So I just got my expert level conjuration spells and all I can say is WOW. At level 31 a conjured dremora lord can take out a giant on it's own in 4-5 seconds. regular enemies die in 1-2 hits, it's ridiculous. this is on adept difficulty, i'm going to up the difficulty today just so the game will hopefully stay challenging. So far all the people that are crying about mages being weak, beef up your conjuration because it makes a world of a difference. It's even more powerful in cramped hallways, you can summon something in the front, drop a rune behind the conujuration and have a double casted fireball waiting for anything that actually survives your death trap. and if that doesnt work you can run away and re-lay the trap. I can't imagine what it's going to be like once I get the master level spells.

Also for anyone who wants a quick way to level up conjuration, buy bound sword and dual cast it with an enemy nearby. I went from like 40-70 in 10 minutes doing this.

hmmm, that's good to know, do note that in fallout new vegas the difficulty setting modifier only applie to you not companions. If it works the same in skyrim your dremora should be just as strong. Can you do the test for us?

turned it up to master and he had no problem soloing down a frost troll. dragons still take forever to kill and i dont understand why people are calling them easy. i just bought a frost dragon that would kill me in one breath attack if i didnt heal/potion through it.

you bought a frost dragon? cool! I want one!

And yeah I remember in bleak falls barrow the draugr boss at the end was kicking my ass, I conjured that storm atronach from the scroll i found eariler and it killed the draugr in like 2 hits.

oops, typo It's amazing how strong they are. slight spoilers ahead:


Theres a mages guild quest in Labyrinthian where you fight a skeletal dragon after a bunch of skeletons. theres a gate that only stays open for a few seconds (meaning you are supposed to go in the room and fight the multiple skeletons and then the skeleton dragon. I conjured my dremora lord on the other side of the gate while it was open and watched as he slaughtered all of the skeletons and then started tanking the dragon. once he was about to run out i re-conjured a new one and then ran in and dropped an entire mana bars worth of fireballs on his face. dead dragon and i hardly lifted a finger this was all on master difficulty at level 32 BTW. Mages rule!

The people complaining about magic are mostly complaining about Destruction, near as I can tell. Mostly, it's a "comparative" complaint - Destruction spells cost a lot of magicka, and in general, do a lot less damage than summoned creatures, melee weapon attacks, etc (Some of the finishing moves can allow a melee'r to pretty effectively outdamage someone using destruction spells).

However, you're right, Conjuration seems pretty powerful, and if, as a mage, you make use of multiple schools, you really can be quite powerful, but Destruction can seem a bit weak at times in terms of actual damage output.

I'm still using the Flame Atronach summons (haven't got other atronach/dremora yet [except Sanguine's Rose]), and even that is really quite powerful (although certain enemies kill it pretty quick, but it's damage output is pretty good in most cases). I'm hoping to get Frost/Storm Atties soon, and truthfully, for any really tough fight, except powerful named bosses, I usually summon the Flame Atronach - costs less magicka to do more damage and provides me with good protection; the only reason I don't summon the Atronach for tough battles is I've found the really powerful enemies tend to almost instantly kill it before it can do much damage.

destruction is pretty weak on its own, but combined with some of the other trees it becomes very powerful. my character dies in 1-2 hits, but between summons, runes and sneak its very rare that i get hit. the early summons arent that great for tanking, once you get the frost atronarch and dremora lord they can tank dragons/giants/anything really well even on the higher difficulties which allows you to rain death and destruction on them.

Im really liking conjuration. its was always my favorite school and in Skyrim I can finally be a real necromancer without modding the game. There is nothing more fun than reanimating a Bandit Chief who then starts to own his former allies

Hey, can you tell me the magicka costs of the top tier summoning spells? I'm trying to figure out what I'll need to invest in magicka for a melee build that still uses summons.

Really? So far my experience with conjuration has been that I will summon something, and it will often die in 1-3 hits, and I've wasted all my mana on it. Sometimes it'll basically just vanish as soon as it appears, from having such low amounts of health. They also have a tendency to shoot walls, lure enemies to my position while they're fighting (stealth) and target the worst enemy possible in a group.

it gets better the higher level summons you get.

I say it only gets really good around Frost Atronach. The fact that it skills itself up so quickly helps you get there. Really looking forward to a Storm Atronach and Dremora.

Yes Conjuration is very powerful. A little too powerful infact. It's like playing a mage on autopilot tbh. In fact, It's more like I'm the support damage for my summoned creatures.

Conjuration is powerful. Destruction up to level 30 is decent and can be powerful depending on level. Past 30 Destruction is worthless. By 50, even if you took every perk in Destruction and not a single one in Archery, you'd be better off using a bow to complement your Conjuration, Illusion, Alteration and Restoration.

Why is it that stuff in TES games ends up either useless or way overpowered.

just got the master summons, they are permenant summons but unfortunately i cant try out either of them. the flame thrall costs 475 mana and the frost thrall costs 575, pretty much impossible to cast them without the half mana perk.