ah ok. one more thing, i play on ps3 so i hve no dawnguard (c'mon bethesda -_-) so no vamp lord. should i still go vampire?

No! You beat me to this build! You have done a great job though and if I am not mistaken you were inspired from World of Warcraft? +1 from me!

Hey Iron, 

Ok, so you can still do this without going vampire in Skyrim:

Spells:

Without Vampirism: Dual Cast Flames for Unstable Affliction
With Vampirism: Dual cast Vampiric Drain for Unstable Affliction
Offensive shout: Marked for Death (Fits in nicely as a draining dot as well)

Malefic Conditions and the rest of the Non-Vampire Lord Offense & Defense Skills remain the same.

Perks:

Without Vampirism: Go with Perk spread found here
With Vamprism: Invest perks in Illusion tree for Invisibility + Calm Spells

Essentially, this allows you to fast travel to town as a stage 4 vamp in invisible mode, go to a shop, calm the NPC and sell stuff.

I would highly suggest you go vamp even then for the RP experience...just don't get caught in stage 4 in a town without the necessary illusion perks.

Stick to the shadows or you can complete the dark brotherhood quest line for shelter and marked for death shout.

:) A bit of both actually. The main bread and butter skills are from WoW definitly (UA, Meta). Malefic Conditions + oblivion binding and support from GW2 conditionmancer.

Their is another way to increase dmg. on fire spells as well as DOT spells such as the basic Flames. Example:Flames spell+2/2 augment flames=12Dot. However Flames 2/2augmented 12DMG.+iIlusion Perk aspect of terror=27flames DOT. Even better the Illusion perk augments all Fire based spells and increases the fireball maximum to 75DMG.

Good build BTW.

Hi ArchWarlock,

Ah, a reply from one of the bretheren... nice to see more of us around. Yeap, you're right about the illusion exploit for the fire tree. However, there are 3 critical reasons why I didn't exploit this:

1. It only affects Fire type Spells
2. The warlock RPG aspect is non stealth
3. To keep the build within 40

To go on further, the bread and butter skill Unstable affliction uses elemets from all 3 schools. Malefic condition's Flame cloak can be boosted by Extra investment into augmented fire perk (thanks to mason for the pointer), though I haven't done it yet to keep the build within 40.

The last and most crucial reason is that I am trying to get all my builds within 40, cause aside from the essential quests (Colledge of winterhold quest line and Dawnguard questline) even with the side faction quests, should one choose to do it (Dark brotherhood,vanilla quests, Civil War questlines, Hold reputation quests), One would start to tire out after 40.

This i realized after my first build, The Spellcloak, which was a level 50 build i think after much revision. But yeah, for sure, thanks for the tips, and I will incorporate this when building my next Dark type build... know that you have set the basis for it :)

Thanks.

Glad may input had such value to you. If this build is more on the wow warlock I have few questions 1) Although I really don't play wow I am pretty sure that the Locks use one handed.2) Didn't locks use iIlusion spells like fear I wasn't really suggesting the whole tree but thought three perks wouldn't hurt but I do understand the 40lvl. limit can't blame you there.
3) Try as I might I just can't wear the robes from TESSkyrim let me be blunt:They are Not warlock material IMO and to me the black robes are basically muddy robes. To me the best for a warlock is Daedric armor which forces me to break the warlock armor rule. 4) Wouldn't using bound swords also be a loophole in the no swords rule I mean they are JUST magic in a sense.

So hey, as an active WoW player and old school RPG player, I know where you're coming from. Let me explain:

1. Although I really don't play wow I am pretty sure that the Locks use one handed

Ans: Nope. Warlocks In WoW can use staves as well... just that staves in WoW happen to be 2 handed, something which irkd me always, as for spell casting, they didn't need 2 hands.. go figure!

In Skyrim, the devs has the sense not to use that weird concept and made staves 1 handed, leaving my other hand for a melee weapon (Gandalf style!) or as per my malefic conditions build, a dot damaging shield!

2. Didn't locks use iIlusion spells like fear I wasn't really suggesting the whole tree but thought three perks wouldn't hurt but I do understand the 40lvl. limit can't blame you there.

Ans: You are partially correct on this. Yes, the warlock in WoW did use fear, which in skyrim is an illlusion type spell, however, that is useful when the dots were actually on them, unlike skyrim where they have to be within melee or mid melee range just to  take damage from Cloak & Wall spells (This game really needs more DOTS and Drains). And yes, there is also the lvl 40 cap to consider.

3. Try as I might I just can't wear the robes from TESSkyrim let me be blunt:They are Not warlock material IMO and to me the black robes are basically muddy robes. To me the best for a warlock is Daedric armor which forces me to break the warlock armor rule

Ans: Well, the obvious answer to this would be, TESS is not WoW... so you can't get any of those mean looking gear you can see off WoW. However, a similar evil looking demonic looking robe alternative for skyrim would be:

Hooded Thalmor Robes Set
Thalmor Robes Set + Untenanted Apprentice Hood (Or Circlet)

Now my understanding is that the game drops 1 set of unenchanted thalmor gear of ancano and 1 set in the embassy. There are various threads on this and I have encountered the Ancono drop already.

If you wanna build on this toon past level 40 and go into getting Daedric armor through smithing  sure be my guest. Or alternatively, you can get random ebony armor which spawns from level 30 onward in game, use the midden for transforming them into daedric armor via daedric hearts from enthir... all possible within 40. Just make sure you take out those 3 points from mage armor and put them somewhere else that you think can help with your customization.

 

4. Wouldn't using bound swords also be a loophole in the no swords rule I mean they are JUST magic in a sense.

Ans: Erm, nope. For this build, just remember .. Weapons are weapons, regardless of their nature. By using them as part of combat, it would mean investing in One handed and archery trees... something that I have already covered in my spellcloak build.

The objective is to drain your enemies in combat with as little as interruption as possible to gameplay. This would essentially see UA and Malefic conditions a your bread and butter skills in Human form.

Should there be an urge to use melee for warlocks out there who wish to engage in melee, usage of Metamorphosis (VL Form) + claw attack should sate that urge i suppose.

Hope this clears whatever doubts you have. Thanks.

It's a great build. But I must ...

"Whilst the choice of robes is yours to decide, I personally went with a matching pair of unenchanted thalmor robes and matching gloves & boots"

Where in gods name did you get those?!

Final questions what would the essential differences be between a conjurer,Warlock,Battlemage, and Necro.

p.s. Isn't Fire considered the Locks main destruction spell.