Nord

Light Armor, Two-Handed warrior

Perks: http://skyrimcalculator.com/#137990

What changes can I make, if any? What does everyone think? Very basic, but I imagine it would be fun. Has anyone tried something like this?

Wait; have to edit the OP. For some reason, the build isn't showing properly.

Edit: Fixed it.

just my two cents, if you're going to use bock, shouldn't you be putting your points into one-handed instead of two-handed?

No ranged at all? Tactically very limited, every combat could end up feeling the same, and therefore boring you. If you are determined to use such a simple build, I would at least recommend taking light armour up to Wind Walker (takes you to level 20), as this is a stamina-usage heavy build.

Theres 80 points in the game, why only use 49?

I'm very fond of the idea of 2H and Light Armor, but the Block perks can be a lifesaver. I want to be able to block and retaliate despite lacking a shield; I don't want to be defenseless even though blocking won't be as effective.


You must have clicked the link before I edited it. I have an (almost) fully perked Archery tree and a fully perked Light Armor tree.


Because the "soft cap" is 50; it becomes difficult to level afterward. I have an idea of what kinds of things I'd like to do after level 50, but I generally want to build my characters around the idea that they'll be "complete" close to or at 50, but not beyond.

Besides that, it would take forever to get a character to level 81 just to finally be finished with the build. I consider level 50+ (maybe even 40+) to be "late game," and I want my character to be wholly effective by then instead of spreading incredibly thin and putting too much value on each individual perk. With this setup, if I decide I want Smithing or a magic skill to be useful to me later, I can go ahead and do that.

If you want me to post something for level 81, here it is: http://skyrimcalculator.com/#138003

I figured that would be the logical extension of my skills. Sure, I use all the weapon skills (including dual wielding), but that gives me a whole lot of variety in both offense and defense. It could be a lot more fun this way, but I digress: that's at the endgame.

i clicked it after your edit was posted, but it was still level 16. Now it's changed, though. Very odd.

Watch that last archery perk. At the minute (may be patched later), the paralyse can take effect when you fire, resulting in the target falling over before the arrow reaches them, and thus no damage is dealt.

You want everything in 2-handed (except the weapon specialities, they svck). You want the entire right side of the block tree, not shield sprint bashing though. You want everything in Light Armour. You might want smithing up te left side and enchanting up the middle, or Alchemy. You could have some destruction or archery, and you might want some restoration or conjuration as well.

You can add Sneak to make your build very dynamic, able to be a shadow warrior or a beserker in a click of a button.

I've devised some builds for you:

Edit: You can put Archery in some of these too, if you gave space.

The Crafty Beserker:

Two Handed (Everything but deep wounds etc.)
Light Armour (Everything)
Block (Right side)
Enchanting (Middle path, could use left path) OR Alchemy (Potions)
Smithing (Left path)

Health: 100% (Stamina is almost useless with vegetable soup and stamina Regen potions).

The Defensive Mage Beserker:

Two handed ("")
Light Armour ("")
Block ("")
Smithing ("") OR Enchanting ("")
Conjuration (Atros or zombies)
Restoration (Everything)

Health: 66.6%. Magika: 33,3%.

Offensive Mage Beserker:

Exactly same as above but Destruction instead of Restoration (choose one or two elements only)

The Shadow Beserker:

Two Handed
Light Armour
Block
Smithing
Sneak (Everything but assassin perks past the 6x Melee damage)
Any other Sneaky skill (even illusion)

Health 100%

These should be good, I don't know how many perks they use but there should be enough. If any spare, pick a fitting useful skill.

Enjoy!

Man, that's a shame. May save me on a perk, though, but I'm not sure I'd like to give it up. Thanks for the heads up.

That...I can't say I agree with any of that.

Firstly, I'm opposed to using more than one crafting skill. Secondly, while I know people who do it, I don't personally care to use magic and a 2H weapon. Finally, I will not replace stamina with soup.

Thanks, though.

