If you're running a non illusion build, then muffled movement is the perk that basically mimics the muffle spell. Throw in the enchants on the shrouded boots and 5/5 stealth perks, you're basically invisible. Move up the tree on the left side to take shadow warrior though I personally think it's a waste of perk points. In the illusion the spell muffle and invisibility achieve the same thing as well. Combined with the boots enchants, it's way more reliant than the shadow warrior perk. That is assuming you don't wanna sneak attack and just sneak and commit thievery or something like that. Even if you do want to commit assassinations, the spell version allows for ranged x3 damage with bows and the 15x multipliers with daggers (30 with gloves) for dagger finishes.

Spectacular :) It would be a tremendous benefit to the blog community, I think, if you posted an organized discussion of Illusion vs. Sneak with the bits you shared in the comments, perhaps as one of the posts on combat magic mechanics. (Unless there's already one somewhere that I've missed...) Also, the recommendations on non DLC substitutions are handy - might want to think about putting them right in the build itself. Excellent work!

PS As soon as I get my head wrapped around my own build, I will definitely be seeking you out for feedback before I post!

Wow. I know exactly what my next playthrough will be! Maybe add some Pickpocket up to Misdirection to help deal with those battleaxe-wielders at lower levels...

Is this ring stacking glitch different than the werewolf/vampire lord follower chat glitch? Either way, pretty innovative idea, it flows well with the rest of the build. Normally I'm not a big fan of exploits, but I'm okay with this one. After all, you do have more than one finger. What's wrong with more than one ring?

Also, why are there so few perks in Sneak? Seems like going up to at least Silent Roll would be worth it.

One small problem, though: How do you fight dragons with this build without a follower to draw their fire (ha ha)?

Hey Counterfeit,

Thanks for the like. Yeap, that would be viable as well i guess, if you wanna sneak right up to them i suppose with invisibility on. Might synergize well with shadoweave meltdown, though most of the other moves, you don't really need to pocket poison em, if you know what i mean.

The glitch used in this build, is kind of an old trick. This was before dawnguard and/or the vampire/werewolf follower trick. With patch 1.9, i think this trick only works for ring of arcana and that help that breathes steam. tThey seem to have patched this for Ring of Namira, so it doesn't work no more.

The idea is to add the spells and effect of an item, not the item itself if i am not wrong. So when you see it in your inventory, it's only still 1 ring equipped, not 2.

This build basically forces you to be a fully fed vamp for the power vampire sight. Vampirism gives you 25% base sneak skill off the bat, which is 2/5 points in stealth. Any investing only 2 points in stealth, you'd practically reach the cap. Going any higher forces a bug where you'd be easily more detectable instead, thus the stat allocation of 2/5.

Given that the idea of of this build is to take down enemies from a distance (like a true mage would do), you won't really need silent roll, since you aren't dodging anything nor synergizing with any perks in one handed tree for the infamous Backstab + Critical Charge + Silent Roll + Assasins blade (if using dagger) + Darkbrotherhood gloves hit combo (that one is fking insane). This build is all about magic and no weapons.

Fighting a dragon with this build is super simple! All it takes is for you to be in stealth, summon a storm atronach and execute a variation of shadow stab arcana in stealth (am thinking Dual cast ignite + Dual cast thunder bolts + Impact Perk). Hmmm... might need to include this move in. Thanks for asking this i suppose 

Or, if you don't feel like RP-ing a vampire, you could just get the Vision of the Tenth Eye spell from the Illusion Master Ritual quest. It gives you the Night Eye effect for about 30 seconds, I think.

Or that... but it forces one to attain the master level for illusion. With this build, anything past level 75 skill in illusion is not needed. Also, going this route and not being a vamp, you will need to invest more in stealth (perhaps till 5/5 stealth?) and lose the benefits of the necromage perk.

That said, it'd your playthrough mate. I find the idea cool, but more effort consuming 

I think there's definitely room for variation in the build, which is one of the things I like about it. For example, if you wanted to you could get the Ritual Stone and put the leftover Conjuration perks from the necromancy part of the tree and use them for...I dunno. Runes maybe? Not trying to be critical of what you have, just some food for thought on some possible variants. Still, definitely good stuff, mate. I'm just not a fan of vampirism in general. 

Hmm... Where did the likes go?

We're having issues where on rare occasions likes disappear from builds. Rest assured this will not affect your builds ranking and we have methods of tracking how many likes your build had before being hit.