Yes, this thread again.

I'm 100 conjuration, and around 90 destruction playing on expert difficulty. All of my clothing is enchanted to fortify magicka and reduce the cost of destruction spells. One would think me to be quite the dangerous opponent, however, I'm often two-shotted by standard enemies that can require 4-6 direct dual-casted fireballs to down. That may not seem so bad, since I can cast quite a few fireballs before needing a potion, but with no way to distance myself from a charging enemy (except for the occasional FUS RO DAH), I'm often unable to fend off an enemy with a two-hander in my face.

This is where my conjuration should come in, right? I shouldn't be taking those hits, since I have two dead thralls/dremora lords/atronachs at my disposal, right?

Wrong.

SEVERE pathing issues often leave my defenders stuck behind a pebble, or a twig, or some other invisible obstacle. This is mainly an issues in caves, or other tight quarters where they're forced to travel a linear path, but it happens often enough to make them seem nearly useless.

Very frustrating.

I know I could make my life easier by wearing heavy armor, and maybe even using a one-hander, but why not just go all the way and play a sword/shield warrior? I had NO issues as one on my first play-through.

Try being more strategic set rune traps make sure when u cast your conjugations that they have room and then get behind them let them take the brunt. Also stealth/magic go had in hand. At least that's how I do it lvl 31 destruction 91 conjugation 30 illusion 67 use all of the Mage class perks also spread it out an u will own I have 478 magicka 120 health and 100 stamina & dominating

get enchanting up and craft armor with 2 enchants on it

my char can cast destruction spells with zero Magicka

the Magicka Bar doesnt even appear

If you have the Mage stone I think it is, you will be 50% weaker to magic attacks. So that might explain it. I agree though that playing a mage is really tough.

I know what you mean. Running through the woods as a mage can be a pain for me. Companions and summons always follow WELL behind (apparently Lydia doesn't know how to sprint). I've gotten 1 hit by bears or sabres popping up from the other side of a small hill, jumping at me from round the corner of a big rock, clump of trees, etc. It's super annoying, I use detect life a lot now, but it uses a frickin TONNE of magicka so it's not really that practical. Alteration spells are pretty useless for exploring because they don't last long and take awhile to cast. Wish detect life used a lot less magicka.

Yeah power attacks in your face are pretty annoying too. Basically what I do in dungeons is in every new room I go where there are enemies I sneak up and immeadiately do a summon in the middle of the room and back out, then wait for Lydia to rush in, and then follow. Otherwise you get too many people running at you that can 1 hit your face. Shouts aren't enough to stop them. It's [censored] that mages don't have any "power attacks" that can 1 hit opponents. None of my spells 1 hit any enemy that is even remotely close to my level (25).

Yes I could just make myself dragon plate armour, but I don't want to.

Why do you lack Impact and why are you using Fireballs instead of Incinerate?

Cast your Dremora in front of you, don't just leave him to trail. You should have enough mana to handle it if you're enchanting properly.

Yes. This.

I'm playing a mage with all points going into magicka. I'm a delicate flower. I almost never sneak. And I still rarely die.

Be careful. You're not Conan. You can't rush into a room with your summons behind you, because you'll take aggro and be killed pretty quick.

If you suspect something is ahead, cast a summons in front of you and let it draw aggro first. That's when you can hit the baddies with other things. Or drop a rune. Or throw an illusion.

Don't forget, as a mage you're a scholar. Think through your battles. Use all of the magical abilities at your disposal. Be smart and you'll have a much easier time.

Oh, and yeah, it is a pain when you're running ahead and your summons is waaaaay behind....

But if your summons is out and you're running ahead, chances are you're in a safe area, right? Otherwise you wouldn't be running so far ahead of your protection.

In areas you're not certain about, stick close to that bodyguard. They'll scope out threats before you can, and take aggro right away so you can stand back and throw destruction or illusion spells.

Remember, you're delicate. Be careful.

Well if you have master alteration dragonskin spell, and didn't put all of your points into magicka then you can. (you can turn your health into magicka anyways so theres no need to put it all there)
I'm a delicate flower at the moment because wards svck and the other armor skins aren't effective enough, but dragonskin skips all the [censored] and just applies a flat % reduction.

Yeah but it's a pain in the [censored] when you're trying to find the path up a mountain or something, your companions/summons never keep up with you. And even if you summon them in front of you, they will be behind after like 3 seconds of you sprinting, and they stay behind. Pain in the [censored] to be summoning your atronach every 30 seconds.

I wish you could cast the detect life spell as a buff, and it would work for a few minutes. Drains way too much magicka.

If you play on expert or master you need to build both sneak and illusion for silent casting, these two things alone will keep mobs out of your face regardless of what your companion or summoned creature is doing.

