Skyrim Tips and Tricks » Discussions


Wally Bear and the NO! Gang (Conjure Werebear tip)

Tags: #Tips and Tricks Magic  #Conjure Werebear  #Fortify Conjuration 
  • March 15, 2018

    So I had a look at as many existing builds that make use of Conjure Werebear from the Beast Stone as I could, probably the main few being the Arcane Beast Master, the Druids of Galen, the Vancian Wizard and the Nordic Revolutionary (all great builds by the way), as well as did a google search, but couldn't find this tip anywhere. If it has been mentioned before, apologies and I'll find somewhere to hide in shame.

    Without further ado, the tip is...

    Fortify Conjuration potions affect the duration of Conjure Werebear! Using the standard crafting loop (creating Fortify Alchemy gear with Ahzidal's Genius plus Fortify Enchanting potions and Seeker of Sorcery, then creating new Fortify Enchanting potions with said gear and Seeker of Shadows, repeating until you max out) it's possible to make +198% Fortify Conjuration potions without factoring Vampire Necromage shenanigans. This means you get a Conjure Werebear spell that looks like this:

    I can only imagine what the duration must be for a Necromage Vampire, probably closer to 5 minutes as the Werebear already starts at 90 second durations - which is pretty cool. This is the duration that also appears in your active effects when you cast the spell, and I timed it to see whether it lasted over a minute to rule out this being a tooltip error. Of course, the main use of all this is to assemble "the Gang":

    While a lot of builds incorporate Conjure Werebear + Beast Form + Howl of the Pack (Totem of the Moon) already, seeing as Conjure Werebear previously only lasted 60 seconds and then you have to transform, you're really looking at a very minor duration for the whole group being together. With Fortify Conjuration, the duration is much lengthier, really giving you a sense of having your own little pack - and best of all you don't even have to touch the Conjuration skill tree for this to work (which can feel a little weird role-playing wise being a member of the Companions).

    If I have time I'll write up my build for this (a crafting Nord, offset by using Wuuthrad which you can't upgrade in base SSE, decked out in Wolf Armor with a Stormcloak Officer Helmet - a pretty cool look - with the using Ebony Skin and Dragon Aspect for the Beast Form), but I thought people might enjoy messing around sooner then that as I may take quite a while to get the build done (if at all, damn my laziness)!

    This tip was brought to you by Wally Bear and the NO! Gang:

    Kids, don't do drugs! (I was trying to think of a better bear reference, but I just didn't think Winnie the Pooh would cut it).

  • March 15, 2018

    Damn, that's something I'd never thought of before, but there's absolutely no reason why you couldn't have lengthened the time...so weird that it's never come up before (at least as far as I remember). An interesting tip here Jojo, using the potions to boost both the Werewolves and Wearbear would give you a pretty significant army to tag along with you, very interesting indeed.

    Technically speaking though, there isn't really a maximum to what level you could boost your Fortify Conjuration Potions to, but I think you've hit a pretty fair amount. But you could add Fortify Restoration Potions to that mix and then have a nearly infinite duration potion (by drinking the equipping the gear, drinking a Fortify Resto potion, re-equip the gear, drink another potion, re-equip the gear, and so on), but this seems like a very fair duration here. Nearly 3 minutes of a Were-Army seems pretty powerful without breaking the game. 

  • March 15, 2018

    Very good point Dragonborn1921, you could use Fortify Resto to get a more or less permanent Werebear follower. I've always shied away from the Resto glitch as it's too heavy into exploit territory for me to enjoy it personally (even when only using it for the single application such as getting an almost permanent Werebear), and I like the limitation imposed by fairly slim duration as it feels costly to use.

    However it is certainly a great basis for a build for someone else - a unifier of were-creatures maybe, or some other Hircine heavy build. Someone should get all over the idea!

    And yeah, I was a little surprised that it hadn't come up either (at least I it doesn't appear to have with my own google-fu, I've just edited it onto the wikis) - especially seeing as one of the builds mentioned above also makes use of Fortify Conjuration potions. I guess it's one of those things that you either have to think to test or get very lucky when you notice an increased duration of Werebear when you've already drank a potion (this time I did think to test it, but previously with Fortify Destruction Breath of Nchuak thing I stumbled on that was a case of luck and noticing the inconsistency in damage over time). Most likely, as Conjure Werebear is a pain to cast (requiring that Beast Stone activation) people may have been using it only in epic battles, rather than more commonly - making it easier to slip through the net.

    In terms of the potions also boosting the duration of the Werewolf howl itself, Fortify Conjuration doesn't offer any increase (apologies if that was implied). However, you can re-use the howl instantly when they disappear from what I've seen (or Ring of the Moon increases the duration too, probably better for RP given that you can recast it), so this isn't much if any of a drawback.