Foreword: As you may have guessed already by the name, this build is heavily inspired by the Reaver specialization from the Dragon Age Series and seeks to replicate that playstyle as faithfully as possible in the world of the Elder Scrolls.
Reavers are warriors who have unlocked a new level of control over their bodies. They command this untapped energy from deep within blood and bone. The Reaver path however is a double edge sword. The Reaver specialization trades pain for strength, by channeling their own life force into raw power and stealing the life from their foes. Reavers terrorize their enemies, feast upon the souls of their opponents and become more powerful as they begin to die. It is not so easy, however, to learn this gift, as it comes from the ritually prepared blood of a dragon. - Dragon Age Reaver Specialization
(Unknown Year: The Crypt)
Darkness.
She always woke to darkness, and even as she stirred, her fingers twitching at her sides, she wondered - was she even awake? How long had she slept? Was it light out, or dark?
It was no use – Svarah’d lost all concept of time years ago. Decades? Centuries?
Longer?
Even her memories were fading away, and it grew ever harder to remember anything before the darkness. Before she was entombed in this sarcophagus, this…prison.
Now and then, she sensed the faintest hint of power, of blood, of…life, but it always faded as quickly as it had come. Devoted guards sacrificed a little of their life essence every day, but that didn’t compare to times when some foolish adventurer stumbled into her tomb seeking treasure. After quickly dispatching the unwitting intruder, her guards would drain his blood and let it slowly drip into the mouth of her sarcophagus.
But some time ago it had changed, the blood. Its taste was unlike that of men or mer or even dov. And it coursed through her veins with a seductive power that left her wanting more.
Her guards’ life essence could no longer sustain her as it once had – her body cried only for blood. Subtly at first, it called to her, but soon the bloodlust grew insatiable, irresistible.
Unbearable.
She burned within her crypt. Rarely, she was able to focus her mind, cast it back to before – before she was entombed. When she’d walked free under open skies. It became her solace, then, those hazy memories of a time when she’d had enough power to break out of her prison and crush those who had trapped her here.
(Late Merethic Era: Before the Dragon War)
The ground was slick with blood, the blood of the Snow Elves. Svarah’s warband had routed and slaughtered yet another pocket of the treacherous mer, once again earning her honor-name: Blood-Blade.
Svarah’s combat prowess was unmatched, and her mastery of the Arcane differed from that of other Clever Men. Her magick coursed within her armor, enhancing it, making it stronger. Bound magick coursed along the blade of her sword, releasing in waves of powerful blasts with each swing.
No one on the battlefield expected magick from a woman like Svarah – clad in heavy armor and wielding a great blade in both her hands. And Svarah used this eccentricity to her advantage, rarely failing to take her enemies by surprise.
Her efforts against the Elves had even gained the recognition of the Dragon Priesthood, who sought to test her abilities. Her trials were many, but after years fraught with hardship and war, the Dragon Priests called her to Bromjunaar.
“There is power in Blood, but the greatest power comes from the blood of the dragon. Taking that blood into yourself unlocks your true potential as a Dragon Priest. How it manifests,” Nahkriin said, handing the Chalice to Svarah, “is up to you. Drinking of the Blood binds your destiny to the Dovah and will awaken the dragon inside you. You will serve the Dov and preside over the lands of man to ensure the small folk stay loyal. Do you accept this gift we offer you?”
“Yes,” Svarah replied, and drank deep of the chalice.
“I now name you Konahrik, for your tireless campaigns in freeing the land of the Elven scum.”
Svarah felt the power awaken within her body - a primal power. And with it, boundless knowledge of the Thu’um.
“Here,” Rhagot said, handing her an intricately carved mask, “the mask of a Dragon Priest, forged by the dovah themselves. Wear it with pride.”
And Svarah did. In Atmora, the Dragon Priests had been lauded by the people for being fair and just rulers. They’d mete out just punishment to those who deserved it, but on the whole, they’d provided well for their subjects.
But here, in their new homeland, cruelty and fanaticism began to take hold. Svarah slowly began to see a different picture unfold, and over time she became disillusioned with the with Dragon Priesthood.
