So, I've been a long time guest of this blog; I've pulled many ideas from many builds I've seen here. However, I'd finally like to introduce one of my own. It's fairly generic compared to many of the builds found here, but using it is pretty fun. Without further ado, meet the Mercenary:
The Mercenary
The idea of The Mercenary is a quick moving, lightly armored warrior who doesn't fight fair. To this end, he moves deftly around the battlefield - parrying blows, dodging attacks, and utilizing poisons and DoT effects. This build is roughly based on Bronn from Game of Thrones. The scene in which Bronn fights Ser Vardis, we see Bronn moving quickly and utilizing his environment and speed to defeat a well armored and (assumedly) more experienced fighter (Watch the clip here: Bronn Vs. Vardis).
Race: Orc, Imperial, Argonian, Khajiit, Dunmer, Nord, Redguard (Really any - all races will have Mercs, but these races seem to "fit" with the idea of a Merc well).
Stone: Serpent (for paralyze), The Lady (for regen), or The Lord (for defense).
Major Skills: Block, Light Armor, One-Handed, Alchemy
Minor Skills: Smithing, Speech, Sneak, Pickpocket
Weapons: Waraxes (for bleeding) and light shields (or Targe of the Blooded) - preferably with frost enchantments to drain stamina.
Armor: Any light armor
Shouts: Disarm, Marked for Death, Slow Time, Whirlwind Sprint
Essential Quests: The Companions and any quests you deem worthy of the rewards - you're a Merc after all.
The Build
In combat,this build is all about avoiding as much damage as possible while hitting hard and leaving your enemies feeling the effects of your attacks (Stamina drains, poisons, and bleeding).
Your defense is in your speed. You should never be standing still in combat or going toe to toe with other warriors. You should be strafing, popping in and out of range to deliver blows, and weaving when approaching archers and mages. When your speed fails you, you will have to fall back on parrying attacks (Blocking). Your skill with parrying serves you well. It allows you to charge enemies to knock them down, disarm them, and give you a moment of clarity while they prepare a powerful attack.
Smart use of your skills in block, various poisons, shouts, and backward power attacks actually give this build some decent (if below average) Crowd Control (CC) abilities.
Your skill in alchemy provides a boost to your defense, to your offense, and serves as your main mode of healing.
Staffs and scrolls are not out of the question for the Mercenary. You will use whatever will give you an advantage during combat - you are not interested in "honor", you are interested in survival and getting paid.
Outside of battle, you're as self sufficient as possible and well liked. During your travels, you've picked up a few things about trading, you know how to ingratiate yourself with the local law enforcement, and you're able to maintain your own armor, to a certain degree. You're not evil, but you have no qualms taking what you want or need from the unsuspecting and the innocent.
Note. Hack and Slash (3/3)
Magic/Health/Stamina: 0/1/1
Level 60 perk spread
Special Moves
Poisoned Riposte:
The Mercenary experiences a moment of clarity while getting ready to parry a powerful attack. He maneuvers behind his opponent while gashing the enemy with his poisoned axe before he backs off and lets the gash and poison take their effects on the enemy. Quick Reflexes + Hack and Slash + Lingering Damage Health Poison.
Concussive Charge:
The Mercenary lowers his shield and charges with such force that it knocks his opponent to the ground. During the charge, the mercenary bashes his shield into his opponent's head to cause confusion - the opponent becomes so confused that when he gets up, he attacks his allies for a moment while the Mercenary backs off. Shield Charge + Frenzy Poison (hit them with this while they're on the ground before retreating).
Disarm and Disorient:
The Mercenary disarms his opponent with a parry, knocks him down with his shield, and delivers a blow to his helmet that renders the opponent disoriented for several seconds. Disarming Bash + Shield Charge + Paralyzing Strike.
Shield Onslaught:
The Mercenary, injured and angry, unleashes a barrage of defensive, but ferocious, shield bashes that stagger the opponent. This allows the Mercenary a little time to rejuvenate and compose himself. Power Bash + Regenerate Stamina Potion + Regenerate health potion (This is even better if you're using the Lady stone and you have Windwalker).
