So

I've been reading a lot of "whine" topics where people comment on mages being svck, or that magica regen in battle ruin the whole mage combat system . So i desided to write a small
guide to help you guys so you won't waste time on reroling.

1st thing you want is to decide the tipe of mage you want to be. I've tried mixing different schools + fightings, and here are the ones i recomend:

1. Warlock
In this one you mix Conjuration with close combat. Max out Conjuration as fast as you can by buying "Bound Sword or Axe" spell and casting
it in front of an enemy or try using "soul trap" a lot on the same enemy. If you don't like any kind of grind (you have never played ES3 or 4), then just sumon weapon in battle
and you will do fine (although it will take much longer to get 100). Also fighting with this weapon improves 1h or 2h (as you wish) skill. As for feats you need all of them. You can skip
2 points of "Summoner" but you need "Atromancy" and "Elemental potency". While you level up before you start battle Summon then engage in combat then sumon sword (or 2) or axe
and pwn. When you reach lvl 100 you will be indestructible with 2 permanent Atronachs and nice close combat skill. I also highly recomend you after maxing out Conjuration to waste all you points in
Enchanting. It's very underrating skill at first glance. But you will soon understand that this one rocks, and it rocks for everyone (warriors, rogues or mages).
As for items use light or heavy armor as you like. Same for rings and am's. No restriction here. You dont need high mana regen. You just need 320-400 magica. The rest you can spend in
Health and Stamina.
If you want to go for full mage spec, then you can also try it with Destruction. However, you will need spare points to waste in this skill tree and you will need proper cloth armor (look below).

2. Destruction Mage
This guy is not as good as the 1st one at the start. But you get the ultimate killing machine when he reaches 100 + Proper equip.
There is no faster way to max this skill out besides just using it in combat. For those of you who want to reach 100 as quickly as possible use your spells on companions or summoned ones and you
can also try engaging in combat with giants or mamonts, then runing in sircles around the tree or stone or any obstacle (same tactics works for Conjuration). Now the second skill you need for this build
is still enchanting because you need proper equipment. Destruction is always a full mage spec, so i sugest mixing it with transmutation. Nice armor + Atronah feat and
+30 spell resist are preaty nice bonuses. You also need 50% regen from restoration. As for Destruction feat tree, you need everything but for Disintegrate (can kill surending enemies and bug some quests),
Deep Freeze (you may not bother to waste points in Augmented Frost in the first place) and Intense Flames.
You can also mix it with Conjuration...
The actual reason why i'm writing this article is the equipment you need for Pure mage build. You can either craft it and wear light or heavy (as you prefer) armor, or you can waste huge amount of time in
search for "- magica usage for destruction spells". It is your choise but i think it is obvious that with Enchanting is far better then without it. You will need Armor, Amulet, Ring and Head with destruction
bonus. Since You can buy chest with regen and bonus you're left with ring, amulet and head. These are the ones you need to enchant. If you will have 5 points in Enchanting 1 point
in Insightful enchanter and 1 in Corpus enchanter (Total of 7 points invested and 80 skill level required). You will be able to create 30% bonus or above. With 3 items like that + robe, your destruction spell cost
will dramatically decrease and the "party" will start (I have Enchanting skill level 67 so i cantt tell you the exact bonus).

There are a few other builds i have with restoration + mele, or illusion + stelth. But i can hardly call them mages.

Anyway, thank you for reading my article. I hope it was useful.

The problem is not that people don't know how to play a mage. It's that the fundamental damage dealing tool a mage is SUPPOSED to have...doesn't actually deal damage. Not past lvl 40 anyway. There are no enchants or spells that boost your destruction damage output in the game. Being able to cast spells for 0 magicka doesn't help when it takes 5 minutes of running in circles while spamming that same spell on the 1 monster to be able to kill it.

Giants die from 4 expert dual shots. 1/2 of my magica. In combination with 2 atronahs or 2 dremora lords mage is dealing with enemies far better then 1 warrior or 1 rogue. Perhaps i dont understand what you mean by fundamental damage dealing mage tool, but i didn't use any cheat so far, and the game goes like pice of cake in terms of battles.