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Character Build: Pyro Technician

Tags: #Character Build Sorcerer  #Character Build Illusionist  #Character Build Battlemage 
  • Member
    September 7, 2017

     

    Imperial (Pyro) Technician

    Bend their minds and watch them burn.  (A twist on the Masonic Sorcerer, provides fantastic combo fun.)

    Altmeri sorcerers and assassins, often gone rogue.  These heavy soldiers dominate battlefield and dungeon alike with mind magics and incendiary destruction.

    Enchanted heavy armor and melee combined with the Illusionist’s crowd controlling Calm and Fear magic via silent casting and stealth, plus the maxed out Ignite spell providing ranged attacks.  A well rounded, powerful and challenging build for Legendary play.

     

     

    Race: High Elf (Altmer) - The High Elf’s +50 points to Magica (completely fungible by level 6 or so) give us a great bump for casting our limited magic while allowing us to pour extra points into Health.  By mid/late game, we seek to wield the Advanced Atronach Stone, eventually rendering Breton, Dark Elf and Nord traits obsolete.  

     

    Stats: Get Health/Stamina/Magica to 150/130/150, then approximate +40/+10/+20

    We place the first five levels into health, just to stay alive, then another three into stamina to give us a little wiggle on sprints.  We do not need much stamina since the Sorcerer’s Swords derives little bonus from Power Attacks.  We are counting on our low cost Destruction magic combined with Illusion to control battle tempo, manage crowds, and keep us hidden from danger.  Our armor always lags behind our offense though, so we need as much health as we can get.  (On Legendary, decent archers may prove our greatest foe because they can critical-one-shot us for quite some time.)  Once we get enough Magica and Stamina, we can dump all remaining points into Health (probably around level 30 or so, depending on our armor enchantments.)

     

    Standing Stone: Atronach + Steed, Atronach + Lord

    Early game: Mage Stone for a standard Sorcerer’s build; Warrior’s Stone for Technicians who perk One-Handed

    Mid-Game: switch to the Atronach or Steed Stone as soon as things start to get serious, likely level 12-15.  Atronach will eventually be our primary magic defense.  Steed provides fast movement to compliment Heavy Armor.

    Late-Game:  Acquire the Aetherial Crown

      • Atronach + Steed: Strong magic resistance + super speed (not to mention another couple hundred lbs of gear.)  This is the end-game goal.
      • Atronach + Lord’s Stone: Even better magic resistance + physical resistance.  Can be useful while developing but generally unnecessary when Smithing/Enchanting reach upper levels.

    ***Advanced Atronach Stone can be better described elsewhere in the Tamriel Vault, but the gist is this: drink two Restoration potions before touching the stone and it increases the effect of the stone.  More powerful potions increase the power of the stone even more.  At later levels, enchant some high powered Alchemy gear to create your strongest Restoration potions.  Quicksave at the stone, and check your Magica level before and after touching; the amount of Magica added is also your new magic absorption (and yes, also your loss to Magica regen).  I think 85 is max, at which point you are nearly immune to magic.  (Alternatively, Atronach absorption combined with the Lord Stone gives strong magic protection.)***

     

    Skills: Technicians have very powerful yet limited weapons that must be used in concert.  Use Muffle and eventually Invisibility to maneuver and recon.  Battles then begin at range with Calm/Fear + Ignite combos, ultimately silenced.  As enemies close, the Technician pulls out the shield and either continues to throw magic one handed or draws her Masonic Sorcerer’s Sword.

    The timing is always frantic; after all, there’s always time for one more fireball before that bandit with the battle axe cleaves us in two… until there isn’t.

    Battles lasting more than a single attack rely more on sword and shield since the Atronach Stone nerf’s a Technician’s mana recharge significantly, requiring mana to be wisely spent.

    The root skills necessary for this build allow for quite a bit of late-game flexibility:

    34 perks spent as shown give us the basics of the build:


                 

     

    Note, these are not the first 34 points.  Just the necessary 34 points.

    Notice we use very few points in Destruction by focusing on the lower level Ignite spell; also save in Illusion by not choosing Rage, Master or Dual Cast.