(Late Merethic Era: The Early Dragon War)
Rebellion had begun. Years of mistreatment and enslavement under Alduin’s Dragon Cult had broken man. They rebelled against their Dragon Masters, and the lands bled for it.
When the Dragon Priests convened a Summit to decide how to deal with the rebellion, Svarah rose, her hands trembling slightly at her sides.
“What has befallen you, this rebellion,” Svarah said, in a strong and steady voice, “is on your heads. Your tyranny has led men to call for your blood. Just as you have made them bleed for too many years.”
The priests turned on her swiftly, capturing her and stripping her of her power and belongings, scattering them to different corners of the land. They entombed her in a crypt to await the judgement of Alduin.
But judgement never came…
(Present Day: The Crypt)
The blood stirred. Not her hunger, but something ancient. Something Svarah had not felt for eons. The dragon blood – the power of the dovah – coursed through her body once more. She was awake.
Whatever magick held the sarcophagus shut had weakened enough for her to break through the seal, and with an ear-splitting crack, the lid broke open and crashed to the floor.
Svarah crumpled to the ground in agony, her muscles stiff and weak. Light shone through a crack in the ceiling and burned her eyes. Svarah curved a hand over her brow and looked around.
Shrivelled and desiccated bodies of her guards lay still on the crypt’s floor, and Svarah panicked, pulling her hands in front of her face and ignoring the painful sunlight’s glare. She’d feared the worst, but her body was…whole. Deathly pale and weak, but whole.
More than alive, she thought, feeling the dragon blood surge through her veins. But did this mean…
Yes, Alduin had finally come. Judgement had arrived. After an eternity of quiet, the World Eater had returned, but Svarah vowed then and there - she was not going to be taken without a fight…. All of these mods are playable on Xbox One
Essential Mods:
Sacrosanct - Sacrosanct completely overhauls vampirism in Skyrim, adding in many different passive and active abilities as well as a few race specific traits and even a couple of small quests.
Ordinator - This mod does a total revamp of the Perk tree adding dozens of new skills to learn.
20 Percent More Perk Points - A well-balanced option in my opinion when used with Ordinator installed. There are many new perks to choose, and having an extra skill point to spend every five levels helps to get those perks that would otherwise take a few more level ups to get.
Summermyst - Fixes some vanilla enchantments but also adds in a plethora of new and interesting enchantments to learn.
Andromeda Standing Stones - Overhauls vanilla Standing Stones allowing for all-new roleplaying options. Each stone feels truly unique and can't be replicated like the most vanilla stones could.
Imperious Races - Breathes new life into the racial system, including new racial attributes, passives and unlockable abilities via a race specific quest.
Thunderchild - Adds in 30 new shouts and several mini quests that can unlock additional shout-related powers.
Volkihar Knight Armor - Add three new vampire themed heavy armor sets, that each have a unique effect. We will be using the Royal Guard variant.
Recommended Mods:
Wildcat/Smilodon - Overhauls damage and many combat features and allows you to customize your combat experience.
Mortal Enemies - Tweaks enemy AI and hitboxes creating more fluent combat.
Rebalanced Encounter Zones - Essentially this randomizes enemy leveling, generally making most encounters much tougher.
Rotmulaag - Adds every vanilla shout as a meditateable word of power with Parthunaax. Fully voice acted and expertly crafted it fits seemlessly into the vanilla game.
Enchantments unleashed - Essentially takes item restriction off all vanilla armor enchantments so you can place it where you want.
Better Bloodskal Blade - Slightly tweaks The Bloodskal Blade's stats making it equivalent to ebony tier. The blast now does 70 points of damage. If you have all of the combat mods above installed you should find it is well balanced. If not wait until mid game before picking it up.
