Most useful Standing Stone?

[Bertrum]

Of the 13 standing stones, what one do you think is most useful, and what one do you use most often? I would make a poll but there are 13 stones and you can only have 10 poll options.

I personally always use the Steed Stone, having a 100 bonus to my carry capacity is absolutely crucial, especially early on in the game when you are scrounging around for items to sell.

The second most useful stone to me currently is the Lord Stone, which is useful being somebody who uses Heavy Armour and 2-handed weapons. Having to get up close and personal with mages can be problematic sometimes.

List of Standing Stones:

• The Warrior Stone: Combat skills increase 20% faster.
• The Thief Stone: Stealth skills increase 20% faster.
• The Mage Stone: Magic skills improve 20% faster.
• The Lover Stone: All skills improve 15% faster.
• The Apprentice Stone: Recover Magicka twice as fast; twice as vulnerable to magicka damage.
• The Atronach Stone: 50 extra Points of Magicka, 50% Absorb spells, -50% Magicka regen.
• The Lady Stone: Regenerate Health and Stamina 25% Faster.
• The Lord Stone: +50 Armor, 25% magic resistance.
• The Ritual Stone: Raises all the dead around you to fight for you once per day.
• The Serpent Stone: Paralyze the target for 5 seconds, and do 25 points of poison damage once per day.
• The Shadow Stone: Invisibility for 60 seconds once per day.
• The Steed Stone: Carry weight +100, equipped armor has no weight and causes no movement penalty.
• The Tower Stone: Unlock any expert level lock (or lower) once per day.

 

[Haru17]

I usually use the steed stone for practicality.
The lover stone is another common choice for leveling.
The ritual stone is a whole lot of fun for necromancers and to quick level the ebony blade.
I hear that people really like the atronarch stone, but I've never really used it much (not enough mages around).
The shadow stone was only ever used by my non-illision thief.
The lady stone is boring, but good.

The serpent and tower stones are a good aetherial crown cool down I guess, along with the shadow and ritual stones.

 

[UnseenXAssassination]

Truly at the start i use theifs stone but later on i used the lover stone becuase i want to level up all my skills..

 

[Dar'Neko]

Basically use whatever of the Guardian Stones suit my playstyle at the start, then when I get the Aetherial Crown I add Steed Stone.

 

[Cherry]

I use one of the Guardian Stones until about level 12, when I switch to the Atronach if I'm a mage, or Lord if I'm any other type of character.

 

[Streets]

You could have made Guardian stones / Lover stone one poll option since they do the same thing, skill increase, then there are 9 others after that.

Guardian/Lover, I encourage you to sleep in a bed instead.
Steed, wear Light Armor and/or take the Unhindered Light / Conditioning Heavy perk, along with Pickpocket's Extra Pockets perk. Or just manage your inventory.
Tower, just pick the lock.
Shadow, craft an Invisibility potion of 18 seconds with common ingredients when your Alchemy skill is 15 and no perks invested.
Apprentice, good for Magicka regen, but terrible because regen is so slow during combat, and enemy casters dominate you.
Serpent, with 15 Alchemy skill, you can create a 4 second Paralyze poison that does 4dps over 10 seconds Imp Stool 1gold, Canis Root 14gold, any lingering ingredient such as Slaughterfish Egg 9gold.
Ritual, a decent stone with a unique effect, maybe not so useful because it's only once per day, but it will help you in a pinch.
Lady, OK for vampires who don't have regenerative gear or the Restoration perk Recovery, but 25% is not noticeable to make it worth choosing as a stone.

Lord, a great early source of 25% magic resistance, constant effect. This is an excellent stone because of the solid magic resist benefit.

