About the Build
The inspiration for this build comes from a combination of a few things:
The Imperial Destruction Mage Mercenary Marcurio
The surprising fact that there is no pure battlemage focused build here
The absence of a Sellsword RPG in most builds (they all seem to have some purpose)
The general unclear definition that most have on the difference between Battlemage and Spellsword.
Therefore, the combination of these concerns have resulted in this build, in which the character in question is a battlemage, living the life of a sellsword. Fast paced elemental spell switching with various melee combo’s ensure that The Battlemage Sellsword is the pinnacle of what it hopes to achieve… a scholar that ends problems with either spell or sword!
Lore (Well, Not Really…)
So, this is the portion of my build where I usually give some sort of background story on who the character is what’s his story.However, for this build, this section will focus on the lore proper and an analysis of the makeup of a Battlemage against that of a spellsword, from Morrowind till Oblivion:
Now, from what I can see, here’s where the confusion lies. Players who have played morrowind and are playing skyrim or those who have no idea think it’s fine to equip heavy armor, max out that skill, wield a spell in one hand, a sword in another and simply rush headlong into a battle, tank damage, hit the enemy with destruction spells and call themselves Battlemages… sigh. There’s a lot more finesse to this build than that.
On the other hand, Oblivion came by and changed the concept of utilizing heavy armour for a battlemage, retaining the heavy armor skill only for sorcerer and spellsword, with battlemages now relying solely on cloth and flesh spells. Skyrim took it further and re-screwed it up by providing an unclear definition of the battlemage archetype + a Sandbox approach, which is at best, very vague, leaving to many different definitions on what a battlemage is (there are various blogs and entities like IGN proclaiming what their version of a battlemage is to be)
So we must first ask ourselves, given the sandbox nature of Skyrim , how can we go about emulating and further improving this constantly changing class? Luckily though, there are a few criteria that have been retained throughout the TES series for this class:
A Symphony of Magic and Melee – A core concept in most battlemage builds have a consistency of being a perfect arcane soldier. Seamless combat at any time and in any situation, A battlemage dispatches most foes with a fluid combination of Arcane spells and Acane Augmented melee strikes. Don’t be afraid to switch between pure spellcasting, pure melee and a combination of the both (Spell in one hand and weapon in other)
Armor is open to interpretation – Most builds of Battlemages out there come in both variants Armored and Unarmored. Whilst it doesn't really mater, you'd probably be able to take a hit or 2 on legendary and then you need to back off, else you’d be dead. Period.
Conjuration Tanking Preferred – Another core component in most battlemage builds, both in game builds and in the official build from Bethesda, most battlemages rely on their conjurations to distract foes whilst they attacks. It has however, evolved since it's morrowind concept to include various other daedra / dremora for adapting playstyles. Feel free to utilize them, depending on the situation.
Poisons and potions are essential! – Aside from you hybrid gameplay of Mage and warrior, using poisons is forms another core aspect of the battlemage gameplay. In skyrim, aside from their restorative effects, potions can be used to augment spells and poisons can be used to debuff enemies to increase damage taken. With the Dragonborn DLC, the focus can be mostly placed on the debuff concept as opposed to the direct poisons damage, with the introduction of the poison rune spell.
Melee and Magical Weapons – Most Battlemages NPC’s of lore have been known to utilize enchanted weaponry or carry a staff or 2 used in combat.. How and what kind of staves is utilized is up to the individual player, though enchanting your weapon for augmented melee damage is a must!
Therefore, taking the core gameplay of the battlemage, I have combined what i consider the best of both morrowind and Oblivion battlemage playstyle into this skyrim build.
This build includes content from Skyrim and its expansions, so Dragonborn DLC spoilers ahead! Ok, so now that we’re clear on the definition of a Battlemage, let’s move on the to the build proper
Perks:
The following perks for this build have been chosen:
Click here for the Perk Calculator version of it:http://skyrimcalculator.com/290670
With the breakdown below:
Major Skills: Destruction, Alteration, Conjuration
Destruction:Thunderbolt, Lightning Cloak, Ignite (DB) & Wall of Frost.