Alternate Start - With this installed you can pick one of several scenarios on how to start your character's story off in Skyrim. For Svarah I had her start off as a vampire in a secluded lair. (Moldering Ruins above Rorikstead for me. But it just drops you off at a random vamp lair, so you may start elsewhere).Nord Vampire: With Imperious races installed Svarah will start out with a 25% resistance to frost. A passive effect known as the "Purge" which will allow Svarah to choose up to three races to do bonus damage to at levels 10, 20 and 30 (Altmer, Bosmer and Dunmer) and an innate ability to do more damage the lower her health gets. She also gets an unlockable power called "Avatar" which she can use to regenenrate stamina and magicka once a day.
With Sacrosanct installed being a vampire will allow Svarah to reanimate one slain enemy per battle for free. The power is called "From Ancient Soil".
Name: Svarah Blood-Blade
Gender: Female
Age: 4000 Years + (Magickally entombed from the early events of The Dragon war until 4th Era Skyrim)
Standing Stone: Atronach - With the Atronach Stone Svarah can "Link" her Blood Magick to her blade with Spellscribe, because of the spell cost reduction. The unlockable ability "Devour From Within" is a very potent health absorbing ability that will paralyze a living target absorbing 50 magicka per second for 10 seconds, but will absorb health once the targets magicka depletes. This is important to note. For Svarah health absorption is key, so this will instantly be far more effective against non spell casting enemies i.e. warriors, archers and wild animals. Not to say it's ineffectual against mages, it can still be extremely useful at locking them down and helping Svarah finish them quickly. (You must find all standing stones to unlock Devour from Within).
Morality/Personality: Lawful Neutral. Svarah has a strong sense of honor for the better or for the worse. She will stand for what's right and tries more often than not to choose the decision that would bring about the most good, at the same time she feels a deep disconnect from the world she has awoken to and doesn't feel at all familiar with the peoples or their beliefs. Which at times can make her seem callous or careless to those around her. She respects her adversaries and would never cut down an enemy who is without means of defence or is too lame to fight back. She tries to help those in need where possible but only if they are unable to help themselves. She has extreme disdain for elves but can keep her rage in check due to her strong sense of self.
Chaotic Evil. As your journey with Svarah progresses, and she develops a taste for blood her honorable personality will begin to dissolve. Slowly at first but the more the urge to feed calls and the more she taps into the dark power of vampirism the faster she will become corrupted by the power at her finger tips. Always at odds with herself, fighting the primal urge of growing bloodlust it becomes even harder to resist the urge of being consumed by pure rage when in the presence of mer folk which she abhors with an almost religious fervor. It's like the darkness is always pulling at her trying to consume her leaving her teetering at the edge of a void there is no turning back from.
You ultimately choose whether she is fully corrupted by vampirism like the priests she hunts were corrupted by power. Or if she is able to cling to a lingering sense of humanity...
Find All Standing Stones - An untracked quest, but an integral ability to unlock. Svarah seeks the knowledge from the ancient stones of Skyrim to further enhance her powers.
The Final Descent - The final resting place of the Bloodskal Blade is in Bloodskal Barrow. Svarah can sense the ancient blade's magickal properties and seeks to reunite with it once more.
Blue Blood - There is power in blood, and there is even more power in the blood of those who have achieved greatness. Drink of the blood of mortal leaders and unlock the power hidden within the essence of Svarah's immortal vampire blood.
Dragon Priest Quests - A personal quest of vengence and retribution. Svarah seeks to destroy the priests who betrayed and entombed her to regain that which was taken from her.
College of Winterhold - Now Svarah is no mage though she does know some magical applications, her power lies in binding magical energy into her blade and armor. Through her search for the Dragon Priests she has discovered that Morokei lies within Labrynthian and the mages have the key. They agree to allow her entry after she displays the power of her Thu'um. (You can gain entry this way when Parthunaax tells you that you need to find the elder scroll).
Main Quest - Alduin has risen again and with him his priests and their servants. Svarah means to strike the first blow this time. Seek to end Alduin and exact revenge as soon as possible.
Dragon Born - Mirrak an Ancient Priest who also defied the Dragon Cult is rumored to have returned as well but has been corrupted by Daedric Prince Hermaeus Mora. He seeks to enslave the island of Solstheim, Svarah cannot stand for the enslavemnt of the innocent and seeks to end his malice. (Or if Chaotic Evil she seeks to usurp his power).
