Hi, TED here for another great Skyrim experience! For this build, I want to highlight several aspects. You want Claw and Board combat? We got it! You want sneak punch-ery? We got it! You want poison damage without investing in a crafting skill? We got it! You want water-walking? We got it! I’m introducing the Mephitic, which has all of these and that little extra that makes it so great! Let’s get right into it!
Note: This does feature content from the Dawnguard and Dragonborn expansions.
Backstory
I am getting tired of dealing with this curse. Everywhere I went, people ignored me when I needed help. They would always insult me with “stop rolling in the guar dung!” I have even been refused the right to barter and trade with merchants. No city would allow me to enter because of the stench I was burdened with. This wouldn’t have happened if I didn’t pay attention to the drowning woman.
She was old and frail; never had I ever seen such an ugly Nord. Despite this fear of swimming, I rescued her with much difficulty. It was expected that there would be payment. She claimed to have been a healer that could awaken the hidden potential in the mightiest of warriors. Such a deal was too tempting for Dro’jira to pass up on. After grabbing my head, she kissed me with those dirty lips of hers. “The great darkness wishes you well, khajiit!” were the last words I heard from that wretch. I swear that I will GUT Namiira or her followers with my claws if it was the last thing I do.
The Build
Race: Khajiit Vampire. These feline beasts start out with a whopping 22 unarmed damage! They also start out with a skill boost in Sneak. With vampirism into play, they already sneak 25% better!
Standing Stone: The Steed Stone. It will eliminate the weight value of the armor that you wear, as well as the speed penalty that armor provides. If that doesn’t entice you, you even get 100 more points in carrying items!
Stat Distribution: 2 Magicka 2 Health, 1 Stamina. You will need some magicka to cast spells like Poison Rune and Close Wounds. Stamina will also be important for bashing with a shield.
Skills: Heavy Armor, Block, Restoration, Sneak
Shouts: Cyclone, Unrelenting Force
Quests: Unearthed, Boethiah’s Calling, Rings of Blood Magic, Scroll Scouting, Horn of Jurgen Windcaller
Equipment: Ahzidal’s Helm of Vision, Ebony Mail, Ebony Gauntlets, Ahzidal’s Boots of Waterwalking, Ring of the Beast/Ring of Erudite, Targe of the Blooded
Skills
The Mephitic is a unique product, unlike any other that I have endorsed in the past! In the very beginning of the game, Khajiit Claws can deal exactly the same amount of damage as a Dwarven Warhammer as fast as a dagger! With Heavy Armor, the Mephitic can invest in the Fists of Steel perk to gain additional Claw damage. The better the base armor rating of your gauntlets, the better! I’m not done yet; if you join the Volkihar Clan now, you can get a free pair of nifty rings known as the Rings of Blood Magic! One of these rings, the Ring of the Beast, fortifies your total health by 100 points and increases your claw damage by 20 points; add to the fact that it will also transfer to your Vampire Lord form, that’s a price you can’t beat (I’m looking at you Sham-Wow Plebeian)! Also, wearing the heaviest of armors lessens the amount of damage you receive in combat.
Speaking of taking less damage, what if we were to combine fists and shield into a viable form of combat? That’s right; it is possible to wreck everything in your sight with Block as a major skill of your choice! Quick Reflexes allows you to dodge power attacks very quickly, as if you were a wizard. With the speed rate of claws being moderately high, you’ll be able to throw in a high amount of damage being dealt over time. But wait, there’s more; Power Bash and Deadly Bash synergize very well with Quick Reflexes and Claw attacks! By staggering an enemy and slowing down time for a brief moment, you’ll have that Bandit Chief sent to Sovngarde in no time! Do you want that overpowered peasant to fight you in a fair fist fight? Now you can with Disarming Bash! An advantage to this over the Disarm Shout is that it has no level cap, plus it will deal damage when you bash with your shield! I’m not even done pitching the Block skill to you. By the time you get to Shield Charge, you will have enemies knocked down faster than a tranquilizer drops a fat elephant! There’s a special tactic that can be used with it, but it’ll be covered later on.