No brainer on this one! Forms the basis of most of your magic damage spells both far and at touch range
Alteration: Ebonyflesh, Dragonhide, Ash Shell, Detect Life / Dead (Situational)
This tree provides the much needed protecting to your cloth covered ass and also has core spells from the mysticism tree in Oblivions with Ash shell providing the perfect Crowd control for any situation.
Conjuration: Conjure Frost Atronach, Summon Ash Spawn
A very important component of this build, the spells used in this tree focus on the summoning branch of this build.
Minor Skills: Enchanting, One Handed, Restoration
Restoration: Poison Rune (DB), Close Wound
With Dragonborn DLC, Poison spells have been added this tree, making it a much desired spell to utilize. With Necromage perk added into the mix, close wounds is an added plus!
One Handed: Side Step Power Attacks, Standing Power Attacks and Dual Wield Power Attacks
Your warrior mode! Power Attacks and Dual Weild situation provide the perfect opputunity to apply poisons and stagger.
Enchanting: Cost reduction, Fortify One Handed, Resist Fire / Shock, Fortify Alchemy, Absorb Health / Stamina / Magicka & Fiery Soul Trap
Ahh, Enchanting. My Favourite profession skill. Used to reduce magicka cost on your own clothes and enchant normal items to sell it to vendors for high prices! However, there is also a use that though known, not many people seem to utilize… I will cover that in a bit.
On a separate note, having enchanted everything that you need to, it is advisable to refund your points by making this tree legendary (available only with DB) and slot those perk points into other areas, once you have the necessary gear enchanted.
Gear
As you can see, the asthetic of the gear synergizes really well, providing his earth and gold mixed colour, from the weapons used right down to the clothes worn. Non Dragonborn DLC users can still utilize such gear, perhaps at the cost of aesthetics I suppose.
For PC players, you can utilize a mod that allows you to wear a hood and circlet together, to roleplay the travelling sellsword. I’ve included a screenshot of that below to give you the general idea:
Either way, with hood or without, the aesthetics of this gear looks, imho, absolutely fantastic and one of the best looking combinations in this game in a long time.
Roleplay & Stats
Here are the stats to go along with when playing this build:
Race: Breton for their racial abilities
Stone: Levelling: Mage Stone / End Game: Lord's Stone
Stats: 5 Magicka / 5 Health / 0 Stamina for every 10 levels
Recommended Quests: Main Questline, College of Winterhold Questline, Dawnguard Questline, Book of Love, From the Ashes (DB), Unearthed, Dragonborn DLC main questline.
Roleplay wise, It’s fairly straightforward. You’re a battlemage turned Sellsword…An adventurer and if the price is right, a mercenary for hire.
Whilst how you treat the character’s history is completely up to you, my personal favourite is the Breton Adventurer who wandered and spent some time with the redguards in the mountains training in battle tactics and made his way to the college of winterhold to seek further knowledge in wielding the Arcane, just before getting ambushed at Skyrim’s border.
He then escapes and continue to search for work, laying low and seeking work where possible. Along the way, he finally reaches his destination, spends some time in college, gets mixed up in the college affairs, dealing with a power hungry thalmor mage, this nonsense of Dragons, vampires and a daedric princes who quite seem not to know what they really want.
Needless to say, he pick up a good amount of coin along the way and contracted Sanguinare vampiris, which he didn’t really want to cure due to the benefits of abilities and spells being augmented.
In Addition the following, although it may help greatly with what i consider with the immersion of the RP of this character as SellSword, it is solely optional:
Complete all Recommended quests – They’re part of your adventuring life. Go ahead, explore.
Always Look for work– Head down to tavern, ask around for rumours and work, hit up Jarl’s right hand guys and just generally help people, just cause you’re bored and looking for work.
