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Character Build: The Battlechief

Tags: #Character Build Illusionist  #Character Build Scout  #Character Build Alchemist  #Race:Argonian  #Rank:Mythic  #Hall of Fame Build  #Battlechief  #Proper Argonian  #Sanctus 
  • Member
    January 27, 2013

    After reading Vix's article:  Argonian Part 1: Culture and Society, I found myself intrigued with the Argonians. Thus, I set off to play my first Argonian! I wanted it to be a "proper" argonian. I wanted an Argonian that followed lore, taking advantage of the skills that the People of the Root are known for, while adding some unique items to make the playthrough more interesting. Many people see Argonians as a race that relies on stealth and trickery, but I assure you, they are capable of so much more...

    The Battlechief

    It's nearly every Argonian's goal in Soulrest to become Battlechief. Soulrest is the land that made the Battlechiefs famous for their strength, courage, wisdom, and tenacity. They are feared by those who know of their title, and even more so by those who have seen their prowess. Forged in battle by the deaths of both friends and foes alike, Battlechiefs are the scourge of the Black Marsh. They are Argonians, skilled in all aspects of combat and war. Be warned, for the first time you meet a Battlechief, may very well be the last.

     

    Racial Choice

    Argonian:

    In order to remain true to the lore, Argonian is the race for this build. They are able to resist diseases and breathe underwater. Once a day they may use their hitskin ability, and they gain a +5 bonus in Sneak and Light armor for the build.

     

    Major Skills

    Battlechiefs use one-handed weapons and shields, along with the powerful illusion spells that Black Marsh Argonians are known for.

    One-Handed: Main source of damage for Battlechiefs. With barbed weaponry in hand, the Battlechief feels like he is back in Argonia, slaying the various beasts and creatures that walk the marshy lands.

    Block: One cannot become a top warrior with nothing but simple offensive attacks. Even the ruthless Battlechief knows that defense keeps him alive longer than his foe, the key to victory. Even so, some spikes on the shield never hurt anyone...except the enemy.

    Illusion: Argonians in general are well known for their ability to cast illusion spells, illusion will be used as a bit of respite from the sword and board style of the Battlechief. Fear spells are your best friend, as anyone who knows the strength of a Battlechief, would certainly turn tail and run in hope that their life would be spared.

    Minor Skills
    Pure strength is not the only necessity for Battlechiefs. They must be able to craft powerful potions to keep themselves alive, as well as sneak behind enemy lines to cause disarray and destruction.

    Light Armor: In Argonia, you need to stay light to avoid sinking into the marshes. Light armor is also ideal for geurrilla warfare.

    Sneak: To continue with the "proper" Argonian theme, the Battlechief will be adept in the art of sneak. Sneak also goes well with geurrilla warfare, of which Argonians are famous for.

    Alchemy: The plants in the Black Marsh are abundant, so any Argonian who wishes to become a Battlechief must be able to concoct potions that keep both leader and men alive.

     

    Standing Stones
    The Lady:

    A true soldier of the swamps, your body is trained to heal itself faster in order to remain in combat.

     

    Equipment

    Again, remaining true to lore, the Battlechief wears a common armor type in Argonia. A set of armor that I found is surprisingly underused for it's strength and looks. A perfect fit!

    Chest: Scaled (Horn) Armor. Scale armor is one of the armors of choice for Argonians native to the Black Marsh. Scale Horn Armor is obtainable through different blacksmiths and adds a goat skull on the left pauldron of the Scale Armor set.

    Hand: Scaled Gauntlets. The matching glove to Scale Armor.

    Feet: Scaled Boots. The matching boot to Scale Armor.

    Head: Scaled Helmet. The matching helmet to Scale Armor.

    Neck: Best enchanted necklace you can find. If you have Dawnguard I suggest using the Locket of Saint Jiub, as it counts as light armor AND gives a hefty +50 boost to stamina!

    Finger: Ring of Namira. Many Argonians that are native to Argonia become cannibals or are born into cannibalistic families. The extra stamina is a huge plus aswell as the added health regen!