If you ever dismissed Colette Marence’s perspective of Restoration as silly, I’m here to prove to you that it is indeed a valid school of magic! Perks like Respite and Recovery really come in handy, if you find yourself under sunlight. By being able to regenerate magicka and restoring your stamina as well, you’ll be able to bash even more! Speaking of regenerating magicka, there’s another Ring of Blood Magic that I want to talk to you about: the Ring of Erudite. When you engage in combat with this amazing product on, you regenerate 2.99% of your total Magicka per second! It even comes with 100 points of Fortified Magicka! When you reach level 31, your total magicka will reach 320 with the Ring of Erudite on. As a result of its Magicka Rate enchantment, you’ll regenerate 9.5 points of magicka per second during 7 PM – 5 AM in-game time. That’s a bargain you don’t get anywhere else! I’ll even throw in the Poison Rune, which will deal 3 points of Poison Damage each second for half a minute. You can stack the damage of one Poison Rune with Ebony Mail to get a base total of 240 points of poison damage after 30 seconds are up!
While many might be able to smell him from a distance, few can truly see the Mephitic and live to tell the tale! Sneak comes in for minimal detection and froing into combat with relative ease. One rank of Stealth will synergize well with the Sneak boost you get from Vampirism; combine that with the power of Muffled Movement and Silence, there’s absolutely no way you can get caught (unless you suck that bad at sneaking)! There’s even more to add to that. Shadow Warrior can be proven to be useful on the battlefield. By activating it in combat, you can Stealth Roll away from the enemy until (s)he starts looking for you. Then you can roll behind in behind and claw their face in when they’re standing still!
Waterwalking
This is where the build gets really interesting to play. When an enemy is knocked down into the water, they are temporarily paralyzed and float for a short bit. Thanks to Ahzidal’s Boots of Waterwalking, you can now go up to that floating corpse and claw those faces out! Add to the fact that you’re wearing Ebony Mail, you’ll be guaranteed to deal damage even if you miss! Several methods of knocking enemies into the water include Shield Charge, Unrelenting Force, and Cyclone. But wait, there’s another method you can use; by transforming into a Vampire Lord, you can ragdoll enemies into the rivers through the power of Vampiric Grip!
Unlike walking on water in Normal Form, melee combat with the Vampire Lord can be a bit clunky. This is due to the fact that you can’t specifically target where your claw attacks go. Sometimes you will be able to hit your target, but it isn’t a 100% guarantee that it will happen. In lieu of this, you can let enemies wash up on the shore and tear apart some limbs while they try to get up. There’s also the option of floating on water and spamming the Drain Health spell to regain any health you may have lost. Speaking of health, you can use Vampiric Drain in normal form for the same purposes WITHOUT potentially losing any health in the process! Did Billy Mays just create a situation where Vampiric Drain is useful? You bet your sweet ass I did!
Outside of combat, you can walk on water to navigate through Skyrim in a very fast and efficient matter! One example of this is the high cliffs; normally you would die if you landed on the ground. That isn’t the case with water. By landing on the water, you save time from trying to climb down a cliff or finding an alternate route down to where you need to go! Fast and convenient: check. Another great use I had for waterwalking was having a place to transform without the enemy getting too close to me. Few enemies will get into the water or be able to attack you from a distance. It is most effective when plebeians, like the Dawnguard, are having a hard time detecting your presence. When you get done mopping the floor, you can transform back and you won’t even have to fear drowning!
Gameplay
The Mephitic likes to start out with sneak clawing an enemy of his choice. This can be followed up by a Power Bash with the Targe of the Blooded, which will do 37.5 bash damage PLUS an additional 15 bleeding damage over 5 seconds (3 damage per second)! Combine that with 5 seconds of Ebony Mail’s poison cloak effect and you get 77.5 points of damage to non-poison resistant enemies. Should somebody or something try to power attack you, have your shield up ready so that you can activate Quick Reflexes. With Block Runner, you can run behind with your shield up and Power Bash away! While your enemy is staggered, you can activate Shadow Warrior to set up a sneak attack.
Another tactic to use with Quick Reflexes is to use Cyclone, Unrelenting Force or Shield Charge to ragdoll targets. As they go flying up in the air, run towards where they land. Equip the Ring of Erudite and cast one or two Poison Runes while the enemy is struggling to get up. You can act like a poison turtle and block with your shield while they are taking damage! The amount of potential Damage over Time increases when you do a few quick bashes and several claw attacks in the process.
