My typical battle:

Me and my hired mercenary stroll in. There is a whole heap of enemies up ahead. I call forth 2 summons. While my 2 summons and companion are up ahead fighting I DO NOT use novice level spells but instead use *gasp* expert level spells and cause immense damage. My magic regains ridiculously fast and I am quickly able to call forth thunderstorm. I will then use the remainder of the time casting smaller spells or resummoning. I don't sit there and throw novice level spells around. They are novice level for a reason. Should all of those fail. As a mage I have gathered many essential scrolls and potions as well as enchanted my Blade (which I carry around for extra protection just in case). My enchanted blade does not do very much on its own because of my low skill with 1H weapons but I've enchanted it with a powerful thunder enchantment and another with frost that hit like trucks.

Aside from that I have multiple protective spells from both restoration and alteration as well as the mage armor perk.

The arguement that magic is not strong is virtually pointless. At level 50 I am extremely powerful.

People who should not be allowed to speak on the subject:
-Someone who does not have experience playing a level 40+ mage

-Someone who restricts themselves for roleplaying purposes (I will never use a blade because I am a thunder mage and will only use lightning and will never use any other types of magic. Well I think my feety pajama wearing pillow fighter should also be a viable option and just as powerful as a fully clad warrior, but alas)
If you are going to restrict yourself and roleplay feel free to do so. But it should not be just as easy for someone who only uses destruction and neglects other skills.

-Someone who is attempting to use novice level spells past level 40. Novice level spells are for novices. You are not a novice. Use expert level spells.


I can say from first hand experience I have had next to zero trouble with the game. Yet I also don't go under some preconcieved mage notion. I have a sword in my inventory if I need it and many enchanted daggers. I'v put points into health and I do whatever it takes to survive.

If you are going to literally shirk all of the options handed to you then the game should be hard on you.

Yeah, run from the previous thread! RUN! (If you read most of the complaints it's actually destruction isn't strong at high levels, not "magic" in general)

My question... How did you power level to 50 so quickly? And what percentage of the game do you have completed?

im at level 18 but i still own any creature that comes my way.

I didn't have to powerlevel. The game has been out all weekend and i'v pretty much lived on it lol. I did utalize trainers a lot though so that may accomodate for some of it.

I'm always spending my money training skills.

As far as game complete percentage I'v beatn the main storyline if that's what your after.

Destruction magic, as I stated above, literally destroys most of my foes. Cast blizzard, thunderstorm and even firewall if needed and read a book.

A question that I have to ask: What difficulty are you playng on?

I smell novice

Cough "While my 2 summons and companion".

Default is Adept?

I usually use Master and take it to Expert when I get stuck. Its challenging.

lol yes. My 2 summons and a companion. I hired a mercenary and summon 2 creatures. I'm a mage. Its kind of what we do.

No one said those are underpowered or a problem. So chances are those raqefaced while you did mediocre damage.

No it's what a CONJURER does.Illusion is powerful, conjuration is powerful, alteration is powerful and destruction is weak as hell. Play without using conjuration and see how you get on. And while you're getting your ass kicked picture your average skill less warrior wading in and trouncing everything in it's path with no thought to tactics. It's imbalanced. There is math to prove it. Math = fact. End of argument

Default difficulty is pretty easy. I'd like to see you do this at Expert of even Master. Also at that high level your summons are pretty powerful so you don't have to do much anyways.

Good try though OP. Whether you are trying to convince people or not, Destruction is weak because it doesn't scale for [censored]. Nuff said.

My destruction magic is just fine. In fact the summons and merc could really just be substituted by a sturdy fence.
My blizzard and thunderstorm and, if I feel like it, firewall really cause a great deal of mayhem. The fence is just there to keep enemies off of me which is. well.

The destruction spells themselves work fine. But I see people complaining that they don't do damage when they are running around firing tiny sparks from there hands that they learned at level 8.

Yet, for some reason, my spells seem to be doing fine.

You can increase your magicka as you gain levels, thus increasing the quantity of destructive spells you can cast before you have to rest. Do higher levels in Destruction also lower the casting cost of its spells as they do in Oblivion?

For one its not what a "CONJURER" does. its what a mage does. As a mage you should be interested in all magic schools. Or else you are not a true mage now are you?
Play without using conjuration? sure i'll go play a warrior without a shield too. That'll be fun. Conjuration is always a staple of being a true mage. You need something to block for you and to try to play with only destruction is like trying to play a warrior without armor. You make it difficult for yourself. Its fine.

Why would I want to do this on expert or master? who the hell cares? If you are going to raise the difficulty you are defenately bringing the pain to yourself. If that's what the arguement is its a complete joke.

No its not "Nuff said" because for some reason MY destruction magic is just fine. It does a lot of damage for me. So that's how I can tell expert spells aren't being used. When they are actually fine. They still demolish everything I come across.

