Forums » Elder Scrolls

Summoning in Skyrim

    • 17 posts
    May 17, 2013 10:16 AM EDT

    So, as the title suggest I am here to talk about creature summoning. I recently started character which relies heavily on summoned creatures and followers, due to the fact that it has very low armor skill and only 150 health. I used to be pretty skeptical about summons but now I really enjoy using them and already 97 conjuration (as of yesterday). I wanted to know what are other player general thoughts about conjuration, do you like it, maybe you hate it, which is your favorite summon, if you have one, do you often use them and have you ever tried all of them. Since I am PC player, I made test account just for education purposes, and gave it 100 conjuration using console. 

    After few tests here and there I have come to conclusion - atronachs are overrated. Even enhanced thralls have fairly low stats and are not good at taking massive amounts of damage, which is main reason I need summoned creatures. Offensively they are not bad, my personal favorite is frost atronach/thrall mainly because melee is more accurate than magic and it can stagger enemy. When being in places like Dwemer ruins I noticed that all my atronachs die very quickly to even low level automatons, probably because they have no armor value. 

    So far my all time favorite summoned creature is Dremora Lord. The downside is...I feel that he is way too powerful even at high levels. Even on master difficulty he can give hard time for things like giants and mammoths. This is the main reason I refuse to use him, makes game too easy. 

    Next test subjects were the all mighty boneman, mistman and wrathman. The first two are fairly weak but nonetheless very useful if you are battling dragons. But now comes the prince on the white horse, wrathman. I finally found a perfect summon for myself. Not as powerful as Dremora but can take quite a bit of damage. Found myself using him/it to attract enemy attention every now even then. Greta help and is not permanent.  And of course, lets not forget Arvak, he deserves a cookie. Greta help if you like to use horses.

    Overall I am pretty impressed with conjuration and I definitely will make more builds that takes advantage of it.

    On the side note, I made J'zargo into master conjurer, could not help myself. Gave him some conjuration spells, his favorite seemed to be wrathman as well. Also I tried giving him NPC only/special summon spells and it worked even if they are not made as spells.

    • 17 posts
    May 17, 2013 10:19 AM EDT

    Screenshot for J'zargos baby as attachment, do not have my photobucket account anymore so had to do it like this.

    • 1913 posts
    May 17, 2013 10:23 AM EDT
    I feel the wrathman is too weak, the only thing I like about it is it has a lot of health... That's it. But even then. I don't like having tanks followers unless I'm playing a stealthy character who fights at long range (and even then I have housecarls for that since I don't have to summon them). I use dremora lords only for boss fights for some backup, every other fight either I handle or my lesser summons handle
    • 1483 posts
    May 17, 2013 10:24 AM EDT

    High level Necromancers destroy Dremora Lords. The Wrathmen are way more useful against them. Also Storm Atronachs! Completely devastating against mages and can't be turned by Dragon priests. The dwarven automatons are immune to Frost, maybe that was the reason of having problems with them?

  • May 17, 2013 11:30 AM EDT

    After many characters that utilize conjuration, I now only invest in the tree for necromancy and bound weapons oriented characters.  The Dawnguard summons are very good situationally, but I usually use conjuration for distraction purposes while I blast, pinprick, slash, or crush my enemies, and then only when overwhelmed.  Dremora Lord is very overrated in my opinion and have come to the point of ignoring the summon altogether.

    Glad you like it though and happy testing!

    • 17 posts
    May 17, 2013 11:50 AM EDT

    Well, I am level 33 with like 30 light armor skill and 150 health. It is hybrid but my main combat skill is destruction. Since I did not get up close and personal when I was low level, it is pretty difficult task now. Opponents are bit too strong for me to tank. 67 armor rating...

    • 17 posts
    May 17, 2013 11:53 AM EDT

    I was one actually dealing the damage, I just send atronach to distract enemy. 2x dwemer sphere and atronach gets downed real quick.

    I seem to get retarded storm atronach for some odd reason. He misses like 70% of time and does fairly low damage for his level.

    • 17 posts
    May 17, 2013 11:58 AM EDT

    I just feel that he is way too powerful. I was level 25 or so when I first got my hands on him. For a test I went to kill Zakriisos and was pretty much running away from him like a little girl. Had my dremora lord summoned. The priest killed him but second dremora managed to kill the priest. Don't forget that I have J'zargo with me everywhere. Him and lord would be bit too OP. I love that cat, not literary. So he is for keepers. So are summons.

    I use only bound weapons as for now. Probably will use sword/bow until I can get my own daedric mace/bow. Then again free arrows are very good.

    • 80 posts
    May 17, 2013 8:36 PM EDT

    I prefer the Boneman spells from dawnguard overall.

    They tank better and wrathmen is my absolute favorite.

    • 30 posts
    May 17, 2013 9:02 PM EDT

    I love conjuration I almost always use it with a hybrid character my favorites are probably the dremora lord and flame antronach because I use no followers most of the time so he helps a lot and the second can hit dragons in mid air and dodges opponents.

    • 17 posts
    May 18, 2013 4:52 AM EDT

    I got flame atronach very early. But it was bad experience from my point. It kept shooting me, got me stuck numerous times, walks opposite way from enemy and dies very quickly and misses so often.

    • 17 posts
    May 18, 2013 4:57 AM EDT

    I like strong undead followers. Shame you can't rise draugr deathlords with dead thrall, could be fun replacer.

    • 409 posts
    May 18, 2013 11:11 AM EDT
    Conjuration is great but I feel it could have had more summons.
    • 127 posts
    May 18, 2013 11:15 AM EDT

    Yes, I agree Oblivion had x5 more summons. Damn, you could even summon a headless zombie.

  • May 18, 2013 12:25 PM EDT

    I am very fond of teaming with J'Zargo as well.  Curently I am teamed with him and Serana.  I feel like a BOSS with two mages blasting everything while I cleave the heads off my enemies.

    I also had a strange kill cam last night with those two.  I was fighting some hired thugs in Solitude when I get the decapitation cam.  It starts and the head comes off, then suddenly it plays J'Zargo's flames kill cam.  It was awesome.

    • 17 posts
    May 18, 2013 12:39 PM EDT

    Skyrim lacks summons that use bows. In fact there is only one and it is not that easy to get, don't forget how weak it is. I think there should be equal amount of summons in each style.

    • 26 posts
    May 21, 2013 7:21 PM EDT

    I am not really enjoying my conjuration build, seems like I absolutely need illusion for more control I didn’t want to go down that road but I’m finding most enemy avoid the summoned creatures and only charge me, to the point where I run around in circles whilst my follower and summoned critter range them. Not a great gaming expierence. I also find the fire atronach to be painful for the reasons mentioned earlier.