At what level of destruction do you need to be to activate Faralda to give you the master destruction spell quest?

Thanks for this guide, it's really helpful!

It reinforces what I've always said about playing good mages: use more than one type of magic! Destruction by itself is never the best thing. Maybe at low levels it's doable but once you get up in levels you need Conjuration for the soul trapping and summons, and alteration for mage armor and paralyze, and restoration for healing, wards and turn undead (Repel Undead has saved my butt against undead mobs that otherwise would have killed me). And the Restoration perk for having your wards absorb magicka almost negates the continuous magicka cost of maintaining the ward. With the best ward spells and the magicka absorption perks, I can just keep my Greater Ward spell going all day while blasting with the other hand if I wanted to.

With Dual-casted Mage Armored Dragonhide spell, plus a continous magicka-absorbing Greater Ward, and Mayhem/Hysteria followed up by Wall spells in the other hand makes playing a high level mage cake against even high level mobs for me.

Destruction as your only offensive power is viable and good to use but conjurace just got the bonus of CC mobs with summons + the nice dmg they do. You can use both or you can just go with one of them, its all fun. The best thing is that you dont actualy need to perk your novice-master perks in any tree to be able to dominate in the game. Its just more mana efficent to master destruction and your going to master alteration just for the awsome perks it got.

Dual casting is good on destruction and alteration only, conjurance is better without it (no need for even more time on summon if you get standard 2 min with perks in summon tree) and after you get the pernament summons. Restoration is good only for the mana regen and novice perk to make the basic heal spell more mana efficient. Illusion is its own thing (could just go with it alone ) but if your going with conjurance its not needed and with destruction its a way to CC while not having conjurance.

90 seems the level you need to be at to start the masters quests. I am currently on the alteration master quest, and I have above 90 destruction but I cant start the destruction master quest. Dont know if they are linked or not, or maybe I just didnt talk to her at the right time of day.

I reached 90 in Conjuration first and was able to do the Master spell quest. I reached 90 in destruction shortly thereafter and Feralda wouldn't offer the destruction master quest. Someone on another forum(neogaf) stated the destruction master quest wasn't available until you reached lvl100 destruction. I have the Prima guide and it says all master quests are available at lvl90.

The lvl100 sounds reasonable but no one other that one person has confirmed this. I was hoping to get others to confirm that the guide is wrong and Master Destruction quest isn't available until lvl100. I'm also afraid it might be bugged.

I updated the guide with standing stones info and other spell info.

u'll get to a point in the game where, as a conjure mage, everything kills u easily if they reach u, so u need the dremora lord to survive. yes, dungeons are easy and boring but bosses become a bit of a challenge to survive.

alduin was particularly annoying. it took a bit for my dremora to take out alduin. as a shock mage, dragons can be a bit of a pain

I played a Pure Mage only and have found it pretty easy to achieve everything in the game so far.I'm level 34 and have just used the same principles I use in Mage classes in MMo's.

Having shouts at your disposal only makes it even easier.As well having a companion and a conjured pet simplifies things even more.Wish my sorcerer in Vanguard had such an arsenal at its disposal.

I mainly use destruction and conjuration and use gear that lowers my magika use with destruction spells.

I have alot of potions in my inventory mainly resist potions,Health and Magika.

When things get tough you just run for cover.

In this game attacks dont go through pillars or rocks so use them as shields.

But seriously being able to pause the game to drink a potion or change a spell type or selecting your shout how on earth can you get beat?

No, a lot of people complain about weak Destruction at high levels, something not covered here. 21+ is not high.

Call me when you're 51+ and your Firebolt does the same damage it did at 21.

this is correct...you HAVE to reach 100 destruction before you can do the master quest. also when i did it the quest had no markers just a cryptic rhyme.......have fun finding where you need to go lol.


i laugh at the people saying that on master they're having a hard time. seriously? its the hardest difficulty.....just because going melee is broken right now doesnt mean that magic is gimped. stop posting that magic should be as broken as melee....its annoying. i'm 40 right now and just easy sauce rolling everything as a pure mage. not even using alteration....just running and kiting and slowing and impacting as i can. gives you more of a sense of accomplishment, makes you feel like you actually just fought a boss or a decent threat. still one shot bandits tho

lulz, at 51+ you should have wall of flame which does 50pts. of damage per second. Couple that with the fact that you can have enchantments to reduce your destruction magicka cost to 0, if you're willing to put forth the effort, you can literally make yourself into an infinite flamethrower of hellfire...pure mage is awesome and destruction is NOT gimped.

If you're trying to get through the game only using 1 skill, well that's just dumb.

Summoning 2 Dremora Lords and setting Skyrim and her denizens ablaze = winning x 100000000

Is the magic resistance perk a constant perk or how does it work?

If you mean the alteration perk then its constant.
If you mean the shield elemental rsistance perk then it works only when you block with a shield equiped.

where can i find unenchanted robes that has max capacity for enchanting or about 10-15% of less magicka cost of destruction

i disenchanted my novice robe of destruction that has 12% and then i thought i can just enchant it with anything granted that i will just use grand soul gem but when i'm enchanting it, its capacity is just 5% less magicka cost for destruction spells.

