User:Loup-vaillant/Spell Stacking

This page documents how to exploit Weakness_to_Magic self amplification.

Theory and Rules

Basic Rules

• Effects from the same source do not stack. The newer effect will always replace the previous one.

• Effect from different sources do stack. For instance, if you have 2 different Fortify Magicka 100 for 10 seconds on self spells, casting them one after another will yield a total 200 Fortify Magicka effect.

• The various weakness and resistance effects do not affect the target for the same cast (or strike). For instance, a fire damage 10 + fire weakness 100% for 2 seconds spell will deal 10 damage on the first cast, not 20 (it will however deal 20 damage on the second cast, if you're fast enough).

• Some spell effects (Paralyze, Silence…) don't have a magnitude. In that case, Weakness_to_Magic affects their duration instead.

• Weakness_to_Magic amplifies any following offensive Touch or Target spell, including weakness to magic itself.

Gotchas

• The order in which the effects are listed on the spell or enchantment counts: somehow, weaknesses do not apply to the effects of the same spell that are listed after them. To avoid problems, list the offensive effects of your spell in that order:
  • Soul trap
  • Damage effects.
  • Weaknesses other than Weakness to Magic.
  • Weakness to Magic

• A weapon enchanted with Weakness to Poison cannot enhance its own poison. The poison must come from a different weapon, or it won't be amplified. That's because poison acts as an effect that is listed after all the effects of a potential enchantment.

Detailed Math

Offensive spells are affected by what we call "sensitivity". Magic sensitivity affects all magical effects (including Weakness to Magic). Poison sensitivity affects all poisonous effects. Elemental sensitivity affects elemental damage of the same element, be it magical or poisonous. Here are the exact formulas:

 Magical effects (from spells and enchanted weapons)
 
 magnitude    = base_magnitude * magic_sensitivity
 fire_damage  = base_damage    * magic_sensitivity * fire_sensitivity
 frost_damage = base_damage    * magic_sensitivity * frost_sensitivity
 shock_damage = base_damage    * magic_sensitivity * shock_sensitivity

 Poisons (TODO please test this)
 
 poison_magnitude    = base_magnitude * poison sensitivity
 fire_poison_damage  = base_damage    * poison sensitivity * fire sensitivity
 frost_poison_damage = base_damage    * poison sensitivity * fire sensitivity
 shock_poison_damage = base_damage    * poison sensitivity * fire sensitivity

 Sensitivities
 
 magic_sensitivity  = 1 + (Weakness_to_Magic  / 100) - (Resist_Magic  / 100)
 fire_sensitivity   = 1 + (Weakness_to_Fire   / 100) - (Resist_Fire   / 100)
 frost_sensitivity  = 1 + (Weakness_to_Frost  / 100) - (Resist_Frost  / 100)
 shock_sensitivity  = 1 + (Weakness_to_Shock  / 100) - (Resist_Shock  / 100)
 poison_sensitivity = 1 + (Weakness_to_Poison / 100) - (Resist_Poison / 100)

Practical exploitation

You now know the rules. The following is just the description of how to best exploit them. Now be careful before you do: the resulting spells and enchantments give you Munchink-like powers. Exploiting them may spoil your fun.

So here is some of the most illustrative examples. Variations are easy, even if the math above gives you a headache.

Weakness to Magic Alone

Make a spell (or an enchanted weapon) with the following effect:

• Weakness_to_Magic for 4 seconds (on target if it's a spell)

Cast it repeatedly on some target. Here are the effects of the spell on a target with no initial resistance nor weaknesses (I also assume 100% spell effectiveness).

Number of casts (or strikes) so far	Base magnitude of Weakness to Magic	Actual magnitude of Weakness to Magic	Total Weakness to Magic	Total Magic Sensitivity
1	100	100	100	2
2	100	200	200	3
3	100	300	300	4
…	…	…	…	…
N	100	100 * N	100 * N	N + 1

Two things are worth noting here:

• On the first cast, the "Actual magnitude of Weakness to Magic" is the same as the "Base magnitude of Weakness to Magic". This is because I assume the target starts with a magic sensitivity of 1. Target with initial resistances or weaknesses to Magic will be more or less affected, according to their actual starting magic sensitivity.
• The "Total Weakness to Magic" is always equal to the "Actual magnitude of Weakness to Magic". This is because Weakness to Magic did not stack, because it came from the same spell (or weapon).

To use this spell, just cast it N times on your target, then switch to a damage spell (presumably an expensive one). It will deal as much damage as if you cast your damage spell N + 1 times, but in most cases will be much cheaper.

Adding Weakness to Element

The principle is the same, just more powerful. Make a spell (or an enchanted weapon) with the following effects:

• Weakness_to_Shock for 4 seconds (on target)
• Weakness_to_Magic for 4 seconds (on target)

Remember to place the Weakness to Magic last, or, the spell won't work properly. You can choose Fire, Frost, or even Poison instead of Shock. It will work just the same. Once you're done, cast it repeatedly on some target. (Again, I assume 100% spell effectiveness, and initial sensitivities at 1).

Number of casts (or strikes) so far	Total Weakness to Magic	Total Weakness to Shock	Total Magic Sensitivity	Total Shock Sensitivity	Total Damage Multiplier
1	100	100	2	2	4
2	200	200	3	3	9
3	300	300	4	4	16
…	…	…	…	…	…
N	100 * N	100 * N	N + 1	N + 1	(N + 1)²

Again, there is no stacking involved at all Only the last effect of the same type counts. It's just that the magnitude of each cast of Weakness to magic is influenced by the previous one, and that does add up.

To use this spell, just cast it N times on your target, then switch to your damage spell (or your poisoned weapon). This time, this technique will deal much more damage than just spamming the damage spell.

