Skyrim talk:Spellbreaker

Immune to magic

I would like someone to confirm this to be sure is not a bug, but it seems that the effects of the elemental protection perk in the block tree add up to the effects of the ward created by the shield, leading to the player being imune to magic when holding the shield, very useful against mages and even dragons. 2.80.108.6 18:37, 3 December 2011 (UTC)

I'm not sure exactly what's going on here, but I think it just has to do with the mechanics of the Ward effect. It does not seem to absorb a percentage of spell damage; rather, it absorbs up to a certain amount of damage. I've noticed that sometimes some damage does get through the ward, and sometimes it seems to "break" (with an accompanying stagger and shattering sound effect). Shaydwyrm

Yeah that matches what I've seen. Weak magic does almost nothing, but high powered magic staggers you constantly. It makes it almost useless for going against powerful spellcasters. --68.186.204.160 18:11, 23 December 2011 (UTC)

So at the end we are better off with just a shield enchanted with magic resistance and the Elemental Protection perk :). I like how Bethesda made so many great things possible in this best game of all times but many features are counterproductive such as this. — Unsigned comment by 88.132.45.92 (talk) at 00:33 on 24 December 2011

IDK with a high resistance to magic and more resist to elements on top of the Blocking Perk it seems to last longs against high level spells. Though I still prefer my Blades Shield enchanted with resist magic and Elemental Protection. I'm level 31 and literally as long as I block dragons, dragon priest and high level spellcasters do near nothing to me because of my resist and high health regen. Base Dragons can't even hurt me with their breath anymore I heal faster then they damage. Lord Eydvar 06:23, 25 December 2011 (UTC)

Even with no Block perks, Spellbreaker will let you just stand in Dragon breath and take no damage at all, because it's a DoT effect. You might need a tiny amount of magic/elemental resistance to get the numbers below the threshhold, but probably not even that. "Impact" spells are a different story, especially at high levels, but for dragons Spellbreaker is an automatic no-damage win unless they bite you. Aliana 16:25, 30 December 2011 (UTC)

This has not been my experience when using Spellbreaker against dragons. Ancient dragons in particular have a very damaging breath attack and even with the Elemental Resistance perk and actively blocking, the breath attack still does damage. Also, only fire breath attacks do damage after the initial breath since you are, well, still on fire. The frost breath attack doesn't do damage after the breath attack, though you may suffer from slowed movement for a time. In summary, Spellbreaker certainly helps to mitigate the damage, but it doesn't block it completely. Kastagir 01:30, 4 January 2012 (UTC)

Okay, more than "a tiny amount" then, sorry: I can't remember how much I had on that char. But the health bar just never appeared at all. This was around level 45, if that helps. Aliana 03:51, 4 January 2012 (UTC)

Are you kidding? Blocking a spell is much more effective than having a high resistance to magic. First, you won't take any damage. Second, your magicka/stamina won't be depleted by shock and frost, and you won't be slowed down. And even when the ward breaks, the damages don't get through 193.253.141.64 14:25, 30 December 2011 (UTC)

(←) Spellbreaker is bugged against dragons if you hold the shield long enough before the dragon release his breath, it doesn't break and you're invincible but if the dragon is already breathing on you and you raise your shield it will instantly break. — Unsigned comment by 124.6.181.65 (talk) at 08:29 on 25 January 2012

Isn't this just the way wards and ward-like things work? They need time to charge up. --174.6.51.17 07:03, 4 March 2012 (UTC)

The following note was added to the page. It is relevant info to this section and has been moved:

Might be the case of whether or not the blocking tree is leveled or not and with proper perks. An underleveled blocking tree will not withstand Ancient and Elder Dragon breath. Ward will break and player will stagger. Tested for underdeveloped blocking tree. — Unsigned comment by 98.212.61.248 (talk) at 04:28 on 11 February 2012

Question

Does spellbreaker benefit from the Ancient Knowledge bonus as it is improved with a dwarven metal ingot? — Unsigned comment by 71.204.69.160 (talk) at 23:57 on 2 January 2012

