I am a level 18 mage, and I keep going back and forth on this. I know I "should" be wearing robes that give me extra magicka regen, but then I am reading that it doesn't work during combat. So is it better to just wear some armor? If I wear armor are my shield spells less effective? I am totally confused about what I should do here.

You should use armor if you're doing enchanting. If you're not doing enchanting, you want the + mana and -% spell cost enchants that you find on robes.

Armour if all your robes do is regenerate Magicka faster [ Since it's cut severely during combat. ] or Robes if the bonus to your preferred schools are TOO good to pass up. Always augment your arms and feet with your preferred armour type for added protection!

If you go pure mage then there are some good shield like spells and a perk that gives a bonus to those if you're not wearing armour. You need to keep an eye on the items you wear as seemingly innocuous items are classified as armour.

Pure Mage here and loving it.

haha I love the results... currently 3vs3, we're not really helpful

Yes. I see no reason why a "Pure Mage" can't wear armour. I choose to run around in Daedric armor Ice Spiking everyone with a summon at my back.

In combat magicka regen is set to 1/3th of what you get outside of combat. So the extra bonus does help in combat as well, without it regen would be even slower.

Style-wise I say robes only, that's what I do. Stat-wise, getting armour is probably better, but only if you have enchanting.

Played both a pure mage and battlemage and both have their cons and pros. There's a good unarmored perk in there for mages(in Alteration I believe) and sometimes I just don't like to be weighted down by a lot of armor. More loot for me to carry around!

Imo you're not really a "mage" if you're wearing armour.

You could wear armour and enchant it so spells cost nothing, but imo that's OP and not very fun.

The only challenging aspect of being a mage is mana management and no armour.

So... if you're gonna get dragon plate armour and enchant it so spells cost nothing, I can't see any challenge left in combat.

Check out my guide in my sig for how to make a pure mage. Either path is doable without too much sacrifice.

Personally I like my mage to wear full deadric armor that I have crafted. I have 2 perks in heavy armor but if I spent those 2 in alteration mage armor instead I would have about the same amount of armor. For me its all about the looks and until I can mod thalmor robes to be enchantable I dont think I will be happy with the clothes that can be enchanted in game.

Also use the steed standing stone to negate any armor penalty.

YES I wear armor gauntlets and boots, and also had armor on as well at the start as I began as a 2H warrior, and later switched to Mage so I used armor until I got my Archmage outfit.
Also until recently I was using heavy/light armor boots/gauntlets , however now that I have a armor spell I have switched to Thalmer boots/gloves they look cool.
I also have nice Evlen boots with low weight that I use sometimes. Playing as a female 1H and Mage I figures she needs shoes to match her purse (well ok no purse, but different boots/shoes for every fight)

I use robes only, but since I don't do conjuration or illusion I do carry a shield around for those pesky beasts and mages.

It's Armor vs Alteration

If you don't go armor, you really do need the alteration spells to make combat possible without playing like it's an FPS.

Massively disagree. Impact, Unrelenting Force, Conjurations, and/or Illusions all help keep enemies at a distance from you. And they are very good at their job.

Mana potions can be made, and you could also be using mana cost reduction items so you can output more damage before waiting to recharge or use potions

Shield spells are really only less effective if you take the unarmored perks and then wear armor :\ but whose fault would that be?

IMO as long as you're investing in Alteration you can do without armour, since your flesh spells and mage armour perks can make you pretty damage spongy. Your Alteration master spell will put you at the armour cap anyways so you might as well take advantage of the extra regen on robes [yes it's cut in combat, but it still helps] and enchant your clothing for reductions in your offensive or defensive schools of choice while mainting good player mobility.

You can also do without Alteration and simply invest in heavy/light armour perks, but make sure you're also leveling enchanting so you can enchant fortified magicka and school cost reductions.

TLDR: it's viable and possible to do both, neither seems overtly better than the other at max skill levels so it's up to personal style.

Exploiting the dragon priest AI so you can shoot at them is the same as "playing it like an FPS"

I would love to see a video of you on normal difficulty fighting a dragon priest with a mage, without alteration

Thank you all for your suggestions! One thing I had not taken into account was CARRYING armor. I have not put any points into stamina and don't intend to. Also, I thought magic regen did not help at ALL in combat, but from what I am reading here it only cuts it back.

Thanks for the help, folks!!

There are perks that make it much better for Mages to use Robes and Clothing as opposed to Heavy Armor.
You can carry so many more Fine Clothes and Robes than you can Heavy Armor. Which makes you more suitable to different situations, with the right enchantments.

I say go Robe or go Home.

Alteration is basically useless against Dragon Priests, except for one perk set. They don't use physical attacks.

They suffer from Impact as much as anyone else. I fireball spammed Krosis until he died. He got off a single attack.

I do robes only, but sometimes i use a mask for extra spell power. Anyways, you can get some pretty decent armor rating with the alteration skill, provided you don't wear any other armor.

Some bits of the game gave me major trouble without armour, ascendent necromancers are a good example, they one shot me. I'm fed up of stressing over this, I'm just going to go with what feels right and enjoy the game

I'm a level 49 Light Armored Spellsword. Been steamrolling everything when I play on Adept. It's very effective.

Oh, and sorry for the poll I answered YES, my "Mage" is an Elder Scrolls Sorcerer

In oblivion, a sorcerer is a magic user who uses all magic skills except illusion, and instead replaces illusion with Heavy Armor
I have only mastered Destruction and Conjuration, most of the others are sitting around 50

So my guy is
Destruction
Conjuration
Restoration
Alteration
Alchemy
Heavy Armor
Enchanting

I start with mage guardian stone first so my magic skills level faster then the skills I can't help but level early on (like lock picking, stealth (some quests require you to use stealth to advance the questline) and speech craft)
After it is best to switch to Steed so you can carry around loot and move in heavy armor
Finally at high level (when looting every item for money is no longer required) switching between Attronach or Lord depending on the likely enemies in a quest.

Smithing is cheating, using smithing is more unmage like then wearing armor

Damn you people and your interesting comments. Now I'm persuaded to go home and make a new mage character as soon as possible. I wonder how many 20ish lvl characters I'll have before I get anywhere near the "end" of the game.