How to play *cough* exploit the crap out of *end cough* the sign of the atronach

[dark_matter_mobius]

This might be covered elsewhere and is probably included in the wiki, but . . .

I've played Morrowind I don't know how many times at this point. Invested hundreds (if not thousands) of hours. My favorite sign is the atronach and my strategies have slowly evolved over time. Originally I just made hundreds of restore magicka potions and managed to get around that way.

However, I 'discovered' that there's a much easier way to manage magicka than carrying 3 30+ stacks of homebrewed heart and comberry juice. The first of these revelations came when I first discovered that the shrines serve an alternative purpose with someone that has been wombburned. Using either Temple or Imperial shrines/alters to restore your attributes will feed you delicious, delicious magicka. Unless you dislike free refills it is actually advisable to rise a few ranks in the Imperial Cult (or Temple) in order to use the shrines for free early on.

But there's an even easier way to refill on the field: Summon Ancestral Ghost. Just poke it three times and it just *gives* you mana. Well, ok, its actually trying to kill you, but that's besides the point! And you'll need to restore attributes if the stupid ghost manages to hit any attributes that are artificially increased. However, with that reinforced Magicka bonus this makes up for the inconvenience (and gives extra use to conjuration to boot).

Additionally, the Jump spell effect works wonderfully with the increased magicka. Having a jump spell with 100 spell power for 1 to 2 seconds allows you to travel huge chunks of the map. You WILL need to have a 1 second levitate or a proper slowfall spell to avoid being killed at first though. You can increase this effect by utilizing a 5 second cast on use 100 jump enchantment (the last time I tried it this actually stacked). Which means getting pretty much anywhere in Morrowind in under a few minutes of game time (especially if you've got the Boots of Blinding Speed and have a huge amount of fortified strength/feather).

[GeeTee]

HAX! Actually I saw the Summon Ancestral Ghost trick on a Youtube LP recently, seems like a pretty good strategy.

[SaltyPeanuts]

I've heard of this magicka trick before but never tried it... interesting!

I hear is is possible to get 100% magicka absorb; for example the Necromancers Amulet from the Mage Guildmaster gives 25% magica absorb (constant) just from the item. Not bad imo.

[FluffyGuy]

Originally posted by Flyingflea:

I've heard of this magicka trick before but never tried it... interesting!

I hear is is possible to get 100% magicka absorb; for example the Necromancers Amulet from the Mage Guildmaster gives 25% magica absorb (constant) just from the item. Not bad imo.

am pretty sure it does a 50% check then a 25% check, they don't stack?

[ZarahNeander]

Originally posted by FluffyGuy:

Originally posted by Flyingflea:

I've heard of this magicka trick before but never tried it... interesting!

I hear is is possible to get 100% magicka absorb; for example the Necromancers Amulet from the Mage Guildmaster gives 25% magica absorb (constant) just from the item. Not bad imo.

am pretty sure it does a 50% check then a 25% check, they don't stack?

This. Due to the multiplicative nature it's impossible to get 100%, even if you stack 2x 99%.

[Jjp7123]

I never use the atronach. I prefer using the royal signet ring with an item enchanted with sanctuary 100 points constant effect. This makes you character literally unkillable in the game. Follow this up with levitation 500 points and your character is a flying god.

[FluffyGuy]

Originally posted by Jjp7123:

I never use the atronach. I prefer using the royal signet ring with an item enchanted with sanctuary 100 points constant effect. This makes you character literally unkillable in the game. Follow this up with levitation 500 points and your character is a flying god.

so what do you learn then?

[dark_matter_mobius]

Originally posted by Jjp7123:

I never use the atronach. I prefer using the royal signet ring with an item enchanted with sanctuary 100 points constant effect. This makes you character literally unkillable in the game. Follow this up with levitation 500 points and your character is a flying god.

Er, what?

1) You're stating it as if one has to choose between these two options and you literally do not have to do so. You *can* get the sign of the atronach at the start of the game AND get the royal signet ring later on.

2) Morrowind has some obvious exploits that break the game, and to be fully honest, are not a lot of fun in the long run. EG, I could start every game by becoming *insanely* rich from the start, but opt not to exploit the stupid shopkeepers and their inability to do simple arithmetic. The atronach + summon ghost would fit into this, *except* you can do the same thing with a mark/divine intervention/recall or a simple trip into a dungeon to fight a spell caster of *some* sort. Additionally, it can still take 2-3 absorptions for the ghost to fully regen your mana, which, you know, requires a bit of luck and a bit of time and sometimes the random hates you with a random cliff racer when you're low mana and being beaten up by your own ghost. AND, on top of this, mana regeneration in Morrowind *sucks* without using this sort of thing. It actually *negatively impacts the experience of being a caster* in any sort of way (even for those who only occassionally use magic).