     

    A 51 perk fleshed out build may look like (left):  But you could also switch into Conjuring, 48 perks (right):

                                           

    Perk Options:  

    Give up the 4 frost perks (-4 = -3 Dest. -1 Ench)


    Give up Dual Casting Destruction (-2: if you feel OP, you can lose the Stagger effect adding quite a bit of challenge)


    Give up the 5 One-Handed perks and focus on a pure Sorcerer’s Sword (i.e. Mason’s build)


    Add Stealth skills to free up a couple hotkeys (Muffle, Invisibility)


    Add Alchemy (this is a very expensive build money-wise because you will need to buy Destruction levels as well as pay for the Ring of Arcana excavation dig.)


    Add Restoration: a few perks here are always nice for healing


    Trying Two-Handed or Light Armor could also work, in theory


    A limiting factor for this build is hotkeys.  Keyboards give 8.  If i could figure out how, I’d love to add more; for example, a Destruction Elemental Cloak would be sweet with this build, giving all 3 elemental damages with each strike (2 on your weapon +1 as Elemental cloaks add their element to each attack.)  

    I hotkey like this:

          1. 1 -- Sword
          2. 2 -- Shield
          3. 3 -- Healing (magic or potions)
          4. 4 -- Ignite
          5. 5 -- Calm/Pacify
          6. 6 -- Fear/Rout
          7. 7 -- Muffle
          8. 8 -- Invisibility

     

    Major Skills: Illusion, Destruction, Enchanting

    Illusion:

    • Calm/Fear are used to control crowds, managing the pace and tempo of the battle
    • Muffle, Quiet Casting and eventually Invisibility allow us to operate largely unseen & unheard
    • boost the power of our weapon enchantments by amping the fire spell’s fear factor (AoT)
    • And of course, topping off the Ignite spell with Aspect of Terror

    Technicians require all but 3 Illusion perks, we settle for not having Rage since we don’t have the hotkeys and, besides, it isn’t as cool in combo form (see Special Moves section below); additionally we do not need Master level or Dual Casting.  Our Illusion can whittle down the lower and mid-level enemies in any pack, leaving only the leaders to deal with; at which point we can go 1-on-1 with sword/shield/Ignite.  When the Quiet Casting perk is activated, the Technician earns his name, becoming a silent ninja orchestrating battles from the shadows.

    ***Alert*** All three Flames enhancements in Destruction Tree must be activated before activating the Aspect of Terror perk in the Illusion Tree in order to properly enhance the Ignite spell.***

    Destruction: the Technician’s ranged weapon, Ignite, an Apprentice level spell, is cheap in both mana and perk cost.  Enchanting the Sorcerer’s Sword generally requires two branches (6 perks).  Fire/Ice is easiest and quite powerful because the frost damage slows enemies, but Fire/Lightning (7 perks) also works for Technicians seeking more of a light-saber effect (ideal for anti-vampire specialists, for example.)  Alternatively, a Technician could stick with flame perks only; comboing Fire enchantment with Absorb Health or Paralysis on her weapons.

    ***Repeat Alert*** All three Flames enhancements in Destruction Tree must be activated before activating the Aspect of Terror perk in the Illusion Tree in order to properly enhance the Ignite spell.***

    Enchanting: The Masonic Sorcerer focuses firstly on enchanting.  The Technician does not need Enchanting to be the number one focus quite so much as a pure Sorcerer, assuming perks spent in One-Handed damage, but Enchanting should still remain a very high focus.  Either way, Enchanting will become your primary means of dealing melee damage.  Also, as the Atronach Stone is used and improved, a Technician must find ways to improve Magica/Magica-regen to cover the Stone’s negative Magica regen effect, i.e. use enchanted equipment to boost Magica.

     

    Minor Skills: One-Handed, Heavy Armor, Block, Smithing, Alchemy

    One-Handed: [Optional Tree] Some Technicians pick up the 5 damage perks but cannot afford to spend additional perks on Power Attacks, which won’t be needed anyway due to the reliance on elemental damage enchantments. Combined with our Sorcerer’s Sword and weapon-boosting enchanted armor, we will increasingly deal more and more massive amounts of damage.  See Mason’s Sorcerer build for more details on the Sorcerer’s sword.

    Block: Two perk points buy us +20% blocking and more importantly, Quick Reflexes which slows time during enemy power attacks and allows the Technician to avoid the blow entirely, especially with the Steed Stone speed advantage.  Upgrade your Shield Wall (block effectiveness) as able. [I have had a fighting mod for quite some time now.  I don’t recall how blocking works vanilla.  Users may need to modify this skill.]

