Foreword
It’s been long time since I’ve played Skyrim, even longer since i’ve publicly posted a build. But here I am nonetheless. Having been refreshing my knowledge of The Elder Scrolls Lore (religions too) I noticed an announcement about this contest. Religion has always been a big part of Tamriel citizens’ lives, and an even bigger cause for conflict and strife. I’ve seen many members deciding to try their hands at some niche and obscure deities. Perhaps to prove that the most widely-known, somewhat ‘vanilla’ Divines can inspire something interesting too I opted for Mara. Though it is not for me but for others to decide if I succeeded in this endeavor.
There is a mechanic in Skyrim meant for strategic use, namely shield bashing. Designed to suport and add variety to melee combat. This time i wanted to explore the possibilities of using it as main means of damage. And as it turns out, it is possible to be effective in combat using only your shield as your weapon. What's important, is that the amount of damage you do with your shield depends on it's armor rating. Targe of the Blooded is an exception, as it has a unique scripted effect similiar to bleeding damage offered by axes.
Backstory
Mara, the Mother Goddess is a Divine primarily featured in the Imperial pantheon, whose sphere of influence are love, compassion, family, loyalty and agriculture. Priests of Mara serving in temples dedicated to this Aedra are traditionally the ones who administer marriage to engaged couples. Moreover, gifting an amulet of Mara to a person of one’s choosing while wearing one yourself is the most widespread way of engagement in Tamriel.
Over the two hundred years after Tribunal’s collapse, some of the temples dedicated to the Almsivi were abandoned and fell into disrepair, many became places of worship for Reclamations, while at the same time others were converted to temples of Divines, as the influence of the Imperial Cult grew.
The Shieldmaiden was born in Silgrad Tower in northern Morrowind, close to Skyrim border. Her mother was a Priestess of Mara, her father a caravan guard. Both parents loved each other dearly, and were very happy to see their family grow thanking Mara for the blessing of their daugter.
As years went by, the girl became an apprentice at the local temple of Mara, her mother became her teacher. At the same time, her father, a strong warrior in his own right made sure that Nord values and traditions were upheld and cultivated. When the Shieldmaiden reached her teenage years, the Great War erupted. Some of the priests at the temple left south towards Cyrodiil to serve as healers to soldiers wounded in battle. The Shieldmaiden’s mother went away with the priests, and her father enlisted into the Imperial Legion. This was the last time she has seen them.
More time had passed, and the Shieldmaiden heard about the rising Stormcloak rebellion, and knew that her father’s will would be to defend their ancestral homeland of Skyrim and the freedom of religion. Following her mother’s footsteps she crossed the border through the tall and steep Velothi mountains, but ended up cought by the Imperial ambush and taken by carriage to Helgen.
Gear
Feet: Yellow monk boots, later college boots
Head: Diadem of the Savant
- (Reduce Spell Cost 5%)
Ring: Bond of Matrimony
- (Fortify Restoration 10%)
Neck: Amulet of Mara
- (Fortify Restoration 10%)
Body: Hooded or hoodless monk robes, then progress into higher-level robes of restoration
- (Fortify Restoration & Magicka Regeneration)
Shield: Highest armor rating shield you can find, then switch to Targe of the Blooded
- (Additional Bleeding Damage)
Hands: (optional) Gloves of the Pugilist, worn before you obtain Mage Armor perk in Alteration tree.
- (Fortify Unarmed Damage)
After you take the perk, disenchant them.
Whilst enchanting is not a perked skill, any effects of fortified magicka regen and boosting of unarmed damage should help. When you get your hands on enough filled grand soul gems it’s no a bad option to apply those effects on your circlet, gloves, and shoes slots. Pick up and wear gear with useful enchantments found in random loot, as long as it’s not armor. We’re going for an outfit that looks scholarly, priestly, or healer-y.
Stats
Race: Female Nord
Attributes: 2 Health/1 Magicka/0 Stamina
Standing Stone: Atronach
Skills: Block, Restoration, Alteration
Dragon Shouts: Slow Time, Unrelenting Force, Dragonrend
Skills:
This build uses only three skills: Block, Restoration and Alteration.
With Alteration you’ll be prepared for battle thanks to it’s protective uses. „Flesh” spells will be the only ones you’ll need to succeed.
