Hope you enjoyed the video guys! If you did, a like is always appreciated 👍 🧙♂️ Question of the video: What would you like me to rank next? 👇 FAQs 👇 Q: The in-game description of The Atronach Stone is actually incorrect, what it really does is give you a 50% chance to completely absorb all incoming damage from spells (incoming spell attacks, scrolls, weapon enchantments, dragons' breath, shouts, diseases, venomous attacks and poisons). Furthermore, with The Atronach stone, 100% spell absorption can be achieved when it is combined (as shown here): elderscrolls.fandom.com/wiki/Spell_Absorption_(Skyrim) 🧙♂ I have never been more wrong about this stone! 😱 Thank you for bringing this to my attention and forgive me for this inaccuracy. Knowing what I know now... I would rank The Atronach Stone either #1 or #2, and certainly not #12! 😅 Q: That lockpick sound is actually a thing? 🧙♂ Well... this is what the Wiki has to say: "Beyond the very visible shaking effect when you strain the lockpick, users report audible cues when slowly sliding the lockpick across its range. Irregularities in the grating sound or distinct clicks may give away the correct position." I have heard these irregularities myself (could be a coincidence) but they're not always present and its definitely best to wear headphones to increase your chances of hearing it.
Yep, took me a while to find out too! It’s usually very faint and best heard with headphones… not always 100% accurate though and best to save first if low on lock picks 👍
Get the Aetherium Crown from the "Lost to the Ages" quest from Dawnguard. Put the Lover's Stone power onto it, and have one of the Guardian Stones on yourself. Take off the Crown and go to sleep, to get the bonus there. Then put the Crown back on (thus stacking the Lover's Stone and sleep bonuses to XP gain) and start mastering EVERYTHING at high speed.
I'm of the opinion that the Atronach stone is one of the most OP standing stones. That 50% reduction to to regen os easily offset. Magic absorption on the other hand is fantastic.
Fun fact! The Aetherial Crown grants you the ability to have two standing stones active. I always use it with the Apprentice Stone and the Atronach Stone. The benefits complement each other and the cons cancel each other out. (100% magika regen. negates -50% magika regen., spell absorption negates 100% magika vulnerability) The Crown also has an exploit where you can take it on and off again to do once-per-day abilities infinitely, as taking it off recharges the ability.
I actually finish the Aetherial Crown quest first thing in a playthrough. I then align myself with the Lover's Stone and one of the three starting stones to level my character up faster.
@@theWelshWizard this may have been brought to your attention before, but the atronach stone tampers with your abbility to conjure creatures, it's great if you are a spellsword or even a non magic user for the magic damage reduction alone, alot of things in skyrim are considered spells/ dragon breath, attacks that prock a ailment, peryite puke, it's the best defencive standing stone in my book.
atronach actually synergises really well with non-magic characters, especially tanks. you still have a 50% chance to negate an enemy attack, and the downsides are redundant
@superluminous7227 there's an armor cap tho. And that cap is easily attained anyway. Plus the absorption is worst more than the lord in terms of magic damage it takes.
It also synergizes with Breton’s Dragonskin, especially when you’re fighting a dragon. For a minute you’re immune to magic, including dragon shouts! Only downside is it breaks summoning…
@@superluminous7227 Lord stone only gives you 25% MR as compared to the Atronachs 50%. The extra armor may be alright early but all heavy armor can easily reach armor cap anyway.
Personally the Atronach Stone is my favourite when paired with necro mage and max alteration your invincible against magic although you won't be able to summon anything you'll just absorb it into your magicka bar. Edit: Hi everyone thank you for all your suggestions and future suggestions, I am a Veteran Skyrim Adventurer as are most of us as Skyrim is a Old game I have tried all suggestions again to be sure none work this is a Bethesda game somethings just work and others..don't, personally I think it adds a nice touch to my character like he is forbidden from summoning the creatures of Oblivion if I really want to fix this I'll install the USSEP that fixes it
The drawback for the lord stone is that it counts as armor for the mage armor perk. Meaning you dont get the improved magic armor along with he extra defense the lord stone offers. Which sucks if your going for a mage build, however it's good for any other playstyle though.
