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
- One of the most useful and amazing properties of the wards is that they block only the base damage of the spells, unaffected by difficulty and enemy perks. That means that with Lesser Ward you can block a Fireball spell that would've dealt at least 140 damage if hit!
- If the ward's armor rating is equal to the spell that hits it, the ward is destroyed but you don't experience stagger and can immediately recast the ward.
- The armor rating of the wards can be raised using Fortify Restoration potions. With powerful enough potion you can make Lesser Ward as powerful as Greater Ward!
- Wards completely negate dragon breath, you can easily block a breath of Ancient or Legendary dragons with Lesser Ward!
- Even if your ward is destroyed and you're staggered you don't get the damage of the spell that destroyed the ward.
- When the ward is destroyed it takes some time for it to disappear. For example, if enemy launches two Ice Spears at you, and the first destroys the ward, the second will hit the not yet disappeared ward and won't do any damage. Visual effect is like hitting an invisible wall.
- Dual casting wards results in their power being multiplied by 2.2 at the expense of 2.8 times more cost. Dual casting wards make them charge almost instantly as opposed to single casted wards.
- Casting wards in two hands doesn't have effects on the wards' spell blocking power. There are 4 effects in Active Effects, but Ice Storm destroys two Lesser Wards (no stagger, the damage and ward's defense are the same) the same way as one. However the armor effect is doubled.
- Being a Necromage Vampire boosts the AR given by wards a 25% boost
- Wards block only attacks from the front, however the angle is pretty generous(around 90 degrees).
- Wards don't block enchantments on enchanted weapons and don't prevent the soul trap effect to occur.
- Casting wards with shield equipped shows animation for blocking but you don't actually block and ward of Spellbreaker doesn't activate. Quick Reflexes doesn't kick in too.
- Spellbreaker's ward doesn't recharge like normal wards. You have to lower the shield and raise it again to restore it's ward to full power.
- Ward absorb works and is quite effective, and Ahzidal's gear stacks with Ward Absorb perk
- The Ward Absorb is not affected by Necromage perk as well as Ahzidal's Gauntlets of Warding. The highest absorption possible is 75%.
- The Tower of Strength perk and Force Without Effort meditation bonus from Paarthurnax don't affect the stagger from having your ward destroyed.
- Due to how physical reduction from armor works in Skyrim the AR added by the ward will help negate more damage the higher your armor rating is when you cast it (pointed out by Mason).
- Wards block Chaurus and Frostbite Spider poison spit (pointed out by Paul England)
- If you cast wards really fast, alternating between hands as quickly as possible you can get the benefits of having 2 wards up, the magic and physical defenses (with both AR boosts) but it does not drain any magicka at all aside from initial cost of casting the wards (pointed out by Ben C)
Numbers
Numerical values for the various properties of the wards taken from Creation Kit.
Base spell cost (magicka/second)
- Lesser Ward - 34
- Steadfast Ward - 58
- Greater Ward - 86
Base armor rating
- Lesser Ward - 40
- Steadfast Ward - 60
- Greater Ward - 80
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
- One of the most useful and amazing properties of the wards is that they block only the base damage of the spells, unaffected by difficulty and enemy perks. That means that with Lesser Ward you can block a Fireball spell that would've dealt at least 140 damage if hit!
- If the ward's armor rating is equal to the spell that hits it, the ward is destroyed but you don't experience stagger and can immediately recast the ward.
- The armor rating of the wards can be raised using Fortify Restoration potions. With powerful enough potion you can make Lesser Ward as powerful as Greater Ward!
- Wards completely negate dragon breath, you can easily block a breath of Ancient or Legendary dragons with Lesser Ward!
- Even if your ward is destroyed and you're staggered you don't get the damage of the spell that destroyed the ward.
- When the ward is destroyed it takes some time for it to disappear. For example, if enemy launches two Ice Spears at you, and the first destroys the ward, the second will hit the not yet disappeared ward and won't do any damage. Visual effect is like hitting an invisible wall.
- Dual casting wards results in their power being multiplied by 2.2 at the expense of 2.8 times more cost. Dual casting wards make them charge almost instantly as opposed to single casted wards.
- Casting wards in two hands doesn't have effects on the wards' spell blocking power. There are 4 effects in Active Effects, but Ice Storm destroys two Lesser Wards (no stagger, the damage and ward's defense are the same) the same way as one. However the armor effect is doubled.
- Being a Necromage Vampire boosts the AR given by wards a 25% boost
- Wards block only attacks from the front, however the angle is pretty generous(around 90 degrees).
- Wards don't block enchantments on enchanted weapons and don't prevent the soul trap effect to occur.
- Casting wards with shield equipped shows animation for blocking but you don't actually block and ward of Spellbreaker doesn't activate. Quick Reflexes doesn't kick in too.
- Spellbreaker's ward doesn't recharge like normal wards. You have to lower the shield and raise it again to restore it's ward to full power.
- Ward absorb works and is quite effective, and Ahzidal's gear stacks with Ward Absorb perk
- The Ward Absorb is not affected by Necromage perk as well as Ahzidal's Gauntlets of Warding. The highest absorption possible is 75%.
- The Tower of Strength perk and Force Without Effort meditation bonus from Paarthurnax don't affect the stagger from having your ward destroyed.
- Due to how physical reduction from armor works in Skyrim the AR added by the ward will help negate more damage the higher your armor rating is when you cast it (pointed out by Mason).
- Wards block Chaurus and Frostbite Spider poison spit (pointed out by Paul England)
- If you cast wards really fast, alternating between hands as quickly as possible you can get the benefits of having 2 wards up, the magic and physical defenses (with both AR boosts) but it does not drain any magicka at all aside from initial cost of casting the wards (pointed out by Ben C)
Numbers
Numerical values for the various properties of the wards taken from Creation Kit.
Base spell cost (magicka/second)
- Lesser Ward - 34
- Steadfast Ward - 58
- Greater Ward - 86
Base armor rating
- Lesser Ward - 40
- Steadfast Ward - 60
- Greater Ward - 80
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 ).
