The inspiration for this build came directly from this section of Cicero's journal:
21st of Sun's Dusk, 4E 188. So much has happened since my last entry. After Garnag and Andronica left for Bravil, we stopped receiving communications from the city. We feared the worst. This morning, those fears were confirmed, when Garnag returned alone, transporting a most precious cargo - the great stone coffin of the Night Mother herself. The story Garnag told could curl the blood of even the most hardened of Sithis' servants. The crypt of the Night Mother, raided. Dearest sister Andronica, cut to pieces. And the Listener herself, the most honored Alisanne Dupre, burned alive in a storm of mage fire. Garnag, through gravely injured (he will most certainly lose his right eye), managed to fend off the attackers, and transport the Night Mother's coffin safely out of the city. He has been on the road, making his way back here, since that tragic night.
Not only did Garnag defend the Night Mother's crypt single handedly as his comrades fell around him, but he also managed to escape with the Mother's coffin and transport it to the other side of the country. Most importantly, this means that it is likely that he is the only surviving member of the Dark Brotherhood outside of Skyrim... Until now.
The Silencer
"As every hand has its fingers, does not every finger have a nail? A claw? A talon? Every finger of the hand, every Speaker has such a nail. These are the Silencers."
―Lucien Lachance
Garnag thought he was the last of his kind. That all but him had been wiped out in a night of fire and blood, or fallen from grace in the aftermath.
That was until he heard his mother's whispers in his ears.
'Come to me, my child', she beckoned. 'Come north to the land of the first men. Cross the border with the one known as Ulfric Stormcloak. He will be captured, and you shall be too. Let it happen.'
'Trust your mother. All will be revealed soon...'
Race: Orc
Stats: M:0/H:1/S:1
Stone: The Lady
Major Skills: Block, One-Handed, Sneak
Minor Skills: Light Armor, Alchemy, Illusion
Weapons: Daedric sword, Dragonbane
Armor: Volsung, Guildmaster's armor, Shrouded boots and gauntlets, Orcish Shield, Ring of Namira, Amulet of Talos
Shouts: Whirlwind Sprint(Primary) Dragon Aspect, Unrelenting Force(Secondary) Any other shouts you find
Powers and Passives: Black Market, Dragonborn Force, Sinderion's Serendipity, Blessing of Talos
The Build
Reading about Garnag's experience in the Night Mother's crypt, it is clear that he is not your typical vulnerable assassin. This is a hardened warrior, just as comfortable facing threats head on and taking hits, as he is eliminating enemies from the shadows. However, this character does not feel like it is half-warrior, half-assassin, rather the two merge together seamlessly, for an engaging combat experience.
The Silencer, explores Whirlwind Sprint in a way few builds have before. This shout is not simply a way for you to close in on or run away from enemies, but is instead used for incredible mobility and it's applications to stealth. In combination with kill-cams and the quiet casting perk, this shout shows its true worth.
Not satisfied with just using Whirlwind Sprint, this character explores the art of silent shouting. Dragons are hunted down ruthlessly for their souls using Dragonbane, with Miraak being the ultimate prize:
For Miraak's death, you will be rewarded with at least six dragon souls (additional number of dragon souls is equal to the number of dragons you've killed in the plug-in, regardless of whether their souls are stolen by Miraak or not) (UESP)
With these souls you will be able to unlock every shout you get, but rather than using them freely with no cool down, you'll be using them tactically and silently.
With so much going on, you'd think that this build requires a lot of time spent in menus. Well, you'd be wrong. You only need the two hot keys that are available on console to play this build without going into a menu during combat, due to tactical preparation beforehand with alchemy and shouts.
Silent Shouts, Whirlwind Sprint and Kill-Cams
While using shouts with no cooldown is fast paced and chaotic, silent shouting is systematic and tactical. You have to think about what is the best shout to use in any particular situation. Animal Allegiance can be used to draw a group of bears into a bandit camp, or Dismay could be used to scatter weaker enemies. It is even possible to repeatedly hit enemies with Unrelenting Force or Fire Breath without them ever being able to find you. Perhaps the most game breaking use of this is to safely use marked for death repeatedly on a powerful enemy, making them a one hit kill.
Get creative and see how else you can take advantage of it.