you have some good points on the Atronach stone, it's a double edged sword for pure mages sure, but for a warrior or even a spellblade this is easily top 3 at least. you can easily enchant a piece of armor or a ring with +50% magic regeneration if you know what you're doing.
theres a bit of a misconception about how spell absorption works in skyrim, it doesnt take half the damage and magicka from one spell, it has a 50% chance to take ALL of the damage and return ALL of the magicka. meaning you can still get bursted in one attack, really cool effect tho i like using it
I’m assuming it’s one of those situations where the devs described it in a basically flat out incorrect manner in game. It’s insane that the game even released with these incorrectly described mechanics but incomprehensible they’re still wrong a decade later. I’m pretty sure there’s something that has magic resistance and the game describes it as 50% but it’s actually 25%. Or there’s that one restoration perk that says it cures 50% more but healing spells don’t cure anything as far as I know, it should say HEAL 50% more saying cure is very confusing
For a the best chance of not getting flame grilled by the closest pyromancer you pretty much want absorbtion + elemental resistance + general magic resistance. The resistance effects are capped at 85%, but you can run resist fire/frost/shock basically behind resist magic. The first layer reduces the damage by 85%, and the next layer reduces the remaining damage by 85%, giving you a 97.75% damage reduction from magic. And that reduction happens after absorption has a try at completely negating it. So with the atronarch stone and a full resistance set, half the time you take 2.25% of whatever is thrown at you, and the other half you take no damage and refil your magicka.
12: Atronach should at least be top 3. Magicka regen only happens when not casting, and is slow AF anyways. That 50 magicka and percent absorb is great. BTW, it absorbs poisons and spider poison........ My top three 1: Atronach (spam them spells, drink a potion too. Also the 50 percent slower speed hard countered by mage robes...) 2: Ritual 3: Lord
Personally, I rather just use wards to block spell damage then completely lose the ability to use summon daedra or raise dead. Plus, I hate how Spell Absorbtion can occasionally break quests such as Brelyna's Practice or Experimental Subject. The magicka regeneration penalty is just a minor nuisance compared to the other issues but I rather not have it since it is rather annoying having to wait even longer for magicka to regenerate. I personally think the stone is overrated
@@davidevans7477 Nah. Conjuration doesn't work at all if you have 100% Spell Absorbtion (and I don't why you would bother having any if you don't go for 100% protection, since it's otherwise RNG based); plus, I don't want to cast a Master Conjuration spell 5 times in a row just to summon a single Atronach, especially mid battle. Not to mention, in the Special Edition of the game, players will recieve the Saints & Seducers creation for free, which adds two new effects into the game which can be obtained from the Elytra Nymph pet followers and these provide some very nice bonuses for 5 minutes, which include fortifying your combat skills and fortiying your health and stamina. You don't even need to have the pet followers actively following you too... you can just teleport it to you and ask for help in battle and it will give you the effect but if you have spell absorbtion, you won't recieve the effect as it will be blocked. Oh... and it can absorb the shadow warrior perk too, so it's literally bad for all play styles now lmfao Like, if you want projection from spells... just use a ward... if you don't want to reduce the cost of using wards, you can obtain Spellbreaker, Staff of Hasedoki or Shield of Crusader which can create wards without consuming any magicka and of cause, you do have the option of just increasing your resistance to Frost, Fire, Shock, Poison and Magic which can be increased using potions, enchantments or even special perks (some of which, like the Agent of Mara, don't even require perk investment and just require a quest to be completed) and don't come at the cost of breaking quests or redending some effects useless. Needless to say, there are other options to protect from spells that don't any nearly as many drawbacks.
@@lalatoya_ Why RNG of 50 percent absorb... One, in skyrim im basically the emissary of RNGesus. Two, I don't use conjuration, I think it is useless compared to anything else. Even just poisons. Maybe for roleplay.
Steed Stone also has a hidden extra perk: whatever armor set you have equipped has no carry weight, and that counts for duplicate sets. As an example, if you are wearing iron armor, you can carry infinite sets of the same armor as they will also weigh nothing. This is super handy early game if you struggle to earn coin or manage inventory. Great for challenge runs, too! I believe it still works in Anniversary edition.
