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Character Build: The Wrath of Hircine

Tags: #Character Build Barbarian  #Character Build Warrior  #Character Build Werewolf  #Race:Orc  #Dragonborn1721  #SE Rank:Apprentice 
  • May 8, 2017

    The Wrath of Hircine is a recent (ish) playthrough of mine using YASH2 (lite), or the PS4's largest scale overhaul mod so far. It basically changes a little bit of everything to make the game harder and a bit more fun to play through. For me it makes Roleplaying a lot more prominent and has worked pretty well so far in allowing me to create a character rather than playthrough the game.

    YASH is available on PC, PS4 and possibly on Xbone. However, on PS4 we can't have all of the more complicated mechanics that have been developed on PC so we have to make do with a few small changes. It is a very complete and honestly awesome overhaul but there will be massive differences between a PC YASH build and a PS4 YASH build. 

    The Character

    • Guurg, son of Grahm Gro-Bal is not a nice person. In fact many would say that he is everything that people consider wrong with the Orcish Race. He is bloodthirsty, crude, savage person who has no trouble murdering people if he needs to. That said, he is not evil, he is incredibly immoral but he will not just go out and start murdering people for no reason...he at least needs to get paid to do that.

    • He is not a young man, and despire his immoral behaviour follows some of the traditions of the Orcs including their wish for a good death. He wants nothing more than to die in battle against a worthy enemy and has been seeking this death for years. This has left Guurg as an incredibly reckless warrior who has no issue charging into battle no matter how many enemies he has to face.

    • While he seeks his death, Guurg has no desire to simply walk around waiting for it. His goal is to create a band of powerful warriors that could become famous to even outstrip the Companions of Whiterun and part of this goal includes taking over the Companions as Harbringer and lead the two as a devasating group of Warriors that could potentially fight even the armies of the Stormcloaks and Imperials through their sheer power. This is not a goal for personal power, or to control Skyrim (though he would hardly complain if his Group did end up there). Guurg simply sees it as the best way to prove himself as the most powerful warrior by leading other powerful warriors. 

    • For anyone interested I've been working on a Modder's Log to go with this build. Think of them as a written Let's Play or game journal where you write down what you've done so far. Mine are very Roleplaying and Story focused so you'll get a lot of insight into Guurg's Character by reading it (and hopefully get a somewhat interesting read out of it). The Modder's Log has been discontinued, but it currently seves as the Backstory for this build, or a bit of it at least.


    The Build

    The concept of The Wrath of Hircine is one that I've had for awhile, the idea is that you sneak in, murder the first enemy with a devastating attack and then when caught, transform into a Werewolf and wreck anything that's still alive. It is neither a Berserker (who would just run in and murder everything), nor is it really an Assassin but a hybrid of both combined with the awesome-ness that is the Werewolf Form.

    Race - Orc

    Orcs are an incredibly beneficial character for this play-through. Most of this is because they start out with mediocre skills in our main weapon type (Two-Handed) which gives them a good boost at the beginning of the game, allowing them to start off inflicting some decent amounts of damage with them. But beyond that, I wanted to create a build that maybe took a different spin on the Old Orc and play off both Orcish and Nordic cultures, and for that Guurg is the perfect choice.

    Oh and Berserker Rage. It's just such an overbearing ability that even in the extremely difficult YASH it's still something I consider powerful. 

    Standing Stone - Thief ---> Lord

    Personally I went with the Thief and then the Lord but honestly just about any stone except the Apprentice or Mage will work. The Atronach's 50% Spell Absorption is beneficial, as are the Warrior's 10% increase to all stats (so 10% more damage and 10% more AR from Heavy Armour)

    Skills - Two-Handed, Sneak, Alchemy and Archery

    The most fun part of this build is that Sneak is going to be really hard to level early on. YASH reduces your base stats to 5 (or 0 on PC), this basically means that at early levels you'll really be struggling to move around quietly as an Orc (they just don't have the ability to sneak that well). The usage of Two-Handed is both a boon and a real issue to deal with. Being exposed after a sneak attack is almost certain and by only taking some of the more utility based perks (as opposed to the base, damage increasing ones) we get a character that can unleash a devastating first attack but will quickly grow weaker as enemies become aware of Guurg.

