Enchanter's Elixir not providing a 25% boost

Question

My Enchanting is at level 100, and I have:

• Enchanter (5/5)
• Fire Enchanter
• Insightful Enchanter
• Corpus Enchanter
• Extra Effect

Here is a chart of the effect:

              (tested) (tested)   (theoretical) (theoretical)      (actual)
Glass Boots:  base     base+grand Elixir(*1.25) +Necromage(*1.31)  Actual
resist fire   +15%     +46%       +58%          +60%               +54%
regen stamina +10%     +31%       +39%          +40%               +36%

Game version is 3.10.0.

The end result is approximately a 17% boost to enchanting; even an Enchanter's Philter (+20%) should be better.

Asked by user19087

Answer

These results are correct, it's just that the potions are affecting your base skill rather than directly affecting enchantment strength. Enchanting's base skill has a particularly weak* effect on things (and it's non-linear, so only a fraction of that +x% manifests in enchantment strength); it's all about the perks.

The formula is

net magnitude = base magnitude * soul multiplier * skill multiplier *
                (1 + Enchanter perk) * (1 + specific perk modifier)

where skill multiplier is "approximately"

skill multiplier = 1 + (skill / 100) * (skill / 100 - 0.14) / 3.4

It is the above skill value that enchantments affect, not the net magnitude. Therefore, your skill multiplier should be

skill multiplier = 1 + 1.25 * (1.25 - 0.14) / 3.4
                 = 1.4081

Plugging that back into the net magnitude formula we get the following for Resist Fire (base magnitude = 15%) and Regen Stamina (base magnitude = 10%)

net magnitude = 15% * 1 * 1.4081 * 2 * 1.25
              = 52.9%
net magnitude = 10% * 1 * 1.4081 * 2 * 1.25
              = 35.2%

Like the UESP page said, the skill multiplier formula was approximate, so I'd say this is close enough. The point is that potions affect your base Enchanting skill, which has a non-linear and weak relationship with enchantment strength. In fact, Enchanting at 100 only grants +25% to enchantment strength over Enchanting at 15 (rather than 100 / 15 = 6.7x), so taking 2 perks and Enchanting 20 is better than no perks and Enchanting 100.

* It actually looks something like this. The above formula doesn't seem to be totally precise, but the gist should be evident:

Notes (as the comments show I should have been clearer here):
+46% = Necromage maximum (5 items of Fortify Alchemy)
+37% = Max with 5 items of Fortify Alchemy (Falmer Helmet + Circlet)
+32% = Max with 4 items of Fortify Alchemy
+25% = Enchanter's Elixir (best non-crafted item)

Answered by Bryan

Check more discussion of this question.

loading..