3) You're essentially saying you'd take an exploit, which robs your experience of a core part of the game play over the ability to cast some absolutely insane spells. Of being able to literally travel the map in next to no time *early*. Hell, I couldn't imagine getting around without *both* a 100 jump spell and the boots of blinding speed. It is like a fast travel option but *way* more fun.

[dark_matter_mobius]

Let me put it this way: One of my minor skills is *always* alteration because, while I won't be using it for anything else, I know I'm going to be leaping across the map (sometimes chosing to do so instead of going to a silt strider or other option which might get me to my destination faster/more safely).

[The Flying Rodent]

I originally wrote this for a Reddit post, may as well put it all here.






The Atronach can be a little tricky to use, but is a very good choice of sign, especially for a mage. 200% extra Magicka and a 50% chance to nullify anything harmful being cast at you is pretty sweet.

In the Vanilla game, the only drawback comes from not being able to regenerate Magicka from sleep, which TBH isn't that much of a drawback once you figure out a few methods to Restore your Magicka in other ways.

That said, if you ever decide to get the Fair Magicka Regen mod [which is recommended for Pure Mage players], the Atronach probably isn't a good choice [as it provides a slow regen that Atronach sign blocks].

If you have the Atronach, you have a few options to Restore your Magicka, aside from the obvious method of 'fighting spell casters':

1:

http://en.uesp.net/wiki/Morrowind:Shrines

Temple/Cult Shrines. Specifically the Shrines of St Rilm [Rilm's Grace], St Seryn [Seryn's Shield], St Veloth and Shrine of the Tribunal [Almsivi Restoration]. St Veloth and Shrine of the Tribunal are the two most common types of Shrine.

Temples usually have a couple of different Shrines downstairs, and then a Shrine of the Tribunal upstairs. You can even find these Shrines in some Ancestral tombs, which is rather handy out in the field! [or in Molag Mar, which for some reason doesn't have a Shrine, but a nice tomb South of Molag Mar and over the mountain has quite a few...].

Imperial Cult Altars also can Restore Attributes, which is similar to Almsivi Restoration. Most of these are found in normal Imperial Cult locations, though there are some exceptions [such as the Altar inside the Ald'Ruhn Mages Guild, which can be teleported to via any of the Guild Guides].

2:

Provoking Spellcaster Summons. Ancestor Ghost works best for this, as it is cheap to summon and has a high-cost spell that doesn't hurt very much.

Here's what I do on my current Altmer Atronach mage [which is being played on Max Difficulty, so this should work regardless of Difficulty]:

- Have a Summon Ghost for 15 seconds spell [costs 5 Magicka],

- Summon it, then punch it 4 times [Unarmed is the 0 Quickkey]. This'll provoke the Ghost into attacking without killing it. Beware: If you do this whilst you have OTHER summons active, ALL the summons will turn on you

- Let it cast its' spell on you. It has 3 components [Drain Fatigue, Drain Endurance, Damage Health, each worth more than the 5 Magicka it took to summon the Ghost]. If all are absorbed [1/8 chance], that's 120 Free Magicka!

- If one of the Drain components sticks [3/4 chance, so quite likely], the Ghost may switch from spellcasting to melee after the first cast. If this happens, simply summon it again, or run away until the spell wears off. 15 seconds is enough time for a Ghost to get 2 casts off usually, which is potentially up to 240 Magicka from a 5 Magicka spell [very low chance, but can happen].

- If you get hurt a bit, then heal up with small Restoration spells. Practice two skills at the same time!

- Do this trick in between fights, or whilst clearing our cleared dungeons of loot.


Given that this trick isn't 100% reliable [the character may not have enough Magicka left to summon a Ghost for e.g.], and it can be difficult to find Shrines, then this leaves the most reliable option for Magicka Regeneration as:

3:

Using Potions. Mage's Guild supply chests restock 10 Standard Restore Magicka potions every 2 weeks, and some Alchemy vendors [e.g. Nalcarya in Balmora] sell 'unlimited' stock of expensive Magicka potions, in that they restock the small amount that they have each time the barter window is re-opened.

Custom made Restore Magicka potions are the best way long-term to deal with Magicka. These can be made of incredible strength if one decides to Fortify their Alchemy Skill and/or Intelligence, and weigh next to nothing. Comberry [a bush found in the Ascadian Isles region] and Frost OR Void Salts [found on Atronachs or in Alchemy vendors] are the most common ingredients available to make this sort of potion.






