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Event Build: The Poison Purge

Tags: #Character Build Monk  #Character Build Alchemist  #Character Build Unarmored  #Race:Argonian  #Rank:Event Mythic  #Hall of Fame Build  #Event:Classes  #Dragonborn1721 
  • Nao likes this
  • July 18, 2014

    A monk with no match, A Poisoner with no equal but most importantly a deranged lunatic who plays with flowers and animal parts, hearts and salt and rips the wings off of butterflies with no remorse. Or at least that’s what I imagined this guy as when I was playing him. I wanted a new way to play a monk that doesn’t revolve around Enchanting or Gauntlet Stacking.

    So without anymore pointless talking let’s move on to the Build.

    “Deep in the swamps of Black Marsh there is a small chapel. This chapel never has more than one person praying in it and has no rooms for living, the shrine in the shape of a Dragon who some believe to be Akatosh, but I know the truth about that shrine and it is a mildly disturbing one for it holds within it the worshipping of Daedra. If you turn left at the entrance and crawl down a hole you’ll find yourself in a room full of doors. Black Doors, Green Doors, Wooden Doors and Doors made out of vines. To your left you will see two green doors an Black Door made out of vines. The second wooden door leads further inside. There you find the true nature of the shrine, a secret training facility for Monks that worship the Daedric Princes Namira and Peyrite. They train to be able to deliver poisons with a quick dagger strike and then hide the dagger to either look like a random citizen or finish their enemy of with Claws or Fists.”

    “And that is where I come in; I was Grandmaster of these Monks. I was the one who went out in the middle of the night to find new disciples to join us, those that were considered Evil, Daedra Worshippers, Thieves and even Assassins. Our guild lasted in secret for over 200 years until very recently. We let in a competent Assassin named Vazeera who rose in our ranks quickly.  He was one our most trusted operatives who assassinated our enemies. Five months ago he left the guild unexpectedly and before we could catch up to the traitor and kill him, the An-Xileel got a tip from someone about out chapel, they attacked us, burned our home and killed all of the other Monks leaving only me. I have chased Vazeera throughout half of Tamriel trying to finish him off but he has eluded capture each and every time. But now it’s different he has settled in with the Dark Brotherhood in Skyrim and rarely leaves on missions. I will kill Vazeera as soon as I can but first I need to revive the cult and start up a new chapel in Skyrim.”

     

    Body and Head; Hooded Monk Robes.

    A set of these can be found at the shrine of Talos near Helgan on the body of a Monk. You could swap this for the basic Monk Robes and walk around with no headwear, either way you’re not enchanting it so it’s a personal choice.

    Hands: Mystic Turning Gloves

    These Gloves are simply some of the best looking Gloves in the game, they give a nice aesthetic to the build and aren't ridiculously bulky or boring looking like most other pairs. 

    Feet:  Pleated Shoes

    You can find two pairs of these shoes in South Shriekwind Bastion and can occasionally buy them from Radiant Raiment but they’re extremely rare so the Shriekwind Bastion ones are a better option.

    Ring: Ring of the Beast/ Namira’s Ring

    The Ring of the Beast is our primary ring here, and the one that gives this character a massive increase to his damage. Namira's Ring is perfect for a more resilient version if you wished to play it that way. 

    Shield:  Spellbreaker

    Artifact of his most worshiped Daedric Prince and gives him a little survivability against Mages get this bad boy as soon as possible, once you do combat is so much easier against them. 

    Weapons: Nettlebane or Wooden Sword

    I used both just to get a feel for them and throughout the whole game enjoyed using the Wooden Sword just because it felt so weird, Nettlebane seemed to fit  the theme of a ceremonial dagger more though.

    Restoration: My first Defensive perk and honestly one of the most useful skills throughout the entire play through. That of course doesn’t mean I overlooked some of the other spells in the Restoration tree. Stendarr’s Aura made me feel like a complete badass running in with my fists blazing. Key perks were the Novice-Expert perks, Respite and Recovery.

    Sneak: And another defensive Skill for me, or at least that’s how I used it. Sneak attacks weren’t a priority with this character while staying alive certainly was. I tried making this a tad more challenging by keeping sneak attacks to a minimum and it made the game a lot more interesting. Key Perks are Silence and Shadow Warrior.

