How to Make an Awesome Badass Destruction Mage (no cheats)

Introduction
Hi Sky-rimmers, I am pretty satisfied with the mage build I just completed, however I was disappointed by the lack of build guides out there so I decided to make one. A lot of the advice I read was dispersed and misinformed. Some people have different methods to make a mage. If you follow this guide your mage will be awesome – it is not the only good mage build however just one way to go.

This is a guide to build a destruction mage (the one I made). I am easily able to clear dungeons, dragon priests, dragons, even towns using ONLY destruction spells, however I also chose to level conjuration (summoning is fun) and alteration (for resistances and mage armor) to 100.

Also I should note this build relies on using enchanting to make a set that reduces destruction cost (and conjuration or alteration) to 0. I can cast the most powerful destruction spell in game and it costs me 0 magicka. Again, this build doesn't use any cheats.

http://www.ign.com/builds/the-elder-scrolls-5-skyrim?d=00000000000000000000000000000001211100000000001200020000001110100000010011131110035000111
EDIT: Turija has recommended spending three points in the illusion tree in order to get the aspect of terror perk. "Since fire based spells have a fear component, the Aspect of Terror perk will increase the damage of your fire based spells". Since this is one of the few ways to actually increase spell damage, I highly recommend it if you want to use fire spells!

Schools and Their Level, in the Order in Which I Achieved Them

• Enchanting 100
  
• Conjuration 100
  
• Destruction 100 (optional 75 since the Master-level spells kind of svck but are still fun)
  
• Alteration 100 (optional 90 if you don't care for Dragonhide. It is a long cast time and only lasts 44 seconds but does provide the most damage reduction possible in the game).
  
• Restoration ~37 (not trying to build it up necessarily, just a consequence from healing occasionally).
  
• Speechcraft (40) and Lockpicking (32) are high only because I sold a lot of crap and picked a lot of locks, respectively. After a while I started to skip locked chests (or quicksave before picking in case there was something really good in it) so I could minimize leveling in non-combat skills.
  
• Everything else: starting level. Get in the habit of quicksaving before reading books so that if you level-up a skill in archery (for example) you can quickload and not have to level that skill. Don't wear heavy or light armor so if you get hit you won't skill-up. Don't sneak unless you want to steal something. If you really want to sneak this build isn't for you. People making this character will be sprinting through dungeons looking for draugr deathlords to electrocute in the face.

Other Character Specs

• My character is level 38 with 1 unspent perk (do as you wish with it).
  
• Race: Breton (25% magic resist is awesome, my character has 100% shock/fire resist and 95% cold resist EDIT: learned I was calculating my resistances incorrectly. For a quick lesson in resistances click here: http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1317202-complete-character-design-freedom-damage-resist-caps-and-ridiculous-damage-thread-8/page__p__19804949#entry19804949). I suppose you could go Altmer if you wanted extra magicka (or extra health since you can allocate more into health instead of magicka).
  
• Armor: I chose to go cloth since I didn't want to be weighted down by anything. With ebonyflesh I believe I am at 42% damage reduction (350 displayed armor rating) and I can throw on Dragonhide for 80% reduction (which is of course the maximum possible allowed in Skyrim).
  
• Stone: The Lord Stone (for another 25% magic resist and more armor – yes the mage armor perk still works with it). Make sure to get the Mage Stone when you start in order to make leveling much easier.
  
• Quests which boost stats: The Book of Love for the “Agent of Mara” effect (+15 resist magic).
  
• Magicka: 220 (so I can summon a dremora lord without my conjuration gear on, also sufficient to keep up ebonyflesh without my alteration gear on).
  
• Health: Everything that's not magicka
  
• Stamina: You want to allocate points into stamina?? Go make a 2-handed sword-wielding orc.
  
• Difficulty Setting: Adept (default).
  
• Approximate Build Time: 30 hours (probably can be done much faster).

What You'll Be Wearing (Gear)
Once you get enchanting to level 100 you need to make a set of gear that has fortify destruction on it. This will reduce the magicka cost of destruction spells by 100%. In other words enchant chest, head, necklace, and ring each with 25% fortify destruction. You need the extra effect perk so you can make another school of magic cost 0 magicka. I chose to make two sets: a destruction/conjuration and a destruction/alteration set and I switch between them depending on how I want to play. Being able to summon Dremora lords in front of my enemies on a whim and with 0 mana cost is awesome, but I also like to use the dest/alter set to paralyze everyone and everything!