You cause the difficulty on yourself if you are just going with destruction and not going to use the other schools. That is literally what makes a mage a mage. Not just competency with destruction magic but all of the schools. I thought that was pretty common knowledge.

A warrior must be good with multiple skills to survive and should also pick up a bow or have some ranged tactic. A theif must not only sneak and be a good archer but should be reasonably seasoned for melee.

None of these are made up with just abusing one skill. Similarly you can't expect to walk around in robes and win the game only using destruction magic.

You must think logically. What will I do once they close the distance? Well. You need something to distract them or to evade them in some way or to deal with them when they get close.

I'm level 30 on expert wearing robes and as long as i don't faceplant into that guy wielding a 2-handed sword I kill everything just fine.

Large groups I use the adept level ice spell since it can hit multiple times, passes through enemies, has a large AoE, and is easier to avoid killing my companion with than the fireball or chain lightning spells. Small groups in closed spaces I'll summon an atronach or resurrect a revenant to block for me. Individual or particularly tough targets I use the apprentice-level spells as they're more mana efficient, defaulting to fire because it seems to do the most damage. I don't even have the destruction perk that staggers opponents.

Stoneflesh and Steadfast Wards for extra protection should I need them, and potions when necessary. I also have a tendency to save my level-up until I'm in trouble in combat as it restores your mana/health/stamina.



If you're really having issues, the ritual stone power can be a lifesaver. An http://i43.tinypic.com/1p8krd.jpg can handle pretty much anything.

to OP: do you realize what ROLE-Playing game means?
I am afraid you dont.
Companion and 2 atronachs?! Even 5 y.o. could win every battle with them.
But some people role-play pure destro mage, they dont have companions and they dont summon minions.
In The Elder Scrolls Destruction always was PRIMARY magic skill, in Skyrim it is become Secondary in high difficulty and lvl.
Is that so hard to understand?!

Mana does NOT reg fast during combat .
3 helpers gratz mate , we talk about mage not a warlock or a sumonner thats different , and you admit its them or youre weapon doing the killing hitting like a truck WITHOUT you being trained for it .

I'm not worried about it i'm playing on Apprentice right now and i don't think i will play higher than Adept , and when i do play as a Mage i'll be smart enough to have a good edged weapon for last line.

One thing I have noticed when playing.

You have to specialize with your skills, if you try and take perks from everywhere at the start you get trumped quickly. Destruction has to be used with something yes.....but the choices aren't there, you can be cowardly and use summons constantly, or you can hide in the shadows and use illsuion in between destruction spells......but destruction on it own just gets you killed....and here is the problem....

Playing any sort of mage you either have to uses summons or hide, in order to play. The defensive options aren't there, nor can you get the fire-power to kill things quickly enough.

To be honest it really hasn't taken a back seat to anything. At lower levels I relied on a fire atronach because I didn't have the mana to spam my spells that much, but after getting my first apprentice level destruction spell I haven't had issues killing anything I wasn't too underleveled for.

The main thing people don't realize is that unlike Oblivion, the vast majority of enemies aren't scaled to your level. This means that if something is too hard, it's generally not because archetype is too weak but rather you're just too low of a level.

Edit: i don't mean to bash any of you hardcoe roleplaying types, but when have you ever seen a wizard in any novel, movie, or pen-and-paper game that could only throw fireballs and didn't get slaughtered at some point? All those harry potter wizards opened locks, used light spells, teleported etc; Gandalf used his staff to beat people just as much as he used spells; wizards in dungeons and dragons are used almost entirely for their adaptability with utility spells; hell, even Willow used sleight of hand to confuse his enemies.

yes. it is. So you are complaining that you don't have as easy of a time because you have gimped yourself?

As I said in other topics. I also want to roll a naked pillow fighter. He doesn't believe in armor and doesn't really like fighting so uses a pillow. We can agree I have clearly made it harder on myself. The game does not force me to roll a naked pillow fighter and by doing so I am actively shirking many of the defensive and offensive capabilities at my disposal.

By rolling a pure destro mage you are doing the same to yourself and have zero arguement. If destruction was all that made a mage in this game I would understand.

You guys aren't rolling mages you are playing as guys in robes that know 1/5th of the skills it takes to be a mage. And that is assuming you have a 100% mastery of destruction.

You shouldn't even call those characters mages because they aren't. Any yahoo can become competent in ONE school of magic. The mage title should be reserved for someone with a mastery of magic. Which includes all schools.

I think that's where we differ. Otherwise, yes, I think mages are a very viable class in the game, sure.

But I just don't get why my magicka regenerates so bloody slowly

So to be a "true" warrior i have to master one handed,two handed, block, archery and heavy armor?

And yeah, i see now you dont have a clue what role playing means.