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Character Build: The Ancient Dragonslayer

Tags: #Character Build Juggernaut  #Character Build Battlemage  #Character Build Hero  #Rank:Recognized  #Race:Altmer  #Chris Diokno Build 
  • Member
    May 29, 2015

    *Utilisez Dawnguard and Dragonborn Content*

    Dragonslayer Theme

    “In the days of the Second Empire of Tamriel, it was said Reman Cyrodill had a band of legendary knights. One was Orlien Steinsburg, a half-Altmer, half-Nord reknowned for his enchanted golden armor, now weathered, and without the luster it had in his first life, and his mighty halberd. He was known as a renowned dragonslayer, hunting out any of the Dov that had hid during humanity’s rebellion against Alduin. He was well loved, unti one day. Molag Bal, wishing to have him as his pawn, disguised himself as an elderly priest of Akatosh, who gave a “blessing” to the knight. He was cursed with unlife, and corruption slowly grew in his soul. But that is not the end, for Mara, pitying the once great Dragonslayer, convinced her brother Akatosh to aid him. Giving Orlien the Voice, and the spirit of a Dov, he now heads to Skyrim, to face his destiny, or his doom....”

     

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    Now, this build was my attempt at making what is known as a “Lightning Bruiser”, as in, someone who can tank and do a large amount of damage, while being speedy. Mixing heavy armor, and a battleaxe, the second slowest swinging weapon of the two-handers, I succeeded. With heavy resistances to Shock and Fire, we got one slayer who can live on Legendary, or Dead is Dead. Now, how this build plays out will change, once the corruption sets in. All in all, we got us a speedy, lightning firing, battleaxe wielding, heavy armored death machine with legs, with Shout Cooldown. After two prototypes, and one quick playthrough to re-test everything, it is here.

     

    Race: Altmer. Being the tallest among the races, they have increased movement speed, and look badass in heavy armor. Combined with a +50 bonus in Magicka, a once a day Magicka Regen in Highborn, and a +5 bonus in Destruction, Enchanting, and if you choose the darker path, Conjuration, plus, I’ve always thought of them having any affinity for shock magic.

    Standing Stone: The Warrior or Mage to start out with, then switch to the Steed until we grab Conditioning. After that, pick up The Lord, and slot the Ritual in the Aetherial Crown.

    Stat Spread: 1/3/2 in Magicka, Health, and Stamina. Stop around 400 with Magicka, and 360 with Health.

    Major Skills: Two-Handed, Destruction, Heavy Armor, Enchanting

    Minor Skills: Conjuration, Smithing, and Speech

    Main Shouts: Dragonrend, Storm Call, Become Ethereal, Whirlwind Sprint, Soul Tear, Cyclone, Dragon Aspect

    Recommended Quests: Main Quest, Volkihar, Dragonborn, Laid to Rest, Companions (Up to The Silver Hand), Ancestral Worship, The Final Descent, etc.




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    Two-Handed-The main damage dealing skill of the Dragonslayer, battleaxes, like their waraxe counterpart, deal out bleeding damage to your enemies. Alongside that, it offers longer reach than a greatsword, and is in the middle ground of swing speed of the two-handers.

    Heavy Armor-Being your only defense against physical attacks, this will allow you to tank out those pesky One-Hit-Kill-Dragon-Bites, or OHKDB for short.

    Smithing-Primarily used for smithing the Dragonbone Battleaxe, plus, the Dragonslayer would never let a lesser smith craft his weapons and armor, and is knowledgeable in creating trinkets from gold, silver, and gems.

    Speech-Both imposing to his foes, and charming as a noble knight to the common folk, he can haggle down merchants for supplies and goods.

    Enchanting-Primarily used to create his awesome armor, giving you a little resistance to fire, about 50%, and, with Duukan, moot resistance to Frost magics.(I only realized later Zahkriios granted Shock Damage and Resistance)

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    Now, sadly, you cannot start off with quick movement in heavy armor, a decent battleaxe, or decreased Shout Cooldown (For use with Whirlwind Sprint, and a few other Shouts). Run through Helgen with Hadvar, slap on the Imperial Armor you snatch from the Imperial Captain, use Flames to boost your destruction skill, and then, once you get to the torture room, kill the two Stormcloaks, and grab a two-hander off them.

    As soon as you give the Claw back to Lucan, hoof it to the farm and help Aela and the others to slay the Giant. Hook up with the Companions, but stop around the start of the Silver Hand. After that, head off to do the Main Quest, but stop it around Diplomatic Immunity, for now.