However, Whirlwind Sprint remains the primary shout for the build, and will be equipped 90% of the time. The shout will let you navigate dungeons in entirely different ways, allowing you to tactically position yourself to get a better approach on your enemies. It seems that unless the enemy is looking at you before you use the shout, or you land directly in an enemies line of site, enemies will not be able to detect you while using it, even if you fly right under their noses. With high enough sneak skill, you can escape enemies by breaking line of sight, entering stealth, then quickly whirlwind sprinting away. You'll be on the other side of the room, while enemies are still searching for you where they last saw you.
Whirlwind Sprint can be made even more effective by using kill-cams as a mechanic, rather than just something cool to look at. With proper practice and judgement of distance you can whirlwind sprint and by attacking with perfect timing, instantly transition into a kill-cam animation, which can even be triggered from the sides and face on. While this won't work every time (Unless you use mods to alter kill-cams), you will still immediately go into a sprint attack which still has a good chance of proving fatal.
This technique is difficult to master, but if you use it regularly throughout the playthrough, you will quickly learn to judge the distances to start the move from and preform it on instinct. A small tip is to aim just off centre on enemies so that if you over shoot slightly, you'll land besides them and still get the kill. Once you've mastered this move, you will be able to preform it even in the heat of battle...
(PC Players: My original vision for this build was to be a mace user, but maces have no assassination kill-cams. Please try either of these mods if you would rather play the build with a mace: More Killmoves for All Weapon Types Or VioLens.)
Perk Spread
The early levels of this character are spent training illusion for quiet casting and block for quick reflexes. Grab the novice hood as you escape Helgen to cast muffle with no magicka investment and quickly raise the skill to 50. This will also help you level sneak early on too.
Once I had both of those perks, I stopped levelling illusion and I made my way to High Hrothgar to get my hands on the first word of Whirlwind Sprint. I then joined up with the Dark Brotherhood and Thieves guild to piece together my first set of armor and started to make my way through both questlines. I recommend also continuing with the main quest, as without a form of ranged combat, Dragonrend becomes incredibly helpful.
At later levels I picked up the ring of Namira to boost my health and stamina even further, and ventured into the Dawnguard and Dragonborn DLC, to get my hands on the shouts they added, particularly Dragon Aspect.
The shrouded boots and gauntlets made stealth far more manageable, while the Guildmaster's armor and Volsung bolstered my armor rating, along with providing some nice passive bonuses and capping the armor rating at just over 300 with a shield equipped. The prize in the light armor tree is Windwalker, giving an extra 50% stamina regen on top of the lady stone.
All perks in block are taken to minimise damage taken in combat. Quick reflexes allow you to dodge power attacks, disarming bash can significantly decrease an enemies damage output, while Shield charge will completely immobilise them and free you up to attack them unhindered.
Most perks in the sneak tree are also taken making it easier to preform assassinations. The first time I successfully preformed a whirlwind sprint assassination, I'd only perked stealth and muffled movement. Backstab is another useful perk and is boosted further with the shrouded gauntlets. One-Handed is perked as necessary to get maximum damage.
I chose to focus on buffing myself with alchemy rather than brewing poisons. With the Lady stone, ring of Namira and Windwalker, my health and stamina regen was increased by 75%, before I would even drink regen potions. This helped me to survive encounters without any need to heal myself. My preference was to buff my defensive skills like block to help my survivability, but I also used alchemy to fortify some of my shouts. Check Ponty's Guide to shouts (and my last comment there) to see which ones can be improved.
Special Moves
Obliterate: Unrelenting Force has a base damage of 10. With Dragonborn force, this is increased to 50. While it may not sound like much, this can be improved by a fortify destruction potion, making it an effective finishing move.
Silenced: This is where the two hotkeys come in. With one used for whirlwind sprint and the other with an invisibility potion, you'll be able to preform a whirlwind sprint assassination in the middle of combat. Simply crouch, aim, whirlwind sprint, then trigger your invisibility potion from the hotkey. Extremely effective against annoying mages and archers.
Thanks for reading, I hope you've enjoyed.
I'd like to thank Tae- Rai for the screenshots
I'd also like to thank Teccam for his help in testing fortified shouts.
Expect another build to be posted this week!
