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Character Build: The Flux Sentinel

Tags: #Character Build Juggernaut  #Character Build Necromancer  #Character Build Elementalist  #Rank:Recognized 
  • Member
    April 19, 2013

    The Sentinel archetype makes a comeback, with an even greater vengeance against mages. Mason's Sentinel builds are some of my favourites thanks to the Advanced Atronach playstyle, but when I noticed that he had yet to craft a build based on the last element, I decided to take my own swing at the idea by incorporating the underused Steel Plate armour as well as a few other changes to give it a unique flair. Endless thanks to Mason for allowing me to "borrow" his Sentinel archetype for my first build.The Flux Sentinel

    With the Empire losing more and more ground to the Aldmeri Dominion by the day, a top-secret project was undertaken in a last-ditch effort to combat the seemingly unstoppable Thalmor mages.

    Knowledge best left unknown was carelessly used to create a machine the likes of which had never been seen on Tamriel... but it came too late, as the Empire was forced to surrender the war to avoid further waste of life and preserve what little power they retained. The project was abandoned, seemingly unfinished.

    Until the Steel monstrosity came to life of its own volition.

    Race: Unknown

    Stone: Advanced Atronach

    Major Skills: Two-Handed, Heavy Armour, Destruction

    Minor Skills: Conjuration, Block, Smithing

    Weapons: Any Steel variant. Nord Hero for non-DLC, Nordic for DragonBorn users.

    Armour: Full Steel Plate set

    Shouts: Storm Call, Marked For Death, Slow Time, Drain Vitality, Soul Tear (Dragon Aspect with DB DLC)

    The Build

    After playing through Mason's Obsidian Sentinel build and absolutely dominating all of Skyrim, I decided to fiddle with the build slightly. The end result is slightly more challenging for several reasons.

    First, enemy mages are even less of a threat with the emphasis on the lightning destruction spells rather than ice or fire. This can be a bit of a double-edged sword, as depleting your primary source of magicka will leave you with none of your own, especially when paired with the least cost-effective element, but the idea here is that your magicka is even more specialized in its use. You destroy their magicka reserves, then finish off the job with your favourite two-handed weapon of choice. I also think the fact that you are essentially playing as a machine, it makes sense to be powered by electricity and use it as a method of attack. And enemy mages are your batteries.

    This extends to be especially useful against dragons, rendering even the strongest ones unable to use their shouts against you once their magicka is depleted, forcing them to face you in melee combat where you can utterly dominate them.The use of steel plate armour can be a bit problematic in close quarters, as the armour rating is a noticeable amount lower than that of ebony, though still higher than that of dwarven. Combine that with the much slower swing speed of two-handed weapons, which I chose specifically to add to the feel of being more of a machine than a man/mer/beast, and you might find yourself a bit overcome at times on higher difficulties, especially when the numbers start to turn against you.

    This is where conjuration comes into play, being used for the resurrection of enemy mages that you have killed. Thanks to the Advanced Atronach stone, summoning atronachs and bound weapons is impossible, but necromancy is still easily viable. If surrounded by a group of bandits, kill one (preferable a mage) and immediately resurrect them to take the heat of of yourself a bit.

    This build is quite viable for heavy RP; you could be a Sentinel bent on ridding the world of all mages, believing them all guilty of abandoning you at your creation, leading you down a very dark path, or you could opt for a more rational reaction and dedicate your life to merely ridding the world of necromancers.

    How to obtain the "Advanced Atronach"

    Obviously, the atronach stone will not grant you full immunity to enemy spellcasters right off the bat. In order to achieve 100% absorption and fully stunted magicka, we have to exploit the game a bit through stacking the well-known Fortify Restoration Glitch. While the ingredients to do so are immediately available, (with a bit of heavy footing) it's unlikely you'll be able to achieve 100% without some significant alchemy training. Even after putting together 3 stacking potions, at level 1 as an Orc I was only able to boost the effect of the atronach stone by 10 points. It's up to you whether you want to put off any major quests before you powerlevel your alchemy enough to craft a potion of significant strength, or gradually increase the effectiveness of the atronach stone as the game progresses.

    A detailed guide to the Fortify Restoration exploit can be found here, but the basic ingredients you will need are:

    • Abacean Longfin
    • Cyradilic Spadetail
    • White Cap

    With these, you can create a Fortify Restoration potion (first two ingredients) and a Fortify Restoration and Weakness to Frost potion (all ingredients) which will stack together. Simply crafting two Fortify Restoration potions will not stack, since they have the exact same effect.

