Alteration (Skyrim)

''The School of Alteration involves the manipulation of the physical world and its natural properties. This skill makes it easier to cast spells like Waterbreathing, magical protection, and Paralysis.''

Alteration is a skill in and is one of the six skills that falls under The Mage and Night-Blade play-style. The Alteration skill is raised by using certain kinds of spells that identify themselves as Alteration spells. These Alteration spells include the ability to envelope oneself in Magic Armor, detect entities either by illumination of the area or by magically sensing their presence; the ability to temporarily stun foes (paralyze), and a few special spells marked with * in the list below.

Changes from previous games
Since does not feature custom spell creation, all Alteration spells are learned through Spell Tomes. Open Lock, Burden and Feather spells have been removed.

Books
The following books provide a permanent skill up to Alteration; locations are listed under each title, and may not be exhaustive. Skill Books are one time use only. After a skill book is read once, reading the same book does not increase skills.
 * Breathing Water
 * Bravil: Daughter of the Niben
 * Reality & Other Falsehoods
 * Sithis
 * The Lunar Lorkhan

Quests
The following Quests increase the Alteration Skill:
 * Retrieve Frost salts for Dravynea the Stoneweaver in Kynesgrove
 * Find Pantea's Flute for Pantea Ateia in the Bards College in Solitude (Note: also increases Illusion, Enchanting, Conjuration, Destruction and Restoration)
 * Discerning the Transmundane
 * When reading the Oghma Infinium, selecting the Path of Magic will increase all magic skills (including Alteration) by 5 points.
 * Alteration Ritual Spell is given by Tolfdir at the College of Winterhold and, upon completion, allows for the purchase of Master-level Spell Tomes when the Dragonborn's Alteration skill level reaches 100.

Spells
The following is a complete list of Alteration spells:

Master spells can't be purchased initially. To unlock Master Alteration spells, the Alteration Ritual Spell quest must be completed upon reaching level 100 Alteration.

Note: Unlike other protection spells, such as Ironflesh or Ebonyflesh, Dragonhide is not affected by the Mage Armor perk, so the player can use light or heavy armor without losing any bonus of the spell.

Perks
The following are the perks that become available for selection as the skill is leveled up:

Trainers

 * Melaran (Adept): Solitude
 * Dravynea (Expert): Kynesgrove
 * Tolfdir (Master): Hall of the Elements or the Hall of Attainment at The College of Winterhold

Leveling
The Alteration skill level can be increased by using these tactics:
 * To train Alteration as well as pickpocketing or archery fast (works best if you are low level) you should join the thieves guild in Riften, go into the cistern and stand in the water in the middle and cast the water breathing spell, everytime you get an overall level up talk to 'virpir the fleet' to train you in pickpocketing or 'niurin' for archery training.
 * With 100 Enchanting, it is possible to enchant armor to reduce Alteration spell magicka usage (Fortify Alteration effect) to 0. With this armor equipped, it is a simple matter to raise the skill using virtually any spell.
 * If the Telekinesis (Adept) spell is known, then it can be used repeatedly to boost the alteration skill really quickly. However, it is very magicka-costly without a lowered magicka usage. One option is to just wait an hour every time magicka runs out, and face a wall so when the item is thrown it doesn't hit anyone or get lost. A good spot to train using this method is the top of Winterhold College accessible through the Arch-Mages Quarters. Or play "catch" by looking directly upwards and casting Telekinesis over and over with an object.
 * Casting Magelight and Candlelight as often as possible provides a slow but easy flow of experience. Since Candlelight and Magelight are Novice and Apprentice level spells respectively, they are able to be obtained and used early in the game.
 * Transmute Mineral Ore can be used to convert Iron Ore into Gold Ore (Iron -> Silver -> Gold) after purchasing the starting ore from a blacksmith. From there, Gold jewelry can be crafted to repay the losses. This method is time-consuming, but using Magicka Regen items or the Highborn Power (exclusive to Altmer) helps the process. Enchanting obtained items will increase prices, thus providing Alteration, Smithing, Enchanting, and Speech experience.
 * Casting Detect Life is a very quick way to level Alteration. The more 'life' that is detected, the faster this method works. Good areas for using this spell are: the marketplaces in Whiterun and Riften, The Winking Skeever in Solitude, the lower level of The Bannered Mare in Whiterun at night, and the The Ragged Flagon (if player has restored the Thieves Guild). Or, if allied with the Stormcloaks, the Blue Palace in Solitude will be full of the Jarls and their Housecarls from the various territories that have been conquered. Waiting one hour to restore Magicka or equipping items that give extra Magicka is beneficial to this method also.
 * Standing in shallow water and repeatedly casting Waterbreathing also raises the Alteration skill level.
 * Wearing Master Robes of Alteration, Morokei, The Apprentice Stone, and an Amulet of Akatosh will increase the base magicka regen to 375%. This percentage can be raised even higher with a ring enchanted with Regenerate Magicka, depending on Enchanting level.
 * Repeatedly casting Stoneflesh or Oakflesh next to an immobile enemy (like the caged wolves in Cragslane Cavern) quickly levels Alteration (level 100 in very little time with no perks invested in the skill).
 * Cragslane Cavern is involved in the quest Skooma Trade; a bug exists that may prevent that quest from being completed if it is visited before being sent there by the quest. Note, however, that there should be two caged wolves immediately outside of Cragslane cavern that may be used for this purpose without triggering the bug.
 * Alternatively, the Bloodlet Throne southwest of Helgen could be used to practice spells with the vampires on the other side of the barricade.
 * Repeatedly cast Paralysis on a follower. The follower will not turn hostile, and the skill will increase very quickly.
 * Cast Secret of Arcana while casting Telekinesis for a period of time will raise it to 100 in less than 10 minutes (Dragonborn expansion only).
 * Note: if held past the 30-second duration of Secret of Arcana, you will still be doing a cost-free cast until you let stop casting.

Usefulness
For players who are just getting started and are interested in becoming mages, the Alteration school of magicka, like the Illusion school, certainly seems to be one of the places to begin. There is no doubt that it is fun and impressive to face off against an enemy by casting powerful Destruction spells with one or both hands, but the fact is that it takes a lot of time and dedicated practice before the majority of players will be able to do this. Alteration spells, however, can be useful whether a player is in a combat situation or not, and that makes them an invaluable tool for improving magicka abilities in general. A number of them can be cast by the player no matter where they are, whether an enemy combatant is nearby or not, and consequently skill points can be acquired virtually at will: this simply isn't true for Destruction spells. Candlelight is a good example of this, and so are Detect Life and Telekinesis. Just practicing these spells repeatedly, as a player goes about his or her regular business of a day, enables the player to level up more quickly: that, in turn, means that the player will learn enough to be able to start casting those powerful Destruction spells earlier in the game. Ultimately, that is probably the goal most mage-oriented players aspire to. If the College of Winterhold actually functioned in the game like a true learning institution with classes and assignments, it seems logical to assume that Alteration spells, along with Illusion spells, would be the educational foundation upon which everthing else is built. They would be learned first, the Destruction spells would come later, and precisely because the Alteration and Destruction spells were learned first, the learning and mastery of the Destruction spells would occur much sooner.

Bugs

 * The master spell Dragonhide doesn't increase the armor rating, at least not while wearing dragonscale or dragonplate armor. If changing the apparel while being under the effect of the Dragonhide spell, the armor rating will be brought down to 1.
 * Casting the Waterbreathing spell while underwater can result in the spell not working. It is currently not known what causes this.
 * Killing a paralyzed enemy will prevent it from being resurrected with conjuration spells.

Appearances


Altération Изменение (Skyrim)ƒ