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Character Build: The King of Winter

Tags: #Race:Nord  #Character Build Juggernaut  #Character Build Enchanter  #Rank:Exemplar 
  • Member
    March 9, 2013

     

    "The Ice Blade of the Monarch is truly one of Tamriel’s most prized artifacts. Legend has it that the Evil Archmage Almion Celmo enchanted the claymore of a great warrior with the soul of a Frost Monarch, a stronger form of the more common Frost Atronach. The warrior, Thurgnarr Assi, was to play a part in the assassination of a great king in a far off land, and become the new leader. The assassination failed and the Archmage was imprisoned. The Ice Blade freezes all who feel its blade."―Yagrum Bagarn, Tamrielic Lore

     

    WARNING: This build uses HEAVY Dragonborn DLC content.

     

    The King of Winter

    Some know of an ancient warrior who bargained with Archmage Almion Celmo to trap the very essence of Winter itself within his blade. The Archmage obliged the warrior, on the condition that he slew one of his rivals, a king of a neighboring land. The warrior failed in his mission, and the Ice Blade of the Monarch was lost. In the eyes of most scholars and historians, the story ends there, however, the Skaal of Soltheim have a different tale. They tell of a prophesy in which a warrior will become “The King of Winter”, and become the leader of the “people of the ice”. Most dismiss this tale as a variation on the story of the Snow Prince, and it lies obscure and almost forgotten even by the Skaal themselves. One day, a young boy from the tribe went fishing with his father on the sea. There must have been some sort of accident, and the tribe never saw the boy or his father again.....


    Hodar Whitewater was found as a child on the shores of Dawnstar. He was close to death, but was seemingly unaffected by the temperature of the water, as he was only harmed by some sharp object which had left a large gash on his face. He grew up around the town as a on again, off again dock worker. Once the Civil War broke out in Skyrim, he fled to the south-east so as to join the Stormcloaks, but just as he came upon a recruiting party they were captured by Imperials and he found himself being led to his death, totally ignorant of the destiny that awaits him.....

     

    Race: Nord

    Stone: The Lady Stone

    Major Skills: Two Handed, Block, Enchanting.

    Minor Skills: Heavy Armor, Smithing, Destruction.

    Weapons: A crafted Stalhrim Greatsword enchanted with both Frost Damage and Chaos Damage

    Armor: All Carved Nordic except for the helm, which will be Dukaan. Helm comes with an enchantment, the enchantments on the armor should focus on

    1. Reducing the cost of destruction spells
    2. Capping resist magic at 85%

     


    These milestones are important to reach in this order

    If you have enchantments to spare, focus on stamina and health if possible

     

    Shouts: Ice Breath, Ice Form, Soul Tear. Once "Dragonborn Frost" is selected as your shout improvement during the Soltheim main quest, Ice Breath becomes an improved Ice Form, eliminating Ice Forms usefulness

     

     

    The Build (Level 50)

    This character is a frozen monster whose mastery over the blade and his godlike weapon destroy his enemies with the cold, unfeeling brutality of winter itself.

    His years as a dockworker unloading and loading ships full of precious cargo has exposed him to many powerful enchantments. He spent his youth trying to replicate them and is a skilled enchanter. His job often required for nails or other tools to be made to repair ships, so he can work a forge.

    Once he reaches Soltheim, on a quest for revenge after being attacked by mysterious masked men, he meets his people, the Skaal. He adopts their armor, which he finds instinctively comfortable. 

    His travels eventually brought him to an ancient tomb, where he slew the ancient evil Dukaan. He found himself drawn to the ancient mask of this dragon priest, and began to wear it at all times.

    His obsession for the ice grew, and he eventually came across the Ice Blade of the Monarch on Soltheim. During his travels, he became the Chief of the Rieklings of Thirsk, fulfilling the prophesy of the King of Winter.

    Level 50

    Two Handed: Barbarian 5/5, Champion’s Stance, Deep Wounds 3/3, Devastating Blow, Great Critical Charge, Sweep, Warmaster.

    Heavy Armor: Juggernaut 1/5, Fists of Steel, Cushioned, Conditioning, Well Fitted, Tower of Strength.

    Enchanting: Enchanter 5/5, Fire Enchanter, Frost Enchanter, Storm Enchanter, Extra Effect.

    Block: Shield Wall 5/5, Quick Reflexes, Power Bash, Deadly Bash, Disarming Bash.

    Smithing: Steel Smithing-Ebony Smithing

    Destruction: Novice Destruction, Augmented Frost 2/2, Deep Freeze, Augmented Flames 2/2, Augmented Shock 2/2.

