not sure if there is a topic about this already, and if there is i apologize so mods please delete if this is the case, but as my topic says is any one else disappointed in the variety of destruction spells that are available? saying that i do LOVE this game, and I'm not currently not having a problem as the mage I'm playing(second mage, quit the first on because of wasted skill points) but lets forget about the spells not leveling or how dragon age origins and oblivion to a degree made me feel the being a mage isn't a handicap and allow me to explain:

lets look at fire for example:

you have basically a new spell for every class level, novice/ flamethrower, apprentice/ firebolt/ rune(exception), adept/ fireball, expert/ incinerate and master firestorm. now while these spells are fine its actually quite disappointing that this is if for one elemental considering that they don't level with you like the games i mentioned above and they require time to cast which is important as I'm being chased down a dungeon corridor and don't have time to stop and cast a firestorm spell. flamethrower has been my quick go to spell for emergency situations because it requires zero charge time and as such i would have like to have seen variances or newly tiered spells with the same effect(flame wall doesn't count because it needs to be on the ground for it to work properly or at all) as i leveled up to adept, expert, master... i like using the runes and flamethrower but as multiple treads have already pointed out they just aren't practical especially when I'm being one-shot by a opposing mage after level 15 because i needed to pour all my level points into magika just to cast these spells even after i perk the appropriate skill level to cast them because i like casting them more than once in a 2 min span of battle.

now i know you can reduce the cost to zero later on which i plan on doing in destruction and restoration but i shouldn't have to play a game to level 60 or 70 for the perk points get to that point. so again is any one else disappointed in the variety of destruction spells that are available?

are you saying that many of them are impractical or o.o?

Anyway i feel that when you get to higher levels using the same spells over and over gets old (since destruction doesnt level up very fast, you wont get new spells that easily later on) And yes, i would like spells to level up.

i know what you mean...i really would like to have master level flames and sparks spells

Spell variation is awesome thats not the problem. Remember oblivion? You basically had three destruction spells, touch, target, and area. Now we have a lot more but some are only usable at lower licks! Make damage increase with level and make mana cost increase with level to balance it! Or even better, add spell crafting!

exactly, i don't like having to use lest say firebolt over and over only to have it literally be replaced with fireball because i want to kill and enemy in 5 shots instead of 15. my last mage was at 94 destruction at a level of i think 35 and because of magika limitations i was still using fireball instead of incinerate, this after i had pours all points into magika.

i agree. in oblivion i loved crafting spells, by level 40 i pwnd everything that came my way because of custom spells i made myself in those three categories for different situations. i dont like hearing from other people "that made mages way too overpowered" my response was yeah so? there mages for god sakes, there diving into arcane arts they can literally rip you apart from the inside and invade you friends and families dreams with visions of your demise and then set them on fire. there supposed to be slightly overpowered like swordsman swing a sword over and over. the swordsman gets stronger while the mage stays static in damage and does damage equivalent to throwing a wet Kleenex at a dragon.

if they added spell crafting this would make this game go from great to epic in my opinion because i always play the mage in these games. also i want to point out that these spells dont float down from the heavens, there made... by mages. and as a mage maybe after becoming an expert i should be able enough to make a few of my own instead of waiting for this months Magik Monthly and enough coin for a new spell.

me too. especially since every mage i came across after like level 30 was using those two spells but WAY more powerful if they weren't using ice spike like it was a machine gun. all i want is high level spells that i dont need to charge.

i think one of the main problems is that they took out or maybe just not showing, the attributes like intelligence or will power that had a formula with a direct relationship between level and damage. seems the enemy's still have this be we dont.

The problem is not having too few spell variation. The problem is that since spell damage does not scale, we end up ignoring our lower tier spells and using only the higher tier ones, thus becoming boring. The variation in fact is pretty nice having a cone-like spell, a bolt, an area burst, a trap spell, a wall, and a big AoE for each element. But really not being able to use the initial spells later on pretty much destroy all variation.

Bethesta will not change destruction spells to make Flames useful till later levels. But there are already pretty nice mods making spells scale, if you are on the PC. And with the release of the creation kit, even more changes will come.

The variation in spell type is great. The fact that there is not a new version of each variation for each spell level (ie. novice, apprentice, etc) kills the variation a bit since the low level ones become useless. If only they had spell creation, this whole issue would be gone.

Yes exactly. I would even settle for a system where you could upgrade the damage of your lower tier spells. EVEN better add mage college quest that does this. II smell a mod coming

i guess being on a PS3 I'm S.O.L. ... lol

this is what i was driving at with when i started this thread, guess it got lost a bit but i agree. if Bethesda made a spell crafting DLC i would buy it in heart beat as i dont think they would release it as a patch for free which would be unfortunate. it would add so much to the RP element of the G if i could actually be a real mage and not bargain bin mage going from store to store.

Not necessarily. I think this is a design oversight to be honest. I could see Bethesda fixing this with a patch that adds something. Maybe even a + destruction dmg enchant. As it stands , I'd say destruction is broken right now and deserves a fix.

Yes, this is essentially the problem. The initial variety is good, but because of how enemies scale and your spell damage does not, once you're about level 25 or so, it becomes silly to ever cast anything other than your expert single target spell, and the roles for the different spells are nullified. Not to mention, the master spells are simply too unwieldy to use because of their cast times. Why spend 3 seconds rooted, charging, and maintaining lightning storm while I can just chain cast dual incinerates every second for 200+ damage instead?

I think there are far too few spells. Not just destruction but across the board. Destruction is daft in SKyrim because it doesnt level and because there is no spell creation system but part of being a mage is the ability, if enough effort is put into the required school of magic, to do other tricks like levitate, have creatures fight for you, unlock stuff etc.

Magic in Skyrim, to me at least, is quite a disappointment.

Actually even at its base oblivion was a lot more varied in spells than skyrim. In destruction we picked up the flame thrower effect, runes, auras and walls. Cool sure, but we lots real Dots, pure magic damage, different size AoEs, different variations of the same spell for different skill levels, multiple effects, weapon/armor damage etc. And that is just destruction which is probably the narrowest school in magic.

exactly. if i could have a instant flamethrower spell at each level and high level runes that would be amazing. i used flamethrower, sparks and frostbite as my "go to" in emergency situations becuse they have zero cast time and i can not worry about aiming as im running backwards rather than trying to pin point hit an enemy with something that has half my magicka gauge in it.