Dawnguard - Upon meeting Serana, Svarah is intrigued to learn more about secrets of the vampire and if the power within can aid her in her quest to destroy Alduin and his Priests.
Early Game Gear:
Ancient Nord Armor Set: This is the armor Svarah is the most familiar with as it is a product of her time. It can be acquired relatively early in Forelhost during the Siege on the Dragon Cult quest. Just be prepared for a tough fight as this is one of the hardest dungeons in the game in my opinion.
Ancient Nord Great Sword: Found in most ancient nord tombs
Mid Game Gear:
Bloodskal Blade - The Blade can be found in Bloodskal Barrow underneath Raven Rock. Svarah seeks to reunite herself with her ancient blade once more. (Funnily enough the Dragon Priest whom resides in the barrow is called Zahkriisos, which when translated from Dovahzul loosely means Bloody Sword. The blade will also do extra damage to this one Priest as well).
Volkihar Knight Set (Royal Gaurd Variant) - The Royal Guard variant of this armor is perfect for the Reaver archetype as it has an innate ability to absorb 20 points of health every second for 4 seconds, and also knocks the target down. (This is a 15 percent chance on being struck).
End Game Gear
Reaver's Totem (Enchanted) - The jarl of Falkreath hold is in posession of an Ancient Nordic amulet. Svarah "acquires" the amulet and enchants it with Influence: Fear (Summermyst - creatures and people flee from wearer within x radius depending on level) and Fire Resistance.
Blood Ring (Enchanted) - Plain gold ring (Silver hurts vampires) enchanted with Imminent Victory (Summeryst - take up to x% less damage from enemy attacks the further their health drops below 50%) and Regen Health.
Enchanted Volkihar Knight Set (Royal Gaurd Variant) Hood - Fortify Health and Stamina. Gauntlets - Fortify Stamina Regen and Resist Magic. Boots - Fortify Destruction and Fortify Stamina Regen. Cuirass - Cheat Death (Summermyst - Take x% less damage when health falls below 25%) and Regen Health.
Konhariik - Svarah's mask of power, her "Reward" for slaying all the Dragonpriests in mainland Skyrim. With all the masks in hand go to labyrinthian and equip the wooden mask to acquire Konhariik.
There are a few shouts that are particularly useful for this build. But to really appreciate how awesome it can be I would highly recommend using Thunderchild and Rotmulaag. Thunderchild unlocks many new shouts some of which go so well with the build it'd be hard to pass up. One example would be the "Kingsbane" Shout, which when used in the right scenario can completely turn the tide of a battle. And an ability to refresh active shout cooldown once a day. Thunder Child accompanied with Ordinator and Rotmulaag truly makes you feel like a dragonborn, you can win entire fights with just your Th'um.
Rotmulaag on the other hand does not add in any new shouts. It instead adds new words to meditate on with Parthunaax, in a fully voice acted experience. You can swap out the meditation at any time via a journal your character keeps, which means you don't have to visit Parthunaax every time you want somthing new. The word I chose was Gaan (Drain Vitality) which gives you a passive called Til the Last Drop, which makes all absorption effects 25% more effective.
- Dismay - Svarah's voice is so powerful that none but the most mighty will stand and face her. (Fear Effect)
- Dragon Aspect - The dragonblood runs hot within Svarah's veins and in times of need she can take on the very nature of a dovah, becoming terrifyingly powerful
- Kingsbane - The voice brings all would be assailants to thier knees. (Knocks foes back or down in a radius around Svarah. At full power you can even "crush" launched enemies in a timed scenario).
- War Cry - When battle fatigued or heavily wounded and out of options Svarah can use the voice to regain mortal energies.
- Disarm - Svarah's voice rends the weapons from her foes grasp.
- Curse - You reflect damage up to 7 times back at the attacker (still take normal damage).
