Best Enchantments and Weapon Suggestions?

[NachyoChez]

Great post. So maybe you can answer a question that has always bugged me. How does Spellbreaker factor in and is it ever redundant to use it? I play on legendary a lot and I'm always looking for any edge.

Please note, I have never personally used Spellbreaker. What follows is just my understanding of the information I've reviewed about it. If anyone ever finds it in their hearts to get me a copy of Skyrim for PC, I'll happily start doing direct experimentation!


Spellbreaker activates a separate effect than resistance, it actually created a ward. Wards Operate by absorbing set amounts of damage from a spell before breaking, making them like a second set of HP that can only be hit by magic. Spellbreaker's HP is only 50, so anything over 50 damage will 'break it'. However, it's a maintained effect that will actually refresh ever second, so unless you're getting pelted it will keep absorbing.

Examples: For this, let's assume that all fire spells did 25 damage.
Will Spellbreaker active, if a single mage threw Firebolts at you, you'd take nothing. By the time they did enough damage to break the ward, it'd be refreshed.
If two Mages threw Firebolts, you'd still be invincible.
If a third mage joined the party, you'd keep taking 25 damage, since the ward was broken by the first two; assuming they timed it to all hit at the exact same second.
Now, let's assume you had 6 mages attacking, but used the 'Magic Resistance' setup. 2 of those attacks would be completely negated, and you'd only take 3 damage total because of the reduction. Not a bad setup, if you ask me.

tl;dr?
Spellbreaker reduces all incoming magic damage by 50 (maximum of 50 per second).

 

[Black Orchid]

Just an FYI about the Necromage perk if you play on PC (taken from the wiki):

A player with Vampirism and Necromage will receive greater benefits from self-targeting spell effects, as the player is flagged as undead.
This issue has been addressed by version 1.2.3 of the Unofficial Skyrim Patch; Necromage no longer boosts the power of spells and enchantments used on a vampire player.

I'd like to also add, if you enjoy playing sneaky-type characters like I do, then Muffle is a great little enchantment to throw on your boots, but it can be difficult to find (start by checking vendors at around level 11). As with the Waterbreathing enchantment, any filled soul gem will work, as there is no percentage gain on using more powerful soul gems. Disenchanting an item with Muffle (50% effectivity) and then re-enchanting a custom item with Muffle (100% effectivity) is the way to go. The only other thing that'll give you 100% Muffle is either the Illusionist spell, or the Silence perk from the Sneak skill tree.

I find that Magic Resistance is a good solid defensive enchantment to get as much of as possible, followed by elemental resistance enchantments. Mages can be a real killer in this game, so some Magic Resistance is almost a necessity, imho.

NachyoChez's post sums everything up quite nicely for getting the highest resistances possible.

 

[LotusEater]

So Spellbreaker is as awesome as it seems. I figured it was treated separate but just wasn't sure how the math fleshed out. Good info.

 

[_lotus_tree]

My character has made a Dragonbone bow, dragonbone sword and dragonbone dagger. All legendary and enchanted with >does 25% shock damage and half as much magic damage<. It's only one enchantment but it's a two for one.
She also has hundreds of dragonbone arrows. She made a Daedric bow of soul capture for filling soul gems. She also uses a legendary enhanced dwarven crossbow and teams it with the exploding bolts. Packs quite a punch especially seeing she wears armour with fortify archery.

i might be tripin. but i can't find the dragon scale dagger or arrow making option.. at the forge? Where am i going wrong?

 

[LotusEater]

My character has made a Dragonbone bow, dragonbone sword and dragonbone dagger. All legendary and enchanted with >does 25% shock damage and half as much magic damage<. It's only one enchantment but it's a two for one.
She also has hundreds of dragonbone arrows. She made a Daedric bow of soul capture for filling soul gems. She also uses a legendary enhanced dwarven crossbow and teams it with the exploding bolts. Packs quite a punch especially seeing she wears armour with fortify archery.

i might be tripin. but i can't find the dragon scale dagger or arrow making option.. at the forge? Where am i going wrong?

You have to get your Smithing skill to 100 before you can unlock it. Kinda dumb if you ask me but...

