Showing off my Necromancer build and my rather unique undead

Post » Fri Jun 08, 2012 5:52 am

After receiving some inspiration from these forums (in particular this slightly baffling http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1330219-impossible-to-play-a-pure-necromancer/page__hl__necromancer%20build), I decided to try my hand at creating a Necromancer build to see just what kind of mischief I could get up to.

Thankfully I was not disappointed and have put together a video guide that explains the basics of my build and shows some of the more entertaining aspects of playing a necromancer.

Hopefully you'll find it useful:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHrlXE2PhBE
User avatar
saxon
 
Posts: 3376
Joined: Wed Sep 19, 2007 2:45 am

Post » Fri Jun 08, 2012 2:08 am

nice char
User avatar
Trent Theriot
 
Posts: 3395
Joined: Sat Oct 13, 2007 3:37 am

Post » Thu Jun 07, 2012 10:23 pm

awesome
User avatar
Olga Xx
 
Posts: 3437
Joined: Tue Jul 11, 2006 8:31 pm

Post » Thu Jun 07, 2012 7:46 pm

Awesome! I'm a big fan of Necromancy in TES lore, so I for one was excited discovering it's appearance in Skyrim. I'm looking forward to watching what you have in store.
Thanks for the information. :) You should make werewolf/vampire build videos if you're up to it.
User avatar
Chris Johnston
 
Posts: 3392
Joined: Fri Jul 07, 2006 12:40 pm

Post » Fri Jun 08, 2012 6:25 am

Thanks for the information. :smile: You should make werewolf/vampire build videos if you're up to it.

I like the sound of a vampire / assassin build. Low HP. Completely reliant on sneaking. Lurking in the shadows waiting for an opportunity to strike.
User avatar
Sarah Edmunds
 
Posts: 3461
Joined: Sat Jul 08, 2006 8:03 pm

Post » Thu Jun 07, 2012 7:04 pm

If you can equip your minions with rise dead or summon staves, they will conjure or rise their own minion.

Combine that with a follower and Esbern who will summon by himself. You can bring an army of 8 allies (excluding dog and horses) which should wtfpwn most fights without active participation from the dragonborn.
User avatar
IsAiah AkA figgy
 
Posts: 3398
Joined: Tue Oct 09, 2007 7:43 am

Post » Fri Jun 08, 2012 8:12 am

I like the sound of a vampire / assassin build. Low HP. Completely reliant on sneaking. Lurking in the shadows waiting for an opportunity to strike.
Sneaking, illusion, archery, and dual daggers. I made one that didn't put any points into health. The mind control method kicks ass, but every battle is nerve recking. You may as well play on master difficulty while you're at it. I haven't gotten far with my altmer considering how everyone wants to kill you when you're truly a full out vampire.
User avatar
Izzy Coleman
 
Posts: 3336
Joined: Tue Jun 20, 2006 3:34 am

Post » Fri Jun 08, 2012 1:20 am

Really like your build, I think it has inspired me to make my first Tes mage character. Also note if you become a vampire you'll get another daily ability that resurrects a corpse to become your Vampire Thrall.

Forgot to add, you did a great job with the video itself. Nice editing and an easy to follow voice over that didn't get too wordy.
User avatar
Sophie Miller
 
Posts: 3300
Joined: Sun Jun 18, 2006 12:35 am

Post » Thu Jun 07, 2012 10:34 pm

Good video, I'm now on the look out for the ritual stone for my Dunmer mage.
User avatar
Milagros Osorio
 
Posts: 3426
Joined: Fri Aug 25, 2006 4:33 pm

Post » Thu Jun 07, 2012 9:33 pm

As a fan of Necromancy in fantasy games and RPG's, allow me to say thank you for that video. I have had Conjuration as a focal point of virtually every character I have ever created in an Elder Scrolls games for my summoning and Necromancer purposes, and I must say that I feel that Skyrim allows me to play the best Necromancer character I've ever been able to play in an Elder Scrolls. I do have some minor disappointments, such as not being able to -summon- supernatural beings like Skeletons, Ghosts, Wraiths, and Liches like in games past, but I think that being able to reanimate dead enemies more than makes up for that.

That being said, I don't think I have -ever- played a "pure" Necromancer in any Elder Scrolls game.

In Morrowind, I played a stealth assassin / thief who was skilled in Conjuration, but to be quite honest, the Conjuration abilities began to fall by the wayside as I became more and more focused on my stealth abilities.

