Ultimate damage mitigation build. Thoughts/comments?

[Agentoringe]

Ok, this is my uber tank build that I have currently at 81%, its really beast and especially after you figure out the "order of application" to the resistances (bc each checks separately) it's amazing...ok, keep in mind this is using the alchemy/enchanting trick along w necromage, it allows for the best results, so start w a Breton vampire, 25% magic resist/25% frost resist/25% fire weakness, take your 5 perks in alteration to get the 30% magic resist, now, you have shield/boots/ring/and necklace to use for resistances, add a magic resist 33% to your ring along w 33% fire enchant, (41% magic resist which yes is 11% over cap but meh lol and 41% fire resist to compensate for the 25% weakness) I'm just gonna give the augmented values to save time past that lol, on your neck/boots and shield, match up your enchants like this, fire/ice fire/shock shock/ice all will be 41% each which gives you the 80% cap to each resistance despite your weakness to fire plus an overall 80% magic reduction, and even if you wait 4-5 days so you have 50% frost resist and 50% fire weakness, you still have only 7% weakness so it's no big deal, lol now, here's the kicker and most important part, as a tanky sword n board meat slab, get the atronach stone, yes I know, alot of you scratch your head an say, "why would you go w a primary caster stone on a tank? Lord stone gives defensive bonuses" yes it does, but it only gives 50 armor and 25% magic resist, which w Breton blood and the alchemy/chanting trick it makes tw lord stone irrelevant...here's why the atronach stone, it's bc of how the game does its "order of operations" when it comes to defenses, the atronach stone cuts the damage of ANY spell or elemental effect by 50% and converts that 50% to magick...which the conversion isn't important, but the 50% spell/element mitigation is the bread and butter here...ok, here's the example of why this is ultimate, say a spell is going to hit you for 100 fire damage (using 100 bc it's easier on the number part of this lol) ok, spell hits you, 50% of it is gone immediately bc the atronach stone applies first, cutting the damage down to 50, then general magic resistance is applied, which is 80%, cutting the damage down to roughly 10, then elemental resistance is applied which is also 80%...cutting the damage to 2 points...with that order of application+ the 80% physical damage reduction from armor it basically makes you invincible except for that random doosh npc that has the "25% decapitate" perk >_< dang draugr death lords...now heres the awesome part, dragon shouts? Or thier "breath weapons" that are elemental based, frost fire draining etc, the atronach stone applies to them as well, then your elemental resistance, it skips the magic resist bc it's not considered a "spell" for that purpose...so using the previous example, except it stops at the 10 damage instead of 2 lol and yes, before you skeptics read the atronach stone, yes it says "absorbs 50% of >spells<" but it applies to elemental effects as well, not just dragon breath but elemental weapons as well...the reason i know it works on dragons is bc I only have it and the alterations perks on my priest and I can stand in a dragons breath and take little to no damage as a level 52 naked character, no armor...you can see the absorption "bubble" around your charcter...all this info is tested, lol, like hours and hours of fighting my follower w elemental weapons or a caster follower shooting spells at me or literally standing in a dragons b weapon without armor on, then putting the armor on and continuting to see the difference in scale lol ok so pretty sure I covered all my bases, let me know what you think about it

 

[Agentoringe]

*currently at level 81* lol and also this is taking into consideration that I would already have heavy armor skill maxxed etc...

 

[Streets]

That isn't how Magic Absorption works. The Atronach Stone provides a 50% chance to either completely absorb a magic effect, or do nothing to it. So in your example of doing 100 fire damage, the Atronach Stone checks first, has a 50% chance to absorb ALL of the damage, and a 50% chance to do nothing. Then your Magic resist kicks in, taking the cap of 85% damage down to 15 damage. Then if you also have 85% Fire resist, that stacks onto it as well, taking 85% of 15 damage down to 2.25 damage received.

With the Fire weakness granted to Vampires, at stage 4 you have a 100% weakness. To compensate for that, you would need 185% resist Fire gear to get the element fire resist up to the cap.

However, since you are a Necromage Vampire, you don't need to invest anything in Magic or Elemental resistances. You can gain permanent 100% Magic absorption. The steps are as follows:

1. Become Vampire and take Necromage perk (70 Restoration)

2. Equip Atronach Stone and take Atronach perk (100 Alteration)

The Atronach Stone and the Atronach perk both interact with being a vampire and receiving the 25% boost to everything. That conveniently makes the 50% from the stone go up to 62.5%, and the 30% from the perk go up to 37.5. When you add those two numbers together, you attain 100% Magic Absorption. This means you can stand naked in an Ancient Dragon's breath, while 55 Mages shoot all sorts of magic at you, and you will absorb everything, not taking one ounce of damage.

When you absorb 100% of magic, you don't need any resist magic or resist element gear or perks, as the magic that hits you will all be absorbed before it even has a chance to be checked.

