Hello Skyrim Blog! This is my first build, so any constructive criticism is appreciated. If you have any ideas/suggestions be sure to leave them down below. I'll be formatting this build like some of the more popular ones on the site.
*THIS BUILD CONTAINS DLC SPOILERS*
Now that the formalities are out of the way, let's begin.
The Rune Master
Runes, runes, everywhere
Build Overview: The idea for this build came from Miraak's awesome staff. I thought it would be fun to combine that with something like a frost rune and some paralyze spells to just shut down an enemy before they even reach you, and I built it up from there. The wall spells are also a crucial part, as they offer area denial and good DPS.
Race: I used Altmer for the +50 magicka boost, and highborn combos really well with become etheral.(more on that later). Other good races are Breton and Dunmer.
Standing Stone: Start out with the mage, then when you feel your skills are high enough switch over to something like the Lord. Surprisingly, the serpent was very good. I used it until my Alteration was high enough for Paralyze. It's kind of a love/hate thing though.
M:H:S Ratio: My recommendation is 1:1:0. If you feel like you have enough magicka and cost reduction gear, you may want to just go straight with health, but I wouldn't recommend this until you are a good way through the game.. We're using clothes, so stamina is unnecessary.
Follower: Go with a melee tank, such as a housecarl or one of the mercenaries.
Good quests/quest lines- College of Winterhold, Dragonborn quest line, Main Quest, Civil War (either side)
Major Skills:
Destruction- The centerpiece of the build. Choose two elements to get the augment perks in. I preferred frost runes for the slow down effect, and used fire as a backup against things that resisted frost, such as draugr. Be sure to grab the rune master perk (of course) and up to adept. Expert may be used at higher levels. I personally love using the wall of frost spell, because it slows enemies down and gives you time to lay down more runes or perhaps let your magicka regen.
*aspect of terror from the illusion tree can also be used to buff fire damage
Alteration- This build heavily invests in Alteration for two purposes- Paralysis and armor. Paralyzing an enemy while they are in a wall of frost, getting mauled by your conjured beings, and are surrounded by runes is a satisfying feeling. Key perks are pretty much everything except Atronach(it interferes with conjuration spells), while master is optional.
Conjuration- Used to summon atronachs and dremora lords to finish off trapped enemies. Don't use dremora lords every fight, or you will find yourself running out of magicka at the most inopportune times. Key perks are up to expert and everything up the atronach side to twin souls.
Minor Skills:
Enchanting- Fairly self explanatory, used to enchant your robes/clothes. Key perks are 5/5 in enchanter, corpus, insightful, and if you hit 100, extra effect.
Restoration- Mostly just used for healing. I did experiment a bit with poison runes, and I'd definetly give them a go before brushing them aside. If you decide to become a vampire, which is fairly beneficial to this class, be sure to grab necromage.
Important spells: Frost Rune, Fire Rune, Wall of Frost/Fire, Paralyze, Conjure Dremora Lord/Atronach, Ebonyflesh
Imagine falling on that.... Damn....
Useful Shouts:
Slow Time- Oh so good with frost runes. Gives you time to set up your runes, use paralysis or conjure something- you name it, Slow time will help you do it. This shout is the Swiss Army Knife of Skyrim.
Frost Breath- With the Dragonborn Frost ability, this thing turns into an upgraded ice form. Great for when you need a breather to heal, but also good utility during combat. It can be used on higher level opponents to take them out of the fight, or
Become Ethereal- Serves the same purpose as frost breath, gives you a breather against a large group of enemies. Combos well with highborn, letting you get a safe and quick magicka regen so you can jump right back into battle.
Equipment:
Staff of Miraak: What the whole build is based off of. Basically a mini-rune launcher. Get it as soon as possible.
Dragon Priest Staff: An interesting option I have been experimenting with recently.Unfortunately, there isn't one for Wall of Frost. Opening Combat with this instead of a wall spell itself can be a HUGE magicka saver.
Sanguine Rose: Same principle as Dragon Priest Staff, especially because of the big magicka drain of dremora lords.
Armor/Clothing: The rest of your clothes are up to you, just remember no armor. Recommended enchants are to fortify one or two schools of magic so the strain on your magicka pool is lessend, along with elemental resists. Fortify Magicka regen never hurts. If you are using necromage, an amulet of Talos is a good option.
Roleplaying: RP'ing is very open ended on this build, it mostly depends on race. The build isn't really based on roleplay, but if I had to make a character based on the combat style, I'd say he/se is an extremely methodical person who always plans 2 steps ahead, and will never take a risk until it's carefully calculated.