    With your speed, heavy armor and battleaxe, mages and other foes, especially melee enemies, prove very little trouble. Either sprint, or whirlwind sprint up to them, and use a Great Critical Charge. Onto the topic of enemies such as Reaver Lords or Bandit Chiefs, it's best to pop on a Lightning Cloak, and pepper them with lightning bolts of chain lightning from afar.

    Hoard any Amulets of Talos you find. Note, do NOT pick up the Amulet from Rogveir’s body, as it will make all your Amulets Quest items.

    Now, with dragons, the main foe of this beast. Use a mixture of lightning spells and ducking behind cover to drain their magical reserves, forcing them to land. Chug down any potions of the Berserker you’ve picked up to boost your damage. If need be, though try not to do this often, slap on a paralysis or damage health poison if the situation becomes desperate enough.

     

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    • Never steal, unless it is from the wicked.

    • Rarely use poisons, it is beneath your noble nature

    • Give a Septim to beggars

    • If it comes to it, brawl a challenger to test your might.



    Now comes the second half on the build. About level 25 or so, the corruption of Bal has taken root in the heart of the once noble slayer of Dov. His armor grows as black as night, his soul dark and heavy with blood. He abandons the Dawnguard, to seek power as a Volkihar Vampire Lord. He has become...

     

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    Dragonslayer: The Imposter, by NoRabbitRequired

     

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    With this build, conjuration becomes a skill. Raising the dead, and Soul Cairn summons allow one to thin out the weaker enemies, allowing the Corrupted Slayer to deal with more powerful foes. Shouts such as Soul Tear will be used.

    Now, for reduced Shout Cooldown, you’ll need a follower, a private area, and 2-5 Amulets of Talos, depending on how much Cooldown you like. Transform, and talk to them at the same time. Equip as many Amulets as needed.

    The main Shout needed to make this shine is either Slow Time+Philter of Alteration, or Whirlwind Sprint to mimic enhanced speeds.

    With this part of the character, gone are the days of a noble knight. You’ll raise dead, Dremora Lords, you’ll use poisons, basically, you won’t fight as fairly as you once did. If you desire, feel free to swap out the Signet of Malice with the Ring of Erudite.

    Complete the Main Quest, then go off and slay Miraak. Gain as much power as possible by finding all the Black Books. Mora’s Agony was a particularly fun power. Complete The Final Descent, and claim Duukann.Though, Zahkriios fits the color scheme more.

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    Now, for those of you reading this may wonder, if the Dragonslayer was corrupted by Molag Bal, then why does he wear Boethiah’s Ebony Mail? Well, two reasons. One, the “poisonous shadow” ability that happens whenever you are in stealth mode or combat, is, in RP terms, the corruption of the Dragonslayer spreading outward, tainting his foes. The second is that I played the character as being commanded by Molag against what remains of Orlien’s pysche to infiltrate the ranks of Boethiah’s followers. I slaid them first, and then, while holding back tears, slew Faendal

     

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    • Slay any Priests of the Divines you come across. particularly priests of Arkay and Stendarr.

    • Never take off your armor, as it is now part of your body.

    • Do not go too close to Meridia’s Shrine, you will activate her quest. Dump Human Hearts, Human Flesh, Skulls, and Briarhearts around her statue, as a show of disrepect for the Daedric Prince of Life and Energy.

    • If you have bought a house in the previous levels, do not use them anymore. Live in places such as Blackreach, or the Soul Cairn.

     

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    Well guys, I hope you enjoyed my Skyrimized incarnation of the infamous Dark Souls Boss, Dragonslayer Ornstein. Happy Dragon Hunting, and stay safe.

     

    Rest now, good Dragonslayer, your hunt is over....