As you can see, that is an Ancient Dragon using Fire breath against my Stage 4 Vampire, with NO Magic Resist gear at all - and my health bar hasn't appeared because I haven't taken any damage.

 

[Streets]

And as far as physical damage mitigation goes:

1. Take any armor you want up to the cap of 567 aka 80% physical damage reduction.

2. Apply the Master level Alteration spell "Dragonhide" for an additional 80% physical damage reduction. This stacks with armor, but the other Flesh spells do not, because they would add to the 567 number, not increasing the damage reduction if your armor is already capped.

3. Use a shield to block incoming attacks, reducing the damage by 85%, if you have enough Block perks, skills, and/or enchantments.

With this, if you block an attack of 100 damage, the shield immediately takes 85% of it away, down to 15 damage. The Dragonhide reduces this number by 80%, taking the damage down to 3. Now your 80% armor cap comes in and reduces the 3 damage even further to 0.6 from 100. If you don't get the block up in time, the 100 damage is reduced to 20 from Dragonhide, and then to 4 from armor cap.

 

[Agentoringe]

Ok, I can see where your coming from in some of this, and apparently the Xbox console version differs from the pc version, bc the wording on the atronach stone according to Bethesdas website, the official uesp wiki and my tv screen under my active effects it grants a flat 50% absorption, also, my vampiric weakness caps at 50%, same w resist capping at 50%, I have embrace of shadows blah blah, it doesn't go over 50% either way...so like I said, there must be a difference in pc and console versions...I've discussed this with 2 of my buddies that play skyrim on pc as well and thier weakness goes to 100% as well, idk about the atronach stone but here's a link
The Atronach Stone (Skyrim) - The Elder Scrolls Wiki and if you want I can post pics of my game if you think I'm making this up lol

 

[Agentoringe]

Ok, I retract my statement about the stone, it does say 50% spell absorption, which to me means absorbs 50% of spells, not the detailed description in the link that says 50% chance of absorbing all spell damage ZOMG so broke...plus the perk in the alteration tree gives you an 80% chance flat, to absorb all spells, and that gets augments from necromage?????? Holy crap...

 

[Streets]

Ok, I retract my statement about the stone, it does say 50% spell absorption, which to me means absorbs 50% of spells, not the detailed description in the link that says 50% chance of absorbing all spell damage ZOMG so broke...plus the perk in the alteration tree gives you an 80% chance flat, to absorb all spells, and that gets augments from necromage?????? Holy crap...

Haha yes!!! Welcome to the world of true damage mitigation, my friend.

 

[Agentoringe]

Yeah, that's rediculous, lol, that's the great news, the bad news is I has 2 characters to remake lol it's cool though, il level normally but if need be or if i get bored w grinding I can get back to 81 in about 4 hours of play...geez that's dumb lol

 

[Squirrel_killer-]

I learnt a neat, yet obvious, trick early back in Oblivion and have modified it for my tanker if you know what you're doing then you can just crank up Spell Absorption get armor cap from light armor, leaving you still agile and mobile, and that way you can dodge, because physical damage formula works like a giant if/then script when you know how to dodge.

Here's a few formulas as I understand them made simple so you can see their full effects. This Obviously isn't literally the formula they use, but it will give the same effect.

Magic Damage Formula:

Generate number from 1 to 100
If randomNumber => spellAbsorbChance then magicDamage = 0
If randomNumber < spellAbsorbChance then magicDamage = [(fireDamage*fireResist)+(frostDamage*frostResist)+(shockDamage*shockResist)]*magicResist

Physical Damage Formula:

If [((chestArmorRating+headArmorRating+handArmorRating+feetArmorRating+(piecesOfArmorWorn*25)*perks*(1+0.4*(skill/100)))+magicalEnhancements)*0.12] = >80 then armorDamageReduction = 80
If [((chestArmorRating+headArmorRating+handArmorRating+feetArmorRating+(piecesOfArmorWorn*25)*perks*(1+0.4*(skill/100)))+magicalEnhancements)*0.12] = =< 80 then armorDamageReduction = [((chestArmorRating+headArmorRating+handArmorRating+feetArmorRating+(piecesOfArmorWorn*25)*perks*(1+0.4*(skill/100)))+magicalEnhancements)*0.12]
If hit connects = yes then damage = weaponDamage*armorDamageReduction*(dragonhide)
If hit connects = no then damage = 0

As you can see you can make yourself a nearly unbeatable tank by maximizing your chance to absorb spells and your ability to dodge.

 

[Agentoringe]

O_O I have to start mentioning in my posts that I HATE math...lol I've sorted out most of the stuff w streets here, but thank you for breaking it down, however much I hate math, knowing the basics behind the result makes manipulating the end result easier