Since the Ancient Knowledge perk is bugged and doesn't do what it says, it would perhaps be unwise to infer that Spellbreaker should benefit from the perk. Typically, shields do not benefit from armor perks - that is to say, their armor rating does not increase. It seems to be the developer's intent that shields should benefit from the block perks in that they block more damage when actively blocking attacks. Oh, and please sign your posts. Kastagir 01:37, 4 January 2012 (UTC)

Incorrect Note

I'm removing the note "Can Not Go Past FLAWLESS!!!" because I'm not sure why it's there. Currently looking at a legendary Spellbreaker using legitimate smithing gear/potions. Scaled157 00:47, 10 January 2012 (UTC)

Looks like somebody got to it while I was writing this. Thank you. Scaled157 00:49, 10 January 2012 (UTC)

You should still retract "Can't get passed flawless!!!" because on the wiki itself it says that you can only get pasted flawless by getting your smithing over level 100. This is in fact very easy because all you have to do is get enchanted items that improve smithing. Also you can drink potions to improve smithing. I hope this helps anyone any the person who said "Can't get passed flawless!!!." — Unsigned comment by 24.253.83.84 (talk) at 15:47 on 19 February 2013

Making it legendary?

I have a smithing skill of 100, but can only seem to make Spellbreaker flawless with a dwarven metal ingot. How do I make it legendary? 67.175.218.176 23:16, 24 January 2012 (UTC)

Because it doesn't have an associated perk you can't get the 2x benefit. So in this case you would have to have "nearly exploited amounts" of alchemy enhanced skill, or a full set of enchanted smithing gear. Dragonalumni 08:19, 29 January 2012 (UTC)

Effect Borrowing

Because the [playerenchantobject] console command uses MGEF-tags and not ENCH-tags, can anyone think of how to enchant this effect onto another shield? Such that it only creates the ward while blocking. I did find that if you use the Ward-Deflection effect listed under the MGEF-tagged effects you can almost mimic the shield... Except the ward is always active. Im looking for an effect that terminates when you lower the shield again. --71.197.200.230 23:45, 27 January 2012 (UTC)

As someone who plays on the Xbox :( and hasn't actually gotten the Spell breaker yet, I would say it is scripted.--211.26.203.82 23:13, 30 January 2012 (UTC)

I used a Fortify Smithing potion (not a seriously ridiculously one, but like 60-80%) along with some fortify Smithing gear, along with a high smithing rating. I'm mainly Light Armor (Near 100) and just pick at Heavy Armor like a bratty little kid does with his brussel sprouts...

(I'm not kidding--I think my current game is about to hit level 61 or 62 with 100 or close to 100 Smithing, Enchanting, Alchemy, Light Armor, One-Handed, Sneak, Archery, Speech etc, and my Heavy Armor is...brace yourself: 27)

...anyhow, I got the Spellbreaker up from its base rating (I think it was 50 something?) to 72. I'm really curious as to how strong it is with 100 H Armor, or FTM, if Heavy and Light Armor ratings even matter for shields. --76.121.163.168 07:00, 4 March 2012 (UTC)

Does the Ward Absorb perk from the Restoration tree apply?

The description of this perk is as follows: "Ward recharges your magicka when hit with spells". So if I'm out of magicka in a fight against dragons and I block with Spellbreaker and I also have this perk, will I regain magicka from Spellbreaker's ward? --98.238.243.104 12:46, 5 February 2012 (UTC)

Will Spellbreaker stack with the Elemental Protection perk?

Would this stack because if it did, you would have 100% resistant to magic?--86.172.16.156 10:44, 18 February 2012 (UTC)

no? because spellbreaker doesn't give any magic resist.50.99.131.84

I don't think so. As the previous person commented, it doesn't actually increase your magic resistance. It simply puts up a -50 ward against spells. I don't know what, if any, effect Elemental Protection would have on it since if the ward is broken you stagger anyway. Since Elemental Protection only works while your blocking, and you can't block when staggered, I don't think it would apply to this shield. — Unsigned comment by 76.23.84.46 (talk) at 08:33 on 7 May 2012

Well, it could lessen the damage the ward takes effectivley doubling ward time. (Eddie The Head 08:42, 7 May 2012 (UTC))