 

[_lotus_tree]

hmm.. my smithing is 100. leme look again

 

[_lotus_tree]

My character has made a Dragonbone bow, dragonbone sword and dragonbone dagger. All legendary and enchanted with >does 25% shock damage and half as much magic damage<. It's only one enchantment but it's a two for one.
She also has hundreds of dragonbone arrows. She made a Daedric bow of soul capture for filling soul gems. She also uses a legendary enhanced dwarven crossbow and teams it with the exploding bolts. Packs quite a punch especially seeing she wears armour with fortify archery.

i might be tripin. but i can't find the dragon scale dagger or arrow making option.. at the forge? Where am i going wrong?

You have to get your Smithing skill to 100 before you can unlock it. Kinda dumb if you ask me but...

Is it a perk i need to add or somthing? would it make a difference if i were playin on xbox?

 

[LotusEater]

i might be tripin. but i can't find the dragon scale dagger or arrow making option.. at the forge? Where am i going wrong?

You have to get your Smithing skill to 100 before you can unlock it. Kinda dumb if you ask me but...

Is it a perk i need to add or somthing? would it make a difference if i were playin on xbox?

It's a perk in the smithing tree. Tippy top.

 

[shadowkitty]

i might be tripin. but i can't find the dragon scale dagger or arrow making option.. at the forge? Where am i going wrong?

You have to get your Smithing skill to 100 before you can unlock it. Kinda dumb if you ask me but...

Is it a perk i need to add or somthing? would it make a difference if i were playin on xbox?

This is a useful link
http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Smithing
As you level up your smithing you take perks. What I usually do is get up to 60 and take the arcane perk which allows you to upgrade enchanted armour and weapons. you really need that one. Then, even though I wear light armour I follow the right side of the smithing tree all the way around to the dragon skill at level 100. I find heavy armour skills to be more useful. Especially if you are an archer. Heavy bows do more damage and you are able to make higher levelled arrows, such as Daedric, and ebony. They even look better IMO. Also you can make dwarven crossbows and bolts. The enhanced dwarven crossbow upgraded to legendary with archery gear is a very formidable weapon.
Once you obtain the dragon skill, you can see it in your smithing inventory and it has both dragonscale and dragonbone. Make sure collect plenty of dragon bones and scales, chop lots of firewood and you are on your way to making heaps of gear, and arrows.

 

[_lotus_tree]

ah i think i need to upgrade to Dawnguard possibly.

 

[Dawn]

ah i think i need to upgrade to Dawnguard possibly.

Yes you'll need Dawnguard DLC. Dragonbone weapons were added with Dawnguard, along with all crossbows.

Also player crafted magic enchants are based on resistance, where a percentage amount of a spell will be resisted (ignored), with the amount resisted based on the percentage stated by the enchant.

For example, a spell that would do 100 damage would only do 80 damage when hitting a player with 20% magic resistance.

The generic "Resist Magic" works against all magic, and caps at at 85% (any additional "magic" resistance above this will have no effect). The Lord Stone and the blessing from Mara are magic resistance effects and count towards the 85% cap.

Elemental resistance (fire, frost, shock) enchants work just like resist magic, though are specific to the elemental school, and also cap at 85% (each school).

However, elemental resistance (and elemental resistance cap) is calculated separably and after generic "magic" resistance, such that capping both "resist magic" and "resist (specific elemental school)" allows for a resistance of 97.75% against that specific elemental school.

There is also a spell absorption effect that is a chance based ability to totally absorb a spell (and it works against everything in the game that isn't physical damage based, including poisons and shouts).

For example, a 25% spell absorption provides a 25% chance to completely absorb a spell. It is an all or nothing effect, either it triggers and the full spell is absorbed (and the magicka is gained), or it does not trigger, and the full spell hits.

Spell absorption is calculated before resistances, so even if the absorption effect does not trigger, a spell may be mitigated through resistance.

Breton's Dragonskin racial power along with the Atronach Stone and the alteration Atronach perk are all spell absorption effects. Mirrak's Robes and gear also provide spell absorption (requires Dragonborn DLC).

Spell absorption in the vanilla game affected player spells as well as enemy spells (cast a summon, summon was absorbed). This was corrected with one of the Unofficial patches for the PC, not sure about the console.

Wards (and the Spellbreaker shield) all work like a separate health pool; all damage up to the threshold is avoided, but once the threshold is hit, all damage passes, though could be effected by absorption and / or resistances.

