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Event Build: The Glenmoril Witch

Tags: #Character Build Mage  #Character Build Summoner  #Character Build Vampire  #Rank:Event Exemplar  #Event:Factions  #poison  #Glenmoril  #Spider Scroll  #Witch 
  • Member
    May 18, 2014

    Require Dawnguard and Dragonborn)

    My Zurin Arctus was an imposing, regal Destruction mage whose power comes from within. This build is also a magic user, but it is neither a mage, nor a wizard, nor a sorcerer for that matter. The Witch, unlike other more formal and conventional magic-using classes, borrows many of her powers from external sources, be it a Daedric Prince, some natural ingredients or feral animals. Wanting to create a refreshing character that makes use of a selection of different game mechanics, I have been working on a Witch who is an alchemist come necromancer come spider-scrolls-users come vampire lord and so much more.

    All and there is a little back story too! Hope you’ll enjoy it!

    The Glenmoril Apprentice

    The Wyrd

    The Glenmoril Wyrd is a witch coven present in many provinces of Tamriel, most notably in High Rock, home of the Bretons. Witches of this coven have shown themselves once and again to the heroes of Tamriel through the ages, either as valuable allies or foes of immense power.

    They are known for their worship of the Daedric Prince Hircine, Lord of the Hunt. Perhaps, it is this infernal bond that granted them the knowledge of curing Lycanthropy and Vampirism. Many of the members are vampires, formidable enough to rival their counterparts in the Cyrodiil Vampyrum Order. One of their most respected, and feared, ability is the power of polymorphism. Some Glenmoril witches have been known to assume the shape of a great raven.

    A mission to Skyrim

    Witch of the Wild (Convenient Horses with Horse Armor mod)

     

    In the chaotic aftermath of the Oblivion Crisis and the Great War, the politics and security of the Empire’s capital province had never been so unstable. The Cyrodiil Vampyrum Order exploited this opportunity to enthrall cutthroats and assassins en masse. These mindless henchmen were then sent throughout Tamriel, with the guidance of the vampire masters, to root out the enemy of the order. Faced with such pressure, the Glenmoril Coven of Ilessan Hills decided that they needed to seek help and knowledge from outside. Hearing rumors of the powerful Volkihar vampire clan in Skyrim, who can transform into fearsome vampire lords, the coven dispatched one of its most respected head witch and her apprentice on an emissary mission to the home of the Nords.

    Although newly initiated, you have been with your master for quite some time. She found you abandoned in the woods, and saved your life from the beasts of the wild. Seventeen years spent on herb-gathering trips and undead-resurrecting lessons with her, you have grown into a young woman of power and ambition and she into your mother or what you can ever hope to get out of one. But before you could receive the gift of vampirism and higher magic from your fellow sisters, your master was summoned by the other head witches. Quickly departed in a haste to preserve the order, your training was postponed until a later day.

    A few months had passed since you last laid eyes on the Illiac Bay. The sun was setting and soon, your shift would be over. A powerful vampire, your master had to avoid the scorching sun light, and so you took the responsibility to man the carriage during day time. As the carriage was halting to an end, you turned around to wake your master up, only to see two shadows emerging from either sides of the carriage. Your lips reacted faster than your brain could think, mumbling words into a stream of fire pouring out from your hands. However, the enemy proved superior and quickly neutralized your magic with a ward. A smirked ran through his face as the taller assassin pulled out the hand crossbows from underneath his cloaks. Had it been a second later, the bolt would have pierced through your forehead, into your brain, and out of it with all of your memories about this life. But your master was there before it could happen, using her own body to block the bolt while her hands quickly readied the pair of daggers hidden in her boots.

    Before you could unleash your magic on the enemy, your master words echoed through the halls of your consciousness, ordering you to flee. Despite your pitiful resistance, her command – that of a thousand-year old vampire – was just too dominating. Your feet rebelled against your affection, carrying you far, towards the frozen border of Skyrim, into the ominous unknown. The last thing ringing in your head was your master’s reminder of the unfinished mission: “contacting the Volkihar and learn their secret”.

    Build Overview

     

    Gender: female. This faction is strongly feminist.

     

    Race: Breton for roleplaying reason as well as their wonderful racial abilities and skill bonuses.

     

    Stats Distribution: 4 Magicka : 1 Health

     

    Major Skills: Illusion, Conjuration, Alchemy

     

    Minor Skills: Restoration, Light Armor

     

    Leveling Skill: Speech (some One-handed)

     

    Shouts and Powers: Soul Tear, Become Ethereal.

