Equilibrium drains your health and boosts your magicka. The healing spell uses the magicka and heals you - in an endless circle. Just beware that equilibrium has no safeguard and if you're ratio is off, it will gladly eat all your health and kill you

They don't need boosting. They're already pretty much the best summon in the game and you can have 2 of them. Basically Conjuration and Illusion are stupid powerful. Cast frenzy, summon two dremora lords, and go invis and watch as everything dies.

Ever hear of Blood Magic? This is Skyrim's version

You'll need mage armor. I had a spellsword who wore gauntlets/boots a long time ago and then I fought a Dwarven Sphere Master. I got owned, hard.

better way to level restoration is just corner a draugr and repeatedly cast turn undead on him.

How can you have two of them?
Is it with that last perk you can unock at level 100? Are they considered "atronachs?"

Well, if you are a spellsword engaging in melee combat, then you need either mage armor or real armor (apart from the mage armor perk, there is no penalty for a mage wearing armor in Skyrim, unlike Oblivion).

However, if you are playing a "pure" mage that does not engage in melee, then you don't need mage armor -- just don't get hit. That frees up three perks and allows you to wear dragon priest masks, enchanted gauntlets, falmer helmets (which can be worn in conjunction with a circlet to give you another enchant slot), etc.

My robed mage is level 32 and runs around with an AR between zero and about 30, depending on what he is wearing at the time and I have not had any issues. Just keep your distance, dodge arrows and don't get hit by melee opponents too much and you will be fine. There are also ward spells that do a pretty good job, if you get some Restoration cost reduction gear.

Yeah its doable, keep in mind this was literally my first skyrim character.

I had an Altmer spellshield who wore elven armor and got her to 50, honestly I could have just went robes and just had the shield.

Yeah, shields are pretty awesome since you can stagger, which interrupts spells and brings wards down. My nightblade uses a shield and a bound sword, so my robed mage wanted to focus on wards (since I have no other character that uses wards) but the spellshield idea sounds intriguing.

Yes it's the final perk that allows you to have two Dremora Lords. Once you reach that point you'll never have to directly fight another enemy if you choose. They'll do it for you. Occasionally you may have to resummon one or both but eventually they'll kill anything. They are very powerful and have a good bit of health. They made excellent tanks on my Destruction/Conjuration mage and unlike companions, you don't have to worry about whether your spells are killing them or not since you can just resummon them.

Are Dremora Lords immune to Fire?

Do you see any real benefit to going up the atronach side as opposed to going up the necromancy side to twin souls? Seems like it is fewer perks to get there on the necromancy side and if dremora lords are the most powerful things you can summon and they are not affected by the Atromancy or Elemental Potency perk anyway. You can avoid the Elemental Potency bug that breaks summoning staves by going up the other side of the tree, and you can always pick up the two Summoner perks later and those work bor both atronachs and undead. All around it seems better to go up the right side of the tree.

What are your thoughts on that?

EDIT: I just read on the UESP that the Atromancy perk affects dremora lords, dispite the language of the perk description that only applies to atronachs, so I guess that would be a benefit to going up that side of the tree. Now if only they would fix that Elemental potency bug . . .

According to the UESP, the Atromancy and Summoner perks (but not Elemental Potency) work on Dremora Lords despite the description being limited to Atronachs, so the Atromancy perk would be another way to make a Dremora Lord last longer.

Spell Tome availability is not based on your character level, but rather on your skill level in the relevant school of magic. Each level of spells becomes available at 10 skill less than the appropriate perk that reduces casting costs for those spells becomes available.

For example, Adept spells have a perk to reduce costs available at 50 skill level, so spell tomes for those spells become available at 40 skill level from vendors that are set up to sell them. What vendor sells what is important to know as only the college spell vendors sell the higher level tomes in the base game, meaning you'll never find Expert or Master level spells available for sale anywhere else but at the college vendors for each spell school. The court wizards will typically sell Destruction Adept level spells once you reach appropriate skill levels with a few exceptions. The Riften court wizard Wylandriah, for example, sells Adept level Alteration spells when you reach 40 skill in Alteration.

The levels for spells sold from relevant vendors are as follows:

Novice - always available
Apprentice - always available (15 really but you start the game with at least 15 in all magic schools so they'll always appear)
Adept - 40 skill level in the matching skill
Expert - 65 skill level in the matching skill
Master - 90 skill level in the matching skill, completing a Master level quest from the college's Master teacher is also required

Hey everyone,
Sorry i didn't respond earlier.
I've read every post, and they are all great. Thanks for all the help, especially all the clarification on spell tombs and the conjuration perk tree. Really clears alot up.
I am going to pursue going pure mage, concentrating on Destruction and Conjuration and minoring in Restoration and Alteration.
I have decided my 3rd character will be my vampire that specializes in Illusion and has a giant blade.

Anyone know where to become a vampire easily?

Movarth's lair north of morthal

The advantage of having the shield is that you no longer crap your pants when something wielding a two-handed weapon closes the distance. That and high powered mages (shield bash then cast your spell)

Stamina Regen gear is key with a spellshield