Atromancy VS Necromancy

Necromancy by far. If you revive the right person they can in turn revive someone.

As far as summons vs revives go, summons are better IMO, unless you have a really powerful corpse like Orchander raised with the raise dead spell, and even then you can't have 2 of him at a time.

As far as undead vs daedra, it's a bit more even because a Wraithman from Dawnguard rivals a Demora Lord in combat, although Stormies still pack the best ranged attacks with their lightning.

It may be worth investing in both to give your zombies more health and make summons better if you want maximum versatility.

If just going by adept spells, then Frosties are better than Revenants IMO becuase you can't keep a Revenant and have to find new corpses which can be tricky sometimes.

Emphasis added

quote swk3000

...keep killing to keep a corpse with you. With Conjuration, you can open combat with it, and once your Atronach dies, all you have to do...

Conjuration includes both Necromancy and Atromancy, so he couldn't possibly mean Conjuration there. I'm sure he means, "With Atromancy, you can...."

In any case, I would agree that summoning atronachs is the better use of Conjuration, up to and including the Adept level.

The point when Necromancy becomes better is with Dead Thrall. This, because the thrall will not disintegrate, and has no limit on duration. The bonus here is that you can get a thrall to equip items, even custom enchanted items, which is where the real power comes through.

A master Conjurer could have two thralls, and a follower, which makes a full party, counting the player. Just make sure you get an essential follower. Oh, and by the way, enchanting four full sets of armor is going to get expensive...

This becomes even more fun when your minions have staves of summoning...

I have to ask, what are you doing that you only want to go halfway in the Conjuration skill tree?

No problem. I actually just found out "Atromancy" was a word used in game when I read your post. I have yet to level a Conjurer. It's tempting, but I much prefer up-front melee combat.

quote Throe

This becomes even more fun when your minions have staves of summoning...

Having a staff, and knowing how to use it are two different things. A Bandit Chief isn't going to use a Staff of the Zombie effectively, while a Master Conjurer will. (Likewise, an undead Fire Mage won't equip the Armor you give them.) Giving staffs to NPCs/Thralls does make them more likely to use that spell, though. I usually give Eola one for this reason. My favorite Thralls are Master Vampires, because they're already undead, Absorb health, use Swords, and Raise Dead on their own. That way you can have 2 thralls, a follower, and their three zombies (Or atronachs with Conjurers) for a total of seven. In certain situations, I had them raise conjurers, who've summoned/resurected more, and gotten into the low tens, but it's not dependable.

Necromancy is only as useful as the bodies you have to work with. While the effect of Dead Thrall is theoretically unlimited, passing through doors may randomly glitch, and Ash them. I know, even though they're not supposed to Ash. They can also disapear, you can lose gear you've given them this way. I don't suggest giving them anything irreplaceable, like Unique items, DP masks, or expensive enchanted daedric armor for these reasons.

This is funny because I'm working with a necromancer Altmer right now running on Dawnguard as a vampire...

Still, I'll give you an idea of what to expect down that route. Even better, I've put this in a choose-your-own adventure format. If you really want to see how this plays out, pick a number from one to six and assign that number to each possible outcome (the numbered passages ranging from #1-3 in each story branch). Roll a die. Whatever outcome has the closest number to your die roll, that is what you get.

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And so our story begins...

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In a dungeon you've all ready forgotten the name of, your necromancer is busy nabbing every piece of gold, ore and/or clothing that isn't nailed to the wood of a close-by table. Unfortunately, you are not much of a sneak. Two bandits have noticed you and are screaming war cries as they threaten to smash your enlarged cranium in.

Combat begins.

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You need a dead guy, and unless there are a few bandit corpses all ready lying around, you're going to have to kill someone yourself. Hopefully, you haven't forsaken alteration, weapon talents or your armor skills up to this point or you're going to be kiting for dear life for the next three minutes. Now that you have at least one fool down, you will be able to resurrect them...

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One of three things can happen:

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1: Your spell misses because the small ball of light that is the spell is not easy to aim while running for dear life via analog sticks on your controller. You wasted precious, preccciiiooouuuussss magicka. You may choose to either complete another lap around the dungeon room before trying again or desperately cast like a madman while an enemy slices into you like a Christmas ham.