- Become Ethereal - The voice protects Svarah from harm. This shout is very useful when facing mages and dragons. You can also get a free power attack and the Reaving Slash ability does not cancel the shout.
Attributes: 1:2:0
Major:
Two Handed - Svarah's main source damage she is a true force to be reckoned with when she has a great blade in her hands.
Perks of note:
- Death or glory - Two handed power attacks deal up to 100% more damage below half health. Damage bonus increases as health decreases.
- Massacre - In combat, Swinging a two handed weapon has 10% chance to increase attack speed by 175% for 3 seconds.
- Slayer of a Thousand Sons - In combat two handed weapons deal 5% more damage for each enemy you have slain in the previous battle up to 40%.
Heavy Armor - The sight of Svarah clad in heavy armor is enough to break some enemies and send them fleeing from their ranks.
Perks of note:
- Rise Above - If wearing all heavy armor, you intmidate enemies within 15 feet, They lose 5%attack damage and you gain 5% attack damage for each enemy affected.
- Primal Fear - If wearing all heavy armor, walking (but not running) towards enemies within 30 feet in front of you may break their confidence, causing them to flee for 8 seconds.
- Revel in Battle - Whenever struck by an enemy your melee weapon damage increases by 3% for 10 seconds. This effect stacks.
Speech - Svarah has learned to channel the Dragonblood within her to great effect. Her Th'um is so strong that not even a Dovah could match it for raw power.
Perks of note:
- Windborne - Shouting summons up a divine wind, granting 30% extra attack damage and 15% increased movement speed for 15 seconds. This effect stacks.
- Hurricane Force - Shouts that affect others are 1% more powerful per level of speech.
- Thu'um of War - Your Shouts stagger nearby enemies within 25 feet, reducing armor rating by 300 points for 10 seconds. Enemies below 25% health are knocked down.
Enchanting - Svarah has learned to weave her magick into her gear and create a bond between spell and blade.
Perks of note:
- Thunder Struck - Weapon enchantments are 25% more effective when delivered by a power attack (or 50% for a two handed power attack). This effects Bloodskal Blade.
- Spellscribe - Grants the 'Spellscribe" power: use it to store the spell you are dual casting. Your power attacks and power bashes unleash the stored spell for free, with a cooldown based on Enchanting skill. Use a hemomancy spell, it is also worth noting that this effects power attacks in Vampire Lord form.
- Twin Enchantment - Can place two enchantments on the same item.
Minor:
Smithing - Spending much time on the battle field Svarah has great knowledge in the upkeep and maintance of her armor.
Perks of note:
- Arcane Blacksmith - You can improve enchanted weapons and armor.
- Exotic Smithing (Crystaline) - You can craft ebony tier gear and improve them twice as much. Volkihar Knight armor requires this perk.
Block - Svarah is very much an offence is the best type of defence kind of person, but knows that there are certain times when one must parry an attack.
Perks of note:
- Block Mastery 2/2 - Block up to 20% more damage
- Power Bash - Holding down bash will unleash a power bash that will do extra stagger to enemies. It will also activate Spellscribe.
Destruction - Svarah uses her knowledge of Blood Magick to link it to her blade.
Perks of note:
- Destruction Mastery 2/2 - Destruction spells cost 50% less Magicka and are 0.5% more powerful per level of Destruction.
Destruction Dual Casting - Dual Casting a Destruction spell empowers it, increasing effectiveness and cost. Needed to activate Spellscribe. Spellscribe also levels Destruction which will make Hemomancy Spalls more powerful. The path of The Reaver is as much a quest in it self as any other. There is much power in the blood to be unlocked, but as always, power is not freely given; it must be earned. Are you worthy to take on the mantle of The Reaver or will the power corrupt you?
Vampire:
Wassail - Lose humanity below 25% Health in combat, draining Health, Magicka and Stamina until combat ends. Also reduces them by 10 points until you feed.
Blood Revel - (Power) In combat, gain 25% bonus attack damage and spell effectiveness for 120 seconds or until combat ends, but activate Wassail. (Only when not sated, unless you have King among Kine).
