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Character Build: The Volkihar Titan

  • Member
    October 14, 2015


    The Volkihar Titan
    “Deep within the tormented planes of the Soul Cairn… Something has been disturbed…
    And the current overflow of souls began to feed its hunger… But it was not enough…
    Undeath has twisted its very armour and body, its hunger for battle clawing at its very limbs…
    The creature took its sword and stabbed it into the air… Ripping a portal open into the world of Skyrim
    The Volkihar Titan... Has risen..."

    Race: Orc
    Orc’s have possibly one of the greatest abilities. The Berserk Rage. While enhancing their damage by double, they also take only half the damage. A good combination for defense.
    Subrace: Supreme Vampire Lord
    The Supreme Vampire Lord is a very tricky one to create and capable of many deathly combinations.
    Stone: Lord Stone
    With the Lord Stone at its back, we can reduce any magical damage that comes your way with great ease.
    Weapon of choice: Honed Ancient Nord Sword
    The Honed Ancient Nord Sword was very appealing when used with the Ebony Mail, Lightning Cloak, and Elemental Fury together. It almost seemed like the very blade became possessed by all the magic and corrupted by it. A fine fit to put together.
    Artifacts: Ring of the Erudite
    The Ring of the Erudite will be used in order to enhance our magicka regeneration rate and make us much more powerful at night.
    Shouts: Dragon Aspect, Elemental Fury, Marked for Death, Soul Tear.

    The Build
    The Volkihar Titan is a very difficult build to play, but has its advantages and disadvantages.
    Advantages:
    • The ability to reach a much deadlier physical damage resistance while blocking physical attacks.
    • Able to reach a deadly level of magical resistance and even absorb some magicka as well without the hindrance of Magicka Regen reduction.
    • An abnormal level of health in order to survive during a fight.
    • Decent Magicka and Stamina pools so we can dish out heavy amounts of damage during a battle.
    • Minimal shout usage, allowing one to have more fun making other spell and armour, weapon and/or shield combo’s for greater defence or offense.
    • A great variety of perks in order to allow one to create a better diversity of strategies to enter a battle.
    • A more “Toggle” based layout for abilities, allowing us to create many “OH CRAP” abilities in order to turn a losing situation into a winning one.
    • A descent stamina pool for those who love power attacking and big, battle-changing moves.
    • Being a tank, we can survive a severe amount of damage and take on multiple enemies with ease.
    • When certain groups attack you on sight because they think you are in Vampire Lord Form, it will not give you a bounty if you kill them. Have fun with it and level yourself using this tactic.
    • Mist Form will be your best friend during the day, as your stamina will be weakened severely, forcing you to use more magic than power attacks.
    • The ability to “Fuse” one Stance with another for absolutely devastating effects.
    • The ability to walk and fight on water with great effectiveness.
    Disadvantages:
    • Say goodbye to all hopes of regeneration during the day. Healing spells will chew away your magicka like no tomorrow.
    • A Double Weakness to Sunlight will smash you with -150 magicka, health and stamina. Make sure to use your stamina wisely in the daytime.
    • Spellbreaker’s ward will be significantly difficult to maintain since it is reduced to 25 points. Make sure you at least have a good ward spell to help when you know you cannot use it.
    • Being on the defensive side, our abilities are more geared towards tanking, taking out multiple enemies and taking a long while to kill them. Daytime will be your enemy in this instance so be careful.
    • Guards and select groups will attack you on sight, registering you as being transformed into a Vampire Lord. Daylight will be your enemy while in this predicament as you will be weakened greatly. Enough to be injure you terribly if you get swarmed.
    • You will never be able to access Vampire Lord again, because it will literally mess up the entire build. So make sure you gain all the perks listed BEFORE you ascend.

    The Power of Stance-Fusion
    So, what is Stance-Fusion and what are Stances? Stance are certain states our titan can enter when ready to fight in combat. Each Stance has either Offensive or Defensive capabilities depending on what is needed to succeed in battle. Now, the fun part about each stance is that they have the ability to be fused together to form an Ultimate Stance. Each combination will be listed at the end of the build’s “Special Abilities” section.

    Level 55 Perk Placement
    Magicka 1 (+ 312) - Health 3 (+375) - Stamina 1 (+ 187)
    We will be wielding Ahzidal’s Boots and Gauntlets, the Ebony Mail and Kohnahriik, combined with the shield Spellbreaker. A large health pool, a shield, spells, powers, passives and armour are the lines of defence that will create this tank-like monster.
    Shield Wall is mandatory, as it will end up contributing to the physical damage reduction for one of our stances. Magic Resistances will end up being capped out to the max due to Necromage infecting the Lord Stone and Magic Resistance 3/3 when they combine with the Agent of Mara passive.

