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Character Build: The Miredancer

Tags: #Character Build Crusader  #Character Build Necromancer  #Character Build Hero  #Race:Argonian  #Rank:Exemplar  #Teineeva  #Argonian Week 
  • Member
    May 7, 2015

    I have been preparing this one for a while, not knowing if I should go for this or my Saxhleel Guerilla, both are argonian themed builds that I have been thinking out in my free time. But as it's the Argonian week, I decided to sprint through the last stages of my playtesting and publish it. So here it is:

    Character Build: The Miredancer

    "It has been a long time since I saw the gracious branches of the Hist, towering above the Xanmeers, of my loved nation. I often ask myself why I am here, in these desolate lands, these ashlands as they used to call them. I am going farther north, to Skyrim. It is because of that strange dream, that dream where I hear a hist tree calling for help. How a hist tree could end up all the way up there, in the north, is a mystery though."

    Inspiration:

    The miredancers, or Gee-Rusleel in the native argonian tongue of Jel, are one of the larger argonian tribes to reside in the Murkmire marshes. They are known throughout blackmarsh, but also Tamriel, for their unlimited devotion to the Hist. As most argonians they believe that it is the Hist who grants them their souls and who reclaim these once the Argonian reaches the end of his or her lifespan.

    Both Argonia as a whole, as well as the Murkmire region have been the aim of multiple daedric threats in the last era and the ending of the one before. The first of these assaults had been planned and brought out by the daedric prince of destruction: Mehrunes Dagon, who threatened to invade Tamriel during the Oblivion crisis. While he met little to no resistance in most other provinces, the Hist trees had foreseen his plan and had called back nearly every argonian to the marshes they originated from. It was here that under the command of the An-Xileel the argonians not only drove back the invaders but also invaded Oblivion. It didn't take long for Mehrunes dagon and his lackeys to close shut the jaws of Argonia, if only to stop the reptilian threat. The black marsh had been saved.

    The An-Xileel took control of the province, and pushed by their nationalistic views, they summoned, with the help of the hists that lived on mundus as well as the ones that still dwelled in Oblivion, the floating city of Umbriel from clavicus vile's realm to "clean" the argonian land of any foreign taint. However the situation quickly escalated as a series of events, that had started with the Champion of Cyrodiil returning the cursed Umbra blade to Clavicus vile, came to it's end. The An-Xileel lost control of the city to the spirit of the cursed blade.

    The floating city had now been set loose upon mundus, slaying everything in it's Wake. First argonians, then Dark elves and finally Imperials and Kahjiit as it moved, from the center of the marshes to the Imperial city. All who where slain joined the gigantic undead horde that followed the city. Tamriel, was once again in great need, as another oblivion crisis, the umbriel crisis, had begun. None could stop it, not even the gathered forces of the Argonian tribes, that had been left in dissarray after the city's passage. None, except a small group of adventurers led by a young Argonian named Mere-Glim and his friends. They were but mere adventurers and Mere-glim even died on the isle, only to be resurrected by the local Um-hists (hist trees that dwell in Calvicus's realm of Oblivion), but through perseverance and courage Mere-Glim and his friends managed to stop the city and banish it back into Oblivion.

     The above slab of text, is a piece of lore I had never heard of before I started thinking of making an Argonian build. somehow in all my hours of reading through in game books the Umbriel crisis had only vaguely, if at all, been mentionned. Not only that but after Learning about the Gee-Rusleel, I came to the conclusion that if it had been the An-Xileel that had commanded the Argonian forces during the Oblivion crisis, it had been the Miredancers that had charged into Oblivion first. After all if the Hist had given supernatural powers to the argonians it had called to it's defenses, what had happened to the Gee-Rusleel? who had already had a deep and complex bond with the trees, even deeper than most other argonians. And honestly all I can think of is a war-crazed reptilian warrior devoted to the hist and the eradication of both the daedra and the undead, a warrior so blinded by his faith that the difference between right and wrong became irrelevant.

    Statistics:

    So let's get started with the actual build. First the race, which of course will be the Argonians, not only because of this week's theme but because of the sheer awefulness of the people and it's history of hell-invading zealots. The character will be a warrior mage, and so we will be using all stats. At the start of your game divide your stat points equally, you will need some magick to cast spells, some health to withstand blows and some stamina to start distributing your own. Once you are content with your amount of health (I use to play with around the 200 health until level 25 or so, then I increase it slightly just to avoid taking any unnecessary risks) stop distributing points in said stats and start increasing your stamina and magicka a bit more. On the higher levels, if you play it right, you should only be putting points into stamina and small amounts of health every few levels.

