I feel drawn to both... But being a battlemage, I'm afraid that I'll become kinda jack of all trades, master of none... Focusing on 5-6-7 different skills (destro-resto-alteration-1H-heavy armor-enchanting) can't really make me too good in anything in the end? As for now I'm juggling a lot between destruction spells, my axe, and healing spells, and it seems a bit messy...

Is a pure warrior build, or pure mage build, simply more effective and enabling me to have better power attacks, or mightier spells later on?

I don't like having a lot of chars, I prefer playing through Skyrim with one character only...

I hope someone takes a minute of their time to give their 2 cents

I played a mage for 80 hours then started a Orc warrior 2h and its so much more fun to play no need to constantly be changing spells and accessing menus.

From what I have read on forums its very hard to play a pure mage the game seems to favour a hybrid class. Warrior/restoration is obvious choice for me.

I'm attempting a spellsword and I'm finding destruction so severely inferior to my melee, that I hardly ever use it anymore, which means I have somehow gimped my "build" either by mistake or in effect of destruction not leveling, and a restart is imminent. Bethesda wants you to play a large axe swinging testosterone fueled viking dude.

Yeah, I want a more fluent game. All this swapping between Flames and Axe and Healing.. And I guess I can get better ward spells etc later on (am at a very low lvl atm), but just standing there letting monsters whack at my heavy armor while I try to burn/shock them down doesn't feel too intelligent...


So magic just isn't as effective as melee in this game?

Yeah, destruction damage doesn't scale with your skill, while melee does, it's practically useless after level 40 or so, because enemies keep getting stronger. There have been a lot of complaints about that.

Both are viable. You can play more than one character. So... play them both. I've chosen to play melee first, based on a perception of difficulty, the mage is likely harder. I wouldn't say it's a matter of "effectiveness" so much as it's more difficult to master. Players who have mastered the mage say you need to use how the different skill areas complement each other. In melee, I've pretty much stuck to a single attack.

Maybe you should go with making two characters, one a warrior and one a mage. Not only will you be getting two
different experiences, you won't feel like you've lost out. (Hopefully.) That is what I'll be doing.
(I've started out with my mage first.)

I play a battlemage and I haven't had any trouble up until last night. When the enemies start doing a lot of damage, you really start to miss being able to block. I do use a shield occasionally though for the hard hitters, though I haven't put any perk points in block. One thing I've found that works is using ice spells to drain their stamina. If they can't power attack you, they don't do as much damage

Thanks so much, guys! Based on what you're telling me, I've decided to go with a warrior for now, and maybe start a mage later on. Thanks for all of your advice

I'm currently playing a Battlemage. The lack of block makes things really interesting. You're generally weaker at lower levels, but get much more powerful at higher levels. It's really fun.