The Challenge Seeker

The idea for this build came in search of ultimate damage resistance with limited crafting skills. I wanted an unstoppable machine could stand toe to toe with mightiest foes, where combat decisions decide whether you take damage or not. What I came up with was, at its peak, almost 100% damage resistance (physical and magical). This build is a no healing build that relies not on dodging damage, but mitigating it.

[#0] Content
[#0] Content [#1] Introduction [#2] Origins and Belief [#3] Skills [#4] Armory [#5] Combat Tactics [#6] Friends and Enemies [#7] Numbers

[#1] Introduction

You play as a seeker of challenges, you seek to test your mettle and wits in battle. You live to find the next great battle, winning by the width of a hair as your life hangs in the balance. The following is an excerpt of Yargol the Challenge Seekers battle against bandits, which almost killed him. The bandits searched for the assailant, and a few of them immediately started to charge once they found it was a single person. Yargol loaded his crossbow with a lit bolt once again, this time firing at the ground between the two front most bandits who were charging directly downhill. The bandits lost their footing and rolled down the ridge, one of them crashed into a rock formation and passed out. Yargol threw the crossbow to his side and ducked behind his shield as arrows flew past him. As he stood up he saw three more bandits charging down the hill. Yargol grabbed his shield in his left arm and the torch in his right, he threw the torch into the shallow oil filled trench and it burst into flames. The front most bandit came charging and was preparing to jump over the fire, but in midair Yargol slammed his shield against the bandit with all his might so he fell into the fire and burned. The other two bandits were quick studies and came from opposing sides, Yargol turned to one of them and blocked his swing effortlessly and proceeded to decapitate him. The other bandit took a step closer and stepped on the explosive which took his foot clean off, he screamed in pain as Yargol put an end to his life. The full tale of Yargols battle can be found <LINK HERE>.

[#2] Origins and Belief

In the following section I will list the races, standing stones, blessings and shots that fit the challenge seeker, starting with races. The Orsimer is hands down the best race for this build. Their racial ability will almost make you immune to any incoming damage for 60 seconds. Being able to dish out more damage is certainly nice. Their starting bonuses fit the build very nicely as well. This build just screams Orsimer. The Lord Stone is the most fitting stone as it again deals with damage mitigation. It complements the build nicely, and allows for less crafting. The Blessing of Julianos is the best blessing early on, it will allow more focus on health than magicka early on, thus increasing survivability. The Blessing of Talos works better at high levels when magicka is sufficient. It will allow more use of shouts. Thuums: Marked for Death (3/3) & Slow Time (2/3).

[#3] Skills
In the following section I will list the stat spread and perks used by this build. I ran the build as a pure health build up to level 9, and at level 10 I put my first point into magicka. After that it was close to 1/3/1 of M/H/S. Final stats would be M: 200, H: 390 and S: 200. Major skills are one-handed, heavy armor and block.

One-handed is the primary damage. Need some way to do damage, cant just stand around being hit all day. Heavy armor is the primary defense, this is what allows us to limit crafting. Block is the secondary defense. This is essentially what makes or breaks this build, without the block tree this build wouldnt be possible. This allows to reach near 100% damage resistance while blocking. Shield bashes are used for interrupts to further survivability.

Your ideal situation.

Minor skills are archery, enchanting, destruction and alteration. Archery is the tertiary damage. It is primarily used to initiate combat. Enchanting is the only crafting skill. It is used to finalize the build and give it an extra edge. Ive tried keeping enchanting from becoming too powerful as it has a tendency to do just that. Destruction is the secondary damage. It is primarily used to boost the primary damage and it adds a little flavor. Runes are the builds explosive traps. At level 8 & 9 I bought destruction skills so I didnt have to bother with flames. Alteration is used only for the magic resistance. The flesh spells help out nicely during the low levels. The highest flesh spell to be used should be stoneflesh to level up alteration. Once I hit 70 alteration I stopped casting alteration spells. A level 25 perk spread can be found here. < http://skyrimcalculator.com/#240066> A level 50 perk spread can be found here. < http://skyrimcalculator.com/#240192>

[#4] Armory
The armor used is meant to maximize the build damage mitigation, while adding some damage to the mix. Helmet (Orcish): Helmet of the Arcane Archer. Fortify marksman 19% & fortify destruction 12%. Armor (Orcish): The Unstoppable Armor. Fortify heavy armor 12 points & health regeneration 15%. Gauntlets (Orcish): Gauntlets of Stable Wielding. Fortify one-handed 19% & fortify heavy armor 12 points. Boots (Orcish): Boots of the Chaos Walker. Fire resistance 28% & shock resistance 28%. Shield (Orcish): The Spellblockers Shield. Magic resistance 15% & fortify health 30 points.

