 

    College of Winterhold: The mages of Skyrim harbour many intriguing curiosities from the arcane to the mundane. Ceryse “enrols” under the guise of a “Novice” to seek out what the college is hiding within its walls.

    Civil War (Imperial) - A Stormcloak victory is ill advised, and should be avoided at all costs. The Order has considerable influence and sway within The Imperial Legion, see that they win this war no matter the cost. 

    House of Horrors: As the patron father to all vampires, Ceryse will gladly aid Molag Bal in his desire. 

    Main Quest (At least to Diplomatic Immunity): Ceryse finds herself caught up in an ancient and terrible prophecy. As fate would have it, it’s up to her - a vampire to save Nirn from imminent doom. 

    Quests for Master Neloth: The old wizard of House Telvani knows many things, aiding him with some of his research may prove to be mutually beneficial. 

    Destroy the Dark Brotherhood: The Order has heard whispers that there is someone attempting to get the Dark Brotherhood to take a contract on the Emperor. The emperor’s death would bring too much instability to Cyrodiil, see that he lives. To get the brotherhoods attention all that stands in Ceryse’s way is an old hag. Kill her and the Brotherhood will soon reveal itself from the shadows, allowing Ceryse to strike the head off of the snake. 

    Bards College: The Bards out of Solitude are known for their silver tongues and quick wits. Ceryse joins to see if there is a thing or two she might be able to garner from the colleges library. 

    Black Books: There are rumoured to be several ancient tomes of eldritch power hidden away on the Island of Solstheim. Acquire their knowledge for the glory of The Order.  

    A Daedra's Best Friend: As Clavicus Vile is a patron of The Vampyrum Order Ceryse will aid Barbus in returning to his side.  

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    Thank You:

    Firstly, I’d like to thank Lee and Kendrix for being awesome sounding boards throughout Ceryse’s journey I couldn’t have got here without you guys. A big thanks to Curse for designing the awesome “More Builds” banner and providing some great feed back throughout the making of this character. And thanks to everyone else who lent an ear or a word of wisdom, there truly are more than a few of you and you all have my sincere grattitude.

    I’d like to state that the art used is not my own (Except for screen shots). Much of it was sourced from Pinterest. So, any accolades should be given to the respective authors of said art.

    Lastly thanks to you reader. I sincerely hope you enjoyed the Sunder Mage. This won’t be the last you see of Ceryse so keep your eyes peeled!

    If you enjoyed the Sunder Mage I have more builds, just follow the banner below.

    Thanks again guys   - Furrion

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  • November 14, 2019

    Why is the build in two parts?

  • Member
    November 14, 2019

    @Paladin G - Character limit. Have no choice but to split it :( had to do the Same for Witch Arrow and Reaver too. My builds are just to big I geuss lol :D

  • November 15, 2019

    Hey mate, sorry for the delay with my response, I'd had an initial delay because I wanted to go over the build in more detail and really analyse my thoughts but then completely forgot to post it last night.

    I wanted to start off by just saying that I think it's pretty great on just about every level. I just really enjoy the build on a personal level, it's my sort of thing with Vampires, Blood Magic and being really well detailed. I also love the artwork, think it's visually really stunning and it flows in a really nice way. Personally, it's exactly the sort of build that I enjoy reading. This is where I always get, because my...I suppose recommendation/critique looks longer because I have more to say about it despite personally rating this build around a 9/10 because I just really enjoy what's here.

    I think, there is however something to be said that it could be a little too busy to really work effectively as a build.  I've had the benefit of chatting with you throughout the process of creating the character, seeing it in smaller snippets and slowly gaining an understanding of how the character works but I think for someone just jumping into it now there could be complications in understanding how those elements blend together. You have to balance Shouts, Frost Magic, Blood Magic, Illusion, Conjuration, a number of different automatic casting options, an immense number of spells that are designed to be required for the build, Powers, Perks, new and interesting enchantments.  It's just a lot to bring together for a single build, and I think it's fair to consider the idea of whether the core elements would work without some of those elements. Is there a huge difference between how the build functions if you dropped Enchanting and Speech? I like the inclusion of Speech as a roleplaying element to express her natural Charisma (for lack of a better term) but then it's adding another element to the build that I'm not sure it needs. Frost Magic is the same, really fucking cool and I love the combination of Frost and Vampires 100% of the time (personally) but does it add that much to the build. 

    I look at the build and think that part of the reason it's so long is that you have to spend a long time explaining rather minute parts of the build (the section on equipment or the spell list are great examples of a lot of room being taken up by very little) and it still leaves some sections feeling a little underdeveloped. Personally, I think the Combat section could have been larger and more descriptive, you tend to boil things down to 'Use this Special Ability' and the abilities aren't really descriptive of the gameplay. So if I'm approaching this as someone who hadn't seen the build today, or wasn't already aware of 95% of the mods used in it, I think it would be incredibly confusing and take me...at least a few hours to really work out how the build works. I'd love it once I've accomplished that, no doubt about it, but it's complex and I think maybe that takes away from the quality of the build.

    It's difficult to properly phrase a lot of this, because I love your style of building and have enjoyed all of your builds on a personal level, but that's...you know just my personal take on the build rather than examining whether it can be improved or not. What I think might be interesting, is to see you approach a build with a narrow focus, like just making a Pyromancer that focuses on maximising the potential of that single line of perks. I think, your natural style would make that one of the most interesting builds ever put together, and it'd just be...awesome and what it is you know?

    Hope at least it's all something to consider and think about, as I said it's sort of weird for me to approach it from this angle because if I were just leaving my opinion it'd be that first real paragraph and I'd end it there. 

  • Member
    November 28, 2019
    Sorry for the late reply Furrion. Work and real life conspired with each other to make everything as difficult as possible for me up until the last couple of days. I really like what you've done here, the themes and character stand out at a single glance thanks to the presentation and art choices wrapped together in your accustomed style. Even without the backstory it works really nicely. Usually I have a slight distaste for vampires and I tend to struggle in any playthrough in which I get it in my head to explore them. However, the mods you've used look very intriguing and the build itself appears pretty unique, using those mods and skills cleverly and in keeping with the seduction and sexiness present in the concept. My only criticism is minor, and that is to say I think you could afford to cut a lot out. For example, stuff like the racial modifiers and standing stone details are familiar enough that it seems a waste of words and space to describe it all. Sometimes less is more, you know? Making it more compact has the advantage in that anyone who isn't familiar with those mods could have maybe asked for more detail and help keep the build more visible through interaction and feedback. Overall, though, that's a minor personal preference to attempt to say less and infer more. I don't think it harms the build, and it's clearly a labour of love that speaks of a deep immersion and love of the character. Nice work dude!
  • Member
    July 20, 2020
    Thank you so much for presenting this build. I was looking for a build to pilot most of what Sacrosanct had to offer. I started as an assassin and got side railed by all the vamp stuff you get. What difficulty did you play on? I don't use the thunderchild mod, any replacements in enchanted gear? I have to agree with the frost magic, I have seen your 2 vids and I think you might have used it once? Doesnt seem to being doing a lot other than as a perk filler. Are you going to try a melee vampire(lord) build? Would love to check it out