As Varrus led Helios to a secluded room, and set up the enchantment table, he began to go over what he had accomplished so far, and couldn't be more proud of his ultimate defensive weapon.
All would bow down before Varrus Vandercross’ ingenious invention:
Brick!
Varrus had just finished grinding his Smithing skill tree to level 100 after being fed an endless stream of materials, and it was glorious.
Unlike a poor bastard in a videogame, Varrus had no endless quests to grind for money, or fighting to take over a mine only to gather enough ore for two pieces of gear.
No! All he did was tell some people ‘hey, I need some supplies.’ And they got to it.
Being in a leadership position meant he had to deal with a lot of bullshit, but it came with its perks.
Perks like Dwarven Autocannon: You can create Dwemer Autocannons at a forge or anvil. Use the "Dwarven Autocannon" power to deploy them. Deals damage equal to 40% of your smithing skill.
Which with a few other perks, could fire anywhere, and react to enemies at any time.
However, as interesting as the Dwarven Autocannon was, the Smithing skill tree was actually a bit of a let down when compared to Enchanting.
Armor could only be improved so much. However, with the power of Grand Soul Gems, and even Legendary Soul Gems, Varrus’ Spell Power simply outclassed any armor score that he could attribute to any set of armor at the moment.
So even though he was maxed out in Smithing, Varrus decided to hold off on crafting a set of armor for the time being. For now, wearing robes was simply put, more comfortable, and thanks to the strength of his Spell Power increasing the effectiveness of Ebony Flesh, and the powerful buffs to the Alteration school of magic, there wasn't a serious need for Varrus to wear heavy armor at this time.
Some people might wear heavy armor, then throw up Ebony Flesh over that, however, due to the perks Energy Shield, and Mage Armor, there was no need to subject himself to wearing a slitted helmet, and restrict his vision in battle.
Energy Shield - If wearing robes and no light or heavy armor, reduces incoming attack and elemental damage by 35% but you lose Magicka equal to the amount of Health lost.
Mage Armor (3) - Protection spells like Stoneflesh are 100/150/200% stronger if not wearing armor.
If anything, he would use this skill to craft armor and weapons for his subordinates or other Blood Elves. He could see Smithing come in handy if he ever allied with the Humans. They could funnel him iron in large quantities, and he would then supply them with quality armor tougher than any normal smith could create.
But personally, heavy armor or even light armor were out of the cards at the moment.
Perhaps one day once he had more free time, he could improve his heavy armor skill with potions or enchantments, and become an unstoppable juggernaut. Or maybe research Smithing like he intended to do with other disciplines of magic. But for now, it simply wouldn't be economical with his time. Without those potions or enchants that increased the defense rating on his armor, it was more worth his while to all in on Spell Power.
Interestingly, he could still make any of the armor sets, or at least copy any armor design from Skyrim, but he had to substitute the materials.
There was no such thing as a daedra heart to craft daedric armor, however, if he wanted to make the knockoff Sauron armor from something like iron, seronite, or any other metal, he would be free to do so.
Before he all inned on a set, Varrus also had to research the different toughness of various metals. He didn't quite believe the game logic that every new WoW expansion, miraculously better weapons/armor and herbs/ores appeared in the world. In games, it was common for developers to input new items every new patch that were miles ahead of the old gear. Varrus wasn't living a game, and didn't buy into that logic existing in the real world.
Adamantium, for example, as far as he was concerned, lore-wise, it should be the toughest or one of the toughest metals in all of Warcraft. That shit is what coated Deathwing, and made him pretty much impervious to the attacks of four other Dragon Aspects attacking him at the same time.
Deathwing was literally splitting at the seams, unable to contain the power of an Aspect + Old God energies, and the only reason he didn't explode was due to the coat of adamantium keeping him together.
In fact, from the singular adamantium ingot he possessed, Varrus determined that they were just about identical in appearance to an ebony ingot. He figured if he truly wanted to cosplay as Sauron (the default Smithing appearance for Daedric armor in Skyrim), all he had to do was scrounge up one of, if not the rarest metals on Azeroth, and forge himself a set.
Considering how important adamantium was in the lore, Varrus did not subscribe to the idea of ever increasing item levels, or even power levels for that matter that were heavily pushed in each new expansion.
Another example of this lopsided power scaling would be the power disparity between Zul'Jin and C'thun.
Zul’Jin was a raid boss in the 2nd expansion, The Burning Crusade. For all his power, he's just a Troll at the end of the day. In the game, he is a higher level than C'thun, one of the Old Gods players defeated in Vanilla WoW. Was this higher level Troll really more powerful than an eldritch abomination? Hell no!
So while Varrus would be on the lookout for metal ores in other areas around Azeroth, he wouldn't be obsessed with attaining ore exclusive to say, Northrend or Pandaria, thinking it was outright superior to the metals he could source locally.
For now, however, he would lay off on forging any armor, and use his max Smithing skill to craft the strongest bricks in all of Azeroth.