With that many perks in archery be carefull not to rely on it too much.
You may end up becomeing a full time archer and forget about your two-handed skills.
Also 2 perks in steady hand really isn't needed unless you are looking to do alot of stealth attacks.Even then with a decent amount of stamina one perk should suffice,although that may just be my preferance.

lol!


This is correct. Best to use skills and perks to level 50 or thereabouts. Level too high and the game quickly will become mindnumbingly boring.

I was just about to point out the redundant steadyhand 2/2 but angryorc beat me to it.

Might not want to take matched set in light armor tree- it is more restrictive than anything else.

If you take devastating blow in 2H, you might as well pick up a 1/3 of the weapon critical chance that you want. just to have the criticals exist. (since devastating blow is also an unscaled critical)

I am usually NOT a fan of stacking the 20% perks to 5/5 as (stock) enchanted gear can duplicate that effect, that's just my reference but if you dropped your 5/5ers you would have a whopping 16 more perks to play with, IMO they would be better served elsewhere.

I haven't used much of Archery, actually. In Oblivion, it was practically my only damage-dealing skill, and I loved character builds that used either it or mages who specialized in Destruction. I've used my share of Destruction, 1H and 2H in Skyrim, and I don't think that Archery will overcome that; I plan to use it for ranged combat and ranged combat alone.

My Nord Paladin (1H, Block, Heavy Armor, Restoration, Enchanting) is currently the tank in a team of me, Erik the Slayer, and soon, Vigilance. My character makes a wonderful tank, but what really inspired me to make this build is Erik: his skills, according to UESP, are Light Armor, 2H, Archery and Block, and he's been a wonderful companion. He's beaten the crap out of trolls and dragons in his Elven armor while I tank for him and heal us both, and I would like to return the favor or pay it forward by playing a barbarian for an NPC who tanks. I used Alchemy because I wanted to be effective and terrifying even alone.

I went on a bit of a rant there, but the point is that I'm not worried about Archery overshadowing anything.

This is actually what I meant to say earlier that I never got to: I don't think 2/2 Steady Hand is redundant. I'll see for myself at some point, as I haven't used it yet, but slowing time more technically means more DPS. Draw, zoom, fire, repeat, with enemy action slowed down significantly during the zoom phase.

You really think that about Matching Set? Full glass, elven and dragon look fine to me, so the bonus helps. Besides which, while I understand a want to be aesthetically pleasing, if you don't wear a matched set, then your armor rating will be lower than it can be even without the perk; all elven with a leather helmet < all elven < all glass with an elven helmet < full set of dragon.

About Devastating Blow, are you saying that the decapitation is a critical hit and that increasing the crit rate will increase the decap (and therefore OHKO) rate? If so, I hope you can confirm this before I go about doing it. I'm really hoping you're right; it will make the sword perks more useful.

This is pretty close to how my first build went. I don't really like using magic too much either. Much prefer the way you fight with a two hander. The only difference is that I used smithing. I never got him past twenty five but my only problem was when I would fight powerful magic users. But if you can run through their magic attack they are usually only one or two hits to take out.

Devastating blow adds an automatic "critical hit" when you charge and power attack. Like all critical hits it doesn't "scale" and is based only n base weapon damage. That isn't to say you shouldn't take it, but a 1/3 in your weapon type for crits will be the same thing. If taking one, might as well take the other. It will add slightly to DPS- relatively more for you since it does not seem you are going to smith alot.

Steady hand 2/2- your call. 1/2 is very very slow already. If you want to spend for 2/2 that is a preference thing. Looks like me and angry orc think it isn't worth it though, I think others might feel the same way.

Matching set perk- will only activate (and therefore be worth anything) if you were a full matched set. Now thats just great if you do find a matched set you like, but since it looks like you are going to be using "found gear" due to no smithing no enchanting- what will you do when you find say elven boots with muffle- but you love your glass armor of health regen? You will either wear what you need for utility- and thus lose the benefit and waste the perk- or restrict yourself from optimal gear. That is why I think that perk is a loser.