Restoration is crucial towards keeping yourself and your followers alive. I didn’t use turn undead spells as they aren’t necessary and don’t facilitate the roleplay and lore of this build. Make sure you learn Healing Hands spell ass soon as possible.
Block is the foundation of this build. It will be the primary source for both your defense AND offense. Take all perks in this tree. As I found out when playtesting this build, prioritizing utility perks, such as Quick Reflexes or Deadly Bash is much more cost-effective than straight up maxing out Shield Wall first.
- This perk loadout will allow for quite a few synergies to take place. Alteration's Stability perk will help extend the slow motion effect of Quick Reflexes via Slow Time shout (more on that in "Gameplay").
- Atronach perk will stack with Atronach Stone, and Magic Resistance perk's effect will be compounded by Block skill's Elemental Protection.
- In addition to that, Recovery from Restoration tree along with robes of Restoration will more than make up for slower Magicka regeneration coming from Atronach Stone.
Roleplay
Live soberly and peacefully. Honor your parents, and preserve the peace and security of home and family.
- "Ten Commands: Nine Divines"
In spirit of Mara’s sphere of influence over family, you’ll want to get married and adopt a child.
Visit the temple in Riften often to pray at the altar of love, and give to beggars and others who need your help.
Having heard of the cruelties brought by war and strife throughout her life, the Shieldmaiden vowed to never raise a weapon against another. So she’ll use her right hand for healing magic or punching.
Remember to eat homecooked food at your house with your child, spouse, pet, follower and housecarl every now and then.
The Shieldmaiden will tend to wounded soldiers encountered in military camps, just as her mother did.
Gameplay
This build was designed to fulfill the role of a tank, so your task is to absorb most of incoming damage as well as heal your followers, while they act as your dps.
As we’re at the topic of followers, you’ll want to have both a regular follower and a pet, to build your collective DPS, as your own won’t be very high.
Going into battle, you’ll want to Dual Cast Ebonyflesh when approaching enemies, then bash their heads in using your shield. When you run out of stamina, use a healing spell to replenish it. When you run out of both stamina and magicka throw some punches into the mix.
Keep your followers’ health in mind. Use Healing Hands on them whenever needed.
Go for mages and archers first. Having no ranged combat capabilities yourself, closing the distance should be your priority.
Against larger groups of enemies, try to keep as many of them as you can stunned, allowing your followers to dish out damage freely.
When facing dragons, keep them pinned down with Dragonrend, then damage them and interrupt their attacks using your shield.
When facing strong opponents who come in small groups, like giants and trolls, knock them to the ground using Unrelenting Force, then wail on them with your shield when they’re vulnerable.
- Extended Slow Time: If you use the Slow Time shout when the slow motion from block skill’s perk Quick Reflexes is still active, the shout’s effect will last significantly longer. Moreover, it will be further extended by alteration skill’s perk Stability.
- Food: Vegetable Soup boosts your Stamina and Health regeneration. Homecooked Meal has similiar effects, with the addition of boosting Magicka regeneration.
Both are especially useful when facing enemies who use Frost magic, which damages Stamina. Such enemies are very common in Skyrim.
Followers:
I found Jenassa a really good option. When uniterrupted she can dish out a lot of damage by shooting her bow in quick succession. It worked well as long as I kept enemy aggro on myself.
Farkas is a good alternative, having maxed out two-handed skill. Especially if you give him a giant’s club. Same goes for Mjoll the Lioness.
Another roleplay- friendly choice is Erandur, the Dunmer priest of Mara found in Dawnstar (as part of Waking Nightmare quest).
I also had Meeko with me at all times, to accumulate even more dps. It doesn’t have to be him, but keeping a pet in addition to your regular follower helps significantly.
Quests
- Main Quest: The Shieldmaiden will want to fulfill her destiny, as was intended by the Divines.
- The Companions: Having been taught about Nord values by her father, the Shieldmaiden will want to continue cultivating them in herself. She will obviously decide to get rid of Hircine’s daedric curse of lycanthropy.
- Civil War: The Shieldmaiden came to her ancestral homeland of Skyrim to protect her peoples’ freedom of religion, threatened by the Thalmor whose will is enforced by the Imperial Legion. As such, joining the Stormcloaks is the option she’ll go for.
