I am leveling a good-ish character, so from conjuration i will avoid dremora lords and use the elemental spirits only. (i will fight with my shield and sword to support). On the past i have only worked with flame spirits and dremora lords.

Flame are good, but only when they avoid melee fight (else they die in 2-3 shots). What about other 2? do you find them holding their ground vs giants or dragons?

Flame Atronachs are the bottom tier of atronachs in Skyrim. They're the first atronach you start to run into, followed by Frost Atronachs, and Storm Atronarchs. Their lethatlity follows the same order. Flame Atronachs, despite looking very cool, are usually the beginner conjurer's go to. As you level up, and gain access to the Frost and Storm variants, you should see your combat effectiveness rise. It's also good to be aware of the enemy your fighting's resistances, that way you're not sending a Flame Atronach out to fight a Dark Elf, or a Frost Atronach to fight a Nord.


Also, the Mage's Guild questline can give you acces to a very helpful tool. I won't spoil it in case you've not discovered it yet, but suffice to say it's incredibly useful if you're trying to use Atronachs regularly.

Getting the storm atronach should be your ultimate goal as a sword and board conjurer as they provide good ranged support. Early game I wouldn't even bother with the familiar as it will only get in the way and stick to bound sword to raise your skill. Flame atronach's are weak but needed if you aren't planning to spend any points in ranged combat for yourself. Don't waste points getting twin souls or bother with the master spells, they really aren't needed. All this is assuming you play vanilla Skyrim, if not I can tell you what kind of mods I use for that type of character.

My streamlined opinion for what level range to use a summon. I'll use bandits as a basic example.

Summon familiar can do fine against wolves and medium spiders or simple bandits.

Flame Atronachs are fine against normal bandits and bandits outlaws.

Frost Atronachs are fine against thugs and highwaymen.

Storm Attronachs are fine against highwaymen and maybe plunderers.

Dremora Lords are fine against anything.

I've never been very fond of Frost Atronachs. They can be a nuisance in dungeons, because they tend to get stuck in tight places, and they often get in your way.

Well.... as adversaries, they're ideal for those same reasons. Ever tried to get at the controlling mage in one of those tight places? You HAVE to kill that atronach first. So as an adversary option, they're really good.

Yes, and if we summon one of our own, everything grinds to a halt, with two big blue smurfs slapping each other in the middle.

Ayup. Stalemate. At least until the first one summoned despawns (which in my experience is never soon enough!)

If you're going with the dremora Lord but not twin souls you'd be better off using sanguine rose.

No dremoras. I have tested them, they are awesome, but they dont fit this character.

Unlike in previous Elder Scrolls games, where summons are rapidly outclassed by the enemies you encounter, I find that in Skyrim they remain useful for the entire game. Flame Atronachs are casters, Frost Atronachs use melee, and Storm Atronachs combine both. Taking the Elemental Potency perk will make your Atronachs stronger, and the ones summoned by the Flame, Frost, and Storm Thrall spells are even stronger than that.

Flame and Frost Atronachs are useful for fighting dragons; Flame Atronachs aren't harmed by their fiery breath, and they can deal damage while the dragon is flying; Frost Atronachs should be used when the dragon is grounded, and against frost dragons; Storm Atronachs will damage a dragon's Magicka with their lightning spells and may cause them to be unable to shout.

Yeah, I was more referring to a "no twin souls" thing I saw.

I havent tried in another TES game summoning. (its my first tes in general) .

But honestly, they must have messed up with the basic stats of the summons. When i play skyrim, regardless of warrior or mage, i tend to have flame atronarch as a backup. They are always relevant, no matter the opponent. They are way cheap and i resummon regularly, and even if i am messed up myself with low hp, just doing hit and runs to draw the attention on me, eventually lets my atronarch kill the enemy. (Thats how i killed miraak first time ).

No matter what level you are, pitting a Flame Atronach against an annoying, backpedalling, fireball-spamming Dragon Priest is a beautiful thing.

I guess my only problem with atronachs is that summoning them doesn't level Conjuration very quickly. I find myself using a bound bow more often than I'd like - which is fine, as it allows nice crossfire tactics. I just wish I had the patience to play a "pure" summoner, though.

Flame Atronachs are the starter summon, it's what you use until you can upgrade as against serious opposition they'll get shredded. Can be useful against a mage/dragon that uses fire exclusively but that is a somewhat rare event.

Frost Atronachs are powerful in melee but very slow and can get picked to death by fast mages trying to keep their distance and using Flame or Shock magic. Archers too can give them a bad time. Plus as mentioned, they are exceedingly annoying to use and have used against you in cramped dungeons as there are numerous passages and choke points they'll get stuck in and block up.

Storm Atronachs are great vs dragons as their ranged lightning attacks are 'hitscan' to use an old FPS term. There's no lead time at all so they'll always hit a dragon in flight, plus lightning damage drains magicka which is needed to shout for dragons - no magicka, no shouts = no breath weapon.