Combat: Open up with ebonyflesh, dual cast. Use slow time, and plant runes around enemies feet. Use a paralysis spell, and proceed to summon a Dremora or Atronach. Follow it up with wall of frost to utterly decimate any enemies still left. If you are either out of or want to conserve magicka, use Miraak's staff. Alternatively you can just open up combat with the staff, and proceed to use the other spells later. The great thing about this build is that it has different options for every situation, but requires a tactical and fast thinking mind.
Special Moves:
Minefield: Requires- Slow Time + runes
The Slow Time Shout provides a perfect way to get set up with your runes. As your enemies hopelessly blunder around like snails, you can surround the ground around them with runes of your choice. After slow time ends and they brainlessly charge you, the runes you set at their feet will blow, insta-killing them.
(If you decide to invest in the illusion tree, a fear spell can be used to cause them to run right into your runes. Ah. the joys of mind manipulation!)
Mass Cremation: Requires- Wall of Flames + Paralyze/Mass Paralysis and Become Ethereal
Quite simple, really, set up a wall of fire, and as your enemies blunder towards you simply zap them all with a paralyze spell, and laugh as they hopelessly burn into charred hunks of flesh. If you are feeling truly evil (and have gotten master alteration), you can go ahead and use Become Ethereal to give you time to use Mass Paralysis, effectively annihilating an entire room. If you feel like speeding up their inevitable demises, then a couple of Dremora Lords don't hurt (For you, of course. For the unlucky sod being attacked by a hulking demon lord carrying a flaming death sword while he's being burned alive and can't move, it does hurt. A LOT.).
Scenes of chaos such are not an uncommon sight with this build, as burning draugrs hopelessly attack your conjured beings
Perk Build- Level 25 | Level 50
Well, that's it. Hope you enjoyed.
EDIT 1- Corrected some minor typos and word choices. Added perk build for Level 25, as requested.
EDIT 2- Removed Marked for Death. While it's useful for helping your followers, it just isn't that great for a magic based character. More updates/edits on the way.
EDIT 3- Overhauled RP section, corrected typos, and added two new staves to Equipment Section. Also added two special moves, more to possibly come.
Hello Skyrim Blog! This is my first build, so any constructive criticism is appreciated. If you have any ideas/suggestions be sure to leave them down below. I'll be formatting this build like some of the more popular ones on the site.
*THIS BUILD CONTAINS DLC SPOILERS*
Now that the formalities are out of the way, let's begin.
The Rune Master
Runes, runes, everywhere
Build Overview: The idea for this build came from Miraak's awesome staff. I thought it would be fun to combine that with something like a frost rune and some paralyze spells to just shut down an enemy before they even reach you, and I built it up from there. The wall spells are also a crucial part, as they offer area denial and good DPS.
Race: I used Altmer for the +50 magicka boost, and highborn combos really well with become etheral.(more on that later). Other good races are Breton and Dunmer.
Standing Stone: Start out with the mage, then when you feel your skills are high enough switch over to something like the Lord. Surprisingly, the serpent was very good. I used it until my Alteration was high enough for Paralyze. It's kind of a love/hate thing though.
M:H:S Ratio: My recommendation is 1:1:0. If you feel like you have enough magicka and cost reduction gear, you may want to just go straight with health, but I wouldn't recommend this until you are a good way through the game.. We're using clothes, so stamina is unnecessary.
Follower: Go with a melee tank, such as a housecarl or one of the mercenaries.
Good quests/quest lines- College of Winterhold, Dragonborn quest line, Main Quest, Civil War (either side)
Major Skills:
Destruction- The centerpiece of the build. Choose two elements to get the augment perks in. I preferred frost runes for the slow down effect, and used fire as a backup against things that resisted frost, such as draugr. Be sure to grab the rune master perk (of course) and up to adept. Expert may be used at higher levels. I personally love using the wall of frost spell, because it slows enemies down and gives you time to lay down more runes or perhaps let your magicka regen.
*aspect of terror from the illusion tree can also be used to buff fire damage
Alteration- This build heavily invests in Alteration for two purposes- Paralysis and armor. Paralyzing an enemy while they are in a wall of frost, getting mauled by your conjured beings, and are surrounded by runes is a satisfying feeling. Key perks are pretty much everything except Atronach(it interferes with conjuration spells), while master is optional.