Oh and regarding Jump: that’s a lot of fun too. Here’s a guide I prepared earlier!

[psst I’d use enchanted items, not spells ...]

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=823166091

[The Flying Rodent]

Originally posted by Flyingflea:

I've heard of this magicka trick before but never tried it... interesting!

I hear is is possible to get 100% magicka absorb; for example the Necromancers Amulet from the Mage Guildmaster gives 25% magica absorb (constant) just from the item. Not bad imo.

Spell Absorption doesn’t stack additively: new Spell Absorption bonuses apply to the ‘lack’ of the amount of Spell Absorption from old effects.

So if you had the Atronach (50%) , and then wear the Necromancer’s Amulet (25%), it would only apply to the ‘50% lack of absorption’ remaining. So with the combo, you’d get [50%] + [25% OF 50%] = 62.5%, not 75%.

The only way to get to absolutely 100% Spell absorption, is to have 1 solid 100% Spell Absorption Effect from an item or spell [ e.g Ring of Equity]. You can get pretty close by stacking effects, but each new stack has diminishing returns as you approach 100%.

Originally posted by Jjp7123:

I never use the atronach. I prefer using the royal signet ring with an item enchanted with sanctuary 100 points constant effect. This makes you character literally unkillable in the game. Follow this up with levitation 500 points and your character is a flying god.

I can say from experience that 100 Sanctuary isn't enough for the Expansions [try using this in the Werewolf maze, or against the Goblin hordes, and you won't get far], though it's probably enough for the normal game. There's also nothing stopping you from getting the Ring AND the Atronach sign; Spell Absorption takes priority over Reflect and Resist, so you'll still get the benefit from the sign.

Also: The max magnitude for Levitate is 100pts, not 500pts [assuming that you're not using a mod], and it's horridly Magicka/Charge inefficient to use that sort of magnitude. Not to mention that the max Charge on an item is 225, and a Constant Effect Enchant item for 1pt costs 15 charge [so it's certainly not a Constant effect item].

I'm assuming you're using a scroll to get this?

[Killertruth186]

Originally posted by dark_matter_mobius:

This might be covered elsewhere and is probably included in the wiki, but . . .

I've played Morrowind I don't know how many times at this point. Invested hundreds (if not thousands) of hours. My favorite sign is the atronach and my strategies have slowly evolved over time. Originally I just made hundreds of restore magicka potions and managed to get around that way.

However, I 'discovered' that there's a much easier way to manage magicka than carrying 3 30+ stacks of homebrewed heart and comberry juice. The first of these revelations came when I first discovered that the shrines serve an alternative purpose with someone that has been wombburned. Using either Temple or Imperial shrines/alters to restore your attributes will feed you delicious, delicious magicka. Unless you dislike free refills it is actually advisable to rise a few ranks in the Imperial Cult (or Temple) in order to use the shrines for free early on.

But there's an even easier way to refill on the field: Summon Ancestral Ghost. Just poke it three times and it just *gives* you mana. Well, ok, its actually trying to kill you, but that's besides the point! And you'll need to restore attributes if the stupid ghost manages to hit any attributes that are artificially increased. However, with that reinforced Magicka bonus this makes up for the inconvenience (and gives extra use to conjuration to boot).

Additionally, the Jump spell effect works wonderfully with the increased magicka. Having a jump spell with 100 spell power for 1 to 2 seconds allows you to travel huge chunks of the map. You WILL need to have a 1 second levitate or a proper slowfall spell to avoid being killed at first though. You can increase this effect by utilizing a 5 second cast on use 100 jump enchantment (the last time I tried it this actually stacked). Which means getting pretty much anywhere in Morrowind in under a few minutes of game time (especially if you've got the Boots of Blinding Speed and have a huge amount of fortified strength/feather).

Nice cheese setup, i also loved the atronach birthsign as well.

[dark_matter_mobius]

Originally posted by The Flying Rodent:

I originally wrote this for a Reddit post, may as well put it all here.



3:

Using Potions. Mage's Guild supply chests restock 10 Standard Restore Magicka potions every 2 weeks, and some Alchemy vendors [e.g. Nalcarya in Balmora] sell 'unlimited' stock of expensive Magicka potions, in that they restock the small amount that they have each time the barter window is re-opened.

Custom made Restore Magicka potions are the best way long-term to deal with Magicka. These can be made of incredible strength if one decides to Fortify their Alchemy Skill and/or Intelligence, and weigh next to nothing. Comberry [a bush found in the Ascadian Isles region] and Frost OR Void Salts [found on Atronachs or in Alchemy vendors] are the most common ingredients available to make this sort of potion.






