Skyrim Character Guide:

The Destroyer

The destroyer is the embodiment of warrior.  Armed with a massive two-handed War-Hammer and armored in the heaviest plate available, this fearless warrior throws himself headlong into battle swinging throwing caution to the wind and relying on his armor and high health pool to keep him alive.

Race:  The greatest destroyers come from the races of Nord and Orcs. 

            With their naturally ability to wear heavy armor and wield two handed weapons, Orcs can become fearsome warriors and their ability to fly into a berserker rage increasing their damage and reducing incoming damage.

            Nord’s on the other hand are naturally more gifted with two-handed weapons.  They also have a natural resistance to the cold inherent in Skyrim and can terrify their foes with a shout.  

Attributes: (Magicka – Health – Stamina)

The destroyer has very little use for magic, many even harbor a severe distrust of magic which occasionally skirts the borders of hatred and therefore uses very little of the arts on his own.  Health and Stamina are the Destroyer’s bread and butter.  The Destroyer will increase his health and stamina at a ratio of 2:1 respectively (two increases to health for every 1 increase to stamina). 

Skills and Perks:  Two-Handed weapons and Heavy Armor are the two skills that define the Destroyer and together create a force to be reckoned with.  These two skills will absorb the majority of the Destroyer’s skill perks.

Two-Handed Skill Perks:  Total Perk Points invested (13)

— Barbarian:  When fully invested in this five rank skill, your character will essentially deal double physical damage with his weapon. 

— Skullcrusher:  This three-point skill perk adds a nice bonus to damage.  While this skills is more affective against people than creatures it will make a big difference in the amount of attacks required to Destroy your opponent.

— Champions Stance:  In addition to being a pre-requisite for one of the coolest perks in the game Champion’s stance reduces the stamina cost of your power attacks which account for the majority of your attacks as a Destroyer. 

— Great Critical Charge:  As a highly offensive fighter, the Destroyer’s goal is to get into combat and deliver the most devastating blows as quickly as possible.  Allowing your charge attack to deal double damage is extremely powerful.

— Devastating Blow:  Not only does this skill give your standing power attacks at passive 25% bonus to damage, but also gives them a small chance of decapitating enemies. 

— Sweep:  This attack turns your sideways power attack into a cleave hitting everything in front of you.  Since the Destroyer wades into battle paying little attention to the number of foes, this skill can help even the odds with every swipe.

— Warmaster:  The capstone of two handed warrior vengeance.  This perk modifies your backward power attack giving you a chance to paralyze your foes.  This can be useful when fighting multiple strong foes. Giving you a chance to pummel them thoroughly without taking any damage for a few seconds.

Heavy Armor:  Total Perk Points invested (9)

— Juggernaught:  This is another excellent perk which simply doubles your armor rating.  Max this out and ignore the peons poking you with sharpened sticks.

— Well-Fitted:  You’re always going to be wearing four pieces of heavy armor, so this is essentially a free 25% extra armor rating for free.

— Tower of Strength:  In my experience, if a foe is powerful enough to stagger you, a second power attack will likely kill you.  The less staggered you are by powerful strikes, the longer you will live. Oh it’s also a prerequisite for other cool skills.

— Matching Set:  We’ll learn later that you’re going to be crafting your own armor so by the time you get this skill you should be crafting your own sets of armor and ‘most’ of the time you will get this additional 25% bonus to armor rating.

— Reflect Blows:  So we’ve determined that the Juggernaught wades into battle with a massive hammer raised above his head ready to drive his foes head down through his rectum.  In the mean time puny bandits strike you and your armor turns their strikes back against them.  What could be cooler than watching your enemies kill themselves by attacking you?

Smithing:  Total Perk Points Invested (7)

— Steel Smithing:  This is the prerequisite for the craft, plus it opens up nice armors early in the game.

— Dwarven Smithing:  This armor wasn’t very useful to me cause by the time I could craft any of it, I was already finding better, but it still retains it’s place in the hierarchy of armors.

— Orcish Smithing:  This armor is definitely cool looking.  Keep working.

— Ebony Smithing:  This armor will last you a long time as daedra hearts will be hard to come by for the next tier.

— Daedric Smithing:  Probably the coolest looking armor and weapons in the game.  Last step before Dragon armor.

— Dragon Armor:  This is the pinnacle of crafting perfection, and the reason you’ve been lugging armor those 15 pound dragon scales.

— Arcane Blacksmith:  Finally you can improve the Magical Weapons and Armor you find in game.

Enchanting:  Total Perk Points Invested (9)

— Enchanter:  If you’re going to be smithing your own weapons and armor, you’d better be able to put some damn nice enchantments on them.  For five points you can double the effectiveness of your enchanted items.

— Fire/Frost/Storm Enchanter:  As a melee fighter one of your greatest weaknesses will be magic damage.  You will need to enchant protection from the elements and the added benefit of additional protection and damage is an excellent prospect.

— Soul Squeezer:  Gaining additional magicka when recharging is always helpful. But it’s also a prerequisite for an awesome perk

— Soul Siphon:  With this perk you will almost never need to waste your soul gems on recharging your weapons.  You can use them for leveling up your enchanting in order to get the capstone.

— Insightful Enchanter:  While this is generally more helpful for mage types.  You may occasionally find it useful to put skill enchantments on your armor.  This is also a prereq for the next skill.

