Spell absorption can be the most powerful defense against magic in the game if you are a Breton. With the Atronach Stone and Dragonskin activated, you are completely immune to magic for 60 secs -- there is no hard cap on spell absorb like there is on magic resist and elemental resist. For a mage character especially, spell absorb can be very rewarding.

HOWEVER

It can also be a pain in the ass if you use summon atronach/dremora lord a lot. There are bugs with the spell absorb effect... if you have 80% spell absorb from stone and perk, then you have an 80% chance to completely fail a summoning spell, as you are considered the target of the spell. There is also a bug where the circle of protection restoration spell also gets absorbed, effectively healing hitpoints and recharging your magicka while you remain in the area of effect... so this is kinda a "good bug", if you wanna call it that. There is a mod (if you're on PC) that fixes the summoning fail bug:

http://skyrimnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=3352

I use this mod myself, and as a big supporter of using spell absorb and conjuration, I have never failed a summons with this mod. It works.
-Loth

PS Healing spells work just fine, except for the high-level protection circle as I described above.

I will try, but I have no idea if I will succeed. The biggest hurdle is not the technical details, but the fact that there are actually a number of ways you could proceed from here, based on what your Smithing/Enchanting/Alchemy skills are already, and some other personal-choice character-development issues.

The quickest and easiest way to reach the armor cap is to put more perk points in Light Armor, particularly Agile Defender and Matching Set. If you opt to add Matching Set, you should ditch the Elven Gilded and go with regular Elven Armor (the opposite is also true: If you don't add Matching Set, keep the Elven Gilded Armor).

If you would rather not spend perks in Light Armor, you need at least the Elven Smithing perk. I am not sure what Smithing level is necessary to reach the cap (if you want to just hit it and avoid going over), but I would recommend at least 4 pieces of gear enchanted with Fortify Smithing (of at least 20%, more if you can manage it), and the strongest Fortify Smithing potions you can either make or buy. You should not need Enchanting/Smithing/Alchemy all maxed to reach the cap with Elven.

You can also combine these techniques to some degree, like maybe put more points in Agile Defender but use gear and potions to improve the gear to Legendary or beyond, and possibly add a few Fortify Light Armor enchantments.

I have no idea if that is clear to you or not, but I hope it helps. You actually have a lot of ways to reach this goal.

Sparrow: Good job on the gilded elven armor research. You have confirmed that Gilded is NOT considered part of the "set."

Alaston: When Whiskeyjack told you about that build, he assumed you were going to use smithing gear made at enchanting 100 with the specified enchanting perks in place, and also using the maximum soul gem (grand or black), whilst also using a store-bought enchanting potion to boost the gear to maximum effectiveness when created. He also assumed that you would then wear the smithing gear and drink a store-bought +50 smithing potion before improving your elven armor on the workbench. If you have the light armor perks he outlined in that post, as well as 100 in light armor skill, you will hit the cap. (I'm assuming his math was correct, but given these circumstances, it looks right) So... no more perks are required, you just need to get some top-tier soulgems, a couple of potions (+smithing and +enchanting) and 4 pieces of unenchanted gear (ring, necklace, etc.) that you can put 4 fortify smithing enchants on. After your armor is capped, you can ditch the smithing gear if you don't want to "uberify" your weapons.

-Loth

So summons are the only spells really effected? I wouldn't mind trying summons a couple of times to have absorb.... Does anyone know about Ariel's shade? Or atronachs from staffs? I could test in a week or so if need be.

Yes, summons (not raised dead) are the only things affected, for the most part. Arniel's Shade can get absorbed... but I don't know if staffed atronachs get absorbed -- that's a good question.
-Loth

Sweet! Looks like I don't need to start over! I have plenty of mana to try and cast atronachs a few times. In your opinion is this a true bug, or something to dampen the power of spell absorb?

It is a true bug and can be fixed with this mod. Dampening the power of spell adsorb by making conjuration (an already underpowered school) would be a strange design choice.

http://www.skyrimnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=3352

Ha -- you called Conjuration "underpowered".
-Loth

if it doesn't shoot bolts of fire or lightning, its not a legitimate school of magic. i think in-game references confirm this fact.

So YOU'RE the one who has been stealing Collette's research materials? I'm gonna tell on you!
-Loth

Yeah, not doin' that one. I went this road to maximize the perks available to use on other things in the first place.


I've got it.


My Alchemy, Enchanting and Smithing are all at 100. I guess I need the potions.

Clear enough.

Thanks.

Alaston: Did you see my post to you on the previous page? I hope that clarifies things for you.

-Loth

PS Keep posting if you're still having trouble with this... we're here to help.

This^

First, you will need 100 in the following skills: (1) Light Armor; (2) Smithing; and (3) Enchanting. Second, create a full 4-piece set of Fortify Smithing (25) gear (you will need Grand Soul gems filled with Grand Souls to do this). Third, go buy a Fortify Smithing (50) potion from a vendor.