*Honestly, it's how he dumped on the Atronach Stone for me* Literally was just basking in some dragon fire when he gave this glorious stone such a horrible rating, blasphemous
@@arthurschamne9804 He didn't. The Atronach stone has a 50% chance to absorb spells, not a 50% damage reduction. Combine it with the Atronach perk in the Alteration tree and you get 80% absorption.
@@musicguy7943 "The Atronach Stone fortifies magicka by 50 points and grants 50% spell absorption. However, it also causes magicka regeneration to decrease by 50%." This is the exact description, which is exactly what he said.
Something that's worth mentioning is if you have the Aetherial crown and put a standing stone power on it with a once per day restriction, you can literally just get back use of it by un-equipping and then re-equipping the crown. This can make stones like The Ritual and The Serpent completely broken.
Atronach isnt just useful against magic enemies, its also good for magic traps and any damage thats not physical. Besides if you arent using a trap to regen your magic super fast, youre using it wrong
The Ritual stone is my favorite, There are some creatures that you can’t reanimate by normal means, And this power circumvents that entirely. (When combined with the Aethereum circlet, it can be abused) However according to the law my birth sign would be the shadow (1st day of the Second Seed)
If you teleport after using the ritual stone to reanimate corpses all the corpses will go with you. If you don’t go to far, or wait, you can have your own army of the dead :D
@@YoKhai1221 You can stack five amulet of Talos with totem of the brotherhood and the ring of hircine to have an army of spectral werewolf that never dies out.
@@shadowstrider5033 the amulet of Talos is just plain broken. Durnivehier (the soul cairn dragon) is considered a summon by the game, so once you have his shout, twin souls, and a glitched cooldown, you can get a small army of high level critters to remove anything in your way.
Unlike the normal resurrection spells, mobs affected by the ritual stone don't turn to ash when the effect ends. So you could theoretically amass a small army after going through several bandit camps!
The magic absorption in this game also applies to dragon breath and some enemy shouts as well as poisons and diseases which count as magical, so it's way more useful than you give it credit for. With Necromage and Atronach perk you can 100% absorb all incoming effects the code labels as magic
I love combining the apprentince and atromach stones with the aetherium crown. They cancel out eachothers downsides, even more so if you play a Breton and invest in magicka resistance and absorption whenever you can
I love your voice in this one, a nice role-playing with comfortable voice that is nice to listen to, also nice edits with voices and images. 10/10 will watch again in the future
Magic absorb counts to so many things in this game, so getting 100% absorb is completely OP, but do keep in mind you’ll absorb your own spells, for certain casts
I’ve played Skyrim for 10 years and never knew you can hear the lock clicking and don’t just have to guess for the starting position, my jaw is still on the floor in disbelief. By the Nine!
The Atronach Stone also gives you a 50 percent chance to not get a disease from wild creatures when they're supposed to, making it very useful on survival mode. (You will learn through third person as sometimes you get the spell absorption effect when a wild creature successfully hits you.)
I like to think the apprentice's stone works on the logic of a young mage being better a regenerating due their youth but more vulnerable because of their inexperience and lack of attunement, even if the latter part kind of contradicts the "youth" advantage.
Hey man, fantastic video! Personally I'm a lover stone guy myself. My current build is a one handed shield heavy armor warrior with a high enchantment skill. Though I've also almost maxed stealth and archery despite being a heavy armor build lmao. I would love to see a lore video on the standing stones, I think that that would be pretty neat. Once again great video! It's very polished 10/10 :D
Thanks David, always providing great feedback! :) it’s so easy to pick up a bow and start heading down the stealth route, I think we all do it lol 🥷 may well do a lore vid on the stones in future - thanks again for the support, much appreciated! 😇
It’s great because my fighting style is to just run towards the enemy and hack at it with my lightning fast daggers. I barely ever use healing potions anymore
It can stack. You just have to put the Lover Stone's power on the Aetherium Crown, take the crown off before you sleep, then put it back on when you wake up. Combine it with one of the Guardian Stones for even faster levelling.
