Lately I've had the urge to RP as one of these single element specialist type of mages, but I'm having trouble choosing which type and what secondary schools to go with. I'm leaning towards Electro/Pyro because there are so many frost resistant mobs in this game that it just suffers a bit. Electricity has the benefit of nothing is resistant to it except for storm atronachs, at the same time nothing is weak to it as well and it's also useful vs casters. Fire does a ton of damage and only fire atronachs are immune to it, while some dragons have either decent resistance to it or a slight weakness to it.

My next question is what secondary schools to use, the NPC mobs of this type don't summon anything, rather they are very strong in both alteration and restoration. Some sort of CC will be needed though, so I was thinking Destruction/Illusion should be my main 2 schools with later perks being put into alteration and restoration.

Also due note that I have the balanced magic mod from skyrim nexus, so this type of build would be more viable than on vanilla on higher difficulties.

My first character focused on fire magic - I'd use lighting against the occasional resistant enemy, but never picked the damage boosting perks for the other elements.

I had a lot of fun, and he's a very functional character, although certain dragons certainly are a handful. I think lightning would be a better choice however, not only are fewer critters resistant but it's more useful against enemy wizards. It has its own weaknesses, it seems to use more magicka than the other two and there seem to be few critters with lightning vulnerabilities. It may also have some range limitations.

My character started out using almost nothing but Fire Spells. I have the ice and shock spells too, for backup, but I've barely used them. I was dabbling in Conjuration at the same time and I really had fun with that combo. Now I have 100 conjuration and 100 destruction with all the master spells for each, and I am absolutely godlike. I still only use a couple of fire spells when I need to do direct damage.

My current (and only) character is an Electromancer. I have to say it's a lot of fun watching stuff disintegrate. And there's just something viscerally satisfying about shooting Thunderbolts more than Incinerate or Icy Spear.

Although Fireballs are pretty fun.

But recently I've started using more frost spells, and I have to say they work pretty damn well even against frost resistant foes. Consider this: Ice Storm is the only elemental AOE effect that combines all of the following points into one spell: 1) gets bigger as it moves, 2) retains its AOE for the duration, 3) doesn't end after it hits one person, 4) you don't have to sustain, 5) will not hit friendlies unless they get in the way.

When you're able to, next time you're facing a mob of people, just double cast an Ice Storm on them. If you have the Impact perk, EVERYONE who is hit by the dual-casted Ice Storm will be staggered and take lots of damage, AND they take extra damage after the spell is over if they walk on the frost left behind by the spell.

Also, remember that Frost spells deal EQUAL Stamina damage, not just half stamina damage. So you're effectively gimping enemy warriors by using frost on them.

Same here and i'm at lvl70 now, i don't even need to use any Destruction spells...my dog, 2 storm attonachs, a mage follower all of them will gank any mobs or boss to dead LOL (i'm playing at expert and things too easy now, i will try out master soon). If I want a quick, fast kill then i'll dual cast ice or lightning for stun locking boss to dead :celebration:

Thanks for the replies so far, I think I'm leaning towards electromancer at the moment.

Ice Storm also goes through walls... wallhacks!! Ice Spear (expert level spell) seems really hard to aim, much harder than incinerate. To the OP, you can't really stick with one type. Dwarven spiders/centurions are pretty resistant, if not immune i believe to shock and frost. So your best bet would be to use a combination of fire/frost spells. As for illusion or alteration, they're both pretty strong crowd control, just that some mobs resist paralyze (dwarven things again!), while i have found that some high level mages I can paralyze but not frenzy/calm. I personally like alteration's paralyze/aoe paralyze better, its funnier. Also, sometimes when you frenzy everyone, they wont necessarily stop attacking you.

Go with fire, use fire destruction, flame atronachs and dremora lords for summons.

I haven't crunched the numbers or anything, so I can't say with certainty, but... Theoretically fire is suppose to have the highest damage output. Frost trades some of it for stamina damage and lighting for mana damage. With Impact those extra benefits seem kind of superfluous since you can practically stunlock your opponents. And with the higher straight damage, they die faster.

I had the same idea, so I use Storm Atronachs exclusively while casting only Lightning-element spells AND shouting "Storm Call". I throw in Bound Weapons as well since their damage-type is neutral.

Here is my "Electromancer" as you put it...

