Hello!

Im currently pondering getting the Atronach sign of my Breton archmage as he doesnt need the Mage stone anymore.

The extra magicka is always handy and the built in magical defense looks pretty good. Im just curious about one thing;

Right now Im using the Archmagi robe (+100% mana regen), the Morokei mask (+100% mana regen) and a ring that also gives me +100% mana regen. As you can see, I pretty much geared up to be a mana battery, on purpose.

If I take the Atronarch sign, will my +300% bonus be lowered to 250%, or will it actually be cut in half to 150%? Because I can totally live with the former, but if its the latter, Ill pass.

Thanks

I think you're making the correct assumption, but I haven't properly experimented this myself. I think it would be best if you activate the stone and read what penalty it gives on your active effects.
EDIT- I just looked it up.

• http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Magicka +50pts
  
• http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Spell_Absorption 50%
  
• http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Regenerate_Magicka 50% slower

I believe this means your 300% bonus is lowered to 250%.

use the lord stone, it gives you even more magic resistance, and it gives you 50 bonus to defense it counts as armor, magic regeneration is really slow during combat and so even having it go twice as fast isn't a huge help, its better to go with a fortification and reducing magic cost.

Hm, the Atronach stone is the best defense there is against magic. The way spell absorb stacks with my natural MR/Maras Agent/Alteration MR means the Atronach stone makes me impervious to magic. Regarding physical defense, I have the high end armor spells, so I can hit the defense cap at will though it requires some micromanging. Admittedly the Lord stone has the nice benefit of bringing me exactly to 85% MR instead of 60, which happens to be the cap and is very nice, but with the Atronach, I could get full immunity on demand by casting my racial power that stacks with it to provide 100% spell absorbtion.

Lord definitely has some upsides, but I think Atronach might be worth it. If I spent a couple extra perks in Alteration I could get 80% passive spell absorbtion with Atronach without even using my racial power, and that, coupled with 60% passive MR, means 92% passive defense against magic. Lord stone otoh would give 85% MR and 30% SpAbsorb with the same perk setup, and that's less overall protection.

Although the Breton/Atronach combo is very powerful since you can be immune to magic once a day (laugh at dragon priests) and have a constant 62.5% reduction. Also, when fighting mages, they keep your magicka filled.

Why does the Atronach sign even allow you to regenerate magicka?

Because nobody would realistically use it otherwise. The magicka system in this game is very different than previous ES, as you can deplete your reserves with only a couple of big dualcast spells. Maybe if it gave 1000 magicka it would be worth using without any regeneration, but even then I doubt it Wouldnt want to spend half the game fighting my flame atronarchs to regain mana like I did with ghosts in Morrowind. Gaming theory has evolved beyond this.


Much more than 62.5% actually given a Breton can get a passive 60% MR naturally (25 from race, 15 from Agent of Mara, 20 from Alteration perks) on top of the 50% from the Atronarch, which means a 80% reduction. If you go all the way in Alteration and get the perk for 30% Atronarch, then its a 60% on top of 80%, hence my previous 92% passive reduction figure. Lord stone only gives 88% and no magicka bonus, but no regen reduction. Sure the perks require an investment but Agent of Mara is a quest perk, so everyone should have it in due time.

As for the mana regen, I just tested it in game, and it only reduced my regen to 250% if my watch is any good.

Right, I meant as a base with no items or perks. It's the best starting resistance possible.

I mean to try the Lady Stone in conjunction with a mage character - supplementing high magicka regen with Stone-enhanced Health and Stamina regen. Though I daresay that Stamina regen is about useless for a mage.

One of the things that annoys me abouit using the Atronach is that your summon spells will have a chance of being absorbed by you, causing you to get your magicka back and letting you try it again..this gets annoying in combat...

There's a mod for that if you're on PC:
http://www.skyrimnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=3352

us dirty prole gamers and our PS3s...

With the official construction set coming out soon, it is said that you will be able to share your modifications through steam. I'm assuming this is going to be very similar to how the gmod works. That said, it may be possible to download mods through steam on the PS3.

who knows. It would take a hell of a lot of modding to fix Skyrim.

But we can use Steam on the PS3?

well thats true, i forgot that part, however the lord stone does give magic resitance and armor boost which is pretty significant if you're playing a mage but the antronach stone can be viable too, it is powerful but i go for the armor and magic resitance myself, maybe i will try the antronach stone somet time to see how it works for me.