As for boots and gloves – my boots have 37% fire/shock resistance and my gloves have magicka +62 and something else I can't remember because gloves don't have any other apparel effects which are useful to spell casters.

Leveling Methods
Enchanting: Getting to 100 is painful, but it also makes leveling everything else a LOT easier. Focus on leveling enchanting first, although you will still need to run dungeons to get souls. What I mean is don't spend time trying to level destruction or any other school before enchanting is at 100. Soul trap everything from goats to draugr (bosses it might be a little difficult without getting killed). Equip your follower with a weapon that has soul trap and a bunch of empty soul gems. Quality of the soul doesn't matter – you get the same amount of XP from anything. However the enchantment does have an effect on amount of XP gained. Absorb spells are the best on weapons (make sure to pick up a lot of iron daggers!) and I used fortify destruction or fire resist on armor (pick up all clothing and some light armor to enchant). There is a list somewhere on the internets if you want to find out what gives the most XP. Also make sure you have the well rested bonus (or at least rested) before you start enchanting crap.

Conjuration: Once enchanting was at 100 I made my destruction/conjuration armor set and then leveling conjuration was a joke. Admittedly I used the soul-trap a dead body bug to level conjuration up quickly (use soul-trap in each hand and rapid-fire that [censored]!) but if you don't want to cheat you can find a slaughterfish, enter combat, and repeatedly cast bound sword. Or just play normally and you'll eventually get there. Also see below.

Destruction: You can summon an atronach (I chose the frost one) and kill it with destruction spells. This took a while, but at least I didn't have to wait for magicka to regenerate. I believe casting with each hand individually gains XP faster than dual-cast (it also kills things faster but doesn't stun-lock).

Alteration: After creating an armor set for destruction/alteration 100% magicka reduction, I went into Riften (any big city will work) during the day and used detect life in each hand. I used crumpled-up paper and tied a rubber band around my mouse to hold the buttons down. When I came back from my shower I was at 100 alteration. Skyrim easy mode!

How to Play this Character
My main play style with this build is to use my dest/conjur gear and use thunderbolt as my main spell. The fastest way to kill baddies is with a rapid-fire cast in each hand. It takes some practice to get used to – your brain has to habituate to the muscle memory of holding down your fingers to charge the spell and letting go to cast – but once you get it down you'll be able to cast about once every half-second. If the enemy has a little more health then you'll want to dual-cast for the impact perk to take effect. This is especially useful if the enemy is charging you (like a bear) and you need some time to back up a bit to continue rapid-fire or kill via stun-lock. You can also juggle two enemies by stun-locking them. Honestly this character is easy as hell to play so you'll figure out your own fighting style. If there are lots of enemies I like to use Dremora Lords to crowd control.

A Note on Character Level and Difficulty in Skyrim
Because of the enemy scaling system in Skyrim and the fact that spells do not increase damage (only decrease in magicka cost), you will have to accept that your mage will be the most powerful (offensively, perhaps not defensively since you can gain health) at around level 38 when you get your skills to 100. Your spells will NOT get more powerful after expert/master so I chose to stop leveling. I can't completely stop but I am leveling VERY slowly now since my main skills are already at 100 and I won't suddenly decide to use a bow (If wanted to use a bow I'd re-roll). I won't skill-up so I won't gain levels. Those of you with higher-level mages I'd like to hear your take.

Other thoughts/discussion
In the destruction tree, I chose 2/2 augmented flames and shock for aesthetic reasons and I like to do maximum damage in another school of magic if I'm fighting something immune to my primary element. Also I originally believed the flames spell buff stacking trick would be more powerful than it is but found it unsatisfying so I switched to shock (instant spell velocity is more gratifying and easier to attract the attention of a flying dragon). If you want to focus on one element I'd recommend shock although I don't really know what else you'd spend your perks on.

Instead of going with fire, frost would be fun with deep freeze.

One debate I had was whether to go cloth or heavy armor, which essentially means alteration tree or heavy armor tree. Half the alteration tree is getting ebonyflesh tougher and longer duration, but it also has some more goodies like magic resistance and atronach. I was REALLY disappointed when I figured out there is a bug with atronach – it causes you to absorb your own summoning spells which makes summoning an atronach or dremora lord absolutely infuriating. There is a vanilla fix for it now, however, thanks to Remu Valtrez called http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=68278156&searchtext

I was also considering using a shield, however thanks to Bethesda's crappy system you can't hold a shield in your left hand and press a hotkey to swap a spell in your right hand, although you can use the favorites menu. Nor can you use a shield in your right hand. If it were fixed by someone it would be a fun way to play, especially with heavy armor.

