I have two different legendary builds, one being a pure two-handed warrior and the other a pure electromancer mage. So I decided to compare them:

Pure Mage Build

http://imageshack.us/a/img827/9307/screenshot11b.png
http://imageshack.us/a/img826/9438/screenshot12ub.png
http://imageshack.us/a/img706/7658/screenshot13ur.png


Pure Mage pros and cons:

- Highly efficient against a pack of enemies: illusion + chain lightning
- Highly efficient against any dragon: greater ward blocks every shout including Drain Vitality and shouts from Legendary dragons, dual casting destruction spells also staggers the dragon making it unable to attack
- Highly resistant to magic: Lord stone + Magic resistance perks + atronach perk + agent of mara, etc., nearly impossible to get killed by mages, even on Legendary difficulty
- Able to improve and heal followers using illusion spells, restoration spells and enchanted gear
- Poor damage resistance: Dragonhide spell absorbs 80% of physical damage, that's about two hits from Draugr Deathlords, often one hit by higher level dragons
- Relatively poor damage: it takes too many hits to take down higher level enemies on Master and Legendary difficulties
- Takes too long to level at the beginning
- Levels much faster at higher levels after enchanting a "leveling gear" by reducing spells cost to 100%
- Doesn't require the use of potions: magicka regen/fortify school enchants and restoration spells

Conclusion: perfect build against dragons and a pack of enemies (you could quickly kill 100 Deathlords if you wanted to just by using frenzy, guardian circle, area spells and atronachs/zombies), as long as you avoid taking physical damage. Even more efficient if you play with followers.


Pure Warrior build

http://imageshack.us/a/img803/9776/screenshot7yk.png
http://imageshack.us/a/img16/5518/screenshot9vk.png
http://imageshack.us/a/img580/5538/screenshot10fz.png


Pure Warrior pros and cons

- Highly efficient for dungeon raiding: Kills enemies much quicker
- Able to drastically improve followers gear through smithing
- Unable to heal followers
- Unable to efficiently block dragon shouts
- Still takes a relatively high damage from melee and magical attacks, even with every blocking perk (Orcs may bypass this with Berserker's Rage, but as I'm not pointing special powers but rather general abilities, it doesn't count), and before anyone says "But two handed weapons don't block as much as shields", my character keeps a dragonscale shield in case I need to paralyze certain enemies, as I once needed it to fight against 4 deathlords at once, and no, it still isn't efficient against dragons, specially dragon shouts such as Fire Breath and Drain Vitality, that usually kills me in a single hit.
- Requires too many potions, specially health potions
- Levels faster at the beginning
- Becomes much harder to level at higher levels
- From my perspective, it's much more fun to play in comparison to mage builds

Conclusion: perfect build in terms of fun, not as good when it comes to real fights such as dragons and packs of powerful enemies. This build also can barely handle master/legendary difficulties, while the mage can go through those difficulties without any problem.

This was my perspective from what I consider as the best possible pure builds that also fit role playing purposes, and in my opinion, pure mages make better heroes than pure warriors, like I've already mentioned on a previous thread. I hope this thread finally puts an end to the doctrine that pure warriors are much stronger and efficient than pure mages, which is ridiculous. Although it is in fact much more fun to play a warrior build, in my opinion.

So it's all opinion. Okay...

Looks like your Mage will get squashed in one hit if a blow actually lands.

I prefer warriors.

Actually this doesn't do anything for a warrior is better than Mage, or vice versa. It's just another opinion isn't it? I don't think warriors are better heroes at all, but mages aren't better either. It's just preference. And I just happen to prefer warriors, because I'm better at playing them.

You must be a really bad mage gamer to simply stand there and take random hits until you die. And there's something called "Avoid Death", in case you're stupid enough to stand there and take random hits.

Actually it does. I also prefer warriors now in terms of fun, as it has a more realistic and vivid gameplay. But no, mages are indeed better in terms of strength and combat efficiency.

*sigh* Insults don't help anybody friend.

I don't play Mages, on occasion I play a Spellsword or anything similar.

I know that Pure Mages are not supposed to be hit.

No need to insult intelligence. He is just stating that mages tend to have less health, and a wrong move can lead to a quick death. Do you agree?

Also about your response to me: No not really. A warrior with good crafted weaponry and armor is just as effective as a properly used Mage. Just like a properly used rogue can be just as deadly as the rest.

No offense, just pointing an idea. And no, as I'm playing on the PC I usually spawn a pack of random monsters as I ain't got nothing else left to do in the game, and I usually fight against 30-40 death overlords or 5-10 Legendary dragons at once, and I can go through it without any problem.

But that is if you don't make a mistake. If you make a mistake, no matter what build you are, you'll get hurt. That's all I'm saying.

The argument generally isn't about pure mage, but destruction mage vs warrior or thief. As has been pointed out many times, conjuration and illusion become more powerful as difficulty increases. With these skills (and/or followers), you can just sit back and not even participate in (most) battles. Which is exactly why I agree that it's generally more fun to play a warrior than mage.

Nice write-up in general, but we must have different play styles, because I find that being a pure warrior is only moderately difficult for the first 10 levels, and becomes increasingly easy after that. And that's with self-gimping and rules to limit the use of crafting. (That's on Master, haven't tried a pure warrior since Dragonborn came out, but I'll eventually give it a try.)

http://i2.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/original/000/007/508/watch-out-we-got-a-badass-over-here-meme.png

Yeah, any playstyle used to full potential has the ability to become this easy. Whether its a Mage utilizing certain schools of magic, or a warrior utilizing crafting and other things, anything can be super overpowered.

Sometimes I fail the timing of wards which can lead to breaking the ward and cause some burning from dragon shouts when I'm fighting more than 3 dragons at once, but even when the ward breaks it still isn't enough damage to kill the mage, as it takes around 60~70% of health, which can be immediately restored. Another accident that may occur is while fighting archer deathlords, but even if they hit me once it's also not enough to kill me. And even if the situation becomes even tighter I can still use Rout spells to recover. Nothing can be said about mage foes as they barely cause any damage. The only thing that actually kills me in a pure mage build is when I accidently fall from height.

I posted a picture of the pure warrior build and its perks, a pure warrior can never be as powerful and efficient as a pure mage, unless if it's a hybrid using alchemy/enchanting as you can get over 1000 damage with two handed weapons and bow.

And this is why I decided to play as a warrior, as illusion + conjuration is way too overpowered and not as fun to play. And I'm not bashing warriors cause I actually prefer to play as a warrior now, just saying that mages are obviously stronger, although not as fun.

Warriors don't need to dodge. All I need is good armor, a good shield, and lots of health, and the game plays itself. I prefer warriors.

And your warrior is a two hander. I find sword n' shield warriors to have much more survivability against mages and warriors alike, due to the slow motion block, the elemental resistance from block, and shield charge. Those go a long way for warriors on harder difficulties. This is the most efficient warrior in my opinion. Now, I'm not going to say its better than mages, because it depends on what kind of mage you are, but sword and board warriors are VERY efficient.

I dodge a lot while playing my warrior as I play it on master, it's not like you can just run towards a pack of enemies and maul them, it requires some caution and strategy. I also make good use of Elemental Fury. And you also need a good portion of stamina to block, bash and perform power attacks.