    Weapon: Forsworn Sword. In the Black Marsh, Argonians use barbed swords. In Skyrim, the Forsworn Sword is the perfect match and looks great with the Scaled Armor set as well.

    Shield: Targe of the Blooded. A nice scary shield and completes the look! It goes well with the barbed Forsworn Sword as it has a few barbs of its own.

    The Build

    All of the inspiration for this build came from my desire to play an Argonian. It has taken me this long since the release of Skyrim to finally find a concept I can work with, and its a very simple concept as well - an 'above average, typical' Argonian. Skyrim has also blessed me in the way that they have perfect gear and items for this character! The armor, the weaponry, skills and capabilities, everything in the game translated perfectly into the creation of this build.


    Targe of the Blooded! A deadly shield that can allow the Battlechief to dish out insane amounts of damage while completely stun-locking the opponent. Be warned, very few are capable of such destruction with nothing but a wooden shield...Thanks to the testing of Nikolaj Poulsen, it has been confirmed that bashing with Targe of the Blooded and the Deadly bash perk, you will do 12.5 damage per bash + the 15 damage from the bleed. Though the numbers may seem small, this shows just how deadly Targe's bleed effect is compared to other shields that won't get nearly as much damage out of bashing.

     Argonians are known for their geurilla warfare. Geurilla warfare is in it's very definition: The use of hit-and-run tactics by small, mobile groups of irregular forces operating in territory controlled by a hostile, regular force. Hit and run tactics are very easy to accomplish in 1-on-1 combat by simply circling your foe while constantly attacking. You can also run in and unleash several power attacks before casting invisibility and dashing out of the scene of combat. The mobility factor goes hand-in-hand with the light armor skill and it's amazing Windwalker perk. You are the irregular force operating on hostile territory, you are an Argonian operating in Skyrim, home of a large number of racist Nords who would love to do none other than slaughter you and the rest of your kind.


    Now we move onto the Battlechief's skillset. After looking at the aforementioned skillset, some of you may be thinking that this is your run of the mill Argonian assassin with illusion and sneak that uses a powerful warrior look as a cover-up, and you may be right IF you do nothing to counterbalance the insane effects of combining both sneak and illusion. There's a rather simple way to do this, keep your magicka at it's base amount. Keeping your magicka at just 100 makes using your spells very tactical, you need to use them at the right time, and be accurate with them because a missed spell with limited magicka can be a very costly mistake. Another thing that is very important to note, is that with 100 skill in illusion and the perks taken up to expert illusion you are able to cast all novice-expert illusion spells with 100 magicka. Invisibility costs 99 magicka after obtaining these prerequisites.

    Level 50 Perkspread
    0/1/1 (Until 250)
    So as you can see by the perk spread above, the Battlechief is a skirmishing, geurilla fighter. The block perks are all very helpful and improve survivability and some cool offensive moves and tactics. One-Handed is the mian offensive of the build, while light armor is the armor focus. Alchemy is used for healing while sneak and illusion are there for RP. Most Argonians are skilled in illusion and sneak, whether they be masters or novices depends. I didn't use sneak a whole lot for anything other than to add something new to combat, and I used a similar tactic with Illusion. I focused on muffle and fear spells in the illusion tree, pretending that foes fled in terror at the sight of a Battlechief charging into their camp.

    Special Moves

    Argonian's Weak Arm

    The Battlechief's "weak" arm bashes the foe, stun-locking them while stacking bleed damage from the many spikes of Targe.

     

    Requires: Deadly Bash + Targe of the Blooded 

     

     

    Absolute Terror

    The Battlechief charges into a room, at the sight of this monsterous creature, all foes forget their weapons and attempt escape...However they never heard the tales, nobody escapes a Battlechief.

     

    Requires: Disarming Bash + Fear + Shield Charge

     

    Aegis of Shadows

    While hiding behind the foe, the Battlechief rolls into him/her sending them flying and paralyzed, open for an assault from the Battlechief's barbed sword.

