Foreword

So some of you may have seen this in the RP section. 'Skyrim: Remastered' comes out on Friday, and Skyrim has been my all-time favourite game, giving over 1,500 hours of gameplay joy according to my Steam account. Since most people will be ditching this game to play the new one, I figured I would have time for one last build, and I wanted to make it special. I thought i'd have a go at a level 1,000 build. Not just making one, but also making a character for which it would be well-suited.

It was posted in RP initially as opposed to here because it wasn't play-tested yet and was really just a concept on which to build a character on. However, I have since playtested this and the results were surprisingly enjoyable. The biggest problem with OP builds is that they become very boring very quickly. However, for both the roleplay aspect as well as a gameplay aspect, it's the insane level and stats that make this such a joy to play, and given the incredibly long set-up time you actually get a sense of being rewarded for your efforts with a simply divine character.

I chose to use the legendary build that is Mason's 'The Seraphim' as a sort of character template. The roleplay aspect of this build is almost a complete rip-off, i'll be honest: Angel of the Divines sent to Skyrim to deal with the issues that threaten all of Tamriel. The gameplay however is where my build differs from his, thanks mostly to the powerful boons granted by being so immensely overlevelled. The issue I had with 'The Seraphim' is that to my mind, an Angel is somewhere between a mortal and a God; a being that is far beyond the abilities and constitution of mortals, yet not truly immortal like the Divines. I mean sure, you can use resto-looped enchanted gear to give your character ridiculous stats and make them OP that way, but throw them in jail and they're nothing more than a puny mortal in rags. The only way you're going to become truly powerful is through raw base stats; skills and perks, and the only way you're going to get those is the hard way: Through levelling.

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you:

Level 1,000: The Seraphim's Final Form

"Cassiel. I have a task for you: Since the Oblivion crisis, Nirn has been at relative peace. However, I fear the time is nigh for my son's return, and his wrath will spread not just across Mereth, but all of Mundus. Furthermore the Daedric Prince Molag Bal's little toys are stirring, following a path that will lead to the destruction of Mortals. Between these two dire threats the mortals don't stand a chance. Go to Skyrim as my emissary. Help the Mortals and put an end to these threats."

"At once, my Lord Akatosh."

Race: Imperial
Stone:Mage (invaluable for the 'setup' process of getting Cassiel to level 1,000. After this point, get whichever stone you like; it'll likely have a negligible effect anyway).
Major Skills:One-Handed; Restoration; Alteration; Archery; Light Armour; Block
Minor Skills:Illusion; Speechcraft; Smithing; Alchemy; Enchanting
Armour Sets:Gilded Elven > Glass > Ancient Falmer
Weapons: Dawnbreaker; Auriel's Bow/Sunhallowed Arrows; Auriel's Shield
Shouts:Slow Time; Storm Call; Marked for Death; Become Ethereal; Bend Will; Call Dragon

Setup Guide

So for me this isn't about playing through the game, power-levelling when/where you can; playing through the game some more when you get bored and maybe reaching level 1,000. This is about starting the game at level 1,000 as early as you can. Trust me, it is absolutely worth it for the gameplay, and especially the roleplay element. And yes, there's a right way to do this and the wrong way. The bad news for PC players is that you can't just type in a load of console commands to set your character's level at 1,000 and her stats at several thousand apiece. The reason being is that not everything scales up with said stats (e.g. carryweight doesn't scale up with stamina stat), and many of the stat/level changes reset after every reload of a save file, so you'd end up having to type them in every time. The good news however is there are mods that make this easier, such as the Community College mod that gives you everything you need to begin your power-levelling in earnest. Also, if - unlike me - you're not fussed about doing things properly and have no qualms about blatantly cheating, you can use console commands to get your skills to level 100; legendary the skill; rinse and repeat roughly 2,500 times. This I imagine would still take a good 6 hours though. Mine took about a week to prepare, but that's because I did things the hard (and slow) way. If you have the patience of an angel, i'll teach you the steps to do this properly.

