Hi there fellows.
In every game i play as mage archetype, so i started a mage in Skyrim as well.
Today i finally raised my destruction to 75 and learned expert spells. And i decided to test them. So i walk to a cave bear having ice spear in both hands, i cast and it... i hit him for 15-20% of his hp.
WTF?!?!
It took 1/3 of my mana pool (which is 500 magicka), i also have 250% magicka regeneration.
How am i suppost to kill that thing this magic?! What is the point of such a lame destruction spells damage?! 90 damage with augented frost (frost spells do 50% more damage).
I have assasin caracter aswell, with blade of woe, sneaking up to a giant i can kill him with one single hit. Why is this so imbalanced?!
Speak up you mind guys. Because i am desperate, the only way i see play as a mage is lvl up conjuration and kill mobs with daedra/undead minions (which is pretty gay in my opinion.)
Because we dont have spellmaking now, we have to use these lame spells.

Have you tested other encounters? Fire vs X, lightening vs Y? Just looking at your post, you may have thrown ice at a bear that resists frost (note the fur)...

Destruction isn't lame. Look what I have managed to do to this Orc with it!!!
http://i28.lulzimg.com/16abef1155.jpg

it's too early for me to come to a definite conclusion but it does seem like you say .

I wouldnt mind the spells doing the damage they do now if there magic cost wasnt so great , it's annoying when it takes so many spells to kill something and you run out of mana. And mana seems to become more and more of a problem . Dunno maybe i'll reach a stage were mana isnt so bad.

1. Spellmaking was broken.

2. Characters who exclusively focus on something are weak. A character taking only 2h talents (but no blacksmithing, no alchemy, no enchanting, no block etc) is gonna have your same problems. Spend some in Conjuration. Skill up enchanting and boost your magic through your gear. You'll get awesome results.

Do bears have resistant to frost? Fire is the way to go.

I kill in two dualcast firebolts. Which is two tiers lower.

Fixed.

Spells svck in this game, deal with it. I somehow doubt Bethesda is going to deal with it. I'm waiting for a mod to fix it too.

Yeah it is svcks.
In Oblivion, even with that horrible lvl system on lvls 30+ i could be able to kill the most powerfull mobs with two spells (1st one was weakness to fire,frost and lighing, 2nd one with fire,frost and lighting damage). It normally would consume almost all of my mana, but i was happy to feel like a powerfull destruction mage.
What do we got in Skyrim?! We dont have "weakness" spells and we dont have spell making !
I am a archmage of the College of Winterhold, expert in Destruction and my lvl is 25.
Oh and i am Dragonborn.
But to kill a simple cave bear i have to spend half a minute, running circles around him. This is ridiculous.
Oblivions magic system was crippled, but we have managed because we had spellmaking, not it is still crippled, without spellmaking.
God i am SO GLAD that i am playing it on PC and i can mod it.
Maybe some of you guys who play Skyrim on adept on lower wont notice that, but on master beiing a destruction mage on high lvls is so lame.

Lightning drains magicka, frost drains stamina, fire is just pure damage. Bears, trolls, spriggans and many other animals are weak to fire. Don't cast frost spells at frost-based enemies. I've found that the right type of destruction spell will kill any creature with less than a third of your magicka

It only takes two or three Firebolt spells. You're doing something very wrong. And with impact you should never have to run around anyone ever.

Have you just never perked destruction? This is what it's beginning to sound like. No +50%, no dual cast, no impact. Then I could see what you're doing happening.

What difficulty do you play? Novice?!

The default difficulty, whatever that may be.

I hope you're not playing the hardest difficulty then turning around to complain it's too hard.

you're doing it wrong.

First, ice is the least damging element.
Second, IT'S A BEAR, they're probably resistant to cold!

Oh, and I nearly forgot.
PERKS, PICK THEM!

If you go out of mana in single target combat on a mage your playing your character wrong.

I didn't realize "fur" was resistant to a spear of ice being hurled at you.

Oh wow, you killed a bandit. CONGRATS BRO, that must have been so difficult.


The level of disparity between melee and magic is absurd. Sneak attack damage multiplier trumps any magic spell combination available.

LMAO, adept. That's easy mode right there. You want an ACTUAL challenge, play a mage on Master.

I have mine set to expert and I can do about the same. 3 or 4 hits with duel firebolts usually kills bears. I can cook most bandits alive using only 1. I find magic to be quite powerful, I've killed high leveled enemies with magic when all melee got me was two axes implanted into my skull.

You must be blind, no offence
1. That Orc is no bandit, that's an Old Orc and it's tougher than a normal bandit.
2. Do you see the 2 sabre cats? Yeah. Did you think they died doing it doggystyle? Ofc not. I killed them!! -.-' !

I killed 2 sabre cats and an old orc without even depleting 50% of my magicka. I'm still level 14. Playing on Expert. The OP is obviously doing it wrong.

that's the case in every other RPG since forever.

Sneak attacks require sneak, a very big disadvantage.

Try some of the other magic schools

Ironically Mage wasn't too bad despite being 1 shot by any medium sized enemy.

The real shocker was the only thing that really stopped me was enemy necromancers etc. They shield far to well // much with ridiculous mana pools. I could kite Z alt etc away and kill anything - except a mage.

p.s. flame atronauch saved my life 7 or 8 or.. 47 times ish..

edit: yes on Master

As some of you guys suggested , i tried fire.
Dual casting incerate, with augmented flames (50% more fire damage).
Guess what?!
Nothing!
With 500(!!!) magicka i only was able to cast TWO dual casting spells and that bear was about 60% health!
Half of magicka for 20% of a simple bear!
I am playing on master, and dont start on me this that "lower the difficulty", as i said before with my assasin i kill a giant with a single hit !!! (on master difficulty of course).

I killed 2 sabre cats and an old orc without even depleting 50% of my magicka.

rofl sure , and how you did that ? one shooted all 3 with 1 spell?

get the perk that lowers magicka cost.


And no, you won't be able to one-shot them.