    As for standing stones, I would suggest using either the warrior or the mage on the start of your playthrough and replace those with the ritual stone, to emphasise the religious side of the character as well as for the awesome effect.

    So let's wrap this all up:

    Race: Argonian

    Stats: 1/1/1 until you feel like changing it

    Stone: Mage or Warrior, then Ritual.

     

     

    Equipment:

    As far as armor is concerned we will be going for Ahzidal's armor of retribution, the bracers and boots from the Morag Tong, an adept Hood and the targe of the blooded. For the one that have been paying attention, I was pretty much inspired by the artwork at the start of the page, and have been working from there. Ahzidal's armor has a nice enchantment which aids in the lore friendly representation of the Miredancer, as the tribe is also widely known for their love of games and gambling (so having a low percentage of life-saving paralyzations felt somehow appropriate). The targe of the blooded feels very brutal, and this si the look you will be going for. While it may seem so when you think of the fact that he considers himself a holy warrior, the Miredancer is not your typical knight in shining armor.

    The weapons we will be going for are the ones indicated above, the idea is to end up with a daedric mace, preferably enchanted with a Chaos enchantment, I called it Gatebreacher myself, as a reference to the Oblivion crisis. I know a lot of people don't like Daedric weaponry, but I think that for an argonian it feels appropriate, let me explain: when mehrunes dagon came to nirn only the argonians proved any threat to his invasion as they turned the roles around and invaded him, I think that it makes sense that when you invade a place, be it on nirn, or in our world, that you tend to loot more than someone who is there to defend his nation. The argonians had the time and the means to go pillage mehrune's plane, while the other races, too ocupied to go closing the damn gates would probably more interested in avoiding combat while looking for the sigil stone. To return to my point, I see the daedric mace I used as some kind of heirloom dating back to the oblivion crisis (but you can of course completely ignore the last part of me rambling about lore).

    Skills:

    Conjuration:

    As you may have guessed when I introduced the use of the ritual stone, we are going to be using the conjuration skill, the necromancy part especially. You may be asking yourselves why a lizard bent on destroying all things undead would be using necromancy? Well it all depends on the perspective. Argonians believe that when they die their soul is taken back by the Hist who can then give the same soul to a new hatchling. The miredancer believes that he has been granted the power to call upon the souls of dead argonians to aid him in battle by using the nearby corpses as vessels. However this also means that Undead thralls are not an option, we are not aiming for unlimited undead. This skill will also be used to cast expel daedra, a nice spell that often gets overlooked but that we will be going about in more detail in the gameplay section.

    The necessary perks are: Expert Conjuration and Dual casting Conjuration, but not the necromancy branch.

    Restoration:

    Unlike conjuration this skill seems to fit the basic set of the palladin. And as you could expect this skill will be used to heal and to turn the undead, which makes for a nice crowd control, especially with Guardian circle later on.Indeed this skill is present to emulate the Miredancer's fate towards the Hist and his fervor when fighting the undead. However keep in mind that the Miredancer is still an argonian, and as most other races they are not afraid to resort to what some could call dirty tricks in battle. The poison rune is a prime example of such an hidden ace. The damage from the poison has the possibility of stacking allowing for a nice semi-ranged attack when fighting the living.

    The necessary perks are: Master Restoration, Necromage and Restoration Dual casting.

    Destruction:

    While it may seem strange destruction only comes in as something to use in conjunction with the restoration skill, as well as for a little extra ranged damage (poison runes have the nasty habit of being a lot less effective on flying dragons, don't you know). The Master level turn undead spell has a small side effect which causes the undead to be set on fire, hence the efftiveness of the spell is enhanced, albeit slightly, by the augmented flames perks. However that is not the element we will be going for, the Miredancer's favourite element is thunder. I would also suggest not investing into the augmented flames until the restoration ritual quest is within reach.

     

    The necessary perks are: Master destruction, augmented flames 2/2, Augmented shock 2/2, Destruction dual casting and Impact.