Getting to 100% spell absorption is easy once per day for Breton's using their racial and the Atronach Stone.

It can also be achieved permanently with use of the Atronach stone (50%) + alteration Atronach perks (30%) + Miraak's Robe / Boots or Gloves (20%) or through an un-patched exploit of a vampire using the Necromage perk.

 

[Nighthiker77]

Chaos damage reduces statistically to a 12.5% chance of no effects, 37.5% chance of 1 effect, 37.5% chance of 2 effects, and 12.5% chance of all 3 effects.
I think what makes it awesome though is that anything that augments 1 effect will augment all 3 elements of a chaos enchantment. So the left side enchanting perks will all 3 affect all 3 effects, plus the extra bonus from frost effects on Stahlrim if you use it.

 

[Liger]

My tank Char had great enchanting but by a whoops e got deleted 2 weeks ago, I did not knwo the auto saves save over, guess I shoudl of hard saved.

But I was runningfighter)
Health was like 550, stamina was like 400 and magic was around 300 with this char at level 53

All gear full upgradeed

Dragon Helm: 40% Archery %40 One Hand
Dragon arm: 60 extra health, 60 extra stamina
Boot: Muff and 40% archey
Hands:40% 1H and Archery
Sheild: magic and fire 40%
Ring:40% 1H and Archery
Neck: 40% 1H and Archery

Extra gear:
1 gold ring of 40% fire and frost
1 gold neck of 40% Magic and shock

weapon wise:
2 dragon swords 1 with fire 25 and paralize, the other with shock 25 and frost 25.
2 dragon Daggers: same as above exect I change frost to soul trap
dragon bow: ST and Shock 25

I also had other armor sets for mage, thieve and hitman,

 

[JoeReese]

I tend to like the Fiery Soul Trap enchantment, especially before I can dual-enchant. I need those soul gems and can't afford to buy full ones, but the burn helps a lot.

When I can dual enchant, I'll add either more fire or frost (depending on whether I'm using Stahlrim) or sometimes Chaos, just for fun.

If you're an assasin with the archery perk on your sneak tree, try using the enhanced Dwarven crossbow with fire (or fiery trap) and chaos. Much fun and ignores like 50% of armor.

 

[Daelon DuLac]

Folks keep mentioning "Fiery Soul Trap" and I have no idea where something like that can be found (especially at lower levels). I can get one or the other, but not both (I'm on PS3).

 

[JoeReese]

It's at Ironbind Barrow, which is a pretty short dungeon. You have to fight a pretty hard fight though (trying not to spoil anything) so be prepared. I'd make sure you have a good follower and several damage health and paralysis poisons on you. (Canis root + imp stool...or scaly pho.= paralysis ::: red mountain flower and river betty will make a pretty hefty damage health)

The enchantment is on a battleaxe, leaning on/near the throne at the end. Once you disenchant (or use it) you get both a soul trap and a minor fire damage enchantment at once. When you can dual enchant, if you use this, you get the benefit of three.

 

[Daelon DuLac]

It's at Ironbind Barrow, which is a pretty short dungeon. You have to fight a pretty hard fight though (trying not to spoil anything) so be prepared. I'd make sure you have a good follower and several damage health and paralysis poisons on you. (Canis root + imp stool...or scaly pho.= paralysis ::: red mountain flower and river betty will make a pretty hefty damage health)

The enchantment is on a battleaxe, leaning on/near the throne at the end. Once you disenchant (or use it) you get both a soul trap and a minor fire damage enchantment at once. When you can dual enchant, if you use this, you get the benefit of three.

Always something new. I guess I've never even been there after all this time playing. Thanks!

 

[LotusEater]

Always something new. I guess I've never even been there after all this time playing. Thanks!

Right... Like I just discovered last night that you can go back to the tomb where Delphine left the note and stole the Horn and activate the altar for a free dragon soul.

 

[Daelon DuLac]

Always something new. I guess I've never even been there after all this time playing. Thanks!

Right... Like I just discovered last night that you can go back to the tomb where Delphine left the note and stole the Horn and activate the altar for a free dragon soul.

Cool!

 

[JoeReese]

I didn't know that either. Lol. I was well into my third
Character before I ever heard about Ironbind. It's up
near the Nightgate Inn. I'm on my stupid phone, or I'd be able
To map it.