    Alteration will also be crossed with Heavy Armor in order for us to attempt to hit the armour rating cap as well as create an even greater physical defence. Ancient Knowledge will act as a passive which will boost our armour rating. Seeker of Might will aid our physical defence and give us a pinch more attack power.
    Restoration’s purpose is to amplify Spellbreaker’s Ward and augment all our abilities through Necromage. Though it may seem like I am just giving this character a tiny push with it: The push is a truly colossal change.
    For those of you who also love the old manner of Quick-Reflexes + Slow Time, feel free to also use this combo, as it is upgraded by both Stability and Necromage. Also feel free to utilize Destruction lightning spells and create special moves of your own! Light-Footed is labelled with two little stars because it is unlocked through the Supreme Vampire Lord/Beast form glitch. Anything labled with one star in the tree is enhanced by Necromage.

    Upon the Ascension from Level 54 to 55, Make sure that all the Vampire Lord perks required are taken and you have completed the Supreme Vampire Lord/Beast Form Glitch. Once you take Vampire Lord again from Serana and then ascend to 55, Power of the Grave should kick in and grant you even more Health, Magicka and Stamina. Be wary though… You will have a double weakness to sunlight!


    Abilities
    So, here are all the Stances and a couple of Hammer-striking finisher’s to help you on your journey to dominance.

    Stance I: Decaying Fortitude (Defensive)

    Requires: Dual-casted Dragonhide, Berserk Rage, Secret of Protection, Necromage.
    This ability enters a stage of pure physical defense which slowly weakens over time. First, Dual-cast Dragonhide. Activate Berserk Rage followed by Secret of Protection. During the time you enter this stage, for 45 seconds, you will have a damage reduction of 99%, followed by 85%, followed by 80%.

    Stance II: Reaper’s Ward (Defensive)

    Requires: Shield Wall 5/5, Spellbreaker, Ward Absorb, Ahzidal’s Gauntlets of Warding, Atronach Perk, Magic Resistance 3/3, Agent of Mara, Lord Stone, Necromage.
    When you raise your shield you call upon the Reaper’s Ward. While having the passive magical resistances, you have two other magical shields. One shield absorbs 37% of all magical attacks, one shield absorbs 75% of all magical attacks separately from the 37%.

    Stance III: Night’s Terror (Offensive Magic/Melee Hybrid.)

    Requires: Lightning Cloak, Ebony Mail’ Cloak, Elemental Fury 3/3, Augmented Shock 2/2, Necromage.
    With the combination of wind, poison and lightning, we invoke the power of a vicious, acidic storm to enhance our melee prowess and decimate our foes with every slash our enemy takes. This is an all offensive stance and relies on speed.

    Stance IV: Dragon Talons (Offensive)

    Requirements:Dragon Aspect (1 word), Guardian Circle, Savage Strike, Seeker of Might, Necromage, Tower of Strength, Force without Effort.
    Giving into the half-draconic rage deep within your body, your arms become coated in dragon-like energies as you release a roar. After creating a ring of healing energies around you, your attacks now become standing power strikes that have enough force to cleave your foe in half, but you cannot leave the circle.

    Reaper’s Charge.

    Requirements: Backstab, Bladesman 3/3, Critical Charge.
    Reaper’s Charge is a deadly move that will devastate an enemy in the beginning of a battle. While in Stealth Mode, hold your sprint button then raise and lower your shield. This should execute a forward roll. Continue holding your sprint button and forward button, then hold down your attack button to execute the critical charge. Backstab helps deal x6 Critical Damage. Bladesman adds an extra 50% critical damage and Critical Charge will double that total. Use this sparingly, as this is a stamina intensive move. The critical damage may result in being higher than the normal damage of your weapon.

    Terror Blast

    Requirements: Soul Tear, Nightingales Strife.
    Let fly your rage in the form of a blood-filled howl and devour your enemies’ health and healing yourself for a great amount. This move is best conserved and used for MASSIVE groups of enemies, as it will be very handy and it has a large cooldown time.

    The stance combinations are:

    Death’s Bulwark

    Decaying Fortitude + Reaper’s Ward: After using Decaying Fortitude and raising your shield, this combination automatically kicks in. This is the easiest combination.

    Dragon’s Might

    Decaying Fortitude + Dragon Talons + Reaper’s Ward: So, a lot needed to be modified to pull this off, and it ends up costing a heavy amount of Magicka. First, use 1 word of Dragon Aspect, Dual-Cast Dragonhide, Cast Guardian Circle, and then follow up with Berserk Rage and Secret of Protection and raise your shield. This will make you stand in one place, followed by only able to use Standing Power attacks which will be enhanced by Decaying Fortitude.