    Alchemy and Archery are kind of secondary skills to the character. Alchemy is a great skill so far for getting a bit of money and the legendary Dragon's Tongue + Fly Amantia (Fortify Two-Handed and Resist Fire) potion is just kind of tailor-made for this character. Healing Potions feel like they're going to be almost required for characters that aren't perking Restoration. Archery is something I've been debating whether or not I should use, but there are some benefits to taking it. The ability to fight back against the ridiculously powerful Archers (because naturally) is really going to be useful.

    Minor Skills - Smithing, Light Armour and Block

    Block is going to be an unperked skill, and honestly you could drop it if you want. The Wrath of Hircine is designed to kill enemies as quickly as possible so anytime you do need to block an enemy's attack your probably dead already. That isn't to say that it's useless, just not very useful in the end-game.

    Smithing is going to be something I'm taking simply because Orcs get a significant bonus to it, and they have a unique perk that gives them yet another boost. Orcs are basically Master Smiths from birth in YASH (not quite, but they do get great boosts) and the extra bits of damage and AR are really useful so far.

    Light Armour is actually heavily perked but I don't consider it a Main Skill. The extra AR, Stamina Regeneration and Magic Resistance are all really useful for this character so I'm going to be taking it at the very least to get a perk called Elemental Walker (which is what adds the Elemental Resistances)

    Gameplay: 1-20

    A lot of the early gameplay is sadly a bit more based in just getting out there and fighting enemies rather than sneaking around. I'm not entirely sure if it's just YASH but early on sneaking around isn't going to be that effective, the issue is that you just can't be expected to be sneaking through bandit camps and taking out anything that moves. Even with Archery it isn't going to be happening, so I've found it much easier to kind of, let loose and break shit with my Axe so to say.

    Now this surprised me, but what really makes combat difficult here is Archers taking pot-shots at me from a distance. Now, YASH adds these enemies called Marauders (at least I'm 98% sure it's YASH) which are Archers that are armed with Orcish Bows, Ancient Nord Armour and seem to be at least 10 levels better than most other enemies at this level. Think of them as the equivelent of terrifying Draugr Deathlords with Ebony Bows (in vanilla), they will one-shot you at lower levels and at level 18 can easily two-shot you. These guys are no joke but they are absolutely everywhere, making any archer fight a bit deadly because you never know when one of these guys is going to sneak up on you. 

    Warriors and Mages are arguably much easier. The former is simply about getting them to miss by dashing ahead and then moving backwards quick enough to dodge their attack while Mages can usually be killed in a single Power Attack followed by a regular attack. Some of them can be a bit of a pain, especially when they use Ice Spells but I've found them to be overly simple to kill, which isn't something I can say about the Archers.

    Gameplay (21+)

    Honestly there isn't that much of a change in the gameplay later on. Your still going to be fighting in more or less the same way, it's just that you'll be doing it better. I did fall back on Archery a lot more than I meant to, with the focus being more on taking the stronger enemies (Read - Draugr Deathlords) down and then following in with a Barbarian-like attack pattern but the biggest change is definitely the Werewolf Form.

    I didn't become a Werewolf until around Level 25, but by the time I did it was definitely worth it. A lot of that early time is going to be spent either dying or butchering weaklings to eat their hearts (now that sounds terrible...) Anyway, we're going to want to take all of the non-Totem perks as soon as we can (you can choose to take all the Howl/Totem perks, but it isn't a key focus) so we can increase our damage output and defensive stats as much as possible, and become actually decent in combat.

    After that, it becomes a rather formulaic (but still exciting) combat style, with a couple of sneak attacks from afar to weaken an enemy group (aim for the Archers, they're going to be your biggest threat) and then rushing in with our Battleaxe and taking out any of the remaining Archers. After that, a transformation will allow you to destroy anyone that's left. 