    Alchemy: Ah the key factor of this entire build and hopefully what sets it apart from other Monks. I used Alchemy for both potions and poisons (never would have guessed) but utilized poisons much more. My only problem was when it came to delivering said poisons, I’m hopeless with Pickpocket so that wasn’t an option and I felt Archery would be a bit like cheating (even though Marksman was a skill in Morrowind) so instead I took a page from Diablo 3’s Witch Doctor who deals with a lot of poisons and gave him a Ceremonial Dagger to use. Experimenter fit his personality extremely well in my opinion a slightly crazy, revenge seeking Argonian who spends his time eating random flowers and antlers, Yep Perfect. Key perks were Experimenter, Poisoner and Green Thumb.

    Block: Yeah this section is completely dedicated to Lozhar for giving me some amazing information that I didn’t know about (you guys might but I never delved into bugs? I guess.) You can block with your hands. Like damn son, with your bare hands, Battleaxe coming towards you nope screw you bandit block. All you have to do to activate the Fist-Blocking is have your shield favourited and then un-equip it through the favourites menu so you've got nothing equipped and bam you're blocking with your bare hands. And what’s better is you can use this with Quick Reflexes and the Bashing. Of course I felt that I couldn’t %100 abuse this so he has Spellbreaker as well. Key Perks are Elemental Protection, Power Bash and Deflect Arrows.

    Speech: To be completely honest this started out as me having a lot of Perks to fill and I felt that cheaper prices were the best option available. But then I thought of something, if I’m hunting a Dark Brotherhood member I might need to grease some pockets so it actually fit as a Roleplay Skill. Key Perks were Bribe and Master Trader

    One-Handed (Unperked): Completely unperked and only used to inflict deadly poisons on my enemies.

     

    Physical Attackers:  Physical Attackers are incredibly simple to deal with, but on the other hand they’re also the most dangerous for you to fight. Fighting them by rushing in can work but will lead to your death 9/10 times.  Sneak up until your close enough to strike them with your dagger, inflict your poison and then sneak away again. After that it’s a combination of Poison Runes for them to run into and smashing them with your fists and dodging as often as possible.

    Mages: Mages are really easy because of Spellbreaker which can be retrieved as early as level 12, simply walk up to the Mage (try and dodge as often as possible anyway) and then hit them until they die. You can also use poisons that damage Magicka and Magicka Regen and then have them swap to their dagger and then follow the usual rules, Punch, Punch and Punch.

    Archers: Dodging arrows early on is fairly easy and it only gets easier once you get the Deflect Arrows Perk, but dodging  is still important for when you can’t get you shield up or get surprised by an Archer because your fighting another enemy.

    Dragons: With Dragons you fight them as if they were a combination of Mage and Physical Attacker. When they use their breath attack Spellbreaker works extremely well to protect yourself. When they land is when they get tricky. Dragons do a whole lot of damage against The Poison Purge because of his low AR and low damage. Not to mention that Poison Runes and Poisons don’t affect Dragons. This doesn’t leave you with many options and I recommend running away, very far away and possibly lead them to a Town (you don’t care about these people so they can die.)

    Spells: Healing, Fast Healing, Sun Fire, Close Wounds, Poison Rune, Stendarr’s Aura and Grand Healing.

    Shouts: Marked for Death, Whirlwind Sprint and Ethereal Form.

    Basically these shouts are designed so that you take a minimal amount of damage in combat. Marked for Death Is used to deal more damage and you should use it at the start of a battle and then dodge as often as possible to allow the effects of Marked for Death to take full effect.

    Standing Stone: The Serpent.

    Yeah I have a weird liking for the Serpent which most people seem to hate. But it really seemed to fit the build really well. The 25 damage isn’t spectacular and making a better poison is easy enough but the paralysis effect can be extremely useful, even though poisons can do the same the ability to have a ranged version is extremely useful in certain situations.

    Vampire Lord :With the Ring of the Beast which increases your unarmed damage by 20 points even in human form you should be doing about 40 damage. This becomes even better when we use the Vampire Lord form it becomes even more powerful. According to the UESP (I can't test the information myself so any correction is appreciated, Vampire Lord deal more 5 more damage every 5 levels starting at 11-15 with 5 and then increasing to 40 at level 50. 

