Skyrim Character Building » Discussions


Character Build: The Stormrider

Tags: #Race:Nord  #Character Build Elementalist  #Character Build Sorcerer  #Character Build Vampire  #Rank:Recognized  #Character Build Defender  #Furrion 17 
  • Member
    June 25, 2015

    This is a good first build! I love shock magic, and this gives you a reason to use it--in fact, I'd be tempted to drop the perks in fire and frost so that you could more fully beef up some of the other skills such as Block or One-handed (maybe get that remaining Enchanter perk). It might help the character stay truer to the Stormrider vibe, would make him stronger in some pretty useful areas, and would add a bit of specialist as opposed to a generic-y fire/ice/shock mage. But that's just my own personal preferences talking ;D

    Again... really good first build +1 from me!

  • Member
    June 27, 2015

    Thanks ShinJin  glad you liked it :)

    My prototype playthrough I did with this guy was kinda more like you suggested here. Focused more on lightning magick, more armour training, weapon training and had him running a great sword with dragon plate armour. This made him even more of a monster on the battlefield. But alas with all that gear smithed to legendary and the extra training it made him way too over powered. I was running through on master difficulty and handling Lurkers and the like, like they were nothing more than flies. Which was pretty fun for awhile... But it took away from the challenge of the game for me so I decided to respec him.

    I chose a weaker armour set and weapons to make gameplay more of a challenge (and because Ancient Nord armour/Jagged crown go great together). This way the Stormrider is still a devastating force on the battlefield but can be taken down by strong enough enemies if unprepared. This was important to me because it shows that there is still something mortal left inside of him.

    Fire and frost magick I added in to portray an expression of emotion, Fire being rage and destruction and frost being death and decay. The latter of which paired well with the necromancy abilities. Lightning was to show that he was a force of nature being able to control the weather through shouts like storm call and spells like lightning storm.

    Once again thanks for liking this man I'm glad that it has been well received and that I've had a lot of feedback on how to make it even better.  

  • Member
    June 27, 2015

    Big thanks to Curse Never Dying for doing my Perk Spread :) It looks bloody awesome mate.

  • July 22, 2015
    What you have here is a good build that could use some fine tuning. I admit, aside from the perkspread I made I hadn't paid much attention to this build until you asked for help. Anyway here goes: Intro: you have a good backstory but I feel it's greatly hampered by all the references you keep making to this album. Just tell the story without reminding the reader every paragraph about the source material. Save that stuff for the closing remarks or something. You mention a vision the rider has that makes him what he is. Well without explaining the details of this vision, the transition doesn't make much sense. Sudden transitions like that in story telling need to be explained. Gameplay: Early on in the build you make strong hints at storm magic playing a heavy role in the build, but the pictures and skills mid way through throws that consistency for a loop. When I think of the name storm rider, fire and frost magic doesn't come to mind. As far as your special moves go, the last two are quite good. Unholy terror ought to be changed up a bit as battle cry doesn't make sense used along side drain vitality. You could take advantage of shock magics magician sapping properties when used in conjunction with drain vitality; and you'll only need the two word version for that. I suggest scrapping the first two specials as they don't really fit the whole storm theme. Naturally this will free up quite a few perks. I'd even go as far as scrapping apprentice - expert conjuration, since the ritual stone will raise anything regardless of level. Presentation: I've already touched on the pictures a bit. But again try to stick to a consistent theme with pictures. The first picture is epic. Find more at fit that pictures theme. You have a lot of special moves and potions listed, but little in the way of explanation on how to use them. Remember a build is a guide, so you should explain how to use every special move and potion you create. You should explain how to tackle various enemy types. Readers will want to know what is the storm rider effective against. What is he weak against? What enemy types should he avoid? As Ben said earlier you have excessive details in places that don't need it and spar e details in places that critically need it.
  • Member
    July 22, 2015

    Thanks for the feedback man. I guess like ShinJin said as well, having all the elements in there made the build a bit of generic elementalist rather than what the name suggests. I'll take this on board and will start making changes soon. All I can say is thank the gods for the Dragonborn dlc all i got to do is kill a few dragons and can rewrite my perks from the Black Book. No need for a new game

  • Member
    December 3, 2015

    Thanks for all the likes guys, so happy the build made it out of the Bloodworks :)

  • Member
    September 30, 2016

    Apologies to anyone looking at this build at the moment, I am currently editing in all the missing images and reformatting the text, that changed after the site move, shouldn't take more than a few days, thank you for your patience. 

  • September 30, 2016

    Furrion 17 said:

    Apologies to anyone looking at this build at the moment, I am currently editing in all the missing images and reformatting the text, that changed after the site move, shouldn't take more than a few days, thank you for your patience. 

    No worries, mate. You need help or a shoulder to cry on, give me or Vargr a holler. 

  • Member
    October 13, 2016

    Ah finally done. Should be all up to date. I don't think I have the tags done quite right though can someone give me help sorting those out.