I asked this before I started playing Skyrim, as I had used the sign to great effect with a mystical warrior in Oblivion, I could almost spam spells later in the game because every other magic attack was absorbed.

I accepted the sign in my current Skyrim game, but it seems as if ALL of a spell cast at me is absorbed instead of just 30% of the efffects. Granted, I have 20% magick resistance from Alteration perks, but I can pretty much just stand there and laugh as mages try to cast spells at me (especially frost, being a Nord).

Does Atronoch work properly? Or is it overpowered because of my magick resistance? I only really picked the sign because I had the Lover, but was leveling up too quickly, I felt.

Unlike Oblivion, you can change your sign in Skyrim if you find it too OP. I recently took the Atronach sign for my mage and it does seem pretty powerful, especially since it doesn't stunt your magicka regen (like it did in Oblivion and Morrowind) but only slows it down. It is supposed to absorb 50%, not 30% of spells. Its the alteration tree perk that absorbs 30%. If you have that and the stone, that would be 80%.

There is also a bug that makes conjuration summons not work if you have the Atronach stone (they get absorbed).

I'ts a hit-or-miss bonus, not a partial absorbtion. In other words, it is % chance to absorb 100% of the spell.

A magic resistance of 30% means that 30% of all magic attacks hitting you are reduced to zero.
Elemental resistance of 30% means that damage is reduced by 30%.

It was just like that in previous games, too.

Regardless, it's a perfect mage killer sign. I might take it on my next play-through. Thinking about doing a wizard-slayer character that uses no magick, only smithing and weapons/armor he finds.

what i don't get is how you can level "too quickly", leveling has no bad side effects, so how does one level too quickly? what's the point of holding back?

Also, my summons don't seem to be getting absorbed. I was casting frost atronach and bound swords with no problem.

Maybe it's just the game, but it was weird seeing higher level armors and weapons so soon.

Oh, I thought the magick resistance of the alteration perks said "Resist 20% of a Spell's Effects". So I probably am absorbing 70% of all spells cast at me, haha!

30%? Atronach stone gives you 50% spell absorption.

There are three types of spell resistance:
1. Spell absorption - gives you a chance to completely negate all of the spell's effects. That's what the Atronach Stone's power is.
2. Magic resistance - partially negates damage from a spell.
3. Elemental resistance - same as above, but applies only to a certain souce of damage (fire, frost or shock).

They're calculated in this order. Even if you don't absorb the spell, you still have a chance to resist some of it.
If you see that you absorb most of the spells cast at you, you're just lucky. Atronach isn't overpowered because of the summoning bug - it pretty much renders Conjuration useless, as you absorb your own summons.

Nope, it's magic resistance. You cancel 50% of all spells, and you resist 20% of damage of the spells that manage to hit you (60% if they're frost spells).


I don't know about the OP, but I was peeved when I noticed I'm at level 39 and have barely started MQ and the Thieves Guild. I don't go for 81 (only use my class skilss), so my character was almost maxed out. Never touched the Guardian Stones or Lover stone on any of my other characters

I used to use the Atronach but it was just too OP... I use the Lord Stone now =)

Really?

This is one of the main reasons I have not taken perk on my conjurer mage.

Could soemone else confirm this is not now the case, was it fixed in a patch that I was not aware of?

You don't have to have it on lower levels, I actually like the tower stone prior to level @25 because its great for getting into areas without having to level lockpicking.

I have a maxed character at level 41 100 Destruction/100 Alteration/100 Alchemy/100Enchanting/100 Speech

No, Magic Resistance will mitigate all Magic Damage (Fire, Frost, and Shock) by the corresponding percentage (up to 85%). Elemental Resistance is interchangeable with Magic Resistance (Elemental is typically used to describe a PARTICULAR element where Magic Resist is a COLLECTIVE term. Magic ABSORB has a corresponding percentage chance it will nullify the damage completely and the CASTING COST of the spell will be ADDED TO YOUR MAGICKA pool.

85% Magic Resist (Damage from Fire, Frost and Shock is reduced by 85%)
85% Elemental Resist (Damage from Fire, Frost and Shock is reduced by 85%)
85% Magic Absorb (85% of the time, the entire spell damage will be nullified)

Just in case I'm wrong about the summoning bug, I'll try again when I get home...but I know for a fact that bound weapons work, as they are my only form of physical attacks.

Maybe I should take off my enchanted items that have 40-60% shock and fire resistance for a little bit more of a challege.

Spell absorption doesn't have a cap. It's said to be 80% because the only two sources of this effect are Atronach Stone (50%) and Atronach perk (30%). But if you're a Breton or a vampire with Necromage perk, you can temporarily go up to 100% absorption.

One of the best things about Atronach is the synergy with the Breton racial power. They stack and give total immunity to magic for 60sec a day so you can walk right up to dragon priests without taking any damage at all.

edit: beat me.

I haven't tried it in a couple of patches due to the summoning bug. Found out about it when I tried to summon Lucien LaChance and failed. Being a greater power I got screwed.

That's true, I was just doing a side-by-side comparison to show the differences or similarities in the attributes.

Oh. You used the correct caps for both magic and elemental resistance, so I assumed it applied to spell absorption as well

Wondered why I have to cast a summons spell two or three times for it to work now.

For some reason the summon bug does not seem to affect bound weapons, only summoned creatures. Not sure how you are able to sumon frost atronachs without a problem though if you have the Atronach stone. 50% of the time the spell should be getting absorbed, unless they fixed the bug with the latest patch.