I just spent about 30 min doing this and making one item, just to see what it can do. It's just no fun when you can one hit KO Draugr Deathlords which are supposed to be one of the most dangerous mobs in Skyrim.
So while it may be interesting to explore the glitchm ultimately it takes away a lot of fun from the game, knowing you're almost invincible in any fight.

If you wanna cheat, it's simpler to reduce difficulty to novice instead of grinding for 30 minutes. And noone is forcing you to cheat

Wasn't trying to cheat - anyway I'll play it how I will, thank you very much.
I was just experimenting, and my conclusion is that the glitch while interesting, takes away the challenge of fighting high level mobs and hence a large part of fun in the game.

Is it really a glitch? Or did Bethesda intend it to be that way?

More like an oversight maybe?

Restoration loop is really useful if you resist making items that enhance your combat abilities or godly weapons. On every character I use it to make two utility items - one that gives me almost infinite carrying capacity and another that fortifies lockpicking a ludicrous amount. I'm really OCD about picking up ALL the loot and hate having to visit my house after every dungeon and I also really dislike the fallout style lockpicking, so these two 'cheat' items make my game more enjoyable without taking out any of the challenge.

It indeed takes away most of the fun really quickly, but hey, if that's what people want to do, just let them.

I tried it once, cleared a dungeon and was bored immediately. Sneaking improved 15000%, lockpicking +15000%, damn near 1 billion health, millions of damage-- it was pretty lame. I restarted and am actually limiting myself to stopping at 70 smithing and only using glass equipment. The game's boring with no sense of danger or accomplishment.

Plus I like the lockpicking, makes me feel like I deserve whatever I steal (am playing a thief).

How can you even do this glitch? I heard of it and I wanted to try it out because I kinda want to make a huge fortify Picklocking enchantment that make it so I only need one breakable picklock and never can break another ever again...

Will give me a reason to give the Skeleton Key back.

The glitch allows you to feel stupid. That is all it does.

I love the glitch, made myself some fortify health/stamina/magic gear and fortify archery/one handed and am pretty much a God, which I find endlessly entertaining. People said I'd get bored within like 1 hour but I'm on I believe 40 hours or so and still going strong. The amulet of talos-fortify glitch in particular is amazing.

I don't know about anyone else but having a constant speed boost, being able to constantly disarm my enemies, being able to use other shouts while using storm call, being able to spam unrelenting force, etc. is very gratifying.

To each their own, I guess. I enjoy a balanced sense of combat to extend my gameplay and put myself in dangerous situations. If someone else enjoys plowing through the game, more power to them. Not my cup of tea, but hey...

Hell, I'm having the most fun on my mage with 100% stats going into magicka and not using impact. I could see how that could be seen as frustrating to someone else though.

And no, I don't think it was necessarily "intended" by Bethesda, probably more game-mechanics-that-weren't-fleshed-out type of thing.

If you don't want to use it, don't use it.
It doesn't amount to much when you protest how someone else plays their game. You don't like it or approve, okay then.

If I use it, I guess I should feel ashamed or stupid. Thanks everyone for that moment of clarity.

How do you do the glitch?

From what I have picked up does drinking potions fall under restoration. You drink a Fortify Restoration potion before you drink a Fortify Enchanting potion.

Wikis will know...

1. You need to start off with fortify alchemy items. Equip them
2. Make one fortify restoration potion
3. Drink it
4. Quickly unequip all your fortify alchemy items the. Re-equip them.
5. Make a new fortify restoration potion. Note that the effects are stronger. My 1st potion had a strength of 175%; my next one 375%.
6. Repeat from step 3 as often as you want.
Fortify restoration enhances alchemy. Finish off by making fortify smithing and enchanting potions to keep for future use.

I did the loop just 5 times and then enchanted a vanilla ebony sword with fire damage. Physical damage was 24, but fire damage was more than 13,000!

Check out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSmUCr5Cqpo. It explains it pretty well.

Oops. Hayashi beat me to it.

I just want to do for Enchantments on my armor. I hate killing everything in one hit and that sort of stuff.... I should like make a powerful smithing one then use that to upgrades my follower's sword. He uses Range like 80% of the time anyways... The other 20%.. Oh he's gonna **** some **** up.

Personally, I don't like the glitch, it feels cheap. However, we need glitches like this that make the game easier for those who want it.

How high does your Alchemy have to be before this works effectively? Mine is at like 35 and I'm burning through fortify restoration potions like a fat kid through holloween candy and only getting a small increase every time. I get how to do it, it just seems like I'm gonna need like 40 or so potions before it'll have a noticible effect... does alchemy have to be all the way at 100? 'Cuz it's kind of a pain in the ass to grind.

My alchemy was at 70+ when I started. It brought me to 100 in practically no time at all.

Remember the skeleton key from Nocturnal in Oblivion. You could unlock anything. In Skyrim we have the opportunity to create our own Skeleton Key. Right... The same for other things, comparing with Morrowind and Oblivion. Now who is quite sure that Restoration "glitch" is a real glitch?

I tried this and this is a Dangerous Exploit.

A Dangerous Exploit is an Exploit that CAN crash, and ruin, your game.

I found two ways how this Exploit crashed my game.

1: If you've done the Nirnroot quest and have a chance to make a 2nd potion...When redoing the step of making the Fortify Restoration Potions and you got a 2nd one... Keeping, drinking, using, etc the 2nd one WILL crash the game no matter what. Your best bet is to DROP it ASAP and when you do drop it, DO NOT try to pick it up again. The game will crash when your cursor moves over the Potion. Note: The potions you make via this exploit vanishes randomly. These 'bad' potions will most likely not be there next time you return to that alchemy area.

2: If you've fortify your restoration so much that you make enchants with a NEGATIVE amount then wearing the items with these will crash the game whenever you try to open your inventory or any container. Do NOT make Negative Enchantments! So far, Negative Prices doesn't crash the game...

Skeleton Key in Oblivion is same thing in Skyrim. You can unlock any door that DOESN'T require a key.

its not 'cheating' there is no ONE WAY to play this game. If you have PC you MOD which could be called cheating if you want to get technical about it, but its not, it's that person enjoying the game the way they want to.

You dont have to even USE the items you improve using the restoration glitch, so if it's to easy then just use different armor and weapons. Also, you don't have to go overboard with it, you can just do it so you're weapons are slightly above the max. With the lack of unique items in the game, this glitch is kinda cool for console players. I haven't used it myself, but I might use it for a sword eventually just for fun.