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Character Build: The Western Wind

Tags: #Character Build Archer  #Character Build Mage Armor  #Character Build Hero  #Race:Redguard  #Rank:Recognized  #Teineeva 
  • Member
    April 10, 2015

    All those years ago, after the fall of Yokuda, it were the strong western winds that brought the Ra Gada to Tamriel. And when they arrived, it was with the speed of said winds that they invaded, and conquered Hammerfell, or Volenfell as it was known to the elder races. Centuries later, you were born, a redguard, a western Wind.

    Character Build: The Western Wind

    The Western Wind is a ruthless and proud warrior who managed to make a name for himself during the Hammerfell resistance as an archer. One of the fastest in the country. Even the Thalmor would reconsider when he strode unto the battlefield upon his mighty Alik'r warhorse. During the war he pierced many an Elven skull, but was also renowned for his Healing, commanding and diplomatic capabilities.

    The Western Wind is honorbound to serve his king, and was sent to Skyrim with an offer. An offer to the rebellion: a truce with the independant nation of Hammerfell. However he was caught on the border of skyrim and after the imperials went through his affairs he was sent to Helgen for execution.

    Race: Redguard, as it fits the best with both the name, and the background

    Stat distribution: 0/1/3 While you are an adept of restoration  magic, you will not be increasing your magicka. I know that this quite a gameplay limiting choice, and that was exactly what I was looking for. The Western Wind is a fast and deadly archer, the limit put on your magicka will allow you to heal about once or twice per fight, so you better live up to that description.

    Stone: Well I recommand several: first the Lady stone, as it allows you to quickly regenerate health and stamina, which is honestly always useful. The next one would be The Atronach for the magicka absorption (I noticed mages were a pain in  the ***) or the Lord stone for the magic resistance.

    Major Skills:

    Archery:

    This will be your main skill, as your only weapon will be your bow. Yes You heard me right. No Melee weapons. You will rely mainly on your own speed, and the stagger and paralyze effects from the Power shot and Bullseye perks to avoid melee.

    Another way to avoid Melee would be to just Fusrodah every one that gets too close, but that felt like less of a challenge to me. 

    I recommand getting the 5 overdraw perks, the Power shot, the Quick shot (essential), The bullseye, and the Critical shot perks.

    Overdraw 5/5, Eagle eye, Powershot, Critical shot 3/3, Quick Shot, Bullseye

    Restoration:

    This skill will present you with a quick boost while fighting, and will indeed allow you to take a hit or two. Keep in mind however that your magicka is fairly limited, and that you will only get one or two shots to heal in a single fight, use them wisely.

    I recommand getting the Adept Restoration, Respite, Regeneration, Recovery, Avoid death, and restoration dual casting.

    Novice, apprentice and Adept Restoration, Respite, Regeneration, Recovery 2/2, Avoid Death and Restoration Dual Casting

    Speech:

    This skill will be most usefull to give your archery skill a small boost if needed, how would you ask? well, by buying some potions and poisons of course. Have you ever used this skill in any other way than to get better prices?

    I recommand the haggle perks, and all the perks up to investor, especially Allure is a nice perk from a more roleplaying perspective. The same goes for the rightern branch however, only choose these perks when you have the points to spare.

    Haggling 5/5, Allure, Merchant, Investor and potentially, Bribery, Persuasion and Intimidation

    Minor Skills

    Smithing:

    A classic, however while it will be used to improve your weapons, it is mostly used to keep your ammo stocks up. Once you get the Quick Shot perk, and the weapon that gave this build it's name you will burn through arrows, and enemies quite quickly.

    I would recommand getting the arcane and dwarven smithing perks. They will be quite essential, however if you decide you need better ammo be my guest and start taking other perks.

    Steel Smithing, Dwarven smithing, Arcane smithing and any other perk if you deem it necessary.

    Sneaking:

    Ok, hold your horses, this is not a sneak-archery build, hence why sneak is only a minor skill and will it get only a total amount of three perks, nothing more. This skill will be used to take out certain enemies (like mages) before the fight starts, however you will get only a single, or if you are a bit further away, a few shots. From that point onwards just stand up, and start shooting.

    We will take but one Stealth perk, and quickly work our way up to the Deadly aim perk, after that we won't give this skill any more attention.

    Stealth 1/5, Backstab and Deadly aim

    Alteration:

    While this skill extends beyond the minor skills and is actually more of an optionnal skill for those that prefer to have a bit of armor rating, or can't seem to keep themselves out of the melee, I will still add it here and present which perks I would pick (even though I didn't have to use it)

    I would recommand the Adept Alteration, Mage armor, Magic resistance, Stability and Dual casting perks.

