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Character Build: The Way-Maker

Tags: #Character Build Juggernaut  #Character Build Elementalist  #Character Build Healer  #Race:Redguard  #Rank:Exemplar 
  • March 15, 2015

    Hello, Lore host and Redguard connoisseur, Matt Feeney here. This build is a long time coming. Long story short, I was not satisfied with my Visionary build. But I still wanted to give my character, Charon Al-Rihad, another chance to make a mark in the Character Building group. So this is my second take on a disgruntled prophet with the powers of the HoonDing, the Redguard God of Make-Way.

    The Way-Maker

    Have you heard the Story of the Way-Maker? I thought not, few have. They say that when the End Times begins, the great and all-powerful HoonDing shall arise once again. Arise to carry the star children into the next Cycle. The HoonDing has always lead us forward; crown, rebel, or sword, he has always been there. But the next avatar, he shall truly accept his role. He will not stand as Crown, Sword, or Rebel, he shall stand as all. He will be the Thrice-Bled Guide. A Crown, for his faith will be unshakable. A Sword, for he will pierce through all that stand in the way of Morwha's children. And a Rebel, for in his quest he will shake the pillars that bind this world and defy the heathen gods. Now break the shackles, my child, lest your hand be severed when you are freed...

    Race: Redguard

    Standing Stone: Mage->Atronach->Ritual

    Wanderer Skills: Alteration, Alchemy, Illusion, and Restoration. (One-Handed)

    High Priest Skills: Alteration, Alchemy, Restoration, and Two-Handed.

    This build comes in two parts: The Wanderer and the High Priest. Despite the rather similar skillsets, they are quite different. For the presentation I took a little inspiration from Elysium's exceptional Azra Nightwielder build. So without further adieu...

    The Wanderer

    Lacking major offensive and defensive abilities, the Wanderer is still a powerful figure in his own right. He is able to strengthen his allies and debilitate his enemies. Playing the Wanderer requires a clever approach to combat and heavy reliance on a follower.

    Skills~

    Alteration: The Wanderer is well-versed in defensive and utility magic after his studies in Hammerfell. Lacking armor, he relies entirely on his magic and followers for defense.

    Restoration: The healing arts are a necessity to the Wanderer for keeping himself and his followers alive. The purifying power of turning and sun spells are also found in the Wanderer's arsenal.

    Alchemy: The lifeblood of the Wanderer. Alchemy allows him to bolster all of his skills and gives the Wanderer some sorely needed variety and power in combat. Main usage is applying various poisons with the Wanderer's simple Iron Sword and fortify his magical abilities, especially his Restoration and Illusion spells.

    Illusion: Used to bolster his allies, the Wanderer solely uses the humble Courage spell. However, this Novice spell is pushed further with dual-casting and Alchemy.

    One-Handed: The Wanderer uses a simple Iron Sword to apply his variety of poisons. This skill remains unperked.

    Gameplay~

    The Wanderer is a very follower-oriented style. Your follower be a large part of your defense and damage. The good part about this is that you can put a ton of points into magicka; not to mention all the Fortify Magicka items you get doing the College questline. Illusion is taken mostly for Courage spells, but I did throw the occasional Fury spell, which is quite potent when dual-casted. Alteration and Restoration should be fairly obvious. Flesh spells are always good for mobility, as you definitely shouldn't be taking hits. Restoration heals you and your ally. Alchemy is a great moneymaker and resource. Don't underestimate poisons either, delivering some damage health poisons with your rustic Iron Sword is a lot of fun. Or even better, stack on a Weakness to Magic poison and then blast them away with the Staff of Jyrik Gauldrson, which is picked up early on in the playthrough. One very noticeable perk to Jyrik's Staff is its absolutely crazy rate of fire, it's essentially an instant cast.