Live a nomad’s life – Sleep in taverns until you have built enough gold to purchase a home. Then, purchase a home of your choice or if you have hearthfire, build it wherever you like. Take some time though in between jobs to sit down in the nearest taverns, eat & drink… if you’re in a city at night and have to wait for seeking audience with the Jarl, just “stoke the warm fire” at your local inn.
Owe No Allegiance: Aside from being the Archmage of the college of winterhold (really, you didn’t have any choice on that one..), Do not become the head of any other guild nor thane of any hold, though you can choose to join guilds for the occasional jobs, when the jobs given by the holds begin to bore.
You’re not a Bloodsucker: Seriously… you’re not. You’ve contracted Sanguinare vampiris and it’s a good thing for you… So stave off that urge to feed! You only want the perks of the disease not turn into a blood hungry monster!
Potions & Poisons
Remember I said that we will still be utilizing poisons & potions, though we lack the perks in alchemy? This is how this works:
By utilizing the cost reduction aspect of enchants, we can apply fortify alchemy on a separate set of clothing (remember to down an enchanter’s elixir located in the archmage quarters! I would highly suggest utilizing them before attempting any enchantment!) and utilize a bug with the Pentius Oculatus Helmet to provide a 5 slot Fortify Alchemy boost, amounting to 125%.
This means that essentially all potions and poisons will be 125% stronger and complete negation of the Alchemy tree can be achieved and still be able to create these powerful Potions and Poisons!
Below are the concoctions used in this build. Do note that it is highly advisable that greenhouses and hatcheries available with the hearthfire plug in is used, though these ingredients can be found in your adventures as well.
Combat
Though the combat for this build is fast paced and dynamic, due to the multiple flavours in which this build can be played, not all spells can be hotkeyed for PC users (you know, someone needs to really come out with a macro system for this game) and might be require some switching, depending on the situation (Ie: Usage of single target or AOE frost spells when dealing with Ash Spawn).
Therefore, unlike traditional mage gameplay, my variation of playing this build will focus on a combination of Melee, Fire, Frost, Shock, Ash and Poison spells and crowd control when faced with multiple mobs.
Needless to say, given the general strategies and gear employed in this build, this gameplay is best suited for legendary mode (About time… I was growing tired of master anyways… not challenging enough, even with mods to enhance combat and higher NPC difficulty).
Arcane / Melee Offense
Elemental Blast – A Strong Single target elemental attack that ravages your target!
Ignite (x5) + Thunderbolt + Ice Spear (Cast till exhaustion)
Vampiric Whirlwind – Melee strikes stagger foes, siphoning their vitality and trapping their soul
Lightning Cloak + Ignite + Wall of Frost + Poison of Weakness to Poison + Poison of Weakness to Magic + Poison Rune (DB) + Dual Wield Power Strikes
Razing Strike – Finish off foes with Blade and Magic!
Lesser Power: Bardic Knowledge + Lightning Cloak + Frost Atronach + Wall of Frost + Ignite + Thunderbolt + One Handed Power Strikes
Wyrm Ender – Your ultimate dragon Combo! Saps energy and strength, leaving them weak.
Ignite + Thunderbolt + Staff of Magnus + Drain Vitality Shout (All 3 words)
Arcane / Melee Defense
Archaic Knowledge – Arcane knowledge imbibes a strong resistance to all manner of attacks
Ebony Flesh + Dragonhide + Enchant: Fire Resist (37.5%) + Enchant: Shock Resist (37.5%) + Stage 4 Vampirism: Frost Resist (50%) + Racial: Magic Resist (25%) + Book of Love (15%)
Frost Shell – Encase you enemies in Ice and Ash to even the odds!
Dragonborn frost + Ice Shout + Ash Shell + Dual Cast Perk
Followers:
There are no followers for this build. You will need total reliance on your summons and skills to survive and take down foes.
Video:
Coming soon!
