Hey everyone.
I have a few questions about being a mage, thanks in advance!

For the "Mage Armor" perk, on the perk tree is states "will double the effectiveness of spells like Stoneflesh for people not wearing armor." Now, are they meaning no armor whatsoever (including boots and gauntlets) or are they talking about the central piece called "armor" (The combo of a cuirass and greaves?)
Meaning, could I still benefit from this perk if I wear Boots and Gauntlets? Or should I just roll around with all enchanted clothing?

I have most of what I find useful from the professors in The College, any other note worthy places I could find some higher level spell tomes? Which court wizard is best? I am mostly looking for Alteration, Destruction and Conjuration spells. I don't find Illusion very useful.

I know I have more, I'll think of them as the day passes. Thanks everyone!

If it has an armor rating and yu are wearing it then no effect for yu

no armor what so ever afaik

college is the best place to get spells

Ok, great, thanks for clarifying. I appreciate it.
So, I guess my best friend as a pure mage is going to be the "Mage Armor" perk eh?
Any ideas are where to get stronger spells comparable to Stoneflesh?

Alteration teacher at the college

Not necessarily. There's some pretty powerful effects out there, such as the one from the mask you get in the Mage questline, that are absoutely amazing. You may find that the ability to be greater at offense outweighs the better defense.

Best place to purchase tomes is the college.

Also just want to point out that illusion is one of the most op perks trees going, can pretty much calm, frenzy or fear anything in the game as well as becoming invisible and silent casting! Awesomeness!!! Don't underestimate it.

Yeah if you like that playstyle Illusion is probably one of the most solid schools out there.

And if you're going robes, go full cloth, don't go robes + armor. Either go armor, or go cloth.

Aye, it's surprising just how powerful it is. I was dabbling with a thief of mine who I didn't want to actually kill folks (she's a thief, not a thug!), and it's surprising how much easier it is when you're a skilled illusionist. If you wanna get somewhere without a big confrontation, or if your giant fireballs of doom can't keep up with overwhelming force placed against you, illusion's a great fallback.

Lots of great info here everyone, THANKS!
I'll get into Illusion more then, I am only an 11 with this character so I have time for further shaping.

I feel as though have purchased everything the teachers have. Is it possible they get stronger spells (Adept and higher) as I level higher?
If not, I'll have to double check.

I am only doing the perk trees for magic skills, all of them. Is that too much?

More spells become available from the College as you level. Around 35 or so you should be able to get “Ebonyflesh”, which is what my current Arcane Archer uses. With the Mage Armor perks and Lord Stone she is rocking an Armor Rating of 350 in the buff.

Might be a bit of extra work to fill them all in and you'd certainly have to be high level to do so which would probably require developing some other skills just to get the extra points needed. I tend to stick to just a couple of spell trees and then put a few points into enchanting or some other skill that I find helpful to my character. Then again I usually don't level much beyond level 50 so my points are somewhat limited.

Wow, that's awesome
And thanks for clarifying
Love these forums, WAY different than Halo's.

@Garrison (just didn't want a huge quote pyramid)
Ok, makes sense, I have been stopping leveling my characters at around 50 as well.
At this juncture (Elpresador anyone?) I think I am going to really concentrate on Destruction and Conjuration.

The conjuration perk tree really seems to be geared towards atronachs. Is the frost atronach the highest level creature one can conjure? If not, is that branch in that perk tree otherwise useless?

Thanks

EDIT: Spelling

U can summon demora lords!!!! My current build is a necromage vamp. Illusion is my best friend.

Is there a way to enhance the Dremora Lords, or are there no perks which boost that type of creature?

I don't believe so.
The tree can make atronachs and the reanimated dead more powerful, but nothing about summoned Daedra or oblivion creatures.
Then there is te bound weapon branch, which I plan on ignoring.
But I guess the dual casting perk could make for a longer lasting Dremora Lord.
I would assume a Dremora Lord is more powerful, if not just as powerful as a Frost Atronach with plus 100 health and the perk for making them stronger, but I don't know.
Frost atronachs are pretty beastly, problem I have is the elemental attacks, there are enemies they would be useless against. So I am thinking I am gong to ignore that branch as well and just stick to making the casting take less Magicka. And concentrate more perks into destruction and alteration, but always summoning before going into battle as well.
I am not using Illusion all too much because of how much I concentrated on sneaking and such with my first character.
I want to just walk into a room with my mage and clean house with summoned creatures and powerful destruction spells.

A couple more questions...

If I get the restoration perk "Healing spells also restore stamina" and deplete my stamina by sprinting and then use a healing spell to replenish my stamina, will this be leveling up my restoration skill?
Am I right in assuming that at full health and full stamina, casting a restoration spell is NOT leveling up my skill (unlike Oblivion where you could just cast a spell over and over to boost the skill while running around)

And what does it mean in the destruction perk tree when it says "Place runes 5x farther away?"

Again, thanks everyone

rune spells are elemental traps

Illusion tree is nonsensical powerfull. You can paralyze entire dungeons from the start, or cast Frenzy on a whole foresworn camp, turn invisible, then watch the carnage. It's nuts.

Be careful though, Morokei and other Dragon Masks are very tempting for mages to wear. However, they count as armor. They ruin your mage armor concept. Personally, my pure mage is level 21 and I still haven't used any mage armor, or even wards yet. I'm not sure if I'm going to need it, or if rocking the Morokei will be better.

You have to heal damage for restoration to gain skill... I would assume that healing stamina with the respite perk does NOT count. An easy way to hurt yourself is to drown close to death, and then heal up to full. You can jump off cliffs, too, of course.... but there's not sunken treasure in the air.

get the alteration spell Equillibrium and cast it alongside a healing spell for infinite alteration and restoration gain

@Varus
Now THAT sounds awesome!
I will look up where to find the mask you are describing, thanks!
My deal is that I concentrated SO heavily on sneaking and marksman my first time through, that I wanted this character to kind of ignore sneaking all together.
I mean, I loved it, but it def made dungeon crawling last a lot longer than just out right fighting everything.
Although, what you described sounds really awesome!

Okok, you have my attention
What does equilibrium do exactly?

That's ridiculousness.I know it's not an online game, but do they really need to leave that in there? Seems pretty broken.