Hi guys, I'd like to start by saying I'm a 2h kinda guy. Now that's out the way I recently tried to start a mage play through on master. I'm struggling quite a bit as a mage I feel really weak, can anyone offer up some tips to help me get started.
Playing as a level 2 khijiat.
And I was hoping to master all schools of magic.

Haven't played as a mage yet, but there's apparently some perk in Alteration that increases the strength of the "X-skin" defensive spells if you aren't wearing any armor. That and the Restoration ward spells together might go pretty far at keeping your skin intact.

Well I thought of having heal in one hand and a offensive skill in the other?

From what I hear it can be hard for a healing-over-time spell to keep up with the damage you take in combat. The "fast heal" spell is faster but is less power-efficient - you have to spend more power per HP healed - so perhaps it's better to prevent damage than to heal it.

Gonna get flak for this, but the way mage's are set up in Skyrim...

You almost have to get into enchanting.

You're going to want to stick with a specific school of Magic at first, most people go with Conjuration or Destruction, and focus your perk points on reducing magicka cost and such in one school of Magic.

Your first 10 levels or so will be best served by putting points into Magicka, and then around 15-20 you may consider putting points into health.

You don't have to max out Enchanting, but going up the skill/spell enhancement side will drastically reduce the costs of your spells.

You can be master of all schools of magic, but you will inevitably lean on one offensively more than the other.

Decide which one that is, and suggesting guidance will be much easier.

Grind both alchemy and enchantment to 100; get spell casting cost down to 0
Do not put any perks into magic "novice,apprentice , etc." perks ; put all your level ups into health and stamina.

How to play mage in skyrim in terms of schools:

Destruction : get dual casting and impact: spam incinerate forever;
Restoration : spam grand healing
Alteration : spam paraylsis
Conjuration : spam summon daemora
Illusion : spam frenzy

Silly me, how could I forget? Conjuration is essentially a great defensive school as well. Just as reducing damage is better than healing it, not getting hit is even better than reducing damage. Summoning a Frost Atronach to tank for you keeps you from getting hit and lets you fire other spells at the target while they're focusing on the summoned thingy.

How would I do this, I like the idea of at least have one OP mage can't I?

As pure mage going for all schools, it is better to have a policy of not wearing armor or using weapons, and not getting hit. This means you get your level increases from your magic. If you start mixing in direct combat, you will be "master of none" as you level up from your weapon and armor and your magic doesn't keep pace. That is my opinion at least.

So the basic idea is to not get aggro, to control the battlefield, and avoid damage. So:
Illusion for invisibility, muffle and mind control
Atronachs for drawing aggro
Alteration for mage armor in case you get aggro by accident
Destruction for runes and supporting your atronach (use fire spells with a fire atronach, etc.)
Restoration is not very useful, but you should have a few spells

Sneak around, use invisibility and muffle as well, use quiet casting, throw atronachs and runes from the shadows, then harass using destruction, fear, and frenzy. Get the Become Ethereal shout.

I recommend putting all your points in Magicka and not worrying about Enchanting till higher level. Also forget about lockpicking till about level 45. The Thief stone is more use than the Mage stone, because there is no point leveling quickly really. But various other stones are also useful.

Mage-type character's are my preferred style, and there is no one way to play as a mage... It all depends on which spells you choose to focus on...A few pointers however:

If playing as an unarmored (or low hp) mage, keep your distance! You get hit, you die, use whatever spells and shouts, to make sure your enemies don't get the chance to swing their weapon: frost spells, fear, calm, muffle, become ethereal, and slow time are some of your best weapons. If you don't have the spells, stock up on potions.

Magicka! Just like an archer needs arrows, a mage must have tons of magicka... If you run out of magicka, you die. The "novice", "apprentice", etc perks allow you to cast spells for half the cost, which means you can cast twice the amount of spells.

Back-up skills. Simply casting spells is rarely enough, a good idea is to aqcuire a few skill points in some non-magic skills, in case you face an opponent who's immune to your spells, or you run out of magic. Skills like sneak, one-handed weapons, light armor, or archery are all good choices.

Ignore "Crate"'s suggestion about "grinding" and "spamming" certain skills and spells, that is the best way to ruin the mage-experience... So yes, being a dork may be harder, but it's far more enjoyable in my experience.

I use heavy armor for that extra defence at the start *but i didnt put any perk points into it, i love Elven armor, but Also Daedric... Gah the choices*
Your best defence as a Mage is a good offence, so lvl your Destruction and Conjuration.
I also found that most of the master/expert spells i had in say Alteration/Restoration i never used and wasted points getting the respective expert/master perks to reduce their cost~ But to each their own =p
I leveled up Blacksmithing/Enchanting later on, Alchemy i started on sooner.

In the end it all comes down to how you want to play OP ^^ Check out the spells listed on the UESP and perks *you get 80 perk points in total* and plan/play from there

@Mujokan

Thanks for the detailed reply I may follow this 'guide?' as mage I love using all the schools to my advantage.