     

    Weapons (end game): Staff of Icy Spear, Bound Dagger

     

    Apparel (end game): Savior’s Hide, Dukaan, Predator’s Grace, Forsworn Gauntlets, Ring of the Beast, Ring of the Erudite, Galdur’s Amulet or Savos Aren’s Amulet

     

    Other items: Black Azura Star, Spider Scrolls

     

    Stone: Mage to level up (Thief for some skills if necessary) then Lord for more protection.

     

    Perking: http://skyrimcalculator.com/370698

     

    Your bag of tricks

     

    This section lists out in details what item/buffs/perks/spells you need to get for your character.

     

     

    Magic Immunity

     

    The Glenmoril Witch has a vast understanding of Magic and, therefore, is able to negate most of the effect of spells

     

    • The Lord Stone: 25% magic resistance
    • Breton racial ability: 25% magic resistance
    • Savior’s Hide: 15% magic resistance
    • Agent of Mara: 15% magic resistance (complete the quest at Temple of Mara in Riften)
    • Blessing of Azura: 10% magic resistance (found in Tribunal Temple in Solstheim)

     

    Although Necromage helps, it is advisable to take as many of these buffs as you can because your weakness to fire will also be augmented by Necromage.

    Spider Army

     

     

    Queen of Spiders

     

    Spider scroll is a new feature available in the Dragonborn DLC. They function like scrolls and can be dual wielded. To get them, go to White Ridge Barrow in Solstheim and explore!

     

    For starters, there are four types of spider scrolls (more info here: http://elderscrolls.wikia.com/wiki/Spider_Scrolls)

     

    • Cloaked: Rather durable spiders which carry the effect of cloaking spell (Flame, Frost, Poison, Shock) and damage nearby enemies.
    • Exploding: elemental explosions when enemies get close.
    • Jumping: like exploding spiders but they jump to their targets.
    • Utility: the most important one for combat is the Mind Control Spider

     

    According to my experience, Jumping Spiders are rather unreliable in their targeting and since they do the same thing as Exploding spiders, it is better to use Exploding spiders and do the targeting yourself.

     

    Cloaked spiders are useful especially when you can surround the enemies and weaken them with weakness to elements poisons (more on this later)

     

    The Mind Control Spider is extremely powerful as it allows you to control enemies regardless of your level and their level. It is slightly better than the Frenzy spell since these enemies won’t fight you for the time period (30s).

     

    So, you will tend to open combat with a full army of cloaked spider (6 is the maximum). The choice of elements here depends on the nature of the enemy. Once in combat, you will identify the heaviest damage dealer or the tankiest enemy to control him/her with the Mind Control Spider. Exploding spiders are used to specifically deal damage to some enemies, though you won’t see them in action as often as the other two types of spiders.

     

    Poisons

     

    The most useful type of poison for this build is weakness to element poison, used in combination with spider scrolls.

     

    • Weakness to Poison (easy to craft)
    • Unholy Trinity: Weakness to Fire + Weakness to Frost + Weakness to Poison. Ingredients:Abecean Longfin, Bleeding Crown, Ice Wraith Teeth
    • Arcane Tear: Damage Magicka + Weakness to Shock + Weakness to Poison. Ingredients: Chaurus Eggs + Giant Lichen + Hagraven Feathers

     

    Weakness to poison is useful in two folds: increase the potency of the next poison applied and increase the damage of poison element. You can use this well in combination with your Poison spiders as well as with Poison Rune, the only non-undead damaging spell of the Restoration tree. Therefore, apply the simply Weakness to Poison first before you apply the other two poisons.

     

    The Hircine Disciple

     

    The Glenmoril Coven is known for their affiliation with the Daedric Prince Hircine. As a result, I want this character to express this devotion as much as possible. This is why the Savior’s Hide is chosen as her apparel, despite its lacking stats and enchantment. Another interesting artifact that is sometimes linked to Hircine is the Spear of Bitter Mercy, whose effect is to reflect spell damage and summon Storm Atronachs.  These effects are mirrored as followed:

     

    • Full magic resistance (see above)
    • Using the Staff of Icy Spear as the weapon of replacement (use the Staff Enchanter in Solstheim)
    • Summon Storm Atronachs/Thralls

     

     

     

    Full Elemental Coverage

     

    All of these factors, when combined, lead to the character’s having a full elemental coverage  despite not spending a point in the Destruction tree:

     

    • Fire: Flame Spiders (Cloaked, Exploding)
    • Storm: Storm atronachs/thralls + Storm Spiders
    • Frost: Dukaan + Necromage + Staff of Icy Spear + Frost Spiders
    • Poison: Poison Rune + Poison Spider

     

    The witch becomes extremely flexible and versatile as a result, capable of taking on almost any kind of enemy, regardless of their resistances.

