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Character Build: The Aetherial Mystic

Tags: #Character Build Illusionist  #Character Build Nightblade  #Character Build Assassin  #Rank:Mythic  #Illusionist  #Assassin  #Nightblade  #Dwarf  #Aetherial  #Dwemer  #Absorb  #Energy  #Mystic  #Void 
  • Member
    April 14, 2013

    The dwemer were warriors and mages they said, they had no assassins they said. Well, more accurately I said that, but I’ve nonetheless made a sneaky dwemer. Both Dawnguard and Dragonborn are required to play the mystic. This build is quite novel in its gameplay as well. The aetherial mystic utilizes the dwarven black bow of fate, Keening, and the aetherial shield; all powerful focal tools for absorbing and transmuting energy. Plain vampires and normal enchanters can drain health, stamina, and magicka separately, but only the mystic can drain them all simultaneously! Illusion and stealth confound your enemies while you drain their energies. Alteration allows the mystic to absorb excited magical energies in addition to passive magicka. The mystic then can use this magical power to fortify its own defense or paralyze its foes.

    The Aetherial Mystic

    In life the mystic was a dwemer and lived in the city of Kagrumez. There it conducted its expiriments it lost its gender, identity, and form when its magics went awry, expelling its spirit into the swirling void. Thousands of years alone in the vast emptiness of the Void, a sentence that would have maddened anyone else, and yet not the mystic. It studied the Void learned how to manipulate energies. Things like health, stamina, and magicka became a trifle to absorb, project, and transmute. Even immense bodies of energy like powerful spells and souls became easy to absorb and manipulate. Blood to magic, magic to strength, strength to foreign blood. The transmutation became second nature, and in turn the mystic became transfiguration itself.

    As powerful as it was, old hatreds can overcome even the mystic. Spirits of those tormented and killed by the dwemer society in life sought out the mystic in the Void. Though it was not personally responsible for their fate they still drained the mystic of its energies. They then used that health, stamina, and magicka to open a portal to Mundus into which they cast the mystic. The mystic then found itself captured by some form of soldiers in a northern mountain range. Even devoid of its former power the aetherial mystic is a aetherial, incorporeal being, and consequently was able to slip away easily. It knew nothing of the world, nor the soldiers that had captured it. It did not sense any other mystics in Mundus at all, in its absence the school of mysticism seemed to have died out. It did sense three powerful artifacts, Keening, the dwarven black bow of fate, and the aetherium forge. It set out to find these mystical objects and with them absorb all of the energy it had lost, and perhaps even more from this world.

    Summary

    Race: Altmer Vampire

    Stone: Atronach

    Skills: Sneak, Archery, Enchanting, Illusion, Alteration, Restoration, & Block

    Stats: Follow 2 - 3 - 3 in magicka - health - stamina (the altmer 50 extra magicka within that)

    Equipment: Dwarven Black Bow of Fate, Keening, Aetherial Shield, Skeleton Key, & The Black Star

    Clothes: Hooded Black Robes, Thalmor Gloves, Dunmer Shoes, Amulet, & Ring

    Quests: College of Winterhold, Arniel’s Endeavor, Thieve’s Guild (Stop at the end of Blindsighted to keep the Skeleton Key), Dragonborn Main Quest, Volkhair Main Quest, Blood of the Ancients, Lost to the Ages, The Black Star, Black Book: The Sallow Regent, & The Book of Love

    Passives: Agent of Mara, Blood of the Ancients (temporary blessing), Champion of the Night, Meditate: Become Ethereal, Night Stalker’s Footsteps, Seeker of Sorcery, & Weakness to Sunlight

    Powers: Highborn & Vampire’s Sight

    Shouts: Aura Whisper, Become Ethereal, Clear Skies, Dragon Aspect, & Slow Time

    Spells: Calm Spells, Equilibrium, Flesh Spells, Healing Spells, Invisibility, Mass Paralysis, Muffle, Paralyze, Rage Spells, Soul Trap, Summon Arniel’s Shade, & Vampiric Drain

    The mystic is even powerful enough to soul trap a dragon!

    Skills

    Sneak: The Mystic is primarily an assassin and, as such, needs to sneak around. Backstab doesn’t feel exploitive since Keening only does 8 physical damage x 15 = 120. This way the playstyle never becomes stale. Stealth arrows are fairly damaging, dealing three times normal damage. This makes higher quality arrows, such as daedric, desirable to use in assassinations, as they have a higher damage, yet are less common. With the shadow warrior perk crouch and cast invisibility to disappear very effectively from your enemies’ sight.

    Archery: The black bow is a large part of this build and archery makes it usable in open combat, when you are detected. The zoom and slow time perks are very useful and should be used frequently. The black bow’s absorb stamina effect will make extended zoom somewhat more sustainable.