Atronach, another excellent source of magic resistance, in the form of 50% absorb. When coupled with the Breton's daily power, you can experience 1 full minute of magic immunity. Easy to tackle Dragon Priests and tough mages like Malkoran, Halldir, or Azura's Star. The only reason I wouldn't use this stone is if I were using Conjuration, because it absorbs your own summons sometimes. This effect absorbs Falmer poison, animal diseases, Dragon shouts, etc. It also increases your Magicka pool by 50, and the -50% regeneration is not at all noticeable since all regeneration is terrible anyway. But your Blue Bar will be constantly replenished by the things it absorbs. If you use absolutely no magic, you won't benefit from this as much as you could, but I still think 50% absorb is better than 25% resist.

As you can see, Atronach is by far and beyond my favorite, with a side of Lord.

 

[Ritterkreuz]

I start with the thief stone, then go on to the Lover's stone, finally when most of my levels are high enough I switch to the Lord Stone

 

[John Murphy]

I start with whatever stone my character benefits from in the beginning, but then i will switch to the atronarch stone. If you are playing on master difficulty, which is very fun and challenging then those mages are going to really kick you in the balls. It helps to have that extra resistance to magicka attacks. Just my opinion. depends on what difficulty you play and your enchantments, also your race.

 

[DdraigGwyn]

Not only does the Lover Stone boost all skills, it means you means you never need to sleep, since it duplicates the Well Rested bonus.

 

[Twiffle]

im currently playing without any stone, and to be honest, i havnt noticed anything really except i level up really slowly, im playing on expert because im an old man , but still fun for an experiment coupled to my other experiment with staffs,

 

[Nocte Aeterna]

If I can ever get to the Steed Stone early on in the game, a Weaponmaster build with heavy armor is fantastic.

 

[Shadow King]

steed stone is always my number 1 choice 100 carry weight always comes in handy. the time u save from unloading all your crap into ure house really adds up if u can save a few trips

 

[Anwrise888]

 

[LaSposaCadavere]

Basically use whatever of the Guardian Stones suit my playstyle at the start, then when I get the Aetherial Crown I add Steed Stone.

I do the same thing until I get filthy rich and don't carry around so much stuff. Then I switch to the Lover Stone + whatever Guardian Stone levels the skills I'm currently using, since by that time I'm usually around level 60 and leveling up becomes slower.

 

[Psiberzerker]

I vote for the Atronach Stone.

 

[Volanere]

i always use the steed stone

 

[Agentoringe]

Meh, atronach stone simply bc it is the 3rd part to the ultimate defense in game, but a VERY close second is the ritual stone, it the fast track to having an army at your back and HILARIOUS to pull off...I remember one time I had 12 forsworn, 6 witches, 8 bandits, 2 giants, a mammoth, 3 frostbite spiders, a frost troll and 2 regular trolls plus 4-5 wolves all up following me at the same time, just gotta know which areas you can FT to without losing the pack, then wait 24 hours and go from there...

It's how I did labrynthian at level 13 and took down morokei, that quest is recommended on novice for level 20, but after slowly grinding through all the draugar before him I brought an army to bear when I released him, including my follower and a frost atronach had 14-15 draugar, 3-4 skeletons and a couple of trolls sadly he still killed all but one troll 2 draugar and my follower...stupid chain lighting lol

 

[Agentoringe]

...hmm, well I DID have a video to post but can't seem to find it anywhere...meh..oh well, lol try it out for yourself, lol tons of fun

 

[Skulli]

Lover stone for me. then when I'm quite a bit leveled up, the Lord stone.

 

[Skoomatrix]

I'll rock the lover stone until I get the perks I can't live without in my chosen playstyle (15 percent in all skills is better than 20 percent in just one subset of skills imo and I'm too lazy to sleep anywhere except breezehome also the well rested bonus doesn't even last very long) then when I have those perks I'll switch to Lord or Atronach. Lord if I'm Breton, Atronach if I'm not. Either way I'll have 50 percent magic resist or 50 percent chance to absorb all kinds of stuff like was previously mentioned: diseases, poison, spells of course, even shouts. Both of those stones are really useful.

I'll have to try the Ritual Stone, sounds like a lot of fun