Useful Potions
A few very powerful and very useful potions and poisons for this build:
Effects: PARALYSIS, LINGERING DAMAGE HEALTH
Ingredients: Imp Stool · Canis Root · Mora Tapinella
Effects: SLOW, DAMAGE HEALTH, RAVAGE STAMINA
Ingredients: River Betty · Deathbell · Thistle Branch (or Bone Meal, Bee or Honeycomb)
Effects: FRENZY, DAMAGE STAMINA
Ingredients: Blisterwort · Fly Amanita · Blue Butterfly Wing (or Cyrodilic Spadetail, Spider Egg)
Effects: FRENZY, DAMAGE HEALTH
Ingredients: Troll Fat · Blisterwort · Red Mountain Flower (or Skeever Tail, Nightshade, Small Antlers, Ectoplasm, Deathbell, River Betty).
Effects: RESTORE HEALTH, FORTIFY HEALTH
Ingredients: Wheat · Blue Mountain Flower
Effects: FORTIFY LIGHT ARMOR, REGENERATE HEALTH
Ingredients: Skeever Tail · Luna Moth Wing · Garlic
Effects: FORTIFY ONE-HANDED, FORTIFY HEALTH
Ingredients: Hanging Moss · Hawk Feathers · Glowing Mushroom (or Giant's Toe)
Hybridization
This build is highly specialized, but the best part about it is that points can be taken from several different places to allow you to hybridize this build.
Want to utilize illusion to make your fights even more unfair? Illusion Merc: Magic/Health/Stamina: 1/3/2
Want a more Stealth heavy Merc that utilizes sneak attacks and pickpocketing to skew the odds in his/her favor before the battle begins? Stealthy Merc: Same Magic/Health/Stamina as original.
The beauty is in the customization - play the Mercenary how you want!
Summary of playstyle and recommendations
This build is great for those who like the fast paced combat of Skyrim, but don't want to be slow, plodding, honorable warriors. In combat, You have speed, access to powerful alchemical potions and poisons, and some decent CC abilities. Outside of combat, you can smith your own advanced armor, talk your way out of tight situations (or into some money), and you have limited stealth abilities. This build is recommended for (at least) expert if not master difficulty - it has not been tested on legendary. The extra damage coming from enemies will really make dodging, avoiding damage, and fighting unfairly an integral part of this build (as it should be). Overall, this build makes for a fun, tactical, and challenging melee playthrough of skyrim that feels fairly unique.
If you decide play this build and want to maintain a modicum of a challenge, DO NOT abuse smithing and alchemy. Using both together will allow you to craft some ridiculous gear and you'll be able to blow through just about every enemy with ease.
The Mercenary
So, I've been a long time guest of this blog; I've pulled many ideas from many builds I've seen here. However, I'd finally like to introduce one of my own. It's fairly generic compared to many of the builds found here, but using it is pretty fun. Without further ado, meet the Mercenary:
The Mercenary
The idea of The Mercenary is a quick moving, lightly armored warrior who doesn't fight fair. To this end, he moves deftly around the battlefield - parrying blows, dodging attacks, and utilizing poisons and DoT effects. This build is roughly based on Bronn from Game of Thrones. The scene in which Bronn fights Ser Vardis, we see Bronn moving quickly and utilizing his environment and speed to defeat a well armored and (assumedly) more experienced fighter (Watch the clip here: Bronn Vs. Vardis).
Race: Orc, Imperial, Argonian, Khajiit, Dunmer, Nord, Redguard (Really any - all races will have Mercs, but these races seem to "fit" with the idea of a Merc well).
Stone: Serpent (for paralyze), The Lady (for regen), or The Lord (for defense).
Major Skills: Block, Light Armor, One-Handed, Alchemy
Minor Skills: Smithing, Speech, Sneak, Pickpocket
Weapons: Waraxes (for bleeding) and light shields (or Targe of the Blooded) - preferably with frost enchantments to drain stamina.
Armor: Any light armor
Shouts: Disarm, Marked for Death, Slow Time, Whirlwind Sprint
Essential Quests: The Companions and any quests you deem worthy of the rewards - you're a Merc after all.
The Build
In combat,this build is all about avoiding as much damage as possible while hitting hard and leaving your enemies feeling the effects of your attacks (Stamina drains, poisons, and bleeding).
Your defense is in your speed. You should never be standing still in combat or going toe to toe with other warriors. You should be strafing, popping in and out of range to deliver blows, and weaving when approaching archers and mages. When your speed fails you, you will have to fall back on parrying attacks (Blocking). Your skill with parrying serves you well. It allows you to charge enemies to knock them down, disarm them, and give you a moment of clarity while they prepare a powerful attack.
Smart use of your skills in block, various poisons, shouts, and backward power attacks actually give this build some decent (if below average) Crowd Control (CC) abilities.
Your skill in alchemy provides a boost to your defense, to your offense, and serves as your main mode of healing.