About the Build
The inspiration for this build comes from a combination of a few things:
The Imperial Destruction Mage Mercenary Marcurio
The surprising fact that there is no pure battlemage focused build here
The absence of a Sellsword RPG in most builds (they all seem to have some purpose)
The general unclear definition that most have on the difference between Battlemage and Spellsword.
Therefore, the combination of these concerns have resulted in this build, in which the character in question is a battlemage, living the life of a sellsword. Fast paced elemental spell switching with various melee combo’s ensure that The Battlemage Sellsword is the pinnacle of what it hopes to achieve… a scholar that ends problems with either spell or sword!
Lore (Well, Not Really…)
So, this is the portion of my build where I usually give some sort of background story on who the character is what’s his story.However, for this build, this section will focus on the lore proper and an analysis of the makeup of a Battlemage against that of a spellsword, from Morrowind till Oblivion:
Now, from what I can see, here’s where the confusion lies. Players who have played morrowind and are playing skyrim or those who have no idea think it’s fine to equip heavy armor, max out that skill, wield a spell in one hand, a sword in another and simply rush headlong into a battle, tank damage, hit the enemy with destruction spells and call themselves Battlemages… sigh. There’s a lot more finesse to this build than that.
On the other hand, Oblivion came by and changed the concept of utilizing heavy armour for a battlemage, retaining the heavy armor skill only for sorcerer and spellsword, with battlemages now relying solely on cloth and flesh spells. Skyrim took it further and re-screwed it up by providing an unclear definition of the battlemage archetype + a Sandbox approach, which is at best, very vague, leaving to many different definitions on what a battlemage is (there are various blogs and entities like IGN proclaiming what their version of a battlemage is to be)
So we must first ask ourselves, given the sandbox nature of Skyrim , how can we go about emulating and further improving this constantly changing class? Luckily though, there are a few criteria that have been retained throughout the TES series for this class:
A Symphony of Magic and Melee – A core concept in most battlemage builds have a consistency of being a perfect arcane soldier. Seamless combat at any time and in any situation, A battlemage dispatches most foes with a fluid combination of Arcane spells and Acane Augmented melee strikes. Don’t be afraid to switch between pure spellcasting, pure melee and a combination of the both (Spell in one hand and weapon in other)
Armor is open to interpretation – Most builds of Battlemages out there come in both variants Armored and Unarmored. Whilst it doesn't really mater, you'd probably be able to take a hit or 2 on legendary and then you need to back off, else you’d be dead. Period.
Conjuration Tanking Preferred – Another core component in most battlemage builds, both in game builds and in the official build from Bethesda, most battlemages rely on their conjurations to distract foes whilst they attacks. It has however, evolved since it's morrowind concept to include various other daedra / dremora for adapting playstyles. Feel free to utilize them, depending on the situation.
Poisons and potions are essential! – Aside from you hybrid gameplay of Mage and warrior, using poisons is forms another core aspect of the battlemage gameplay. In skyrim, aside from their restorative effects, potions can be used to augment spells and poisons can be used to debuff enemies to increase damage taken. With the Dragonborn DLC, the focus can be mostly placed on the debuff concept as opposed to the direct poisons damage, with the introduction of the poison rune spell.
Melee and Magical Weapons – Most Battlemages NPC’s of lore have been known to utilize enchanted weaponry or carry a staff or 2 used in combat.. How and what kind of staves is utilized is up to the individual player, though enchanting your weapon for augmented melee damage is a must!
Therefore, taking the core gameplay of the battlemage, I have combined what i consider the best of both morrowind and Oblivion battlemage playstyle into this skyrim build.
This build includes content from Skyrim and its expansions, so Dragonborn DLC spoilers ahead! Ok, so now that we’re clear on the definition of a Battlemage, let’s move on the to the build proper
Perks:
The following perks for this build have been chosen:
Click here for the Perk Calculator version of it:http://skyrimcalculator.com/290670
With the breakdown below:
Major Skills: Destruction, Alteration, Conjuration
Destruction:Thunderbolt, Lightning Cloak, Ignite (DB) & Wall of Frost.