In Oblivion, I played more of a Shadow Knight character - a Heavy Armored warrior who also summoned undead to fight alongside him.

In Skyrim, I played what I felt to be a slightly improved version of that Oblivion character, but I accidentally wiped my X-Box 360 saves, and have been flirting with restartitis in attempts to create a new character, probably even just recreate Thadious and do some things differently.

I will disagree with one thing you stated in your video - using Heavy Armor and Dual Wield swords, I don't feel like my Necromancy is just an added bonus - at least not on Master difficulty. A part of me did feel like that when I played on Adept. But since bumping the difficulty up to Master difficulty, I really do feel like my Necromancy is a valuable part of my playstyle. But I haven't gotten very deep on any of my characters on Master, so I don't know how it scales to later levels.

Just to share my build:

Name: Thadious
Race: Breton
Skills: One Handed | Heavy Armor | Conjuration | Enchanting | Alteration | Restoration | Smithing

^ That was the original version of Thadious. The second version includes Illusion, as well as some reshifting of some perks.

The new version I'm looking to create would look like this:

One Handed
Armsman (5/5)
Dual Flurry (2/2)
Dual Savagery
Bladesman (3/3)

Heavy Armor
Juggernaut (5/5)

Conjuration
Novice, Apprentice, Adept, Expert, Master
Dual Casting
Necromancy
Dark Souls
Twin Souls

Illusion
Novice, Apprentice, Adept
Dual Casting
Hypnotic Gaze
Aspect of Terror
Rage
Master of the Mind

Alteration
Novice, Apprentice, Adept
Stability

Restoration
Novice
Respite
Regeneration

Enchanting
Enchanter (5/5)
Insightful Enchanter
Corpus Enchanter
Extra Effect
Soul Squeezer

The RP is basically a warrior who captures the souls of his victims, harvesting their arcane energies to imbue his equipment with magical properties. He also commands the souls of the living and dead, and dominates them to do his will.

Playstyle, I'll use Frenzy spells to get enemies attacking each other, summon a Familiar (in early levels, a Dremora Lord in later levels) to go in and start attacking, and when enemies start falling, reanimate them to fight their own kind from beyond the grave. When my blade is needed, I cast a Shield ("skin") spell, draw my 2 blades, and rush into combat equipped with a suit of Heavy Armor to protect me.

I certainly don't play a "pure" Necromancer, by any means, but Necromancy is definitely a key component of the build.

I haven't used the Summoner perk yet, I've thought about it - just how drastic a distance is it, and do you find it a significant improvement to your abilities as a Necromancer?

Also, I feel real "dee dee dee" - In my first play through with the character, I avoided The Ritual stone, because I didn't realize that it would reanimate -multiple- corpses. I thought it only reanimated one, so I avoided it, figuring "Why do I need that ability, when I already have reanimate spells at my disposal?"

Your build seems very interesting, and I may give a more "pure magic" Necromancer build a shot at some point. I still love my warrior-Necro though. I guess the proper term for that would be "Shadow Knight"?
User avatar
:)Colleenn
 
Posts: 3461
Joined: Thu Aug 31, 2006 9:03 am

Post » Fri Jun 08, 2012 4:04 am

Thanks for sharing - that build sounds like an absolute powerhouse. No wonder you're playing on Master difficulty!
User avatar
vicki kitterman
 
Posts: 3494
Joined: Mon Aug 07, 2006 11:58 am

Post » Fri Jun 08, 2012 1:57 am

After receiving some inspiration from these forums (in particular this slightly baffling http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1330219-impossible-to-play-a-pure-necromancer/page__hl__necromancer%20build), I decided to try my hand at creating a Necromancer build to see just what kind of mischief I could get up to.

Thankfully I was not disappointed and have put together a video guide that explains the basics of my build and shows some of the more entertaining aspects of playing a necromancer.

