You will also need to be good at the game, and have common sense.

Shouldn't have to. We don't have to with physical characters, so why should a mage character need to?



Yeah, cause it's so much fun to let the game fight for you.



I thought I could be, and do what I wanted in TES games? That's the sales pitch at least but apparently it aint so. I have to play Skyrim how others say to play......so it seems.<_< That's the "workaround" I see. :shrug: Forcing a style of play I don't want to play.

Mages is broken (Not un-doable, but not fun either.) and needs some love in the January patch.

5 Minutes later and he's still alive??? I'm playing on adept and an Overlord will be dead in 20 seconds tops, what on earth are you doing? Dual cast Thunderbolt (Expert Spell) with all 3 damage perks and you'll hit him for around 230 damage a shot, his 1400 health will be gone in no time at all.

I kill most things with 1 or 2 dual cast 'incinerate'. i haven't had any trouble at all. at 'a high level' you should have atleast 400+ Magicka, 300+ Health and 200+ Stamina. What are you?

I call BS. No way you can play simply with DESTRUCTION magic. You MUST use it conjunction with something else as indicated.

Half those guys aren't even hurt by fire ball, at least not to any great degree compared to their ranged attacks. (and if they close on you, forget about it!)
Summoning is the ONLY way to live. Gotta get their attention AWAY from you.

Me too. I have never understood the "whittling" or "spamming" comments at all. Makes me wonder what they are doing.

Although, my stats differ from yours, I am lvl 55 pure mage and have about (thinking of the top of my head - my xbox isn't in front of me atm) 560 magicka and only about 220 health, haven't added any to stamina at all. I use increase-magicka stones/enchants/abilities and have a pool over 800 if i need to. usually about 730 or so normally though. EDIT: the reason i need over 700 is because dual cast Dragonhide costs me about 700 atm.

The only time I ever had trouble was when I realized I needed to go purchace stronger spells. Vendors at the mages college sell everything you need. just check back from time to time to see if something better than what you currently have is available. I assume the same is true for 2h or 1h types. Can't keep using that Iron dagger you started with

I...don't know what sort of weak mobs you're killing with 1-2 dual casts of incinerate.

I'm starting to think that some of the successful mages might be benefiting from the resistances bug while those of us who're having different experiences aren't. Maybe not, maybe we just have different expectations and tastes, but I definitely wasn't killing high level enemies with 2 incinerates last time I played vanilla.

yeah pure destruction doesn't really work for ever... i use conjuration, destruction and restoration. that works, but biggest reason for it to work is conjuration

Most every mob. Do you have any perks in destruction? I have all the perks I felt like I needed and I play on Adept. Very rarely do I need 3 hits with dual incinerate.

Most people complaining about Destruction either are higher than level 40 or play on Expert or Master modes.

Might also be the magic resist bug.

i kill everything easily cos i play on 'Novice' level. so 1 or 2 dualcast 'incinerate' works a treat. hardest enemy is an 'ancient dragon', that requires 5 dualcast 'incinerate', 2 fire breath shouts and a partridge in a pear tree.

I think people need to post:

Mage's level:
Difficulty Setting:

I played a mage up to level 30 on Adept and met a Draugr Deathlord and dual-cast fireball didn't do a whole lot of diddly and I had all perks except the 'make them flee' one. (both augments and dual and impact)

So I am very curious as to those who are stating a broad "I killed it, yep, with mah dual-casts"...... dual-cast eats mana and only increases damage about 20% or so.....

I especially these claims on Master.

J

Did u put any points into health? I find sometimes pure mages neglect this stat and end up paying for it with their squishy hides

I would dual cast dragonhide. Also, get dual casting for illusion so you can put the fight in your favor before hand. Conjure up minions to fight with you. Use fire/ice/shock at the appropriate time. Pretty much all master spells svck besides dragon hide because you can cast it before battle and recharge your magicka.

I have read in the guide that the recommended m/h/s ratio for a pure mage to spend when leveling up is 80/20/0. I didn't know this at first, so I think I have closer to 70/30/0 but still don't have any problems.

Also, bear in mind the Ethereal shout. This will allow uninterrupted re-cast of DH if you still need it. The only times I have really needed to recast is during long civil war battles. Or this one draugr dungeon where there are like 6 death lords at once. That was hard. But a game should have some tough spots. Now that I have conjuration perks for 2 at a time these are easier. Hehe...2 dead thrall conjurers and a conjuration follower and suddenly there are 7 players on my team!

We need more content with mages, there is a lack of spell types and we need spell creation.

