So I am using a spellsword/witchhunter style of fighter that is loosely based off of the Vigilant of Stendarr, I use a lot of wards and alteration magic but also use destruction for some offensive boosts (where I differ from the traditional VoS person). What I am debating on is which element to specialize in, I want to pick one so I can use the saved perks elsewhere. I have been using fire and I admit it is probably the most likely to win but I am trying to give Ice and Lightning a fair chance. I think my problem with Ice is I feel like everything in skyrim (or at least most) are resistant to it and it wouldnt be very effective. Lightning just annoys me due to the uber magic costs it can have, since I dont have a ton of magic it doesnt seem practical either.

So in short, for those who use destruction magic, can you please elaborate on your preferences or suggestions on an element and why.

use fire, it the only 1 that gets a damage boost from the aspect of terror perk in illusion...also nothing beats roasting your enemies alive and watching them flee in fear on fire

My 2 favorite are Shock, then Ice. I know Fire does more damage, but the other 2 are still great when perked up and I love that they have secondary effects to them.

Since your a witchhunter you will be going up against alot of other magick enemies.
Shock sounds best to me for the added effect of draining magick.

Lightning. Because then you can hammer mages.

Im not to worried about enemy mages as I have been using my wards and become ethereal to close the distance (side note, unlike most witchhunters, I use a sword and not a bow)

Fire is the logical (read best as far as damage/effectiveness) choice, since almost nothing resists fire, it does extra damage, gets boosted by aspect of terror, and many things have fire weakness.

Frost makes its money against humanoid opponents, who can easily be slowed (most creatures do not suffer from the slow effect), but many things are resistant to this form (or completely immune- like all dwarven automotons) so it will do the lowest damage (averaged on all opponents) of the three.

Lightning is fast- that is an advantage of using it for range. It doesn't have many enemies with resistances to it, so it is 2nd most effective damage-wise under fire. It has the drawback of being the most expensive form. Do not think lightning is "good for mages cuz it drains their magica" if you are draining a mage's magica to 0 via lightning and have not killed the mage already, then something probably isn't working right..

Any form will work. I am partial to ice myself for style-points, and the slow on humanoids (humanoids on master with 2 handers, or powerful mages can be the most dangerous of foes).

Lightning. Hasn't failed my Mage yet, and he's nearly level 30. Plus it provides the best killcams!

Fire Magic
Pros:
Cons:

Ice Magic
Pros:
Cons:

Lightning Magic
Pros:
Cons:

Notes: None of the spoilers are not actually spoilers, they are just to keep the post from being a wall of text. Pick yer poison (magic)

The fire perk can work as a con as well, having your enemy run away from you when low on health can be vastly annoying.

It looks to me that fire is the better option, I doubt I will take the intense flames perks regardless. Ice is what i wanted to use but with so much being resistant to it, it seems impractical. Lightning is fun but drains magic to fast.

Depends... Always use Lightning on Dragons, and other magical enemies.

Use Frost on Melee-Only Enemies and use Fire on anything else, since Fire is only good for the extra damage.

This is my first time using Lightning magic and so far I am loving every moment of it. on my previous mages I've already use fire and wasn't all that happy with it.

Oh and after mastering the skill of destruction the master level Lightning storm is pretty bad ass!

An addition:

Fire Storm

Lightning Storm

Blizzard

Lighting is good for dragons, despite what one may think they need magicka to breath fire/ice on you and while an Ancient Dragon may have 3,000hp he only has 150 magicka. And if your trying to hit a dam dragon who just refusing to land EVEN with dragonrend lighting is your best bet to actually land a hit on a flying dragon.

hmmm, I have been testing lightning and I admit I am a big fan

I can vouch for that as I kicked an ancient dragons ass using Lightning. Usually his fire breath takes me out in one shot using master level difficulty. I'll try to video tape the next one and upload it to see just how powerful this form of magic can be

I'm glad this thread was created as I was also debating this, it seems like its just a matter of preference. Obviously there are some damage/effect differences but they seem to be minimal at best ... especially if it isn't your main source of damage dealing.

If you take a single element take lightning. If you take two, get fire and ice. Anything that is resistant to one is weak to the other.

My first mage is just getting to about 36ish now and while I love ice for the look of it the resistances of the enemies makes it extremely annoying, so now I mostly just use it to hunt rabbits and watch the kill cams from ice spike; everything else gets fire. Lightening just doesn't get used with me. I've spec'ed into all 3 fire and frost talents but have yet to place points into shock damage.

Never get bored of this.
"Aargh! I'm on fire!"
Good times.

As a Mage, i only use Fire or Ice as they seem to be the best Either <--> Or against the enemies in Skyrim. Fire works better all round due to most creatures(and Nords) resisting Cold, but i love Ice against Melee types, to slow them down at least(i love watching them struggling in slow mo, as i've had it used against me, and you feel totaly helpless). I barley use Lightning atm, as i want to spread my Perks wisely atm, i may get it later, may not.

Im gonna weigh for fire: best graphic on foes.

I'd like to see some variety ... maybe wind, shadow - those examples don't seem as offensive as say fire, but maybe they'd have more support type spells.

ha true...when im feeling extra sadistic i paralyze them then slow cook them with wall of flames

Fire. By a mile. At least up to level 20.

Frost seems to work better on the bigger creatures to at least stun them, difficult to tell, but gives you essential time to finish them off with something else.