Blood Cauldron - (Power) Expend some of your Vampiric blood to replenish Health, Magicka and Stamina, becoming thirstier. (Only when sated).
Flaywind - (Greater Power) Target person within 10 feet flees while vampire bats absorb 25 Health per second for 30 seconds. If the target dies, counts as feeding. (Only while blood starved, unless you have King among Kine).
Vampires Seduction - (Greater Power) Silently bewitches a person up to level 10 for 30 seconds, calming them and allowing you to feed. (Can be used in combat).
Vampiric Age:
King Among Kine - You no longer lose any powers when feeding.
Dance with the Beast - Attack damage dealt doubled and attack damage taken halved while affected by Wassail, until combat ends.
Blood Knight - Able to feed on staggered enemies in combat for 50 points of Stamina.
Blue Blood Quest:
Potence - Vampiric strength grants 15% more attack damage, increased to 30% when Sated.
Vampire Lord Form:
Starving Artist - In mortal form, Hemomancy spells used against people absorb Health equal to 25% of their base damage (dealing that much extra damage and healing the caster for the same amount). Killing people with Hemomancy spells advances your Vampire Lord perks.
Make Them Beautiful - In mortal form, Hemomancy spells used against people have 25% chance to tear apart victims below 25% Health, instantly killing them.
White Wolf - Your Vampire's Seduction power now works on targets 15 levels higher and you may Drain people under its effect regardless of how thirsty you are. Additionally, Draining a sleeping or seduced victim advances Vampire Lord perks.
Dragon at midnight - You gain 4 perk points to spend in your other perk trees. However, when you are Blood Starved, contact with Sunlight will instantly destroy you!
Hemomancy Spells:
Blood Seed: (Apprentice) Jagged bone shards grow in a living or undead target, dealing 6 magic damage for 10 seconds. (1 draining)
Blood Brand: (Adept) Living or undead target takes 5 magic damage per second. After 10 seconds, detonates for 100 damage. (3 drainings)
The Reaver: A true Reaver has tasted the ritually-prepared blood of a dragon. It is more than a state of mind. These fearsome warriors revel in death, regaining energy from the suffering of their foes. (Dragon Age 2 Reaver Specialization)
Reaving Slash - Bloodskal Blade + Spellscribe (Hemomancy Spell) + Starving Artist + Make Them Beautiful
When Svarah power attacks with her sword she sends forth a wave of Blood Magick and psychic energy, rending into the flesh of her foes and replenishing her vitality. Weakened foes may even be torn to shreds by her power.
Blood Frenzy - Warriors Heart + Death or Glory
The more hits Svarah takes the deadlier she becomes.
Unleash the Beast - Blood Frenzy + Blood Revel + Dance with the Beast + Wassail
When pressed Svarah taps into her own life force to enhance Blood Frenzy, cleaving a bloody swath through her foes, in an intense bloodlust.
Dovah Rage - Unleash the Beast + Dragon Aspect + Windborne + Thu'um of War
When surrounded by many powerful foes, Svarah calls upon the Dragon Blood to lay waste to those around her, staggering them and weakening their spirits, while simultaneously gaining a spur of immense power. This is the most powerful ability in her arsenal, calling on the strengths of several lesser abilities all at once.
Consume - Blood Knight or Flaywind or Vampires Seduction (Buffed with White Wolf)
Embracing the beast can be taxing but the drawbacks need not be permanant. Svarah can draw power from the blood of her enemies to heal the effects of wassail.
Blood Tide - Blood Cauldron or Devour from Within
When Svarah teeters too close to the edge of her life force she can call on the blood of past feeding to replenish her health, or single out a target paralyzing it in fear and drawing in it's life force to heal herself. (Devour from Within works best on non mage classes).
Terrifying Presence (Passive Effect) - Rise Above + Influence: Fear Enchantment (Reavers Totem)
Svarah is fueled by the cowardice of her enemies, the more they fear her the stronger she becomes. Some will even flee the field at the very sight of her.
