Skyrim Character Building » Discussions


Character Build: The Ridnen Rider

Tags: #Character Build Archer  #Character Build Witchhunter  #Character Build Assassin  #Rank:Mythic  #Race:Altmer 
  • Member
    June 14, 2013

    The Ridnen is back with a vengeance! Some badass DLC gear, and awesome skills and stones to boot!

    I felt it needed the revamp as it is my oldest and dearest build, beginning in 2002 with the original Neverwinter Nights. (Yes, I've been playing this build for over 10 years!)

    Anyhow, let's get this ultimate death-harvester of souls rolling....

    The Ridnen Rider

    "Courage, above all things, is the hand that nocks the arrow,

    Daring, is the assassin who lets it fly,

    Power, of such things, is the man of spells which beholds it,

    The Ridnen, is master of all three."

    Race: Altmer, Bosmer or Breton

    Major Skills: Archery, Illusion, Destruction

    Minor Skills: Light Armor, Block, Sneak

    Weapon/s:

    If you have the base game: Nightingale Bow (Highest Level Tier).

    If you have Dragonborn DLC: Dwarven Black Bow of Fate.

    If you have Dawnguard DLC: Auriel's Bow.

    If you have all DLC's: Decide; Auriel's Bow doesn't have many charges, and personally I think Nightingale's Bow has a better enchantment than Black Bow of Fate if you pick it up at Level 36+ (Does 30 Frost and 15 Shock damage if you pick it up at Level 46+)

    Armor: Nightingale &/or Apprentice Hood, Nightingale Armor, & Any Boots and Gauntlets

    Shouts: Slow Time, Drain Vitality, Soul Tear, Marked For Death

    Alignment: Chaotic Neutral

    The Build

    Possibly the ultimate focus point of the build is it's hybridity between arguably the two best schools of magic, and it's usage of the best (optionally both) bows that the build wields, and the interchangeability between illusionism and war-forging marksman tactics. Being able to fry your opponents or stick them in a block of ice is something of an added bonus for when they really tick you off though....

    The Ridnen's sneakiness allows you to pull off the most devastating combos and special moves incognito, seamlessly switching between undetectability at will. The Ridnen uses it's Light Armor skill whilst being a No-Craft build to maintain a impressive defense in the hardest of battles.

    The Apprentice's Many Faces

    There are downsides to a minority of the Guardian Stones, but used correctly, and they can be utilized for interesting purposes, namely play-weaknesses.

    With the Apprentice Stone you gain 100% magicka regeneration rate but increases your weakness to magicka by 100% aswell. You could argue it's balanced in terms of offense/defense, because it allows you to cast your own spells that much quicker.

    There are upsides though in terms of interesting playthroughs because of this:-

    • No matter how high a level you are, there is always something that can harm you greatly, meaning an interesting and different playthrough everytime, and facing off the most challenging of opponents you have a weakness to feels oddly empowering!
    • It automatically downsizes any overpowering effects within the build, meaning you can add other things that would be considered overpowerful on their own, but the weakness balances things much better.
    • It makes you fully aware of the precautions you need to take against certain enemies/traps, meaning you move slower through dungeons, extending play-time and allowing the character to advance and level slower, ultimately. Also good for roleplayers, as the slowplay makes for time to roleplay your character (eat and sleep appropriately etc. amongst other things).
    • It makes other non-combat skills (namely and primarily, Sneak) much more needed, and viable, and makes sneaking feel much less overpowered, even when coupled with the weapon damage increase perks like Deadly Aim, Assassin's Blade and Backstab.

    Through being a No-Craft build with a weakness, it allows an interesting playthrough, whilst still being viable and enjoyable. Builds with no weakness are not much fun, and become quickly overpowered at later levels, making you lose interest, but a weakness keeps the build fresh and diverse, but still playable through each and every level.

    - Level 55 Perk Placement -

    Stat Placement: Magicka 3 - Health 2 - Stamina 1

    Due to the main usage of Sneak, I was able to keep the perks from Illusion to a bare minimum, mainly being used to cast Invisibility and any other offensive spell right in front of the enemy without being detected, usually needed when you are so close to the enemy it renders Sneak useless, regardless of stealth ranks.

    Probably one of the best perks the build has is Deadly Bash. Mainly because a few of the Block perks apply to bows, meaning if you ever run out of arrows or magicka (both primary 'lifelines' of the build) it allows you to do 5x extra damage than the ordinary output with the selected bow, which greatly staggers faster moving enemies, such as Wraiths, amongst other atrocities, which are deceptively nifty.