Yeah, it's giving up before you even try, grinding stuff is boring, and in the end you have no resource management to keep the game interesting.

Do the opposite of this and you might actually have some fun.
Don't forgt to show some love for more than just destruction and conjuration. Restoration is very usefull against undead and illusion is the best way to deal with groups.

If you plan to use Destruction as your primary mean of attack, you will want to dual cast your spells to benefit from the Impact perk to stagger your targets. At low levels, you will struggle, mainly because of the strain on your limited mana pool. Boost your mana as much as you can, and if you find pieces of gear that lower mana costs for Destruction, equip them.

Mages in Skyrim play best as support. In other words, you want either a follower or an Atronach / zombie / Dremora tanking for you while you blast from behind. As they are NPCs, upping the difficulty should actually make them stronger. Illusion can also be incredibly powerful to incapacitate foes if you keep improving it and perking it as you level. If you let it fall behind, though, you will have a hard time getting it to catch up, because the targets it can affect are level limited and, as you know, enemies tend to level up with you.

Alteration and any of the two armor skills are interchangeable. There are no magic penalties for wearing armor in Skyrim, and the level of armor rating you can obtain through actual armors is higher than what you will ever get with Alteration spells. On the other hand, unarmored mage robes have the best mage buffs.

You are a Khajiit. You might be interested to know that your claw attacks are pretty powerful early game. More than most basic weapons. Don't hesitate to use your claws. You also have a racial bonus to one handed, so you can also use a Bound Sword pretty effectively early on.

So is there any recommended race for a mage or any standing stone in particular which may give me a magicka benefit?

Playing the opposite makes the mage un viable the longer you play. Try playing destruction at level 81 and see exactly how long it takes to kill a daugr death lord or whatever they call it without abusing impact or zero cost enchants.

Restoration is level limited against the undead, it stops working at high levels.

What I did was go Breton and use the Apprentice stone to increase Magicka regeneration. Also I didn't get dual casting in any school. I put down some thoughts about a month ago, I think most of it is still OK though I have 100 in four schools now and the master spells. http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1325380-my-almost-pure-mage-and-how-i-play-her/ (Actually I haven't played this character too much since then as I only play her when my girlfriend is watching -- it is kind of "her character" -- and she has been away.) Also I accidentally changed to Master at some point and didn't notice. I have been playing on Master for quite a while and it all still applies.

That is only true for people who play "destruction mages" where that is their main tactic. The OP is using all schools, and if you do that, Destruction is fine without using Impact, because you have atronachs and stuff at the same time.

High Elf if you want 50 extra magicka, but apart from that it doesnt matter what you pick, just pick the one you like
I always go for the Atronach standing stone. It has it's negative, but the positives outweigh it drastically.
50 more magicka, 50% chance to absorb all spells/damage'debuffs from weapon enchantments/diseases and dragon shouts. But -50% magicka regen. *or 100, i forgot, but your magicka still regens, just much more slowly unless you use the wait feature.*

I recommend Breton, High Elf or Dark Elf for mage; but it only makes a small difference in the long run, what race you choose... Bretons are well suited for any school of magic, with the exception of destruction... furthermore they have a natural resistance to magic, which make them ideel for fighting mages (which is nice to have during the College of Winterhold questline). High elves on the other hand are even stronger mages, but (I think) they are generally weaker, which means they do more damage, but are more vulnerable in combat. Dark Elves are very versatile, and make excellent mages, battle-mages, or multi-class mages.

There are some mage-friendly standing stones... Can't remember what they do, but there's definitely the Mage stone, the Apprentice stone and the Atronach stone.

I will never get to 81. I'll be on a new character by then. I play on expert so I don't have to battle against draugr with endless health, just a tough battle. Around level 50 I've pretty much maxed out all of the skills I wanted to try on one character. To each his own, but I play to adventure, and variety adds to my experience. I don't want to grind. I'll leave that for the MMO's.

Playing as a mage on master is very tedious as you either a) have to use summons or illusion to let others fight for you or constantly run away in order to regenerate power.

I tried to play various types of mage on various settings, and found a destruction/restoration mage on adept to be the most interesting in terms of needing strategy without getting boring. While you can kill any enemy using destruction on master it can take several power bars to do it. Using conjuration or illusion is much easier and safer, but gets very boring as you have to stay out of the fight mostly.

You don't have to stay out of it, you circle round the edges casting stuff like Destruction (Atronachs are immune to their element), Fear, Frenzy, Paralysis, or maybe Soul Trap or even Expel Daedra in some cases. So you still have to monitor what is happening and aim your spells. And if you suddenly get aggro you have to run screaming or go Ethereal, which is not boring!

Oh I love to run around screaming like a lunatic... It's so much fun... Especially when you're on fire.

I meant it gets boring because any atronach can kill any enemy for you. The only variable is how long the fight takes, while the challenge or danger is pretty much zero.