fortify *magicskill has to increase its damage by a small% as well as the current magicka cost reduction.

For example, Fortify Destruction 15% currently reduces cost by 15%, also make it increase damage by 5%.

Mod this asap..someone..

Well, the game doesn't have classes to begin with.

Think for a moment, what is a rogue? It's a playstyle and a couple of skills, specifically

One-Handed Weapons
Light Armor (However, where it gets sorta funny is that the reason you use light armor is because it makes less noise, making sneaking possible, but Sneaking has a pe that removes the noise from armor!)
Sneak
Archery
Lockpicking (DO NOT EVER PUT POINTS INTO THIS, it's trivial to pick locks without any skill points)


None of these skills are reliant on stamina. Stamina is used for Power Attacks (which you rarely make in sequence, and the game is overloaded with stamina potions/food), running and using the zoom perk on the bow. They're all cute, but none of them are important.

Lol but that is boring in my opinion. i prefer some stratergy. hehe.

Heavy armor doesn't get Magicka/Regen bonuses. So you'd become a Warrior that knows a bit of magic.

what about those people who don't use illusion or conjuration, and prefer pure dps caster archetypes?

Apparently you have not heard of Enchanting.

I'm not a mage and can feel your pain. I'm a sneak character that uses one-handed and archery, but unlike Oblivion I'm dipping into magic. And pretty much the only one I find myself using consistently is restoration because I know at least that works. I mean I'm fighting a flame atronach, shoudnt my frost spell devour it? Nope, switch to axe, cut it down in a few seconds.

Sure it does. When you enchant gear yourself it doesn't care about the quality of the item you're using as base, just what item slot it occupies. So you can enchant your legendary bone armor with magicka bonuses if you want. Personally I have it all enchanted with carry capacity because it's such a pain.

Live with their choices?
I mostly use Destruction and Restoration and I'm doing fine.

Right but aren't you going to end up with a rogue with heavy armor and a resevoir of magicka and high health. Which isn't really a rogue. That's what i mean though. Yes you put your points in those skills but you are raising your other stats which basically doesnt make sense. Why put points in light armor when you can put those points in heavy armor and get the benefits of sneak while wearing better armor. Why would a rogue ever use light armor? Why would anyone? It basically renders light armor useless.

The best possible character if you are a rogue is high health with high magic as well and heavy armor. It also makes daggers pointless except in situations for backstab. But use a heavy weapon in battle.

Thats what I mean. It wants you to be a warrior with magic abilities even if you are a rogue. Use a dagger for backstab then switch to a shield and heavy weapon. You arent going to be as strong as a warrior because you arent going to have the shield and heavy weapon skills. You are going to have sneak abilities and light weapons instead. This is why in battle a warrior is going to be much more powerful.

Yes as a rogue you get the advantage of that first strike but after that you are at a disadvantage.

well thats their fault and they are not using their mage abilites to their full potential. lol. but srysly thats like saying a thief only uses one dagger and one empty hand. i think.

I do fine too, warriors just do twice as fine with having to heal way less

And I have a feeling as I level past 30 I'll being to do less fine, since my spell damage isn't getting any better but mobs are.

Well yeah. The rogue as such doesn't really exist in this game. You can use leather armor for Aesthetic purposes if you want, but if you want to be effective you're going to be a heavily armed warrior that uses sneaking to get the first attack.


Think for a moment. Of these two candidates, who should be more effective. Both of them are fully invested in Magic and they're both using a full set of magic armor.

Candidate 1 is using spells to kill this enemies.
Candidate 2 is using a 2-handed weapon and bow.

Currently candidate 2 is vastly more effective, even though he's not even invested in his weapons.

This is completely invalid. None of the archetypes the OP posted had to use all 6 of the primary archetype skills to be viable. Even if he did it still wouldn't kill as fast with as much protection and uptime.

The assassin the OP tested did not need a single thief skill btw. Just black smithing and one hand.

The problem is as a rogue you are putting points into sneak and light weapons instead of shield abilities and heavy weapons. You get the advantage of that first strike backstab but after that a warrior is going to be much more powerful. This is why it's not balanced and a straight warrior is going to be more powerful. A rogue isnt going to have points in shield bash and heavy weapons so they are going to be weaker after that first strike. Or am I wrong?

Light armor is also rendered completely useless and invalid as I added to my last post as well. Why would a rogue use light armor when sneak basically makes heavy armor quiet.

What difficulty are all the people who consider an archetype not powerful enough playing on?

As I always do on my first playthrough, I played the game on the default difficulty and I had absolutely no problems playing as a pure mage.
In fact especially when I got some quite powerful items from the College of Winterhold quests the game started feeling way too easy.
Nothing could touch me because of the stagger on dual cast talent. I killed pretty much every enemy in the main quest and College quests by just spamming dual cast firebolt. Everything just kept flinching while I fired away.

Most tougher enemies could obviously 1 shot me and I sometimes ran out of magicka, but potions and the High Elf power prevented this from becoming an actual problem.

I focused most on Destruction and Restoration.

I'm playing a Nord Battlemage (focus on Destruction, Restoration, Heavy Armor, One-handed [sword], and Smithing). At level 14 I'd say its pretty balanced. Magic is so much better in this game I might (for the first time) play a mage without armor. Even starting with a Nord - who is NOT cut out to be a mage - things are going very well. I'm just not sure what people are complaining about.

At the same time some of the enemies are really tough and if I didn't have Shouts I'm not sure I'd be doing as well. Skyrim is challenging me in ways OB never did. I suspect if I played an Altmer "pure" Mage I would totally own the game - this way its more challenging and fun.

If the warrior is using a shield, then he's also putting points into one-handed weapons. You're the one doing more damage, since you're the one not wasting a hand on a shield.

So basically i have to throw out the window what I traditionally consider a rogue, mage etc as far as fantasy is concerned. Which is really hard to do.

Skyrim Mages are surely mana intensive.

I'm aproaching level 18 and I find my mage has the best survivability when using both the alteration armor spell and the restoration ward spell at the same time.

The alteration spell is a buff you throw on before or refresh during combat and the ward spell is a mana draining damage shield that you use to block a blow or spell, when combined and with ample mana regen you will find you can brush aside quite a deal of punishment.

Just be carefull not to let a blow get through, with 100hp you'll be crushed if they hit you without your shields up.

I know oblivions levelling system was horky too. I could never get my brain around it lol. It was backwards.

Sort of.

While the game pretends it supports the blasto-mage, it doesn't since Destruction isn't actually viable. However it does support the warrior-mage archetype which is quite common in fantasy fiction (That is a proper warrior that uses utility magic). It pretends it supports classical rouges, however due to the perks system being a bit messed up, the lightly armored sneaky rogue is just silly. However it does support the more heavy duty Conan style rogue, a proper warrior that uses sneaking to his advantage.

In the end I think almost all characters will end up being a heavily armed warrior, that uses sneaking/lockpicking/archery/magic when convenient.

Trying to use Magic or Daggers as your main means of attack will only lead to pain and suffering.

where is the youtube movie of the mage?

I'm playing as a bow using thief type and no issues at all on hard difficulty.

Its this. My warrior has to go into direct combat. With a mage, you can use Illusion to hide yourself, you can paralyse enemies. You can use calm and frenzy, you can summon creatures and deal damage with destruction magic. As a mage you shouldnt expect to walk into a dungeon and lay waste with a fire spell, you have to use all the resources at your advantage.