How can they continually overlook wards! It's baffling!
Collete Marence
Introduction
During my adventures in Skyrim I found the wards to be exceptionally helpful and thought that other people shared my love of them. However, I saw more and more discussions on the net constantly dismissing these spells as not good and not useful. Mostly this opinions came from people who didn't have the full information on these amazing spells and that, along with the lack of information in both UESP and Wiki made me to decide to post this guide on wards.
Acquisition
Lesser Ward is given to player character during the quest First Lessons by Tolfdir for free. Alternatively, while being available from spell merchants, tomes for both Lesser and Steadfast Wards can be found in Alftand Ruined Tower and Labyrinthian respectively (accessed during the quest The Staff of Magnus). Greater Ward can only be purchased from Collete Marence if the player's Restoration skill is equal or higher than 40.
That being said, the spells can be found in random loot after player reaches the corresponding level (1 for Lesser Ward, 10 for Steadfast Ward and 23 for Greater Ward).
Key Points
Wards are protective spells that block magic.
Tolfdir
Wards are useful spells from the Restoration school that add to both physical and magical defensive capabilities of the caster. The first thing to remember about wards is that they have pretty high casting cost, and with them being concentration type spells, can drain caster's magicka reserves very quickly. Another thing to note is that the wards require some time to reach full power (about 1-2 seconds). When the ward is hit by a spell it immediately starts to recharge at a constant rate, even if still taking damage. One advantage wards have over physical shields is that you can still attack with a weapon while casting a ward, whereas raising a shield prevents you from using your weapon (pointed out by Teccam).
Ward Facts
Numbers
Numerical values for the various properties of the wards taken from Creation Kit.
Base spell cost (magicka/second)
Base armor rating
Epilogue
I hope this guide helped to shed light on very useful but often overlooked spells of the Restoration school. If you have more information on these amazing spells, feel free to post them in the comments, and I'll add them to the guide (after verifying them at first ).
How can they continually overlook wards! It's baffling!
Collete Marence
Introduction
During my adventures in Skyrim I found the wards to be exceptionally helpful and thought that other people shared my love of them. However, I saw more and more discussions on the net constantly dismissing these spells as not good and not useful. Mostly this opinions came from people who didn't have the full information on these amazing spells and that, along with the lack of information in both UESP and Wiki made me to decide to post this guide on wards.
Acquisition
Lesser Ward is given to player character during the quest First Lessons by Tolfdir for free. Alternatively, while being available from spell merchants, tomes for both Lesser and Steadfast Wards can be found in Alftand Ruined Tower and Labyrinthian respectively (accessed during the quest The Staff of Magnus). Greater Ward can only be purchased from Collete Marence if the player's Restoration skill is equal or higher than 40.
That being said, the spells can be found in random loot after player reaches the corresponding level (1 for Lesser Ward, 10 for Steadfast Ward and 23 for Greater Ward).
Key Points
Wards are protective spells that block magic.
Tolfdir
Wards are useful spells from the Restoration school that add to both physical and magical defensive capabilities of the caster. The first thing to remember about wards is that they have pretty high casting cost, and with them being concentration type spells, can drain caster's magicka reserves very quickly. Another thing to note is that the wards require some time to reach full power (about 1-2 seconds). When the ward is hit by a spell it immediately starts to recharge at a constant rate, even if still taking damage. One advantage wards have over physical shields is that you can still attack with a weapon while casting a ward, whereas raising a shield prevents you from using your weapon (pointed out by Teccam).
Ward Facts
Numbers
Numerical values for the various properties of the wards taken from Creation Kit.
Base spell cost (magicka/second)
Base armor rating
Epilogue
I hope this guide helped to shed light on very useful but often overlooked spells of the Restoration school. If you have more information on these amazing spells, feel free to post them in the comments, and I'll add them to the guide (after verifying them at first ).
About how much damage from physical attacks is mitigated by wards as opposed to using a shield?
I know that shields have a cap of 85% but about how much do wards block?
About how much damage from physical attacks is mitigated by wards as opposed to using a shield?
I know that shields have a cap of 85% but about how much do wards block?
The wards simply add a number to your armor rating. The base numbers are documented in the Numbers section, you can increase them via Restoration potions. That said the damage reduction is calculated like normal armor rating. So if you had 0 armor rating prior to casting a ward and didn't use any potions the damage reduction for Lesser, Steadfast and Greater wards will be 4.8%, 7.2% and 9.6% respectively (the formula is: damage reduction = armor rating * 0.12%).
The wards simply add a number to your armor rating. The base numbers are documented in the Numbers section, you can increase them via Restoration potions. That said the damage reduction is calculated like normal armor rating. So if you had 0 armor rating prior to casting a ward and didn't use any potions the damage reduction for Lesser, Steadfast and Greater wards will be 4.8%, 7.2% and 9.6% respectively (the formula is: damage reduction = armor rating * 0.12%).
Awesome write-up Vazgen. Love the formatting too. Easy +1. The idea of making a ward-based build has always entertained me, but I never knew enough about them to determine if it was worth trying; they appear pretty lame on paper from a quick glance. But there's a lot of really good info here, and some of it just begs for a proper Warder build. This is something I for one will want to look into once I finish my current build!
Awesome write-up Vazgen. Love the formatting too. Easy +1. The idea of making a ward-based build has always entertained me, but I never knew enough about them to determine if it was worth trying; they appear pretty lame on paper from a quick glance. But there's a lot of really good info here, and some of it just begs for a proper Warder build. This is something I for one will want to look into once I finish my current build!