Gameplay
This build involves very aggressive gameplay. Offense is Svarah's best defence. Don't be afraid to let your health drop a bit. Your enemies will find that the more they hurt you the more fearsome you become much to thier dismay. Make the most out of the abilities above. They all help to optimise a playstyle that is focused around damage output and health management.
Combat
Melee enemies - Use heavy hitting power attacks to decimate groups of melee opponents and also to unleash the reaving slash ability on more distant targets. If faced with a particuarly large group use Dismay to rout the weaker enemies giving you time to focus on a single target.
Magic Users and Dragons - When facing mages and dragons Become Ethereal is your go to shout. Reading a dragons body language and carefully listening for when it's about to use it's Thu'um, you can easily make the most out of this shout. when faced with mages you can use this shout to close the distance with them particularly flame wielding adversaries. Once Dragonrend is unlocked dragons become much easier to deal with.
Archers - With a high armor rating archers are not as much of an issue but a high level archer can still be quite damaging so Become Ethereal can be helpful with them as well. Or just the good ol' Fus Ro Dah tactic.
Difficulty
I slowly ramped up the difficulty as I leveled to keep the gameplay balanced. One reason I did not use any enchantments or potions that buffed Two Handed damage was because Svarah is already insanely powerful. With an epic smithed Bloodskal Blade by end game I was doing 110 to 145 damage per swing depending on vampiric thirst. And thats before using abilties like Unleash the Beast.
This is how I used the difficulty. Levels 1 - 25 on Adept, levels 25 - 40 on Expert and level 40 - 50 on Master.
Don't be afraid to cut loose with this character and overall just enjoy yourself. It's not everyday you get to be an all powerful Ancient Vampiric Dragon Priestess!
Stay Hydrated – This one is rather more important than you may first think. Especially when you consider effects like Potence, Blood Cauldron and Fortitude. Potence will give you a 30% damage boost while you are fully fed, that’s an insane boost and should be enough reason for you to want maintain satiation. But if it’s not; the Fortitude passive is only available while you are fully sated and will instantly heal your attributes should you take fatal damage lowering your thirst instead (Note this will briefly stop combat and put you in the recovery animation). If you’d rather keep the battle tempo raging, Blood Cauldron (also only available when fully sated) is an activatable power that can be used to heal all attributes when at low health but will cost one level of thirst.
A Note on Unleash the Beast – Though this is an alluringly powerful ability, it must be used tactically and wisely. If you charge into a battle that looks to be lengthy and activate it straight off the gun in most instances you will kill yourself. Wassail is unforgiving. This is why under enchantments I have made Health, Stamina and their regeneration counterparts a priority on the gear set. Be aware of enemy positions and numbers as well as their health and your own. And take heed if you use this ability too much without feeding, you will weaken yourself. Wassail takes 10 points of each attribute with each use until you feed again. It will be especially crippling at lower levels there was a point where I was running around with 60 points of each attribute. This can be offset by the health and stamina enchantments previously mentioned and “Blood Healing” via The Consume ability.
Shout! – Seriously I can’t emphasize this more, you can shout your heart out with this build thanks to Ordinator and Thunderchild. Perks like Force Redoubled (50% chance to not activate a cooldown on your shouts), Merciless Storm (instantly reset, shout cooldown once a day) and passives from Thunderchild such as Storm Crown (cancel active shout cooldown when entering combat) and Thundering Echoes (First shout in combat is free) all combine to make one hell of Thu’um show case. Putting that together with perks such as Th’um of War and Windborne, you can keep the pain train rolling indefinitely.
To Easy? Try only Using “Blood Healing” – So you can play on Master, or Legendary even and are finding it a cakewalk? Tweak the settings on Wild Cat. Turn on injuries make Stamina cost more per swing and use no healing potions. Yup you heard me use no healing potions. This will force you rely on the Blood Healing techniques in the talents section (Consume and Blood Tide). If you can come out of this unscathed you can call yourself a true Reaver. Father Kolgrim would be proud to count you among his disciples.
Well shit what can I say this one took a while. What you see here is the end product of one hell of a drawn out process. I had a lot of fun creating the backstory to this character and then seeing how to fit it in with a Dragon Age specialization. And am really pleased with how it turned out. I am glad to be able to share this one with you all and hope you get as much fun out of playing Svarah as I did.
Lastly I'd like to put forth a little disclaimer. All the art (Not Screenshots or Banners) was done by other authors, and I do not take credit for their work. So a shout out to them for creating some awesome pictures.
So thanks for reading and hope have a blast playing The Reaver.
If you liked what you saw I have more builds. Just follow the link below.
Replies
Just got to fix the pictures they did not load when I hit post.
Hey not bad. I’m definitely going to give this one a close read and get back to you with my thoughts. A few of the pictures aren’t showing but I think that’s got more to do on my end than yours.
Cheers Curse, it's been awhile since I've been on the building scene. This one will be looking good in an hour or so the pictures didn't seem to load properly for some reason, so just fixing all that up now.
It’s good to have you back. I see you’ve picked up some mods along the way. Nice.
Thank you. Pictures should be mostly all ok now. I noticed some white backgrounds on some of the text any way to fix that in the editor? I couldn't see a colour fill option.
The mods definantly helped with making the build capture the theme of a Reaver I think. Was a hell of a lot of fun to play and since there seems to be a lot of guys from the other site here too I thought I'd jump in and share a couple of my builds with you all :)
The Reaver archetype has always been one of my favorites. Cool build, great job thematically!
Thanks man glad you like it! Reaver was always my favorite specialization in the dragon age games, so it was really fun recreating it for TES.
Man, this is really impressive. This makes me want to play a vampire warrior right now XD Awesome job.
Also, good to see some other modded builds coming out. I use a lot of the same mods you used here with my builds. Perhaps we can collab somtime.
Anyway one final thing I wanted to mention was how unique and cool the backstory was here. Not just the storyline itself, but also the way you went back and forth between eras. The intro had me hooked. Again, amazing job. Hope to see more from you in the future.
Hey awesome to hear you like it dude! I really like writting complex Backstories for my characters so it's great to get some feedback on that.
I just got into modding last year. It's breathed new life into the game for me, after playing vanilla for so many years things were starting to get a bit stale ya know? Anyway it seems a lot of people use Enaisaion's mods (Probably cause they are of such high quality), so I thought I'd do Ordinator themed builds. And sure I'd be happy to do a collab with you at some point. Rather busy at the momment but when the next holiday pops up at uni I should have some more free time.
I've got two more builds I've done that I will post here when I get some more free time, maybe the coming weekend I'll post one of them. One is a Nightblade/Crusader themed vampire hunter. The other is a Lightning wielding Spell Shield who dables in Necromancy and is a vampire (actually an overhaul of my first build I did for vanilla a few years back, that none other than Curse helped me with a lot of pointers on). The Reaver build is actually the most recent one I have done.
Running a couple of characters at the moment and haven't really decided what I'll be doing next. I don't have as much free time as I would like atm, but you can definantly expect to see more from me in the future :)
Very well done overall Furrion. Perhaps the builds best quality are your choice of images. They do a great job of giving the reader a good visual of what the build is all about.
Detail is good and there is certainly no shortage of that in this build, but too much information may overwhelm the reader. I feel like your explanation of what various perks spells and abilities etc is thorough, which is good, but without explaining early on the synergy within this build you risk losing your audience before they can fully appreciate what you’ve cooked up here.
You’ll want to lay out as early as possible how a reaver in skyrim fights. Every piece explained afterward should inform the reader how it fits within the builds battle rhythm. It was easy for me to figure out what this build does only because I’ve played Inquisition extensively. But for those who haven’t it pays clue them in as early as possible.
The backstory was quite good but also quite lengthy. This is more of a personal opinion of mine, but I’ve always felt a build backstory should be kept short and sweet. Have you considered creating a roleplay profile of this character using that backstory?
Overall I quite like this build and as someone who plays Reavers almost exclusively I say you did a great job translating this awesome class into skyrim.
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