Originally Posted by
Grokan
Dawnguard adds a quest involving the Dwemer ruins that leads you to a forge, with which the player can craft one of three items, one of them being a crown that allows the player to store the effects of a guardian stone inside it. With that I have an anti-mage that uses both the Atronach Stone and the Apprentice Stone. Combined with the Atronach perk in the alteration tree and the Necromage perk in the restoration tree, my character absorbs 100% of all incoming magic damage as magicka, and the apprentice stone's increased fire weakness in conjunction with the Dunmer weakness to fire and the vampire weakness to fire greatly increases the potential damage of an incoming fire spell, and by effect increasing the amount of magicka my character gets from each fire spell while negating any potential threat that the fire may have. The magicka regeneration boost of the apprentice stone helps to alleviate the 50% reduction in regeneration inflicted by the Atronach stone as well, to my character is able to steamroll mages while still being able to hold up against melee and archer opponents. This character is also specialized in one-handed melee weapons, so close up skirmishes aren't an issue if an enemy does get too close and magicka is too low.
It's a bit overpowered, but I enjoy it. Haven't hit level 81 yet - think I'm about 20 levels away - so I still have a ways to go, and I haven't maxed out any of the crafting skills yet.