  • Member
    May 29, 2015
    For an Ornstein build, it's pretty... Un-Ornstein-ey... The first half is pretty interesting, and does seem to relate to the character. There seems to be unnecessary amount of crafting involved too. I can't really understand why smithing is needed aside from getting the best weapon. The second character seems nothing like Ornstein. Why does he become corrupted? For what purpose other than OP fortified shouts? It seems like such a crutch. Also, much less of a gripe but if you're looking for speed, why heavy armour? I know Bonemold looks kinda like Ornstein's armour, but so does Elven. You seem to trade the defence of the Juggernaut perks for Conditioning, when you could just be putting half the amount of perks into light armour for the same amount of defence. The ideal Ornstein build oin my mind would be super zippy and bursty, unleashing major chains of attacks very very fast. In the fight in Dark Souls, he rarely ran after the player, instead menacingly strode towards them, suddenly shooting forwards at high speeds for a spear jab. I'd have gone for a Greatsword to simulate the spear, since it's the fastest of the two handers. Stormfang would make an ideal weapon as it's available from level 1, has a suitable (and powerful) enchantment which is further powered with Augmented Shock. It also removes the need for enchanting, since you can always pick up generic enchanted Elven armour from stores. An Amulet and Blessing of Talos should be enough cool down for Whirlwind Sprints, maybe Dragon Aspect could be thrown in there for even more speed. I'd have taken Destruction higher, picked up Thunderbolt to simulate that lightning spear. Another way to simulate the speed would be an unenchanted Greatsword, with Elemental Fury and Great Critical Charge for an extremely fast charge at the enemy. Just a thought. I feel like there's so much more you could have done with this kind of character Chris, and unfortunately it doesn't get my like as it is.
  • Member
    May 29, 2015

    The second half was to represent the Old Dragonslayer, who seems to be some sort of dark magic using Ornstein, or someone like him. Also, great idea Raid, I shall overhaul this build at soon. Also, I will have the helmet be Zahkrioss, for extra Lightning Damage

  • Member
    May 29, 2015

    I thought the Dragonbone axes were bugged and didn't do bleed damage.... did that get fixed in a patch, or are you using some mods that fix the issue?  

    Also, I believe battleaxes and greatswords actually swing at the same speed.  Something I read on UESP, anyway.  If true, it means that there's no mechanical benefit to greatswords vs battleaxes, aside from the relatively small impact of those weapon-specific perks. 

  • Member
    May 29, 2015

    Huh, it seemed like it did. Alright, I shall overhaul this in the near future

  • Member
    May 29, 2015

    Really cool build you have here, Chris. My favorite part is how dynamic it is story wise. Fits this week's theme perfectly.

    +1

  • May 29, 2015

    The presentation is definitely the best you've put forth so far. One issue I see is how overpowered this build can become. If I'm reading this right, you have two maxed out crafting skills, heavy armor as well as unlimited shouts. The problem with this is that not only is it tedious to get everything you need, it removes any challenge from the game. Half the fun of the game is enjoying the challenge. 

  • Member
    May 29, 2015

    True, as I said, I shall overhaul this.

  • May 29, 2015

    I'm a little confused you offer up a character that then turns into another character which pretty much means putting Ebony Mail on. I mean that's all I got from it. The major problem with branching it out the way you have is that nothing really changes, sure he goes a little dark but that doesn't seem to change the combat style and barely changes the Roleplay (which seems to be a side note here). A character change should be large and I don't really see one at all here.

    The Single perk spread makes less sense, you say that you play the first character upto level 25 but give us a level 50 Perk Spread...Is that supposed to be for the second character and the first character and if so why not just separate them a little. Have the level 25 skills (though how you had decently enchanted Dragon Weapons at level 25 doesn't really make sense to me. I really would recommend giving it two perk spreads Chris, give it a little something to separate the characters a little more. 

    Now for some more nit-picky errors. 

     Run through Helgen with Hadvar, slap on the Imperial Armor you snatch from the Imperial Captain,

    I believe you mean Ralof. Going through with Hadvar doesn't give you the chance to kill an Imperial Captain.

     slap on a paralysis or damage health poison if the situation becomes desperate enough.

    I could be wrong but aren't Dragons immune to Paralysis?

    Do not go too close to Meridia’s Shrine, you will activate her quest. Dump Human Hearts, Human Flesh, Skulls, and Briarhearts around her statue, as a show of disrepect for the Daedric Prince of Life and Energy.

    How do you get close to her Shrine if you say don't get close to it. You kind of have to walk up to the shrine to drop stuff near it (Unless you were throwing them with telekinesis of course.

    Overall Chris the idea wasn't all that bad but this particular build let you down a little. The presentation is pretty good but the content is really lacking. I hope you do take some time to overhaul this before moving onto the next build. That's one thing I always say Chris is that you pump out your builds way too quickly, slow it down a little and they'll improve a lot. Good luck Chris and I'm sorry that I only had criticism for the build. 

  • Member
    May 29, 2015
    It's OK DB, I shall overhaul this my friend