    File:Argonian Reading a Book.jpg

    One Handed:

    Your main damage doing skill (except when fighting Atronachs and Dragons, and eventually Undead). As the more attentive amongst you may have noticed, the Miredancer uses a mace. Not only because it is aesthetically pleasing and because the artworl that inspired me for the armor uses a mace, but also because the expel daedra spell has the major flaw of not affecting dremora, which we will encounter less often but it felt nice to have the capacity of breaking through their daedric armor if need be. with the help of the mace-specific perks.

     

    the necessary perks are: Armsman 5/5, Fighting stance, Bone breaker 3/3, critical charge, savage strike and paralyzing strike

    Block:

    As the Miredancer uses a mismatched armor set all we were missing was a defensive skill. This is what the block skill will represent for this build. The miredancer uses a shield and uses it effectively, quick well timed blocks will have a larger chance of staggering the enemy as well as negating more damage than when you just stand still and take damage, and thus it will give you more experience, and at a faster rate. To take full advantage of the Targe of the blooded we will use both branches of the tree.

     

    The necessary perks are: Shield wall up to 5/5, Quick Reflexes, the right branch up to Deadly Bash, and the left branch up to elemental protection. 

    Gameplay:

    This build is all about how religious fervor can blind someone, to continue in this trend, my gameplay advice when fighting melee fighters is just to charge in, give them a smack with the targe of the blooded, and smash their skulls in. When that doesn't work, take a bit of sleeping tree sap and follow these instructions:

    -Stamina conservation is key, do not misread the range of your weapon or your own movement. power attacks with maces cost quite a bit of stamina.

    -You do not have a very good speed rating with your mace, hence it would be better to use a few tricks. First of all, you can apply the rapid swing technique from gollums crux of Orkey, where you basicly hit normally, but interrupt the animation with a power attack once the impact has been made, it will allow you to hit a bit faster. Another less original trick is to use the elemental fury shout. Even another way to counter this is by using the extended slow time shout (by activating it when under the effect of quick reflexes), keep in mand that you can't block during this period (without risking to break the effect) so activating Histskin and downing some sleeping tree sap will not be a bad idea.

    -Summoned atronachs, as well as non summoned ones can be quite easily dispatched with the banish daedra spells. They will autmatically banish summoned atronachs when strong enough and when dual casted can do up to approximately 88 spell damage to them (and unbound atronachs) and staggers them, even when not dual casted, so I suggest switching out your shield for the expel daedra spell when fighting unbound atronachs.

    -When low on health and fighting undead it is time to start crowd managing, turn a few of them unless you have the guardian circle spell in which case you can cast that and hide and regenerate in the circle while you bombard your enemies with thunderbolts. or use the respite to cast some Healing spells. Classic paladin move.

    -Mages and archers won't be a big problem with some enchanted jewelry and a raised shield at the right times. Try to close up to them quickly though. While you can easily fight off multiple melee assailants head on, an arrow to the side or the back may bring you down faster than you'd expect, the same counts for spells of course.

    -Dragons can be quite a problem, but yet again just smack them with your shield and hit them with your mace when they are grounded, zap them if they aren't.

    The second step of combat, when fighting larger groups of foes is to call upon the souls of dead argonians, you guessed it, some good old necromancy, or just use the ritual stone if you are lazy. Once the spirits of other argonians join the fray the party will really begin, and should normally allow you to quickly dispatch any nuisances.

    You may also have noticed that I used the words "sleeping tree sap" a few times, that's because we are going to need a lot of the stuff (that will mean glitching or cheating your way into some extra sap). I suggest using some duplicate item glitch to get the requested amount (there are a lot of them around the site, I never used any because I can console them, but if you can't glitching will be the way to go).

    Because the sleeping tree is indeed a hist tree (an um-hist, but  a hist nonetheless), if you have to believe what ysolda tells you about it. It would only make sense for a warrior devoted to the hist to pursue his religious practices of ingurgitating the hist's sap, even when in Skyrim. I like the sap for two reasons: the visual effects really emphasize the "blinded by faith" aspect of the character, and it allows you to basicly enter the Saxhleel version of the berserker rage, active your racial ability when under the effect of the sap and you a became nearly invincible (pardon my language) sack of health.

    Noteworthy Techniques:

    Symbiosis: Sleeping tree sap + Histskin

    As I said before, this is the Argonian version of the Orc berserker rage. I would suggest drinking a fortify restoration potion before just to boost the effect of the sap.