No cause Wards apply before resistances. Lord Eydvar ^{Talk|Contribs} 05:06, 23 February 2013 (GMT)

just you saying so doesn't make this topic "discussed and dis-proven". all i know is i couldn't sustain the ward against ancient dragons, but after taking elemental protection, i can. unless you can actually disprove this i will revert your undo after a few days. 50.99.131.242 06:08, 24 February 2013 (GMT)

and yes i know about it takes a second or two to fully charge up50.99.131.242 06:21, 24 February 2013 (GMT)

It's been proven already a long while ago by people with the CK. Wards don't get affected by resistance bonuses, and Wards prevent the damage outright before any resistances get factored into the damage. Which means that the only way Spellbreaker would get an EP bonus is from the ward breaking without you getting staggered which doesn't happen without mods. However Spellbreaker does stack with anything boosting ward strength but I don't believe there are any items/abilities as of yet that do that. Lord Eydvar ^{Talk|Contribs} 06:26, 24 February 2013 (GMT)

elemental protection is a scripted effect (or something) not just +resists. For example, did you know that, unlike resists, it doesn`t reduce damage from soul gem traps, only from actual enemies. ||||

(←) 50.99.121.242 Just had a person on the chat run an Creation Kit check for me on this. The Spellbreaker Ward Effect is programmed to not be affected by either Perks, or Resistances, meaning Neither Elemental Protection or Ward Absorb apply. There is however a long standing belief that Dragon Breath attacks are subject to a bug with the Spellbreaker Ward and do not actually apply [proper damage and instead apply a small fraction of the DPS to it meaning it wouldn't break and would behave like it was stopping the damage. Lord Eydvar ^{Talk|Contribs} 07:21, 24 February 2013 (GMT)

well gonna start a new playthrough using shields, guess i will test it in game a bit when i get to take the perk 50.99.131.242 07:27, 24 February 2013 (GMT)

K sounds like a good idea, try to test it against mages not just dragons cause if there is indeed a bug with dragons that won't be of use. Lord Eydvar ^{Talk|Contribs} 07:30, 24 February 2013 (GMT)

Well, regardless of whatever it says in the CK, in the actual game Shieldbreaker does in fact benefit from the Ward Absorb perk as well as the effects of Ahzidal's Gauntlets. I've tested both on PC and PS3 and found it to be true. Be aware that you may not gain magicka from shock spells when using spellbreaker as it seems the magicka absorbed is offset by the magicka drained (since you only absorb a percentage of the magicka rather than the full cost of the spell). Sdgundamx (talk) 10:34, 15 June 2016 (UTC)

I just took a look at the CK myself and Lord Eydvar was wrong. The Elemental Protection perk has nothing to do with adding elemental resistances; it simply mods incoming spell magnitude by 0.5 while you have a shield raised. And the Spellbreaker's enchantment functions exactly the same as using a regular ward spell with a shield raised. So Elemental Protection and Ward Absorb should both work with Spellbreaker, although I don't know exactly how Mod Incoming Spell Magnitude works.

A simple in-game test confirmed that Ward Absorb worked fine. Edited my magicka regen to 0 and blocked a vampire's drain spell with Spellbreaker: my Magicka increased when I had Ward Absorb.

However, a more tedious in-game test seems to indicate that Elemental Protection does not work. I modded actors so that they only knew Thunderbolt and even made a modded perk that always reduced incoming spell magnitude for thorough testing. Elemental Protection's perk effect does not affect how much damage wards take.

174.24.14.187 08:00, 10 February 2017 (UTC)

Disenchanting

Is it possible? — Unsigned comment by 2.51.103.16 (talk) at 06:08 on 17 June 2012

Nope. Sign your posts. -- 186.204.32.128 20:24, 25 July 2012 (UTC)

dragons

Is it effective against revered and legendary dragons? 68.231.197.3 17:57, 16 August 2012 (UTC)

You mean as in protecting yourself against their shouts?Then yes.I believe the ward can protect from their shouts.--Skyrimplayer 17:59, 16 August 2012 (UTC)

It works great for me even against an Ancient Dragon. I didn't see any health loss when I held it up and the dragon blasted me with Fire Breath. 71.203.103.237 00:06, 14 November 2012 (GMT)