    Equipment

    Hrothmund's Axe

    A weapon is an Orc's best friend and Guurg managed to stumble across a pretty badass one (note, he made it). Hrothmund's Axe is a weapon that was supposed to be in Skyrim (I think in the Dragonborn DLC) but never made it in. It is a badass weapon though and the perfect weapon visually to go with this build. On top of that, it's relatively easy to craft and is decently powerful.

    As far as I know it should be available for PS4 and PC but I have no idea about Xbox One. For 360, PS3 and possibly X1 players I recommend using Wuuthrad instead, it's a powerful weapon that just fits with the quests we're going to be doing and the general playstyle of the build.

    Ring of Bloodlust

    While I was originally hesitant about taking this because of the weaknesses, I think in the end that the benefits far outweigh the negatives. Werewolf Perks Extended adds just enough new, interesting defensive perks to make it viable to take the Ring of Bloodlust and become an absolute beast once you transform. 

    Ring of Hircine

    I feel like this is an obvious choice, but I'm not into waiting an entire day to transform. The benefits of being able to transform multiple times for short durations is exactly what makes this character work so I'm afraid I can't simply skip over this artifact without weakening the character.

    Crossbow

    Ah, man I never expected to go this route but the Crossbow has become a real staple to Guurg's character. It just fits too perfectly with the Battleaxe as creating this semi-stealthy character, that while deadly is pretty much going to be heard straight away and attacked from every direction because it's kind of easy to find where the super loud sound came from. That and holy crap does it pack a punch to all non-skeleton enemies. 

    Guurg's Militia

    So, at the end of the day, Guurg is not a Companion. Sure he helped them out enough to get some money and become Harbringer, but it isn't his true calling. He doesn't really care about the honour related to the companions, and is fine with butchering a town if it gets him money and prestige. Because of this, he left Whiterun and the Companions (taking anyone who'd join him) to form his own Militia, who's job it is to...well get money, either by helping random people or by killing them. 

    Vilkas - Enraged at the Silver Hand for killing Kodlak, and never quite getting over it. Vilkas decided to join Guurg's Militia in order to take revenge on those who killed the closest thing he ever had to a father. If a couple regular bandit camps got in the way of his quest for vengence, well then that's just fine isn't it. He still isn't the type of person who would kill innocents, but he hasn't said anything about it so far, and probably won't as long as you aren't too obvious about it.

    Uthgerd the Unbroken - The first member of Guurg's Militia, Uthgerd is one of the members of the Milita who has been known to kill just about anyone. She might feel terrible afterwards, but really the only issue for her is the idea of killing old people, or murdering anyone in their sleep. As long as the fight can be considered somewhat fair (in other words, her opponent can theoretically fight back with their fists) she has no issue pummeling them into the ground. 

    The Orcs - Ghorbash the Iron-Hand, Lob, Ugor and Ogol are the last of the known members of Guurg's Milita (though it is reported that he has more than a half dozen other members) and form the only team amongst them. If there's anything larger than a Bandit Camp that needs to be cleared, a fort of small town, then the Orcs are the team to do it. They are fast, efficient, and work better together than any of the other members of the Milita and are considered highly dangerous when seen together.

    Personal Mod-List

    So listen here ya fancy PC and Xbone players. I will tell you right now that you have a better mod for something than everything I'm about to talk about. But these are available on PS4 and that's what I've got. If you don't know about a mod for PC then ask away and I can direct you to an alternative but otherwise, yes I know that _____ is awesome, no I can't play it and yes that makes me sad. 

    YASH2, lite

    YASH is one of the few mods that I'll use as an example of what a dedicated modder can do even through Sony's restrictions. YASH was quite simply a massive overhaul mod that I wouldn't hesitate to put up there with Requiem or Skyrim Redone in terms of pure scale. The entire game is pretty much changed completely with YASH, and the PS4 version is no different. It might not have as many fancy features as the PC version, but it does offer a simple staggering number of changes to the game that mkae it feel almost completely different. 

    Wolf-Blooded

    This is an interesting mod for me with a number of reasons to use it with this playthrough. The main one is that it adds some more Werewolf based content to the game, mostly in the form of an enemy gang of Werewolves that are not like the Companions. These guys will freely kill, pillage and murder anyone they want and are basically regulra bandits that are also Werewolves. For me this has added a unique new enemy to The Wrath of Hircine in the form of some younglings who think they have the right to exist as a rival to him, the audacity to create their own seperate group of Werewolves.