    Spiritual Infusion: Symbiosis + Extended slow time

    The problem of the hist sap is that it has that damn slowing effect, which combined with your attack speed rating will start to make you a bit sluggish. To counter that effect the Miredancer can call upon the Hist to give him powers similar to those the Argonians recieved during the oblivion crisis.

    Soul Channeling: Ritual stone or necromantic spells (works really great during a spiritual infusion)

    Imagine the terror, a war crazed reptile comes up to you, drinks a bit of sap, his veins start pulsing and suddenly he breaks free in a whirlwind of attacks crushing all of your allies, one by one they fall and then rise again.

     

    Background:

    First off, to understand some of the following I'll have to tell an old story, that of the creation of Black Marsh. You see, before the plane of mundus was created, the Hist and presumably the argonians had their own realm of oblivion (which could mean that they are some kind of daedra), it was a great marsh, much like the actual black marsh on mundus, but much larger, as it covered not just a province but an entire plane of existance. Here the hist and their servants lived in peace, until the moment came where Lorkhan convinced, or tricked depending on whom you ask, the aedra into creation the mortal plane. During it's creation and the Ehlnofey wars that ensued the realm of the hist was almost entirely destroyed. Some of it ended up in the realm of clavicus vile, some of it still remains, although it is but a mere shadow of it's former glory, and the last remaining part melted together with mundus to create the black marsh. This is how the great swamps came to be and how it's inhabitants came to mundus. The separation of the hist into the mundus and the umbriel varieties allowed Mere-glim and his friends to banish the city to oblivion, to what remained of the realm of the hist, thanks to the unique bond Mere-glim had made with the Um-hists. After the whole evnt Mere-glim settled in the Realm of the hist and lived a peaceful live, then at some point he died and his soul was returned to the hist of black marsh. This where our story begins.

    The Miredancer was born in a Gee-Rusleel village somewhere in the depths of the Murkmire marshes. As a Young hatchling he had been a frail little creature and had a lot of difficulties to survive at all, however the youngling showed incredible resilience and willpower, traits to earned him the trust and respect of even the Hist.

    As he grew older, and stronger, he started to have visions. He saw past events through the eyes of his soul's former incarnations, he whitnessed the interregnum wars, the troops of the septim empire being slaughtered by guerilla assailants,  he saw a dark and fiery plane of oblivion a plane he ran into slaughtering any daedra he could find, and finally he saw visions of a floating city. Not knowing what he was seeing, he asked the Hist for help. In the coming years the Hist started to talk to him, explaining what the visions represented, learning him about the history of his people.

    Once the Miredancer had reached adulthood, the hist even teached him how to channel the souls of dead argonians so that he could call upon them in combat, he thanked them and started his crazed crusade against necromancy and daedra worship in the marshes of his homeland, convinced that they were the true evil in the world. However years later, a new kind of dream came to him. He heard another Hist tree, it claimed being lost in the North, separated from it's brothers and it asked for a guardian, it asked him to come to Skyrim, to find him and serve and protect him. The Miredancer did not understand this dream. How had a hist tree ended up in Skyrim? he asked the hist for guidance but even they could not answer his queries. And so it is that driven by curiosity the Miredancer journeyed north, to Skyrim.

    Roleplay:

    You start out wanting to search for the lost hist tree from your visions. Your search and your concerns about the dragons bring you to Whiterun. On the subject of dragons your vision differs from most of the Dovahkin on this site, as you don't care about dragon attacks but rather see their existance alone as an affront to the Hist, you see the dragons as a pathetic attempt of the aedra to match the perfection of the Saxhleel people, and thus will do anything to destroy them. Once in Whiterun you hear about the Gildergreen and mistake it for the lonesome Hist, once you return from your quest you hear word of another tree somewhere in the tundra. A tree that supposedly fell off a flying island, this is what you were looking for, an um-hist dating back to the umbriel crisis. However th tree is silent, and you decide to pursue your crusade...

    -Kill all Daedra worshippers, or if the game does not allow you to, cure or convert them. This means kill every single one of them, no exceptions and be open about it, you learn about someone worshipping a daedra, kill him on the spot (except it concerns doing a daedric quest, in which case they may come in usefull to get to said daedra)
     
    -Corrupt or destroy all artifacts and scorn the daedra in any way possible (clavicus vile's and molag bal's quests cannot be done without them becoming stronger, hence that one will be skipped, the same counts for any similar situations), once the concerned quests are finished kill and destroy all worshippers left alive
     
    -Don't aid the divines (other than perhaps the gildergreen quest), you don't trust them, after all they destroyed the Hist's homeland when they created Mundus.
     
