Recently, I started playing a new game of Skyrim. Unlike my previous games, I decided to create a pure mage build. So far I’ve played the game as a warrior, thief, and spell-blade. However, right now you may be wondering what exactly is a build. That is the question I will be answering today in this blog.
To start off, what is a build? Personally, I define it as how you distribute stat points. The reason for this is because most builds are defined by what skills you invest in. For example, if you’re building a mage in any RPG, you would invest more of your levels into magic. Because of its very broad definition, it’s a term you will see throw around on any RPG forum. It doesn’t matter if the game is single player or multiplayer, if there are stat points of some kind, you can likely create a build.
However, builds can also be very limiting, especially for games like Skyrim. In MMORPGs, this normally isn’t a problem because of how the skills are chosen. In games like WOW, after you pick a class, there is a skill tree. Basically, this means, you start off with a small selection skills and as you progress through the game more skills related to that base skill gets unlocked. For example, let’s say you have a skill called fireball, a basic AOE spell. After you level up, you have two options with how you would like to advance this skill. First, you could have the fireball do more damage. The second option is to increase the AOE of the spell. You can only choose one, so it kind of makes strategic building a requirement for games like these. MMORPGs with systems like a skill tree blocks players from accessing every skill available in the game, pushing the incentive to gather a large group of players with different classes and builds. I would also like to point out there is a difference between classes and builds. An example of this would be WOWs mage class. Normally when you think of a mage, you think of casting spells. However, WOW takes it one step further, where you either build an Arcane, Fire, or Frost mage. So when you fight a boss with a fire resistance, you would bring a bunch of Frost or Arcane mages.
On the other hand, there are games like Skyrim. Given enough time, a player could unlock every skill in the game. There are still skill trees but none of them limit you. Instead, the newer skills just require the previous one as a prerequisite. An example of this is every first skill of each one of Skyrim’s skill trees. Most of these skills have very basic effects like increase damage, but they lead to all the better abilities later on. Unfortunately, with these kinds of games, there is eventually a point where you have everything, making a build kind of pointless. The silver lining to this is that people usually complete the story before reaching 100% completion. However, builds can also be used for roleplaying. What is roleplaying? The player chooses a build creates a backstory supporting their build and plays only skills that would make sense for whatever build they came up with. For the extra hardcore roleplayers though, they will carefully select their race, name, skills, and faction they join.
In the end, builds can be seen as a way to limit how powerful a player becomes. In MMOs, this forces players to work together and in single player, they can be used as a nice way to roleplay. Personally, I like to try out different builds. Sadly, I’ve never reached 100% completion but maybe I will with my newest play through.