Recommended Mod List

As with any mod list, you can use whatever mods you like. However, these are what I recommend as being must-haves to make the process of power-levelling your character to level 1,000 as painlessly as possible.

• Community College. This not only has literally everything you need to get from 1 to 1,000, but it's also in a really easy to get to location, being just outside Whiterun. The College has Master level trainers of every skill in Skyrim, with the magic skill trainers selling spell tomes for their respective school of magic up to expert level.
• Apocalypse: Magic of Skyrim.This has some fantastic skills, many of which really complement the character, such as 'Feather Fall'; 'Teleport' and 'Finger of Death'.
• Live Another Life.This is more for roleplay purposes than anything else. Being a prisoner for the chopping block doesn't seem right for a celestial being. Being dropped into Skyrim wearing rags, and assisted by the Mother Goddess, Mara, is much more like it.

Step 1: Get Crafting!
So assuming you took my advice about the mods, your first step is to get to the Community College ASAP. It doesn't matter where you choose to start using the LAL mod. I personally chose to 'escape the cell' (I liked the roleplay idea of being dropped into Skyrim as a prisoner, and fighting past lost souls to make my way to the surface), but otherwise a good place to start is at the Sleeping Giant Inn in Riverwood, due to its close proximity to both the Mage stone and the College. Grab the Mage stone, and head to the College ASAP. Ignore pretty much everything else.

Once at the college, you'll want to get all three crafts up. For enchanting the college has a good deal of decent enchanted gear lying around for you to disenchant and get some enchantments under your belt. The forge area has lots of good materials to get you started with smithing, and the basement has a very well-stocked alchemy area. However you do this is up to you, but I would prioritise the value of crafted items over the experience earned (though they typically go hand-in-hand anyway). This is so that you can sell off your wares and get a BIG chunk of cash, which will be useful for skill training from the skill trainers (because trust me, you're going to need them).

Step 2: Power-levelling time!
Once you've got enough gold (500,000 septims should do it), buy some training for alteration skill, using the muffle spell to boost your illusion at the same time. Once your alteration is level 36, read the four alteration skill books in the college to boost it to level 40. This should enable you to get the 'detect life' spell. Now, start power-levelling the two skills over and over. It's also worth mixing it up with some skill training for the major skills listed earlier on. The reason for this is you don't want to be fighting max-level enemies with a level 15 One-Handed skill. Unless, y'know, you like to hit something a thousand times before it dies. Anyway, once your skills are as high as they'll go, start legendary-ing Illusion and Alteration. I like to use both to power-level because they go up at roughly the same rates, and by switching out different skills it makes things slightly less mundane.

This step is extremely tough. There were many times I was ready to call this quits. But I stuck with it. By the end of it, I ended up with skills that looked like this:

The thing that really tests your patience is that whilst most people are aware that the higher your character level, the more skill points it takes to gain one character level, what most people aren't aware of is that at level 900+ it takes well over four hundred skill points just to rise by one level. Getting past the first 200 levels is easy, and it luls you into a false sense of security about how long this will take you. But after level 600 you start getting an idea, and at level 900 you don't know whether to make that final push, or to just kill yourself.

Step 3: Gear up and head out!
Firstly, congratulations on getting this far. You now join a very exclusive club - out of the hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of people who have played Skyrim, only a handful of people will have genuinely, legitimately got to level 1,000. So, sincerely: Congratulations. I have mead in my fridge ('Viking Blod' by Dansk Mjod meadery; Denmark. It's bloody good stuff!); i'd happily pour you a mug because you've earned it.