Amulet (Gold Ruby Necklace): Amulet of Warmth. Frost resistance 28% & health regeneration 15%. Ring (Silver Ring): The Unwavering Ring. Fortify heavy armor 12 points & health regeneration 15%. Sword (Blades Sword): Blazing Katana. Fire damage 40 points & soul trap. Ranged (Enhanced Steel Crossbow): No enchants, consider the armor penetration and chance to get a critical shot the enchants. Food: Chicken dumpling. The extra health regen is nice. During the early levels I would suggest getting whichever pieces of heavy armor give the most protection, upgrading them at a workbench and give them the following enchantments. Helmet: Fortify destruction. Chest piece: Health regeneration. Gauntlets: Fortify one-handed. Boots: Fire/frost/shock resist. Sword: Fiery soul trap. Ranged: Unenchanted bow/crossbow Try and see if the merchants have some heavy armor with the preferred enchantments, the enchantments will usually be higher than the self-made ones. For the jewelry youll want to buy something with health regeneration as it will be much higher than what can be self-enchanted. For shields use either the Shield of Solitude or the Shield of Ysgramor. Put the Fiery Soul Trap on your blade.

[#5] Combat Tactics

This build uses two tactics in combat, charge! & initiate, these are NOT special abilities. The tactics are fairly simple, but evolve and become naturally more complex as more skills and perks are gained. Before I start I would like to give a note on healing. Since youre bound to take damage, healing is done between combat, this can be with either potions or restoration. I personally use restoration, this ensures I dont run out of healing and often I dont have enough magicka to heal fully so I enter combat with 80% health, which is fun. Charge! Skill required: Slow Time. Charge! is the simple concept of charging without using stamina. This is used primarily to engage in combat with archers or mages, but can also effectively be used against melee combatants who has ranged back up. Slow time is used to simulate an effortless sprint, so precious stamina isnt used and can instead be used for interrupting bashes. Once block runner is obtained slow time is no longer used. Projectile Explosion. Skill required: Oakflesh, Charge!, fire rune. Projectile Explosion is a great at early levels. Start running towards the target and cast oakflesh just before starting Charge!, once close to the enemy cast a fire rune at his feet to start combat. Punishment. Skill required: Fire cloak, block runners Charge!, slow time, wall of flames, power bash. This is a step up from Projectile Explosion. Start running towards the target and cast fire cloak, immediately switch to shield and Charge! Once close to the target use slow time, cast wall of flames at his feet, immediately switch to your shield and power bash the target so he stays in the wall of flames taking damage from both the wall and the cloak.

Initiate. Skill required: Crossbow. Initiate is the simple act of shooting someone in the face with a crossbow, thus making the target angry and getting them to come to you. Theres usually only enough time to get one or two shots off before having to switch to your sword, so better hope for a critical hit! Preperation. Skill required: Flesh spell, fire rune, wall of flames, fire cloak, exploding steel bolt of fire, initiate. This is a tactic that can be used at any level. Use as many or as few of the skills you have available. At early levels this can be to simply cast oakflesh and a fire rune at your feet before you initiate. At late levels it can be casting a fire rune at your feet, a fire cloak and a wall of flames in front of you before you initiate with an exploding steel bolt of fire. It can be using everything available or only using one thing. This will also come to depend on available magicka, I personally dont want to sit around and wait for the magicka pool to fill up, so at times all youre able to cast is a few puddles of flames and then initiate. Note: Oak/stoneflesh is only used during the earlier levels when alteration has yet to reach 70. After that the spell is not really needed. Hail of Arrows. Skill required: Berserker rage, initiate, exploding steel bolt of fire, slow time. Load up your crossbow with explosives and let hell reign upon your enemies! Activate berserker rage and shoot down everything in sight with explosives. When you see a melee combatant charge at you, activate slow time and fill him with explosives. Best thing is, you dont even have to move! Your damage mitigation is through the roof while using berserker rage. Marked for Death. Skill required: Marked for death. Marked for Death is the simple act of using the shout marked for death. Best used against tough opponents like dragons or heavily armored two-handed bandit chiefs. Special ability: Ultimate Protection. Skill required: Fully enchanted outfit, 85% magic resistance, 80% damage reduction, elemental protection, 5/5 shield wall, block.