    Optionnal: Novice, Apprentice, and Adept Alteration perks as well as the Mage armor 3/3, Magic resistance 3/3, Stability, and Dual casting perks.

    Another skill you might want to pick up if the challenge is a bit over the top, is the destruction skill, although the only really usefull spell would be the whirlwind cloak spell, which I thought of including but decided to keep out for streamlining reasons.

    Equipment:

    Headgear: Alik'r or Redguard Hood

    Chestpiece: Hammerfell or Redguard Garb

    Gloves: Any gloves that you think look good with a fortify archery enchantment

    Boots: Redguard boots

    Weapons: Zephyr, it's a unique Dwemer bow, look it up if you never heard about it. With any quality arrows.

    I chose the clothes, for three reasons: Aestehetics, Accesability, and Speed. When wearing clothes your speed is barely hindered so you'll be able to outrun at least most of the two-hand users you'll encounter. They are also very easy to obtain (the blue set is at least). As you can get the blue set from the Solitude clothes store, the red set will be a little more difficult to obtain as you will either need to console command it, or loot/reverse pickpocket it off Nazir, the redguard assassin from the dark brotherhood.

    The weapon, zephyr is not only nice looking (I like dwemer gear), but it also allows for 30% faster shots. You can get it during one of the quests added in the Dawnguard expansion: Lost to the ages.

    Again, just like my Outcast build you might notice that this character isn't that heavily armored either (as in not at all). this is because of my own love for mobility and the challenge that it may present to only being able to take a few hits before dying. Thsi character is completely build around this challenge.

    Gameplay:

    The Gameplay for this build will be simple: just shoot everyhting that wants to kill you. Let's elaborate. Thanks to Zephyr and the use of the Quickshot perk you will be able to draw 60% faster than with any normal dwemer bow, and basicly about every bow you'll find. This means that whenever you'll be able to rain hail after hail of critical hits (Critical shot perk), Staggers (Power shot perk), and Paralyzations (Bullseye Perk) upon your enemies. Which basicly means that most of them should never reach you, if they do, dodge, sprint and try again. If you ever think that you need a bit extra damage, just apply one of your purchased poisons on your arrows and continue on.

    As I said, your restoration use will be greatly limited (you can cast 1.50 close wounds with a full magicka bar and the adapt restoration perk). Henceforth you'll need to Watch out and be carefull when you use it. Try to find cover and use it only after you got rid of your melee opponents. It would be a shame if you just used your only Healing spell just to get smacked down by that Two-hander you decided to spare for the moment. Here again, it will be usefull to use your speech skill to have some backup potions.

    The sneak skill will mainly be used when facing enemies that you think are too powerful or when facing mages (it can be a bit hard to dodge certain magic attacks). just kill the strongest one from a distance, or from the shadows and stand up to fight like a true redguard warrior. Keep in mind that when crouching you aren't very mobile, so keep an eye on your enemies and always kill the closest one if you are in doubt. At least that one won't be getting a free strike at you.

    While you were reading the small introduction up on  the top of the page, you might have noticed that I mentionned Horse-riding. This will be a major "skill" that I'll elaborate further now.

    Mounted Combat:

    Horse archery in Skyrim is a pain. Just like thrid person archery (which it basicly is). To use this in combat you'll have to practice, a lot. Especially when using Zephyr and the Quick shot perk. I have noticed from experience that you will always hit a bit above the cross hair on the closer distances (where normally the Arrow would land where your crosshair sits). Keep this in mind.

    If you still want to use this feature of the build, I recommand getting a horse as fast as possible, you'll be able to practice sooner and more. When closing in on a dungeon in an open area like the tundra, or a Snowy plain (Markarth, The Rift and Falkreath aren't really the best options here), ride your horse close enough to draw your opponent's attention then retreat to a more open ground. Try to lure them all out. Then circle them while constantly hitting them. If you ever think you are too close to an enemy and that you are going to charge into him if you don't do anything (effectively slowing you down enough to get a hit by said enemie) try to jump, I'm not sure if you can jump over enemies (haven't tested this one out yet, I just used it a lot in Mount&Blade)  but at least you can try to move about a bit and avoid him.

    The use of Mounted combat, will if performed correctly help you avoid those few extra hits and get through a lot of the more difficult outside areas of the game (due to the huge amount of enemies outside certain dungeons). Tru to learn how to use your horse before starting the civil war questline, as the ability to circle around enemy soldiers picking them off one by one will definitevly come in handy.