2: The corpse is too high a level to be resurrected by your puny spell, and you can't believe the irony of having killed the more powerful bandit in the room to die to some generic underling. You may facepalm at the loading screen while you reload your last save/go to an autosave. Or cry quietly. Your choice.

3: You got the corpse up, and it's walking and groaning like a proper zombie...

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If you have succeeded and created your undead ally, you may continue to the following circumstances:

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1: ... But his weapon went flying when he was killed, and now you have an unarmed bandit for protection. Perfect. And his AI is either refusing to unglitch him from the wall/tunnel entrance or he's simply standing there while an enemy destroys him. In the unlikely event that his AI is working, he's hammering at his foe with his fists. While you wonder if there's a mudcrab laying around that you can raise instead, your bandit dies and the stronger one is looking at you. Well, that was a waste of magicka. Time to start kiting like a boss again...

[\/---- Thanks to swk3000 for this additional option! ----\/]

2: Shockingly, your zombie has slightly more brainpower than a walnut and has picked up one of the iron daggers you could have sworn was just decoration. But he is still an NPC, and therefore has to take the next full fifteen seconds or so to equip dagger, pause to stare at the enemy, actually unholster the dagger and to swing for the last five seconds into an enemy's back to get some attention. Rather rudely, the living bandit will continue to ignore the zombie for those five seconds, which is enough to hit you a few times with even a warhammer. Here's to hoping you're tougher than tissue paper, because it's a long wait at the reload screen.

3: Skyrim's gods have blessed you this day. Your bandit wasn't a completely inept warrior before he died and managed not to get disarmed. Your heart soars with hope as you behold the power of corruption and darkness before you!

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If you have completed step #3 listed above, the next three possibilities await you. This adventure is not over yet, my friend.

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1: The Radiant AI has given your bandit stupid pills and sends the bandit in the wrong direction/keeps him standing there/glitches him just long enough for you to die. As you bleed out, you can hear your bandit (belatedly) charging in to help you. Thanks for nothing, lowlife.

2: Your bandit wails away on the enemy's back, who promptly turns around and beats the smack out of him. Maybe you should have invested in some life insurance instead.

3: Your bandit pwns the enemy one, hooray! You continue to the next room to watch him immediately die on an obvious trap. Or go further into a dungeon to find that the corpse disintegrates into ash upon loading the new cell, which is exactly when the boss enemy notices you are there. Or have the zombie go to ashes because the battle went on for too long. Hopefully this isn't while the battle is still raging (i.e. the "so-many-dragurs!" combat scenario). If that's the case, pray for a miracle.

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After above-mentioned steps #1-3, please begin again from the top. You still have several more rooms to clear out in this dungeon before you get to pry your rewards out of everyone else's cold dead hands.

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And of course, failure in any particular case could lead to this:

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You have died a horribly embarrassing death involving a failed trap-luring, failure to open your menu fast enough to get a potion, and a gorgeous cinematic warhammer-to-skull kill performed up close and in 3-D starring your horrified face... Well, perhaps I shouldn't make you revisit that. You realize that your last save was at the very start of this dungeon or even too far into the dungeon for you to simply walk away from enemies clearly too far above your evil pay-grade right now. Curse at your Xbox and switch in Minecraft instead. At least you know what to expect out of a Creeper.

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(Point of the Adventure):

It is possible and sometimes even enjoyable to have a powerful necromancer bringing back the dead to help you in your quest for Skyrim domination. At higher levels, this can be a sport in its own right. However, it is risky and at lower levels just plain frustrating to do so. Atronachs, on the other hand, are surprisingly dependable. They don't lose weapons, are predictable, and easy to unstick from screwy ground textures or rocks they apparently can't shuffle around by simply recasting the spell. As such, even if you still want to be a necromancer, I'd at least take up a bound weapon spell and an atronach of some kind (fire won't last but so long, but it can send a lot of enemies running and screaming for the first ten or so levels of the game) for when everything goes wrong.

Because if it can go wrong in Skyrim, it generally will.

Dragons Call: You forgot an option. You succesfully raise your zombie, but he's been disarmed. He therefore runs over to a weapon lying on the ground, picks it up, equips it, draws it, then runs after the nearest enemy. The entire time, you are left to your own devices, as enemies don't recognize the corpse as a valid threat until he hits them a couple of times.