Hi guys, I have a question about the Vampire Lord, have been playing it with my mage who has over 500 magicka and it seemed that the spells such as vampiric drain and all didn't cost a lot of magic ... So I was wondering if the vampire Lord form was just as good with a character who isn't a mage ... I have an assassin w/bows who is level 20 and has so far 200 health, 200 stamina and 100 magicka only ... Is magicka that much important for a Vampire Lord ? Can I still be powerful even though I don't have much ?

PS : Do you have a site or do you know the costs of each vampire lord spell ?

Montblanc (:

Well if you transform into your Vampire Lord form you get +200 Health, Magicka and Stamina, plus there's the Ring of Erudite that grants you +100 Magicka, and there's ofcourse a perk that decrease Blood/Night powers with 33%, but the Power Grip still drains your Magicka quite fast, even if you have like 800 Magicka (like my character when he's transformed), but seeing as how you focus on bows, I'd recommend you join the Dawnguard, in order to get the Crossbow Upgrades... but that's just me

+200 everywhere ! That's really cool ! and the reduction perk aswell

Well I've been doing researches because I actually am planning to join the Dawnguard for the smithing of bolts and crossbows (Can't wait sneaking around with those) , however at the end of the DLC I'd like to transform with Serana into a Vampire Lord , to be an awesome vampire assassin from the Dark Brotherhood who betrayed the Dawnguard and stole their crossbow blueprints ! Shame for the death choke I was looking forward to that !

Yes... Vampire Lord works well with an Assassin build. It's what I'm running now.

Cool then how much base magicka do you have ? Do you have to wear any enchanted armore to have more magicka or magicka regen ?!

Yes.. I have a VL dark elf assassin. I didn't have any problems but then I wanted to play with conjuration since I got Arvak and if I need insta tank, well I have one. I put some points into mana but the ring of erudite is great.

On one of my characters, I have 900 magic in VL form. with that much I can do the vampire grip for like a minute and a half straight. if thats any help. Oh, and thousand with the ring.
and sorry, armor doesnt count when you transform. although the VL has its own armor rating

Dude shammme I wanted to fling giants ! haha
Thanks for the info how about the other spells ? Such as the summon gargoyle ?

Going through the VL quests now as a illusionist thief type kind of a trickster thief. Works well I must say but my only problem is the Vampiric drain spell is very weak if your not in the transformed state. At full strength it only does 5 damage per second and doesn't seem to scale with your skill in destruction.

vampires get a good sneak boost so yeah they work just fine.

And with the weird sneak mechanic get your sneak hi and crouch in front of them shooting. They'll run into you like a wall and never find you.

Here is a really good http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Vampire_Lord for you. Scroll down to the Notes section. Very informative.

I think your level 20 assassin would make a fine Vampire Lord. Sure, there are other builds that would be more effective, but my first experience was with my level 48 nord assassin. I was melting faces.

My thoughts:

• Your Magicka Pool is substantial enough that 200 magicka (100 base + 100 VL) should last you through a typical encounter. Your base regen should be enough that if you drop to melee for a moment, your Magicka should pop back up fairly quickly. Not instantly, but quickly.
  
• I'd look into either finding, buying, or enchanting some jewelry to support your magicka regen. You can boost your pool I suppose, but imo it'd be better if it just refilled faster. At least until you can get your hands on the pair of rings and amulets from the radiant quests. Then you'll be fine.
  
• Oh! and think about focusing more of your "level-ups" on Magicka then Health. Leave your Stamina as is, imo.

For an assassin, you might want to stay out of vampire lord form until a higher level. Not because it's weak, but rather because standard vampirism would synergize better with an assassin's stats. Although VL could be useful for assassinating a person without incurring a bounty.

VL form isn't for being sneaky or subtle sadly. It's the magic equivilent to Beast Form, but being able to walk on water can be handy. As an assassin the basic vamp buffs are your best friend and the Ring of the Beast (+100 health, more claw damage) isn't to shabby for a low magicka build. The Bat necklace turns the VL's teleport ability into a valid life draining tactic, and when parred with the bats cloak can help to keep your health topped off so long as you keep moving. basicaly VL form would be your "Oh Crap" button when stealth failed and fertilizer hits the fan. rest of the time, stealth, illusion, some poisons and a dagger for back up.. eh, you know the drill by now.

But what we're getting at is though the Vampire Lord (by nature) seems designed for Mages more than anyone else, using it with an Assassin or Warrior build won't affect it negatively.

I think that's what we're all trying to get to.

Keep in mind, however, that it takes some time to calculate your stats after transformation. As such, there's a 2-3 second window when you only have the health bonuses and shielding of a level 1 VL. As such, try not to use it as a panic button, unless the opponent is out of attacking range.