Hey all as the title suggests I have some questions concerning Restoration:

1) I took the first rank of the Restoration perk Recovery which is supposed to increase Magicka Regen by 25%. I noticed that the perk does not show up in my list of Active Effects. Is this a bug, and am I still receiving the benefits of the perk? I took the first rank of Magic Resistance in the Alteration tree and it DOES show up under Active Effects, so why not Recovery as well?

2) Assuming Recovery works as stated (even if it is not listed under Active Effects), is it worth getting both ranks for my Destruction mage build? Keep in mind that I will not be using Enchanting to bring Magicka costs to 0 (too boring), making Magicka Regen a much more important factor for my character.

3) To anyone who has taken the Avoid Death perk, was it worth it/useful? Right now my mage is a "glass cannon" so he only has base 100 Health, and he does not use Heavy or Light Armor. I currently play on Adept but was considering upping the difficulty to Expert or even Master; obviously if I'm getting one-shot having this perk isn't going to save me, but I have no experience with this perk so...

I am aware that Magicka regens a lot slower when in combat; nevertheless Recovery is a passive perk, as is Avoid Death, which is nice, and stacking with other Regen gear I might get some appreciable differences out of it, if it works. Your thoughts and experiences are appreciated!

1. I'm not sure. I haven't heard of anybody saying its not applying.

2. If it does work, then yes, yes, yes. The faster your magicka regens the better when draining even 200 or 300 magicka on destruct spells.

3. If your only putting points into magicka, then yes avoid death will help. I have never been one-shotted on normal difficulty but you didn't say if you were planning to play on a difficulty that one-shots happen more frequently.

Avoid Death is one of my favorite perks in the game. Combining it with the Recovery Perk (the one that increases healing spells) and Sailor's Repose allows you to get 400 health restored automatically, though if you're not putting levels into health you might not find the need for those other two things.

1- yes it is working. It just isnt listed under active effects. Once you hace both ranks it will be really obvious it is working.

2- yes recovery is worth it, and both ranks. Anyone using heavy magic will benefit (this doesnt account for enchant cheapery, but in most cases) and anyone who uses many schools of magic will make great use of it.

3- avoid death works ok. Its kindof an icing on the restoration cake, esp with 90 as the skillqualifier. Not necessary but if you hate dying this can help prevent it.

Yes regen is slower in combat, but on one of my characters with the arch-mage robes and morkei mask I have +200% regen so my magicka bar replenishes from zero to full in about 30 seconds during combat. It does make a difference, at least as I experience it.

Mages who choose to can completely eliminate the cost of spells in one or two areas with legit enchanting. If you're going pure destruction, you should consider this before investing perks in regen. Even then, it wont be "wasted" because you'll still enjoy the benifits when using spells outside your chosen specialty.

It seems he doesn't want to do that. That's why the regen perks are more important to him.

Thanks for the input guys!

I don't know about Expert/Master (I've never played at those levels) but I've read about certain Draugr on Master that can deal ~200 (200+ ?) damage when wielding bows and Ebony arrows IIRC. Obviously the best way to avoid taking damage is to not get hit, but we all know you'll get hit at some point or another, and if I tried playing this char on Master with only 100 base health...well, if anyone else has done this and succeeded AND still enjoyed the game, I'd certainly appreciate any advice you could provide. Concerning Avoid Death, I'm curious if it loses usefulness on higher difficulties due to enemies dealing more damage (with only 100 Health how often can I expect to die in one hit vs. getting this perk to proc?).

I'm sold on Recovery glad to know it works as advertised (though it would be nice to see it listed under Active Effects).

I completely forgot about Avoid Death requiring 90 skill level so obviously I won't worry about not having it for quite a while. Thanks again guys!

If you use multiple schools of magic frequently like i do on my Argonian Mage, then the best way to go is to dual enchant +Fortify Magicka with +Fortify Magicka Regeneration. I use Destruction to deal damage, Alteration for Ebony Flesh/Dragon Hide, Restoration for Grand Healing/Heal Other on Follower/Dog, Illusion for Call to Arms to buff Follower/Dog, Conjuration for Soul Trap for filling Soul Gems, and dual Conjure Dremora Lord/Storm Atronach for the tough ass Dragons from the DD mod.

Keep in mind that perks don't typically (do they ever?) show up as active affects. For example if you take two levels of Armsmen you don't see the +40% one-handed damage as an active effect.

Think of perks as skills while the active affects are magical/divine/demonic enhancements and potion/poison/disease effects.

True but all you have to do to confirm it is to look at your weapon damage and you can plainly see the increase. This is true of Archery, One-Handed, and Two-Handed. Magic Resistance in the Alteration tree shows up in the Active Effects page, and using your description of active effects as magical/divine/demonic enhancements, I'd say increased Magicka Regen via Recovery perk counts as a magical enhancement, yes? Sorta like Magic Resistance.

Just saying that it'd be nice if the effects of Recovery would display under Active Effects along with Magicka Regen enchantments.

Here is what the UESP says about Avoid Death. "Once a day, heals 250 points automatically if you fall below 10% health. (Only if the damage does not kill you.)." [emphasis added].

The only time Avoid Death triggers is if you get hit by a blow that is powerful enough to take you to below 10% of your health without actually killing you. If you only have 100 health, your health must be between 1 and 9 for the perk to kick in, so it would seem that this perk actually becomes more useful if you have a higher health. At 400 health, for instance, the perk will kick in when you are below 40.

Since most blows that take you to below 10% of health are going to kill you, Avoid Death is not as useful as you might think.

Here is the UESP link: http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Restoration

Nevermind.

edit- mispost

Thanks you make a very good point, and it has also come to my attention that with a skill of 90 in Restoration (needed to take the perk), I should be able to cast the necessary healing spells to keep me alive. And if I stay at 100 health, it won't be hard to completely replenish at all.

I suppose I could play a mage that dumps all points into health (I've read that a lot of people prefer to do this when playing on Master no matter what the build), but that just wouldn't feel very mage-y. Warriors on the other hand...