Atronach Stone pluses and minuses

[Blonde Travolta]

+ 100% magic resistance (breaking the cap)
+ recharges magicka
+ 50 magicka

- opportunity cost of alternative stone
- slow magicka regeneration
- 50% of the time
- cannot summon conjuration
- situational

Mixed bag. Probably better choice for vulnerable low magicka low magic resist Warriors. Probably good early game stone, then late game switch to different.

[258789553873]

Early game stones are normally the guardian stones and the lover. Late-game stones are the atronoch and lord stone (both if you get the aetherial crown). The only other one really worth using is the ritual stone, and that's more for fun than practicality.

And yes, you CAN summon stuff. There's a bug in the vanilla game though where your spell absorption will sometimes absorb your conjuration spells since they're counted as spells being cast on you. The unofficial patch fixes this though.

The stone is the best for fighting dragons, because even the stone alone negates 50% of the damage from their breath attack. This is actually the main reason why so many people take it, and its practically a necessity if you have mods that buff dragons. Honestly, once I do start the main quest, I often find that I need to rush over to the atronoch stone just so I don't get creamed anymore.

As for mage characters, honestly it works fine. Your total magicka is factored into the equation for your magicka regen. The extra magicka doesn't completely negate the loss of course, but its not as bad as it would seem. Besides, with extra magicka to use regen is less important, and the spell absorption means you can cast spells all day when fighting a dragon (or another mage). Its really nice. And besides, you can easily negate the regen penalty with even the lowest-level mage robes in the game. Though I do admit, it does work a bit better if you don't use magic, but then you don't get all of the benefits since now you're doing nothing with that extra magicka.

As for making yourself immune to magic, you CAN do that but you need to wear miraak's robes to do that, meaning you won't have an armor rating (unless you use dragonskin of course, which is an op combo btw). Besides, 80% magic resist is more than sufficient to survive dragon breath. For that, you need the lord stone, but until you get enough magic resist to hit the cap, the atronach stone is still better. Obviously, 50% spell absorption beats 25% resistance in terms of damage taken.

And yeah, it has drawbacks, but honestly most of the stones aren't really worth it. Most of the ones that are good are the xp stones, which obviously aren't too useful once you max your skills. The lord and atronoch stones are the only non-xp stones worth considering in the endgame. There's really nothing else worth considering at any stage in the game. Well, I guess the serpent stone MIGHT be useful in the early game since it takes a bit for you to get an invisibility spell, but once you do, what's the point in that stone? And the steed stone can help with encumbrance, but honestly I've never really found a reason to use it in place of the atronoch or xp stones. Besides, it doesn't take too many perks in either of the armor trees to replicate its effect on you. And later in the game the extra carry weight means nothing, since you've either been leveling your stamina or you're playing a cloth mage that doesn't walk around with much (unless you're also an enchanter or alchemist, and don't have enough sense to sell off all the junk you craft).

There's a reason why there's more than one overhaul that changes the standing stones. Sadly, I don't like any of them because they always seem to make standing stones TOO important, like your character revolves around them and most of their abilities come from the stone. Also, I just find it strange to be able to summon an army of ghosts or something like that just because my character was born on a certain day.

[258789553873]

And really, tell me, what do you even get out of refuting well-established facts? I've never met someone who was just interested in starting stupid arguments about stuff that doesn't really matter.

[m0k]

Originally posted by IXBlackWolfXI:

...stuff that doesn't really matter.

Proceeds to write a 2000 word essay.

[Sgt.Random♿]

Atronach is the best stone for anyone, only bretons make an exception sometimes with the lord stone.

[FauxFurry]

One does not need magicka regen if one has 100% magicka use reduction enchantments on one's gear.

[Blonde Travolta]

@BlackWolf

Are you sure conjuration has been fixed ? I have the unofficial patch but still using a summoning staff recharges my magicka only, e.g. the spell gets absorbed.

Unless I am so unlucky that each time I get the 50% chance triggered...

[Blonde Travolta]

@BlackWolf

Why are you questioning my observations ? In fact you are completely wrong. The Atronach stone is more valuable early game than late game. Do I need to explain to you why ?

[Hobo Misanthropus]

Like the unofficial patch, Atronach stone (and the perk) is absolute trash.

Game is piss easy even on Legendary, you're better off just keeping Warrior stone full time until Smithing is 100.

Special exception for Werewolf and Vampire Lords of course.

