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I'm having the same issue as the person who wrote the comment here. Based on the explanation given I should be getting different results from what I am getting.

Why are my enchantments rubbish, and how do I improve them?

I'm adding skill points to enchanter (the first option under upgrading enchantments) but the stats on items I'm enchanting don't change. I am currently at 1/5 +20% and have 2 skills to add to it getting it to 3/5 +60%. I want to enchant an item with absorb health. With my enchanter level at 1/5 it says it absorbs 10 health. I upgraded the skill to 3/5 +60% and went to enchant but the value is still at 10. (I've noticed the stats stay the same for all enchantments) Am I missing something or do you think this could be a bug? The value should be closer to 14 after my upgrades correct?

Thanks for your help, Cheers

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Your answer is that the UI is natively bollocks in Skyrim. Here's a breakdown of how enchanting works, from what I've observed.

  1. Selecting an enchantment without selecting a soul gem or an item starts with a base value.
  2. Selecting an item and then an enchantment applies any modifier from the item (i.e. the bonus from it being Stalhrim or a necklace) but assumes the best soul gem available, or a common soul gem if none is. This is often without applying skill bonuses or potion effects.
  3. Selecting an enchantment and a soul gem with no item gives you the base value * the modifier from the soul gem used.
  4. If you aren't using a "lossless soul trap" mod, you can trap a Petty soul in a Grand gem, and that makes it look like you're using a petty gem when scenario #2 happens.
  5. You don't get your skills applied (usually) until all three components are selected. The same goes for potions.
  6. Many items seem to have a bellcurved enchanting "cap" that makes it so if your enchanment is 20% stronger, you see the bump clearly, but if it's 80% stronger, it may be minor
  7. Many enchantments themselves have their own caps. This is particularly true if you have a mod giving unique enchantments or letting you disenchant Daedric items.
  8. If #7's conditions are met, some enchantments don't change power, and are totally unaffected by your skills
  9. There are some enchantments that strangely boost each other by a couple of percentage points when combined. This happens because reasonswhynotlorebugswhatever. I don't think it's intended.
  10. Some enchanments, such as Skein of Magnus from the Archmage Robes, have multiple effects. Only one of those effects is enhanced by the skill. This means an enchantment which "Burns enemies for 10 pts. Enemy Magicka regeneration reduced by 10%" could boost to "Burns enemies for 10 pts, Enemy Magicka reduced by 23%". I think this is tied to the "school of magic" to which the enchantment belongs in the database.

This is all a weakness in the enchanting system; an approach more like classic spellmaking, where you could forge enchantments based on individual effects and materials, would clean this up. As it stands, there's a fair bit of guesswork. One thing that is consistent, however, is that any bonuses which will apply, do apply, when you've picked all three components and are ready to push the button.

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    One more thing, Perk descriptions in crafting skills are deceptive. While they often describe +X% better results, what they actually deliver is +X% effective skill level. Now you just have to realize that skill points have diminishing returns...
    – tjd
    Apr 12, 2018 at 13:05
  • Lol, it would appear that way.
    – Skipp
    Apr 12, 2018 at 18:25
  • 1. For me just selecting the enchantment shows the updated values. (I'm on Skyrim SE on PC) 2. I'm going to have to do some more research to see what items have bonuses. I recently found out a forges apron has a unique bonus. 3. This is correct for me too. 4. Never thought of looking into a mod for this game feature. Do you recommend any specific one? I looked at a couple and they all had something I wasn't too thrilled about. Maybe that feature can be disabled once the plugin in installed. 5. Different fo rme, check #1 Thanks for you in depth input. I'll select all 3 from now on.
    – Skipp
    Apr 15, 2018 at 4:46
  • @tjd I'm not exactly sure what you mean by all that lol. Can you explain a little better for me? I've noticed that some items give you additional points to certain skills, does that actually change things like how strong an effect is?
    – Skipp
    Apr 15, 2018 at 4:51
  • He's saying that if the base value is 15 and you have a perk that says "improves enchanting by 10%", it implies that the enchantment would now have 16.5 for its value. Instead, it's actually a multiplier against your skill bonus, so if your skill would normally improve the enchantment by +10, the perk would give you a result of 16% even. This makes more of a difference at higher levels. Just leveling a skill has a base modifier (easiest to see if you take a bunch of reagents and grind Alchemy).
    – CDove
    Apr 16, 2018 at 11:50

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