— Corpus Enchanter:  Health and stamina enchants go a long way in your survivability and ability to last in a fight.  This is an excellent Perk

— Extra Effect:  With this perk every item you create becomes an artifact.  Your Armor can simultaneously offer resistance to fire and frost or your weapon can soultrap and electrify your foe. Begin able to add two enchantments on one item is arguably the most useful perk in the game.

Misc Skills and Perks: 

            At this point your Destroyer will be nearly level 40 with 11 perk points left before the theoretical max of 50.  You can spend the remaining points however you feel it necessary.  For those Destroyers who seek extra protection from magical effects, try picking up “Magic Resistance” in the Alteration tree.  For 5 points invested, you can decrease the effects of spells against you by 20%.  Other options include adding Archery to your available options.  Try Speech to increase you ability to persuade, or become a merchant in your own right.

Guardian Stones:  The most immediately useful Guardian stones for the Destroyer are the Warrior (increases leveling speed by 30%), and the Steed (which allows you to move unencumbered by armor, and carry 100 more pounds of weight).  The Steed will a.) allow you to move at full speed while in armor and b.) allow you to carry a LOT more loot.

I hope you enjoyed this guide.  There will be many more to follow so please keep checking back.  Also if you have a character build you would like to see posted leave a comment. 

It's official

Skyrim is finally here…

And now that some of us have finally been able to pull ourselves out of Tamriel for long enough to go back to work or school we can start discussing the character creation system of the game and how you can create the perfect character to fit your character concept. 

You’ve played around with your character and have a decent idea of how the character development system works and how the perks work.  But here we’ll take a detailed look at how some of the skills/perks/shouts can work together to produce excellent characters.

With the addition of the excellent perk system, our characters really feel a LOT more powerful.  This new system really gives the ability to really specialize and build the character we want.  But with any good Role-Playing game there is always a very high opportunity cost when choosing each perk.  In other words, by spending one perk in One-Handed weapons you are giving up the opportunity to place that perk in every other skill tree.  With so many amazing perk options the cost is very high!

In the coming months we’ll examine builds focusing primarily on Combat, Magic, Stealth, and character builds that are hybrids between at least two of the forms and how certain perk/skill combinations can create powerful synergies.

Oblivion Character Build: The Brigand

In today’s trip back into the world of Oblivion, we’ll take a look at the Brigand..

THE BRIGAND

Background:  The Brigand is equal parts highwayman and thief.  He makes his living by robbing, stealing, or conning.  His lifestyle has forced him to live by the sword but he prefers to take any advantage possible.  He will utilize stealth, range, or poison if it gives him a higher chance of winning a battle.

Sample Brigand

Class:	Brigand	Race:	Imperial
	Combat		Magic		Stealth
Armorer	5	Alchemy	5	Acrobatics	15
Athletics	5	Alteration	5	Light Armor	35
Blade	30	Conjuration	5	Marksman	35
Block	25	Destruction	5	Mercantile	45
Blunt	10	Illusion	5	Security	35
Hand-to-Hand	10	Mysticism	5	Sneak	35
Heavy Armor	15	Restoration	5	Speechcraft	25
	Base	Bonuses		Health	100
Agility	50			Magicka	130
Endurance	50			Fatigue	170
Intelligence	40			Encumbrance	80
Luck	60
Personality	50
Speed	50
Strength	40
Willpower	30
BirthSign:	The Thief

Playstyle

The Brigand can quickly and easily switch combat stances from a poisoned dagger in stealth, to bow for range and sword and shield for fighting up close and personal.  He uses his high speed and mobility to hit and run.

Guilds

The Brigand can easily side with either the thieves guild or the fighters guild.  And brigands with lower than average morals can make a good living within the Dark Brotherhood as well.

Oblivion Character Build: The Warlock

In today’s trip back into the world of Oblivion, we’ll take a look at the Warlock.

THE WARLOCK

Background:  The Warlock is a practitioner of the darker of the magical arts.  Where the Paladin worships the nine divines, the Warlock tries to gain favor with the daedric princes. He will use whatever means necessary to increase his power and knowledge of the arcane arts. He is not above summoning spirits from the realms of Oblivion and binding them to his service. 

Sample Warlock

Class:	Warlock	Race:	Dunmer
	Combat		Magic		Stealth
Armorer	5	Alchemy	15	Acrobatics	5
Athletics	5	Alteration	35	Light Armor	25
Blade	25	Conjuration	35	Marksman	5
Block	5	Destruction	35	Mercantile	5
Blunt	5	Illusion	35	Security	5
Hand-to-Hand	5	Mysticism	15	Sneak	5
Heavy Armor	5	Restoration	35	Speechcraft	5
	Base	Bonuses		Health	100
Agility	40			Magicka	150
Endurance	50			Fatigue	160
Intelligence	50			Encumbrance	80
Luck	50
Personality	30
Speed	50
Strength	40
Willpower	30
BirthSign:	The Mage

Playstyle

Because the warlock spends most of his efforts delving into the secrets of magic and the forbidden realms of oblivion, he finds little joy in the mundane and relies on his spells to carry him through any encounter.  He often has a minion to take the brunt of most assaults and his melee weapon is merely a means of delivering poison or  debilitating enchantment. 

Spells

When opposed the warlock prefers to bring suffering and agony to his foes instead of a quick death.  Therefore he prefers spells that draw out damage over time instead of all at once.  He also prefers hampering spells such as drain, damage abilities, as well as absorbing health, magic and attributes.  Their loss should always be the warlock’s gain.