The inspiration for this build came directly from this section of Cicero's journal:
21st of Sun's Dusk, 4E 188. So much has happened since my last entry. After Garnag and Andronica left for Bravil, we stopped receiving communications from the city. We feared the worst. This morning, those fears were confirmed, when Garnag returned alone, transporting a most precious cargo - the great stone coffin of the Night Mother herself. The story Garnag told could curl the blood of even the most hardened of Sithis' servants. The crypt of the Night Mother, raided. Dearest sister Andronica, cut to pieces. And the Listener herself, the most honored Alisanne Dupre, burned alive in a storm of mage fire. Garnag, through gravely injured (he will most certainly lose his right eye), managed to fend off the attackers, and transport the Night Mother's coffin safely out of the city. He has been on the road, making his way back here, since that tragic night.
Not only did Garnag defend the Night Mother's crypt single handedly as his comrades fell around him, but he also managed to escape with the Mother's coffin and transport it to the other side of the country. Most importantly, this means that it is likely that he is the only surviving member of the Dark Brotherhood outside of Skyrim... Until now.
The Silencer
"As every hand has its fingers, does not every finger have a nail? A claw? A talon? Every finger of the hand, every Speaker has such a nail. These are the Silencers."
―Lucien Lachance
Garnag thought he was the last of his kind. That all but him had been wiped out in a night of fire and blood, or fallen from grace in the aftermath.
That was until he heard his mother's whispers in his ears.
'Come to me, my child', she beckoned. 'Come north to the land of the first men. Cross the border with the one known as Ulfric Stormcloak. He will be captured, and you shall be too. Let it happen.'
'Trust your mother. All will be revealed soon...'
Race: Orc
Stats: M:0/H:1/S:1
Stone: The Lady
Major Skills: Block, One-Handed, Sneak
Minor Skills: Light Armor, Alchemy, Illusion
Weapons: Daedric sword, Dragonbane
Armor: Volsung, Guildmaster's armor, Shrouded boots and gauntlets, Orcish Shield, Ring of Namira, Amulet of Talos
Shouts: Whirlwind Sprint(Primary) Dragon Aspect, Unrelenting Force(Secondary) Any other shouts you find
Powers and Passives: Black Market, Dragonborn Force, Sinderion's Serendipity, Blessing of Talos
The Build
Reading about Garnag's experience in the Night Mother's crypt, it is clear that he is not your typical vulnerable assassin. This is a hardened warrior, just as comfortable facing threats head on and taking hits, as he is eliminating enemies from the shadows. However, this character does not feel like it is half-warrior, half-assassin, rather the two merge together seamlessly, for an engaging combat experience.
The Silencer, explores Whirlwind Sprint in a way few builds have before. This shout is not simply a way for you to close in on or run away from enemies, but is instead used for incredible mobility and it's applications to stealth. In combination with kill-cams and the quiet casting perk, this shout shows its true worth.
Not satisfied with just using Whirlwind Sprint, this character explores the art of silent shouting. Dragons are hunted down ruthlessly for their souls using Dragonbane, with Miraak being the ultimate prize:
For Miraak's death, you will be rewarded with at least six dragon souls (additional number of dragon souls is equal to the number of dragons you've killed in the plug-in, regardless of whether their souls are stolen by Miraak or not) (UESP)
With these souls you will be able to unlock every shout you get, but rather than using them freely with no cool down, you'll be using them tactically and silently.
With so much going on, you'd think that this build requires a lot of time spent in menus. Well, you'd be wrong. You only need the two hot keys that are available on console to play this build without going into a menu during combat, due to tactical preparation beforehand with alchemy and shouts.
Silent Shouts, Whirlwind Sprint and Kill-Cams
While using shouts with no cooldown is fast paced and chaotic, silent shouting is systematic and tactical. You have to think about what is the best shout to use in any particular situation. Animal Allegiance can be used to draw a group of bears into a bandit camp, or Dismay could be used to scatter weaker enemies. It is even possible to repeatedly hit enemies with Unrelenting Force or Fire Breath without them ever being able to find you. Perhaps the most game breaking use of this is to safely use marked for death repeatedly on a powerful enemy, making them a one hit kill.
Get creative and see how else you can take advantage of it.