Adding actual damage

Cumulating weaknesses is cool, but switching to a separate damage spell or weapon is tedious. Also, nothing stops you from adding damage to the same spell or enchantment, so you don't have to switch at all. Plus, Weakness effects are cheap. So, try this spell:

• Shock_Damage 10 pts (on target)
• Weakness_to_Shock for 2 seconds (on target)
• Weakness_to_Magic for 2 seconds (on target)

(You don't have to switch, so 2 seconds are more than enough. You could get away with even less, but 2 seconds are useful against monsters that reflect or absorb your spells.)

This makes a quite devastating spell (or enchanted weapon):

Number of casts (or strikes) so far	Total Weakness to Magic	Total Weakness to Shock	Damage Multiplier from previous spells	Shock Damage just dealt	Total Shock Damage (ideally)
1	100	100	1	10	10
2	200	200	4	40	50
3	300	300	9	90	140
…	…	…	…	…	…
N	100 * N	100 * N	(N + 1)²	10 * (N + 1)²	a lot (more than 3 * N³)

It kills virtually anything in less than 6 casts. The only major obstacles are spell absorption and spell reflection. They can stop the chain before it grows powerful. To counter that, you may want to lengthen the duration of the weakness effects up to 3 or 4 seconds. Beware spell reflection, though: the backfire can kill you very quickly if you're not immune to magic. (I lost to a Mundane Ring wearer that way, and I had over 600 Health).

Variations on that theme

• Add a Drain Health 100pts for 1 second effect for even quicker kills. (Like the Slaughterhouse spell).
• Combine the technique with spell chaining, which let you spam your already overpowered spells.
• Use area effects.
• Add an invisibility on self, Like the Predator spell.
• Add a soul trap effect, which is very useful for enchanted weapons with Azura's Star (don't forget to place it first in the list of effects).
• Combine all those variations to cleanse whole areas in seconds. By the clock. (We told you it could spoil your fun.)

Actual Stacking

This is where we use 2 different spells for the weaknesses, and cast them alternatively before delivering the finishing blow (an obvious variation is to include damage effect in the weakness spells). It deals more damage than the techniques described above, but not much. With 2 weakness spells, damage for the final blow goes from quadratic to cubic. It is not exponential, contrary to popular belief.

The bottom line is, the chore of switching spells (or weapons) outweighs the benefit of increased damages. Don't bother using 2 spells, one is enough.

Spell Stacking on self

The goal is to raise your own weakness to magic, then use it to amplify beneficial effects to yourself. This is quite clearly something the game designers did not have in mind: they even build restrictions to prevent it. The restrictions aren't perfect, however, and there are ways to get around them.

Before version 1.1 patch

This exploit doesn't work since version 1.1, but is still worth mentioning for pedagogical purposes.

The flaw we exploit here is this one:

1. Magic sensitivity is supposed to affect offensive effects only. Actually, it affects offensive spells.
2. An offensive spell is a spell that contains at least one offensive effect.

Therefore, if you cast a spell to yourself that has at least one offensive effect (such as Weakness to Magic), then all its effects are amplified by your current Weakness to Magic. To take advantage of this, make a dedicated spell:

• Fortify Health X pts for Y seconds on Self (or any other beneficial effect)
• Weakness to Magic 100% for 2 seconds on Self

By casting the spell N times in a row, you multiply the magnitude of the beneficial effects by N. It tends however to quickly deplete your Magicka. To avoid that, you can use the spell chaining technique:

• Cheap beneficial effect (optional)
• Fortify Intelligence 100 pts for 3 seconds on Self
• Weakness to Magic 100% for 3 seconds on Self

A further benefit of that technique is that it can temporarily give you an unlimited amount of Magicka. That let you cast a very expensive spell, for instance on yourself:

• Weakness to Frost 3% for 1 second on Self (Don't forget the offensive effect or the beneficial effect won't be amplified.)
• Expensive beneficial effect.

Finally, note that the Apprentice birth sign makes this exploit exactly twice as efficient.

After version 1.1

Since version 1.1, effects "on self" are no longer affected by magic sensitivity. There is still a flaw however: "on touch" and "on target" effects are affected, even if they end up affecting you because your original target Reflected your spell back. So this time, you will arrange your spells to be reflected back at you, instead of directly casting them on yourself. You need the following spells:

1. Summon Skeleton (we want it weak and inexpensive).
2. Reflect Spell 100% for at least 2 seconds on Touch
3. Your main spell:
   • Fortify Health 50 pts for 120 secs on Touch (or any other beneficial effect)
   • Weakness to Magic 100% for 4 secs on Touch

First, summon your skeleton. Cast Reflect Spell on it then spam your main spell until it the reflection wears off. Repeat the last step until you have enough (or the skeleton disappears).

The main problem is the Reflect spell effect: it requires Expert level Mysticism, and is very expensive. You have to use the spell chaining technique to be able to cast it over and over. An alternative is to make it last longer (10 to 15 seconds), so you can spam 10 main spells in a row. A cheaper (but more tedious) alternative is to first raise the Weakness to magic of your target, so you can cast a Cheaper Reflect spell which last longer (don't forget to include an offensive effect with this spell, or the reflection won't be amplified).

Also, your summon won't like your casting offensive spells at it. Either add a Calm effect to your main spell (up to level 1 is enough for your skeleton), or wear a Chameleon Suite, or don't use this technique in front of friends, which will attack your summon back to defend you. In the worst case, they can cast spells on your summon and get killed by the reflection.

To make sure your spells all land, you may want to paralyse your summon first, or cast your effects "on target" instead of "on touch", or wear a Chameleon Suite.