I've been finding myself more interested in mages, after seeing several videos of them playing, they look like a totally awesome option for Skyrim.

For those that are playing mage? What are your personal preferences? What school/s are worth investing in? What is your general play style? Light/Heavy/Robes? Supporting skills? I've never played a mage for long in any of the other ES series...

And please, leave the "Mage svcks"/ "Mage is OP" posts out of this thread. They are pointless and there's plenty around already, go troll your favorite mage thread. Just want some good/serious tips about mage gameplay.

My first character was a pure mage on Adept, and while the mid levels were difficult due to mana starvation I found that gearing properly with Enchanting can help a lot. I'd advise doing the Mage College early for the Arch-Mage robes and a great headpiece you get on a quest. Also, get a good staff, dual cast adept bolts to stagger and switch to the staff for damage. My advice for a pure mage, using no weapon skills:

1. Conjuration or Illusion will be mostly necessary for crowd control purposes, unless you want neither and would rather roll with a melee companion like Lydia. Personal style or roleplay purposes can dictate this choice. With Conjuration, your summons Atronach summons level with you to a degree [and apparently actually start outdamaging you with their spells at high levels] while Illusion spells are level controlled but can be perked to improve them, so take this into account.

2. Enchanting. Is. A. Must. Start enchanting early and applying Destruction cost reductions to helm, ring, necklace. It's also very easy and quick to level so you'll get a lot of perks early, just perk Enchanting right up the middle of the constellation. I didn't discover enchanting until levels 20+ and if I had it would have made my teen levels far easier. Stacking cost reductions tends to be far, far more effective than either regen % or increased magicka.

3. Pick either Restoration or Alteration. Alteration is good for more passive defenses like armor and magic resistance while Restoration is good for the wards once they're perked for absorbtion and +50% Magicka regeneration, as well as more efficient heals.

4. For Destruction, Impact is a necessity, otherwise, perk it as you will. I'd advise picking two out of the 3 damage elements and focus on those, perking all 3 damage wise tends to be overkill. Runes become obsolete and are magicka intensive so don't perk those.

Alternatively, ignore Destruction and take 1 Hand instead, and be amazed how the game is 10x easier

Don't make an Altmer.

I did because they finally don't look silly, but that was a huge mistake. The weakness to magic makes you extremely gimp against dragon's breath attacks and the multitude of other mages you face through the college of Winterhold quests. I quit my character and if I made another it'd likely be a Breton.

Altmer in Skyrim have no such weakness anymore.

Altmer racial perks are:

+50 Magicka
Highborn Ability (10x Magicka regen for 60s once a day)

@jock
do you think perking bound weapon in enchanting will make it a viable fall back? as to perking one hand weps?

Make your mage an Altmer. DO IT.

The +50 Magicka is a huge boost at the start (I rolled both Altmer and Breton, played 'em till lvl 10 before sticking to the Altmer) and the racial ability? You will want to make sweet sweet love to your Altmer the first time you get ambushed by 2 dragons at once and you're out of Mana and you hit that Highborne button...and your Magicka just skyrockets although you are pumping out summons and fireballs non stop. It's a huge blessing for any mage.

You will "need" to keep your Conjuration and Destruction fairly equal and as high as you possibly can while leveling in order to be able to play comfortably. The other schools help...but not a lot. Get the Impact perk for Destruction as soon as you can as well as the buffs to your Atronachs from Conjuration.

I'm a bit unclear on the effectiveness (or reduction thereof) of your spells because of Armor. I'm currently using clothes/Robes only. I find that if your fireball dodging and WASD skills are up to speed, you can avoid a lot of the damage that otherwise you would be tanking and relying on armor to mitigate. The ALT sprint key is going to be your best friend for a long long time till you get some of the cooler shouts.