- Thane of Riften: The Shieldmaiden will deliver the residents of Riften from their skooma plight. Additionally she’ll want to buy a house there, to be closer to the temple of Mara.
- The Book of Love: This one not only allows you to act as a champion of Mara, but also grants you additional Resist Magic passive ability.
- Waking Nightmare: Help a priest of Mara in resolving a problem troubling the residents of Dawnstar. It also allows you to get Erandur as a follower.
- College of Winterhold: There is no reason to pursue this questline, save for the access to robes of restoration. Those however, can be obtained when you enter the college during the MQ.
Closing thoughts:
As stated in the opening section, It’s been a pretty long time since I have played Skyrim, let alone made a character build for the game. Even though I am hopeful, I’m not sure it will be up to par in comparison with other contest entries. Same goes for the subject matter, Mara might not look very fascinating in comparison with lesser-known, more exotic deities.
But above all, thank you for your time, checking this build out, and reading through to the end.
I also want to wish luck to all who participate in this contest.
Replies
No, that quote specifically addresses omitions in a build that hinder the communication of its ideas, not the actual physical length in wordcount, which was what I was always addressing when I complimented your build on it's brevity in the first place, the actual physical length of the build. You can create two builds of the same length and yet one build will have the details a player need and one won't. That has nothing to do with length, but what you put in. I can like that something is brief and at the same time say that some things within the brevity could be changed to better communicate your build intentions.
And so what if the article is mere conjecture? If that stopped me, I'd never build anything! As other builders in this contest have already done, normally mundane items in game are being used to create the fuel for the building process and create something unique. We just had a total reinterpretation of the Skeleton Key. Did I agree with it, no, but darn, I admire someone who puts that much creativity out there and into a build. You are trying to capture your audience. The game is almost 10 years old, you're going to need to step out of the game box in order to do that. So, I can't create a build drawing on the knowledge and lore of past games because their their mechanics are not present in Skyrim? I guess I don't know what I'm doing then, because a sizeable chunk of my own builds are recreations of npcs and lore from books and past games and placing them within a Skyrim context. I've made builds on literally slivers of information and their corresponding conjecture.
And yeah, we're gonna flat out disagree on Jenassa, and you know I love her. She is probably one of my favorite followers. Her morality is any crime (Morality 0, already an indicator, don't you think?) whereas Farkas and Erandur don't tolerate stealing or attacking anyone (Morality 3). But you could argue that numerous follower factions, like housecarls and mercenaries all have a Morality of 0 and you'd be right, but there are other thngs. She periodically makes comments about preferring to sneak up on her targets. No other mercenary follower makes those comments. "She has a dark, murderous nature and has no qualms with any similar tendencies present in her employer; she abstains from interfering in any crimes the Dragonborn may commit, and can even be ordered to attack almost anyone, including hold guards." That was a direct quote from the wiki. If you think that fits the profile of a typical mercenary, you've got a dark view of mercenaries and man, all the more reason for your build not to use her.
I'll let her in game dialogue speak for herself. None of the other mercs have dialogue quite like this. If you want your Shieldmaiden to hang out with her, be my guest.
But, again, you do you and we can totally disagree. I like your build, I really do. I think Mara is so utterly underrepresented and written off as just a goody goody, that when I saw you were doing her I was quite happy. However, the wolf as her totem and the conjecture about her nature and relation to Arkay, death, and ressurection just say so much more to me though than just what you've presented here.
I didn't choose my followers based on charts and wikis.
"So, I can't create a build drawing on the knowledge and lore of past games because their their mechanics are not present in Skyrim?" - Sure, you can, the same way I can create a build without doing so.
"I've made builds on literally slivers of information and their corresponding conjecture." - Make builds inspired by headcanon that has no base in slivers of lore or conjecture. If that's what you want to do, be my guest. I'm sure you can make it captivating, engaging and enjoyable to read.
I can totally see where you're coming from. It's just not what I want to do.
Haha, neither do I, and I could've probably quoted Jenassa verbatim at this point in my time playing skyrim, I just didn't want to give you misinformation when I was forumlating my argument. So doing a little homework on my part is treating your argument and you with respect.
