As a level 19 conjuration-destruction mage I have serious trouble seeing how to develop myself further.

I've only had about 5 item upgrades the whole time I have played, and I don't expect to get any better gear too soon. This really ruins it for me; in any RPG getting better gear is very important to me.

I have 4 unspent perks and nothing to spend them on. I have 100 hp, so I don't need powerful restoration, I only use fire spells (it seems that you don't need to use other damage types) so I won't be investing in lightning or ice (and Intense Flames sounds awful), so I just need to get the expert and master destruction perks. I don't use bound equipment, so I will just wait until I can get the improved atronach stuff. I don't need potions, illusion or alteration. Lockpicking is insanely easy. I don't need the extra gold from speech (money seems valueless) or armor from blacksmithing. As a mage, I don't use armor or block or weapons, neither do I sneak, pickpocket or practice archery.

Furthermore, combat is trivial. I just stunlock opponents with doublecast firebolts. If there are more opponents, I use conjuration (conjured mobs are only useful as meat shields: the awfulness of their damage is only exceeded by that of their AI)

In retrospect, making a mage was a bad idea, because mages offer so few avenues of progress: there is very little in the way of gear progress and the only spells you need are a couple of destruction and conjuration spells (not that there would be space for other spells in the hotkeys).

I should have been something like a thief, as they would have plenty of ways to develop and benefit from many skills; light armor, sneak, archery, pickpocketing, one handed, smithing, alchemy, enchanting.

What do you guys think? Are mages as fulfilling as they should be?

/facepalm


These threads are pointless...

Your time would have been better spent re-rolling and playing a character that suits your playstyle.

Use your remaining perks in Conjuration or Alteration, or skill up in either Lightning or Frost (Since you would be at a disadvantage, when using only fire)

But there is nothing like a few mods can't handle when the tools gets released.

I feel similarly, but not the same.
I do feel like the talent trees for us are a bit lacking. Im destro - conjuration as well. I use bound sword and bow, which I'd recommend, so I specced for the damage boost, but i dont really care for soul tapping. I use atronarchs, so im not specced into necro skills
as for destro, I am full fire... no rune enhancements, but ill probably spec for frost as well

Other than that, I have resto just to get the mana regen...but other than that i never know what to spec. I did 2 points so far in one handed to increase my bound sword damage

i don't care for illusion or alteration, but i might have to pick one up just to be able to spend talents

overall though, I enjoy the mage toon... I just wish I had a better variety of skills (like a knockback)

That's for me to decide

Just shelf him. Do you expect us to pity you if you have to make another character? Poor guy

can;t complain about having perks to spare when there's still plenty of places to spend them on IMO
dno about all this mage being underpowered at high levels cuz I haven't studied the numbers and don't really care to
but I'm at lvl 19 as well now and I keep finding new interesting stuff and have plenty of room for improvement
granted perhaps not as much as I find new weapons or armor but they're all different catagories as well
so I don't think mages are that left out gear wise

No, I don't, thank you.

My advice is to stop meta-gaming and start role-playing.

I *really* don't understand all the mage-hate on these boards.

My mage is level 49, his thunderbolt spell (expert) costs a whopping THREE mana to cast (out of my mana pool of 610) and when dual casting it I can one or two shot pretty much every non-dragon/non-boss type creature in the game. The only times I've had any difficulty at all are when there are like 4+ archers all firing at me at once, and even that can be resolved with a little bit of strategy beyond "shoot spells at enemy".

I don't know what you're talking about concerning gear progression. There is a tier of mage robes (of each school) for each mastery level (novice, apprentice, adept, expert, master). You can wear any type of armor you want in your head/hands/feet slots and not impact your mana regen or spellcasting ability. The enchanting skill can help you make some extremely ridiculous armor pieces once you have it maxed (and some ho-hum ones while you level it).

Sure, there are no weapon upgrades, but the warrior/rogue types don't get attack upgrades as they level like we do in the form of new spells, so I think it balances out.