No brainer on this one! Forms the basis of most of your magic damage spells both far and at touch range
Alteration: Ebonyflesh, Dragonhide, Ash Shell, Detect Life / Dead (Situational)
This tree provides the much needed protecting to your cloth covered ass and also has core spells from the mysticism tree in Oblivions with Ash shell providing the perfect Crowd control for any situation.
Conjuration: Conjure Frost Atronach, Summon Ash Spawn
A very important component of this build, the spells used in this tree focus on the summoning branch of this build.
Minor Skills: Enchanting, One Handed, Restoration
Restoration: Poison Rune (DB), Close Wound
With Dragonborn DLC, Poison spells have been added this tree, making it a much desired spell to utilize. With Necromage perk added into the mix, close wounds is an added plus!
One Handed: Side Step Power Attacks, Standing Power Attacks and Dual Wield Power Attacks
Your warrior mode! Power Attacks and Dual Weild situation provide the perfect opputunity to apply poisons and stagger.
Enchanting: Cost reduction, Fortify One Handed, Resist Fire / Shock, Fortify Alchemy, Absorb Health / Stamina / Magicka & Fiery Soul Trap
Ahh, Enchanting. My Favourite profession skill. Used to reduce magicka cost on your own clothes and enchant normal items to sell it to vendors for high prices! However, there is also a use that though known, not many people seem to utilize… I will cover that in a bit.
On a separate note, having enchanted everything that you need to, it is advisable to refund your points by making this tree legendary (available only with DB) and slot those perk points into other areas, once you have the necessary gear enchanted.
Gear
As you can see, the asthetic of the gear synergizes really well, providing his earth and gold mixed colour, from the weapons used right down to the clothes worn. Non Dragonborn DLC users can still utilize such gear, perhaps at the cost of aesthetics I suppose.
For PC players, you can utilize a mod that allows you to wear a hood and circlet together, to roleplay the travelling sellsword. I’ve included a screenshot of that below to give you the general idea:
Either way, with hood or without, the aesthetics of this gear looks, imho, absolutely fantastic and one of the best looking combinations in this game in a long time.
Roleplay & Stats
Here are the stats to go along with when playing this build:
Race: Breton for their racial abilities
Stone: Levelling: Mage Stone / End Game: Lord's Stone
Stats: 5 Magicka / 5 Health / 0 Stamina for every 10 levels
Recommended Quests: Main Questline, College of Winterhold Questline, Dawnguard Questline, Book of Love, From the Ashes (DB), Unearthed, Dragonborn DLC main questline.
Roleplay wise, It’s fairly straightforward. You’re a battlemage turned Sellsword…An adventurer and if the price is right, a mercenary for hire.
Whilst how you treat the character’s history is completely up to you, my personal favourite is the Breton Adventurer who wandered and spent some time with the redguards in the mountains training in battle tactics and made his way to the college of winterhold to seek further knowledge in wielding the Arcane, just before getting ambushed at Skyrim’s border.
He then escapes and continue to search for work, laying low and seeking work where possible. Along the way, he finally reaches his destination, spends some time in college, gets mixed up in the college affairs, dealing with a power hungry thalmor mage, this nonsense of Dragons, vampires and a daedric princes who quite seem not to know what they really want.
Needless to say, he pick up a good amount of coin along the way and contracted Sanguinare vampiris, which he didn’t really want to cure due to the benefits of abilities and spells being augmented.
In Addition the following, although it may help greatly with what i consider with the immersion of the RP of this character as SellSword, it is solely optional:
Complete all Recommended quests – They’re part of your adventuring life. Go ahead, explore.
Always Look for work– Head down to tavern, ask around for rumours and work, hit up Jarl’s right hand guys and just generally help people, just cause you’re bored and looking for work.