The Vampire Lord form is only recommended against tougher enemies, since it gets overpowered. With that being said, one of the quickest ways to dispose enemies is to start off with Vampiric Grip. By doing this, you have an opportunity to go into Melee mode and slash some flesh off with your claws! At level 31, Vampire Lords do 45 Unarmed damage with the Ring of the Beast on; but I’m not even done yet. By taking the Poison Talons perk, you deal an additional 20 poison damage when performing melee attacks! I’ll even throw in the Supernatural Reflexes perk, which is the equivalent to Slow Time! Potential to throw in a lot of claw attacks without getting scathed? Billy, sign me up on the newsletter so that I can hear about more amazing deals from you!
CLICK HERE for Vampire Lord perks (ignore the Heavy Armor part)!
Role-Play Ideas
The Mephitic smells atrociously horrible; because of this, he is forced to live in the wilderness. Places like the Bandit camps, near Riverwood, are good places to set-up camp. Since people aren’t always friendly towards him on the road, he sometimes loses his temper and kills them on the spot. NPCs, like the Orc or Nord, are good targets to attack because they act rude to you when you talk to them. If you’re the type that likes to role-play eating, then Hunters are also recommended to kill. They usually carry some sort of meat on them.
Should you decide that outdoor survival isn’t your thing, you can head to Markarth to check out what’s up. In the Understone Keep, you overhear a priest talking about odd occurrences in the Hall of the Dead. Due to your curiosity, you come in to find a follower of Namiira. You could either decide to kill Eola on the spot or play tag-a-long. By going with the latter, there exists the best opportunity to enact revenge upon the Daedric Prince that cursed you. The more followers you kill, the better the satisfaction! Did I mention it’s guaranteed?
Credits
Here’s a special shout-out to Komrade Dragon for making some screenshots for the build! I also thank the Skype crew for helping me discuss this product and what I could do to improve it. Cheers mates!
Hi, TED here for another great Skyrim experience! For this build, I want to highlight several aspects. You want Claw and Board combat? We got it! You want sneak punch-ery? We got it! You want poison damage without investing in a crafting skill? We got it! You want water-walking? We got it! I’m introducing the Mephitic, which has all of these and that little extra that makes it so great! Let’s get right into it!
Note: This does feature content from the Dawnguard and Dragonborn expansions.
Backstory
I am getting tired of dealing with this curse. Everywhere I went, people ignored me when I needed help. They would always insult me with “stop rolling in the guar dung!” I have even been refused the right to barter and trade with merchants. No city would allow me to enter because of the stench I was burdened with. This wouldn’t have happened if I didn’t pay attention to the drowning woman.
She was old and frail; never had I ever seen such an ugly Nord. Despite this fear of swimming, I rescued her with much difficulty. It was expected that there would be payment. She claimed to have been a healer that could awaken the hidden potential in the mightiest of warriors. Such a deal was too tempting for Dro’jira to pass up on. After grabbing my head, she kissed me with those dirty lips of hers. “The great darkness wishes you well, khajiit!” were the last words I heard from that wretch. I swear that I will GUT Namiira or her followers with my claws if it was the last thing I do.
The Build
Race: Khajiit Vampire. These feline beasts start out with a whopping 22 unarmed damage! They also start out with a skill boost in Sneak. With vampirism into play, they already sneak 25% better!
Standing Stone: The Steed Stone. It will eliminate the weight value of the armor that you wear, as well as the speed penalty that armor provides. If that doesn’t entice you, you even get 100 more points in carrying items!
Stat Distribution: 2 Magicka 2 Health, 1 Stamina. You will need some magicka to cast spells like Poison Rune and Close Wounds. Stamina will also be important for bashing with a shield.