Conjuration- Used to summon atronachs and dremora lords to finish off trapped enemies. Don't use dremora lords every fight, or you will find yourself running out of magicka at the most inopportune times. Key perks are up to expert and everything up the atronach side to twin souls.
Minor Skills:
Enchanting- Fairly self explanatory, used to enchant your robes/clothes. Key perks are 5/5 in enchanter, corpus, insightful, and if you hit 100, extra effect.
Restoration- Mostly just used for healing. I did experiment a bit with poison runes, and I'd definetly give them a go before brushing them aside. If you decide to become a vampire, which is fairly beneficial to this class, be sure to grab necromage.
Important spells: Frost Rune, Fire Rune, Wall of Frost/Fire, Paralyze, Conjure Dremora Lord/Atronach, Ebonyflesh
Imagine falling on that.... Damn....
Useful Shouts:
Slow Time- Oh so good with frost runes. Gives you time to set up your runes, use paralysis or conjure something- you name it, Slow time will help you do it. This shout is the Swiss Army Knife of Skyrim.
Frost Breath- With the Dragonborn Frost ability, this thing turns into an upgraded ice form. Great for when you need a breather to heal, but also good utility during combat. It can be used on higher level opponents to take them out of the fight, or
Become Ethereal- Serves the same purpose as frost breath, gives you a breather against a large group of enemies. Combos well with highborn, letting you get a safe and quick magicka regen so you can jump right back into battle.
Equipment:
Staff of Miraak: What the whole build is based off of. Basically a mini-rune launcher. Get it as soon as possible.
Dragon Priest Staff: An interesting option I have been experimenting with recently.Unfortunately, there isn't one for Wall of Frost. Opening Combat with this instead of a wall spell itself can be a HUGE magicka saver.
Sanguine Rose: Same principle as Dragon Priest Staff, especially because of the big magicka drain of dremora lords.
Armor/Clothing: The rest of your clothes are up to you, just remember no armor. Recommended enchants are to fortify one or two schools of magic so the strain on your magicka pool is lessend, along with elemental resists. Fortify Magicka regen never hurts. If you are using necromage, an amulet of Talos is a good option.
Roleplaying: RP'ing is very open ended on this build, it mostly depends on race. The build isn't really based on roleplay, but if I had to make a character based on the combat style, I'd say he/se is an extremely methodical person who always plans 2 steps ahead, and will never take a risk until it's carefully calculated.
Combat: Open up with ebonyflesh, dual cast. Use slow time, and plant runes around enemies feet. Use a paralysis spell, and proceed to summon a Dremora or Atronach. Follow it up with wall of frost to utterly decimate any enemies still left. If you are either out of or want to conserve magicka, use Miraak's staff. Alternatively you can just open up combat with the staff, and proceed to use the other spells later. The great thing about this build is that it has different options for every situation, but requires a tactical and fast thinking mind.
Special Moves:
Minefield: Requires- Slow Time + runes
The Slow Time Shout provides a perfect way to get set up with your runes. As your enemies hopelessly blunder around like snails, you can surround the ground around them with runes of your choice. After slow time ends and they brainlessly charge you, the runes you set at their feet will blow, insta-killing them.
(If you decide to invest in the illusion tree, a fear spell can be used to cause them to run right into your runes. Ah. the joys of mind manipulation!)
Mass Cremation: Requires- Wall of Flames + Paralyze/Mass Paralysis and Become Ethereal
Quite simple, really, set up a wall of fire, and as your enemies blunder towards you simply zap them all with a paralyze spell, and laugh as they hopelessly burn into charred hunks of flesh. If you are feeling truly evil (and have gotten master alteration), you can go ahead and use Become Ethereal to give you time to use Mass Paralysis, effectively annihilating an entire room. If you feel like speeding up their inevitable demises, then a couple of Dremora Lords don't hurt (For you, of course. For the unlucky sod being attacked by a hulking demon lord carrying a flaming death sword while he's being burned alive and can't move, it does hurt. A LOT.).
Scenes of chaos such are not an uncommon sight with this build, as burning draugrs hopelessly attack your conjured beings
Perk Build- Level 25 | Level 50
Well, that's it. Hope you enjoyed.
EDIT 1- Corrected some minor typos and word choices. Added perk build for Level 25, as requested.
EDIT 2- Removed Marked for Death. While it's useful for helping your followers, it just isn't that great for a magic based character. More updates/edits on the way.
EDIT 3- Overhauled RP section, corrected typos, and added two new staves to Equipment Section. Also added two special moves, more to possibly come.