Devestating blow is not related to decaps directly. Critical hits are just an additional damage.

That's why I though using a Nord and Alchemy would be useful. Frost resistance is not too shabby, which combined with Battlecry let me bring some pain to magic users. More importantly, I can brew up some fortify health, restore health, regenerate health, resist magic or resist [element] potions, not to mention various poisons to health and magicka that I can hit them with.

snaps!- i have devastating blow and great critical charge mixed up. My argument doesn't change though, since you have both selected. Just read "great critical charge" where I say devastating blow.

Apologies for confusion.

I'm not sure I entirely understand what you mean about Devastating Blow.

As for Matching Set, there are enough Thalmor that I don't have to worry about getting a full set of elven armor. And it'll be pretty worthwhile when I finally find the last piece to a set. I've considered Smithing since I really like a lot of the Light Armor sets, but I don't want to use both it and Alchemy, and I really like Alchemy. It's a way to recover primarily and it's great for throwing on extra damage, and most of all there's the 50% resist poison perk in Snakeblood. With that, I'll have a total of 50% poison resistance, 50% frost resistance and 100% disease resistance as a werewolf (because there's no way this guy isn't joining the Companions).

If I were to sacrifice Alchemy for Smithing, though, I do have one advantage: Alchemy took up ten perks for me while the light side of Smithing (plus Arcane Blacksmith) take up six, leaving me with four extra perks that I can put into Shield Wall so that I'm a more competent blocker. What are your thoughts on this?

Oh, I thought so! I didn't mention it because since you were using specific names, I thought you knew what I thought you meant. Now I'll have to go reread your post.

May I suggest this - http://skyrimcalculator.com/#138043

Removed a few of the worthless perks, added steel smithing and arcane smithing, these are the only smithing perks I use. It allows me to smith anything I want but not to the huge extent available. You may wonder why I've chosen to go up the right block tree, the block runner perk works for weapons, it's fantastic for dodging enemies and works very well with the quick reflexes perk, you will never be hit by a giant again.

Added restoration, you can remove it if you want. I find it much more enjoyable than alchemy, it requires more skill. I dislike just pausing mid game and healing all your health, I would have to stop my player for a few seconds to 'drink' the potion. You have quite a few perk points to allocate if you remove restoration, I'd suggest you use a magic tree.

You're right to only plan to 50, planning to level 81 is stupid unless you plan to exploit the game, which would defeat the point of playing it for me.

I plan a similar build for dawnguard after my vampire character plays through the DLC, designed around trying out the new werewolf perk tree and horse combat - http://skyrimcalculator.com/#138056 - something like that. Not set in stone as I need to see the DLC first, crossbows and 2h will be the main combat style for attacking, alteration to boost armor rating in human and beast form (mage armor works in beast form). Lightly uses enchanting so the items I find will always be stronger, but I don't think I'll invest in enchanting until I'm a high level, if at all.

Wait--I'll actually have four more leftover perks if I choose Smithing since I won't be getting five ranks of Agile Defender. What should I do with those if I go for Smithing?

As said above- Arcane smith is good. It is really all you need.

You can easily find a good set of matched armor like you said from the thalmor- I was just thinking ahead to the point where you will be finding and using enchanted gear (hence my example) if you find a truly great enchant in a light armor type that doesn't match your set- you will have to choose between using your perk or using the excellent enchant item.

@Bob - restoration is a possibility, but then again he will not have any offense when he decides to heal- (since 2 hand or bow ) so it doesn't fit flush like it would with a spellsword. its a choice.

I disagree with your suggestions, but thank you for them.

I don't like the idea of going up the left side of the block tree with 2H weapons or using magic. I understand why you might have wanted to take out the right side of the Archery tree, but I really want this character to be very mobile, hence reaching up to the Ranger perk, and the perks before it aren't incredibly bad. This is also why I wanted Great Critical Charge: not for the fact that it crits, but to have a useful sprinting power attack and more mobility.