I keep reading posts extolling the vittues of Illusion magic, but I can't get to grips with it ! Maybe I fell out of the Thicko tree, but could someone explain what makes it so good? Being able to make level 6 creatures turn on each other doesn't sound very impressive to me . Please enlighten me as I feel I may be missing out !

What's not great about getting enemies to kill each other? At low levels, Illusion seems to fail a lot. My current character's Illusion sklll is so weak that Fury fails to work on most Imperial soldiers.

But it's a skill that pays off big dividends once you get to Adept and Expert levels. The Master level Illusion spell, Mayhem is so powerful it's nearly a gamebreaker. When going through Skuldafn one time I kept casting it and I barely had to engage in any kind of combat. All but one Draugr on the roof of the temple were dead when I got there. And the one that wasn't dead had about a quarter of his health left.

Calm is okay but Pacify is really strong. You can stop an entire group of enemies in their tracks, pick out one at a time and kill them that way.

It's biggest drawback is that you have to get to level 90 before it works on the undead and automotons. That perk should come earlier but oh well. Work on it and you'll see that it's one of the most powerful skills in the game.

I used illusion a lot with one of my characters.

Muffle makes you completely silent and Invisibility makes you invisible (obviously). It helps tremendously with sneaking even when you don't have good sneak skill. You can backstab everyone in broad daylight. You just need muffle to make Falmer caves easy, because falmer are blind.

I think this is good enough to justify the whole tree. Everything else is a bonus.

If you level up illusion and take perks that makes illusion work on more powerful opponents, you can calm, fury, or fear almost everybody. It doesn't work on dragons or automata. It's quite fun to play around with it sometimes. As far as I know, these spells don't work on boss characters like briarhearts, but works on everybody below that. If you are in a boss fight with many lesser creatures, you can disable everyone in the room or make them help you kill the boss. Speaking of briarhearts, you can just go invisible with muffle and pickpocket the heart for an instant kill.

Another good perk in illusion tree is quiet casting. If you take this perk. You can sit in a corner of the room and keep conjuring whatever until everyone dies. Nobody will ever find you.

Illusion has mind control spells- they make the enemies win the game for you with sufficient skill.

Illusion has muffle/invisibility. Combining these with stealth and stealth damage outcompetes
Stealth alone. Sprinting in dungeons while invisibile and muffled, instantly cutting combqt by recasting, being completely undetectable outdoors while moving at full clip, list goes on.

Either of these paths can make you very powerful, or you can use both, but really just one or the other is enough.

Yep, what they all said. I didn't start messing around with it until my Assassin chick was very high, but it works well with all/most of the perks. I mainly use it just to be Impish.

Well, since this is the Hints/Spoilers forum, here's a tip on building up your Illusion skill because it can take a godawful long time to do it normally. Go to any tavern where an NPC never leaves. Bartenders are good. Then cast Calm at them over and over and over again. Cast it until your magicka runs out, wait an hour, and do it again. It's tedious but in a relatively short time you can get to Adept level and begin having a lot of fun with the skill. Once you get the Pacify spell, the same trick works even faster.

IIRC you can also spam Muffle (you don't even have to wait for it to wear off).

Keep casting courage at your follower, it got me to level 35 in like 20 casts (from 25)

Assuming you can afford to cast it, muffle has
And always will be fastest.

Dual casting Frenzy, while having perks in both branches that lead to Master of Mind, will allow you to eliminate certain undesirables (such as Ondolemar and his Thalmor stooges), without raising too much attention to yourself.

well I have to say, as others have before, I have head so much fun with illusion. Basically making someone go insane and kill their friend/partner/loved one and then resurrecting that person to kill their killer has brought me so much fun and satisfaction in this game...................... and no i dont have a mental problem lol

...but do the voices in your head have mental problems?

There is so much I need to learn...

I love this forum.

The thing it will do for Briarhears, is let yo sneak up to them and pickpocket the Briarheart from their inventory and that kills them instantly. At least it did on my stealthy character a bit ago......
So while it may not work directly on them it will allow you to easily handle them if you want.

http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1371707-the-trickster-build-discussion-challenge/page__fromsearch__1
The Trickster is reliant on Illusion and it makes the game so much more entertaining. Being a puppet master outplays being a brute with an axe any day

I just started using Clairvoyance in the Elder Knowledge quest, which takes place in a huge Dwemer ruin called Alftand. Even with the map location indicator on I had trouble finding my way through. The Clairvoyance spell actually shows you the correct path to take.

The other spell I'm using now that I've reached Master level is Call to Arms. I use this on my follower when we enter a cave etc. and he starts to chicken out by saying "I don't have a good feeling about this place." This spell improves their combat skills, health and stamina for 10 min! The novice level spell is Courage, which only lasts 1 min. I cast that on Lydia and she said "I've never been more ready!"

That beats the crap out of my method. So, OP, do that.

I just started a new game with an orc assassin that uses illusion after reading some posts about the combination. It has been one the best characters I have ever played.

I actually did both. I killed all but one of the mages in the outside area of Fellglow Keep and just kept casting Muffle repeatedly on myself and Calm/Pacify on the mage until I hit 90.

When I'm out roaming, I've got Ebonyflesh in one hand, and Calm in the other. That gives me plenty of time to get either Incinerate, or my bound bow with soul trap perk.

You can also have Fun With Frost Trolls by hitting them with Calm, then Incinerate, then Calm, etc. etc.

The one thing I can't get the hang of, is Frenzy... bandits always eventually come after me! I've even tried practicing on the mudcrab ponds west of Whiterun; I think I should try being invisible and Muffling first.

(grammar edit)

I'm not a magey character-player, so I usually only employ a select few spells. I use invisibility as an adjunct to pickpocketing and for little else. Aside from that, I find no real need for the other spells (in the illusion school).

Thanks people ! I'm still not totally convinced, but I'll give it a bash . Appreciate your contributions !

You have frenzy what's not to like about that, i still remember the days when i cast frenzy in Arcane University in Oblivion, good times

The powers of Illusion became (once again) really obvious to me yesterday. I am playing on Master difficulty at the moment, haven't exploited the crafting skills at all yet, and I haven't put any points into health. Bandit Marauders can kill me by accidentally bumping into me with their weapon or with their erring arrows, aimed at my imbecile and strafing follower.

So, I was infiltrating a fortress full of bandits, mostly Marauders. There were several rooms with 2 or more bandits inside. Jenassa was acting extraordinarily stupid on that day, so she wouldn't have been much help if we got the attention of the bandits.

I got through this fort with the help of Frenzy.



I also used Frenzy to solve In My Time of Need yesterday - shooting a Frenzy at the Alikiir gangsters before they had actually seen me took care of them nicely, and then I dualcasted Calm at their leader to have the conversation with him before stabbing him in his back. This was very, very nice.

Barring all usage in combat, its just too fun to use fury to turn guards against each other or something or turn everyone against the thalmor. I always loved using fury (the one with the area of effect, forgot the exact name) on the thalmor and watch them whittle each other with their elven maces, screaming "ELVEN SUPREMACY IS THE ONLY TRUTH!!!" While i have a hearty chortle on the sidelines

Also, it can be used to kill people without you getting bounty, as long as they don't realize it was you who casted the first fury spell. i would fury a random guard in the jarl's abode and watch everyone swarm upon that poor sod. And i soultrap that poor sod.