Hopefully you'll find it useful:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHrlXE2PhBE
That seems pretty neat and I'm thinking I may do something close to the same, although I won't be able to limit myself to only two spell types :P
User avatar
Project
 
Posts: 3490
Joined: Fri May 04, 2007 7:58 am

Post » Fri Jun 08, 2012 3:52 am

That's very much up to you. Although even when the build is limited to Necromancy and Frost, I still ended up with more spells than I knew what to do with. So many different ways to fling ice at my enemies...
User avatar
Fiori Pra
 
Posts: 3446
Joined: Thu Mar 15, 2007 12:30 pm

Post » Fri Jun 08, 2012 5:39 am

Very nice man. Here I figured this game would be linear and all but we can make some really cool characters and designs and force limitations to our play throughs for fun instead of just running and gunning.
User avatar
Richard
 
Posts: 3371
Joined: Sat Oct 13, 2007 2:50 pm

Post » Fri Jun 08, 2012 7:27 am

Very nice man. Here I figured this game would be linear and all but we can make some really cool characters and designs and force limitations to our play throughs for fun instead of just running and gunning.

Definitely. As anyone who's maxed out Smithing/Enchanting can confirm; it is possible to make the game too easy. It's sometimes more fun to try and add more of a challenge.
User avatar
Trey Johnson
 
Posts: 3295
Joined: Thu Oct 11, 2007 7:00 pm

Post » Fri Jun 08, 2012 5:14 am

What an amazing build. Fantastic video and voice over. Well done, sir!
User avatar
Lyndsey Bird
 
Posts: 3539
Joined: Sun Oct 22, 2006 2:57 am

Post » Fri Jun 08, 2012 5:52 am

What an amazing build. Fantastic video and voice over. Well done, sir!

Thanks. Really pleased with the reception that the video has had so far.
User avatar
Niisha
 
Posts: 3393
Joined: Fri Sep 15, 2006 2:54 am

Post » Fri Jun 08, 2012 6:21 am

The only thing that I hate is that it seems like Conjuration is the "flavor" skill that everyone and their mom uses.

That's hipster me saying "I was using Necromancy before Necromancy was 'cool'"
User avatar
Astargoth Rockin' Design
 
Posts: 3450
Joined: Mon Apr 02, 2007 2:51 pm

Post » Thu Jun 07, 2012 5:14 pm

this video inspired me to make a necro of my own, but im probley gunna add a bit of illusion also.
User avatar
Marnesia Steele
 
Posts: 3398
Joined: Thu Aug 09, 2007 10:11 pm

Post » Thu Jun 07, 2012 8:59 pm

this video inspired me to make a necro of my own, but im probley gunna add a bit of illusion also.

Excellent. What spells do you have in mind?

I can imagine Fury/Frenzy/Mayhem could make things rather interesting. Combine those with some decent undead minions and you could sit back and just watch the chaos unfold.
User avatar
Claudia Cook
 
Posts: 3450
Joined: Mon Oct 30, 2006 10:22 am

Post » Thu Jun 07, 2012 11:52 pm

Great vid and a very interesting character. Loved your choice of minions :)
User avatar
Katie Louise Ingram
 
Posts: 3437
Joined: Sat Nov 18, 2006 2:10 am

Post » Thu Jun 07, 2012 5:26 pm

Great vid and a very interesting character. Loved your choice of minions :smile:

Thanks, you can also find a list of the most powerful thralls that you can obtain here:

http://elderscrolls.wikia.com/wiki/Dead_Thrall

However, I still think Ulfric is a great choice just because of the shouts!
User avatar
Jaylene Brower
 
Posts: 3347
Joined: Tue Aug 15, 2006 12:24 pm

Post » Fri Jun 08, 2012 2:26 am

Cool Video, I've already "pen and papered" my next char,but I added the vid to my favs, so that I can look at it for the char after that.
User avatar
Ebou Suso
 
Posts: 3604
Joined: Thu May 03, 2007 5:28 am

Post » Fri Jun 08, 2012 1:28 am

As you level and want to continue focusing on Necromancy, I might suggest some restoration school perks. After all, a good necromancer should be able to influence other undead as well, not just raise their own.

I have been putting off playing a Necromancer character until the CK was released, but I just started a mage who just got out of Helgen and might consider that pathway now, since who knows when the CK might ever get released.
User avatar
Natasha Callaghan
 
Posts: 3523
Joined: Sat Dec 09, 2006 7:44 pm

Post » Fri Jun 08, 2012 12:27 am

Great video. Just a question, but was it awkward playing as a necromancer and going through Legion questline? I assume you must being that you have Ulfric as a thrall
User avatar
hannah sillery
 
Posts: 3354
Joined: Sun Nov 26, 2006 3:13 pm

Next

Return to V - Skyrim