    The Base Damage is then increased by the Ring of the Beast and Poison Talons, this means at level 50 we can hit 80 damage with it scaling down by 5 every 5 levels. This hits a low of only 40 at levels 1-10. 

     

    I picked my Poisons and Potions mostly for ease of access rather than best effect so I could have a large variety of them. Other potions not on this list include Restore Health, Restore Magicka, Restore Stamina, Lingering and Ravage Stamina, Magicka and Health, Damage Magicka, Damage Stamina and Damage Stamina Regen.

    Magekiller Extract (Damage Health and Damage Magicka Regen):  Blue Butterfly Wing, Imp Stool and Nightshade.

    “A poison that inflicts damage and makes sure those pesky mages can’t use their magic for awhile sign me up and give me the recipe.”

    Poison of the Fallen: (Paralyze and Lingering Damage Health): Imp Stool, Scathecraw and Swamp Fungal Pod.

    “This one was particularly useful against warriors and was great fun to see them fall down in the middle of a battle, and of course none of the ingredients are rare so they’re easy to make.”

    Restoring Draught: (Fortify Restoration): Salt Pile and Small Antler/Yellow Mountain Flower

    “Against Undead or Human, for Healing or Damage nothing is more useful when fighting an enemy.”

    Two things are important to The Poison Purge, killing Vazeera and restoring his order. Killing Vazeera should be done after the Restoration of the order and should be the last thing done in the game.

    Restoring the Order involves two things. First you need a building I preferred Heljarchen Hall because of the greenhouse and the fact it just looks most like a Chapel but Lakeview Manor could work as well, simply because it has the best location for an Argonian to live. An Enchanting Tower, Library and Alchemy Laboratory fit the look best eventually I enjoyed setting up a second chapel in the location that wasn’t used for the first but simply leave it as the Main House.

     

    “Ah Skyrim a land where fools live and die and where the locals can’t just live without having some sort of War. Of course all this means is that the Guards are less preoccupied with holding the law then fighting among each other which is a perfect time to restore the order to its former power.”

    Aela the Huntress: “One of the few strong warriors in this land and also one of the most loyal. After I proved my worth to the companions I should be able to convince her to join, after all Hircine is a Daedra and she is quite devout to him.” (She can be hired as a steward or married so that she’ll stay in your home.)

    Markus the Carriage Driver: “An excellent choice if I do say so myself, he might not be a warrior but we weren’t all strong warriors back before Vazeera’s betrayal. We needed workers or all sort to make sure we had a decent ability to escape if we were ever in trouble and for a little gold Markus will become extremely loyal to me.” (He can be hired and will always stay around the chapel unless you need to travel)

    Serena: “She is a strong, sneaky Vampire with a lot of magical talent and power. I saved her from her Father and the Dawnguard and she has always had almost no problems with the Daedra so she shouldn’t have any problems following me.” (She will follow you after finishing the Dawnguard Quests.)

    Alternate Choices: Teldryn Sero, Durak, Ingjard and Vilkas are all strong candidates and all except for Teldryn can be hired as a Steward in place of Aela .

    For those on PC I recommend getting a few mods that will allow you to have multiple followers. UFO was a fairly good one which I used in my modded playthrough of this character and it allows you to have followers wait where you tell them.

    Dawnguard: “I have been approached by an Orc who claims there is a growing vampire menace in Skyrim and is looking for recruits. I don’t particularly care about killing vampires but I imagine the Dawnguard has a lot of strong warriors and probably don’t care much for the Dark Brotherhood.”

    The Taste of Death; “Namira has spoken to me in my dreams and told me of her local cult. She asks that I help them stay secret and in return she will bless me and allow me to use her sacred ring. I shall do as she asks as quickly as possible.’

    The Only Cure: ‘Those filthy traitors. Peyrite is their god and they betrayed him, he gifted them and they take it for granted. I shall complete this task for him to prove I am his most devout follower.”

    Waking Nightmare: “I don’t particularly care about Vaermina but I found an excellent place to restore my chapel. The Jarl of this stupid town refuses to sell it to me until I complete some favors for him. I will do them but don’t expect me to be happy about it.”

