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Character Build: The Exorcist

Tags: #Character Build Crusader  #Character Build Mage  #Character Build Mage Armor  #Race:Redguard  #Rank:Recognized  #MM 2016 Winner 
  • Member
    November 25, 2016

     

     The Exorcist 

     Class Type: Light & Desert Mage - A mix between a mage, a spellsword and a demon hunter. When I say light mage, I don't refer to a mage that uses few magic skills. On the contrary, I mean a mage who is capable of bending pure light emitted from any source into powerful spells or solid constructs like a sword.

     Inspired by: Elika (Prince of Persia) and Green Lantern (DC Comics).

     If you're like me, someone who's been often playing Skyrim since day 11.11.11, then it's safe to say that you've gone through many varied characters. Moreso, every new character build you've been reading for a while now, no matter how awesome it is, bears a strong resemblance to something of your own. I know the feeling well since I've played ninjas, blood mages, druids, hunters, illusionists, thieves, priests, warriors and many more others whom I'm too lazy to enumerate. What I'm trying to say is, if you find yourself in my shoes then you're really going to want to read what's coming next! After so many years of playing Skyrim, I'm excited to say that I came up with a character build that allowed me to experience the game as if I was playing it again for the first time! It's unique! It's refreshing! It levels up fast! And it beats the unliving essence out of any undead unlucky enough to cross paths with, literally! Enter the Exorcist! I call her Elika and she is a Redguard mage demon hunter, part of the Ash'abah. Redguards as a whole people are fully devoted to a certain asinine tradition. They will, under no circumstance, ever dare slay an undead, or Ra-Netu in their language, that is an ancestor. Anyone brave enough to defy the rule is exiled, scorned even. And the Ash'abah tribe is filled with such daring people. These outcasts are skilled undead slayers who fight using the natural elements of the desert: light, sand and wind. The great masters among them can break down natural light into its raw components to quickly burn any unliving opponent or even solidify it into various constructs like swords. Moreso, through sand magic, one can create a thin yet dense layer around any harm doer that acts as an impenetrable tomb. Suffice to say, the Ash'abah are not the heroes that common Redguards deserve, but the ones they need at all times.

     

     Gameplay 

           I've broken down the Exorcist's gameplay into three categories. The first one, Light Magic: Offence, deals with how I used destruction, restoration, conjuration and one-handed in explosive ways. The second, Light & Desert Magic: Defence, shows how I used different spells to stay alive. And lastly, Ash'abah Sorcery, demonstrates what makes the Exorcist unique and explains how to level up fast by simply playing the build as it's meant to be.

    Light Magic: Offence 

     Skills: Destruction, Restoration, Conjuration, One-Handed.

     Spells: Flames => Firebolt => Fireball; Sun Fire => Vampire's Bane; Fire Cloak; Stendarr's Aura; Bound Sword - Offhand.

     Description: Very similar to a prism, light magic offers its user the ability to break down rays of sunlight or from any other radiant source and furthermore bend the resulting components into solid form or harmful energy. Through this process, a light mage can shoot devastating bolts of magic at an opponent or even materialize very real objects, like swords, known as hard light constructs. In Skyrim terms this means that the Exorcist deals with opponents at long range by casting both a fire and a sun spell at the same time. I call this technique Prism Radiance: Lightbolts and from my gameplay experience I learned that, it, is much more magicka efficient to use instead of dual casting a fire spell. Even more surprisingly, continuously casting Prism Radiance from a full magicka pool to "not enough magicka" deals more overall damage than doing the same thing with a dual cast fire spell. I make the same argument for a dual cast sun spell vs Prism Radiance. The result is that although sun spells require a tiny bit less magicka, Prism Radiance does a lot more damage because of its lasting afterburn effect. Basically, using Prism Radiance is an efficient compromise between dealing tiny damage for little magicka and dealing a lot of damage for more magicka. In tough fights, frequent small bursts of damage make a mage more likely to survive than seldom big amounts. That said, while Prism Radiance is awesome, the technique does have its limits. Depending on how long a fight can last or how many opponents there are to kill, the magicka pool can get close to depleted. In these circumstances, it's appropriate to put on a fancy cloak, construct a sword out of pure hard light then get up close and personal. Alternatives to the Bound Sword are the Silver Sword and Dawnbreaker. 

    Light & Desert Magic: Defence 

     Skills: Alteration, Conjuration, Restoration.

     Spells: Oakflesh => Stoneflesh => Ironflesh => Ebonyflesh; Healing => Fast Healing => Close Wounds; Flame Atronach; Ash Spawn; Ash Guardian; Ash Shell; Whirlwind Cloak; Wards - Optional; Ash Rune - Optional.

