Magicka Regeneration in and out of Combat

[Shelt]

I've played a lot of Skyrim, and it always seemed oddly frustrating playing mage characters. Now I know why. Some inexact experimentation done shows that mana regeneration is much much slower while the game considers you to be "in combat." And yes, I've discounted the fact that a mod is affecting the regen rate as I have no magic mods or rebuilds installed.

Just how much slower is what I'm trying to find out so that I can add the appropriate amount of regen to counteract this effect. Honestly, this seems like a cheap mechanic added to the game to make the already frustrating magic system into an intentionally handicapped battle system. Or, perhaps the devs felt mages would be OP without the nerf to regen. I tend to believe in the former, because at higher difficulty levels, playing a starting mage feels about as powerful as throwing rocks at a tank.

I'm also wondering if the health and stamina regen rates are affected and if so to what degree during combat as opposed to out of it. This is much harder to tell since those rates are low to begin with, even with regen gear.

If anyone has any input, I would be grateful. Do you find it a better strategy to simply add gear which gives you more overrall magica or a better regen rate, and at what difficulty lvl you play at? I'm also looking for precise nerf numbers for the regen rate in/out of combat.

[Gropax]

did you get The Atronach Stone it makes magika regen 50% slower

http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:The_Atronach_Stone

[Shelt]

Negative, I'm using the Mage stone currently. Don't think I've ever used the Atronach stone.

[Gropax]

then do you have a disease go find a shrine and see.

[DFH01]

I find it's best to fortify equipment to reduce the cost to cast, then use regen potions if you need to. As for the rest i've no idea how the game treats in combat regen of health,magica and stamina..

[Shelt]

Negative on the disease. I've done testing on cows outside and people inside. Both results show a marked nerf to mana regeneration once the game considers me to be "in combat." Once the enemy has been destroyed, the mana bar fills quickly, but while testing on an in game enemy, it crawls along. Try it yourself and see if you get the same results.

[Shelt]

Originally posted by pariah:

I find it's best to fortify equipment to reduce the cost to cast, then use regen potions if you need to. As for the rest i've no idea how the game treats in combat regen of health,magica and stamina..

Thanks. Do you use much alchemy for this playstyle? I've always found it a bit tedious myself, but a good mage with high alchemy might be worth it.

[DFH01]

Yes alchemy and enchanting are well worth the effort.

[Shelt]

OK maybe I shoulda just used Google first before bothering you guys. SOrry!

"Magicka slowly regenerates over time. You regenerate 3.00% of your maximum magicka per second outside of combat and 0.99% in combat."

This from a wiki page.

So it's a pretty big nerf. More than 60% nerf to your mana regen for being "in combat." Brutal for higher difficulty playthroughs.

[DFH01]

It's all doable, no matter what level you play at, preparation is everything. I've played a mage a few times on legendary, it's hard graft when you start, you do quite a bit of running away, but then it all comes good and you can kick a$$

[Amycus]

Magic regen has always been laughable slow in the vanilla game. Heck, the whole magic system has been seriously nerfed since Oblivion and Morrowind, with barely any spells. For some reason your damage with spells doesn't increase with your skill level either, as it does with melee weapons, and the few spells that does exist are replaced one by one by another spell that does increased damage but in a different kind of way. For example, once you can finally use the fireball spell, the first fire spell you got at the start of the game can't kill anything anymore, so you no longer have any reason to use that spell ever again, even though it SHOULD still be useful to have a "spraying effect" in certain situations, rather than using the fireball spell every single time.

Note that through enchanting, if you unlock all the perks, you can bring the magic cost for all spells all the way down to ZERO for 2 magic schools of your choice. Then you can case any spell from these two spell schools of your choice as much as you want without ever even touching your mana.

[Shelt]

This is the first time I've tried to do a pure mage build (Breton female). I'm playing on expert now (I reduced it from Master) because I kept running out of magicka and therefore met with the axe to face problem :(

However now that I know what the values are, some revenge is in order.

I've played a few times with offhand spellsword type characters, one of them turned out really powerful (offhand ward spell, heavy armor, mace user), so I guess I didn't notice the drop in regen rates as much since I was mostly bashing people over the head instead of relying on mana for both offense and defense.

[Amycus]

You might want to try playing a high elf. I think they have twice the normal mana regeneration rate.

[Skyrimnut]

Originally posted by Shelt:

This is the first time I've tried to do a pure mage build (Breton female). I'm playing on expert now (I reduced it from Master) because I kept running out of magicka and therefore met with the axe to face problem :(

However now that I know what the values are, some revenge is in order.

I've played a few times with offhand spellsword type characters, one of them turned out really powerful (offhand ward spell, heavy armor, mace user), so I guess I didn't notice the drop in regen rates as much since I was mostly bashing people over the head instead of relying on mana for both offense and defense.

Wow, I didn't know they nerfed it that much. I noticed the difference too on my mages, but thanks for putting up the actual numbers. There is a really good food recipe for magicka regeneration. Try

Elsweyr fondue - Ale, moon sugar, One Eidar cheese wheel

Unfortunately they seemed to have nerfed the cooking for mages too, as the above is the only vanilla recipe geared towards magicka. I also have additional recipes that are great for mages, but I have a cooking overhaul mod, which makes things more fair.

What level are you? I find that getting destruction reduction cost equipment, and spamming novice spells works very well for the first 20 levels or so. Especially with the augmented damage perks. Don't fire those spells in steady streams, instead do them in concentrated bursts, like a gun, but I'm sure you already know that. I never run out of magicka this way and I don't put any level ups into magicka, I stay at my 100, focusing instead on magicka regeneration, health, and stamina. Lol, currently playing as a heavily armored Khajiit shield mage, but I've played Breton conjuration mages and Altmer mages this way on Expert in their early levels too. I put the level ups into health instead. It makes life easier having the bank of health.

EDIT: sorry, some recipes if you like alchemy. You probably already know this.

Fortfy destruction potion, this can really help out the Novice spells and make them more viable later in the game.

Ectoplasm + beehive husk, but any of these ingredients have a fortify destruction effect
Beehive husk, ectoplasm, glow dust, glowing mushroom, nightshade, and wisp wrappings.

Fortify magicka regen; Dwarven Oil, Fire salts, Garlic, Jazbay grapes, Moon sugar, Salt pile, taproot

[Shelt]

I am approaching lvl 14, going through the mage's guild quest (college of winterhold immersive mod really makes it a lot better). Thanks for the fondue recipe.

Part of my problem is my own doing, I thnk, because I don't like to employ followers. I'm sure with big Lydia tanking for me, another step up in difficulty would be no big deal, but her big butt gets in the way and I usually just end up frying her with a lightning spell.

[JustCallMeMichael]

I'm quite confident that health and stamina regenerate slower out of combat too. There's a lot that changes depending on if you're in combat or not. Lots of spells won't grant any experience unless some combat context is applied. eg. a conjured/raised ally will only give you conjuration xp once it engages with an enemy.

The magic overall is a bit nerfed, which is a shame since it 'feels' so much cooler than in previous games. Vanilla dual casting spells are less efficient, magic skill trees require significantly more perks, somebody else already mentioned that damage dealt does not increase with levels...

My recommendation, if you're really bummed by it and are convinced it's broken, is to find mods which change magic behaviour to suit your 'ideal'. I tend to be cautious with this, as I believe the designers had a vision, and I don't want to 'cheat', but there's cheating, and there's just plain ol' balance.

Just my two cents, after 500 hours. ;)