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The Flesh Beast Exploit

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  • Noodles
    Member
     
    March 23, 2015

    Hello everyone!

    The exploit that I'm about to present you is nothing new. A lot of character builds on the Skyrim Blog use it. That said, I haven't been able to find a discussion that provides a detailed description of it in the Tips and Tricks group. If you're interested in some finer details and numbers, I am going to show and explain how to temporarily (5+ minutes) increase the armor rating to 700 of a character in Beast Form.

    How to do it:

    • Level up the Alteration skill enough to purchase and learn the Ebonyflesh spell, then perk Alteration Dual Casting 1/1, Stability 1/1 and Mage Armor 3/3;
    • Level up the Alchemy skill to 100 and perk Alchemist 5/5, Physician 1/1, Benefactor 1/1;
    • Brew a potion with the Fortify Alteration effect from 1x Grass Pod and 1x River Betty. It should increase the duration of any cast flesh spell by 60%; 
    • Acquire the Beast Form power;
    • Equip Ebonyflesh in both hands and Beast Form as the main power;
    • Drink the Fortify Alteration potion;
    • Dual cast Ebonyflesh;
    • Activate Beast From. The armor rating of the character should be 700 for more than 5 minutes since the transformation;

    Explanation: Flesh spells remain active in Beast Form. More so, even though a character in Beast Form has a base armor rating of 400, the Mage Armor perk ignores it and triples the effects of an active Ebonyflesh (+100 armor rating): 400 + 100*3 = 700 armor rating. The only remaining problem would be the duration of the spell. This is easily manageable. The base duration of a flesh spell is 60 seconds. Perking Stability will result in that duration becoming: 60 + 60*50% = 90 seconds. Drinking a +60% Fortify Alteration will further increase the duration to: 90 + 90*60% = 144 seconds. And finally perking Alteration Dual Casting will more than double the duration, everything resulting in a flesh spell holding on for more than 5 minutes, approximately 318 seconds.

    Tutorial Video: The Flesh Beast Exploit

    Transcending the Exploit into Vampire Lord Form...

    The same exploit can be used in Vampire Lord form also. This time the stats are a bit different: +750 armor rating for a 7+ Minutes duration.

    Explanation: The only thing added from the original Flesh Beast Exploit is (pure) Vampirism and Restoration's Necromage perk. As BloodBane and Teccam exhaustively tested and confirmed, the formula for the added Ebonyflesh armor rating is: 375 + 375 = 750. The duration is increased to a total of more than 7 Minutes: 112 seconds (Stability and Necromage)+ 60*1.25 (Fortify Alteration potion with Necromage) = 196 Minutes.

  • Tim
    Member
     
    March 23, 2015

    Yeah, I love doing this you are nearly unkillable. I didn't use an Alteration potion, just dual-casting and it still lasted for a very long time. I also used Frost Cloak dual-cast with Deep Freeze. It looks really awesome on a Werewolf.

  • BloodBane
    Member
     
    April 6, 2015

    I love this idea and it is a +1 from me automatically! But one thing I should point out is that Vampire Lords with Necromage get a huge bonus from this as well.

    With all the proper perks, necromage and ends up matching the total AR of the "Beast Flesh" you originally posted about.

  • Noodles
    Member
     
    April 7, 2015

    That's a very good idea and I totally missed it! I'll update the discussion later and give you credit. Thanks! 

  • BloodBane
    Member
     
    April 8, 2015

    Here, I'll give you the values:

    Since Necromage affects the AR from Vampire Lord, you get 375 instead of 300 at level 50.

    375+375 (Ebony Flesh with Mage Armor and Necromage) = 750 AR

    112 seconds (Stability and Necromage)+ (60*1.25: Your potion with Necromage= 75) = a grand total of 196 seconds without dual-casting

    Dual casting, if the duration is multiplied by 2.2, it will last for approximately 431 seconds: 7 mins.

    That should be all the values needed for Vampire Lord "Flesh Beast."

  • Noodles
    Member
     
    April 8, 2015

    And Vampire Lord has no base armor?

  • BloodBane
    Member
     
    April 8, 2015

    Base AR at level 50 with Necromage is 375 for Vampire Lord. 300 without. 

    375 (Vamp. Lord Necromage) + 375 (Ebonyflesh with Mage Armor 3/3 and Necromage.) = 750 AR total.

  • Teccam
    Member
     
    April 8, 2015

    Confirming this is correct. (Though anything over 667 is irrelevant.) Anything beyond level 36 (base 250 passive AR in Vampire Lord form --> 312.50 with Necromage) will not matter, as far as damage resistance is concerned.

    Also, for the record, you can extend the duration a fair bit further:

    • Stability: +50%
    • Shalidor's Insights (Alteration): +50%
    • Dual Casting: +120%
    • Necromage: +50%

    And with Seeker of Shadows and a few pieces of generic Alchemy gear, you can easily get +100% on that Alteration potion as well, for +120% instead of +60% (which then becomes +150% because of Necromage). All told:

    = 60 * (1 + 50%) * (1 + 50%) * (1 + 120%) * (1 + 50%) * (1 + 150%)

    = 1,117 seconds

    = 18m 33s

    You're essentially getting Dragonhide, only for over 37x as long, and requiring less Magicka to cast, and without the charge time. The ultimate Flesh Beast indeed!

    And if you really want to push it, you can use a Peerless Alchemy circlet, bracers, and necklace, with Muiri's Ring. That's 90% Alchemy --> 112% with Necromage --> 133% with Seeker of Shadows. That'll make a potion of +140% Alteration --> +175% with Necromage. Drink that instead of the +150% potion I proposed above, and your Ebonyflesh will last for a staggering 20m 25s!

    As for Beast Form, you can basically get all of the above. Just without Necromage obviously, and therefore only +120% on that potion instead of +150%. That still comes out to 10m 53s though, which ain't too shabby! And, like Noodles covered in the OP, that's 10+ minutes at 700 AR -- again, over the 667 cap which translates into 80% damage resistance!

  • BloodBane
    Member
     
    April 8, 2015

    Thanks for the confirmation Teccam! I have never done any work with Shalidor's Insights as I don't know if their are a limited number of times/chances to get them. But this is definitely OP if it lasts more than 10 mins! 20 mins is even more crazy but I will definitely keep all that math in mind as my Volkihar Titan is on it's rise again after a sudden writers block and mental breakdown I had recently.

  • Teccam
    Member
     
    April 8, 2015

    Basically, the way the Insights scrolls work is that you receive three copies of the same randomly selected scroll each time you turn in the quest. If you save just before turning in the quest, you can just reload until you get the type you want.

    You can repeat the quest as many times as you like, as far as I know. You just have to ask Urag about "special books", and he'll always ask for another copy of the text. I'm not sure exactly how long you need to wait to pick up a new iteration of the quest after you turn it in, but it's not too long, and it may even be possible from the moment you complete a given iteration. It's just a radiant fetch quest, so you'll be sent to a random dungeon each time.

    As for using the scrolls, I generally recommend saving them for special occasions. When you can get 20+ minutes with one use (vs ~13 without the scroll) you don't need to horde them too much ... I like to use them before dungeons, when I know I'll need protection for 10-20+ minutes. In the overworld, I don't bother, as there's often a minute or two between each encounter.


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