Spell absorption question

[DocV]

When dragons spit fire / ice, does that count as a "spell" and is therefore impacted by the spell absorption from the atronach stone, or is it considered something else?

[Vlad 254]

No, that would be fire, ice, shock and magic resistance. You can't "absorb" dragon breath.

[Rez Elwin]

You can absolutely absorb dragon breath as it is a magic attack according to the game, as are most shouts. I like to run high magic absorb just to ignore the fus ro dah crap from high level draugr. However you do not seem to gain magicka from dragon breath but you will still be immune to its effects.

[Vlad 254]

Originally posted by Rez Elwin:

You can absolutely absorb dragon breath as it is a magic attack according to the game, as are most shouts. I like to run high magic absorb just to ignore the fus ro dah crap from high level draugr. However you do not seem to gain magicka from dragon breath but you will still be immune to its effects.

For you I understand and for OP maybe, maybe not. So it depends on what OP is looking for. For Me absolutely not good enough, hence I use high resistance. And use another stone for other efeects instead.

The Atronach Stone
DESCRIPTION
Those under the sign of The Atronach absorb "A PORTION" of incoming spell damage and have a larger pool of Magicka, but recover it more slowly.

EFFECT
50% Spell Absorption
+50 extra points of Magicka
Magicka regenerates 50% slower

I probably should have been clearer as yes it does technically have "an Impact" My apologies to the OP.

[alexander_dougherty]

Originally posted by DrVeil:

When dragons spit fire / ice, does that count as a "spell" and is therefore impacted by the spell absorption from the atronach stone, or is it considered something else?

The spellbreaker shield works on Dragon shouts, so I would say they are considered spells. So spell absorption should work, but it's a fifty percent chance of absorbing the spell, so fifty percent of the time it won't work.

[258789553873]

Yes, spell absorption can absorb dragon breath. Its a common strategy to get the atronoch stone for fighting dragons.

Now, spell absorption DOESN'T absorb 'part' of a spell, its a percentage chance of a spell being absorbed. For example, if you have the atronoch stone, you have a 50% chance of absorbing a spell rather than taking damage from it. If you want to see this for yourself, try to summon an atronoch without the unofficial patch. There's a glitch where the atronoch stone will also absorb atronoch spells due them being an effect you cast on yourself. You'll notice that half the time, your spell does nothing but instead you get a large amount of mana back.

Part of the confusion may be caused by how dragon breath works. It isn't a single instance of damage, rather its a damage over time effect that deals a small amount of damage to you every 1/10 of a second. Each of those instances of damage have a 50% chance of being absorbed by the atronoch stone. This means that if you have the atronoch stone, half of the dragon's damage will be negated. Again, that's because the dragon's breath is actually multiple instances of damage being applied rapidly rather than a single instance like most spells (the starter destruction spells are a notable exception to this, since they work like the dragon breath attacks).
So yes, spell absorption is usable against dragons, and is in fact quite useful. In fact, you can even get your spell absorption to 100% and thus render yourself completely immune to magic, including dragon breath. Though its more common for people to just max out their magic resistance, even though that's capped at 80%. My guess is everyone does this because to get 100% spell absorption you have to wear these unique robes, which means that you'll have no armor. Maxing your magic resistance, on the other hand, allows you to wear any armor you want. And honestly, physical damage in this game is far more common than magic damage.