First of all i would like to say that overall, playing a pure mage character is a much more fun experience then that of previous games. The system feels a lot better now. These are just nitpicks really.

1. Restoration is still too damm hard to level: Given that engaging in melee combat is asking for trouble, and that by and large those are the most plentiful enemies in the game, you wont be taking much damage. You wont heal yourself too often. If you're getting hit, they're either ranged, or you're doing something wrong. As a result, this levels pretty damm slow. It feels kind of counter-intuitive that you can be killed in seconds (Yes, even with those armour increasing Alteration spells), yet you have to take damage to level this. I got Destruction and Restoration to level 60 at roughly the same time, now my Destruction is 76 and a half and my Restoration just hit 63. But they're other ways to level Restoration i suppose, which brings me to...

2. Wards seem kind of impractical: It seems like every situation where i could use a ward, summoning something could do the job just as well. Also, summoning something doesn't require you to micromanage observing the enemy casters behavior. Add in a punishing knockback animation if you use it too late (or the spell is too powerful for your ward), or the threat of huge mana loss if done too early, and it seems a summon is the best option available. I have not taken the perk for wards that give magicka yet, because im not willing to spend a perk on a group of spells i might not be using. I may take it and try it out then reload if i dont like it though. It seems to me they have too much risk and not enough reward associated to them.

3. Restoration isn't worth leveling: At least, not to a pure mage. We just dont need bigger heals, we dont have the health pools to go with them. The Adept level Restoration heal basically recovers close to my entire health pool. Ive just explained how wards are very meh, and i suppose turning undead makes for some nice situational cc, but its not really worth it.

4. Mana regeneration is too weak at the beginning, and will probably be too strong towards the end: This is just a prediction, as im only level 23. Early levels of a pure mage consist of praying to god that you can destroy something in seconds with Destruction spells. What if the enemy is particularly hardy or numerous? Then things become very tedious. You basically dash really far away from the enemy/enemies, wait for magicka, hit them in the face, run to the opposite end, rinse and repeat, heal as needed. Your summons at that level aren't hardy enough to buy you time for magicka or allow you to take potshots. Going out of magicka in the early levels feels very burdensome indeed, but right now its "K, ill wait three seconds, summon a Atronach and ill be alright", and by level 40-50 i will probably never ever feel magicka starved ever unless im casting spells one after the other with no interruption.

5. Where the hell are the good boot enchants: Seriously, all ive found is frost resistance .

I should note that for whatever reason, ive neglected Illusion. I dont think its a bad school or anything, i just forgot about it. The CC effects could be nice, or they could be impratical, i just dont know. I dont feel i have enough experience to talk about Illusion.

unlike the several threads like this I've seen so far, you seem to have a brain. especially about number 5. although I'd just enchant them myself

Playing a mage is a lot more fun (and effective) if you do more than just spam Destruction and Restoration. Illusion and Conjuration are awesome and a pure mage should pick these up in order to have more diversity and survivability. In a room full of mages, for example, you'll have a hard time destructing and restoring with everything that's going on. If instead you start off with Fury, Calm another, summon your Atronach and then just pick off whatever's left, it's not only more viable, but a hell of a lot more fun. CC works fine in this game, most of it in Illusion.

Hmmm some good points brought up on Restoration, it seems like its a catch 22. You only can level it when seriously hurt, but as a mage that window between seriously hurt and dead is very short.

This is probably why I'll use Alchemy a lot, almost as more of a supporting skill rather than a crafting skill, form the beginning for healing health/mana over time and magic resistance potions.

Good post.

a little off topic but when do spells like fury and calm cap off? and is that cap only increased through perks?

I actully agree on pretty much everything here. When my mage was around level 10-17, I was pretty hopeless without using a weapon in almost every encounter (which I want to avoid since Im playing pure mage). But now, I got some better gear, my mana regen is at a point where I have easy battles, and when fighting bosses or some hard encounters, it is a real challenge and I have to play it smart to survive.

- I have neither found a good boot enchant..

Restoration is easy to level if you have healing hands and you heal your companions when they tank for you. It's useful too cause you never need potions. One thing that I think really goes well is having werewolf blood,always gets me out of a bind. I am playing a mage/archer,I still like doing a lot of range damage when I'm waiting for my mana to recharge.

Ooh exciting! I'm only like lvl 7 or so and have only done the main quest series so far. But I've had some hairy situations where I wished I had some kind of CC, like in the party mission with the two elven soldiers in the kitchen. Was a real bastard kiting them around those cramped rooms. So I guess illusion is the place to look

I'm playing a "pure" mage. I had to restart my Skyrim game over and over and over again, until I finally found something that works for me. I put pure in quotes because some people consider perks in One Handed non mage like. But I considered it pure mage because it's a conjured sword and not a sword in my inventory, so I summon a sword and look bad ass. So I'm utilizing all aspects of the magic given.

I'm also enjoying summon undead and turn undead. That stuff is awesome.

Perhaps it would be easier if you could heal conjured companions. I know for a fact my Frost Atronach resists heals, i will have to try with zombies as well, but i think the results would be the same. I found that companions who could tank got in the way because all the bread and butter Adept Destruction spells have an area of effect. Id win a fight only to have my companion attempt to beat me to death because they got angry at me when i sent a huge fireball their way.

I just fell back on my Morrowind levelling tricks- go unarmed, hit a mudcrab, and keep yourself healed until you run out of magicka. Then kill it. Rinse, repeat along the shoreline. Tiresome, but it seems the only way to level restoration and keep it viable along with your other spells.

there are plenty of places which do slow dmg or dmg overtime for you to heal better then crabs ....

I prefer to play mages and i've just started mine. Seems okay so far.

You can level restoration outside of combat you simply have to be healing actual damage, so find a firepit and stand in it.

Heres a little cheat for alteration and restoration. There is an Alteration spell that converts health to mana, and restoration spells that use mana to make health.... well, one spell in one hand, the other in the other hand and... well you get the picture.