I feel I should clarify. There appear to be different definitions of the word "pure" floating around, which is why I put it in quotations. When I said "pure" in that context, I meant one skill...and only one skill.

One of the typical responses I see when discussing destruction is that you can't expect to level destruction and nothing else. They go on to talk about warriors using an armor skill, alchemy, blacksmitting, etc. For some reason, they assume that anyone who has a problem with destruction must only be leveling that skill. They use the phrase "pure destruction" to describe this, and it is a silly argument, because no one is claiming to go "pure destruction", just as no one would claim to be going "pure one-handed".

Being "pure destruction" is not the same as being "primarily destruction". There is a distinction.

I guess when I think of the word "pure ", I assume it to mean that skill, and that skill only: Which would be silly.

So the only way to play mage is to use the zero mana exploit. Got it.

She's level 14...

That sounds like a cheat to me. Even if it's one you can find in the game.

I didn't know such an enchantment existed.

But... Wait... Wasn't that first spell he cast a destruction spell? Why did it cost mana?

No that's a master level illusion spell, makes everyone around fight everyone else at random.

Then the question is, if shes the most powerfull creature in Tamriel at level 14 but wont be at level 30


...why on nirn would she ever want to level up again? Isnt leveling up supposed to make you stronger not weaker?

You just answered your own question. What the "eff" we are talking about is that destruction loses its effectiveness when you get around level 40.

When your friend does the crawl from level 40 to level 50, she is going to notice her destruction spell become gradually less and less effective...until finally it's not worth the time; and there is absolutely nothing she'll be able to do about it.


Bang! You've found the problem we're all having! This is our very complaint.

Other combat skills scale to match the increasing toughness of the world. Destruction stops scaling at 40ish. If destruction is your primary combat skill, you ARE going to get weaker.

what armor / enchant was he using? im interested in making a similar build

Eh, it took a pure mage less than four minutes on master difficulty using destruction and conjuration to take down a level 50(highest level in the game for enemies) dragon. I'd say that's perfectly respectable.

I love how that first fire summon conjurers get is basically a nuke in itself.

Burns anything near her and explodes on death.

this, so true.

I'm pure dual wield, if you count that as pure one hand, and it's still amazing at level 37. It's a lot of fun. I love it. I kill dragons with only around 2 dual wield power attacks, playing on the second hardest difficulty level.

From my experience it feels mages are balanced and warriors and rouges are overpowered. Dragons should take at least 10 hits to kill unlike the warrior and rouge one shotting everything, made my elf archer character really boring late game but my nord battle mage necromancer is having lots of fun mwhaha.

no it isnt, the end

It took an optimized high level pure mage 4 minutes on master difficulty using destruction and conjuration to take down a top of the line enemy. An optimized high level warrior or rogue will take out anything in the game on master in 1 or 2 hits. Traditionally mages are supposed to optimize and level-scale at least as well as any other archetype. And there should be more room for things like pure (or nearly pure) mages who don't use dual-casting impact and conjuration.

I'm glad you posted this. I used console commands to make a level 50 mage on master difficulty that uses only destruction magic and got similar results.

I'm starting to think that the people who are having issues with destro might be encountering a bug that either makes spells do less damage than they are supposed to or is messing with the hp of mobs.

Wait, so the problem with destro is that it can't one shot dragons? Who cares if it can't one shot? I guess if you're role playing a god who uses magic sure I guess it's a problem, but the damage is far from underpowered.

Which is why I think that the mage in said example should be held as the standard, and that the overpowered and clearly exploited warriors are just exceptions. It's not that the mage is weak, it's that the others are so overpowered that it clouds the vision of what the game SHOULD play like.

Lightning storm isn't so bad at higher levels, it just takes forever to cast, is hard to see targets far away while casting it, and it makes you immobile. Other than that and Blizzard and Firestorm in certain situation, Destruction is disappointing me compared to some other combat skills. Run on sentences FTW.

42, you can see it at the start


i wouldn't call that cheating, it's not even an exploit or glitch, since all you gotta do is level up enchanting :s

and no, the first spell was mayhem, illusionist spell


elven set enchanted with -% destruction magicka cost, plus a few magic resist and +magick enchants

personally, i don't like the elven set, but since i couldn't find any robes without enchants on them, and i don't wanna use heavy armor, im sticking with it for now

i think im using almost all the magic schools... conjuration for summons (mostly for tank) alteration for defense (magic resist + armor), destruction for damage (obviously), a few points in restoration, mostly for mid game where you have serious magicka problems, so i picked the magick regen talent and +healing

and illusion just for fun, make enemies fight each other is pretty cool

the dremora lord sometimes decapitate enemies, fun fun

Herp derp, play game on easy until you reach max skill level in magic schools, switch to master, make a Youtube video.

Obviously high level magic isn't as bad. But when destruction can't even get you past the first dragon at level ten, there's a problem.

Also, One-handed users would be one-shotting that stuff by the point you're at. So still very weak in comparison.

The problem here is that you have to use what's basically an exploit to even have what looks like a normal high level experience.

People without those exact enchantments would have no chance to do those things, forcing people who want to use destruction to play a certain style.

Actually you can kill it using destruction.
http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/649871686502072597/4FC3524B50166EB371197F270BAF8D5B0D44DB00/
http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/649871686502073126/F9AFF79EE58ECDC72C0D8E51763CDC7CA593D511/


Edit: Also, why do people keep mentioning melee one-shotting enemies? If you can one shot everything in the game, why even bother playing? If you just have to one shot enemies you can use console commands to do so.

Pure mage is awesome. I love playing it.

But, scaling the destruction spells would help pure mages immensely and give them more variety to work with at higher levels.

I don't get why people say that melee skills also svck alone. They do not. At least not in comparison with destruction. Other day a cave bear was attacking my level 21 mage. I blasted him with dual-casted firebolts until I ran out of magicka. Barely below half hp. Reluctantly pulled out my blade of Winterhold, attacked him with a regular attack, and demolished the rest of his HP and sent him flying into the sea. I only have 21 skill in two-handed, with no perks, and never put any points into stamina, and I'm on regular difficulty. I have 56 skill in Destruction and most of the perks in that tree and have put most of my points into magicka. That, to me, demonstrates that melee is much more powerful than destruction magic.