    Enchanting: A imperative skill of the mystic’s, enchanting is its power to take souls from enemies and use that energy to empower itself. The destruction enchantments are simply for eliminating the enchantment cost of Keening & the black bow. Use the other listed enchantment until you can achieve 100% cost reduction (25% on chest, amulet, feet & ring) and as each piece of gear’s second effect. The dunmer shoes are used simply to allow the mystic to use the hooded black mage robes while still retaining 100% destruction cost reduction. Here are the enchantments:

     

    Chest:  Destruction & Illusion

    Hands: Archery & Magicka

    Feet: Destruction & Magicka (see above)

    Amulet: Destruction & Alteration

    Ring: Destruction & Magicka

     

    Illusion: The mystic’s power to bend the energies within other creatures and control them. Invisibility and muffle are used to sneak. Rage and calm spells can confuse enemies while you assassinate them. Vampirism makes all illusion spells 25% more effective and the master of the mind perk allows them to work on summoned creatures, undead, and automations.

    Alteration: Alteration provides the mystic’s armor, paralyze spells, as well as magical defense. Flesh spells should be used whenever you are detected. Paralyze spells allow you to temporarily neutralize an enemy. The stability perk increases the duration of not only flesh spells, but also paralyze spells and slow time by a factor of 1.5. Mage armor perks are a high priority, with all three you can get a full 300 armor, all with no armor skills, smithing, slower, or louder movement.

    Restoration: Used to convert magicka energy into health and stamina, the respite perk allows the latter effect. 

    Block: Lightly used for the aetherial shield, it is somewhat useful for blocking ranged attacks while swinging Keening in the main hand. Bashes are its main use, they will make an enemy invulnerable as well as fear them for 15 seconds.

    One Handed: Dagger strikes will level this skill, don’t place any perks in it as it’s unimportant.

    Perks

    35 - 5581

    The picture shows the level 81 perks. The mystic always casts magic in the offhand, with Keening in the main hand, therefore the dual cast perks go unused. The master illusion and restoration spells are not used by the mystic, so those perks are unnecessary, but mass paralysis is, so the master alteration perk is quite useful, dragonflesh is not used. The block perks allow the mystic to block ranged attacks as well as melee attacks with the aetherial shield in open combat. No weapons are enchanted, therefore the elemental enchanter perks are useless to the mystic.

    Equipment

    Dwarven Black Bow of Fate: A mysical bow with a 50% chance to absorb each health, stamina, and magicka. It normally burns through its charge in a mere 22 shots, but with 100% destruction cost reduction the bow will never lose charge. Quick Shot will dramatically increase its damage output. 

    Keening: An ancient and powerful magical dwemer dagger. DO NOT use it until you reach 100% destruction cost reduction enchantments or its power will be lost forever, as it only technically has one charge, and cannot be recharged. With the reduction it will absorb 10 points of each health, stamina, and magicka with each hit, making it better to use normal swings, rather than power attacks, in open combat.

    Aetherial Shield: An otherworldly shield made of aetherium, bashing with it banishes enemies to become ethereal for 15 seconds. It can affect an unlimited number of foes simultaneously. The effect is like become ethereal and fear mixed, as the target runs away and is ethereal for the duration.

    Skeleton Key: An timeless aetherial artifact, use its energy to seamlessly open locks.

    The Black Star: A conduit for soul energy, use it to level enchanting and recharge the black bow before reaching 100% fortify destruction.

    The mystic utilizes dwemer tools to augment its transmutation powers.

    Passives

    Agent of Mara: 15% magic resistance.

    Blood of the Ancients: A temporary blessing that causes your vampiric drain spell to absorb magicka and stamina as well as health. It’s duration can be elongated by 2 days with each completion of the repeating quest blood of the ancients.

    Champion of the Night: 25% stronger illusion spells as a vampire.

    Meditate: Become Ethereal: Regenerate health 25% faster when ethereal.

    Night Stalker’s Footsteps: Sneaking as a vampire is is 25% stealthier.

    Seeker of Sorcery: 10% cost reduction to all spells and 10% boost to enchantment power.

    Weakness to Sunlight: Stunted health, magicka, and stamina regeneration in the sun and 60 less of each energy. A Bloodcursed arrow fired into the sun with Auriel’s Bow can prevent this, but is not an essential part of the build.

    Powers

    Highborn: 4 times faster magicka regeneration for 60 seconds. Use to enrage or calm many enemies in an instant.

    Vampire’s Sight: Toggle-able night vision that lasts 30 seconds if not canceled, used for dark assassinations.

    Shouts

    The mystic in full aetherial spell armor.

    Aura Whisper: Used to detect enemies; see their life energies through the dark. Particularly helpful when using the black bow.

    Become Ethereal: Used to cast master spells, escape dangerous combat situations, and survive lethal falls.