    Heavy Armor:  this skill tends to lag behind all the others, simply since we desperately need to level many other skills.  When we can afford it though, 5 perk points to increase Heavy Armor will make a huge difference.  Technician’s do not need to spend additional perk points in HA since the Steed Stone frees up the three perks required to get Conditioning while enchanted armor provides some extra protection.

    Smithing: Masonic Sorcerers use Plate Armor.  Technicians prefer Dragon or Daedric.  You have options.

    Alchemy: Technicians don’t need to know much about Alchemy, but they do need some.  3 perk points spent here can make a huge difference; alternatively, invest in some enchanted alchemy gear.  See abilities below for a few recipes.  If you cannot afford the perks, at least get some Alchemy enchanted gear.  [Dragon Souls to Perk mods are quite useful here.  I usually trade 5:1.]

     

    Equipment:

    Early game: Sword with Fiery Soul Trap enchantment + Shield combined with armor.  We will need a couple early big enchantments on our armor to give us spell casting abilities, finding a few Black Soul gems is key.  Two or three early perks spent in Enchanting can get us through much of the early/mid game.

    Here’s an interesting bit, because we won’t get the Steed Stone until later in the game, it is often useful to use light armor in the early game and then switch to heavy armor when we either get a massive boost to Smithing, or do finally pick up the Steed.  If you run this switch, don’t intentionally level light armor.  Just use it to get by.

    Mid-Game: at long last the Ignite spell is ours.  Mastering it is the next task.

    ***Critical*** To master ignite, it is critical to pick up all three Destruction fire perks, the 2 Augment Flames, and one Ignite Flames BEFORE getting the Illusion Aspect of Terror perk.  Otherwise, the flames will not be properly augmented.

    *Not so critical, but heads up* Ignite doesn’t level Destruction much at all.  The only real way to level this character is to buy the levels, we usually use Faralda at the College or Sybille Stentor in Solitude’s Court. This is highly problematic since we are spending so much money digging for our magic ring.  Additionally, a Skill-limit removal mod is advised so that we can buy more than 5 skill levels per character level.  

    We continue to upgrade our armor as we progress the Smithing and Enchanting trees, mostly focusing on Magica/Magica Regen enchantments but implementing OH if/when possible.  Also, we may use elemental resistances on boots and shield during the mid-game if we switch to the Steed Stone before acquiring the Aetherial Crown.

    As the game progresses we can also consider investing in Smithing/Alchemy enchanted items.  We need some Alchemy gear in order to create decent Fortify Restoration potions, required to upgrade the Atronach Stone.  You won’t be able to afford a house for a long, long time with this build.  I use the safe-storage site Anise’s Cabin, near Riverwood, complete with Arcane Enchanter and Alchemy Lab.

    Final Equipment:

    • Ahzidal’s Ring of Arcana
      Aetherial Crown
      Enchanted Items [Heavy armor, sword]:  You are going to need to have some Magic supporting enchantments; Magica, Magica-Regen or decreasing the cost of Illusion magic.  Try to minimize Magic enchantments in order to enhance your melee fighting.  Balance buffing your defense with Fortify Heavy Armor while supplementing your Sorcerer’s sword with OH enchantments.
      • Enchanted Sword: The Masonic Sorcerer's sword; frost + fire enchantments.  [If you choose not to put perks into the One-Handed skill, then Silver swords are ideal as they apply extra damage to undead.]
      • Other Swords?: Fire + Turn Undead; Fire + Fear; Fire + Paralyze.

     

    Overall, Technicians are strong early game, weak in the mid-game, and then uber powerful in the late game.

    Quests:

    Steel Battleaxe of Fiery Souls: an early quest to retrieve this valuable enchanter’s relic gives an easy fire enchantment to our sword and begins soul collection.  Additionally, this dungeon holds two Black Soul Gems, which help immensely early in the game.

    Unearthed - Ahzidal’s Ring of Arcana: Start this quest as early as possible, bring a follower and yeah, it’s really expensive.  