     Description: I played the Exorcist as a badass Ash'abah Redguard and because of it, I wanted to incorporate the following themes of the Alik'r Desert into the play style: light, sand and wind. From a defensive point of view, light magic takes shape with the help of flesh spells. It's fitting since they're just a layer of colored light modeled on the character. Continuing with the ideas of light and sand in mind, I found it very useful to mitigate damage through healing spells and summons: Flame Atronach, Ash Spawn and Ash Guardian. Unfortunately, once I perked Twin Souls, I encountered a small glitch. Summoning a Flame Atronach and afterwards an Ash Spawn banishes the atronach. Doing this in reverse order however allows the Exorcist to have both summons active. This minor inconvenience is offset however by the fact that an Ash Guardian can be summoned along with any other conjured follower without banishing them regardless of whether or not Twin Souls is perked. Once my skill in alteration leveled up enough, I started using Ash Shell. Every time I was faced with a tough opponent surrounded by minions, I'd cast the spell and take care of the weaklings. Ash Shell basically gives the Exorcist the advantage of crowd control. Should a boss favor melee combat in an enclosed space, the Exorcist can counter this disadvantage through the use of Whirlwind Cloak. Furthermore, as far as defensive magic is concerned, I leave it to the choice of the player whether the Exorcist's list of spells should include or not wards and ash runes. I haven't used them that much but I can tell you they're easy to incoporate.

    Ash'abah Sorcery 

     Skills: Conjuration, Restoration.

     Spells: Raise Zombie => Reanimate Corpse => Revenant => Dread Zombie; Detect Dead; Scroll of Guardian Circle; Turn Undead - Optional.

     Description: As I've mentioned earlier, the Ash'abah are an exiled Redguard tribe. When it comes to their traditions, common Redguards are blindly conservative people. If you know a bit of lore or played Elder Scrolls Online on the Daggerfall Covenant side, then you're aware of the fact that Redguards would never dare strike down the supposed reanimated corpses of their ancestors - the Ra-Netues. The Ash'abah on the other hand defy these traditions and they're hated for it. The Ash'abah are skilled exorcists capable of performing certain rituals which render the dead unable to be resurrected. And this ritual is what makes the Exorcist level up so fast in Skyrim. It may be a very minor leveling exploit but it feels natural to the theme, lore and gameplay of this character. The core idea is simple. Not even the most talented necromancer can resurrect a corpse from its ashes. I call this Exorcism and it involves raising every corpse found and killing it. Not only does it make conjuration level up fast but also any skill used to kill the zombies. As a bonus, if a flesh spell is active, alteration will also level up! So, as a rule, I repeat, for every corpse found in the Exorcist's journeys, be it man, mer, beast, undead, raise it, kill it, turn it into ash. To make things easier I chose to cast Detect Dead after almost every battle since the spell reveals dead bodies too. This of course led to even faster level up. And since the Exorcist is a bit of a crowd controller too, I enjoyed occasionally turning undead and making them run away in fear.

     

     Character Customization 

     Race: Redguard. Personally I think it's the best choice. I've spent no point in Stamina yet when I was in really dire need of it I put Adrenaline Rush to great use.

     Stone: I've kept the Mage active most of the time because it allowed my character to level up even faster. Later on I picked the Lord for extra defence. Once I got my hands on the Aetherial Crown, I stored the Atronach in it just so I could perform a certain ultimate ability, Lux Aeterna.

     Stats: 1 Magicka | 1 Health | 0 Stamina (overall mean distribution). While the spread looks like this, feel free to consecutively spend any number of points into magicka as you desire. Just remember to keep track of the remaining health points. At level 42 I had 310 Magicka and 300 Health unbuffed by equipment or other, yet there were times when I invested five times in a row into magicka followed by a couple times into health and then magicka again. It all depended on how my Exorcist performed in combat, both in melee and ranged. Even though I fought with a bound sword fairly often, I didn't need to spend any points into stamina. If I really needed it, I just activated Adrenaline Rush or cast a healing spell under the effect of Respite.

     Equipment: I chose to go with leveled versions of destruction robes, a circlet of Fortify Restoration, a ring of Fortify Conjuration and an amulet of Fortify Magicka. Everything I wore had 0 armor rating so that my character could benefit form alteration's Mage Armor. Midway through my playthrough I acquired the Aetherial Crown and stored the Atronach stone in it.

     Powers: The Sun Stone's power would be a fitting choice though I didn't use it.

     Blessings & Active Effects: Early in my playthrough I put the blessing of Mara to good use (healing spells restore 10% more), though Julianos would've been nice too (+25 magicka). Later on though I went with Arkay (+25 health) for extra survivability. And of course, I found the effect of Sailor's Repose quite useful (healing spells cure 10% more).

