What stone do you have active?

[Dirty Rotten Girl]

right now I am still using the theif stone but I'm thinking of changing to the ritual stone. what about you guys?

[OdySnr]

It depends on what you want to do, tell us what you plan in doing further along in the game, and we'll tell you the correct standing stone to choose

[Its Josh*]

I'd say the best are that of the Lord stone which gives reduced damage to that of weapons and magic or the Lover stone for an all around bonus xp to all skills 15%. If your not looking to level your skills the Lord stone would definetly be the one to go for.

[Brandybuck]

Once-per-day powers suck, in my opinion. That's because they never get used because you tend to save them for emergencies that never happen. Stones with some sort of constant effect are better, IMHO.

My favorite is the Atronach stone. It doesn't block your magicka regeneration, but it does significantly slow it down, for the reward of decent magicka absorption. Good for tanks, as well as mages who like the RP more than the OP.

[Mr. Monday]

I usually stick with the mage, but after doing the vampire-side of the DG quests, I've been using The Lady lately.

[Dirty Rotten Girl]

I am an archer/theif that uses restoration spells quite a bit. what might be good for that other than the theif stone?

[Hare+Guu!]

I use atronach. The strongest enemies always use magic (dragons/priests/etc), so it's good to not get hit.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

I start the game with the Mages Stone. I play a spellsword mostly.

I like having the Mages Stone, so I can quickly level up Enchanting. I get the Mace of Molag Bal and Black Star right away, so I can kill human enemies and soul trap them, then recharge the mace after every few kills. Enchanting levels up pretty quickly that way.

I also like to focus on Destruction in the beginning to help get it to 30 asap, so I can get aumented flames to help with damage.

Once I get to a decent level in Enchanting I switch to the Lords Stone for higher defense and magic resistance.

[just.nuke.em]

Originally posted by Omgwtfbbqkitten:

Enchanting levels up pretty quickly that way.

Much easier to steal a bunch of petty soul gems, enchant a bow with soul trap, and then go around killing deer around Whiterun. Use the gems to enchant iron daggers you make at the forge. Sell dagger for monies. Much easier to level up enchanting and smithing this way

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Originally posted by just.nuke.em:

Originally posted by Omgwtfbbqkitten:

Enchanting levels up pretty quickly that way.

Much easier to steal a bunch of petty soul gems, enchant a bow with soul trap, and then go around killing deer around Whiterun. Use the gems to enchant iron daggers you make at the forge. Sell dagger for monies. Much easier to level up enchanting and smithing this way

The time you spend farming soul gems, hunting deer with a bow to fill those soul gems, making daggers and enchanting them with the collected soul gems is not an easier way to level up enchanting.

My way requires far less effort.

If you insist on using a bow to collect your souls that is fine, but kiling enemies with a soul trap weapon of your choice combined with the Black Star and recharging that weapon after every kill is easier than having to do all the things listed above.

[Solomon Hawk]

I think right now I'm using the Shadow Stone and the Mage Stone (wearing the aetherium amulet.

[DeadlyDanDaMan]

Lord, Atronach, or Lover's. Take your pick. Those are the only 3 really worth anything in the game. And don't bother with saying the Guardian Stones. Lover's makes them all obsolete.

[Trehek]

Wait, were there actually options? I can't hear over the sound of how awesome my Lord's Stone buff is.

But in all seriousness, Lovers for levelling (I honestly don't bother), and Lady if you're a Breton or otherwise have an easy time maxing magic resistance. The armor bonus from Lord is nice early on but becomes useless late game. The magic resistance is amazing but if you can max it through other means (Breton + Mara quest + Alteration perks come close), the regen from Lady combined with high resistances makes you very hard to kill.

[naru]

I use Lord on pretty much all characters.... magic hurts my butt.

[rninl8]

Lover.

It doesn't feel like it's doing anything, but over time it really helps.

[stcaFylnO]

Varies, depending upon need at time. 3 specifics:

Atronach: All the Atronach I can scrape up, so attacks must cut through it and MR. It feels somewhat fair, since in vanilla game, it interferes with some spells.

If crafting serioiuslly, the caps are easily hit for MR and DR, so again... Atronach.

Lover helps my werewolfy XP, since the shedding on beds affects resting boni.