better ward

Reduces cost, increases troop strength, increases charge speed, (optional) increases guard absorption, and (optional) adds opportunity-based dislocation for melee attackers.

[size=9]Better Ward[/size]

change

Makes the following changes to Skyrim's normal wards (smaller/fixed/larger):

-Lower the base cost of each spell and make them follow a linear order, 34/58/86->20/30/40

• Increases base strength of all guards by 25%, 40/60/80 -> 50/75/100
• Cut charging time in half
• (Optional) Opportunity-based brief stagger against melee attackers. Chance to stagger melee attackers increases with recovery. When restored to 20, it is 70%, and when restored to 100, it is 100%. You have to have the attacker relatively close to the crosshair (or center of the screen) in order to stagger. Only players can do this.
• (Optional) Additionally, the Ward Absorb perk has been renamed to Ward Master, with the following effects:

Wards are 20% less expensive and can recharge your magicka when hit by spells.

The ward's magic absorption rate has also been increased from 25% to 70%.

reasoning

Now everyone knows vanilla wards are too expensive. The goal of keeping costs down is to make them available, but not free. Also, vanilla spells become less effective as you advance to the next one. They now follow a linear order, maintaining the same magnitude:cost ratio throughout the range. These numbers are attributed to Macavity's mod Reduce Ward Cost.

The purpose of increasing base power is to make them more in line with the destruction spells they are meant to prevent. If you didn't know, guards act as shields and are damaged when hit, regaining their full strength after a short delay. This means that even if your defense level increases by 40, you cannot take two 25 damage in a row. If you do this, your ward will be broken and you will be staggered. Skyrim puts you in many situations where you have to face multiple enemy mages at the same time. Increasing the strength by 25% allows it to sustain faster hits in succession (although still not too fast) without breaking due to the added cushioning.

I also increased the billing speed for all wards by 100%. I found a variable that, when increased, speeds up the charging process. As Tolfdir says in the game, you can't just cast it at a ward that's already fired a fireball, or it'll burst because it's not fully charged yet. This change aims to make this possible. After increasing the charge time so much, I found that I was able to "catch" the fireball from medium range if I cast Ward at some point in his flight. Casting it before hitting a target will still cause your ward to be destroyed. Because the ward while active negates your magicka recovery, I want to give players the option to cast the ward on reaction, but only at the right range and with proper timing. Faster charging also allows wards to hit targets faster in a row without interruption.

Added chance-based dislocation to make wards more like magic shields. The armor class bonus is nice, but not worth the money for melee attackers as it won't stagger them like a normal shield. Breathing and the chance to counterattack are important elements in defending against mechanics and vanilla guards, the attacker just has to keep slashing away. I wanted the element of chance so that early in the game they still weren't as good against melee as normal shields, but later on they were close to full strength. If you don't like this way of adding it, I would find another version.

Finally, I would like the ward to absorb more of the stipend and make it worth spending some of the stipend. Ward managers can reduce costs significantly. Although the biggest change is increasing the absorption rate from 25% to 70%. Absorbing spells in vanilla does little to improve your situation. I started with a lower ratio, but found that most of my mages also had to constantly throw Magicka into damaging spells at the same time. At 50%, I can maintain a ward almost indefinitely, b …