     

     

    Vampire Lord Double Ring

     

    I leave the discussion of whether or not this is cheating to you.

     

    The idea is that you will use an exploit to equip both the Ring of the Beast and the Ring of the Erudite. Together, they will give you 100 Health and 100 Magicka, faster Magicka regeneration and higher claw damage. Since we have chosen not to take Enchanting, and Alternation, as well as to equip mediocre armor like Savior’s Hide for lore-friendly reason, this little exploit will help boost the character’s survivability without compromising her ability to cast spell. Lore-wise, since the Glenmoril witches are powerful vampire, it is only reasonable to assume that they can find some ways to overcome this restriction and wield both vampiric artifacts.

     

     To do this, follow the following steps (adapted from here: http://theskyrimblog.ning.com/group/glitches/forum/topics/on-100-fo...)

     

    • Get both rings by completing the “Rings of Blood Magic” quest.
    • Get a follower who doesn’t turn on you when you transform.
    • Go to a secluded place with no one around
    • Press the transformation button and the talk button to start a conversation with your follower at the same time.
    • If done right, you will initiate conversation while transforming.
    • Wait for the transformation to complete and do not exit conversation
    • Give both rings to your follower
    • Equip them back directly from your follower’s inventory.
    • Check if both your health and magicka increased by 100 points

     

     

    Dark Alliance (Appachii SkyHair Mod)

     

    Vampire Lord Perks

     

    You should take as many perks as possible since it does not affect your overall level and does not have a cap. Some of the more important ones are:

     

    • Power of the Grave: raise all 3 attributes by 50, simply a must have.
    • Supernatural Reflexes: work like Slow Time for the vampire lord
    • Unearthly Will: the reduce magicka cost is always appreciated if you want to stay in this form longer
    • Poison Talons: passive boost to give your claw attack poison damage
    • Vampiric Grip: Telekinesis spell but work on people
    • Corpse Curse: Paralyze power without Alteration

     

    Bringing it all together

    Before going in to battle, you would usually want to have all of your summons and Cloaked Spidersready. The choice of spiders depends on your next opponents. Usually, Flame does well again everything but Shock/Frost can be useful against specific type of opponents. Finally, Poison can be extremely deadly if your opponents do not have resistance for it. After your whole assemble is ready, cast Call To Arms to keep them alive for a longer time. One note about Call To Arms is that it affects everything in the area so cast it before going into battle.

    Once you are about to get into combat, cast Invisibility. Your Predator’s Grace grants you 100% muffle so there’s no need to cast that spell. Since, defensively speaking, you are not the best, Invisibility and Muffle really help when you want to maneuver about the battle field and cast other spells without getting killed.

    Now, you’ll want to cast Slow Time, and then go about and apply poisons to enemies (Weakness to Poison à Unholy Trinity/Arcane Tear).

    Staying in the shadow as much as possible, you can deal damage by either tossing Exploding Spiders, using your Staff of Icy Spear, shouting Sour Tear, or use your Bound Dagger to turn Undead or banish Daedras.

    Use Soul Tear +Black Azura Star to replenish your staff.

     

     

    Combos

    Assuming that you have done all the prep work correctly, here are some more interesting combinations of powers that you can use to quickly defeat your enemies.

     

    Elemental Surge: (Call To Arms + Cloaked Spider) + (Slow Time + Poisons) + Exploding Spiders/Staff.

    This is just a reiteration of your basic approach to combat. One good thing about this combo is that you have full coverage of all the elementals and can be effective in many different situations.

     

    Serpent’s Sting: Poison Cloaked Spiders + Weakness to Poison + Exploding Poison Spiders/Poison Rune/Vampire Lord’s Poison Talons + Slow Time/Supernatural Reflexes

    It would be a shame when talking about a witch without talking about poison. This combo is mostly similar to your Elemental Surge  but it has more synergy with your other ability. And the effect of Weakness to Poison is really one of the best exploit ever as I explained in Gathering Your Tools Section. End off this amazing combo by shouting Slow Time or using Supernatural Reflexes as the Vampire Lord to make your opponents absorb the full potency of your poisons.

