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Character Build: The Mystic Artificer

Tags: #Character Build Shouts  #Character Build Spellsword  #Character Build Crusader  #Race:Dunmer  #SE Rank:Apprentice  #Tysoyaha 
  • October 11, 2017

     

    Concept:

    Similar to The Parasite, the idea behind this build was to create a magic user that was not reliant on having a large mana pool. Instead, we use shouts, abilities and enchantments to mimic spells from nearly every school of magic. This build will let you cast cloaks, runes, projectiles, paralysis, summons, healing and intangibility spells...all without spending one drop of magicka. It will however draw heavily from your stamina. This is where it differs from the health reliant Parasite, and the roleplay reinforces the dichotomy. In fact, the two are written to be bloody rivals.

     

    Backstory:

    Belenus grew up in Dawnstar worshipping the Divines. His parents were both Vigilantes of Stendar and raised him to follow in their footsteps. Unfortunately, he had absolutely no magical ability and failed terribly at most of his studies. So instead he set off to explore Nirn in search of knowledge, blessings and artifacts that might help him overcome his inability to cast spells. 

     

    Despite the fact that becoming a Vigilant was his original motivation, his quest for knowledge and power has led him down a path much different than thiers, and he no longer seeks to join them. Though his interpretation of their teachings still inform his strict moral code, many followers of Stendar view him as a hypocrite because of his extreme methods and tendency to delve into the evil powers he claims to fight against. He is instead aligned with the Dawnguard now and subscribes to their more...aggressive strategies. This makes him the sworn enemy of The Parasite who sides strongly with the Volkihar.

     

     

    Build:

    Race - Dark Elf
    This was chosen primarily for the racial ability Ancestors Wrath.

    Standing Stone - The Lady Stone
    This is a melee build where half your enchantments will be draining stamina, it's a very important stat. The faster it regenerates, the better.

    Magic/Health/Stamina - 0/1/3
    Stamina will be doing quite a bit of this builds heavy lifting, focus as much as you can on it. A little bulk doesn't hurt, but it's much less important.

    Skills - Two Handed, Block, Destruction, Heavy Armor, Smithing
    Even while ethereal the enchanted effects of both Dawnguard Rune Artifacts will level destruction while the Bloodskal Blade energy projection will provide experience for two handed.

    Powers - Ancestors Wrath, Eternal Spirit, Dragonborn Flame
    These are important as they will act as your cloak, healing and conjuration spells, respectively.

    Shouts - Fire Breath, Frost Breath, Become Ethereal, Dragon Aspect
    Become Ethereal will allow you to use many of your enchantments without the cost of stamina. Be weary of abusing this power though as eternal flame is also your only means of healing.

    Weapons - Dawnguard Rune Hammer, Bloodskal Blade, Dawnguard Rune Shield
    These will provide you with runes, energy projectiles, a cloak and eventually shield charge. None of which will break ethereal.

    Armor - Ahzidal's Helm, Ahzidal's Armor, Ironhand Gauntlets, Boots of Invigoration
    Ahzidal's Helm will allow you to place runes at a much farther range, and since the Dawnguard Hammer doesn't use mana to cast runes, there is no downside.

    Jewellery - Ring of Minor Striking, Locket of Saint Jiub
    Stronger two handed attacks, extra stamina and help carrying all those heavy shields and weapons of yours.

     

     

    Perks:

    Two Handed - Power attacks are an important aspect of the build. You'll be performing them often for your magic, so it only makes sense to enhance their melee functionality as well. Skull crusher is also an ok buff for your hammer but only once you have perks to spare.

    Block - Like power attacks, you'll be bashing quite frequently. The right side of the block tree will make them even more useful. Eventually you'll unlock Shield Charge which can be executed without breaking Ethereal, so you can add that to the list.

    Destruction - Both Dawnguard Rune Artifacts will level destruction when using their enchantments. The Augmented perks will fortify both your shouts and Ancestors Wrath. Rune master isn't a priority thanks to Ahzidal's Helm but will stack with it if you have perks to spare.

    Heavy Armor - The right side will help keep you alive. Alive is good, take the perks in the right side.

    Smithing - All you need for the equipment you'll be using is Arcane Blacksmith and Advanced Armors. If that makes it sound like you'll be using relatively weak armor in order to gain very specific enchantments then you're right. Which is exactly why smithing is important for this build.

     

    Special Tactics: 

     

    Morning Star

    Shield Charging is considered a form of extended blocking so it can be used while the Dawnguard Rune Shields cloak is active. Plus, the shield's cloak is a script so it stacks with Ancestors Wrath. All three combined will damage live enemies while knocking them down, and completely obliterate the undead.

    Requires: Shield Charge, Dawnguard Rune Shield, Ancestors Wrath

     

    Aedric Ascension

    Your swords energy projections and your hammers runes won't break ethereal unless the weapon touches an enemy. Even the Morning Star tactic can be executed while Become Ethereal is active, removing it's severe stamina drain. However, Eternal Spirit is also your only means of health recovery so it's best not to abuse this tactic or you'll find your shouts in cooldown when you need to heal.

    Requires: Become Ethereal, Weapon Enchantments

     

     

    Restrictions: 

    No spells - The entire point of this build is to work around having to use magic. As you gain artifacts and abilities you should have plenty of magical powers to choose from without ever having to use mana.

    No Healing - That includes magic, potions and even exploiting the wait mechanic. Our healing "spell" for this build is eternal spirit, which can be activated through the become ethereal shout. This means that being low on health while your shouts are still cooling down can be detrimental, forcing you to manage your cooldowns more strategically. Having several ways of attacking while ethereal is still a little over powered, but this restriction is the double edged sword that will have you thinking twice about abusing it.