    For this part of the build, you want to build up your skills, especially Alchemy and Alteration; doing the Shalidor's Insight quests, I'd recommend stocking up on Alteration ones; and, most dangerously, taking on a few Dragon Priests. To help with this, pick up the Atronach Stone, a well-known mage-killer. The best Priest to go after first is Vokun, not only do you get a really good temporary follower to help you out, but his mask decreases the cost of Alteration and Illusion spells by 20%.

    As you can see, this part is very tactical. You've got low health and comparatively low armor rating. You've just got your companion, your trusty iron sword, and your staff, not to mention a load of potions and poisons. Don't forget about shouts either, there's a reason Unrelenting Force is so popular. What shouts you use are up to you right now. However save some souls for Slow Time, Bend Will, Dragon Aspect, Storm Call, Soul Tear and Cyclone.

    ~Perk Spread~

    Roleplay~

    The Wanderer has accepted his role as a leader, but has not fully embraced the meaning. He retains his cheerful and humble personality. The Wanderer, always eager to lend a helping hand, is open to take on a variety of quests.

    Morally-ambiguous quests should be alright as well, but try to avoid the outright evil ones. The Wanderer is not an evil man, but he is still very ambitious and driven.

    It is this very drive and ambition that forces him to become...

    The High Priest

    The High Priest is a wizard from legend. Whereas most mages are reliant on their limited magicka pool, forcing them to focus on reduction enchantments, the High Priest has chosen to wield a staff and his Voice alongside his own magics. This versatility means you can always find something to do during combat.

    The High Priest has also removed his reliance on a single follower. But he still does not fight alone. His Voice has the power to turn enemies to his side.

    Skills~

    Alteration: No longer benefiting from the Mage Armor perks, the High Priest is still a master of Alteration. The school has gifted him with a variety of spells such as Paralyze and Ash spells, which can easily make up for his lack of defense and can be used frequently since the High Priest is not reliant on his magicka, preferring to focus on his staff and Voice.

    Restoration: Since he longer uses personal followers, Restoration is used greedily. Healing spells are very magicka efficient so they can be used frequently if need be. His expertise in Restoration has extended to his Turning and Sun spells, allowing him to easily dominate the undead. His knowledge of battling the rotting legions also allows his fire staff to utterly destroy the strongest of undead.

    Alchemy: Bringing the full weight of the Alchemical Arts, this skill is used to bolster his own spells. Paralyze and Ash spells that last for entire fights. Sun spells that instantly purge lesser undead. A variety of highly effective poisons delivered with his Silver Sword. But perhaps most potently: Alchemy is used to increase the damage of his already powerful slaves.

    Two-Handed: The High Priest seeks training in the Two-Handed style. However, this skill only sees actual usage when the Way-Maker is under a more divine persuasion.

    Gameplay~

    You now assume the role of High Priest. Drop your follower and your raggedy clothes. Pick your Temple Priest Robes and don the mask of Konahrik. Don't worry about losing your follower, you'll make a few converts along the way.

    Bend Will is the main shout here. It perfectly represents the culmination of the prophet's power, being able to bend the will of mortals with only his words. We're focusing on only the second word here. The first thing you'll notice is how huge the area of effect, this will allow to catch a ton of enemies all at once. Unlike Fury spells, enemies caught by Bend Will will continue fighting any enemies they damaged or taken damage from. This means after the 30 seconds is up, the chaos isn't over.

    This is aided further by lowering your shoutdown using Alchemy. Lower it down to whatever you feel comfortable with, I stuck with 50% shout cooldown. Slow Time is also an extremely helpful shout, being constantly augmented by the Stability perk. It can allow you time to set up a lightning wall with Hevnoraak's Staff, which can deal tons of damage if used wisely.

    Your main weapons are a Silver Sword meant for delivering poisons, a Staff of Fireball, Hevnoraak's Staff (Staff of Lightning Wall), and Staff of Magnus. The Staff of Fireball and Hevnoraak's Staff can both be augmented augmented by Fortify Destruction potions and are extremely useful in a huge variety of situations. The Staff of Magnus, on the other hand, is a bit more specialized: it absolutely DESTROYS dragons. A dragon that runs out of magicka can't shout, which means it will slowly lumber after you to take a snap at you. Combine it with the Hevvy's Staff and it just becomes hilarious.