     

    Deadly Stasis: Elemental Surge/Serpent’s Sting + Vampiric Grip/Corpse Curse + Supernatural Reflexes

    The idea is simple, yet effective. Your Elemental Surge and Serpent’s Sting are best used when the enemy stays still to receive all the damage from your Cloaked Spiders and poisons. Vampiric Grip is arguably more fun to use since your can move the enemy towards your horde of spiders while dealing choking damage to him/her at the same time. However, it eats up on Magicka so be ready to switch to ground mode. Corpse Curse is a Night Power so it can’t be used as often but it is also very effective when combined with Supernatural Reflexes to prolong the duration of the torture!

     

     

    Role-playing and Questing

     

    Embrace the Night (Vampire Lord Armoured mod)

     

    Role playing this character is relatively simple as she is not directly involved in a lot of the main story line. Just mind a few points as followed:

    • Be wary of bounty hunters and other vampires whom you do not know.
    • Take an interest in learning about magic and alchemy.
    • Don’t be friends with anyone. Stay in solitude. The nature of your order prevents you from getting involved with too much emotion. You must remain a secret agent and fulfill your mission as fast as possible.
    • Hunt down the degenerate members of the Glenmoril Coven (Hint: they are in Skyrim as well as in Solstheim).

    Some important Quest lines are:

    • College of Winterhold: get master level spells and equipment
    • Volkihar: for obvious reasons
    • Ill met by Moonlight: your rare chance of meeting your master, Hircine, in Skyrim
    • White Ridge Burrow: for your spider scrolls

     

    Image Credit

    http://media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/0c/4e/02/0c4e022822412588e7b... 

    http://cromaticresponses.deviantart.com/art/Pathfinder-fan-art-the-Witch-282630925

    http://bluemillenium.deviantart.com/art/Dark-Witch-in-Black-Forest-26-195984790

    http://www.wallpaperup.com/148705/original_black_hair_flowers_nanfe_original_red_eyes_short_hair_dark_horror_witch_vampire.html

    http://emortal982.deviantart.com/art/Spider-Witch-425858957

    http://maxhugoart.blogspot.sg/2013/06/jadis-white-witch.html

     

     

  • Member
    May 18, 2014
    Really like the synergy with the potions and spider scrolls! Nice build alltogether
  • May 18, 2014
    Surprisingly, I liked this build... I thought it was going to be nonsensical and would try to say play as a hagraven or something like that... This is definitely on my "will play" list :)
  • Member
    May 18, 2014

    Thank you! Due to time constraint, I'm still looking for new ways of using the spider scrolls. They are kind of under-utilized now

  • Member
    May 18, 2014

    Thank you!

    Only wretched Glenmoril witches turn into hag raven. But actually, the vampire lord form is used as a higher attainment as compared to the hagraven form: spells at long range and claws at short range but much cooler.

  • Member
    May 18, 2014
    I was a bit concerned when I saw the faction as well... the Glenmoril have some really cool lore surrounding them, and I was was afraid this would just be some witch hanging out in the wilderness. No worries there!

    The Alchemy/spider scroll interplay is super-cool, and the vampire angle is brilliant and brings a lot more into the gameplay than I had originally guessed at.

    Again, great job!
  • Member
    May 18, 2014

    Thank you again for the kind words!

    Gotta say that Glenmoril witches being vampires help me a lot since omitting Alteration and Destruction really reduce the flexibility of the character.

  • Member
    May 18, 2014

    Definitely agree, they have such huge gameplay and roleplay value, but have been often overlooked. Didja have problems running out of spiders at all? Great build, though, awesome work.

  • Member
    May 18, 2014

    The nice thing about White Ridge Barrow is that there are many ores to craft your spiders. But even then, I do run into problems of not having enough spiders to last for more than 2, or at most 3, battles. But Calls To Arms does help to improve the longevity of your cloaked spiders. Exploding spiders dwindle quite fast but you have other means of causing damage besides them. So I guess returning to White Ridge Barrow once in a while is necessary.

  • Member
    May 18, 2014

    Very nice build Acuo! Just one thing, I suggest removing the Agent of Mara because doing quests about love doesn't really fit the vampire witch character. Instead, I suggest utilizing Vampiric Blood-Rested bonus that you get from sleeping in a coffin. It gives 10% Resist Magic instead of 15 but since your magic resistance is capped by 85% it won't matterĀ