      1. 500 for a follower, 500 to get to Solstheim, 1000 to start the dig, 2000 to continue the dig, another 3000 to continue again to the Ring of Arcana.  [Optional: another 5000 to finish the dig and acquire Ahzidal’s mask.  This mask further enhances fire damage making Ignite ridiculously powerful.  I’ve never gone this route.] If you play a non-Fast Travel game it costs even more to boat back and forth.  So yeah, start saving money!  
        Also, the bosses are freaking tough early on, which is when you are fighting them, so bring a bad-ass follower. (I hate followers.  I rarely use them, but they are needed here, and don't bother with those nerflings from Whiterun.)  I suggest:
        1. Marcurio from Riften or
          Teldryn Sero from Raven Rock

    Slow Time Shout:

      1. Civil War - Korvanjund (Jagged Crown Quest): Early in the Civil War questline, we embark on a quest to retrieve the Jagged Crown.  The Word-Wall at the end has the Slow Time word we need.  Usually the easiest Slow Time word to acquire.
        Hag’s End - Slow Time word.  We need to get into the end of this dungeon (can use the secret back entrance via rock climbing.)  This word can be picked up mid-game, as soon as we can handle the Forsworn.
        Mage Guild - Labyrinthia: We will complete the entire Mage-Guild questline to secure the third and final Slow Time word.  It’s a challenge, but extremely powerful with this build.

    Lost to the Ages - Aetherial Crown:

      1. Two of the four pieces can be picked up easily.  

      2. The piece at Arkngthamz can be picked up earlier than you think, if you run like hell!  Either use light armor or engage the Steed Stone if you need to sprint this one; but it’s a fun dungeon to fight thru if you are powerful enough.

      3. The final piece in Raldbthar is tough.  Bring your A-game.

      4. Assembling the Crown is a challenge as well.  Bring your A-game.

    The Black Star (corrupting Azura’s Star) - A fine piece of equipment for any master enchanter.  Sure it corrupts your soul, buy hey, as an Imperial Assassin, you’re already hell-bound so why not?

    Final Quests:

    1. Join the Dark Brotherhood and master the arts of assassination.  Don’t run this until you have all three Destruction flames perks and Illusion’s Quiet Casting and Aspect of Terror Perks.  Your prey tends to go insane and spontaneously combust.

    2. Work the Civil War, no rush.  As your power increases, rise through the ranks of the Empire.  Think Darth Vader merged with Boba-Fett, and play the Imperial March during key battles.

    [Optional Quests: I suggest choosing one or more of these for your end-game questlines.]

    Main Quest - If you prefer, establish your unique dominance.

    Dragonborn - Who is this Ass-hat sending assassins after you?  Seek and destroy the infidel.

    Dawnguard - Ignite is especially well tailored for absolutely annihilating vampires.  Technicians should have level 90 Illusion to acquire the Master of the Mind perk before delving too far into vampire territory though.

     

    Combo Moves & Special Abilities:

    The Ignite/Illusion combos are the centerpiece of the character’s ranged attack, and the primary reason to play this build.  These are too much fun to role play:


    Human Torch: Ignite then Calm - This combo is fantastic! We light a guy on fire, and then talk him out of caring about it.  The flames continue to burn but the target is at peace. Just chillin… shooting the breeze.  Good times, good times.

    • Bandit: “Hey man, is my face on fire?

    • Technician: “Yes. Yes it is.”

    • Bandit: “Do you think that could be a problem?”

    • Technician: “Likely so.”

    • Bandit: “Huh.”



    Feel the Burn: Ignite + Fear - The exact opposite of stop, drop, and roll.  Light them on fire, then just before they swing their war-hammer into your face, send them fleeing and screaming in terror.  Power-tripping fun!  Careful though, this one can bring in a swarm of enemies when it wears off, and oh, did we mention our horrible mana-recharge rate?

     

    Combo upgrades:

    Quiet Casting: the AI only detects magic sounds at two points, when a spell is cast and when it lands.  Quiet Casting eliminates the sound when cast so our enemies have no idea why they are going insane and spontaneously combusting.  Perfect for assassinations.


    Slow Time: with all 3 words, we can unload our entire mana pool after a single shout.  All enemies before us are bombarded with vicious combos before they can even raise their defense. (Long shout recharge on this one though, depleting mana and shouts ...well, caution advised.  Travelling with the Talos blessing can help.)




    Illusion’s 2nd Tier spells: Pacify/Rout adds area effects with increased power (affects higher level enemies)

     

    Master Technician Special Moves:

    Searing Mage Gun, a.k.a: SMG Incendiary - [Ignite + Slow time]: the Technician’s ranged attack is finally perfected with the 3-word Slow time shout, allowing for rapid fire incendiary rounds; one “Mag” (or magic pool) Ignites an entire crowd, wounding leaders and killing followers.  Additionally, armor piercing incendiary munitions make short work of mighty dragons.  Upgrade to Pacify and Route for bullet-time group action.  Don’t forget your [Quiet Casting] suppressor!