    Note that while your Active Effects page will always say the base 50 stats of the Atronach stone, you can check the actual amount by looking at your current magicka. 60 extra magicka equals 60% spell absorption and -60% magicka regen.

    If, for whatever reason, you want to negate the stunted magicka growth, you can take the Recovery perks or craft armour with magicka regen abilities.

    Level 25 Perk Placement

    Level 50 Perk Placement

    Stat Placement: 1 Magicka - 2 Health - 1 Stamina

    Two-Handed was chosen in this build over Sword and Board for mostly aesthetic reasons. The slow swing speed and high damage is more reminiscent of a war-machine, and with higher-tier weapons out of our grasp, the higher damage is helpful. I can think of numerous times where I was saved by a random kill-cam that wouldn't have happened with a one-hander.

    Heavy Armour is a skill that will need to be nurtured a bit more than usual considering the relatively lower armour rating of steel plate, but it doesn't become a significant issue until later in the game. Makes sure to get Conditioning the moment it's available, as it will make your travels significantly less tedious. Any enemy warriors wielding Warhammers should always be given the proper respect, as I've learned the hard way.

    Destruction magic is more of a support skill in this build, used almost exclusively against enemy mages, but at higher levels, can deal some serious hurt to your enemies. Augmented shock will power up your Storm Call shout, but its limited usability practically makes it an "ability" all of its own. Disintegrate is always useful, effectively cutting the HP of all enemies by 15%.

    Smithing is not a major issue, as the advanced armours perk takes only 3 perks to reach. Impatient users might find it worthwhile to waste a point in Dwarven Smithing, as Dwarven Bows yield bucketloads of EXP, and you can barely walk through Skyrim without stumbling upon some manner of Dwarven material for smelting.

    Conjuration takes the place of the Sentinel's usual Alchemy and Restoration perks in order to enact the Flux Sentinel's revenge on mages with no respect for the power they wield. This is mostly an RP skill in my head, I pass it off as less magic so much as using technology to turn the dead into bodies that can fight for their new master. Once you Master the spell, Dead Thrall and Twin Souls gives you two permanent extra followers, and possibly more if you give your corpses summoning staves, eventually leading your own undead/cybernetic army if you so choose. Have fun choosing your victims, and make your humiliation of them complete.

    Block is a super minor skill that I invested in after all my other skills were near completion, mostly for the quick reflexes and disarm bash. It's nothing more than a bit of extra survival against your only real threat in Skyrim. If you feel this is unnecessary, it's easy enough to replace these perks and a few extraneous ones from other trees to max out enchanting, but then you run the risk of becoming overpowered.

    Arms And Armour

    The Flux Sentinel only has to fear from melee enemies, so to maximize his effectiveness, we'll be using the following setup:

    It's all-fairly self-explanatory; the Fortify Health Regen makes the character significantly less squishy in drawn-out encounters, the Fortify Stamina Regen allows more power attacks, which is very helpful with two-handers, and the Fortify Two-Hander gives our swings a little extra oomph. The Destruction cost reduction can help keep our lightning going a little longer after our energy supply has disappeared, and increases the number of charges in our weapons, but it can easily be replaced with something like the Masque of Clavicus Vile if you so desire. Just make sure the face is always covered; you are nobody underneath.

    Abilities

    Lightning Storm: Call upon the forces of nature to utterly decimate any mage foolish enough to confront you. (Storm Call + Lightning Cloak + Lightning Storm)

    The horse soon died of exhaustion from carrying a machine on its back...

  • April 19, 2013
    I was a little worried when I read the title... But I am glad I read on.
  • April 19, 2013
    Isn't this cheating? lol I was thinking of that same combo (necromancy+Advanced Atronach) but I like the Dawnguard summons.
  • April 19, 2013
    Mason allowed it
  • Member
    April 19, 2013

    This came out great man!

  • April 19, 2013

    LOL, I thought he just wanted to borrow the name not copy the build and chuck in necromancy...

    It's very good though (naturally)!

  • April 19, 2013
    I just hope this doesn't start a revolution of Build copies
  • April 19, 2013
    Waiting for the "Brothers of Order" lol. It's ok, mason liked it himself so he obviously doesn't mind... Though I wouldn't try to do this a lot
  • April 19, 2013
    Anyways it's still effective, nice presentation and well written +1
  • Member
    April 19, 2013

    I realize it's a bit overzealous in its borrowing from Mason's builds, but I can assure you that while the archetype is the same, it plays quite a bit differently when it comes to non-mage enemies. In any case, this was really more a study into presentation as much as creation, so I'll not be borrowing as much in the future. Thanks to everyone who's liked it so far!