Lord stone is better Early game, since it isn't chance related. On legendary, some of the nastier spells dual cast will ash you instantly with no resist. It's better to KNOW you will survive with 20% HP than HOPE you will survive with 100%. Lord stone also has the added bonus of adding a free 50 armor. Not super useful, but not bad.

At higher level, as Obi pointed out, you have access to no shortage of gear that makes any discussion on "Optimal Build" moot.

Atronach stone isn't too bad if loaded onto the Aetherium Crown though, so you can slip it on for situational uses. Though it depends on what you're willing to sacrifice for more survival on a game so easy, the elderly can play it.

[Sgt.Random♿]

Originally posted by obidogo:

@BlackWolf

Why are you questioning my observations ? In fact you are completely wrong. The Atronach stone is more valuable early game than late game. Do I need to explain to you why ?

That ♥♥♥♥♥♥ that said warriors will always outdamage assassins again, dear god, I guess it's just time to block you.

[Blonde Travolta]

That's right. Lategame you have plenty of options to protect against magic and have enough magicka as well. However early game that 50 magicka extra and the resistance is invaluable.

Lategame the Lord stone and the Guardian stone are when they really start to shine because gaining level late in the game becomes harder.

[258789553873]

Obviously, the way to get the most xp out of the xp stones is to take them early on. If you take them at level 1, you're obviously going to get more xp overall than if you first take them when your skills are at 90. How long you forgoe taking them has no effect on how effective they are at any level, so having them for every skill up will overall cause things to go faster than if you take them later. They are early game stones (which is why they're the first you're introduced to), and really you shouldn't replace them until you get your skills to at least 95 (at that point, the best thing for you to do is use the skill books, which give you skill levels, not xp, so they're not affected by the stones anyway). Of course, depending on how much trouble you're having with dragons in the game, you may need to take the atronoch stone early. Not that it really matters much either way; you can still get to the skill cap with or without an xp bonus, obviously. Honestly, they're only really a hard necessity if you want to rush to the late game content or something.

[Blonde Travolta]

Gaining levels early game is not hard at all even without the Guardian stones. Gaining levels at endgame however is much tougher and the Guardian stone really shines with much bigger marginal XP gain.

[Hobo Misanthropus]

Originally posted by obidogo:

Gaining levels early game is not hard at all even without the Guardian stones. Gaining levels at endgame however is much tougher and the Guardian stone really shines with much bigger marginal XP gain.

But, depending on which skills you specialize in, gaining skills faster in pertinent combat skills keeps you in line with higher tier enemies.

[258789553873]

You could do some simple math to prove my point. To make things simple, let's say you get one 1 extra xp everytime you attack or make something or whatever. If you do so 50 times, obviously, you get 50 more xp. If you do it 100 times, you get 100 more. And keep in mind, you may have to do something thousands of times to get to the skill cap, so that's a lot of time saved if you get even such a small xp bonus. And the stones give you 15-20% (depending whether you get the lover stone or the guaridan stones). So, for each hour you have to spend grinding a skill, you can get to the same level in 48 minutes with a guardian stone as you could if you had none. If you have to grind for 6 hours, then having the guardian stone will make it so you only have to grind for 5. It adds up pretty fast, if you just do the math. And does doesn't take into account sleeping bonuses, or any other bonuses you might have. You could potentially have an xp bonus of up to 50% (lover stone+guardian stone+lover's comfort would be 15+20+15=50%, you need the aetherial crown for this though).

Also, keep in mind, xp gain is linear, not exponential. For instance, every item you craft with enchanting gives you the same xp no matter soul used, enchanting skill, or even resulting item value. Yeah, there's some that do take things into account like item value (smithing and alchemy) or how much damage a weapon deals, but honestly the xp still doesn't take your skill rank into account. Any given weapon will give you the same xp no matter your level or even the smithing level of said weapon (well, technically having a smithed weapon slows down skill gain, because you don't have to hit things as many times to kill them). I would do the math based on how much xp you need to max enchanting, but of course you can't use UESP without installing some insidious program now, so I can't get that value. If remember right, xp required to max a skill is typically measured in the hundreds of thousands, obviously here, a 50% bonus makes quite a huge difference. And the earlier you get to that 50%, the better. Essentially, that bonus would cause you hit the level cap about 0.33333% faster.

Not that this all probably matters to you honestly, since you just seem interested in refuting anything that's obvious, no matter what anyone says. The sole reason I bother to reply at all is to keep false information from spreading.

[Blonde Travolta]

Higher tier enemies level with your character. Overleveling too quick too early is a thing in this game. That's why I recommend Atronach early game and switching to Guardian late game