Back to business. You might as well prepare yourself a set of glass armour. I prefer to go without the helmet or shield at this point. You can then choose to enchant your gear or not. I chose not to for my glass gear, but decided to enchant the Ancient Falmer gear much later on in the game, mainly so I could rename it and pretend that it's the armour of angels. Next, if you haven't already, you'll want to try and buy up some restoration spells. Definitely pick up 'Finger of Death'; you're in a rare position where the 'recoil' of this spell is easily shrugged off, and your enemies instantly perish in a blinding light; obliterated into piles of dust. A fitting spell to demonstrate an angel's wrath.

That first step you take outside, knowing that everything - enemies, chests, radiant spawns etc are all scaled up to max level to cope with your level 1,000 - is a surreal feeling. What's even more surreal is when you realise what limits those 'max levels' for each enemy type is set at. Out of all the bandits; vampires; draugr and dragon priests i've fought during the playtest, do you know which enemy is the highest level (if health is anything to go by)? Skooma dealers. Y'know, the "Greetings, brother/sister. You look weary. I have something to help you relax, if you're interested." guys. I used Finger of Death on one, and even with a full health bar of 4,290pts I was insta-killed by the recoil. Madness.

Stat Placement

Health: 4,290pts
Magicka: 3,000pts
Stamina: 3,000pts

Since we're aiming for a specific level, I/we know we're going to have a specific amount of stat points. This is the placement I used. A decent alternative would be to shave off maybe 1,000 points off Stamina and put it into Health. I would keep Magicka at 3,000pts mainly because it helps when power-levelling (put everything into Magicka up to 3,000pts to begin with, then you don't have to worry about magicka depletion after a while!), but also because it means you can keep that Lightning Storm spell up without having to resort to Mason's little 'Atronach Stone' parlour trick. ;)

Spells and Abilities

To my mind, an all-powerful being is hindered greatly if she is limited in her abilities. You'll have noticed so far that not only have I cited Auriel's Bow; Auriel's Shield and Dawnbreaker as being part of her gear, but also cited use of spells, too. This seems like quite a lot to juggle, but in truth it allows for a whole range of different scenarios. For example if you spot a cluster of enemies from a distance and you have a good chance for a pre-emptive strike (i.e. you see them before they see you, and you have a good vantage point), you can use your bow or Finger of Death (since the range on that seems nigh infinite) to whittle down the numbers. Then, in a swarm, you can use Dawnbreaker to cut through them. Cassiel employs a range of spells for a range of different situations, so here are some of her special abilities:

Angelic Wrath(Ocato's Recital; Stendarr's Aura; Finger of Death)
This is one of my favourite moves; it's easy to become addicted to it. As soon as combat starts, Ocato's Recital activates 'Stendarr's Aura', basking you in an aura of blinding, holy sunlight. Then you cast your hand forward and your enemy is hit with a blinding light, obliterating him/her/it to dust. Ever seen Dragonball Z? It's akin to someone going Super Saiyan to wipe out an insignificant enemy, or in the early sagas, Vegeta's move of "I'll see you, in another dimension!". But the other thing I love about this is for every point of damage needed to kill the enemy, Cassiel takes 125% of that damage. In Angelic Mythology, killing mortals (or anything for that matter) is seen as a sin; angels can 'fall' through their sins. In this case, Cassiel can shrug off the 'sins' of nearly all of her kills, but killing someone significant (and therefore of a high level) will take its toll on her. I love the idea of wielding such incredible power that comes at a price.

Divine Lance(Lightning Storm; a laughable amount of Magicka; some poor b*stard dragon)
This is quite simply a case of firing the Lightning Storm roflcannon at a dragon until its soul is torn from its very being and it falls out of the sky. The dragons like to think of themselves as immortal; as brushing shoulders with the gods themselves. You're here to remind them of the pecking order. To you, they are worms (wyrms?). But hey, they're stronger than most things in Skyrim, so they're good for sport, right?