Fortunately, by reading a long, boring essay on the creation of bricks, Varrus was able to add it to his recipe list, and craft them like any other item.
Likewise, he discovered a similar case when he held native Warcraft enchanting materials in his inventory. The local enchanting materials could act as substitutes for Soul Gems, however, they required a much larger amount, and so far, Varrus hadn't figured out a way to make anything stronger than what a Common Soul Gem could produce. He theorized he needed a different combination of materials than what he was presented with.
Which in all honesty was pretty good. The more he experimented with Warcraft's magic system, the more avenues to power and innovation would be unlocked. Varrus would hate to limit himself to the Skyrim spells, even if they were absolutely broken.
As far as enchantments went, being able to produce one with locally sourced materials at the power of a Common Soul Gem was a steal. Otherwise, Varrus would be forced to personally murder tons of enemies. That, or be in the vicinity of many deaths thanks to his Soul Cloak. This was something both unsustainable, and not something Varrus wanted to plan around if all he wanted to do was enchant some bricks.
It was easy to sleep on the power of a Common Soul Gem, but any irregular soldier with a complete set was like almost equivalent to an Elite in terms of power.
Each Common Soul Gem could allocate 80 stat points (intellect, strength, spirit, etc), and once that was placed upon a full kit of gear, any normal person would become an Elite, and an Elite would become like a mini-boss.
That meant that each and every brick received 80 points to stamina, the equivalent of 800 hp when judged by the Skyrim UI.
With the secondary enchantment being protection, these babies were tough as all heck!
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Varrus was so impressed by them, he kept a stack in his inventory. Whether he wanted to use them to build an emergency shelter Minecraft style, or telekinetically chuck them as ammunition, the mighty brick was a surprisingly versatile item.
When he saw Helios breach one with a full powered attack, Varrus became certain that Silvermoon, under his hands, would become a fortress city.
If the Elite Farstrider had so much difficulty penetrating one brick, how much effort would it take for another Elite to break down a 10ft wide fortress wall made from the stuff?!
Varrus’ inner tower defense maniac was beginning to shine through, and he couldn't wait to prop up nigh invincible watch towers in enemy lands. Power them with a master tier Mana Crystal, and equip them with one of Telonicus’ cannons, damn his enemies would cough blood once they learned that these towers could be remotely operated!
“Highlord, shall we get to the enchanting, or do you intend to hunch over that table all day?” Helios politely coughed in his hand, yet Varrus couldn't help but notice the ranger's sarcasm.
“Do not distract me, Helios, this is a delicate task.” Varrus replied sharply to cover up his absentmindedness.
“Of course, I would hate for an accident to occur, Highlord.” Helios replied.
Varrus opted to ignore the smarm, and began interfacing with the enchanting table.
Taking stock of his Soul Gems, Varrus noted that he was still in possession of the Soul Gems he had taken from the slain Trolls. Totalling: 3,167 Petty Soul Gems, 5,677 Lesser Soul Gems, 1,200 Common Soul Gems, 5 Greater Soul Gems, 1 Grand Soul Gem, and 1 Legendary Soul Gem.
Varrus was considering boosting Helios with a combo of Common Soul Gems, and Greater Soul Gems, and not Grand, because up to this point, he had only one Grand Enchantment, and it was placed on his wife.
However, something caused him to pause in surprise as he was going through the list.
At the bottom of them all, there was something called a Legendary Soul Gem!
It must have dropped from Kith'ix once he was slain! The giant cthulhu knockoff was practically a demi-god in the Warcraft universe. It seemed that with that status, Kith'ix dropped something much more impressive than a Grand Soul Gem!
Varrus never knew that this was sitting in his inventory, as after he heard the ping of a Soul Gem entering his inventory, he had simply used the sound to confirm Kith'ix's demise.
He never would've imagined that there was a tier above Grand! This was a paradigm shift that changed Varrus’ preconceived notions on the spells within the Skyrim Ui!
This opening of Pandora's box had Varrus hope that perhaps there was a tier of spells above Master. But with his perk tree capping at 100, he just didn't know how to get there.
This discovery blew Varrus’ mind, and for once, made him excited to do some research. Oh sure, he had planned to work with various metals, but this was magic!
Varrus had grown content with the power of Master tier spells, thinking all he needed to do was boost his Spell Power to reach a higher tier. He had grown content with powerful spells, like summoning tornadoes, and dropping giant sunballs of flame.
But if he eventually wanted to face the top tiers, he would need more than that. This little nugget of information excited Varrus to no end.
He wouldn't have to rely on plot, or good luck if he could learn whatever tier was past Master!
Looking at the Legendary Soul Gem in his inventory, Varrus was inspired.
If all things held as constant, then if Legendary was one tier above Grand, then it should be 4x more potent.
Meaning that a Legendary Soul Gem would net 5,120 stat points! That was a mind boggling number that was 6x Varrus’ current stat distribution!