Live a nomad’s life – Sleep in taverns until you have built enough gold to purchase a home. Then, purchase a home of your choice or if you have hearthfire, build it wherever you like. Take some time though in between jobs to sit down in the nearest taverns, eat & drink… if you’re in a city at night and have to wait for seeking audience with the Jarl, just “stoke the warm fire” at your local inn.
Owe No Allegiance: Aside from being the Archmage of the college of winterhold (really, you didn’t have any choice on that one..), Do not become the head of any other guild nor thane of any hold, though you can choose to join guilds for the occasional jobs, when the jobs given by the holds begin to bore.
You’re not a Bloodsucker: Seriously… you’re not. You’ve contracted Sanguinare vampiris and it’s a good thing for you… So stave off that urge to feed! You only want the perks of the disease not turn into a blood hungry monster!
Potions & Poisons
Remember I said that we will still be utilizing poisons & potions, though we lack the perks in alchemy? This is how this works:
By utilizing the cost reduction aspect of enchants, we can apply fortify alchemy on a separate set of clothing (remember to down an enchanter’s elixir located in the archmage quarters! I would highly suggest utilizing them before attempting any enchantment!) and utilize a bug with the Pentius Oculatus Helmet to provide a 5 slot Fortify Alchemy boost, amounting to 125%.
This means that essentially all potions and poisons will be 125% stronger and complete negation of the Alchemy tree can be achieved and still be able to create these powerful Potions and Poisons!
Below are the concoctions used in this build. Do note that it is highly advisable that greenhouses and hatcheries available with the hearthfire plug in is used, though these ingredients can be found in your adventures as well.
Combat
Though the combat for this build is fast paced and dynamic, due to the multiple flavours in which this build can be played, not all spells can be hotkeyed for PC users (you know, someone needs to really come out with a macro system for this game) and might be require some switching, depending on the situation (Ie: Usage of single target or AOE frost spells when dealing with Ash Spawn).
Therefore, unlike traditional mage gameplay, my variation of playing this build will focus on a combination of Melee, Fire, Frost, Shock, Ash and Poison spells and crowd control when faced with multiple mobs.
Needless to say, given the general strategies and gear employed in this build, this gameplay is best suited for legendary mode (About time… I was growing tired of master anyways… not challenging enough, even with mods to enhance combat and higher NPC difficulty).
Arcane / Melee Offense
Elemental Blast – A Strong Single target elemental attack that ravages your target!
Ignite (x5) + Thunderbolt + Ice Spear (Cast till exhaustion)
Vampiric Whirlwind – Melee strikes stagger foes, siphoning their vitality and trapping their soul
Lightning Cloak + Ignite + Wall of Frost + Poison of Weakness to Poison + Poison of Weakness to Magic + Poison Rune (DB) + Dual Wield Power Strikes
Razing Strike – Finish off foes with Blade and Magic!
Lesser Power: Bardic Knowledge + Lightning Cloak + Frost Atronach + Wall of Frost + Ignite + Thunderbolt + One Handed Power Strikes
Wyrm Ender – Your ultimate dragon Combo! Saps energy and strength, leaving them weak.
Ignite + Thunderbolt + Staff of Magnus + Drain Vitality Shout (All 3 words)
Arcane / Melee Defense
Archaic Knowledge – Arcane knowledge imbibes a strong resistance to all manner of attacks
Ebony Flesh + Dragonhide + Enchant: Fire Resist (37.5%) + Enchant: Shock Resist (37.5%) + Stage 4 Vampirism: Frost Resist (50%) + Racial: Magic Resist (25%) + Book of Love (15%)
Frost Shell – Encase you enemies in Ice and Ash to even the odds!
Dragonborn frost + Ice Shout + Ash Shell + Dual Cast Perk
Followers:
There are no followers for this build. You will need total reliance on your summons and skills to survive and take down foes.
Video:
Coming soon!