The Challenge Seeker only has one special ability, for 60 seconds he has ultimate protection while blocking. While not much skill is required to pull this one off (542 armor rating doesnt come until 100 heavy armor and all perks) it is the greatest trick of the Challenge Seeker. Using Ultimate Protection you are able to withstand the might of any foe that stands before you and with unprecedented strength you are able to cut through even the strongest of steel.

[#6] Friends and Enemies

In this section I will list which side to take on major quest lines, which major quest lines fit the build and which specific quests to do. Book of Love. While this quest isnt all that fitting of the Challenge Seeker it is essential to the build. Do it. Companions. Like minded individuals who seek challenge, where do I sign up? Cure yourself of Lycanthropy if you wish, it isnt used in the build. The quest line gives you the Shield of Ysgramor which is almost as good as the costum enchanted shield. College of Winterhold. Frail human beings in pursuit of knowledge, no thanks. Although this quest line gives access to the last shout of slow time, it is not in the interest of the Challenge Seeker to pursue it. You want to be out fighting bandits, forsworn and dragons, not books. Dark Brotherhood. Deadliest assassins in Skyrim, sounds like a decent challenge to me! Destroy them, they are supposedly the best, prove them wrong. The Civil War. As the Challenge Seeker you have no allegiance, but the imperial army seems stronger (more soldiers, better equipment, better training) so you join up with the Stormcloaks, more of a challenge that way. Dawnguard. Join up with the Dawnguard and take on the challenge of ancient and powerful vampires, a worthy challenge. Main Quest. Seek the thrill of the ultimate challenge by facing the World Eater Alduin himself. In My Time of Need. A chance to take on the Alikr, could be challenging. Cant pass up the chance to beat up some strong Redguard warriors. Missing in Action. A chance to take on the Thalmor, doesnt sound like a challenge. Squishy elves who cast magic? Might as well see if they are as strong as they believe.

[#7] Numbers
This section is to give you some numbers on the damage mitigation this build can achieve, and how it achieves it. First of all, you have three states. Without a shield, with a shield and blocking. Each of these states have different damage mitigation, and each of these states can be used with berserker rage which further alters the mitigation. Theres magic resistance (MR) and physical resistance (PR). Without a shield, no berserker rage: 78.4% MR & 68.76% DR

Without a shield, berserker rage: 89.2% MR & 84.38% DR With a shield, no berserker rage: 89.2% MR & 80% DR With a shield, berserker rage: 94.15% MR & 90% DR Blocking, no berserker rage: 96.7% MR & 97% DR Blocking, berseker rage: 98.35% MR & 98.5% DR

As you can see, during Ultimate Protection you are near invincible to almost all forms of damage. There are two exceptions to this damage reduction, the first one is poison, but a steady dose of interrupts should kill most poison dealing things (I havent tested how poison resistance works with magic resistance etc. but I wasnt poisoned often). The other one is the dragons that use the drain vitality shout. On master with 420 HP this drained almost half my health, while I could survive its bite attacks and breath attacks rather easily that one shout just killed me. This is the only time I felt healing was necessary, but I was also out of chicken dumplings which could help a lot in a battle such as this if one can find cover. I also want to let you know how much damage is achieved by scoring a critical shot with the crossbow. The numbers are on unarmored opponents, and a fully perked character with 100 in archery. Regular shot: 87 damage Critical shot: 115.5 damage

Almost 20 points of damage more from a critical shot. While the average damage increase isnt much, it is significant in a build like this where archery is used for opening shots (mostly). It means an opponent is alive for a much shorter duration, which can really help when youre standing around taking a lot of hits.