Inspired by other spell mods that rework Wards on the Nexus and the Annulment skill in ESO, here is my take on Spell Wards in Enderal.

Features
This mod changes the Spell Ward series to be fire and forget. They no longer require concentration, and wards now grant their full spell negation value and armor rating bonus immediately upon cast. Wards last for 10 seconds, increasing by 1 second per rank. The wards no longer restore their HP strength after taking spell damage, and dispel themselves when broken. The base Mana cost of the spells have been increased by 350% to compensate for these changes but do not consume Mana per second to maintain the ward effect.

The VFX of wards have also been changed, forming a bubble shield that sparks on hit and bursts when broken. These wards work when taking damage in any direction.

Only the player’s wards are affected by this rework; NPC wards and The Spell Breaker’s ward enchantment remain unaffected.

Compatible with all Thaumaturgy perks, the relevant ones being: Depth Concentration (Tier I and II), Magical Repulsion, and Shield Nourishment.

Rationale
Wards are underpowered and underutilized in Skyrim. I found that to be the same even when playing in Enderal. They take a second to power up to their full negation value, stagger you when broken, and are expensive in mana cost. You’re also stuck concentrating on a spell, which limits you to vanilla attacks when using modern combat animation frameworks such as Attack - MCO|DXP creating a jarring experience. It felt like the Protection Against Magic series and the Counter series of spells were created just to get around using wards in the base game of Enderal.

This started off as a personal patch but I feel like its developed enough to release it as a rework. The ward strengths are tuned so that a single Wild Mage can still pop the shield if they barrage the player with spells of its matching rank for the full duration. Concentration spells also damage the ward and break it faster due to the non-regenerative nature of these wards. You’ll still want to use Protection Against Magic and resistance potions as a supplement to increase the effectiveness of these ward spells when fighting groups of Wild Mages.

Technical Details/Quirks

• These wards can't be recasted or refreshed until the ward expires or pops from taking spell damage. This is due to an issue with the wards stacking rather than overwriting themselves when recasted - so I just disabled the option completely.
• Perks are multiplicative; so the 25% boost from Depth Concentration and the 35% boost from Magical Repulsion results in a ~68% increase to the spell negation and armor rating strengths for these spells.
• Because you can only have one buff type that increases armor rating at a time, this will dispel any Divine Shield that's ongoing in favor of the ward's armor rating effect. Fixed in v.1.01
• A lightweight script is used to handle the ward's functions, and calls upon the base game OnWardHit script that fires when wards take spell damage and when they are casted/expire.
• You might experience some minor FPS drops when a Wild Mage is using a concentration spell on the ward, due to the script being called and generating small spark explosions. I have included an optional patch to disable this in the script and .esp so you will only see sparks when casting the spell/the ward expires/the ward is broken. Updated in v.2.0 to now play a visual effect when the ward is hit - you might experience minor FPs loss from the particles being generated but the visuals are worth it in my opinion.
• The VFX used counts as an explosion, so you may experience some very minor screen shake and displacement of your character when those effects happen. The explosion is harmless and doesn't push back any objects.
• Enemy spells don't actually hit the bubble; your character's hitbox determines if the ward gets hit or not. Spell projectiles will now hit and stop at the ward with new VFX in v.2.0.
  

Credits
Base script derived from Additional Spells by AndrealphusVIII - https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/62061
Gradients from Glorious Gradients by Akira1364 - https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/79583
Meshes and textures from Arcanum - A New Age of Magic by Kosorsomesaykosm - https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/23488
Meshes from The Witcher Signs by Kittytail - https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/90645
Ice Shards Texture from Arctic - Frost Effects Redux by Retrospect - https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/29817