Le Glass Cannon Mage

Post » Wed Aug 29, 2012 11:40 am

Starting a new mage and i am seriously debating ONLY putting points into magicka when levelling up. this means dying a lot. only having 100 health (aside from whatever enchantments can provide for me). and most likely being a stealth mage. does anyone have any suggestions for the build?

Revised skill plan: http://skyrimcalculator.com/#182155
alchemy is in there for the fortify health pots and fortify destruction, as i will need a hell of a lot of spike damage late game.
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Kellymarie Heppell
 
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Post » Wed Aug 29, 2012 7:10 am

80 Level Ups? That's not a mage, that's a Jack-of-all-Trades. Shoot for around level 50-60 when you're done, much nicer play through.
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Stephanie Kemp
 
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Post » Wed Aug 29, 2012 12:26 pm

80 Level Ups? That's not a mage, that's a Jack-of-all-Trades. Shoot for around level 50-60 when you're done, much nicer play through.
can do. only have him perked up to about 47 i wouldnt know where to put all the extra perks from the additional 30 levels
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Janeth Valenzuela Castelo
 
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Post » Wed Aug 29, 2012 4:31 am

Le
Stop that. It is not THE glass cannon mage and peppering two-letter french words into your speech doesn't add anything. Pet peeve and one of the worst things to come out of Reddit.

On-topic, totally workable idea, but it's gonna be a rough road, especially around level 10 or so. Gonna want to go Altmer so the even higher magicka offsets that somewhat, Orsimer so berserker can give you some protection at least, Imperial so you can get out of a sticky situation once a day or Breton for magic resistance against enemy mages. No matter how you cut it you'll have major weaknesses though.

Conjuration would make you a little less glass cannon by drawing away fire. You've maxed your enchanting perks here, meaning you can easily get free casting in any school, especially if you take fortify enchanting potions (or make your own with fortify alchemy gear...) first to consolidate equipment somewhat... It would probably be better to put most or at least some levels into stamina then use enchantments to boost the other two skills. Right now I'm actually fiddling with a level 81 Khajiit jack-of-trades that only has level boosts in stamina, augmented armour/master alteration easily offset the low health, as do enchantments, I can carry as much as I want, and I barely have any magic perks but can cast any spell capably (albeit I lack the perks for two thralls, workable non-stealth illusion magic and so on).

Shock is NOT the best element to specialise in. It usually kills the enemy before they run out of magic anyway, and frost slows enemies down, which is useful regardless of what you're facing; Fire can be very effective and cheap, even at higher levels, especially if you take the aspect of terror perk in illusion.
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Hairul Hafis
 
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Post » Tue Aug 28, 2012 8:50 pm

IMO, you have wasted too many perks.

Here's the kind of pure cloth mage I'd play: http://skyrimcalculator.com/182129

I tend to optimise my characters, so I don't take any of the magicka reducing perks when using enchanting. This can be difficult early, but it pays off later when you have a decent enchanting skill. Destruction is the only skill that you have to have cost reduction for, the others are fine without, especially as a mage with a large magicka pool.

Don't bother with alchemy, if the idea was just for destruction buffs, you don't need it. Aim for around 80-90% cost reduction for the destruction spells, then you can pump out 100 (105 for necromage vampires) damage incinerates and 90 damage thunderbolts/icy spears. If you perk your build well and have a decent cost reduction, destruction will take down most enemies incredibly fast on master.

Do you plan to be a vampire? If so you should make use of the necromage vampire combination, all enchantments/potions have their effects increased by 1.25x and the duration by x1.5. This affects other things like the alteration flesh spells and the illusion perks (if taken after being a necromage vamp). If you don't know about this I'll explain it in more detail, or someone else will. Your characters moral outlook on the game will probably determine whether you become a vamp or not, unless you have RP reasons.

Don't dismiss illusion and conjuration, they are both fun and incredibly potent magic skills. I went for the necromage side of conjuration as it is just as strong as the summoning side if you know what you're doing, requires more skill and I feel the summoning creatures is just too easy, like a hit-to-win button.

What difficulty do you plan to play on?
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Lifee Mccaslin
 
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Post » Tue Aug 28, 2012 9:17 pm

IMO, you have wasted too many perks.

Here's the kind of pure cloth mage I'd play: http://skyrimcalculator.com/182129

I tend to optimise my characters, so I don't take any of the magicka reducing perks when using enchanting. This can be difficult early, but it pays off later when you have a decent enchanting skill. Destruction is the only skill that you have to have cost reduction for, the others are fine without, especially as a mage with a large magicka pool.

Don't bother with alchemy, if the idea was just for destruction buffs, you don't need it. Aim for around 80-90% cost reduction for the destruction spells, then you can pump out 100 (105 for necromage vampires) damage incinerates and 90 damage thunderbolts/icy spears. If you perk your build well and have a decent cost reduction, destruction will take down most enemies incredibly fast on master.

Do you plan to be a vampire? If so you should make use of the necromage vampire combination, all enchantments/potions have their effects increased by 1.25x and the duration by x1.5. This affects other things like the alteration flesh spells and the illusion perks (if taken after being a necromage vamp). If you don't know about this I'll explain it in more detail, or someone else will. Your characters moral outlook on the game will probably determine whether you become a vamp or not, unless you have RP reasons.

Don't dismiss illusion and conjuration, they are both fun and incredibly potent magic skills. I went for the necromage side of conjuration as it is just as strong as the summoning side if you know what you're doing, requires more skill and I feel the summoning creatures is just too easy, like a hit-to-win button.

What difficulty do you plan to play on?
i plan on adept until i get the destruction stagger perk. once i have that im going to spam level illusion to get quiet casting.

alchemy is both for fortifying my other attributes as well as increased destruction damage (make a rune that does 250ish damage? yes please) as well as increased flesh spell duration and paralysis duration. Should probably take necromage also. already have the thread with a list of perks affected by it in my bookmarks.

I will definately perk up all three elements in destruction. i forgot about frost's slow effect. if i remember right they can basically stop dragons in their tracks. plus the dragons weakness to fire/frost will be helpful. i perked up destruction cost reduction as i am not going to get the full 100% cost reduction in that school. but i will be making use of lightning storm and firestorm. blizzard is bugged but i can still use it also as i won't perk into magic resist/absorb.

I will probably go up atronach perk side of conjuration instead, undead do not work for me. always go running off to god knows where or attack me.

I dont have mage armor perked as i can't imagine it would be helpful with such a low health pool, however if i go necromage then i will.
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naomi
 
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