Against some legendary dragon the ward broke right about the end of the shout, causing a minor stagger, but no damage, so i believe it is safe to presume it will work against any dragon's breath. Alkharid (talk) 22:42, 22 November 2012 (GMT)

Playing on master difficulty the elder's dragon shout break the ward almost instantly.--78.150.248.207 10:31, 13 December 2012 (GMT)

I just fought a Legendary dragon on Legendary difficulty and the Shield's ward never broke, allowing me to completely negate its Drain Vitality and Fire Breath shouts, taking absolutely no damage and never staggering. The only time the ward dropped is when I blocked a physical attack with the shield, then it took a second or 2 to re-establish it. --Xyzzy ^Talk 00:17, 12 May 2013 (GMT)

I fought a basic dragon with a frost shout on Legendary and the ward broke instantly on XBOX.MyBreton (talk) 05:02, 25 May 2013 (GMT)

It turns out the ward will work, but you just need to give it a little longer to charge prior to getting hit by the dragon breath. No blocking perks neededMyBreton (talk) 22:05, 7 June 2013 (GMT)

(←) Thanks for double-checking. It appears that there may still be some confusion about the shield's charge-up time, but it seems that the shield can completely protect you from any dragon's shouts. --Xyzzy ^Talk 02:48, 8 June 2013 (GMT)

Weird optical illusion

I noticed if you look at spellbreaker in your menu and look at it "wrong," kind of like focusing on a magic eye picture but without distorting your vision, a curious illusion happens. Spellbreaker appears to become convex rather than concave. It's easier to do without clicking the right stick to zoom in. Slowly tilt the shield from left to right, when it is tilting left, follow it to the right with your eye instead and try to envision the metallic disc in the center as it's point. I'm sure no one will believe me since it's so hard to give proper instructions for such an esoteric thing. But once you see it it's quite incredible. I first noticed it when the shield was displayed on the loading screen and out of instinct began rotating it. Even the gold trim throughout the middle portion seem to be set down into the sheiks rather than rising out of it. Has anyone else seen this? I can't find any reference to it online and wanted to share it with someone because I believe it was designed this way intentionally. It is not a minor thing the illusion is quite convincing. I hope this is the right place to do this, I've read the rules and figured the talk page was the appropriate place for my inquiry. I know there are plenty of people who enjoy propagating misinformation but I assure you if you keep trying you will see it. -Creep — Unsigned comment by 99.8.217.222 (talk) at 03:15 on 14 November 2012‎

Look up the Necker Cube page on wikipedia, it describes the ambiguity issues of representing 3-D objects on a 2-D plane. Your brain flip flops between inward and outward faces with sufficiently ambiguous shapes. Not surprising that you see this on the curved surface of the shield, and it probably was not intentional. --142.196.197.131 23:52, 9 May 2013 (GMT)

You are describing an example of the Hollow-Face illusion. The illusion is usually done with a concave mask and appears as a "normal" face rotating in the opposite direction of the actual rotation. It's probably related to the Necker Cube illusion, but slightly different. --Droviin (talk) 20:13, 15 November 2016 (UTC)

Ward Absorb

According to the CK the Spellbreaker Ward is set to be unaffected by ANY Perks or Magical Resistances, meaning Ward Absorb should not affect it at all. Can anyone in game confirm if this is the case and if it isn't this would be a Bug not a Note as it goes against the intention programmed in. Lord Eydvar ^{Talk|Contribs} 07:06, 24 February 2013 (GMT)

I have Ward Absorb and will be getting Spellbreaker within the next few days so I'll report back--69.136.59.17 04:55, 29 July 2013 (GMT)

Definitely does not benefit from Ward Absorb.--69.136.59.17 04:49, 1 August 2013 (GMT)

Actually, it most certainly does benefit from Ward Absorb and additionally benefits from Ahzidal's Gauntlets of Warding. You might think it isn't working if you are hit with a shock spell because the magicka you absorb is cancelled out by the magicka drained by the shock spell (resulting in no magicka gain or loss). Tested on PC and PS3. Sdgundamx (talk) 11:14, 13 June 2016 (UTC)