one of my characters is a spellsword...and i always combine destruction magic and 1h weapons which work(ed) pretty good for especially enemies with weapons - but (now lvl 17) it seems destruction magic looses more and mroe of its punch... i need 3 magic bars just to really hurt an enemy and my 1h is doing way more damage...is it because i only have the second level spells and because the first destrcution spells (think they dont level with you) simply loos their punch and i need to gear up to higher level spells? the thing is i kinda like the flame spell cause it sprays very broad and complements my stile well....whats your tipp for 1h/magic combat?

you need to get the higher tier spells if you want magic to be effective

I read that higher magic skill doesn't increase spell damage, but makes spells cheaper to cast.

I'm getting the same impression as you are playing as a spellsword. I believe it's prolly coz we do not have access to dualcasting. I haven't had the chance to play with that perk but from the description it seems awesome. As of now I'm still gona soldier on with my spellsword and switch to more defensive based spells instead of destruction and hopefully when I get access to master level destruction spells, things will be a lot better xD

That's true. Just as it was in Oblivion.

Whats the problem??

Apprentice 25 dmg
Journeyman 40 dmg aoe
Expert 60 dmg aoe
Master 100 dmg aoe

Perks for 25 and 50% more dmg.
Perks for obliterating low level enemies.
Dual casting.

Whats the problem??

You can't expect to use one spell all the way..

EDIT: for comparison my elven axe does 24 dmg at 50 skill, with 3 ranks in the perks..

like usual, everyone always wants their cake too early

that actually is a bit of my problem...i think it would be much better if the spells scaled with your level because they spells effect is also differently...this means that i for example would like to use the flames spell all the way...this way bethesda has just limited the spells your actually using to basically one (or 3 if youre using all 3 damage types...) i think this limitation doesnt serve any purpose...

meh I dunno I don't have a problem with the way they went. use a baseline and perks will improve your desired path. That was there is much better individuality in characters and it's not all a cookie cutter borefest down the road.

I actually completely agree with this. I find it a bit strange that weapon damage scales with your skills, but magic damage doesn't. I'd like to think Bethesda might patch this somehow, but I fear the best we can hope for is a mod.

Dudes..

My elven axe at lvl 20 with 50 skill and 3 ranks of armsman does 24 dmg..
Without perks the dmg would be 15..

Elven axe is listed as 12 base dmg
This means that by having 50 skill i improved my axe by 25%..

12 dmg incresed to 15 with 50 skill means around 18-20 at 100 skill.
20 dmg increased with 5 perks is 40 dmg.
Upgrading to deadric (25% stronger) means 50 dmg.
Upgrading by smithing (not sure how much) by spending a lot of perks I'm not sure but lets be generous and say 100dmg..

That is two skills and around 15 perks.
So I can enchant and add poison if I upgrade another two skills and spend another 15 perks.

You do a 100 dmg aoe spell with no perks for 1 skill at 100.
With perks its 150 dmg.

With dual casting its probably around 400 dmg AOE!!
meaning 3 enemies 1200 dmg.. At one cast.. Plus stagger.

With one skill and 9 perks.

yeah, pick perks...

They help alot.

well the comparison is a bit lame

magic requires mana
magic doesnt scale smoothly but "jumps" from level to level
magic requires time to cast


dont get me wrong, im not saying there ARENT any good spell - what i dont like is that magic doesnt scale becaue it forces you to use certain types of spells to stay competitive...thats not really my understanding of "do what you want"...i dont see a drawback in scaling magic and being able to use e.g. flames the whole way down...

Yes it is a problem and imo they should do the following;

1. Add spell tomes for adept/expert versions of the stream spells.

2. Adjust deep freeze, disintegrate etc to come with a damage increase in specific element, say 15-20%.

that is very wrong math , BS Ench and alchemy makes weapons and gear UBER powerfull with thousands of stats and dmg .... + all the perks moodificators after

Magic is ranged.
Magic can slow enemies.
Magic can drain magicka.
Magic can AoE.
Magic can set traps.


Don't forget to list the advantages to destruction magic as well.