Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Playing as a Mage – Some Tips and Observations

Some observations and recommendations:

Playing as a dedicated mage can be tough.  The lack of defense or ability to damage at close range is a big drawback.  Dual wielding destruction spells looks nice but isn't effective or convenient.  Being able to maintain a high defense with a stoneflesh spell or similar I've found usually takes precedence and alternating to a dual wielding destruction spell setup isn't feasible in the heat of battle.  So I wouldn't recommend using up perks on dual wielding destruction.  Expending effort to remain undetected is usually the most rational choice for a mage in battle.  An important perk for a dedicated mage would thus be Quiet Casting.  Restoration perks speeding up magic regeneration are also useful and easy to overlook.

I've also found a dedicated mage really needs an NPC tank to help block and prevent enemies from approaching.  A cheat of sorts is having Barbas along.  Barbas is pretty much indestructble and of more use than the daedric artifact his quest line is related to so don't be in a hurry to finish that quest if at all.  Still Barbas like other NPC helpers can be incapacitated with ice spikes, wander off, or be left behind during a fight.

Fortify Restoration Cheat Step-by-Step Instructions

The fortify restoration fortify alchemy fortify enchanting loop is a potentially game busting exploit in Skyrim based on a fortify restoration potion glitch that improves the active effects of the apparel or armor that the main character is wearing, something especially useful for clothing and armor with the fortify alchemy bonus.  This fortify restoration fortify alchemy loop can then be repeated for cumulative effect.  With very high fortify alchemy one can create very powerful potions and sell them for large sums of gold or use them for super-enhanced effects notably to increase fortify enchanting and create game killing enchanted weapons and armor.

Procedure
How it works (creating a save before experimenting with the cheat highly recommended):

1. Find and collect ingredients with a fortify restoration effect.

Fortify restoration potion recipe ingredients
  • Abecean Longfin
  • Cyrodilic Spadetail
  • Salt Pile
  • Small Antlers
  • Small Pearl
  • Yellow Mountain Flower 
The easiest fortify restoration ingredients to procure are likely the Abecean Longfin, Cyrodilic Spadetail and Salt Pile since they are often sold in alchemical shops. They can along be found along rivers or the docks outside Riften. Having enough ingredients to create 5 or more fortify restoration potions is recommended with more preferable.

2. Create or obtain clothes or armor with the fortify alchemy enchantment.

Fortify alchemy apparel could be gloves/bracers, ring, necklace, circlet, and falmer helmet all enchanted with fortify alchemy preferably using grand or black soul gems.

3.  Wear the clothes or armor with the effects you want to improve, in this case fortify alchemy.

4.  Create a fortify restoration potion.

5.  Drink/use the newly created fortify restoration potion.

6.  Quickly unequip all the fortify alchemy equipment then re-equip them.

7.  Repeat steps 4–6 quickly until fortify restoration ingredients run out or as desired.  Each repetition should cumulatively improve the alchemical bonus provided by the equipment worn and create progressively stronger fortify restoration potions.

Outcome
After the last fortify restoration potion's effect would normally run out, the bonus effect on the clothes will appear to revert back to normal if checking through the equip menu, but a look at the active effects menu will show that the cumulative bonus actually still remains.  The cumulative bonus will continue to be active until the apparel or armor is unequipped, so do not remove these items unless one wants to remove the bonus and start back at square one.

With vastly improved potion creation ability one can create powerful potions that can then be used to greatly enhance other skills and promote their learning such as enchanting and smithing which in turn can lead to the creation of vastly more powerful items.

Fortify enchanting potion recipe ingredients
  • Blue Butterfly Wing
  • Hagraven Claw
  • Snowberries
  • Spriggan Sap 
Fortify smithing potion recipe ingredients 
  • Blisterwort
  • Glowing Mushroom
  • Sabre Cat Tooth
  • Spriggan Sap
Money should no longer be a problem either since selling overpowered potions brings in lots of gold.  One can also create and use fortify enchantment potions to make invincible weapons and armor. Be careful though it is possible to go too high and reset the improvements, but you should be able to make unbelievably overpowered items long before reaching that threshold.

Since the improvement is geometric in progression, starting from a high alchemy skill level and high bonus apparel can lead to dramatically larger improvement than starting from lower skill or bonus levels. It should also improve alchemy skill more noticeably than before.  Starting from too low a level can be relatively costly and produce meager results so it may be best to level up first and focus on this trick after gaining regular access to better soul gems with which to create more powerful enchanted items for step 2.  An Alchemy skill level of 30 with Alchemist perk at level 2 and Physician and Benefactor perks is recommended as well before trying this exploit.