Recently, with my new Orc Warrior character, I decided to try out Master difficulty without any sort of "power leveling". So at level 21 he has 52 (ish) Heavy Armor (+ a necklace that gives him +11 for a total of 63) and I've been annihilating enemies. That is, until I started running into the forsworn. Unbeknownst to me, armor rating has no effect toward magic, so every time there's a mage forsworn, I find myself on the other end of the annihilation.

First off, I want to say armor rating should defend against a portion of magic attacks (ice spikes/fireballs, shouldn't armor get in their way?) though lightning attacks shouldn't be affected by armor (and in reality, if the armor is made from metal, it should probably do increased damage).

If you would like to discuss that, I wouldn't mind seeing what ideas you all have on that subject, but I stand before you today asking for help.
My Orc has almost no skills above 15-20 in magic/stealth (I wanted to make him a "true warrior") and as such, almost no perks in those categories.
Enchanting is at 45, with +60% effectiveness (3/5 of the first perk)
Alchemy is at 18, no perks
Also, with his two-hand at almost 70, I'm not really looking to stop using his Skyforge Steel Battleaxe for a sword and shield.

What would be the best way to increase his magic resistance? Should I try furthering my enchanting and search for magic/shock/fire/ice resistance enchants? Should I build my alchemy to make potions?
Ahh, I just don't know. Any help would be much appreciated.


:TLDR
-need ways to increase magic resistance (Enchanting 45 with 3/5 of first perk, alchemy 18 with no perks)
-ideas much appreciated

Have you tried the quest "The Book Of Love"? The reward for that is 15% magic resist. Also in the alteration tree its possible to get 30% magic. Combined with the lord stone which is 25%, gives you decent magic resistance.

I never used magic resist on any character.

I find it's not worth it when your average mage can be taken down with a quick sprint, bash and slash.

What I'm saying is, if your fighting style is adaptable it doesn't matter what you are against. I prefer using tactics to get by over relying on enchantments. (Although I do wear a health boosting enchantment for the early levels, with my setup, if I don't, I get killcam'd by everything haha.)

Actually, you have it the other way around - fire should do more damage against someone in armor (no effective heat ventilation) unless the armor is treated for heat, and armor would end up being a cheapo faraday cage, reducing the amount of damage you take from electricity.

Enchanting would probably be easier than alchemy to get decent magic resist, but I'd carry storebought/game generated potions of resistance to help along with health fortification until you get more advanced.

you can enchant rings, necklaces, and i think armer with either general magic resistance, or on a lager but more specific defense of one of the three individual "elements"

best to use resist potions and enchanted armour with a mixture of the resist elements to multiply the resistance, and just re enchant more armour as your enchantment skill increases

Its the only way you will survive some of the Necromancy nests at later levels

Enchant a Necklace for frost resistance, ring for fire, shield for lightning.

Resistance enchantments DO NOT STACK. So you only need to put 1 resistance on each piece.

If you are using a 2h weapon, get the double enchantment perk (100 enchanting) and enchant your necklace or ring to have 2 resistance.

easy

wear a shield. 50% magic resistance. if you have problems with forsworns, than good luck with high lvl ice mages. they 1hit you without magic resistance. probably even 1hit you with like 20%... depending on your health



edit: oh you don't want a shield... try to find a shop where you can get a ring or necklace for magicresistance. or buy potions.

if neither of these work for you.... lvl up alchemy or enchanting

http://www.gamesas.com/fire-resist-stack-t185763.html

Resistances do stack from enchantment, they just don't appear to. While they are listed as "Peak Value Modifier", they have no keyword associated with them, meaning that they are functionally identical to simply being Value Modifier.

Yeah, the forsworn mages have started using that big ball of ice spell (whatever that one is called) and it's almost always a one-hit kill. Plus they ice spike the crap out of me so I can't dodge anything. Ever since I learned that enemies' stats get spawned based on when you get to that area, I've been trying to stay in one area before moving on to the next so I could increase the difficulty.


After I posted, I wondered about whether it would act as a faraday cage. As long as your entire body was covered with metal it would, but if (for some reason) you wore non-metal leggings, or there was a disconnected portion, with no way to ground wouldn't it fry you?

And yeah, I see what you're saying with the heat thing. Though, I feel only the flame spell would really do that. Fireballs and on would hopefully just glance off the armor. I don't know. It makes sense in my head haha.

Seriously? I have that as an active quest, but I don't think I've ever done it in any play-through of the game. I'll definitely have to go do that. Is it 15% in the form of a ring, necklace, shield, or becomes an active effect?

Its a permanent active effect.

Aww snap. So with Lord Stone and that quest completed I would have 40% resistance? Then I could just enchant some jewelry and have around... 66% (I believe at my current skill, it's 13% with a grand soul gem).
Sounds promising. I'm going to go try that, and then see what happens when I fight the Hagraven who stole the Malakarth Jarl's family shield.

Waste of perks if he's taking enchanting.

Get the agent of mara (15% like this person said), the lord stone provides 25% and you can enchant your own necklace/ring for magic defence. With 3/5 and enchanting at 45 you should be able to make a 10% enchantment using a potion.

The mages do a ridonkulous amount of damage in general, Seriously, master is supposed to double damage taken, ok, so i should take 70 damage from an ice storm, not my entire health. It seems to multiply the damage quite a bit more for enemy mages. And like someone said before, shields are best for a warrior char, the 50 percent resistance works very well, plus i am doing the same thing you did, refusing to use enchantments aside from a necklace and ring, and i found some pretty good resist fire and magic rings and necklaces, works preetty well. Enchanting is just....so...tedious.

I believe that's because destruction magic is a lot stronger for NPC mages than for the player since destruction scales damage-wise for NPCs

Like others have said, the Agent of Mara perk + Lord Stone is best against Mages, since it grants you 40% Resist Magic right there. Using a Shield with the Elemental Protection perk grants 50% Resistance to all Elements when you block. The Spellbreaker Shield is godly when it comes to mitigating magic damage, the ward it puts up can completely absorb the breath of even an Ancient Dragon.
This here will help you understand how to make the most out of Resists, and how to get them.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXyGs_yw3z4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6KUDXbfRZY

God forbid that happen with us >_<