Staffs and scrolls are not out of the question for the Mercenary. You will use whatever will give you an advantage during combat - you are not interested in "honor", you are interested in survival and getting paid.
Outside of battle, you're as self sufficient as possible and well liked. During your travels, you've picked up a few things about trading, you know how to ingratiate yourself with the local law enforcement, and you're able to maintain your own armor, to a certain degree. You're not evil, but you have no qualms taking what you want or need from the unsuspecting and the innocent.
Note. Hack and Slash (3/3)
Magic/Health/Stamina: 0/1/1
Level 60 perk spread
Special Moves
Poisoned Riposte:
The Mercenary experiences a moment of clarity while getting ready to parry a powerful attack. He maneuvers behind his opponent while gashing the enemy with his poisoned axe before he backs off and lets the gash and poison take their effects on the enemy. Quick Reflexes + Hack and Slash + Lingering Damage Health Poison.
Concussive Charge:
The Mercenary lowers his shield and charges with such force that it knocks his opponent to the ground. During the charge, the mercenary bashes his shield into his opponent's head to cause confusion - the opponent becomes so confused that when he gets up, he attacks his allies for a moment while the Mercenary backs off. Shield Charge + Frenzy Poison (hit them with this while they're on the ground before retreating).
Disarm and Disorient:
The Mercenary disarms his opponent with a parry, knocks him down with his shield, and delivers a blow to his helmet that renders the opponent disoriented for several seconds. Disarming Bash + Shield Charge + Paralyzing Strike.
Shield Onslaught:
The Mercenary, injured and angry, unleashes a barrage of defensive, but ferocious, shield bashes that stagger the opponent. This allows the Mercenary a little time to rejuvenate and compose himself. Power Bash + Regenerate Stamina Potion + Regenerate health potion (This is even better if you're using the Lady stone and you have Windwalker).
Useful Potions
A few very powerful and very useful potions and poisons for this build:
Effects: PARALYSIS, LINGERING DAMAGE HEALTH
Ingredients: Imp Stool · Canis Root · Mora Tapinella
Effects: SLOW, DAMAGE HEALTH, RAVAGE STAMINA
Ingredients: River Betty · Deathbell · Thistle Branch (or Bone Meal, Bee or Honeycomb)
Effects: FRENZY, DAMAGE STAMINA
Ingredients: Blisterwort · Fly Amanita · Blue Butterfly Wing (or Cyrodilic Spadetail, Spider Egg)
Effects: FRENZY, DAMAGE HEALTH
Ingredients: Troll Fat · Blisterwort · Red Mountain Flower (or Skeever Tail, Nightshade, Small Antlers, Ectoplasm, Deathbell, River Betty).
Effects: RESTORE HEALTH, FORTIFY HEALTH
Ingredients: Wheat · Blue Mountain Flower
Effects: FORTIFY LIGHT ARMOR, REGENERATE HEALTH
Ingredients: Skeever Tail · Luna Moth Wing · Garlic
Effects: FORTIFY ONE-HANDED, FORTIFY HEALTH
Ingredients: Hanging Moss · Hawk Feathers · Glowing Mushroom (or Giant's Toe)
Hybridization
This build is highly specialized, but the best part about it is that points can be taken from several different places to allow you to hybridize this build.
Want to utilize illusion to make your fights even more unfair? Illusion Merc: Magic/Health/Stamina: 1/3/2
Want a more Stealth heavy Merc that utilizes sneak attacks and pickpocketing to skew the odds in his/her favor before the battle begins? Stealthy Merc: Same Magic/Health/Stamina as original.
The beauty is in the customization - play the Mercenary how you want!
Summary of playstyle and recommendations
This build is great for those who like the fast paced combat of Skyrim, but don't want to be slow, plodding, honorable warriors. In combat, You have speed, access to powerful alchemical potions and poisons, and some decent CC abilities. Outside of combat, you can smith your own advanced armor, talk your way out of tight situations (or into some money), and you have limited stealth abilities. This build is recommended for (at least) expert if not master difficulty - it has not been tested on legendary. The extra damage coming from enemies will really make dodging, avoiding damage, and fighting unfairly an integral part of this build (as it should be). Overall, this build makes for a fun, tactical, and challenging melee playthrough of skyrim that feels fairly unique.
If you decide play this build and want to maintain a modicum of a challenge, DO NOT abuse smithing and alchemy. Using both together will allow you to craft some ridiculous gear and you'll be able to blow through just about every enemy with ease.
The Mercenary