The Steed Stone is a must for me as I use heavy armor in survival so even tho it only gives 50 points in that mode, the armor weighing nothing is a life saver
Back in the day, I used to revive almost every enemy I killed with the ritual stone. I basically had my own personal army and would get attached to my soldiers, especially when they would perform well in battle.
Become a master in conjuration magic, and add your two permanent atronarchs to that. If you bring a follower and give them Sanguine's Rose, they can also summon another friend.
The Atronach stone is extremely powerful. You shouldn't use it with a mage but on a warrior, especialy with the atronach alteration perk, it's great. You absorb 80 percent of destruction magic, enchantments, shouts, poison, disease, pretty much everything that isn't pure physical damage. Also, magic absorb is a percent chance to negate all damage and add the magicka cost to your pool, so it's all or nothing. You either absorb it or you don't and if you don't, you still have magic or elemental resistances to reduce the damage on the off chance you get hit.
It can be good for mages too. Just enchant your gear however you need. In practice I usually didn’t find magicka regen to be that necessary on my full mage builds. If you start as high elf you already have plus 50 magicka, you get the atronach and you have 200, without even investing any points. The main magicka drainer for me was always using wards or being attacked with shock spells, so the stone negates that by a lot. And if you’re good at enchanting you can reduce the spell cost of destruction to basically nothing, making regen unnecessary. :)
What I like to do for mages is be a vampire and cast guardian circle. The spell will try to affect you, as you're undead, and The magic absorption will continuously absorb the base cost (not modified by skill or perks) of the guardian circle spell, effectively giving you infinite magic for the duration.
I would rank Atronach stone a bit higher. You can overcome the slow magic regeneration by fortifying destruction (or any magic school) using enchanting. I believe you can reach 100% fortification on two magic skills. You'll need 100 enchanting, which you can easily achieve by enchanting banish on iron daggers.
Early game I use the guardian stones depending on what skill I'm trying to increase, Alchemy, Smithing , or Enchanting. At mid game it's usually the Lord Stone. I don't bother with any stones that let you use an ability only once per day.
Atronoch stone is best in the game without a doubt. Is required for 100% spell absorbtion which is absolutely game breaking. The magic Regen thing is easily counteracted by any enchanted mage gear, and when combined with some alteration perks can give you an infinite mana pool when up against mages and total magic nullification.
Atronach stone is amazing. Get it, stand in front of those light beams from Meridia’s temple, and bam. Infinite, fast recharging magicka. I’ve used it to level illusion and alteration so many times; only takes about a half hour to go from 15-100
I played so much Skyrim and I never knew about stuff like the Steed Stone, somehow. Also, I'd like to see Standing Stone lore. I want to know if everyone is born with those abilities or just certain people. Can you imagine the implications for 1/13th of all people being able to turn invisible?
I always use the apprentice stone in Skyrim. I love the trade off of 100% weakness for 100% regen especially since I always role-play unorthodox magic users in ES games
Atronach stone is my favorite stone. There are a few builds that can work around the Atronach builds. It works with alchemy and you can make yourself immune to spells. There's also a build called the Seraphim build where if you take 3 specific potions and then use the stone you'll be able to use continuous spells without stopping. It's a unique form of gameplay.
The Lover Stone is my most used, set and forget :D well, i still remembered it but... it counts ight. Very well edited video! You definitely deserve more recognition, all the best in future 👍
I was furious when you said the tower stone was bad until you told me how to actually lock pick, I’ve been lockpicking wrong my entire life, so thanks, loved the video
Thanks, glad I could teach you something! Another tip I forgot to mention for lockpicking is that when you fail and the pick breaks, it falls in the direction of where the sweet spot is 😉
I like the steed stone myself, but here’s an additional benefit that he didn’t mentioned. It not only takes away the weight of the apparel you are wearing, but every identical apparel. For example if you have a full set of forsworn armor, you can loot every forsworn of their armor at no cost to your weight. It’s also very handy with crafting.