     

    Requires: Silent Roll + Shield Charge 

     

     

    Notes

    1.) Scaled Horn Armor cannot be improved - Scaled Armor can

    2.) Not all Argonian Lore has been completely defined so this build was made out of what I found.

    3.) Huge thanks to Vix, who unknowingly helped me with this simply by writing his Race articles.

    4.) Another massive thanks to Emer Dareloth who talked over some of the Argonian Lore to make sure I got everything about Argonians as close as possible.

    5.) A third thanks to Nikolaj Poulsen for getting the bashing numbers!

    Hope you enjoy! Please like and comment to help me improve this and future builds!

     

     

     

     

  • Member
    January 27, 2013

    The asterisk above -  "Enchanting your weapon with an elemental damage enchant (i.e. Fire damage, Ice damage, Lightning damage) will also imbue your shield with that element and damage boost*"

    It's been hard to test and it seems as if the damage has been transferring over but it's difficult for me to tell.

  • Member
    January 27, 2013

    Yes, I see now that is difficult to understand. Thanks for pointing that out, i'll try to make it more obvious! Thanks for the support aswell!

  • January 27, 2013
    Really good build! +1
  • Member
    January 27, 2013

    Awesome build! I love the lore and the straightforward Argonian approach, very cool.

    I was looking at your calculations for shield bash damage. I don't think it is quite the numbers you gave. In my experience, shield bashing does much less than base AR. I have read on different forums that some calculated it doing base AR/8. I am not sure if this is the case, but that would mean a damage bash of 2.5, power bash of 7.5, and deadly bash of 7.5, and deadly bash around 35+. Of course, I am on xbox so my testing capabilities are slim. Block is one of my favorite skills, so I am heavily invested (especially for upcoming builds myself) to find out the workings of the skill.

    +1 from me!

  • Member
    January 27, 2013

    I'm very unsure about that one too, and it really disappoints me that I'm unable to truly calculate my bash damage. I'm not sure if the damage is coming from enchants, bleed, or physical damage. So for the most part, i've been stuck trusting UESP.

  • Member
    January 27, 2013

    Yeah same. Having given some tries at a shield basher build, which someone already beat me to it I think, I had a tough time figuring out specifics. People would be interested to see, even on Master, shield bashers can really dish out some serious damage! Maybe I will get to revamping the idea. The elemental damage being added is also something I have played around with, and for me it never "triggered" or maybe not any magic animation.

    But your build, it really ties it together. I love the artwork too! Presentation is great. Great representation of an Argonian warrior.

  • January 27, 2013

    I started working on the numbers as soon as I read the build Ben, and you spelled my name wrong.

    The bash numbers you come up with seem incredible, but I can unfortunately tell you that it's not quite right.

    Here's the rundown.

    • Bash damage is increased by base shield armor and block skill.
    • Bash damage is increased by 0.05 damage per armor point.
      • Iron does 1 point of damage (20 base armor).
      • Daedric does 1.8 points of damage (36 base armor).
    • Each block skill increases bash damage by 1.5% for a total of 150% at 100 block.
      • Iron does 2.5 points of damage at 100 block.
      • Daedric does 4.5 points of damage at 100 block.
    • Enchanted weaponry doesn't affect block damage.
      • Tested with an iron sword of embers, cold and sparks (3 different swords).

    Targe of the Blooded does the same damage as iron (same base armor), meaning at 100 block with deadly bash, you deal out 12.5 points of damage per bash.

  • Member
    January 27, 2013

    Thanks a bunch for these numbers Nikolaj, I'm glad you got the numbers but disappointed that they aren't the numbers I was hoping for. I will update the build with the numbers you provided shortly. Again, huge thanks for these, this should help a lot of people.

  • January 27, 2013

    If you're interested in a formula it goes like this.

    Base Armor * 0.05 * (1 + Block Skill * 0.015)

    Nice build by the way, I really like this take on a warrior. +1