Because incinerate isn't AOE, unlike Fireball.

Yah I don'tt like my mage either. Just way too much babysitting. buffs only last 60 seconds. No buff timers on main UI window, etc etc.

Too much maintenance for me.. will come back to my mage once it gets modded.

No no, you're right. They move much too slow. They drive me nuts, as well.

But they move at the speed they move at. In terms of how this changes your play as a mage, it just means you have to make sure you're not rushing ahead into unsafe areas because you're going to be the first to get hit, and you're probably not in a position to enjoy that much.

I'm not really disagreeing with you... I'm just saying that whether in terms of game mechanics or roleplaying, a delicate mage probably shouldn't be too far ahead of their bodyguard in any case. If it's a dangerous area, I stick close to my summons. If it's not dangerous, I just don't have them out.

It would be nice if we had permanent spells that didn't have to be recast constantly... but that's just that. I'm constantly resummoning, or recasting armor spells, or whatever. It's a pain, but that's the mechanic we have. I just stay safe and RP around it.

After 50hrs as melee I started over, as I felt my melee character was too powerful.

Im now a mage, and, the mage is very very strong early on. I need to play on Expert and Master from lvl 1 to get a challenge. I know it gets better later.
I could never do this as melee.

But the point is, WHY Im going with mage, is cause destruction damage IS balanced for late game. Your not supposed to 1 shot mobs or even 2 shot them.

As for conjuration, its completely overpowered imo. The conjured things you bring in, also is affected by the expert or Master settings, so they become obcenly powerful on expert and master.
Im staying clear of conjuration unless its too hard.

My point is: I have at this point, Im between 10 and 20 only, but I am already in some encounters weaker then my melee and stronger in some due to range.
And Im enjoying that.

Stop complaining about mages cause they are very well balanced,.
What you need to do, is to stop playing on Master and complain about it.
If its too hard, then play on Adept. Solution found.

So many mages complain but refuse to lower the difficulty slider.

Mages are balanced but melee and archery is completely overpowered if you use just one of the 2 main secondary skills, smithing and or enchanting.
Mages benefit very much from enchanting too.

Anyway I stopped reading when I read you are frustrated from playing a mage.
The point with a game like this is that its supposed to be hard. I want it too, thats why I play on Expert and Master.
If those difficulties are not for you, then play on Adept and enjoy being a powerful mage.

Wear some armor...i often even try to get the attention of my opponents because i'm tougher as my fire atronarchs and like them more then frosties (i'm full hp with ~200 magicka and ~20% conjuration reduction so i have to keep an eye on my magicka bar sometimes).

/edit: I play on expert.

Sorry, how can we do that? Casting with zero magicka, I mean

Destruction is not balanced. Someone with 15 Destruction is going to do the same damage with Fireball as someone with 100 Destruction, perks notwithstanding. This has been pointed out multiple times.

Ditch destruction, buy a shotgun.

Destruction is broken as hell, but your problem seems to be TAKING damage, not dealing it.

Try leveling your alteration, get the mage armor perks and keep dualcasting whatever armor spell you can use at your current level at all times.

Add a frost cloak on top of that and you should be good for a while.

firewalls are awesome.
When coupled with atronaches. ... I just china cast them if they die. usually a range like storm atronach is good for taking stuff down.

which is really crazy because Marcurio, hired mercenary mage from Riften, can send d@mned had fireballs and one hit enemies. I have yet to lose him. He fireballs the enemies. But a pc mage can't do that. Come on Bethesda. You know they're waiting for modders to fix this mess.

And there are already mods that buff destruction =) I am using 2 of them, having a lot of funny having to uses many different spells rather then just swinging a sword mindlessly.

The thing about playing mage, is that even though the stat has been removed, it still requires intelligence. You can't play a mage it the same manner as you'd play a warrior or a thief. A mage must always keep a healthy distance to his enemies, and use what means he has to block his enemies path.

I personally find it more challenging to play a warrior than a mage, because I can't seem to time my swings and blocks right.

True you're very vulnerable in combat as a mage, but really a good mage isn't hit even once in a battle... That's what henchmen and summoned creatures are for... So what if you accidentally burn them up with your fireball, if only they do their job as long as needed... You can always raise them as zombies afterwards. My only issue as a mage is surprise attacks (when I don't see them coming), or creatures immune or resistant to fire or magic.

Oh, and you may want to try the detect life shout. Can't remember where I got it, though.

hmm dont have this problem...with mage armor my armor is high, my magic resistance is around 75%, i summon 1-2 guys or zombies, cast some fury confusion on the enemy, summon my battle axe and go to town...