    Werewolf Perk Expanded

    I have a feeling that some of the benefits of Werewolf Perks Expanded are going to help out this character. Basically it adds a collection of perks and powerst that make playing as a Werewolf slightly easier (they're stronger overall without being too strong) and making the perks feel way more worth it. What's even cooler is that it adds a 'Second Word' to the Wolf Howls allowing for some extra effects like Berserker Rage, Slow Time and Boosted Summons and Followers. I don't think that YASH modifies Werewolves so it should work out fine. 

    Morrowind Music Integration

    Alright, I'm a sucker for it. While we can't exactly get the full soundtrack on PS4, what this mod does is make it so that all of the music included in the Dragonborn DLC from Morrowind can play during the rest of your playthrough. The feel of Morrowind's music is enough to make me give this mod a shot, even if the author doesn't actually mention whether it definitely works on PS4 (tested on PC, works fine).

    Kato's Falkreath and Riverwood

    I like my towns to be interesting, and Kato's two mods here make some pretty awesome changes to Falkreath and Riverwood, making them at least somewhat interesting places to visit. Considering this is where I plan to make my home (mostly chilling between Whiterun and Falkreath) the changes are definitely appreciated.

  • May 8, 2017

    I just recently got Skyrim SE for my PS4 so i've been fiddling with the available mods  Mostly testing them out to see how they might fit into my builds.  Once i get around to a serious playathrough however this YASH mod looks very interesting considering the limitation of mods on PS4.

  • May 8, 2017

    Nice build, DRagonborn. Finished playing so had a chance to read. I'm really grabbed by the clean presentation and the effective explanation of the mod. Makes me want to try YASH. 

    Great work. 

  • May 8, 2017

    YASH is definitely interesting, especially just the massive scope of what it changes. I'll warn you that it's bloody hard at times, the hardest part of the whole thing is just that enemies aren't locked into encounter zones. Just makes it a little difficult to playthrough, but definitely fun so I'd give it a shot whenever you can.

  • May 8, 2017

    Nice build, DRagonborn. Finished playing so had a chance to read. I'm really grabbed by the clean presentation and the effective explanation of the mod. Makes me want to try YASH.

     

    Great work.

    Thanks Liss, I actually had a fair bit of fun playing around with the presentation, and I think I'm going to continue it with different styles just about everytime (though this is becoming one of my favourites the more I use it). I've never really spent that much time going over a mod either, so I guess this is my first 'modded' build sorta, anyway, glad that you enjoyed all that :D

  • Member
    May 10, 2017

    You have just sold PS4 mods to me, I wasn't ever using them due to worrying about not getting trophies, I'm never going to get the plat anyway lol. I would really like to compile an updated list of the best PS4 mods. I believe you used more than what you just listed :P

  • May 10, 2017

    Bumping this since i just buried it under a tidal wave of old builds

  • May 11, 2017

    Using my necromantic powers to raise this build back to the top of the corpse pile. (bumping it since i just buried it under updated builds)

  • May 11, 2017

    Ah, sorry for missing your comment Elyrius, I'm totally glad that I manged to sell mods to someone (I consider it my sworn duty as Host of the Modder's Conclave) Honestly the difficulty that I'd have with compiling a 'best of the best' type mods is that I kind of pick and choose for each character. There are a few mods that I have for all of them (things like Kato's Riverwood, Falkreth, Whiterun, etc.) but for the more gameplay-based one, well each character uses a completely different set of mods that only work well for him or her..

    But yeah, I usually run 20-40 mods, it's just most of them are either environmental in nature (so adding little things to the worldspace) or I forgot I had them XD Can't wait to see what type of mods you run mate (jump over to the PS4 Modder's Corner and tell me about them when you've em set up :D)

  • Member
    May 12, 2017

    A badass Orc gathering warriors to wreck things along with some assassin and werewolf action well that's a nice pack, cool build! :D