Do the mage guild arch-mage quest for the arch-mage robe it has +15 less mana cost on all spells a + 50 magica and +100% mana regen. You can buy robes with something like +17% for one school and +100-150% magica regen from shops or from ppl in the mage guild.

nice, thanks dude!
but is it possible that i can enchant something like that 17% for destruction spells??? Does it have something to do with my enchanting perks???

At 51+ he should be dual casting incinerate and (ab)use enchanting to reduce costs to 0-10% (a must,sadly-so much for choices in TES right?). Spamming WoF is a sure way to fail and doesn't dent mobs on Master. Just a heads up/tip. But if you are interested in other styles of high level play, there are very rough mods that have new ranks of glyphs, cloaks, sprays, and even wall spells on skyrimnexus.


Unless its bows, stealth, conjuration, or illusion. Sorry but some skills can actually do this, while others have major/super-strict dependencies. Its just that noone thought Destro would be one of these "super dependant" skills, cause it usually isn't this way in other games or other TES games.

http://skyrimcalculator.com/#7392

ok so heres my planned "pure" mage build (yes im power gaming with the destruction 0 cast set up)\
clearly i could switch to heavy armor for tank like mage but i really love the Dragon scale armor (and it fits nicely with my perks spent)

having never touched smithing or enchanting before i want to know if ive missed anything important on those trees

above all else what i need to flesh out my character is some good enchantments (apart from reduce cost of destruction casting 25% which i will use on all 4 armor pieces) keep in mind im playing a Dunmer (i know theres better mage classes but i love my Dunmer) so with the 30% spell block and 40% fire resistence already that leaves with good defence against any fire spells to begin with

thank you for any feed back

So with the 25% Breton Blood and 25% for the lord's stone and with the three perks in magic resistance for alteration I would have 80%? and if I enchant one piece of armor for the 17% then I would have 97% magic resistance? I'm just trying to rule out one type of damage at the moment.

I think it caps at 85.
There is also a permanent perk You can get the enchantment higher too with Enchanters Elixir that you can buy if you are not an alchemy master.

ok so can i get 100% magicka reduction cost on 2 schools of magic?

ie: just blow what little balance of the game remains by being able to heal for free and cast fireballs for free?

I have started several characters, but got none past level 13 because I keep starting new characters, heh.

My latest one, a Dunmer mage named Ravin Fyr, is by far my favorite one so far. To begin with, he's Dunmer, which means 50% resistance to fire. This comes in very handy when dealing with dragons.

I always play a swordsman, and I am bored with myself and my silly usual routines, so I decided to force myself to play a pure mage. I was encouraged when I learned that I could learn "bound sword" right away. I thought using that instead of a conventional weapon would ease me into the mage business.

I was very pleased to learn that the "bound sword" is a very powerful weapon, plus it is lightweight, and never needs sharpening. The spell lasts 120 secs, which is usually ample. I had it cut out mid-fight only once, and since it takes a couple of seconds to re-summon that was a bit hairy, but I survived.

Instead of using a bow I rely on ranged spells. Dragons don't like electricity, I noticed. I rarely need heath potions, since my heal spell does pretty well at keeping me alive.

All this spell-casting obliges me to cultivate a big mana pool, but that first point in conjuration, destruction, and restoration buys me a 50% discount on mana costs.

I joined the college of magely knowledge, and they gave me some pretty good clothes that buff my mana pool and my mana regeneration.

I just cleaned out the Dark Brotherhood nest single-handed at level 8. I'm feeling pretty cocky right now.

I like your thoughts and tips.

Important note people at at lvl 100 conjuration your build flexibility DRASTICALLY increases with the use of Dead Thralls (perma zombies)

1. These zombies aren't normal zombies. If you don't touch their armor they retain their original defensive gear + you can equip their dead bodies with any weapons you wish (which they use)
2. If the NPCs you dead thralled are mages they can use spells they knew before they died.
3. This means that some NPCs can use conjuration. In the case of Savos Aren he actually summons Dremora Lords almost every time he starts a serious confrontation (+ flame cloaks and Iron? or Ebony skins himself).
4. This means that with two properly equipped and good dead thralls (in my case I use Savos Aren and Orchendor equipped with the Sanguine Rose) and a good mage companion plus Barbas the dog you can end up occasionally with an army of 2 dremora lords, 2 bamf undead mages, 1 summoning mage companion, 1 atronauch, and 1 dog tank. Thats 7 freaking fighters (not including yours truly) ALL without mods or console commands. Who needs a phalanx mod when you can become a walking army

yeah, turning into a god through enchanting (ab)use is sadly one of the ways not to "svck as a mage".

Its an option. Enchanting is necessary (to a degree) in order to not completely bite as a mage otherwise your gear will get you shafted. However i do agree the duel enchanting -100% mana cost stuff is rather ridiculous.