    -Kill all necromancers, again no exceptions made.
     
    -Kill or cure any creature under the influence of a daedric disease or blight.
     
    -Help any argonians you come accross, consider them your eggbrothers. With this motive in mind, you will murder any stormcloaks you can find (guards excepted for the annoyance of having to kill them each time you enter a city). You think that if they are afraid of you and the other Argonians maybe they will change their views and leave the Argonians in peace. On the other hand you will not join the empire. Argonia is an independant nation after all, you will not be seen under the banner of this weak empire.
     
    -Join the Dark brotherhood, you don't have to complete their quests, but I didn't like having to kill the assassins they will send after you, after all the cult of Sithis is important to the argonians, and thus you respect the brotherhood.

    Epilogue:

    Well this time I think I can consider the build to be done. Of course a few minor tweaks may be made here and there, but the essential is here. I would like to say that I loved creating this build as it made me have a dive into the deep lore of the Saxhleel people and their gods. I hope you enjoyed reading and will give the build a try. And I wish you a nice Argonian week.

    ON-icon-Argonian.png

     

     

     

     

     

  • May 7, 2015

    This is awesome. Seriously awesome stuff. Your knowledge of Argonian lore is impressive, and the way that has been incorporated into the build is equally as impressive. This gets an easy +1 from me. 

  • Member
    May 8, 2015

    Well, I wouldn't say it's that impressive, I scored only a 7/10 with that argonian lore quiz. I know about their history but have no clue about some other more miscellanious stuff like the tickle them to make them open their mouths thing etc.

    Also I just read through the uesp page about argonians, and when I felt it was needed (especially when they mentionned the Umbriel crisis) I looked some specific things up. If I'm being totally honest it's their knowledge of lore that should be praised here.

  • Member
    May 8, 2015

    Nice work! Love the ideas for the playstyle and character background, as well as gear combo  +1

    Two questions:

    • You mentioned Sleeping Tree Sap. Where do you get it? I know about the tree and a few samples on that Orc in the nearby cave as well as one sample at Redwater Den. All those combined don't seem like an amount that can be relied upon.
    • You also mentioned dealing a lot of damage to atronachs with banish daedra but the strongest version - Expel Daedra - deals only 40 damage according to UESP. 

    You may want to add a roleplay/Quests section to this build, it'll make the build more complete. I also suggest to edit the formatting in the Gameplay section, to make the different enemy names stand out more.

  • Member
    May 8, 2015

    Thanks for the feedback Vazgen, I'm working on it. I wrote the gameplay section with only half my brain being awake so I'll definitively revisit it. The roleplay and quest sections are on their way. although they might take a bit longer, I want to just to nail them.

  • Member
    May 8, 2015

    Well, I added the Roleplay section. So I think I can consider the build to be entirely finished now. So... I'm gonna work on publishing the other aspect of the argonian people I would like to approach through a build, before Argonian week is over. Have a fine read!

  • Member
    May 8, 2015

    Another great build +1

  • Member
    May 11, 2015

    Fantastic! The lore for this is amazing. I'll admit that up until a year ago I wasn't all that into playing an Argonian, but once I dug into the lore a bit and discovered their role in the Oblivion Crisis, and that they actually took the fight to the deadra... well, I couldn't try out life as a lizard soon enough xD

    You cleverly bring necromancy into a build that at first seems like it shouldn't be there at all by placing limits on its use (no thralls). You tie it into the lore to make it work, which is cool because necromancy is (a) fun to use and (b) can be a real lifesaver. I also like how making use of necromancy creates a chaotic good character... ends-justifies-the-means characters are almost always fun to play :D

    Again, great job on this... looks like an absolute blast to play.

  • Member
    May 26, 2015

    Finally, a way for me to rationalize necromancy for a non-evil character. Definitely working on a play-through of this!

  • Member
    October 3, 2015

    Caught up to this after reading your Veils of Jhunal blog post.  This is an excellent build.  I really like dark, but good, paladin builds much more than your standard peaches and light paladin.  Having your dark paladin be an argonian with all the lore you posted is the icing.