    Clear Skies: Used at night for uninterrupted stargazing, purely for aesthetic purposes.

    Dragon Aspect: Used for open combat when detected, this shout will harden your armor by 100, increase fire and frost resistance by 25%, increase power attack damage by 25%, decrease shout cool downs by 20%, and increase shout power or duration by various magnitudes.

    Slow Time: Used for intense melee combat with Keening.

    Spells

    • Calm Spells: Use while in stealth to pacify a target that detects you.
    • Equilibrium: Use to convert health into magicka, the health cost will be higher on higher difficulties.
    • Flesh Spells: Use to armor yourself in combat.
    • Heals: Use to convert magicka into health and stamina with the respite perk.
    • Invisibility: Use to sneak very effectively.
    • Mass Paralysis: Use to paralyze a large group of enemies at once. Lasts 15 seconds normally, 22 with the stability perk.
    • Muffle: Use to sneak silently.
    • Paralyze: Use to immobilize a single enemy for 10 seconds, 15 with the stability perk.
    • Frenzy Spells: Use to make enemies fight each other or a fleeing enemy turn and face its doom.
    • Soul Trap: Use to absorb the incorporeal soul energy, essential to a mystic’s skill set.
    • Summon Arniel’s Shade: Use to augment your open combat capabilities when you are outmatched.
    • Vampiric Drain: Use with Keening to drain more energy than with Keening alone.

    Gameplay

    Cast your highest level of flesh spell, muffle, and invisibility before sneaking into combat. Depending on the situation and how likely you are to be detected use either the black bow or Keening to assassinate your foes. When arching in darkness aura whisper greatly helps you see your target. Frenzy spells are useful for distracting pursuers from your trail. If you’re detected while sneaking up to attack with Keening you can use a calm spell to pacify your attacker and resume the assassination. While sneaking aetherial shield bashes can remove an enemy from the equation, allowing you to focus on another.

    When detected use the black bow to drain enemies from afar or Keening with the aetherial shield to enter melee combat. Rage spells are ideal for out and out combat, as they turn your enemies into weapons. Aura whisper helps aim dramatically while using the black bow. In a melee be sure to maintain your flesh spell, least you take a hit completely unarmored. If you get low on health in combat and need to heal you have several options. Slow time helps you land many hits with Keening in a short amount of time, thus draining a huge amount of energy from your foe, casting vampiric drain in the offhand can expedite this process. Aetherial shield bashes can function like fear spells to grant you a little breathing room as well as block melee and ranged attacks effectively with the appropriate perks. If all else fails become ethereal and run away to heal.

    Attributes

    The combination of the atronach stone, atronach Perk, magic Resistance Perk, and agent of Mara passive grant you 80% spell absorption and 45% magic resistance. Spells will power you more than they hurt. This will make vampire’s weakness to fire all but irrelevant. Vampirism gives the mystic an invaluable 25% boost to both sneak and illusion, making it a powerful tool. The mystic is permanently a stage 4 vampire, so no feeding. This is done to maintain the highest power of vampiric drain, if this spell becomes ineffective at higher levels or difficulties then stop using it and feed to maintain stage 1 vampirism. With a costless Keening and black bow being the mystic’s primary weapons, it is able to absorb literally infinite amounts of health, stamina, and magicka. Equilibrium and healing spells with the respite perk allow the mystic to convert these energies; health into magicka with equilibrium or magicka into health and stamina with healing spells.

    Potions

    The mystic was not an alchemist, these potions are just useful to buy for a combat boost.

    Fortify Archery: Boosts the physical damage of Keening and the black bow.

    Fortify Destruction: Increases the power of the drain effects of Keening, the black bow, and vampiric drain.

    Abilities

    Assimilation: Keening + Vampiric Drain + Blood of the Ancients + Equilibrium

    Cast vampiric drain while swing Keening quickly; don’t use power attacks. Blood of the ancients will cause vampiric drain to absorb magicka and stamina as well as health. Use this combination to recover all energies quickly. Switch from drain to equilibrium to recover magicka for any spell you need to cast, but be careful, as you can kill yourself with it.

     

    Seeker: Aura Whisper + Potion of Destruction + Dwarven Black Bow of Fate + Zoom

    You sense the aura of other’s life energy, seek it out and add it to your own reserves.

     

    Rage: Flesh Spell + Keening + Rage Spell + Aetherial Shield

    When discovered you go into a rage, strengthening your defenses. Use a rage spell to set enemies upon one another and aetherial shield bashes to fear and make enemies invulnerable. With the deflect arrows and elemental protection perks you can use the aetherial shield to block ranged attacks.

     

    Vibrance: Become Ethereal + Paralyze or Mass Paralysis + Keening

    Immobilize your foes, then drain them of their energy while they lie helpless. Use paralyze for a single foe and mass paralysis for numerous enemies. If you chose mass paralysis then precede it with one word of become ethereal to protect yourself while casting.