If you wanted to go Heavy Armor you can use the falmer helmet glitch (wear both a falmer helmet and circlet) to benefit from an extra armor piece. You don't really need it but you could put more magicka and regen on it. I wouldn't do it on my build however since the mage armor perk precludes you from wearing any armor.

Alright, that's it. If you think you can make a better mage than me I dare you to, then tell me how I would love to hear thoughts / suggestions on this, as for recognition that anyone cares haha. Those of you who were inspired enough to make a new character, have fun! If you accidentally level-up in heavy armor don't worry, you will still destroy face in the end.

No offense, but a guide just like this was done a week after release.

This really isn't helpful, I play a destruction mage on master and have never used 100% reduction, or alchemy. I could even get by without enchanting, the gear you can find is good enough, but it's nice to create your own enchantments.

I strongly suggest ignoring this persons advice, don't power level skills and just play the game naturally. Learn enemies weaknesses and sort out the magicka problem (around 80% reduction does the job for me when using the expert level spells at higher levels).

Very overpowered, and you're taking the challenge out of being a mage ...
But still, an interesting read. Thanks.

Some would definitely find this advice useful but there are of course variables involved so I would have to agree bobjim123. Just find your own way of dealing with things.

You guys are being a little harsh on the OP. He has not said anything "wrong". It is a nicely worded description of his mage build, and there is nothing wrong with working on your enchant skill or even with freecasting, especially when destruction is concerned. The OP did not say anything rude or condescending, so I don't see why he is drawing this type of response.

If I had to pick two schools to freecast, I would go with Destruction and Restoration, rather than either Conjuration or Alteration, but that's because I would rather use Wards/Healing spells than Ebonyflesh and I refuse to stunlock with Destruction dual cast, so I have to have something useful to do with my other hand.

And yeah, I would rather go for an 80-90% cost reduction, but I don't particularly like the look of the archmages robes and I like to play no HUD for the immersion but then I loose my magicka bars, so sometimes I go with freecasting in Destruction and Restoration, just so I don't have to be constantly guessing at my magicka. Really wish you could just turn off the GPS compass on the PS3.

EDIT to Saucepan. You ninja'd me, so I was not referring to your post with my "a little harsh" comment.

No I generally mean that this information is helpful to those that want to get the most out of their role, the last part is merely my personally prefrence.

Edit: Turija, too late

Yeah, clearly I am not the ninja you are.

And I don't necessarily disagree with any of the substantive comments in this thread, but c'mon, what happened to "welcome to the forums, here's a fishystick"? http://www.uesp.net/wiki/General:Fishy_Stick This was his first post after all.

Why pick two schools when you can technically have all schools free to cast? The more the merrier I say.

I liked the post. It's well written and more detailed than others that I have seen. Last high quality build post I remember that was very well done was the no-sneak archer build someone did last month. Good job, famousjerky.

Well-written post, OP! I have never used Enchanting to reduce Destruction costs (apart from a couple of found items), so I can't really speak to the build you've posted. And I should say that it is indeed possible to play an effective Destruction mage with less than even 40% reduction, if your build is very focused and your tactics are sound.

But nevertheless, lots of specific advice here; well done. I also wish there were a few more posts for builds in these forums with just as much detail and discussion as the OP.

At what level do you change from the Mage Stone , to the The Lord Stone ? I'm level 31 and just changed to it myself.

You had me fairly interested until you rubber-banded the mouse. I personally would prefer to level honeslty. But.hey, that's your right, and maybe some people would like to play that way.

A little harsh ? they've almost beaten him up...

and, what's more, totally unfeeling of his effort to make this "guide"... probably the guy will never return to post again on this forum

Okay, I will bite. There are four items you can wear that will take a magicka cost reduction (five if you count the falmer helm and wear it in conjunction with a circlet). You can get a maximum of 25% reduction in two schools per enchantment (29% if you fortify enchant with alchemy). That's a maximum of 290% reduction. It takes a 500% reduction to get free casting in five schools, So, how do you get all schools free to cast?