     

     

    Comments on Gameplay

    The King of Winter is a wreaking ball. His power comes from his weapon. With proper perks, gear to reduce cost of destruction, and enchanted enchanting from gear and potions, frost damage and chaos damage is magnified well over 100%. With a Legendary Stalhrim Greatsword, this weapon hits hard enough to far eclipse the Ice Blade of the Monarch from Morrowind.

    Having a Warrior of Winter (Riekling follower) with you makes even the toughest of bosses easy with properly blacksmithed and enchanted gear to reach both armor and magic resist cap.

    This build is focused on absolutely maximising the damage done by the enchantments on the blade. Chaos Damage benefits from all the perks, Dukaan, and the Stalhrim material. Frost damage is enhanced through destruction perks, Dukaan, and the Stalhrim material as well.

    Leveling destruction can be difficult, however, this can be bypassed by visiting a destruction trainer as often as possible until one reaches a skill level of 60

     

    Health, Stamina, Magicka


    The optimal spread of stats is (out of every five levels) 3 in health, 0 in magicka, and 2 in stamina.

     

    Essential Quests

    Dragonborn storyline. The Chief of Thirsk Hall

     

    Comments

    This is my return to character building. The success of my Dark Summoner Build made me want to immediately create more builds, however life and school got in the way. I should release a few more builds in the future, especially during the summer. I have a few ideas and will begin work on those, but if you guys have any requests, feel free to mention them in the comments below.

    I did use Masons amazing Alik'r Build as a platform in terms of layout. All of the content in this post however, is my own work.

    Thanks for reading this! Feedback of any sort is appreciated, as it will help me refine future builds.

  • Member
    March 9, 2013

    I had thought about possibly coming up with an Ice Queen at some point.  I think this fills that quite well and looking forward to giving it a try sometime soon.  +1

  • Member
    March 9, 2013

    Thank you very much :)

  • Member
    March 9, 2013

    A good build, I very much like the theme. Just a few things:

    • The pictures you have are good, but a couple more would make for a nicer presentation.
    • Dragonborn Frost would fit this very well, you might consider mentioning it.
    • You don't have armor enchantments suggested, besides saying generally magic and elemental resistance, you should spell out what enchantments to put of your chestpiece, gauntlets, boots, etc.
  • Member
    March 10, 2013

    Thanks for the feedback!


    - Will do, I should have some more pictures added by tomorrow evening

    - WOW awesome suggestion on the Dragonborn Frost! Ill be honest, had NOT seen that before, normally went for unrelenting force upgrade, will defiantly edit that in!

    - Oversight of mine, ill add enchantment section tomorrow with the images. This is a format from my old build, I will edit the template to include enchantments for future work

  • Member
    March 10, 2013

    Sounds great! I'll be sure to check back in a day or so.

  • Member
    March 10, 2013
    If this is a level 81 build (for some reason) then why no alchemy? All of those perks pale in comparison to the damage boost you'd get from fortify destruction potions plus fortify twohanded potions. If your goal is to maximize elemental damage (which is what you claim when you say "absolutely maximizing") and this is a level 81 build (which ou listed it as) thus meaning you're getting 100 alchemy at some point, I don't understand why you aren't using potions. Even with just basic 100% alchemy gear you can boost your melee damage by 120% and your elemental damage by 150%. Knowing you're able to get chaos+frost on a stalhrim weapon that does over 200 damage and assuming your sword does over 100 damage (it's likely much more), you're leaving at least 400-500 damage off of your overall damage. I'm not suggesting its needed, but if your goal is to maximize the elemental damage, as you claim, then perhaps you should add potions in...even if you just use the basic 75% fortify potions.
  • Member
    March 10, 2013

    Oops 0_0 you just spotted an error of mine 

    Its actually a level 50 build, or I would have used alchemy

    The level 81 is something I forgot to change from my last build, I will edit that right now thank you!


    Also, yes you are right, alchemy at 100 with this = insta-death to everything pretty much, this is intended as a lvl 50 build, so I had to cut corners somewhere

    for a level 81 King of Winter, alchemy is heartily recomended 

  • Member
    March 10, 2013
    If its only level 50 then that makes total sense.
  • March 10, 2013

    Ooo nicely nicely with the Ice Blade of the Monarch!! (Damn you forever, I'd been quietly saving that one)

    Maybe include some levelling advise for destruction, getting that to 60 with no magicka can be pretty tough so I guess you're using trainers. Other than that it looks very solid and fun... +1