    Obviously that's a lot of staves, very greedy staves to boot. This where Soul Tear comes in handy. Combine it with the Black Star (Azura is a trespasser from between the planes, corrupting her artifact is just one of the many ways you will cross the heathen gods), and it'll keep your staves fully charged. Just killing a simple bandit will net you a Grand Soul.

    The Ritual Stone might be an odd choice, especially given the Redguards' views on necromancy. But I saw it as the High Priest's voice and will reaching through death and commanding them. A more gameplay-oriented reason, Bend Will doesn't affect the undead and your army is an important part of your tactics. So I decide an alternative would be to create your army from slain foes since the Ritual Stone works on everything except for dragons and automatons.

    Alchemy becomes extremely powerful now. It can boost up your staves and a few of your shouts, Alteration for Slow Time, Fortify Destruction for Storm Call and Cyclone, etc. Don't forget about poisons, weakness to magic/fire/shock poisons are also great ways to boost your damage against living enemies. Your healing spells should cover your health just fine, your magicka can actually go relatively unused at this level.

    Obviously this build is very good against living enemies with Bend Will, but let's not forget the horde of undead inside the many ancient tombs that are immune to your murderous persuasion. Enter the Necromage perk. Necromage will massively increase the damage done by the Staff of Fireball, thanks to the Taper mechanic (discovered by James here). If for some reason, you're not in the mood for explosions, the undead AI is very easy to abuse. Hevnoraak's Staff will take full advantage of that.

    ~Perk Spread~

    *Note- Use the Perk Respec at the end of the Dragonborn DLC to remove some of your now useless perks, like Illusion perks and Mage Armor.

    Roleplay~

    The Way-Maker now fully embraces his role. He becomes entirely driven by his mission and is willing to kill any his path. He will openly attack any he deems an enemy of Hammerfell and the Redguard people. This can include Stormcloaks, Imperial legionnaires, Thalmor, Daedric worshippers, heretical priests, etc.

    The HoonDing

    Requirements: Dragonhide, Shalidor's Insight: Alteration, Dragon Aspect, Adrenaline Rush, and Dwarven Greatsword of Flames. Optional: Fortify Two-Handed/Alteration/Destruction potions.

    Ah, the crown jewel. He wouldn't be the Way-Maker if he couldn't take on the powers of the HoonDing. Now that's a pretty long list of requirements, this isn't gonna be something you do every 5 minutes. This is more akin to Beast Form or Vampire Lord Form than a special move.

    This form is all about just overpowering enemies. No AI-abusing lightning walls, no mind-altering words, just straight up melee power. The Way-Maker has always lacked in actual defense, but the HoonDing has no such issues thanks to the wonderful Dragonhide spell, which immediately grants the player 80% armor rating. You might be thinking, "Dragonhide is tough and all, but its duration is only 30 seconds." Don't fear, Shalidor's Insight: Alteration will increase the duration of any alteration spell by 50%, stack on 50% more from the Stability perk, and then stack on any Fortify Alteration potions...let's just say you'll get plenty of time to bask in the glory of HoonDing.

    Adrenaline Rush also deserves a small mention. This build puts no points in Stamina, so this racial power was put to good use.

    Dragon Aspect is another important component. First of all, it looks fucking awesome and provides a nice aesthetic distinction from the High Priest form. However it does so much more. You remember the High Priest's skill in the Voice? Notch that up another level, because the HoonDing can do it even better. I was rocking a 70% cooldown reduction. Slow Time is a great fit for this form, especially since it will benefit from Shalidor's Insight and any Alteration potions, assuming they're still in effect. Storm Call sees a bit more use, since, despite his insane skill with shouts, the HoonDing isn't reliant on them in the slightest, so Storm Call's massive cooldown is trivial. Dragon Aspect can also help in some embarrassing moments, like if you didn't notice your Dragonhide spell ran out. Well if you get taken down to 50% health, the Ancient Dragonborn will be summoned and immediately draw attention away from you thanks to his unique Aggro Cloak. Roleplay-wise, the Ancient Dragonborn is a great representation of the HoonDing since he is literally invincible.