    Destroy the Dark Brotherhood (level 50): “My chapel is restored and my order is strong, now I will kill the traitor and all those who shelter him for the glory of Peyrite and Namira.”

    I enjoyed the odd playthrough of this build and I hope I managed to convey how much fun it was. I’d like to thank Lozhar again for giving me that little bit about Fist-Blocking and Tae-Rai and Billy Mays for starting this event.  I hope you liked the build and if you would like to see other’s like it just check out my page located Here

    And someone new to thank, HeroicXCV has a YouTube channel where he features character-builds from this site, He asked if he could feature my build and well I didn't see why not. I'll add a link at the bottom and hope you guys will watch it and support Heroic who did a great job describing and show-casing this builds. I'd also like to thank Neb for the Cooltext that he made up for me. They look much better then the (shitty) old stuff I had up.

    Poison Purge Showcase

  • Member
    July 18, 2014
    Another well done build DB, love the presentation.
  • July 18, 2014
    Thanks then. I felt the Presentation was my worst yet.
  • Member
    July 18, 2014
    I've always wanted to go with a largely unarmed build, but just never had the guts to give it a try. Looks like a fun build, and gives me that encouragement I need.

    I may have missed it, but how are you blocking without any weapons? That, alone, makes me want to try this build ;D

    Nice work!
  • July 18, 2014
    oops just realised I missed that well better add that in, It's done exactly the same as the Bow block, simply Favourite your shield block with it and then un-equip it so you have no weapons or shield equipped in the favourites menu and your blocking with your fists.
  • Member
    July 18, 2014

    Sweet!

  • Member
    July 22, 2014

    Damage Magicka Regen doesn't work without Unofficial Patch. Other than that, nice build 

  • July 22, 2014

    Huh, well guesss that's the reason It worked I have the Unoffi, when I can I'll change it when I can and thanks for pointing it out and I'm glad you liked it.

  • July 26, 2014

    I added a link to a video (all details slightly above the link. 

  • Member
    July 27, 2014

    Just a few points:

    "With the Poison Talons perks you can really improve your unarmed damage and it does Poison Damage which obviously fits the build quite well"

    Poison Talons perk has a condition where you must be in VampireLord form for it to be active.  It has absolutely no effect when you're in human form.  I'm not sure why I always see people say it works when it is quite obvious when it's in effect; When you're in VL form, and the perk is active, your enemies change their visible status skin to a poisoned one...and this clearly doesn't happen when you're in human form.

    "With the Ring of the Beast which increases your unarmed damage by 20 points even in human form you should be doing about 40 damage and 20 Poison damage"

    • 20 damage - Ring
    • 10 damage - Argonian claws

    This should be your unarmed damage without modifiers like 'Marked for Death' or potions.  An important note to make is that 30 damage is based on Adept difficulty, on Master you're doing 15 damage and Legendary it's 10.

    I have a very hard time understanding how this is viable on anything other than *possibly* Adept (or lower).  I have an extremely large amount of experience with unarmed in Skyrim and without using modifiers that I introduce in my Unarmed discussion I found it virtually impossible to make this style viable.  You mention using 'Marked for Death' and running away until it takes full effect...is this how you made it viable?  There's so much more you could do.

    "Poison of the Fallen: (Paralyze and Damage Health): Imp Stool, Blue Butterfly Wing and Swamp Fungal Pod"

    These ingredients don't do this.

    ---------------------

    I don't mean to be so critical but Alchemy and Unarmed are two of my favourite subjects and I was very excited to read this build and I find it lacking a lot of substance.  This is a character that is based around Alchemy, mainly poisons, and you only list two poisons that you used for your playthrough...one of which doesn't even work?!  Off the top of my head I can probably name off a good dozen or so potions that would be amazing for this build (I won't to spare everyone) but for a build that is centered around a crafting skill I find it disappointing that you don't even talk about it. 

    (Per above:  Fortify Marksman, Fortify Block, Magic resists, Ravage poisons, Invisibility, Fortify Sneak...etc)

    P.S.

    Why the Mystic Tuning Gloves?  They have a script attached to them that is activated during the quest but that's all.  The note on UESP that they have a hidden boost to regen is, as far as I'm aware, completely incorrect.