I have this question that has been bothering me for some time now.

I almost always end up building the stealthy archer one handed swordsman. It looks like archery is indispensable to handle dragons.

I'd like to innovate a bit and play a priest with no armor using illusion and conjuration, like many players are trying now after being playing this game for so long.

The basic question is:

How you deal with dragons playing as a non destruction Mage?

That is, no archery, no destruction, maybe one handed or two handed is acceptable?, but I find tedious to fight a dragon this way, just waiting for it to land, etc.

Please help.

Thanks in advance if any of the mages out there wants to collaborate with a comment.

Pd: I'm on PS3 and I play on master, legendary after level 25/30.

Conjure a creature that uses long range attacks. Or use the thu'um that summons the dragon - I forget what it's called.

Hide behind rocks and trees. Summon an Atronach or preferably a Dremora Lord.

Get your conjuration high enough where you can conjure a Dremora Lord. They're lethal. I've summoned many that have took on dragons and other dangerous creatures, and killed them. Though, I don't see the point of only using 2 schools. If you're gonna use no weapons and only magic, you should use all schools. You're not gonna get a lot of leveling done, and doing the quests isn't gonna be fun considering you can do nothing except watch your summoned creatures do your work for you.

Naked and unarmed or armoured and a bow, sword + shield and greatsword.

Either wait for it to land, or

it to the ground

and I guess get a lot of Defense if you don't want to get eaten in one bite like I do

Thank you, is what I thought, destruction or some form of ranged attack is absolutely necessary. You are right that summoning alone would not be much fun, but I was thinking in some form of stealth assassin with daggers for dungeons complemented with Fury for example. Although this is useless in the case of dragons.

Yes, this one:

http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Summon_Durnehviir

Thanks, I'm thinking now, maybe some bound weapon (which I don't like, but anyway) to help the summon.

so true! I'd like to see my own face when it triggers the kill cam and I see the dragon bite my poor character's head...

God what I wouldn't give for throwing weapons. Spears, knives and axes oh my!

Use destruction just for dragons, or summon a fire or storm atronach.

Just because your Mage uses mainly conjuration and illusion doesn't mean he can't use some form of destruction. I highly recommend using it or a bound bow, unless you want to rely completely on your conjured minions you will need some form of attack.

Which is why he said for "Non-Destruction" mages.

I just summon Dragon Priests then again. I got that spell unlegitly so...

A more legit way would be... Get a following who can never die as your backup for situations like this.

Everyone should try killing a dragon using nothing but the Thu'um. It's quite fun and rewarding.

It is a lot fun. But you have to do the Amulet of Talos glitch for it to become viable.

Thanks, yes I'm now considering that it'd be necessary to use some form of ranged attack like bound bow if I really don't want to use destruction. Good point.

I've never tried that, my guess is that it'd be a lengthy fight

What's the Amulet of Talos glitch?

It's where you fortify your restoration so high that when you put the Amulet of Talos on, all your dragon shouts either has 0 seconds shout time or very little shout time. Allowing you to shout a lot.