Is this build viable for Master Difficulty?

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reisbro

New Member
For starters, I won't use any exploits, so I was wondering if this character configuration is good enough to survive the terrors of the Master Difficulty without the use of glitches and stuff that make your gear beastly.
I am going to play a Death Knight guy, and this is what I have in mind:
I'm going to be a Breton, use the Lord Stone and do the Agent of Mara quest right on the beginning of the game - this will grant me 65% magic resist with no gear at all -
I'll use Heavy Armor and I pretend to reach the cap while spending few perks in the heavy armor tree (I think that with 100 smithing and like 2 perks on the Heavy Armor tree I can reach something around 500). My gear will basically be enchanted with Fortify Destruction for free casting cold spells and with Fortify One-Handed damage. One of the pieces will also have a resist magic to complete the cap.
Will the armor cap and magic resist cap allow me to mitigate a good amount of damage on Master Difficulty?
My source of damage will basically be from undead minions, cold destruction spells and a Mace or a War-Axe. I would use the Ice Storm and Icy Spikes spells.
Let's say that I have a Legendary Daedric Mace and five points in armsman, and a point on the power attack perk, will I be able to dish a good amount of damage with attacks, spells and my two Dead Thralls?

And to answer those "two" questions, consider the most difficult monsters in combat, such as Falmers, those Necromancers, Ancient Dragons, Dragon Priests and etc...

And finally my last question: Should I powerlevel? Or should I slowly level my skills as I play?
 

mr noname

Member
this is an impressive build! and master difficulty is a bit like trying to fight a swordsman with plastic scissoirs, its very hard, if not impossible. your resistances will almost push damadge taken back to apprentice/adept difficulty.
i would consider learng a bit of restoration though as strong enimies will still challenge you alot and will trim your health in moments, and note that resist magic will only aplly to spells, and not elemental dammadge so dungen traps and oil will still dammadge you. i would also advise you do not pick many fights and do many dangerous quests while you get started, so i would stay in town and level skills like smithing and enchanting
(a good stratergy for this is to buy iron, leather strips and petty/lesser filled soul gems, then make a heap of iron daggers then enchanting them with a good priced enchantment, if you get a good enchanting you can make a profit aswell (wich will help furtheryour practice))- i would suggest whiterun for this, since all you need is around (and the skyforge increases smithing skill faster than other forges. after you are done with that i would head to the colledge of winterhold for spells and maybey deadra hearts for smithing (get them from enthir) then to the lord stone or riften for the agent of mara quest. so i would suggest some power leveling.

so all and all, this should work well.
 
That should be fine, but IME, the build is just to give you, the Player the raw materials to survive on Master Difficulty. Without exploits, there is no build that will allow you to stand, and slug with any surety of winning, but you have enough, well, let's not say "Glitches," but highly powerful techniques that should give you an edge.

I would not stick soley to Cold, because there's lots with resistance to it in Skyrim, but take full advantage of the Slow effect to give you the edge on speed with Dual Flurry. Lightning is a good backup element, because it's not a common resistance, and you don't have to lead targets as much. Other than that, yes. If you know how to fight, that should be plenty powerful to survive, and win on Master. You will be strongest, yet take the most damage in the melee, but it isn't suicide. maneuver as much as possible until they close, and use Slow to retard their advance, but Cold magic will not have enough raw damage to win most fights on it's own. use it to soften them up before finishing them off with DW.

I personally would go with a Shield instead, it greatly increases your survivability once surrounded, and use Frost Cloak right before switching to a close quarters fight. Elemental Protection on top of your Magic Resistance should make you extremely hardened against Magic.
 

Grob

Active Member
Really, you can do any build in Master difficulty. It's not very hard. I've done one that only uses Illusion and Alteration, only apprentice in other magic schools allowed and the only weapon he can use is the Wabbajack. No armor. That build should be fine.
I always try not to power level. Takes a bit of the fun out of the game (unless it's something ridiculously boring to level).
 

reisbro

New Member
Thanks for all the answerrs guys! I started playing this character and so far I could kill dragons and the stronger falmers. It takes a lot of time to kill them, but I managed it somehow! Im currently level 19 wearing an Orcish Set. I took mr noname and psiberzerker tips and I am using a shield with elemental protection for even more spell resist, and I dual wield when i need to dish damage in few seconds! I also use the become ethereal shout to get close to casters with no danger to eliminate them quickly!
Thanks again everyone, this build is acually great!
 

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