Is it me or does focusing on one school of magic seem too unrealistic now? I have always loved that I can favor restoration personally and that my character in game can thrive from that. They removed a lot of spells and the ability to drain life from an opponent seems to be one. I've never ever liked destruction or conjuration, which seem to be the offense of magic. But trust me, they do look better and cooler in Skyrim, I just don't like them personally. I am now forced to pick up the one handed skill, not because I want to because I am forced to. I cant just heal and heal and heal myself, hoping the enemy dies from complete boredom or just gives up and walks away (which is funny, because my restoration is so high that i CAN do that and you would think one of the two WOULD happen). They tossed us Bane Of The Undead, which the title speaks for itself. That spell obviously isnt going to protect you from the many enemies skyrim tosses at you. There are mages, specifically at the college, whom seem like they have focused all their time in specific schools of magic, so it only seems fair that each one grants you specific ways to play all aspects of the game. It looks to be missing. I know this is a personal rant but I am close-minded to being a thief or a warrior. The elder scrolls was always welcoming to that type of close-mindedness.

Yes.

Wait ... what? You're angry because you cannot get through the game just with healing spells?

Hm ... worth a try, imho. You can hire mercenaries and focus on healing.

In Oblivion you could use restoration as a destruction alternative, in Skyrim you cant...

Cool Idea

There are spell drain magics though, did you miss them or something?
Also the staff of magnus is able to drain your enemies magicka, or if they have no magicka, their health. Now go get that staff!

You missed the point. I could roleplay my character in the previous games. I loved the defensive aspect of restoration. I could always keep myself alive without question yet if I needed to I could the damage that needed to be done without changing my gameplay style. I feel forced to draw a sword and I feel forced to go hire a mercenary. Trust me, I did and it's keeping me somewhat enthralled with the game still but I would have loved to come into this exactly how I left oblivion. I still believe Skyrim is amazing. I only wish I wasnt forced out of my play style. To be honest I truly feel its only me because everything else seems amazing and intense. I like having the choice to do it but not having to do it.

I'm pretty sure I saw the Resto-mage shoot a fire bolt just after defending the restoration school to me. Anyway, yes, companions are more frequent and it would be an interesting to see if you could have them do the majority of damage while keeping them alive. Considering using Illusion spells and maybe even Destro staves if you really don't want to learn the school or use weapons. Otherwise a true priest may be difficult (to adventure with).

I do have it but that doesnt benefit my characters growth. It's just a powerful weapon and I am generally reluctant to use it.

The mages at the college aren't adventurers. You are.

Being able to imagine everyone in the game as free thinkers and previous adventures was always the point in the elder scrolls. You look at a character and think, "I wonder what they did before this". But you'll never know because you are just meeting them now. That ability of imagination has always been fascinating to me. Even though someone in the mages college was programmed there and programmed to say the things they say, you'd like to believe there was more to them than just that and The Elder Scrolls can still let you do so. This is off-topic to my initial rant but all the same, I do enjoy skyrim. I am going to have to find a new niche in the game though.

So, how did you manage in Oblivion and Morrowind?

What actually IS that playing style you talk about? Constant healing and- then what? Fleeing? Or do you actually attack somehow, even?

If you dabbled with restoration in Oblivion, you would have noticed the ability to absorb. That made it very easy to focus on restoration within the game. Morrowind was even better and it was missing absorb abilities. If your restoration was high enough, you could go untouched the entire game. Morrowind was more broken than Oblivion and oblivion more broken than Skyrim. I suppose making a game more user friendly is the only route.

There's spells to drain health i'v been hit by them and it was healing the user maybe you just have to look hard to find them.

So how was Morrowind better when you didn't seem, in your style, to have any means to attack at all?

Besides, absorbs were there. Under Mysticism. Which makes you specialize in two schools of magicka.

Because I could survive in the means of restoration and use it to take down my foe. How do you not see this?

And by this I meant the fortify traits.

This is not what I meant at all. I mean that people in Tamriel aren't all adventurers like the player character. Some are simple merchants or wood cutters, who wouldn't survive in zombie infested tombs or fighting dragons. Same with the mages: some are mere scholars, tapping into the theory behind magic, never having killed anyone. Thinking any NPC in the game would make a viable adventurer is just silly.
When I see a mage and think "I wonder what they did before this" I seldom think "He must have been an adventurer, just like me". No, he's a scholar, kept safe within the walls of the college, not thinking about fighting wolves or plundering dungeons.

I saw this as well and got excited. But I believe that is a vampire trait only.

This I know, I was just making an example of thought process. I agree with everyone it was just harsh jumping into this from oblivion having to not rely on restoration.

the game, especially in hard modes, is made for companion use... never in any TES was a pure support build so viable really... go into a inn, hire some muscle, and support him with heals and buffs from restoration and ilusion, also for ofence you can alsways just use staves that way no need to level anything more, do stack up on souls tho.

Yeah. I think that is what I am going to do now.

Well, restoration aside, i found out that i couldnt depend on one school of magic, unlike in oblivion (where i could just blast my way to glory with destruction)

lol you say this like its a good thing. the ai is still horrible in this game(and the companions are very annoying)

This really is my only complaint. I have decided to stop using Destruction after finding out the spells don't scale. Conjuration it is!

what do you mean?
what level are you what buildup you use and what are you experiencing exactly?