     

     Abilities 

    Prism Radiance: Lightbolts

     Requires: Flames/Firebolt/Fireball in one hand, Sun Fire/Vampire's Bane in the other.

     Description: The Exorcist allows her body to act as a prism and breaks down nearby light into its raw components before focusing it at an opponent. Be advided, this works only against undead!

    Exorcism

     Requires: Raise Zombie/Reanimate Corpse/Revenant/Dread Zombie, any way of dealing damage.

     Description: The Exorcist forcibly pulls out and frees the remaining life essence of a dead body leaving only ash in its wake. In this state, no necromancer, no matter how powerful, can resurrect it.

    Radiant Focus

     Requires: Augmented Flames, Necromage.

     Description: The Exorcist passively focuses the light she radiates towards her opponent so that it burns faster and more intense. This works best against the undead though the effect is noticeable on any type of npc.

    Lux Aeterna

     Requires: Aetherial Crown with Atronach stored, Scroll of Guardian Circle.

     Description: The words means "infinite light" in Latin. Just as the ability's name indicates, the Exorcist temporarily swaps her head gear for the Aetherial Crown and steps inside a guardian circle to instantly restore her magicka pool for a limited time period. Feel free to perk the Atronach from alteration too as long as you have a mod that cancels the absorption of conjured followers.

     

     Closing Notes 

           I hope you've found this character build as unique as I have. Should you decide to play it and have questions, please post them as comments and I will do my best to provide answers. If however, you didn't find this living up to the bar I set, allow me to congratulate you! You've played more Skyrim than I have and that's something. Next I am going to credit every artist whose work I photoshopped. Be sure to check out the links below because without them, the build's presentation would be nowhere near where it is.

    http://www.hearthpwn.com/members/DialM4Murloc - First picture;

    http://petemohrbacher.deviantart.com/art/Shield-Warden-177591610

    http://roggles.deviantart.com/art/Elika-105941933

    http://connorscampaigns.wdfiles.com/local--files/d-d-races/Genasi%20-%20Fire.jpg

    http://dota2.gamepedia.com/File:Arcane_Bolt_icon.png

    http://dota2.gamepedia.com/File:Forge_Spirit_icon.png

    http://dota2.gamepedia.com/File:Ancient_Seal_icon.png

    http://dota2.gamepedia.com/File:Illuminate_icon.png

    https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/11758/ladyrhians-too-many-pictures-for-any-thread/p42

     

    If you want to check out my Fallout 4 character builds, click on any of the posters below!

          

          

    If you want to check out my Skyrim character builds, click on any of the posters below! 

        

          

        

           

  • Member
    November 25, 2016

    Lived up to the Hype! :)

    Seriously. Beautiful, unique, fresh. I've had a Redgaurd mage on my playlist for a while...never in a million years would have I come up with this. Thank you.

  • November 25, 2016

    When I first saw the video, I was like, why are you killing things again? Now I understand why. Interesting concept. Cool way to play and I am digging your artwork. Two builds in a month. You be fast, friend. 

     

  • Member
    November 25, 2016

    A very unique twist on the reanimation side of the build and it fits well with the roleplay/lore aspect of the build. Your artwork is always amazing and here's to more creative builds.

  • Member
    November 26, 2016

    Mottyskills said:

    Lived up to the Hype! :)

    Seriously. Beautiful, unique, fresh. I've had a Redgaurd mage on my playlist for a while...never in a million years would have I come up with this. Thank you.

    You're welcome Motty! Have fun! :D

  • November 26, 2016

    Damn, this must level as fast as hell! Looks great as always, mate.

  • Member
    November 26, 2016

    Lissette Long-Chapper said:

    When I first saw the video, I was like, why are you killing things again? Now I understand why. Interesting concept. Cool way to play and I am digging your artwork. Two builds in a month. You be fast, friend. 

     

    I bet everyone asks themselves the same thing. :)) Thanks, this is actually my sixth build this year, counting the Fallout 4 ones. I've been productive! :D

  • Member
    November 26, 2016

    Axius Revan said:

    A very unique twist on the reanimation side of the build and it fits well with the roleplay/lore aspect of the build. Your artwork is always amazing and here's to more creative builds.

    Thank you! :) I don't think I'll come up with another such creative way to play but you never know. Who knows what's in store next year?! :D

  • Member
    November 26, 2016

    Karver the Afflicted said:

    Damn, this must level as fast as hell! Looks great as always, mate.

    Pretty much! Thank you! :)

  • Member
    November 26, 2016

    This is exacty what I've been looking for! My first go on Remastered was with Henson's Sun Priest, but it was a little too warrior-y to me, but this is perfect. +1 From me, and I'll be playing it very soon.