For reference, his current set up of robes, pants, boots, 2 rings, and an amulet came up to 6 pieces of gear, worth 912 stat points.
Divided in half, that was 4,560 hp/stamina, and 2,280 damage added to spells. When compared to the toughness of a Legendary Dragon on Legendary difficulty that had 4k+ hp, Varrus would be able to two shot one with a basic fireball.
Furthermore, he had three perks that when combined, boosted any enchantment by 95%!
Enchanting Master: New enchantments are 40% stronger.
Gem Dust - You may choose to destroy a Flawless Gem when you begin the enchanting process and sprinkle its dust on the Arcane Enchanter. New enchantments are 25% stronger when placed upon an item of the type corresponding to the gem.
Regalia - New enchantments placed upon robes, circlets, hoods and necklaces are 30% stronger.
That meant that this Legendary Soul Gem could output a mind boggling 9,728 stat points! It was enough to make Varrus shake with excitement.
The terrifying power of a Legendary Soul Gem drew a flame of greed in Varrus’ breast. However, the fire was calmed by the drenching cold of reality.
Kith'ix was heavily damaged from a failed resurrection, and took the entire might of Quel'Thalas's Heroes to take down.
It was a perfect storm of events.
Demigod tier foes like Cenarius, or Mannoroth proved that they could be slain, but Varrus was not in a rush to confront these powerful foes.
He was not worried of his own safety, but that he might lose Syra. When it came to challenging these top tier figures, Varrus would take them on as necessary. Because anyway he lost his wife, he'd go crazy.
Taking a deep breath to center his thoughts, Varrus went over the stat distribution one more time, and mentally updated the Soul Gem tier list.
1 spirit = 2.5 mana +hp/sec
1 intellect = 10 mana
1 strength = 5 dmg on a weapon
1 agility = ×0.05 cast/swing/move speed
1 stamina = 10 stamina + hp
1 spell power = 5 dmg on a spell
Petty: 5
Lesser: 20
Common: 80
Greater: 320
Grand: 1,280
Legendary: 5,120
Seeing that huge number, Varrus thought once more of his wife's safety, and knew he would feel much better if it modified her gear instead of his. He had perks that would instantly heal him if his health ran low, and if he was within an inch of his life, he had a perk, Emergency Teleport, which would give him enough time to escape any peril.
Emergency Teleport - When you fall below 15% Health due to combat damage, you briefly turn invulnerable and teleport back to the location where you entered combat.
In contrast, if Syra ever ran out of mana, then she was pretty much helpless in the face of the enemy. As much as he wanted the enchantment for himself, love wasn't about being selfish. Love was about sacrificing for your family.
There were so many guys on Earth who commuted 50 or even 100+ miles in a day to put bread on the table. Who worked overtime on shit pay so that their family could go on that vacation.
Varrus respected men like that to no end, and aspired to have that level of dedication.
So what if he didn't become the ultimate murder machine right away? He was married to one!
Of course, that didn't mean he would skimp out on himself. That Grand Soul Gem was 100% going to him!
That upgrade from his current Greater Soul Gem gear to one affixed with a Grand Soul Gem was significant. One Grand Soul gem with the 95% boost would grant 2,496 stat points. Whereas the Greater Soul Gem netted a total of 624. There was no comparison between the two, and you’d bet your ass Varrus was going to upgrade!
Satisfied with his decision, Varrus looked out of the corner of his eye, and noticed an irate Helios standing with his arms crossed, and wearing nothing but a pair of briefs.
‘Yikes! I'd better get this show on the road!’ Varrus embarrassedly thought to himself, and began to enchant Helios’ gear.
He finally decided to settle on Agility, and Intelligence.
Helios seemed to favor ranged attacks, and used mana quite a bit to modify his bow.
For an Elf, Agility was the cheat code super stat that transformed an already agile race of cold killers into premier assassins. For an experienced archer like Helios, increased maneuverability would mean he could scout, and snipe foes, then disappear like he had never been there to begin with.
The second stat boost was Intelligence, and not strength, because any Elf that could imbue their bow with mana, could do the same thing to their melee weapon. Essentially turning them into a spell blade. Intelligence increased mana capacity, and damage via Spell Power.
On top of the stat boosts, Varrus slapped on the-at this point complementary-protection enchant as the secondary effect for every piece of gear, and then handed it all off to Helios.
The former Farstrider grumbled his thanks, then strode off grumbling.
Varrus wanted to say something, but one of his guards informed him that the luncheon with Kael’Thas was fast approaching. That if he still wanted to interrogate Dakar beforehand, he had best do so now and that he could find Lady Vandercross in the garden.
Forgetting all about the ranger, Varrus’ mood brightened, and he went to grab his wife. He had a prisoner to interrogate, and a double date where he hoped to hook Kael and Jan’alai up.
Hopefully Syra would go along with it, because by the Sunwell, Varrus was done walking on eggshells around his best friend!