    Absolution: Dragon Aspect + Slow Time + Potion of Destruction + Keening

    Slow time to a crawl and strike with many quick swings, don’t use power attacks. The potion will improve Keening’s drain effect. This allows you to regain a large amount of energy very quickly. Precede with dragon aspect to lengthen slow time’s duration.

    Leveling & Training

    As soon as you exit Helgen Keep visit the shrine of Talos massacre to get some Thalmor garb. Your first quest priorities should be acquiring the dwarven black bow of fate and Keening. Kagrumez resonance gems are found in Fahlbtharz, Nchardak, and Revus Sarvani, the Silt Strider merchant. You’ll need 4 for the black bow. Once you have 2 go to Kagrumez and kill the reaver lord for another 2, then complete the trials and claim your prize. I found the trials very difficult, I suggest hiding in the entry way and picking off the spiders, spheres, and ballistas in stealth. To attain Keening you have to complete the College of Winterhold questline, otherwise the final stages of Arniel’s Endeavor won’t be available.

    Prioritize leveling enchanting to 100 early on, train it as much as possible 0-50, before it gets expensive. Enchanting and selling items will earn you so much money that training is advisable simply to make use of all that gold. The Black Star is very useful for leveling enchanting, especially at higher levels. Taking the star and a soul trap-enchanted dagger or bow to an area with black-souled enemies and an enchanting table is a great way to power level. Exploit Faendal to train archery 1-50 early on. Train alteration and restoration after enchanting, repeatedly cast muffle to power level illusion. Later on train block to reach the higher perks.

    Roleplaying

    • You are not dragonborn, but your mystical powers allow you to absorb dragon souls and use them to fuel special magics that bend the fabric of reality (shouts).
    • Similarly you are not a vampire for RP, you can just drain energy as part of your powers, and therefore the Volkhair clan sees you as a vampire like themselves. Following this, never feed or drink blood potions.
    • Drain energy from any sources available, that is to say, all living and undead beings.
    • Live in the Tower of Mzark, it is your conduit to the stars.
    • Use no followers or summons but Arniel’s Shade.
    • Use clear skies often at night to show your connection with the void.

     

    Credits

    Thanks to Skalvar for helping me out in testing the effect of destruction potions on Keening and the Dwarven Black Bow of Fate’s drain effects. Further thanks goes to anyone who reads and/or likes the build. A lot of effort and testing went into the aetherial mystic, therefore any feedback or criticism is much appreciated.

     

    If the Aetherial Mystic struck your fancy, then feel free to check out the rest of

    My Builds

     

     

     

     

  • Member
    April 15, 2013

    Wow! This is bloody good Sean! +1 and it's going on my page under 'favorite builds.'

  • Member
    April 15, 2013

    Count my like to the list BUT it is WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY to indepth.

    Also archery is a thief skill.I got a bit bored reading it as there was SOOOOOOOO much text. Instead of fishing around the net for pictures you can just ask someone in the art group for some awesome screenshots.

  • Member
    April 15, 2013

    I did, then a month passed and here we are!  The summary, enchantments, gameplay, attributes, leveling & training, and abilities sections are the most informative if you're skim-reading.

    @Nelaf I'm glad you liked the build so much.

    I encourage anyone to try playing it, it may be a chore to train up enchanting to 100% destruction cost reduction, but it is so worth it, as both the bow and Keening have unlimited uses, it really feels like a new playstyle.

  • Member
    April 15, 2013

    This is an awesome build, but I do agree with scout to a degree. It's a bit overwhelming. I don't know why but it just seems that way. It's odd to see a build with the Aetherial Shield. All of the builds I've seen on this site use The crown or staff. +1 overall, man! Great build!

  • Member
    April 15, 2013

    This is a well done solid build. I really enjoyed it and am glad to see the final product. Its quite interesting because your photo you posted a while ago of the star map of TES inspired my latest build. +1

    Hope this gets more attention

  • Member
    April 15, 2013

    Hehehe, me too. I'm glad that the photo helped you, I had been thinking of this build since approximately a week before I posted it. I suppose that I just took a bit longer to play-test and write it all up. I'm glad you liked the build!

  • Member
    April 16, 2013

    What parts exactly are too lengthy?

  • Member
    April 16, 2013

    He means that this build has been fleshed out very well and conveyed your thoughts as well as you wanted them to. To be honest though I have no clue, maybe all the bad builds have finally just the right amount of content.

  • Member
    April 16, 2013

    I'd say that the text length is OK to say the least  The length he may refer to, is an overall length of the build. Some of your images can be made smaller to make the whole build more compact and focus reader's attention on the text rather than on images. I didn't see your post in Art group, if you want I can help with screenshots