Destruction magic is a joke, alteration has taken a blow too, it only has three user spells. The shield spells, paralysis, detect life.

Reason why I drowned my Altmer. It wasn't viable anymore. I never wanted to be a summoner but I pretty much HAVE to be because Bethesda took the term "Glass canon" a bit too far. Not to mention, your canon is simply a gun that fires blanks. Destruction is hardly useful with the gimped regeneration rate of Magicka and non-scaling of damage.

Bosmer Spellblade, level 48, Destruction 89. Most enemies by this point don't go down from a volley of fireballs (cost reduction is the shizknight, but i've still gotta take 4 more enchanter perks before it becomes totally awesome) but throwing a flame cloak/ironflesh combo on myself (being able to create 'combo' spells would have been a great boon) and spamming fireballs as I run in, legendary daedric blade flashing, is pretty boss.

I admit I wasted a few perks on this character, but I don't know if I want to remake just to see if I can do a better job. Might be fun, or it might be a huge pain. Eh, I'll think i'll give it a try. Focus on the handful of things I really do need, no fooling around with other perks. Let's see - Destruction, Alteration, Enchantment, 1-Handed, Heavy Armor, and Smithing. A little bit of other stuff where appropriate (Illusion boosts destruction damage, or so i've heard). Might even break my one guild per character rule, since this will be my new main.

I would have to reduce difficulty as well, if I relied only on one handed. If destruction alone was able to kick ass like that, how easy wouldn't it be for combination mages?

You have to compare these:
One handed vs Destruction
Fighter vs Mage

after wasting pts in distruct and not even scratch'n folks for all my mana, i picked up a bow......... never looked back, although the master spells for dis are cool looking, to bad they are week as crap, but the con master spells rock, next char screw distruct ima gonna be a heavy armor, (steed stone) two handed, big bow, necromorphing kitty cat..........

I have always had trouble understanding this point of view. Don't most other "classes" have to use more than one skill tree? I would think so. I even have what I would call some "wasted perks" because I didn't really understand at the beginning that I should have specialized more. I have a couple perks in 1h (don't use that skill hardly ever - now a little for the fun of it), a couple of perks in archery, a couple in alchemy. Some trees I still have zero, like Illusion, heavy armor, light armor, 2h....

I imagine that to be a successful warrior type, you will need several trees the same as for a mage. Perhaps I am wrong.

Destruction only becomes viable - not competitive, viable - with the -100% magicka cost enchant and stunlock spam. Beth should've let Destruction scale and nerfed stunlock into a percentage chance.

EDIT: The issue is that Destruction is crippled due to reliance on other skills to even be viable. It's a damage tree, not a support tree, but it might as well be a support tree for all the damage it does. Destruction doesn't stand alone as a damage tree.

Destruction magic is adequate, if you have the mana bar for it. Right now, I am level 25 and I have 260 magicka base, 352 with items. My destruction is 55 or so. For mana efficiency, I still use firebolt and flames. I cant handle the mana cost of fireball (tho I have the adept perk), and I dont have incinerate yet. It takes my full mans bar to kill 3 horkers, or 5 bandits. Not awful. Not great. I cant afford to buy a lot of mana potions, I dont find many, I make what I can with alchemy but they are weak.

And such is my character's life. Struggling, but doable. It has been that way since level ten.

However, I have been buying and filling petty soul gems and enchanting every little mudnane item I can, and my enchanting just hit 80. I have maxed out my base enchanting perk and have taken the prerews to the dual effect perk. In another evening or two of buying soul gems, killing horkers, mudcrabs, and bandits, I should be able to get enchanting to 100.

At that point I will save up the 3000 gold needed for 4 grand soul gems, and I will craft 4 items with -25% destruction cost, and at that point I will be able to start stomping things. But where some view this as an exploit, I do not. I am using no alchemy feedback. Enchanting is a magic skill. For some jacked up reason, the mana costs in this game are deliberately insane, presumably to encourage us to dump perks on enchanting.

I think once I max enchanting, I will craft head, chest, and ring with -25% each to destruction and alteration cost, and on my amulet I will enchant either the same thing OR I might put 15% (or will it be 20%?) Magic resistance and a bonus to mana there. That way, my Breton, with the Lord Stone and racial and quest and item, will be sitting at 80% or 85% magic resist, plus my destruction and alteration will be affordably fun, and I will still have gloves and boots open for more enchants.

So, its a wonky system they have, but it is doable, and with enchant, it can be entirely lacking in tedium. Season to taste with as much or as little -castingCost as you deem appropriate.