Out of Balance
Quest Giver	Drevis Neloren
Location	College of Winterhold
Prerequisite	Complete College of Winterhold Quest - First Lessons
Next Quest	This quest can be repeated
Reward	Three different types of Soul Gems
Type	College of Winterhold Miscellaneous quest

WalkthroughEdit

Ask Drevis Neloren about College business, and he tells the Dragonborn that the various points of focus for magic energies around the College have become polluted. Agree to help with their cleansing, and he hands off the Mystic Tuning Gloves which allow the Dragonborn to delve into these focal points. These gloves will be removed once the quest is finished.

The Mystic Focal Points are the pillars of light with a strange blue glow that were visible before taking the quest. There is one in the courtyard’s center in front of the mage statue, one in the middle of the Hall of Attainment, and one in the middle of the Hall of Countenance. Just approach the beam of light wearing the gloves, and cleanse them.

After each one is purified, the Dragonborn will receive a random empty Soul Gem, a magic boosting buff, or a minor harmful discharge. Return to Drevis Neloren to complete the quest and have the gloves removed.

JournalEdit

BugsEdit

• When cleaning the Focals, a bugged two-hour buff may be placed on you that increases magicka regeneration immensely. It is possible to get multiples of this buff during the quest. In the active effects category, it appears as "Fortify Magicka." Selecting it reveals it as "Drain Magicka, +25 Fortify Magicka for 2 hours." It doesn't appear to increase magicka capacity at all (as listed on the skills screen), but increases magicka regeneration rate instead. In this case, the buff(s) may be removed by opening the character editor with the "showracemenu" console command (on PC) and closing it again. This will also remove other temporary buffs, such as blessings.
• It's possible to exploit the bug listed above to maximize your magical skills. You will need to buy a horse, if you don't have one already, in order to have a target for some of your spells. For Alteration, simply spam Magelight. Alternately, cast Waterbreathing while standing in water for much faster leveling. For Conjuration, spam Soul Trap on your horse, or a weak creature that can't really do much to you (pair this with a spell like Oakflesh to raise Alteration as well). Soul trap works just as well on a corpse, which is a valid target for some reason. For Restoration, use a Destruction spell to damage your horse, then heal it with Healing Hands. However, turning undead repeatedly or warding spells will raise Restoration much faster than any healing spells. Circle of Protection needs no target. The incredible magicka regeneration is ideal for these spells which can be magicka cost prohibitive. For Illusion, just spam Muffle. Your skills will each hit 100 in no time. Dual casting helps with this exploit quite a bit, also.
• The spell cast on you during this quest which gives you continuous magicka regeneration (even while casting) has a SPEL RefID of E1FEE; using the console command player.addspell e1fee will result in your character being able to cast this spell on other characters. It is called "Drain Magicka" but does not turn affected NPCs hostile. It has the same visual as the "Fortify Magicka" spell (RefID E1FED) and both spells are in the Restoration school. The effect applied is E1FEC; using the console to enchant an object with this effect grants infinite mana; however the player still cannot cast spells for which his mana pool is not large enough. Due to the implementation, it is likely that Drevis casts this spell on you, or one of the nodes does due to proximity, by design rather than as a bug.

AppearancesEdit

• The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (First appearance)