    Konahrik, while not being a huge game-changer, has its moments. Especially since if your health is low enough to summon the Dragon Priest, it'll be low enough to summon the Ancient Dragonborn. The Dragon Priest's absolutely monstrous damage works amazingly well with the literally invincible Ancient Dragonborn. If you're lucky enough to get these two summons out at the same time, just watch the show. However, it goes without saying that your health will rarely dip low enough to even summon the Ancient Dragonborn.

    Despite the massive tactical differences between the HoonDing and High Priest, they actually benefit from roughly the same potions: namely Destruction and Alteration potions. Alteration was explained above, it'll help Dragonhide and Slow Time. But Fortify Destruction will not only increase the damage of your staves as the High Priest, but it will increase the damage of your Dwarven Greatsword, which looks absolutely phenomenal with the armor combo.

    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    Thanks for reading. This will probably my last build, so I wanted it to be my best build. But I feel like I can never properly articulate how fun this build was to play. Going from some humble wanderer who would get one-shotted by Draugr Deathlords if he didn't hide behind his tank to a High Priest capable of bending the will of mortals to channeling the powers of god, it's such a weird little evolution of character.

    Special thanks to Teccam, Phil, and Zach for their input. Phil inspired me to stick with the HoonDing concept and was the one to suggest Kohnahrik and Teccam helped a ton with the mechanical side of things (including using Shalidor's Insight and Necromage).

     

     

     

     

     

     

  • Member
    March 15, 2015

    Should have been put in the workshop imo

  • March 15, 2015

    But it's done, more or less. Missing the Perk Spread but that's it. To be fair builds have to have a Perk Spread of some sort..

  • March 15, 2015

    True, I'll throw a quick perkspread together. Just need to check in-game so I don't muck up the perks I took.

  • March 15, 2015

    Well Matt, you have to make an insanely interesting three part build don't you. I generally dislike the sort of paths builds that have slowly become more popular but you've really done the idea justice. Each path is different and yet similar and all look like a lot of fun. The build is well presented and is well written as usual. I wish it wasn't your last build but so many people are retiring nowadays.. +1 from me but don't forget the Perks..

  • Member
    March 15, 2015
    It is finally here!
  • March 15, 2015

    Thank you kindly, DB. I dislike path builds as well. Though this is more of an evolution, for lack of a better term, start of as the Wanderer, finally become the High Priest, and occasionally become the HoonDing (for five minutes).

    Is a link to the perk calculator alright for now? I'll get a proper perkspread up eventually, but I have a few school projects to do.

    Yeah, probably my last build. But I like the look of the newer builders, so it's being left in better hands than mine. Besides we've still got Twisted and Teccam lurking about from the 2012 era.

  • March 15, 2015

    Twisted seems to have become more active the longer he's here so that's good. I'll miss the builds man....

  • Member
    March 15, 2015

    It turned out very nice, Matt. I like how the writeup really carries the reader through the character progression. There's a lot of cool stuff here -- gorgeous armor combo, cool tactics and mechanics, great backstory/roleplay, etc.

    The HoonDing form is uber badass, I don't think people realize just how far you can push Dragonhide if you really try -- like I said in a private message, I think you could probably push it to 6+ minutes if you really min-max (and maybe 9+ minutes with a necromage vampire, for ultimate lulz).

    I definitely agree with the others about adding a perk image, and I think you could stand to "sell" the build a bit more with some more excitement in the prose.

  • March 15, 2015

    Thanks, Teccam. Yeah, I've never been able to really manage descriptive/excited tones together, like Mason or Ponty.

    Absolutely, Dragonhide can be pushed much further. I only used one fortify alchemy item for the alteration potions to buff it with (along with Shalidor's Insight), and that was already plenty.