I think you're just paying too much attention to all the whiners on the boards here and not enough time playing your mage.

I think you really lack imagination.

Also, turn up the difficulty setting, and see if you don't need more than just one skill...

noob question: how do you stun lock opponents?
i started a mage, love it. i've seen 'stun lock' used in a few threads but i have no clue what people are referring to.

I've been playing a pure mage myself (focusing very heavily in Destruction, Conjuration and Illusion) and so far I've been enjoying myself somewhat. Not nearly as much as I did in Oblivion (due to how the Destruction skill is messed up). But some kind soul just put up a bunch of hacks on the skyrimnexus.net website which fix the problems with Destruction, atleast to the extent of a stopgap measure until the CK is released and we get full fledged mods, and it's made life a lot easier.

I think there's a lot of scope for creative gameplay in this game (not so much with a thief or a warrior to be honest...at the end of the day it just boils down to stab-stab-stab). The crippling effect of not having a lot of mana early on and loads later also is very helpful.

Then again, I've been pure mage since Morrowind until Skyrim, so I've kinda grown to love the playstyle. YMMV.

I agree with you about destruction, indeed I said that combat is trivial.

What bothers me is the gear, (which, despite what you said, is really, really hard to come by) and that there are really no useful ways to spend points once destruction and conjuration are taken care of.

How much imagination do you need to play a destruction/conjuration mage?

There is a destruction perk called impact which disables enemies briefly when you fire dual cast spells.

What's it called? The mod.

tyvm
i'm not high enough for that yet

see below...silly enter key.

I am a powerhouse at level 19 as a conjuration, destruction mage. I'm playing on Expert too. My advice: get another conjuration mage from the college as a follower. Then you have double the summons and the firepower. Now I'm starting to play around with alteration as well.

And you have gimped yourself by not going into lightning and frost. Some enemies resist fire then you are screwed. Not to mention, lightning drains magicka too -- great for casters.

Edit: just finished the mage guild questline and got two REALLY NICE items in the process. I'd reccomend doing that for good gear to help you.

People are referring to the perk which staggers opponents when a Destruction spell is dual cast. Repeat it and it keeps them unable to respond.

My advice is to just crank the difficulty down and just enjoy the game...... you don't have to prove anything to yourself or anyone else by playing on master , or even normal difficulty if its not working out as a mage

When do you start seeing master level robes?

I finished the Winterhold College questline at around level 14, and I suspect I will never get a better cloak or mask. Which bothers me, because I should be able to make some gear progress after lvl 14.

I do have a few frost spells, but the only time I have used them was against some flame atronach, so I don't think it's worth investing in the frost/lightning skills. I suppose I might aswell, though, seeing as there is nothing else to put the points into.

Sounds like you chose a play style you don't enjoy. I'm level 28 with primarily destruction and conjuration and I'm still building plenty of need for perks. Be sure and note that some perks allow you to spend multiple points in them. As for gear, I tend to use the Morachi (spelling?) mask and Archemage robe for head and chest and I've taken light armor for my gloves and boots (enchanted elvish armor currently).

Besides the Destruction and Conjuration perks I also put a few points into restoration for self healing, light armor, and alchemy.

Conjuration summons can be a bit wonky with pathfinding but they do quite a bit of damage, especially my Dremora Lord! He runs around one-shotting most guys and I quite enjoy when he chops the occasional head off I occasionally use the Storm Atronach instead because of his ranged attacks for dragons. I'm still having a blast with this. I've found myself favoring fire damage (because of the *spoiler* boost you get from Paarthunax for Fire). I still use lightning occasionally when I need more speed/precision though. Lightning also drains magicka so it's better against mages.

I'd suggest you start a second character in a different archetype though.

You could do what I did. After conjuration and destruction, work on sneak and onehanded. Get to where you can have stealth backstab options. Maybe throw some light armor and enchantimg into the mix. Become a mage-assassin.

Take up enchanting. You are a mage, enchanting suits your playstyle. BAM, two problems solved. Better equipment and a place for your perks to go.