Potion of Fortify Restoration exploit, of course. You can get each piece to give you 100% reduction in 2 schools. So you only need 2 and 1/2 items for all 5 schools. I think there are 5 schools in magic (illusion, alteration, restoration, destruction, conjuration).

I figured that might be it. I have heard of such a thing but never tried it myself. Heck, I have never even combined alchemy with enchant and the first time I got my enchant to 100 on any character was just a couple of weeks ago (I have never reached 100 in any other skill with any other character except one character who made it to 100 in sneak, but I started that character over). You might say I am taking it slow.

This would have to be one of the slightest quivels i've seen concerning "honesty in leveling"
I would rather hold my mouse key down for 20 minutes straight because having it do that for me is dishonest.

Yeah, I don't do that kind of stuff in Skyrim. I only did it in Oblivion if I was worried about "efficient" leveling. Never did it in Morrowind because you could pay for enough training to efficiently level your character. Even if I try not to worry about such things, I am still aware of my skills progression, no matter how much I try not to keep track of it. My subconscious can add well enough and it affected my gameplay. While I was deeply disappointed with the loss of classes and attributes, I was very happy that there is no longer a need to worry about "efficient" leveling and my days of putting rubber bands around my controller are in the past, at least metaphorically speaking. I still play Oblivion and just last week I did put a rubber band on the controller for a few minutes while I went to the bathroom, so I could level my sneak to get +5 to Agility.

My only issue with the guide to being "an awesome destruction mage" is that the first thing in his guide skill wise after enchanting is "Conjuration 100"

Solid mage build by not a pure destruction mage.

And followed by Alteration 100. You make a good point. Come to think of it, my latest mage, who focuses primarily on Destruction is not a pure Destruction mage either because he also uses copious amounts of Restoration (both healing and wards, and someday hopes to light undead on fire when he reaches a higher level in Restoration). Still I think a Destruction/Restoration mage comes closer to a pure Destruction mage than a Destruction/Conjuration/Alteration mage.

I was being sarcastic about my own views (if it wasn't realized) If I know I am going to hold down a mouse key to level alteration from 50 to 75 by standing in riften central for 30 minutes. You bet a rubber band is gonna be doing the lifting. Course being on the PC, I take it a step further..
1. I am in riften and need to raise alteration 20 points. I can either:
A. Sit on my chair, and hold a mouse key down for 20 minutes while staring off into space.
B. Rig my mouse to do it, quite the mechanical solution
C. Console command it. (5 seconds)

Answer: C.

I absolutely did rubber band my old-school xbox controller to autorun in morrowind for a night or two to raise athletics back in the day, I think I saved sanity and eye strain by not holding a button for 8 hours.

I made the game promise not to tell anyone how I was so dishonest..

I can forgive alteration because of the necessity of mage armor and respective perks. Kind of like how almost everyone uses restoration.

Well, I see your point but the OP did mention paralyze . . . and technically mage armor is not "necessary." You don't need it if you are light on your feet. I sprint a lot to avoid getting hit by melee opponents and the respite perk makes sure I always have enough stamina despite not putting a single point into it. If I get cornered in a tight passage, I die but that doesn't happen too often.

Damn that first comment was discouraging as all hell hahaha. Thanks abacus707 and the others for the breath of fresh air. I was not intending to post new material, just a guide that was detailed and consolidated, and to spur more conversation about the mage.

For example people bring up a good point about free casting: it may not be necessary, nor conducive to a fun experience. Plus if you go down to 50% spell cost reduction you can cast more schools of magic for a lower cost.

I think designing a build on what the game developers intended is a lot more fun and challenging (and thought provoking) than relying on exploits. Bethesda intended us to get 100% spell cost reduction in at least two schools of magic, however the fortify restoration exploit (the way you get all five schools of magic free cast) was obviously not intended.

For those who are unfamiliar with the exploit: I'll explain it briefly here: First enchant a set of armor to fortify alchemy. Next use alchemy to make a fortify restoration potion. Drink the potion then quickly unequip and re-equip your armor. Since the “fortify alchemy” effect on your armor is technically in the school of restoration, the potion will improve your alchemy temporarily. Make another potion and repeat (drink, unequip, re-equip, make potion again). After repeating a couple more times you can make an ungodly fortify enchanting potion, which once drank, will allow you to enchant fortify X school of magic +100. There are plenty of youtube videos explaining it if you are interested.