Gaurdian Stones vs The Lover

[fishhooks]

Another open-ended discussion where I'm simply interested in differing opinions.

So I recognize that a Gaurdian Stone attribute, coupled with Well Rested, results in a 30% gain to those relevant skills, PLUS 10% to everything else. BUT...I'm finding it difficult (to say the least) to maintain a 'well rested' status when traveling cross country for some of these extended treks. Granted, I can usually find a ticky bedroll somewhere to at least get the 5% 'rested' bonus.

SO...it seems my options are to get a 20-25% increase on a third of my skills MOST of the time (with a 5% bonus to everything MOST of the time)....OR...

get a gauranteed 15% on everything ALL the time.

I dunno...as a Battlemage, I'm wearing light armor and sneaking around alot, I'm using 1 and 2-handed weapons and blocking, and I'm throwing a lot of spells. For me, the Gaurdian effects are most useful when I'm going to sit down and brew up a lot of potions, or when I'm gonna smith-up a lot of weapons and armor, or focus on enchanting a buncha items. Otherwise, it seems like I get more bang out of Lover for running tasks.

Your thoughts or comments?

[Jirki88]

Aetherium Crown and the best of both worlds.

[Bojangles4th]

I'd go with the Lover's Stone. The Aetherium Crown is cool 'n' all but then you have one less item slot you can use for general enchanting (an important slot, as helms / headpieces are 1 of 4 types of gear that can reduce spell cost, or enhance Archery.)

[Dala]

Well you wear the aetherium crown when you train only. I can get a bonus from 2 stones and well rested which total 45% exp. That's a lot. I put the lover stone effect in the aetherium crown, and put it off whenever I want to change the other stone effect or try to get the well rested bonus.

For the OP I rather train focus on one or several under the same stone. And then switch to whatever is lacking behind.

[fishhooks]

Thanks all for your responses. Since I have no idea what the Aetherium Crown is at this point (guess I'll find out later), I'm gonna stick with my game-plan of "Lover on long treks, Gaurdian when I'm zero'd in"

[Dala]

Look it up, it's on a cool quest where you also find the Zephyr bow, the quickest bow in Skyrim.

[Washell]

Why this hurry to level up?

[ifoolb]

None of them. Just activate Steed Stone already so I can take more of their stuff.

[pokerhabs]

Originally posted by Washell:

Why this hurry to level up?

Really no hurries to level up. Its a single-player game.

But the reasons why I want to level is because I want to complete all. Pickpocketing tree and Speech tree are the ones I am gonna cake, along with some mage trees.

Also, the more you level, the more you face stronger ennemies variant and I belive that lvl 81 gives you the Ebony Warrior quest. No big deal, but I find it funnier to cross legendary dragons, draugr death overlords and bandits with decent armor.

[Vrakos Anthrakir]

lover's stone because it's not worth the effort to keep switching between the stones/keep consistently well-rested

after level 50 most of the game stops scaling in vanilla so it gets easier and easier as you go.

[alexander_dougherty]

Well I personally go for the mages stone.

Warrior skills are easy to level up.
Thief skills are harder, but still way easier than magic skills.
And when I max out mage skills, I switch to Thief stone.

Or I go for another stone for other reasons (like stead stone for carrying stuff)

[Dala]

You can make everything easy to level if you have the crafting gear and perks from enchanting, smithing, and alchemy. Just need a sparring partner really. The easiest by far is alteration with gear that reduce magicka cost to zero, telekinesis an item and then fast travel. It's ridiculous.

[fishhooks]

Originally posted by Dala:

Look it up, it's on a cool quest where you also find the Zephyr bow, the quickest bow in Skyrim.

lol...I just realized that I've had this Misc Quest in my journal since almost the very beginning of the game...just haven't got around to it yet, 'cuz there's so many other tasks that seemed more important. But good tip...I'm doing it now.

Originally posted by Washell:

Why this hurry to level up?

Not so much a hurry to level up as much as wanting to get some skills to Legendary as soon as possible so I can eventually get a few more perks/levels. Looking at the base game, lvl 81 is the highest you can get (assuming you take all skills to 100), which is 80 perks. Looking over the skill trees, I think I want about 90-94 perks, to "round out" my character build. Only way to do that is thru Legendary Skills, so If I'm going to re-set some skills I use the most, I want to do it way before I get to the higher-leveled enemies. Don't want my weapon skills at 15 when I face off against a level 81 foe.

Thanks all for the thoughts...good info here. (I'm thinking Lover and Steed, with the Crown).

[Mephitic]

The best combo for me with the Crown ls Lord and Lover stones.

[fishhooks]

Originally posted by Mephitic:

The best combo for me with the Crown ls Lord and Lover stones.

Oh yea...that's a good combo. That Resist Magic is a great effect, since it reduces the impact of just about EVERY spell, and the +50 Armor compensates for the lack of a helmet (since I'm assuming you can't wear the Crown with a helmet, other than maybe Falmer helms?)
I'll have to keep that in mind...thanks

[fishhooks]

Originally posted by Dala:

Well you wear the aetherium crown when you train only. I can get a bonus from 2 stones and well rested which total 45% exp. That's a lot. I put the lover stone effect in the aetherium crown, and put it off whenever I want to change the other stone effect or try to get the well rested bonus.

Yea, I was doing the math on that...that's a huge benefit to Alchemy, Enchanting and Smithing. Alchemy and Smithing tend to level up pretty fast on their own, but I can use the help with Enchanting, since I haven't really started doing any of that yet, so my number sucks. 45% will be a big boost when I sit down and start grinding out some enchantments.