Skills: Heavy Armor, Block, Restoration, Sneak
Shouts: Cyclone, Unrelenting Force
Quests: Unearthed, Boethiah’s Calling, Rings of Blood Magic, Scroll Scouting, Horn of Jurgen Windcaller
Equipment: Ahzidal’s Helm of Vision, Ebony Mail, Ebony Gauntlets, Ahzidal’s Boots of Waterwalking, Ring of the Beast/Ring of Erudite, Targe of the Blooded
Skills
The Mephitic is a unique product, unlike any other that I have endorsed in the past! In the very beginning of the game, Khajiit Claws can deal exactly the same amount of damage as a Dwarven Warhammer as fast as a dagger! With Heavy Armor, the Mephitic can invest in the Fists of Steel perk to gain additional Claw damage. The better the base armor rating of your gauntlets, the better! I’m not done yet; if you join the Volkihar Clan now, you can get a free pair of nifty rings known as the Rings of Blood Magic! One of these rings, the Ring of the Beast, fortifies your total health by 100 points and increases your claw damage by 20 points; add to the fact that it will also transfer to your Vampire Lord form, that’s a price you can’t beat (I’m looking at you Sham-Wow Plebeian)! Also, wearing the heaviest of armors lessens the amount of damage you receive in combat.
Speaking of taking less damage, what if we were to combine fists and shield into a viable form of combat? That’s right; it is possible to wreck everything in your sight with Block as a major skill of your choice! Quick Reflexes allows you to dodge power attacks very quickly, as if you were a wizard. With the speed rate of claws being moderately high, you’ll be able to throw in a high amount of damage being dealt over time. But wait, there’s more; Power Bash and Deadly Bash synergize very well with Quick Reflexes and Claw attacks! By staggering an enemy and slowing down time for a brief moment, you’ll have that Bandit Chief sent to Sovngarde in no time! Do you want that overpowered peasant to fight you in a fair fist fight? Now you can with Disarming Bash! An advantage to this over the Disarm Shout is that it has no level cap, plus it will deal damage when you bash with your shield! I’m not even done pitching the Block skill to you. By the time you get to Shield Charge, you will have enemies knocked down faster than a tranquilizer drops a fat elephant! There’s a special tactic that can be used with it, but it’ll be covered later on.
If you ever dismissed Colette Marence’s perspective of Restoration as silly, I’m here to prove to you that it is indeed a valid school of magic! Perks like Respite and Recovery really come in handy, if you find yourself under sunlight. By being able to regenerate magicka and restoring your stamina as well, you’ll be able to bash even more! Speaking of regenerating magicka, there’s another Ring of Blood Magic that I want to talk to you about: the Ring of Erudite. When you engage in combat with this amazing product on, you regenerate 2.99% of your total Magicka per second! It even comes with 100 points of Fortified Magicka! When you reach level 31, your total magicka will reach 320 with the Ring of Erudite on. As a result of its Magicka Rate enchantment, you’ll regenerate 9.5 points of magicka per second during 7 PM – 5 AM in-game time. That’s a bargain you don’t get anywhere else! I’ll even throw in the Poison Rune, which will deal 3 points of Poison Damage each second for half a minute. You can stack the damage of one Poison Rune with Ebony Mail to get a base total of 240 points of poison damage after 30 seconds are up!
While many might be able to smell him from a distance, few can truly see the Mephitic and live to tell the tale! Sneak comes in for minimal detection and froing into combat with relative ease. One rank of Stealth will synergize well with the Sneak boost you get from Vampirism; combine that with the power of Muffled Movement and Silence, there’s absolutely no way you can get caught (unless you suck that bad at sneaking)! There’s even more to add to that. Shadow Warrior can be proven to be useful on the battlefield. By activating it in combat, you can Stealth Roll away from the enemy until (s)he starts looking for you. Then you can roll behind in behind and claw their face in when they’re standing still!
Waterwalking
This is where the build gets really interesting to play. When an enemy is knocked down into the water, they are temporarily paralyzed and float for a short bit. Thanks to Ahzidal’s Boots of Waterwalking, you can now go up to that floating corpse and claw those faces out! Add to the fact that you’re wearing Ebony Mail, you’ll be guaranteed to deal damage even if you miss! Several methods of knocking enemies into the water include Shield Charge, Unrelenting Force, and Cyclone. But wait, there’s another method you can use; by transforming into a Vampire Lord, you can ragdoll enemies into the rivers through the power of Vampiric Grip!