    Background:

    You were born to a pour farmers couple somewhere in the Alik'r desert. In your younger years you taught yourself to hunt and your parents learned you how to mount and ride a horse. However when your mother got poisoned by a scorpion while looking after her fields  you rode out and looked for a healer. You found a travelling monk of Stendar in a nearby village and escorted him back to your farm, where your mother had died and your father had taken his life out of sorrow.

    You burned their bodies, took your stuff and left the farm behind, you followed the priest and learned to heal yourself through magic. He also learned you everything you had to know about the history of Hammerfell and more. You learned to appreciate Redguard culture and most of all felt proud about the accomplishments of your race.

    However as a Young adult you decided to enroll in the Redguard army to push back the elves like your people had done many times before. You joined a marksman division and your archery skills alongside your tactival insight allowed you to quickly rise up the ranks. When the Dominion was pushed back, you had become the commander of your former division and a trusted councilor of your king.

    After the war you returned to your parent's farm, rebuilded it, and lived in relative peace for the coming years. That peace was broken when the king asked you to go to Skyrim and convince Ulfric, the head of the rebellion to sign a treaty between his stormcloak nation and Hammerfell. You followed his orders and discretely tried to get to Ulfric. If the Empire would know about your mission, the already tense peace they have maintained with the Redguards would break, so you decided to sneak into the country. Little did you know that you would be caught.

    You managed to escape in the chaos at Helgen but were never able to retrieve your documents, or your weapons which had probably been lost to the fire. Now in order for Ulfric to even consider your request, you will need to gain some renown. You might even help him topple the stalemate in his favour.

    However you'll have to be careful. The Empire can't know what you are doing, neither can the Thalmor. You must, by any possible means, try to remain the status quo between the Empire, the Redguards and the Dominion. The conséquences of the discovery of your mission could be desastrous.

    Recommanded Quests:

    The Civil War: Stormcloak side

    In my time of need: help Kematu, he is an old friend from the Hammerfell resistance  war.

    The Heart of Dibella, The book of love, and the Dawnguard questline. You have been heavily influenced by the gods in your childhood and respects them a lot. As such you should also try to avoid the Daedric quests.

    Ancestral Worship and other Necromancy related quests, as a Redguard you have been raised with the idea that most conjuration magic should be avoided and that Necromancers should be rooted out.

  • April 10, 2015

    Horse Archery, you are a brave man indeed.

    I like this a lot. It looks really cool. I'm not a big fan of the Redguards, but there are a ton who are and I can definitely appreciate a well-made build even if it's not my cup of tea.

  • Member
    April 10, 2015

    Yeah, thank you. The Horse Archery is quite tricky indeed, as I said the Skyrim Mounted ranged-combat kinda sucks. But I wanted to use it for something anyway, and so the Western Wind came to life.

    I do have to Wonder now, what is your favourite race?

  • April 10, 2015

    Khajiit. First, foremost, and forever. My avatar is actually the ESO emblem for Elsweyr. Then Dunmer, but that's mainly due to my long-standing love for Morrowind and the Tribunal's lore.

  • Member
    April 10, 2015

    Nice to know, I like both beast races myself, although I have a slight preference for the argonians. I'ts probably the fact that I like the dark brotherhood questline and i'ts characters in oblivion (Teinaava and Osheeva specifically), it was also a slight inspiration for my other build.

  • April 10, 2015
    Curved. Bows.
  • Ed
    Member
    April 10, 2015
    I actually found mounted archery pretty easy (without sounding like too much of a dick!). Having a good horse is always important with my characters, it makes any foe caught in the open a piece of cake :) Try it a little more, maybe with a two handed weapon. I just find the power you feel when charging at someone at full tilt is way better than grounded combat, even with a build that's already a good'n. Awesome build by the way. I found that the long bow, combined with smithing, archery perks and elemental fury was quite the crowd control weapon!
  • Member
    April 10, 2015

    You managed to get Elemental fury working on a bow? I tried but it didn't seem to work... Well that's back to testing for me.

    And yes, I do have to say, once you get used to it it works fine however the quickened fire rate of the bow+perk combination makes it a tad more difficult. And I have to agree that it feels quite good to charge into a group of bandits with a two-handed dragon cleaver, not as nice as ripping someones chest out with a double handed axe from the shadows, but it certainly does the job .

  • Ed
    Member
    April 10, 2015
    To be fair, the last time I used elemental fury on a bow was a loooong time ago, so there's every possibility that it was changed. Or maybe I was lying to myself in the first place? Could have just been my perks making it fast. Hey ho, I'll check as well at some point
  • Member
    April 10, 2015

    Don't worry about it, it has probably been patched. Look what I just found on the UESP: It also does not affect bows, enchanted or otherwise. It has no effects on unarmed combat.

    I should really check on things over there, more often before testing them... It would safe me some time next time I try something new