Oh and regarding Jump: that’s a lot of fun too. Here’s a guide I prepared earlier!

[psst I’d use enchanted items, not spells ...]

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=823166091

On 3) er, mark, divine intervention, and recall. It eats magicka, but if you're *that* low it is an instant restore and makes it so shrine rareness isn't even a thing. Or go with a summon ancestral spirit scroll or amulet. Either way, potions may be "more reliable" but ultimately not as necessary. Carrying a few to restore mana in a fight is more of what you need (when all the other stuff isn't an option).

On using items for the jump spell instead of spells, do both, *they stack*. I think it is a bug, but . . . yea, a spell of leap and an enchanted item casting leap stack for some odd reason (at least they did on Xbox, I never tested it on PC), though I'd go spell *first* because it is cheaper and easier to access early game. And a bit less annoying in the long run.

[The Flying Rodent]

Originally posted by dark_matter_mobius:

Originally posted by The Flying Rodent:

I originally wrote this for a Reddit post, may as well put it all here.



3:

Using Potions. Mage's Guild supply chests restock 10 Standard Restore Magicka potions every 2 weeks, and some Alchemy vendors [e.g. Nalcarya in Balmora] sell 'unlimited' stock of expensive Magicka potions, in that they restock the small amount that they have each time the barter window is re-opened.

Custom made Restore Magicka potions are the best way long-term to deal with Magicka. These can be made of incredible strength if one decides to Fortify their Alchemy Skill and/or Intelligence, and weigh next to nothing. Comberry [a bush found in the Ascadian Isles region] and Frost OR Void Salts [found on Atronachs or in Alchemy vendors] are the most common ingredients available to make this sort of potion.






Oh and regarding Jump: that’s a lot of fun too. Here’s a guide I prepared earlier!

[psst I’d use enchanted items, not spells ...]

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=823166091

On 3) er, mark, divine intervention, and recall. It eats magicka, but if you're *that* low it is an instant restore and makes it so shrine rareness isn't even a thing. Or go with a summon ancestral spirit scroll or amulet. Either way, potions may be "more reliable" but ultimately not as necessary. Carrying a few to restore mana in a fight is more of what you need (when all the other stuff isn't an option).

On using items for the jump spell instead of spells, do both, *they stack*. I think it is a bug, but . . . yea, a spell of leap and an enchanted item casting leap stack for some odd reason (at least they did on Xbox, I never tested it on PC), though I'd go spell *first* because it is cheaper and easier to access early game. And a bit less annoying in the long run.

3 [potions] is more 'reliable' than 1 [using Shrines, facilitated by teleport spells] and 2 [Ghost Summoning trick] in that you don't have to 'first' have expended Magicka in order to 'Restore' it. If you find yourself in a situation where you have absolutely 0 Magicka, potions are your only way out, unless you can find a friendly spell caster to duke it out with.

But yes: It is possible for a Pure Spellcaster to get by using 1 and 2 and not worrying about 3, at least in the base game [the expansions are a different story, given how damage-sponge-like all the opponents are].

Regarding Jump: They 'do' stack, and it's even possible to just make 1 Jump spell that has Fortify Jump 100 points for 1 second up to 8 times on it [which is completely silly]. But: This uses Magicka, which doesn't regenerate over time. Enchanted items DO recharge over time, so I find them easier to use.

[bbfloyd]

Potions? Bah.

It has been a really long time, so details of what I say here may be wrong, but there is a combination that works, I promise.

My last few magic user builds I always took wombburn and another sign (Lord? Lady?) to maximize the magica pool without increasing intelligence above 100. Nor would I use any gear or aid to increase intelligence above 100 normally, only potions when needed to enhance brewing/enchanting.

Now create a spell, say, levitation, and make the strongest levitation spell you can use with a secondary effect of drain intelligence 100 for 1 second on youself. Try it, once you realize how it works, you'll rewrite your entire spellbook, and you'll never carry another magicka potion again.

I think my favorite was fortify acrobatics 500 or 1000 or something silly for 2 or 3 sec (long enough for one good jump) with drain intelligence on self 100 for 1, or some similar combination, equiped with something with Slowfall.

[Rithm Fluffderg]

>Drain Intelligence Exploit

Might as well use TGM at that point.

Also you can't take more than one birthsign in Morrowind without cheating or modding, unless I have missed the Morrowind equivalent of the Aetherial Crown from Skyrim. So either you're remembering wrong or you're using a mod or a cheat :shrug: