Greetings and salutations everypony, and welcome to my first non-collab build for Crossworlds 2019! Welcome to an assassin of assassins, a heavily armored, yet still stealthy, juggernaut. Welcome to…
When the Bell tolls, it tolls for thee....
Asāsīyūn, the Yokudan word that would become the origin for the term “assassin”. This ancient order of warrior-monks, dedicated to slaying those deemed evil in the eyes of the Yokudan pantheon, fear none, save for the gods, and their founder.
Very little is known of their founder, save that he was a very pious man, and was said to receive visions from Tu’whacca, the God of Souls, and of the Far Shores, the Yokudan afterlife. However, what is quite interesting is the beliefs the cenobites have about their founder, who they say, on the hour of his death, was instead made a psychopomp by Tu’whacca, tasked with bringing swift, merciless judgement on the damned, those who stray from the righteous path. Thus was he bestowed the moniker Seraph of the End, the dark angel who brings instant death. Invisible to the naked eye unless he wishes, all the warning his targets have of his coming is a chill racing through them….
and the temple bells ringing their death knell….
BUILD OVERVIEW
Race: Redguard Vampire Lord. Not only does it fit the lore, but the Redguards Adrenaline Rush racial power is quite helpful in combat. Vampire Lord is meant to represent the undeath of the character. Plus, Redguards gain bonuses to Block and Destruction, and Vampires gain bonuses to Illusion effectiveness.
Stat Spread: 3/2/3 in Magicka, Health, and Stamina. Stop perking Health at 250.
Standing Stone: The Warrior or The Mage to start with for leveling, then swap that out for The Lord, for a bit more resistance to magical and physical attacks.
Primary Skills: Two-Handed, Illusion, Block
Secondary Skills: Enchanting, Destruction, Lockpicking
PERKS
*I power leveled Speech and Smithing via Eorlund, and using any Gold/Silver Ingots and precious jewels to get Dragon Smithing, then respeced the skill
Two-Handed-The primary damage dealing skill of the Seraph, the long reach of Greatswords, coupled with the ability to perform criticals, helps out, especially with Sweep.
Illusion-Combining Muffle, Fear (for thine enemies), and Invisibility, to help with your assassinations.
Enchanting-Helping boost your weapons and armor (especially useful in the early game), plus, what’s more awesome than using the souls of the damned to fuel your weapons and armor?
Blocking-Being that we don’t perk any armor, and our health caps out at 250, you’ll need to time your blocking.
Destruction-Cloaking thyself in a cloak of flame helps when surrounded by enemies, and until you get Dragonrend, the ability to deal with dragons from ranged.
Lockpicking-Both an Assassin in life, and a wraith of divine judgement in unlife, locked barriers prove no obstacle to the Seraph.
EQUIPMENT
*If you are unable to acquire the Muffle enchant, replace it with Fortify Stamina Regen
GAMEPLAY
While I personally believe entering Helgen Keep with Hadvar is generally better in terms of overall loot and free respawning smithing components to start, you’ll wanna run into Helgen Keep with old Ralof, alongside this, grab the Novice Robes and Hood for disenchanting, and any two-hander from the two Stormcloaks. Grab anything else you want, and head out.
After that, as soon as you can, you’ll want to do two things. 1. Kill Grelod in Riften’s Honorhall Orphanage and tell Aventus that you killed her, and 2. Head to Gallow’s Rock (or any place where the Silver Fang congregates, and kill one wielding such, and take his or her Silver Greatsword.
Combat as the Seraph of the End is broken down into two phases, silent assassin, and dreadnaught.
Prior to any open combat, and if no one has detected you, simply cast Muffle (If you haven’t yet found the Enchantment), and Invisibility. With the Muffle Effect from the Ebony Mail, your Muffle Spell, possible boot enchantments, and Invisibility, you will basically be undetectable, and now you’ll basically have the Suit of Chameleon Mk.2. With that done with, you won’t even have to sneak. Simply let your Shroud of Boethiah poison cloak effect deal with the riff raff, and use either Marked for Death or Slow Time on the more problematic enemies, like say, Bandit Marauders or (mini)boss, and start hitting them.
Basically put, you can be a tall, full heavily armored
Once you’re detected, or your Invisibility wears off, then we move onto dreadnaught. First off, to give yourself some breathing room, toss any fear spells at any lower level foes. Like say, you’re in a room with three base bitch Bandits and one Marauder, use fear spells to yeet the bandits out of the room, then whip out Azrael for the Marauder.
Simply put, you’ll want to time your blocks well, especially as, with only a greatsword, you’ll only be able to rely on your armor’s base AR of 320, Quick Reflexes/Slow Time, and your Health to keep you alive. As you are a vampire, be especially careful of fire based attacks.
Focus on ranged enemies, especially those with fire arrows (if you have the Arcane Archery Creation), and mages. Use a mixture of Whirlwind Sprint and your built up Resist Magic to close the gap. Aside from Mage Armor, mages rarely wear armor (if they’re Bandits, its mostly fur or similar low level armors), the only one I can recall is that one Orc battlemage who wears the Ancient Nord body piece and random enchanted pieces of other gear. Introduce them to your friendly Greatsword.
Now, you may wonder, Chris, you got Dragonbone Boots and Gauntlets, why not a greatsword? Well, two reasons. One, fuck no was I not gonna carry the bones and everything else around with me. And Two, I like the look of the Silver Greatsword more. That, and not only does it weigh less, but it also deals extra damage to undead, AND it also has faster swing speed than most of its brethren, aside from perhaps the Ebony Blade.
Now, to replicate the instant death ability recounted in lore, unless you have a mod like EzEs -Artifact Disenchanting- to accquire the Mehrune’s Razor 1% instant kill chance, then you’ll either wanna use Soul Tear, or Banish (For Daedra.). Now, in keeping with the roleplay, to determine if the bell tolls for thine foes, flip a coin. If it lands heads twice, then its off with their’s. If not, then don’t use either of these two things.
Now, let’s wrap up gameplay with one last tidbit. Even though the Seraph is an Assassin, he is still a pious man, and Azrael is a holy blade, so try not to smear it with poison if you can avoid that. Also, try and get the decapitation based killmoves whenever possible, savor the beauty of cleaving an opponent’s head from their neck (I am not a psychopath, and please, do not replicate this in real life).
Enjoy your last meal, dogs of Ulfric….
The Evening Bell Tolls….
Now, onto a small list of targets for whom the bell has rung its knell and, well, as the Queen of Hearts said, “Off with their heads!”
Ulfric Stormcloak-Kingslayer, oathbreaker, rebel jarl. Grant me thine head! (Civil War-Imperials)
Madanach-Butcher, worshipper of the unclean gods, rebel, and corrupter, give me thy head, Forsworn! (The Forsworn Conspiracy, though feel free to kill Thonar afterwards)
Fjola-Oathbreaker, defiler of matrimony, and bandit leader, hand over thy head, fool. (Mistwatch)
Nazir-Thou who once seekest to be next leader of the Asāsīyūn, hath strayed from the righteous path, and joined a band of vile blades for hire. The evening bell tolls for thee….
(Destroy the Dark Brotherhood)
Judgement hath come, Nazir!
TACTICS OF THE SERAPH
Protection of the Faith EX-His near fanatical devotion to the Yokudan gods has granted the Seraph an innate protection from harm, and cloaking him in holy fire..
(Amulet of Tu’Whacca+Adrenaline Rush+Fortify Destruction Potion+Dual Cast Flame Cloak)
Battle Continuation-Being an agent of divine judgement, and a sturdy man in life, the Seraph is able to continue fighting, even if his body is battered and his bones broken, as long as he can, he will fight.
(Mara’s Boon+Amulet of Tu’Whacca+Signet of the Psychopomp+Adrenaline Rush)
Presence Concealment-As both ghost and assassin, the Seraph of the End can cloak himself in shadow before delivering the first blow.
(Muffle+Invisibility+Shroud of Boethiah+Great Critical Charge)
The Seraph of The End-The evening bell has called forth the Seraph from the Far Shores. It signals the death of those it rings for. Grant them absolution in death.
(Azrael+Shroud of Boethiah+Coin Flip (Heads x2)+Soul Tear)
ROLEPLAY
Stay your blade from the flesh of the innocent
Do not stay in towns longer than you need to. Once done with whatever business, leave.
Never raise the dead, or anything similar.
Always wear plain hooded black robes and footwraps when in town, or in holy areas like High Hrothgar.
- Always carry Hawk Feathers, and place one on your slain targets, a memento mori.
Final Notes
Well, we’ve come to the end, my friend. This fun build, which has been a few months in the works, even before Crossworlds, Hell, in preparation for it, was based the Fate/Grand Order of Hassan-i-Sabbah, founder of the order which would become the origins for the word Assassin, commonly known as the Hashashin, who were basically a group of religious assassins. Thanks again to Lee for the spreads and screenshots, and thank you, my dear reader, for taking your time to check over my build. To close it off, let’s watch King/First Hassan’s Noble Phantasm (Turn on closed captions)
Replies
Not bad Chris. Just a few broken images to fix and you’re good to go.
I don't see any, though it might be cause I'm on mobile. I do seem to be missing two special move icons. Will fix as swiftly as possible
Yeah the special icons are what I meant. Sorry, should have been more specific.
OK, added the missing images and missing vid
Very nice entry. I really like the use of the dreadnought/assassin combo. Looking forward to your future entries.
P.S. a few of the images are a bit blurry. Any way you can fix this?
Thanks Pix, and ah, which images are blurry for you?
Awsome
Thanks!
The screenshot of your equipment selection is *sick*, and the presentation is well done. Not gonna lie, I kinda used this as a template when I was doing the write-up for mine. so thanks! :D
Quite like what you got here Chris - for some reason the Spreads are blurred, fault on my behalf - I'll try and work out exactly what's gone wrong to fix them. That and the picture for Fjola is broken - and you forgot your tags too.
https://theskyforge.ning.com/groups/tes-character-building/forum/te...