All together, that will give you 250 Smithing (100 base Skill + 100% from gear + 50% from potion). Under those conditions, the build I outlined for you previously will produce a DR-capped set of Elven armor with minimal perk investment.

No, I hadn't. Thanks for bringing my attention to it.


Okay, that makes sense. Thank you very much,

Also, for the record, your light armor is a factor in your smithing ability. I have my gear up to the 480 area without any potions or enchanting gear already and I've not quite maxed it out yet.

Believe it or not, smithing improvements at the very basest level (with zero skill in any weaponry and no perks in smithing or weaponry) only adds +1 or +2 to the base value of the item. For example, a "Legendary" improvement to an unimproved weapon only adds +10 damage to it. It's when you multiply the scaling from weapon skill and weapon perks that you see such a big jump in the numbers. Having a high weapon skill (and perks) makes a tremendous difference.

-Loth

One handed weapons do a ridiculous amount of damage(~200) with just the relevant smithing perk. I think with one handed perks, the game would be trivial.

Fortify smithing potions don't stack?

Nope, they sure don't.

Damn.

Okay, gang. Let's take some baby steps:

I have all the ingredients for a Fortify Smithing potion. In fact, I can make about 300 of them.

I have all the ingredients for a Fortify Restoration potion. In fact, I can make about 300 of them.

I have all the ingredients for a Fortify Enchantment potion. In fact, I can make about 300 of them.

I have enough Refined Moonstone and leather straps to make about 100 sets of elven armor.

My smithing skill is 100. My armor skill is 100. My enchanting skill is 100. My restoration skill is 100.

I would like to make a potion that adds 200% to my smithing skill. Will someone tell me how to do that in very clear and specific terms, please?

200% is not possible without restoration exploits. 130% is the baseline used for all previous calculations.
pasted from first page:
Purchase and Drink a Fortify Enchantment potion (>=25%)
create 4 items with Fortify Alchemy enchantments 28% x4 (helm,glove,ring,amulet)

create then drink Fortify Enchantment potions 32%
create 4 items with Fortify Alchemy enchantments 29% x4 (helm,glove,ring,amulet)
create 4 items with Fortify Smithing enchantments 29% x4 (glove,armor,ring,amulet)
(you can put both enchantments on the same item if allowable, and you have twin enchantments perk)

create Fortify Smithing potions 130% while wearing 29x4 gear mentioned above

create your elven set - do not drink fortify smithing potion 130 yet

NOW drink the 130 smithing potions and upgrade your elven set.

drink the 32 enchantment potion and place enchantments on your new set of legendary elven armors.

you will likely have to spend a few potions during each phase because it only lasts 30 seconds but both potions are very easy to produce so dont worry if it takes 1 potion for every 2 pieces of enchanted gear.

Err... Wait a second...


I just took a potion that granted 176% bonus to smithing and then crafted the Elven set of armor.

The base stats for the armor are exactly the same as if I had drank no potion at all.


The enhanced smithing potions only affect your skill if you're improving the armor? Not if you're creating it from scratch?



EDIT: Thanks, Lendial. I'll give that a go.

Yes smithing potions work only for improving .
The stuff you create always has a fixed level , whether you have 40 in smithing and no perks or 100 with all the perks .
It's when you improve them that your stats and potions come into play

Finally got it!

636 armor total - without a shield.

That's slightly more than the cap, but not much. I went and tested it on a giant too, but it wasn't as though I "couldn't see my health bar even begin to drop." I definitely saw it drop. That said it did drop very slowly and I was able to manage my health pretty easily. I also don't have the additional enchantments on any of the gear yet. Things like Magical resistance, health, health regen... None of that stuff. It's all just unenchanted armor right now.

So far it seems to work well though, and I guess if I want to be really tanked I can tote my shield around.

Thank you all very much.

while blocking with a shield, you are quiet literally immune to even giants. now dont go overboard with your weapon damage or youll find yourself quickly bored.

This is excellent advice... but if you do accidentally over-boost a little bit, you can always raise the difficulty level (assuming you aren't already on master). We were discussing earlier in other threads what the "best" threshold was for not trivializing the game on master, and I think they came up with 10 power attacks to kill Alduin. Since Alduin has 3500 health (IIRC), and power attacks are double damage, try to keep your weapons no higher than 175 base damage. With max crafting gear and max alchemy synergy, this means a fully improved daedric dagger -- if you do this with a daedric sword, then you went overboard. Definitely don't put fortify one-handed enchants on your gear, because you will be quite OP.

Of course, you could skip alchemy altogether, and have a much larger "safe zone" with your crafting to not break the game completely. Plus... it saves you 8 friggin' perks.
-Loth

Phew!