    Early Archery perks are a must throughout lower levels, when magicka is something of a reserve still. Light Armor should be considered aswell around the same time due to worse defenses, and is easy to upgrade quickly due to there only being 2 perks, and costs a total of 6 levels to gain all ranks of both perks, but is especially worthwhile before, probably max, level 15.

    The skills Sneak and Archery aren't primarily used together, and when they are, quite sparsely. It can become overpowered due to the inclusion of Deadly Aim, but due to the magicka weakness, it is espically handy to use against magicka wielding opponents.

    Destruction, whilst heavily perked, is somewhat a considered bonus, yet makes for an interesting change to a otherwise Illusion schooled build, in the way of magicka utility, even with the inclusion of sneaky archery, otherwise being nothing more than a cliche build archetype, that of an assassin, precisely why I mixed it up, to make it more enjoyable and less 'lamestream', whilst still retaining the fun and sneaky suspense of the original assassin-type gameplay.

    Then again, without pouring hours of gameplay bent over a smelter or a blasted anvil, then considering the inclusion of being a No-Craft build, which cuts out these things entirely, when coupled with the play-weakness, is a light refreshment and original play-through to other illusion &/or archery themed archetypes of assassins; Especially when you start throw a bunch of badass lightning destruction spells in the mix, taking down your opponents and frying them around the battlefield when the build shall allow you to cast Fire/Lightning Storm at earliest convenience. When bearing in mind doing these things, it's the archery that feels like a 'side order' of your foes' death, not the destruction, or even the minority of the block perks, the apply to archery damage when using your bow as a melee weapon.

    All the perks works seamlessly and favoriting different spells from the Illusion and Destruction magic schools work extremely well, even when mid battle firing your bow. It's almost euphoric to be able to seamlessly switch between bow and magic to dice and decide your hapless opponents death, and this build thrives off of doing so in quick succession, thus allowing complete domination over your enemies.

    -Ridnen's Special Abilities-

    Soul Torn Inferno -
    Elemental Fire envelopes your enemies whilst ripping their souls out of their very maw. They're engulfed with the brazen gold flames for the last time...


    Requires:
    Soul Tear + Fire Storm


    Best Used Against -
    Undead/Frost-Based Enemies. (e.g Ice Wraiths and Draugr Deathlords)

     

    Draining Storm -
    A huge burst of magical white energy wracks through your foes' body, succumbed to begging for their life, writhing in the agony of your lightning call.


    Requires:
    Drain Vitality + Lightning Storm


    Best Used Against -
    Mages/Spellcasters (e.g Elemental Mages, Necromancers, Conjurers etc.)

     

    Slowing Blizzard -
    A huge cloud of blistering ice, slowly tears at the flesh of your enemies, whilst bones become brittle with the intense freeze over time.


    Requires:
    Slow Time + Blizzard


    Best Used Against -
    Fire-Based Enemies (e.g Fire Atronachs etc.)

    Now go kick some ass...

    ___

    Credits.

    Mason - For editing main build picture.

    Ponty - For helping with the explanation of implementing music autoplaying code.

    jeclxohko - Apprentice Stone picture from Deviantart.

    ESO Artwork + Trailer Producers - Pictures from both trailer and artwork used.

     

     

     

     

  • Member
    June 14, 2013

    Character Build: Ridnen Rider (Revamp) 

    But all in all, a good solid build, +1

  • Member
    June 14, 2013

    Nice work.

    Linky me the old one so I can remove it.

  • June 14, 2013

    Nice work Nelaf but seriously; Could you have any more tags?

  • Member
    June 14, 2013

    Here...

    Thanks for the like, too .

    P.S On an unrelated note, I only just heard about Mason retiring from making builds....is he going to still be on regularly? Haven't seen him in a few days now...

  • Member
    June 14, 2013

    For some reason they duplicated, and I can't get rid of the them, it's something to do with the official tags, and it's then duplicated the words inside each official one, plus my own.

    Cheers Twisted.

  • Member
    June 14, 2013

    Deleted the old one, and I don't think Mason is going to be around much, at least for a bit. Might wanna fix up those tags though, if you can't get it to work just let me know what official tags you want and I'll put them in

  • Member
    June 14, 2013

    Official Tags: "Character Build: Assassin", "Character Build: Witchhunter", "Character Build: Archer".

    Thanks for deleteing the old one mate

  • Member
    June 14, 2013

    You don't put the : in mate, it's just "Character Build Assassin"!

    I also put the rank tag in, it took me an excruciating 3 seconds

  • Member
    June 14, 2013

    Cheers though Ponty