I like running Bretons with the Lord Stone (25% + 25% = 50% magic resistance). Put on some top-quality heavy armor with an additional magic resistance enchantment, then add the 50 point damage resistance, and you get someone who can wade through most boss fights while taking minimal damage (I can't remember the last time I bothered drinking a health potion during combat).
Plus you can get an extra 15% magic resistance from the agent of mara questline in riften. So 65% add the 30% from alteration tree 95% magic resistance, add 30% absord from restoration and you're immune to magic.
Absolutely. I love getting my character's magic resistance up to the maximum of 85%. Makes fighting dragons, dragon priests, those annoying Miraak cultists, and all types of mages easy. Also, I don't have to worry about drinking health potions and dodging fireballs so much. Just focus on actual fighting. Makes the game so much more enjoyable.
I actually think a lot of these are really, really interesting. Even if they’re not terribly viable, they still have a special place in my heart as someone who prefers fun to practicality.
This video is the first place I've ever heard of *anyone* explaining that thing about the sound when picking locks. I didn't even know there *was* a sound until right now, I guess the in-game ambient music probably always completely drowned it out for me.
For the stones that have a cool down, you can't always use the wait function (combat, trespassing, under water), and there are without question ways to work around those hindrances. I'd say a better solution is that the timers just have a way shorter cool down, and/or have a charge stockpile mechanic. Let's say you can have at most 4 charges at a time, you can spend them back to back, or slowly throughout the day, regaining a charge at dawn, midday, dusk, and midnight. Those who are mindful with there use can have an effective 5 charges at any given time, which can be really helpful. Now as that would be more than a little over powered, the ones with a duration would have those timers drastically reduced as well. Oh, and the tower stone, give it a secondary effect that can bust master locks, but is tied to a one day timer. None of these will really effect those who spam the wait function, but gives some leeway to those who would rather wait in real time.
As a survival player, the steed stone is invaluable for me. I play a heavy armor two handed weapon build, so naturally my carry weight is getting pushed constantly. The extra 100 carry weight, despite already having conditioning, is priceless
Serpent stone on Aetherium Crown is so fun! Favorite the Serpent Stone with the crown, shoot a paralysis shot at the enemy, remove crown, equip crown, and repeat. Infinite Paralysis and I get to mow down bosses with high HP without worrying about being flung like a ragdoll.
About the number 12 spot, the atronach stone is really great for warrior characters using little to no spells. Taking 50% less damage while closing the distance between yourself and a spellcaster can be a genuine game changer.
I always did the lord stone, stealth archers/assassin build i always end up playing like it a lot, even better when you start off as a Breton and become a vampire. Easy to max magic resist with just 2 other enchantments if you dont track down the other things that give magic resist.
When to use the different stones: Tower stone: When doing a rare thief playthrough where you've actually banned yourself from save-scumming. The atronach stone: most of the time really. Most of the time it's a better version of the lord stone. The apprentice stone: ??? The shadow stone: ??? The serpent stone: One way of getting guaranteed pickpockets. Or deleting most bosses. Lord: you're in a rare scenario where 25% magic resist is somehow better than 50% spell absorption. This usually happens if your magic resistance between the 51 and 69%. (nice) But you don't have the atronach perk. Steed: You're moving house, it's the heavy armor build early game or you're gathering smithing materials. Lady: You're on early game survival mode and want to wait-heal again. Warrior: You're grinding smithing. Thief: You're grinding alchemy, speech or pickpocket. Or you're a stealth archer and you realised literally none of the other stones do anything for you except for the lover stone which only gives you 75% as much stealth and archer as this one. Mage: You're grinding enchanting. Or you're desperately trying to escape the Legendary destruction early game as fast as possible. Lover: You can't be bothered to find a spouse and fast travel around for 35% levelling boosts or, you have the atherial crown, deliberately didn't get a spouse to stack guardian stone+lover stone+well rested for 45% levelling boosts Ritual: You no longer want to play the game. Now you want to watch as you private army destroys and assimilates the province like a horrific amoeba made of flesh, magic and metal.