Nordic Storm-Sorcerer ( Magicka 500 / Health 300 / Stamina 300 )
Race: Nord
Name: Haakon Dovahkiin
Perk Total: [75-80]

"Nordic Storm-Sorcerers are a rare class of "Tongue" warriors, for these masters of ancient Thu'um arts
are also adept users of lightning magic. As reclusive as they are, they develop skills in stealth very
easily. Because of this, most of their opponents will never see them until a magically bound blade or
arrow is in their flesh. Even if one was to survive this initial attack, they must face the wrath of
lightning and well-honed martial skills. The most advanced Storm-Sorcerers will summon storm atronachs
while creating intense electrical storms with their synergy of arcane enchantments, magicka, and Thu'um."

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Major Skills:

1) One-Handed (15 Perks focusing on "Armsman"/"Bladesman"/"Dual-Savagery"/"C.Charge"/"S.Stike"/"P.Strike")
2) Archery (14 Perks focusing on "Overdraw"/"Critical Shot"/"Quick Shot"/"Steady Hand[1/2]"/"Ranger")
3) Sneak (12 perks focusing on "Stealth"/"Shadow Warrior"/"Deadly Aim")
4) Enchanting (8 Perks focusing on "Enchanter"/"Extra Effect")

Minor Skills:

5) Destruction (6 perks focusing on "Impact"/"Incinerate")
6) Conjuration (6 Perks focusing on "Mystic Binding"/"Atromancy"/"E.Potency"/"Twin Souls")
7) Illusion (4 Perks on "Quiet Casting")
8) Heavy Armor (10 Perks focusing on "Juggernaut"/"Conditioning"/"Tower of Strength")
9) Smithing (0-5 Perks focusing on "Ebony Armor"/"Arcane Blacksmith")

Miscellaneous Skills: [No Perks]

~Block
~Alchemy
~Alteration
~Restoration
~Speechcraft
~Lockpicking


I am level 42 at the moment on Adept difficulty, and I have no problems whatsoever. Abiding by a single element is alot of fun.

Ice is my favourite element out of the three in real life. In the game I'd say due to many enemies having Frost resistance (Nords, Draugr, ect) It won't be as powerful, but can still be helpful if you slow enemies down.
Fire is probably really great. It's quite strong against a bit of the enemies (from my experience that is) and it's does extra burning damage to kill enemies faster. The problem with fire is the perk (Intense Flames) that makes enemies run away at low health. This is annoying because by the time they're at low health they're probably dead. So the negatives aren't too bad. Also it cost the less Magicka than the other two schools.
Shock spells I think are the fastest to cast but cost the most as well. They're probably good against Mages due to the Magicka drain but I haven't had much experience with shock. Or Frost for that matter. My mage always used the Firebolt spell pretty much through his short career.

So I think they all have their uses for different scenarios.

Cold svcks.

The two most common enemies in the game are Nords and Drauger. Both are resistant to cold. Also the projectiles are slow.

Lightning is good because it's instant hit, fire is good because it does more damage and costs less to cast. Basically it comes down to those two.

Is it possible to do without conjuration? I'd love to play with the same general skillset the NPCs of the electromancer/pyromancer etc go by and they don't summon.

Resistant doesn't mean immune. I've killed tons of nords and draugr with Ice Storms...

you can do without conjuration, but you definitely need another school to help, like paralyzing or furying or calming, or something because without something to take the argo off, your gonna get your ass handed to you, elast on master you will.

my newest character is a cryomancer (funny since i am a pyromaniac and cant take the cold) and i am haveing a blast, it looks appealing,strong , and it has the strongest atronatchs (those ice bruts also use an element-neutral attack for anything that gets too clsoe [and they like to chrage right up to their enemy] while the others sit back and spam balls of their element)

What difficulty are you on? I was interested in a cryomancer but was worried because draugr are plentiful and are resistant to frost that it would suffer a bit. Ice atronach are great tanks but have the one problem of being so large they have trouble manuevering in caves

i play on hard (not master though, i think it would still work good), and they dish out good damage aganst enemys that are totally immune to frost damage (dang dwarven spiders!).
pro tip: you can use ice atronatches to block tunnels while you make your great escape if you cant handle a fight :whisper:

as for ice damage, i hardly notice any resistances (unless its totally immune), i kill most things pretty quickly too

Ok nice, that's a good comparison because I play on Expert as well, I find master to be a challenge but tedious. Thanks for the info!

I wanted to go all fire, but I ended up using all three. Electricity works incredibly well on Dragon Priests and mages, Frost goes really well against warriors, even Nords. Flames for anything and everything else.

I'm a paralyze your ass before you touch me - mancer.