    9-Point-Palm-Exploding-Napalm Technique, a.k.a. The Flaming Kamikazee  [Ignite + Slow Time + Steed Stone + lots of open ground] We start at a stand still, Slow Time, and then continue spamming Ignite as we begin running towards our target. We can almost keep up with the fireballs as they race towards our enemy, essentially creating an expandingly massive fireball-cluster around us.  Veer off at the last moment, swoop back and watch our mightiest foes melt.  This is a dragon slayer; a boss butcher.   Landing this impressive cluster of Ignite absolutely annihilates enemy health reserves.

    *This character can become quite powerful.  For a more challenging playthrough, do not enable the Dual Casting Destruction perks.

     

    Valuable Alchemy Potions:


    The Blues: Blue Flowers + Blue Butterflies (Hanging Moss is a 3rd ingredient that can go with either.) No idea what the potion does but it sells for a lot.  Pretty sure it ends up getting cut with Skooma and sold to addicts.

     

     

    Slow: Trama Root + Salt.  Effective for both money and combat.  Search barrels and bags for salt and buy it from vendors (Riften has a large salt supply in random barrels.)  Questing for Ahzidal’s Ring of Arcana takes us to Solstheim, in which the Trama Root is prevalent.  Pick all we can find.  Trama Root is named for the trauma you endure trying to harvest it.  Pretty much everything in Solstheim can kill us for a long time into the game.  Bring your running shoes to gather Trama Root.



    Paralyze: Choose two - Canis Root, Imp Stool, Swamp Fungal Pod.  Especially in the mid-game, bosses can definitely wreak Technicians who run out of Magica.  Always try to keep some of these on you for emergencies and assassinations.

     

    Fortify Restoration, a.k.a. the ABC’s: ABecean longfin + Cyrodilic spadetail (both are small river fish found underneath dragonflies.)  This is the potion that boosts the Atronach Stone.  The weird part, no idea why, is that it seems that two potions have the best effect.  So build them in twos and drink them in twos.

    Fortify Smithing/Fortify Enchanting:  This character will be quite powerful; no need for any potion/enchanting looping.  No idea what these ingredients are.  Master Wizard Google seems to know though.

     

  • Member
    September 7, 2017

    I think you've got some good ideas here, Ninja. Ignite and calm is something I've never tried :) It would have been nice to see it go through the workshop first, that is the place to be to get feedback on works in progress, get assistance on formatting, art.. and all that sort of thing, you know? So have a like of encouragement :)

  • Member
    September 8, 2017

    Yeah, first time builder here.  Not really sure what i'm doing, lol.  Thx for advice.

    The Post Editor is a bit tricky on the formatting.

  • September 8, 2017

    Interesting first build.  The presentation could use some work, the wall of text in the middle is a little daunting and the differnt sized picture spam at the end has the unfortunate effect of making the build look sloppy.  Your writing however is clear concise and has a nice energy to it that matches the build and makes those large walls of text actually pretty easy to read.  I love pyromancer builds so easy like from me.  Since your using exploits you may be interested in the Cursed Ring of Hircine glitch which will lock in the ignite spell meaning you wont need to wear the Ring of Arcana to use it.

  • September 8, 2017

    So yeah...let me think on what to say. So the idea behind the build is to kind of have this as your version of Mason's Sorcerer correct? But it's also kind of two builds in one? You've got the 'Technician' and the 'Masonic Sorcerer' that you keep mentioning but...ah to be honest that just really confuses it all and muddles the build up a lot. I mean you talk about different perks, different playstyles, different just about everything for the two characters...I dunno, I think it'd just be more helpful if you just separated them, either into two different builds with two different posts dedicated to them, or at least kind of breaking this one into a "Technician Half' and a "Masonic Sorcerer" half to make sure that there's no confusion. At the moment it's almost like I'm reading two builds that have just been kind of smashed together. 

    Honestly, I think most of the build's problems can be traced to that. It's bulky, it's kind of difficult to read and there are parts where I'm left being a tad confused over the whole thing. It's just, yeah... there's some stuff that I can (and will) get into other stuff later but, yeah I'm just not sure which direction I should be coming at this build from in terms of feedback.