Heaven's Rain (Auriel's Bow; Sunhallowed Arrows; the Sun)
Auriel's Bow and Sunhallowed Arrows are a match made in heaven (sorry...) Useful for crowd control (or for just looking epic), the Sun rains meteor-like bolts of sunlight from above whilst arrows of exploding light rain forth from your bow. If you're a vampire or draugr caught in this, you're royally fu-

Honourable Duel(Dawnbreaker; Auriel's Shield; the 'Quick Reflexes' perk)
Cassiel (and angels in general) can be a cruel mistress, particularly to the undead, but she's also got a strong sense of honour. In the event of a one-on-one, classic sword-and-board fight, she will happily oblige. Like that Old Orc wanting 'a good death'. Sure, she could finger him to death in an instant, but her sense of honour compells her to indulge him his last request. I like to sit there and take his blows upon Auriel's Shield. When he launches a power-attack, the Quick Reflexes perk kicks in, and that's when I shield-bash him and counter-attack. Unfortunately, the orc is being bashed with the shield of Akatosh itself. And he's just an Orc. Away he goes, ala 'Fus Ro Dah' stylee. Well, you meant well, but you're still a celestial being fighting with holy artifacts. The orc never had a chance.

Begone, foul demon!(Stendarr's Aura; Dawnbreaker)
It is fairly well-documented that Dawnbreaker is pretty broken with its enchantment regarding the undead. The enchantment states there being 'a chance' of the undead exploding on death in a holy light; what it doesn't say is that chance is seemingly about 80%. Thus, this ability is quite simple: Your holy aura burns demons and wights who get too close, whilst your blade obliterates the souls of the damned, with an AoE that sends the rest of the undead running in fear. This gets annoying after a while though, as you end up chasing vampires around the dungeon. Welp, time to get the bow out...

Quests

It is ultimately up to you what quests to undertake. You're a big level 1,000 girl; you don't need daddy to hold your hand. However, here are some quests that you absolutely must do to consider this build 'completed'. I have listed them in order of completion, along with reasons.

• The Break of Dawn. This is Meridia's quest to retrieve Dawnbreaker. You're likely to find Meridia's Beacon in a Boss Chest quite close to your starting location; I usually find it in the chest at Valtheim Towers, or in Bleak Falls Barrow. However, worst-case scenario you can just go to her Shrine and she'll point you in the direction. Dawnbreaker is the odd-weapon-out in terms of your weapons because it is a Daedric artifact, not an Aedric artifact. My reasoning being is that the personal Sword of Akatosh in its divine form is too strong for use in Nirn against mortals. Meridia's Dawnbreaker has the same purifying effect without being OP. besides, there's nothing wrong with using a Daedric artifact if both you and Meridia want the same thing, is there?
• Dawnguard Questline. This should be done before the Main Quest for a number of reasons. Firstly, it gets you the majority of your endgame equipment: Ancient Falmer gear; Auriel's Bow; Auriel's Shield, and of course the Sunhallowed Arrows. Also I prefer doing this first because the random vampire raids on towns and cities each night get really old really fast...
• Destruction Ritual Spell. I'm not asking you to join the college per se (since you've technically not joined until you've had your Induction Tour by Mirabelle), but it is required in order to get Lightning Storm. You'll need that spell for the next questline, because Dragons.
• Main Questline. Time to finish what you came here to do. Upon completion, you'll notice you have all three Elder Scrolls in possession now. Do you leave them here on Nirn? Or is it time to bring them back to Aetherius?
• Dragonborn.This is personal. It is true that you have received your powers directly from Akatosh and thus are deemed 'Dragonborn', but how dare this pathetic mortal think he is vastly superior to you. The fact is, he fears you. That's why he sent his minions to get rid of you, and that's why he hides in a place he thinks is his sanctuary. Hunt him down and destroy him. Your reward for this is the fact Akatosh's creations become your mountable pets.

I believe this covers everything. Except for perks, which i've left out deliberately. Why? Well, you have 999 perk points and you want me to tell you which perks to put them into? Idiot - perk all the things! Hell, even perk the stuff you never even bothered to level, like Conjuration or Heavy Armour.

Interesting little build