Unlike walking on water in Normal Form, melee combat with the Vampire Lord can be a bit clunky. This is due to the fact that you can’t specifically target where your claw attacks go. Sometimes you will be able to hit your target, but it isn’t a 100% guarantee that it will happen. In lieu of this, you can let enemies wash up on the shore and tear apart some limbs while they try to get up. There’s also the option of floating on water and spamming the Drain Health spell to regain any health you may have lost. Speaking of health, you can use Vampiric Drain in normal form for the same purposes WITHOUT potentially losing any health in the process! Did Billy Mays just create a situation where Vampiric Drain is useful? You bet your sweet ass I did!
Outside of combat, you can walk on water to navigate through Skyrim in a very fast and efficient matter! One example of this is the high cliffs; normally you would die if you landed on the ground. That isn’t the case with water. By landing on the water, you save time from trying to climb down a cliff or finding an alternate route down to where you need to go! Fast and convenient: check. Another great use I had for waterwalking was having a place to transform without the enemy getting too close to me. Few enemies will get into the water or be able to attack you from a distance. It is most effective when plebeians, like the Dawnguard, are having a hard time detecting your presence. When you get done mopping the floor, you can transform back and you won’t even have to fear drowning!
Gameplay
The Mephitic likes to start out with sneak clawing an enemy of his choice. This can be followed up by a Power Bash with the Targe of the Blooded, which will do 37.5 bash damage PLUS an additional 15 bleeding damage over 5 seconds (3 damage per second)! Combine that with 5 seconds of Ebony Mail’s poison cloak effect and you get 77.5 points of damage to non-poison resistant enemies. Should somebody or something try to power attack you, have your shield up ready so that you can activate Quick Reflexes. With Block Runner, you can run behind with your shield up and Power Bash away! While your enemy is staggered, you can activate Shadow Warrior to set up a sneak attack.
Another tactic to use with Quick Reflexes is to use Cyclone, Unrelenting Force or Shield Charge to ragdoll targets. As they go flying up in the air, run towards where they land. Equip the Ring of Erudite and cast one or two Poison Runes while the enemy is struggling to get up. You can act like a poison turtle and block with your shield while they are taking damage! The amount of potential Damage over Time increases when you do a few quick bashes and several claw attacks in the process.
The Vampire Lord form is only recommended against tougher enemies, since it gets overpowered. With that being said, one of the quickest ways to dispose enemies is to start off with Vampiric Grip. By doing this, you have an opportunity to go into Melee mode and slash some flesh off with your claws! At level 31, Vampire Lords do 45 Unarmed damage with the Ring of the Beast on; but I’m not even done yet. By taking the Poison Talons perk, you deal an additional 20 poison damage when performing melee attacks! I’ll even throw in the Supernatural Reflexes perk, which is the equivalent to Slow Time! Potential to throw in a lot of claw attacks without getting scathed? Billy, sign me up on the newsletter so that I can hear about more amazing deals from you!
CLICK HERE for Vampire Lord perks (ignore the Heavy Armor part)!
Role-Play Ideas
The Mephitic smells atrociously horrible; because of this, he is forced to live in the wilderness. Places like the Bandit camps, near Riverwood, are good places to set-up camp. Since people aren’t always friendly towards him on the road, he sometimes loses his temper and kills them on the spot. NPCs, like the Orc or Nord, are good targets to attack because they act rude to you when you talk to them. If you’re the type that likes to role-play eating, then Hunters are also recommended to kill. They usually carry some sort of meat on them.
Should you decide that outdoor survival isn’t your thing, you can head to Markarth to check out what’s up. In the Understone Keep, you overhear a priest talking about odd occurrences in the Hall of the Dead. Due to your curiosity, you come in to find a follower of Namiira. You could either decide to kill Eola on the spot or play tag-a-long. By going with the latter, there exists the best opportunity to enact revenge upon the Daedric Prince that cursed you. The more followers you kill, the better the satisfaction! Did I mention it’s guaranteed?
Credits
Here’s a special shout-out to Komrade Dragon for making some screenshots for the build! I also thank the Skype crew for helping me discuss this product and what I could do to improve it. Cheers mates!
I thought you were referring to some event that I missed out on.
