Just came to check out the boards and find all "The Sky is Falling!" talk about destruction mages at high level. This really concerns me. I've sunk about 15-20 hours into the game, am level 14 or 15, and have leveled mainly with Destruction. Right now I'm dual wielding fireballs with Impact and having a great time. Actually its the first time I've really enjoyed playing a pure caster in an RPG. I still run into sticky spots (lightning casting NPC's in tight spaces give me a rough time still) but all in all, I'm loving throwing fireballs into enemy faces!

I'm seriously worried that after I've gotten my mage up to high levels, the game will not be fun for me any more. I don't mind a challenge (although I admit I am playing on Adept difficulty) but I really don't want my DPS class choice to make the game more frustrating than enjoyable. I didn't really worry about if my mage spells would scale at high levels - I had hoped the dev's would have figured that out before the game launched. Now I'm sitting here thinking if I should just restart the game with a melee or archer based DPS class before I get any further into the game. Should I?

If I do stick with Destro, what should I focus on so I don't end up hating my character (and the hundred + hours I invested in it) at level 50?

Theyve gotten to me too... I think I'm going to take the rest of the night off and not come back here for a while

well you have your best skill combo possible for destruction mages already at level 14. If you're fine with duel casting fireballs the rest of the game then go for it.There will be situations you will have a really hard time though like vsing certain mages or the harder skeleton guys though it's probably not that bad if you just bring potions.

warriors in general will have an easier time though.

I was really torn between full destruction mage (with a peppering of Alteration and Conjuration) or thief/archer. I ended up leveling my destruction up to around 40, picked about 4 destro perks, and over the course of the gameplay, I just "converted" to archer/thief, and mainly use destro as a backup to the bow. I could see the effectiveness of the destro spells losing their power around character level 12 or so. What used to waste a lot of enemies now doesn't do nearly as much damage. I may, once I finish the game in the far away future, try another full-mage, but I guess it wasn't meant to be. Once I picked up the bow, I was hooked. That's the beauty of the game, you're not locked into one mold.

If you're gonna finish the game before level 35 you might be alright.

Personally I'm just gonna switch my Breton from destruction to 1handed using bound weapons, then come back to destruction when it's fixed with an Altmer. I'm only level 11 so it's not too late.

Stick with it and decide for yourself. If you get to a point where you're not having fun with the character, that's when you should retire/pause them.

But seriously, don't let others negativity [even if it is justified] affect your personal enjoyment, different folks have different tastes and tolerances. I'd say with being around level 15 you're doing pretty well already.

Pretty much why I put my level 34 Breton Pure Mage build on hiatus. I dont mind having to use master destruction spells to even phase tougher enemies, but it gets old. Even with two perma atronach bodyguards, destruction seems a bit screwy at higher levels. So I created a Necromancer High Elf, and well, that didnt turn out so well either, since necro spells seem bugged and spell detection leaves a lot to be desired.

Yeah, get to where you want to be and decide for yourself. From people who have gotten to higher levels with destruction as their primary damage dealers, it does become more annoying. If you don't mind the increasing length kiting style of combat then it doesn't matter.

However, you are playing at a lower difficulty than where most of the arguments come from, so you might not even really feel it in action. And if you do then you can just lower the difficulty to keep pace with the game.

I don't think you should delete your character. Just maybe take a break from it and try something else out for a while.

If you are playing on the pc then I am sure there will be mods that will fix magic too, so you could always wait until one of those come out.

I certainly have, I play a mage to lay down explosions not ping my enemies twenty times over with a charged fireball.

I'm just worried that the "not having fun" stage will be in 100+ hours of playtime down the road. I like making characters for the long term. In the 15-20 hours I've played, I've done very little into the main quest (mostly doing side quests). I'd be very frustrated if by the time I'm getting deeper into the main quest I'll be throwing my keyboard instead of hopping on to have a good time.

The problem is that enemies will keep gaining health, but you are already at cap damage, excluding potions, unless there's still another, higher-rank spell.

You can use potions to increase your magic power, however, although that requires a lot of ingredient gathering and potion making to do.

If you want to stay "pure mage" with scaling damage potential, though, then use Conjuration. Just let your pets do the fighting for you. You can even still fire off your spells while doing it, so long as you always keep that eye on your magicka.

Or you can wait for the SDK, and mods to fix Destruction, provided you play PC.

Yeah, it seems level scaling has reared its ugly head again.

The combat later on with destruction is not hair pulling bad, I'll say that. Think of yourself becoming a flashy archer instead of a master of the primal forces. You have to kite enemies a lot more and cannot get hit once. Sticking with it really depends on whether or not you like that kind of combat.

I stopped my mage because I cannot stand kiting combat. When I play mages I intend to play the gambit characters, more damage than anything else but I have the most on the line should I screw up. If you're fine with circle strafing your enemies for a while then you can still kill most things.

As long as you keep upgrading your spells, and have a good restoration/conjuration backup you should be fine.

I've gotten to the point where I can cast Fireball (50 damage 15m radius) without having to worry about magicka. I'm running through dungeons now. When a lightning mage comes along, throw out a storm atronach to keep him sidetracked, or have a strong ward absorbing magicka for you.