Sorry I’m late to this vid but ever since I commented on that daedra armour video I’m just gonna comment on every video you make, never seen a better Skyrim creator then you, you have truly helped me through my journey through Skyrim keep up the good work 👍
The atronach stone is over powered if you know how to use it, it’s incredibly easy to exploit, use the restoration potion glitch, drink a high number restoration potion and get that absorb magic ability to %100 and because immune to magic
Speaking of exploits, with the Atherial crown you can use the ritual stone as much as you won’t without waiting for a day, just unequip and requip it whenever you want to use the power
Lord stone is by far and easily the best standing stone in the game when it comes to combat scenarios. Makes it extremely easy to reach magic resistance cap and armor cap if you just put a few points into alteration as well. Though you're not too far off with the ritual stone being broken asf.
You can overcome the magica regen problem of the atronach stone with choosing the right race and using the right enchantments. You can make a character that is nearly immune to magic attacks. The atronach stone is one of the best stones in the game. It's not just "powerful wizards" that it helps you with. Nearly every where you go there are magic users. Even drauger and it even helps against dragons.
One thing to note about how things are classified as Magic-based in the game is that, anything Fire, Frost, or Lightning is considered Magic-Based. So, while on paper, the Atronach Stone (and also the Atronach Perk) may seem only situationally useful, having a 100% Magic Absorb build is beneficial for a lot more than enemy casters. The list further includes Dragons (The Thuum they shout is magic-based), Draugr (The ones who actively Shout), and even small campfires or contained wildfires. This helps a LOT more than most would think, thus the Atronach Stone (and Perk) are actively fantastic for many builds, including Vampires. Also note: You can get 100% Magic Absorption with the Atronach Stone, grabbing the Perk, going Vampire, then picking the perk in Restoration to DOUBLE the effect on yourself. It's hilarious.
Love your vids and the simple yet informative presentation. I wish there was more skyrim content of the same caliber. That being said... I am confused about a statement you made during the Mage stone section, precisely @15:40. You state one of the "Drawbacks" is that it can be out performed by fortified skill enchantments. I'm not sure exactly how any of the fortifying enchantments would grant you a >20% boost to XP gains. As far as I know there aren't any fortify XP enchantments or enchantments that positively affect your xp gains over an entire class of skills. The way I see it there isn't anything in skyrim that could outperform the Guardian stones/ Lovers stone and make them obsolete. LMK if this is just a misunderstanding on my part. Beyond that snag keep making videos grand wizard!
Thanks man, I appreciate it! And I'm not entirely sure what I was getting at there lol 🤔 ignore me - nothing can outperform the XP boosts you get from The Guardian Stones and Lover Stone. But you can get the Well Rested or Lover's Comfort bonus in combination with your standing stone of choice for even more XP gain!
Atronach stone is honestly the best one in the game. Just take it as a non-spellcaster. The downside won't matter, but the spell absorption means you take 50% less damage from all spells. That's a massive benefit. It's even better if you play as a character who just has to cast one spell at the beginning of each fight that you wouldn't have enough magicka to cast without it, like a conjuration or mage armor spell.
Shadow Stone to me was always more useful as a vanish rather than invis. use the invis spell or a potion to sneak where you want to be, and use shadow stone to vanish if you need it/get out numbered etc.
The 3 best stone are: Lord Stone, Lover Stone, Lady Stone. Depending on if you are a Vampire Lord or Werewolf or Neither. If Vampire Lord best is Lady Stone because helps counter the Daylight affecting Regeneration of Stamina and Health! If a Werewolf best stone is Lover Stone, because counters the lack of Well-Rested Bonus and is a permanent thing that improves the skill growth of all perks. If a None-Vampire Lord or None-Werewolf, then best is Lord Stone in general helping protect from Physical and Magicka Damage.
I agree with you on the Lord and Lady Stones. With the aetherial crown on, I use those two. I don't care for the Lover Stone personally as I'm fine with leveling up at the normal rate.
@@edgreen2660 Ok, I understand your reasoning and it works. Also the most epic "broken" combination I have done is this: Breton + Lord Stone + Aetherial Crown Atronach Stone:)