     

    Roleplay: 

    Burial Ritual - This character takes undeath very seriously. He loathes necromancy and will do everything in his power to stop it. That includes nailing the dead where they lay. Keep nails with you at all times and place them in the inventory of any human corpses that haven't been decapitated. This represents nailing them in place, similar to how being pierced by an arrow makes it show up in your inventory. This roleplay shouldn't be very obtrusive since checking the inventory of slain enemies is most likely something you already do, and forging more nails whenever you run out is an easy character-driven way to train your smithing.

    Deadric Artifacts - Seek out Deadric quests. Insult and disobey the Deadric Lords at every opportunity and once obtained, take the artifacts to a vigilant for disposal.

     

    Tips/Tricks: 

    Weapon Charge - Shield Charge is easiest to execute with the Dawnguard Rune Shield, and benefits from its cloak. However, it can also be done with either two handed weapon by continuously tapping block while running.

  • October 11, 2017

    Hmmm, I think I actually prefer this to the Parasite (by a slim margin, both excellent builds). I'm a huge fan of the mechanics involved, even got a build that I wrote with Elysium back in the day that uses most of them, but from a very different playstyle (it was Stealth oriented for the most part, with some anti-undead elements thrown in). 

    Anyway, focusing. Yeah, all my little suggestions and tips from the Parasite transfer here, though I did realize that I forgot to mention that you should link to the other build when it's mentioned to give the reader the ability to easily jump between them. Dunno, the builds might even be interesting to read at the same time (Backstory of both, then Gameplay of both, etc.) and for now it's fine since they'll be on the front page at the same time, later on they might get swept back a little bit, so it'd be good to link them just in case.

    Another like here Tysoyaha, I really quite like your set-out for builds, feels very informative and to the point which is something I'd love to be able to do (in case you can't tell, I tend to ramble a lot, means I can drop 1000 words in a comment no problem :D). Keep at it mate. 

  • October 12, 2017

    Thanks man. Yea, this was a quick copy-paste and the links it originally had were to an external site so I just deleted them and planned to replace them later. Guess I forgot.

     

    I too have a problem with rambling, so I make it a point to strive for brevity in my builds. I actually aim for one sentence explanations in most cases but I don't sweat it much when I miss that mark... mostly because I know it's better than the three paragraph section on what ring to wear that I'd have if I didn't at least aim for one sentence. Lol.

     

    How did you implement these with stealth? I noticed that the effects from Dawnguard Rune Hammer and Bloodskal that didn't break Ethereal didn't break Invisibility either...but I never figured out how to utilize that because even with quiet Casting the two handed weapons they can't from we're still noisy as hell! Lol. I'd love to check out that build.

  • October 12, 2017

    How did you implement these with stealth? I noticed that the effects from Dawnguard Rune Hammer and Bloodskal that didn't break Ethereal didn't break Invisibility either...but I never figured out how to utilize that because even with quiet Casting the two handed weapons they can't from we're still noisy as hell! Lol. I'd love to check out that build.

    Well, didn't use the Runehammer, but the Bloodskal Blade is relatively easy if your pretty far out just chucking energy beams around, you aren't  going to be a Master Assassin but it turns into a fun little game when your too far for enemies to hear your blade (really only works outside though). But the build was actually based around the Infinite Shadow Stone Glitch (get it into the Aetherial Crown and then each time you unequip it and re-equip it you've got a new use) so we could kind of sneak all over the place and if we were caught, just run away and re-apply the Shadow Stone. 

    Let's see, might take me a bit...nope one of the 4 search options when looking. The Lightsworn was the name of the build, it's pretty old now but man did we use some glitches in that build. Combining Unlimited Invisibility (sorta), Unlimited Stamina and Unlimited Concentration Casting all into one build. Probably would have just worked so much better if we weren't trying to be all stealthy...eh it adds a bit of a challenge to the character. I think I like your twist on some of the mechanics better anyway, definitely feels better as a bit more of a Warrior.

  • Member
    October 12, 2017

    A nice build to play a Dawnguard - Witch hunter type of character and I like the restrictions of not casting spells and no healing, I 've also done the no healing in one of my builds playing an undead type of character and it was interesting to say the least. 

  • October 14, 2017
    Well the no traditional healing stems from the no magic restriction. So like all the other magic, there's non-mana ways to "cast" a healing spell. Namely the ability Eternal Spirit, which I like because it gives you a reason not to just spam Become Ethereal all the time since you'll be saving the cooldown for when you need to heal.
  • October 16, 2017

    Fantastic build Tysoyaha, easy to get into, and with a relativly unique twist to gameplay that sounds refreshing.  That line in the Heavy Armor section made me laugh more than it probably should have. My only suggestion is to fix your tags, you can find the naming convention for tags in the CB Archive, or I could fix them for you if you want, let me know.

  • October 16, 2017
    Thanks Vargr, I'll have to open that page again and fix them. I had it open when I posted it, so I don't know how I managed to still screw them up! Lol. Btw, if you liked the Heavy Armor section just wait until I get my Big Head build up on TamrielVault! Lol. Maybe I'll copy that one over next...
  • Member
    November 7, 2017
    This is a really cool build! I like the use of Become Ethereal for strategic offense and defense, it really is probably the most useful shout in the game, when all is said and done. I don’t know why, but I mightmprefer this build over the Parasite a teeny bit.