I still don't understand why people think magic is underpowered. on my pure mage game (where destruction is my main) i do mass damage. have you even got to any expert level spells yet? seriously my spells do ridiculous damage. like for example wall of fire: does 50 points of damge per second... per second. that's a [censored] ton of damage sir. so no i don't believe magic is underpowered, but back to topic i agree that if you can wear a bunch of gear that makes it easier to cast spells go for it i don't think it's cheating anyway's. i mean come on it was put there for you to wear right?

Be a Breton next time.

wielding a weapon (not power attack) does more damage than master spells doesn't cost stamina, doesn't cost mana, and doesn't cost health.

Are weapons an exploit?

i have no idea what you're talking about, but being able to lower magic costs more and more as you level up is a game mechanic, its not a design oversight, as you level up and your skills go up you're more able to specialize in whatever you're leveling up, you're saying how you can supposeldy become a great spellcaster with no skill in magic? lol i don't see that.. you can buy or find a staff though and so you can cast major spells without being a mage anyway, you seem to be really worried about how other people want to play...if you want to become a master wizard thats what you get to do if you invest in the perks and skills etc, thats the point of the game, you want impose restrictions and bethesda games aren't about player restrictions, you're complaining thats its a design oversight that you can reduce your magic costs to very low..you're all about making a weak school even weaker ROFL.

Am I the only one who actually sorta likes how they made the magic in this game? I think it can actually be powerful (especially when you get Fireball, and using Lightning bolt at 80 destruction is powerful too, or chain lightning is a unfair spell also. But then the dual casting I don't really notice any difference besides the same damage as casting without the perk with the same spell in both hands. (But double the magicka use)

What most people are against, are people like you using it as a reason to not fix the broken system. Lets face it, if you have to reduce the cost of destruction spells to zero to make it attractive to use, its broken.

It's not an exploit, the enchantments and ability to enchant was put in for a reason. It's not even overly advantageous. As long as you don't drink 50 enchantment increase potions prior to enchanting, it's no problem whatsoever.

Exactly this. I don't care if other people think its cheating. I played my mage for 150 hours before learning I could reduce my mana cost to 0. I got my destruction magic to 100 naturally by killing thousands of mobs. I damn well earned the right to reduce my mana cost to 0.

Guess what everyone. I do not care how you play your game. I am a self-absorbed narcissist and I only care about me and mine. Good luck, have fun, but stay out of my business, I promise I will gladly stay out of yours!

No, the "alchemy/enchanting feedback loop" method is not an "exploit." The game has items that fortify alchemy. Alchemy has potions that fortify enchanting. It's natural that players who concentrate on alchemy and enchanting would discover the ability to use both to improve each other in turn, and then make much more powerful potions.


No, the "alchemy/enchanting feedback loop" method is not a design oversight. Bethesda obviously made a limit to how good of an enchanting potion you can make through these normal methods: 32% bonus to Fortify Enchanting (not to mention the other types of potion you can make).

However I would say that using the Falmer Helmet + Circlet method of getting it up to 37% is indeed an exploit, because that is obviously using a glitch to make more powerful items. This is exploiting an unintended feature of the game. Obviously the Falmer Helmet + Circlet is a glitch since the same helmet also doesn't count as Heavy Armor, even though it's supposed to be. (Or maybe someone from Bethesda will tell us that this was actually intended? I think that would be the only way I'd believe it wasn't a mistake.)

But 32% fortify enchanting potions are NOT exploits.

...

Now, using Fortify Restoration potions to make 2384927% Fortify Enchanting potions... THAT'S an exploit!! Hehe

-=DG=-

...what are you talking about? I didnt say anything about looping a skill. Its obviously an oversight since they got rid of pretty much every other 100% effect from previous ES games. Unless they just didnt care that Magicka doesn't matter with the right gear.

If the way to make the best mage is to not put points into mana but health, since you know you can get 'free mana', then yes, something is broken.

People on this forum claim everything they don't like is a cheat or a glitch.

indeed.

In reality if it is possible to do in the game without utilizing a cheatcode, hack, bug, or glitch it is not cheating.

i still think they need sneak attack multipliers for offensive magic, that would definetly give it a bit more of a oomph to magic

They don't play by the same rules as the player character. If player's magic was that powerful there'd be no compliants about Destruction.

using alchemy and enchanting, i've boosted my one handed axe to do a base damage of 225. how much does a single handed master fire spell hit for? i don't see myself coming anywhere near one-shotting things with magic. yes, mages hit really hard for a while (i only play on master difficulty where they DO one-shot you early on), until you actually get a few pieces of gear with magic resist on them and raise your health pool, but that doesn't mean that magic isn't underpowered.

melee > magic, so let's start with melee if we're gunna cry about imbalances. also, complaining about using extremely basic functions in-game as they were intended to be used, to achieve a powerful build, is beyond ridiculous. so your destruction spells cost nothing...grats, you probably have crappy health/magic resist and little bonuses in any other school of magic or physical skill. grats?

See, this is where most of these silly "Mages R fine l2p!" comments come from. People who don't actually play Mages. There's a huuuuuuge difference between what the player can do with Destruction and what NPC Mages do with Destruction, which is what makes it seem like the school is very bugged for the player.

As per the OP, you need to get a clue. It's a sloppy design and many of these things were definitely not intended. Besides that, dropping your spell costs to 0 do absolutely nothing for your actual damage.

Player mages do waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay less damage then enemy mages. OP probably meant destruction is underpowered, which it is.

it's definitely cheating
and I'm only saying that because you seem to care a bit too much

The problem with total cost reduction is that once you've hit 100% reduction, there was no reason to put any level ups into magicka to begin with; narrowing the scope of the game which already reduced the attributes to magicka/health/stamina;

Now there are only two attributes left that matter; health and stamina.

Is there any reason to "build" a mage?

I am pretty sure they do the same damage as players its just the fact you have less then half the healthpool of some of the enemies.

you're forgetting that you can't achieve 100% reduction with all schools of magic. unless your play-style is extremely narrow then you'll still need a hefty manapool in order to function as a well rounded mage. you're also taking away valuable enchanting slots that could go to other important attributes like magic resist, any non-magic skill bonuses, etc.

achieving 100% spell-cost reduction in a single school doesn't turn you into a god.

A warrior in maxed armor and maxed magic resistance only needs free restoration to be god.
A rogue with free illusions spells can stay invisible all day.

So a mage cannot hope to be a god, yes. But everyone else can.

I doubt the developers ever meant for using magicka to become obsolete, it's an oversight, and an exploitation. But, play the game how you want, it shouldn't matter what others think, if you're enjoying it.