At any rate, I've got a new WiP to put up. Good luck.
I'm sorry that what you see here is wasted potential. A real shame. I appreciate the respect voiced in opinion, even if it is a bit discouraging.
Nonetheless, I wish you good luck with your new WiP, can't wait to see what you come up with.
I never say it was bad, I think my exact words was "safe" in the context of a contest, that's it. And it is a safe build. You can argue what you are doing with it until you're blue in the face, but you offer nothing new from a gameplay perspective and your roleplay is very typical of both a Mara-focused build and a gameplay-focused build. That's not to say shield bashers aren't entertainting, they are super fun to play and I've played dozens of them. What you think is the cat's meow, I think is a good, but safe build. Both of us are entitled to our opinions, but this leads me to my next point and why I'm a little frustrated with you and frankly, frustrated with myself for yet again falling into a trap of sorts.
Next time, don't ask for feedback. That simple. You have defended all of your choices multiple times, so it is clear to me that you are very happy with what you did and that's awesome. When I do a build like that, I don't even put up a WiP or if I do for formatting purposes, I'll generally say I don't want feedback at the bottom so people know. Period. I simply do and it is. What I'm more mildly annoyed at than anything else, Cannon, is that you asked for feedback in both your WiP and your build, I and others have given it in good faith, taking our time, because we are strong community like that, and then you proceeded to argue back every point, which is your right, of course, because I agree with you, I like variety in building as much as anyone else does. But writing more than just "good job" and "you rock!" takes some time. I think that's it, you were a time investment. And frankly, that's on me, not you, because it's my time that was wasted, not yours. I should've resisted my urge to comment in the first place, so I kinda blame myself for wanting to be helpful and responding to you. I know now for next time. Good luck to you too.
In that case, I am sorry for wasting your time.
To cause annoyance was never my aim.
You're fine, and we're cool. Just next time, be clear in a WiP or a build what kind of feedback you're looking for.
Since you had your go at my build I'll do the same, so here's what I think. Keep in mind you have a solid build, I'm simply providing further insight on how I go about building, which you may find useful or not.
A Mara build certainly has a lot of potential, and I think that's mainly through the RP and characterization. I know you said you're not big on RP, but I'd encourage giving it greater consideration, as it can really make for some great gameplay. I'd second what Chapper said about certain questlines feeling unjustified, for example becoming a werewolf. I'd understand if your relationship with Mara began after these questionable choices, but doing an entire questline for one follower seems unnecessary. If you use "Nord values" to justify this, why not have her walk away when offered the beast blood? In my opinion that would make for a much more intriguing character, and you can use that as fuel to launch into another questline. My advice to you on this front, as someone who scored 9.7/10 on the Roleplay section in the last contest, is to not think of roleplay as simply acting like a normal human being, but as justification and motivation to all of your character's actions.
Your choice of Jenessa also seems purely gameplay oriented, and I know you may not see a problem with that, but we've all been playing this game for years, and sometimes demand a little more in terms of justification. For example, you mention the player should get married and adopt, "because Mara" which I found unconvincing. You could've, for example, used Erik the Slayer as a follower, then developed a relationship with him and given him much more focus, which would've complimented the follower theme that you have. That's just an idea, but an example of what can be done to connect both roleplay and gameplay together.
You were concerned with me powerplaying in my build however it seems you've done the same but taken it many steps further. Did this character even take damage from magic? Between the Alteration perks, Elemental Protection, the Atronach stone, and Nord frost resistance, you have quite a hefty magic resistance, not to mention it's coupled with a rather high armor rating and max Block perks. This can be justified through other weaknesses but you also utilize a mechanic (Vegetable Soup) to grant you unlimited shield bashes. I'm fearful that you end up creating something too powerful, and although you may not be dealing the most damage through the shield, you have a follower and pet wailing on the enemy and also tanking hits. You've taken the Avoid Death perk but I don't see how this character can fall to such low health by the time they reach the point in the game to acquire that perk. I haven't played the build so I cannot attest to it's power, but I'm just curious how this played out for you.
Also, do you pursue the College of Winterhold questline or not? It seems open-ended, which is fine, but it left me confused, along with the part you mention disenchanting the Gloves of the Pugilist. Killing an unarmed drunk and taking his only possession of his corpse seems way out of character.