    Night’s Dragon

    Night’s Terror + Dragon Talons: High-Speed Standing power attacks, AoE Damage and Healing. First use Dragon Aspect, then Lightning Cloak, then Guardian Circle, then Elemental Fury. This may have the shortest duration, but will have extremely powerful results.

    Aura of Dread

    Decaying Fortitude + Night’s Terror: My personal favourite, First Dual-cast Dragonhide, then cast Lightning Cloak and activate Berserk Rage. Activate Secret of Protection after shouting all three words of Elemental Fury. This combination can be built to rush into your enemies head on, dealing high amounts of damage per second as well as per quick slash. On top of that, you can take repeated attacks from enemies and continue to constantly strike enemies.

    Quests to Pursue

    • Beyond Death (Volkihar) -> Durnehviir
    • Unearthed -> Gives you Ahzidals Boots and Gauntlets
    • Boethia’s Calling -> Ebony Mail
    • Collecting all Dragon Priest Masks -> Gives you Kohnahriik
    • The Only Cure -> Spellbreaker
    • Darkness Returns - Agent of Strife -> Nightingales Strife
    • Rings of Blood Magic -> Ring of the Erudite
    • Forbidden Legend -> Gauldur Amulet
    • Destroy the Dawnguard -> Allows you to gain a new castle for your own purposes.

    Gameplay/Roleplay

    • Joining the Dark Brotherhood will yield great rewards and exorbitant amounts of money in order to own properties and unearth Ahzidal. It will also yield the benefits of having two new caves for bases at your disposal.
    • Joining the Thieves guild yields many more benefits than just Nightingales Strife. If you can become the master of the guild, you would gain access to different shops and more powerful potions
    • In Dawnguard, we will be joining the Vampires, as the Ring of the Erudite will grant us the magical power needed for our spells.
    • Obtaining the Gauldur Amulet will be of great use, and also a great challenge to obtain if you try to take it at early levels.
    • Joining the College of Winterhold will yield quick and easy access to all our Lightning Spells, and it will also help start the quest Forbidden Legends.
    • Roleplaying otherwise is truly up to all of you.
    • With all the guards that attack you on sight, feel free to sate your killing urges by engaging in blood-filled combat.
    • If you ever run into other Vampires -> OFF WITH THEIR HEADS! You are the only powerful vampire in existence so don’t be afraid to show your dominance.
    • Your fists can also be used as weapons, so don’t be afraid to use Decaying Fortitude before starting a brawl.
    • With all the perks given, you can also play as a Shield Mage, or use your shield and your fist. Feel free to experiment.
    • Stay at Stage 4 Vampirism, that way your character will be severely weakened during the day, keeping this build in good balance and much more vulnerable.
    • Stealth is optional, but is not mandatory. You can also utilize Shield Charge + Stealth combo to sprint everywhere silently and travel all throughout Skyrim.

    Closing Notes
    I aimed to impress and defy expectations with this one. AND I HOPE I DID! 
    That’s all I have for now! Take it easy and don’t go off the deep end like I did!
    Credits to Mason and his Sentinel builds for the inspiration!
    Credits to Anderson for his Supreme Vampire Lord/Beast Form glitch and allowing me to use it!: http://tamrielvault.com/group/glitches/forum/topics/supreme-vampire-lord-glitch
    A big thanks to everyone who helped me trim up and create this build when it was a Work in Progress.

  • October 14, 2015
    Good to see this out of the Workshop Bloodbane. This is definetly a good build and I'm glad you ended up finishing it. An easy +1 from me.
  • Member
    October 14, 2015

    I just finished everything up today and I am glad you like it! Thanks for all the help and support!

  • Member
    October 14, 2015

    Alright, the build now has a Gameplay/Roleplay and Quests to Pursue section. Forgot to add those XD 

  • Member
    October 14, 2015

    Looks cool.

  • Member
    October 14, 2015

    Thanks, and thank you for the like!

  • Member
    October 14, 2015
    I'm both loving and hating the build. The hating is only because I was working on a very similar build only wasn't using the Supreme Vampire. Hmm. Gotta try to make sure and make mine unique enough by comparison. I honestly love what you be done with this build and I think I'll try it out eventually. I do have one question. You mentioned an ultimate stance but you didn't elaborate on which it was.
  • Member
    October 14, 2015
    Cool build, glad it's out of the workshop. Btw this build would be a great enemy for a certain werewolf and a certain Orc warrior.
  • Member
    October 14, 2015

    The Stance Combinations are the "Ultimate Stances." You can find them towards the end of the Abilities section. I can't wait to hear your results with the build and I hope you have as much fun as I did.

  • Member
    October 14, 2015

    Oh really? I've made enemies already? Well then O.O