Enchanting confuses the hell out of me. As I see it, you disenchant one piece of perfectly useable kit, lose it as a result and put it on something that may not work. How confusing is that.

So, just finished Winterhold quest and am an arch mage. Level 15 dark elf, 2000 gold, lots of potions and weapons and soul gems and armour.

Now , listen up, all my fights and fighting so far have been done 90% by my flame atronach, no kidding, I just watch, lobbing the odd fireball. But I need to enchant some of my wepons and armour for foes to come. Particularly, I will need resistance to other wizards, I guess and better armour. So where do I start.

I have glass axe, Axe of Whiterun, Nord axes and a bound sword and other stuff. I killed a dragon recently and absorbed its soul into the axe. What does that mean ? Where did the soul go -- is that the health bar under the axe?

Can someone tell me in plain english, what to disenchant, what to enchant, to get through the fights to come.

Really confused with enchanting although I have enchanted a ring with 3% gain in magicka. Big freakin' deal !

I,m calling FREEPHONE Todd Howard. I want a refund.

-first of all, you will need to boost enchanting to 100 to make useful items out of it
-second, disenchant weaker weapons or armors, a mace that does 15 fire dmg has the same enchantment of a mace that does 30 fire damage, so disenchant the weaker stuff.
-to boost enchantment you'll need to enchant stuff, even crappy one, doesn't matter, use small soul gems (all but grand) and then sell the stuff you enchant if you need some money, it will be worth more if it's enchanted, even if it's no good
-you will also need to perk the enchanting tree to have good enchanted weapons and armors, wait until 100, perk the tree and use grand soul gems (grand) for the best enchantment,

No the soul of a dragon is absorbed but you'll find it in your Magic Menu. Click on SHOUTS and at the very low right part of your screen you'll see your dragon soul listed. If you have already learned a word, click on it and when it says "Need a soul etc.." click on the soul listed below the Menu and press the requisite key (R for PC) to unlock it. You cannot trap a dragon soul in a gem. The soul can only be absorbed and then used to unlock words of the shouts. I have disanchanted everything except for a ring Fort. Health 20%. I have increased my enchanting skill and have enchanted my Glass Weapons with Silent Moons enchantment, Fire and Soul Trap. First disenchant (specially when it's at low rate and you won't use it). Then later enchant and most of all, play with the Enchanting Altar to learn all the tricks. It's like Alchemy. Save and then play, trying few combinations, write it down, reload and do it for good.

Edit: You don't need to wait level 100. Use the perks yes but also buy or, better, create your own potions of Fortify Enchanting. Before enchanting, drink the potion and enchant quickly. Even if the potion mentions 30 min. it lasts less than that. Enchant a set of 5 pieces (Falmer Helmet together with a Circlet) ring, necklace and gloves with Fortify Alchemy to create strong potions of Fortify Enchanting.

uuuhhh, there's no fortify enchanting enchantment for armors, you can only use potions...

anyway if you use fortify enchantment potions AND wait for enchanting to reach 100 you'll have the best enchantment possible.

Oh thank you so much for having corrected me. Of course it was stupid... I had alchemy in my head and wrote about enchanting. Glad that you were here..

Getting decent use out of that really requires a decent enchanting skill and multiple grand soul / black soul gems. It seems unlikely the OP has either.

Yeah, when your enchanting skill is low, disenchanting this to make your own enchantments is often a letdown. Robes that both reduce casting cost and boost magicka recovery are possible exception - the recovery rate boost is the same regardless of you enchanting skill (or lack there of). Raising it up (aside from temporarily with potions) just requires grinding out enchanted items. Go to a dwemer ruins and you'll pick up a bunch of petty soulgems - those work great for enchantment grinding. Pick up all the iron daggers you find on enemies you kill (or make a bunch to grind up your smithing skill) and enchant them with the petty soulgems when you get the chance, using whatever enchantment gives the highest resulting value.

Once you get enchanting up to a decent level and buy a few perks, you start being able to make stuff that matches / beats what you can find. However, the main advantage (before reaching 100 skill) is that you can crank out as many of an item as you want, placed on whatever you want. This is primarily useful for (as in Chimpy's example) making yourself a full set of 4 / 5 items that all fortify the same skill. For example, if like to do smithihg, you can grab a an apron, gloves, ring, and necklace, and throw "fortify smithing" on all 4, which will make you smithing a lot better (potentially a HUGE amount better). You may find a necklace or ring that's better than what you can make, but you almost certainly won't find items for all 4 slots.

And don't sweat the fact that you destroyed an item. Doing so raises you enchanting, and you'll likely find another with the same effect, probably a more powerful version.

You're the Arch-Mage.....so you can go to the 2nd floor of the Hall of Attainment, scoop up everything in the Alchemy Lab there, then next to that is the Enchanting Lab, scoop up the free gems in the display case.

The 2 labs re-spawn regularly (every couple of days it seems), so you'll always have some free minor gems for boosting your enchanting skill, and charging weapons, as well as ingredients for boosting Fortify Enchanting potions (spriggan sap in Alchy Lab, and all the snowberries outside, for example).

p.s. don't forget to check your old room in the Hall of Countenance, the free gems on the dresser top and the ingredients on the side table tops also respawn.

the best way to raise enchanting is to start small.

that ring that you mentioned is a perfect start.

use petty gems on crappy stuff like a silver ring.

everytime that you enchant or disenchant at early levels your skill goes up.


as to dragon souls theyb are used for shouts only.