Every worshipper of Mara is a pacifist so I think you should find something to justify how you actively seeking out conflict. You say she'll never raise a weapon against another but she has shield with massive spikes, and armed and armored bodyguard, and an attack dog, so I don't see how that makes much sense.
As for the Civil War questline, I'd like to see more rationale on the character's participation. Seeing as Priests of Mara obstain from war, how does this play into her faith? Sure, she's fighting for the freedom of religion, but that doesn't seem like something Mara would care about. The Goddess of Love would be more concerned with helping and healing rather than her own sphere of influence. I think you could've used the Moot quest in the main questline to play on this theme. There's nothing wrong with taking the route as a soldier, but again, I'd like to see more justification for your choices, as characterization is a large chunk of the contest.
Being your first build, there is always room for improvement, as there is for most anyone, but if you want to improve your build, I think taking what Chapper and I have said will greatly help you flesh this thing out. I don't want to come off as rude or condescending in any way, but given that you voiced your own criticisms of my build, it only felt right I return the favor, as we're all helping each other improve. I look forward to if you decide to continue building. The participation of new builders is always a welcome sight and it keeps this community rolling. Cheers.
I don't aim to terribly generalize, water down and bastardize your input, but most of your criticism (and a lot of my critique on your build, I have to admit) comes down to a difference in our approaches to character building. I see a build as an entryway to inspiring a playthrough, whilst you seem to be treating it as a story to be told. I didn't make it a secret that this build in particular (and most others I've posted in the past) sprout strictly from a gameplay mechanic and grow from there (it's right there at the top, coming even before the build proper). Now, let's go over your points.
I noted specifically that this character would view lycanthropy as a corrupted curse and therefore cure it.
Block skill is fully perked out because it is the main focus of the build as well as the main source of both offense and defense. And without additional armor rating from alteration it just wouldn't be sufficient to soak up about 85-100% of ALL damage incoming from enemies, especially on higher difficulties.
Choosing a Nord facilitates backstory roleplaying and lore featured in the build.
In between healing yourself, two followers, maintaining alteration effects, drawing aggro and tanking all the hits, micromanaging the battlefield, there is little to no time to deal serious damage yourself, especially without a weapon.
The extensive potential of defense is offset by by having scarce offensive ability.
"Every worshipper of Mara is a pacifist" - how many there are in Riften? two? three? Surely they can't be representative of every single worshipper of Mara across Tamriel. In fact, there's a priestess in Riften saying that her daughter joined the Civil War as a healer. And Erandur does fight in "Waking Nightmare" quest. Besides, I'd have to skip almost all content Skyrim offers if I were to avoid any and all hostile encounters. What good is a build you can't even play?
When it comes to Gloves of the Pugilist, Main Quest shoves Ratway down your throat and there's no way around it. Why not equip a useful item when you are forced to stumble upon it anyway?
And I wouldn't call it actively seeking out conflict, it's self defense. Dog and bodyguard are there for exactly that, so that the Shieldmaiden doesn't have to do killing herself. Not to mention loyalty and protecting those one cares about are Mara's spheres of influence.
Thank you for time and input.
I see this going nowhere so I will leave you with this.
Constructive criticism is not a thing of "difference in approach". Gameplay was 50%+ of my build in terms of content, so my builds aren't just about telling a "story". A lot of what I brought up, as well as Chapper, will be considered by the judges. We're simply providing thoughts on how you can go about improving your score with them, since they'll likely share a lot of our opinions. If you see your build as perfect and complete, you may as well say so, and we won't give our two cents. I don't expect you to give me all of the time of day, but at least some consideration. But your refusal to take what any of Chapper said in consideration, may come around to bite you in the butt, seeing as she's a former contest winner. Perhaps I'm a little salty, which I'm not afraid to admit, after you blatantly voiced distaste for a build you did not read, then rejected every piece of contstructive criticism you recieved on your own build, it simply doesn't look good.
If you're happy with your build I understand, and you would've never recieved this sort of constructive criticism if it weren't a contest, and even less if you weren't avid on voicing your own critiques. If you dish it you gotta take it. Anyways, I wish you luck going forward with the contest.
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