However, Whirlwind Sprint remains the primary shout for the build, and will be equipped 90% of the time. The shout will let you navigate dungeons in entirely different ways, allowing you to tactically position yourself to get a better approach on your enemies. It seems that unless the enemy is looking at you before you use the shout, or you land directly in an enemies line of site, enemies will not be able to detect you while using it, even if you fly right under their noses. With high enough sneak skill, you can escape enemies by breaking line of sight, entering stealth, then quickly whirlwind sprinting away. You'll be on the other side of the room, while enemies are still searching for you where they last saw you.
Whirlwind Sprint can be made even more effective by using kill-cams as a mechanic, rather than just something cool to look at. With proper practice and judgement of distance you can whirlwind sprint and by attacking with perfect timing, instantly transition into a kill-cam animation, which can even be triggered from the sides and face on. While this won't work every time (Unless you use mods to alter kill-cams), you will still immediately go into a sprint attack which still has a good chance of proving fatal.
This technique is difficult to master, but if you use it regularly throughout the playthrough, you will quickly learn to judge the distances to start the move from and preform it on instinct. A small tip is to aim just off centre on enemies so that if you over shoot slightly, you'll land besides them and still get the kill. Once you've mastered this move, you will be able to preform it even in the heat of battle...
(PC Players: My original vision for this build was to be a mace user, but maces have no assassination kill-cams. Please try either of these mods if you would rather play the build with a mace: More Killmoves for All Weapon Types Or VioLens.)
Perk Spread
The early levels of this character are spent training illusion for quiet casting and block for quick reflexes. Grab the novice hood as you escape Helgen to cast muffle with no magicka investment and quickly raise the skill to 50. This will also help you level sneak early on too.
Once I had both of those perks, I stopped levelling illusion and I made my way to High Hrothgar to get my hands on the first word of Whirlwind Sprint. I then joined up with the Dark Brotherhood and Thieves guild to piece together my first set of armor and started to make my way through both questlines. I recommend also continuing with the main quest, as without a form of ranged combat, Dragonrend becomes incredibly helpful.
At later levels I picked up the ring of Namira to boost my health and stamina even further, and ventured into the Dawnguard and Dragonborn DLC, to get my hands on the shouts they added, particularly Dragon Aspect.
The shrouded boots and gauntlets made stealth far more manageable, while the Guildmaster's armor and Volsung bolstered my armor rating, along with providing some nice passive bonuses and capping the armor rating at just over 300 with a shield equipped. The prize in the light armor tree is Windwalker, giving an extra 50% stamina regen on top of the lady stone.
All perks in block are taken to minimise damage taken in combat. Quick reflexes allow you to dodge power attacks, disarming bash can significantly decrease an enemies damage output, while Shield charge will completely immobilise them and free you up to attack them unhindered.
Most perks in the sneak tree are also taken making it easier to preform assassinations. The first time I successfully preformed a whirlwind sprint assassination, I'd only perked stealth and muffled movement. Backstab is another useful perk and is boosted further with the shrouded gauntlets. One-Handed is perked as necessary to get maximum damage.
I chose to focus on buffing myself with alchemy rather than brewing poisons. With the Lady stone, ring of Namira and Windwalker, my health and stamina regen was increased by 75%, before I would even drink regen potions. This helped me to survive encounters without any need to heal myself. My preference was to buff my defensive skills like block to help my survivability, but I also used alchemy to fortify some of my shouts. Check Ponty's Guide to shouts (and my last comment there) to see which ones can be improved.
Special Moves
Obliterate: Unrelenting Force has a base damage of 10. With Dragonborn force, this is increased to 50. While it may not sound like much, this can be improved by a fortify destruction potion, making it an effective finishing move.
Silenced: This is where the two hotkeys come in. With one used for whirlwind sprint and the other with an invisibility potion, you'll be able to preform a whirlwind sprint assassination in the middle of combat. Simply crouch, aim, whirlwind sprint, then trigger your invisibility potion from the hotkey. Extremely effective against annoying mages and archers.
Thanks for reading, I hope you've enjoyed.
I'd like to thank Tae- Rai for the screenshots
I'd also like to thank Teccam for his help in testing fortified shouts.
Expect another build to be posted this week!
