You are lvl 15 and want to just OWN? I suggest turning the difficulty down to novice, also don't just dump all your points into magicka, health is good too.

@OP: The folks on here delight on telling you to learn 2 play because:

a) They don't play Mages themselves
or
They think letting your summons and your companions do all your work for you qualifies as valid gameplay.

My advice to you? Wait till the Construction Kit is released. The first mod that will be out will be to fix the god awful magic in this game and implement spell making.

You are not alone.

*places hand on shoulder*

Crab my question is .. When I get to let's say level 40 will I have some more powerful destruction spells?? I read somewhere here that says the Spells are just weakkk. Right now I have the chain lightning that does 40 per second and goes to another person but someone told me thats the highest spell there was for lightning and that's just stupid to me

Warrior-type damage comes from weapons.
Mage-type damage comes from spells.

Weapon damage scales with 1h/2h skill.
Spell damage does not scale with destruction skill.

Go ahead. Try to argue against it.

Nope. Us pure casters just know how to use Destruction magic in Skyrim.

Thank you atterana but I have it for console makes me mad because I love everything else about the damn game

I posted this in another thread, but I've seen my spell damage go up, and I haven't taken any perks in Destruction (except for the mana-reduction ones).

Edit: Also, from the other thread. Everyone whining about how Destruction is weak hasn't been using other skills to augment their character. If you try playing a warrior who only uses and perks one type of weapon, then you're going to get owned.

Find the elemental weakness of your current enemy, and the scaling is moot.

How nice. How's novice difficulty working out for you?

So exactly my point bladerunner it DOESNT level up. THAT'S [censored]

How much did your damage go up, with what spell, what skill in destruction, and what level are you? Others are not seeing what you are seeing.

Hey everybody! Let's all play a character type that takes a bit more thinking and planning than other types, and then lets NOT think or plan our fights out and see what happens hmm??

Please... lvl 38 mage here and I have no problem getting the job done.

You know there's more destro spells than just flame and spark right?

Get your skill up, get expert+ spells, and then judge the game if you want.

Yea yea plan plan plan to summon people to do the job for you

/thread

Flames started at 8 damage per second. It's now at 15. Same with the other Novice spells (just in cast you didn't read the part about no perks in damage).

Firebolt was at 25 when I found the tome. It's now at 35. Ditto for Lightning Bolt and Ice Spike.

I've already said that I'm willing to accept that this could be the result of a tiny patch that I missed, but I haven't heard anything about it. And I'm dead sure about the numbers.

Uh newsflash - You're a MAGE.

The Warrior has his shield you have a familiar.

I am playing a Warrior in the late 30s right now. I have to spend perks in 4 relevant trees. My question is why shouldn't a Mage have to?

I currently have my perks tied up in Heavy Armor, One Handed, Blocking and Smithing.
If I was running around with Lockpicking, Speech, Pickpocket and One Handed I wouldn't be doing as well as I am.
I don't see why a Mage with Lockpicking, Speech, Pickpocket and Destruction would be doing any better.
A Mage with Alteration, Illusion, Conjuration and Destruction would be doing quite well on the other hand.

The big difference I see is my abilities are primarily passive and the Mage's abilities are not.
Warrior certainly takes less work than a Mage. But when has that been different in any RPG?

Dungeons and Dragons Warriors had armor and a sword. Mages had massive lists of spells, bags of potions, wands and staves.
Most Mages use snares to kite, use pets to distract or use roots and nukes. Ever play a Wizard in the original Everquest?
The Arcane Warrior in Dragon Age is the only time passive based Mage that comes to mind and they're pretty much Warriors...

Mages choose to play a very active class.
I am sorry but you're not going to just get to hold down flamethrower and do what I do when you decided on playing the class with the least passive perks in the game.

A Mage should be a beast!! By himself that's just my opinion

I would love to know how that damage is going up, discounting any damage perks (the 2 that are available).

Very well said!

They already are if you know how to play one. That's most peoples' point here.

Going around just spamming flamethrower isn't "playing a mage".

Well thank you all I wasn't trying to start anything I was just wanting to express my frustration somewhere. And I know a lot of you see a brighter side than I do maybe if I play a Breton instead of dark elf I'll do better. It just really pissed me off because I was so excited for this game. /end of rant

Any mage I ever read about tended to send in warriors to soak up damage.
The only time I remember destruction magic being used (or equivalent) was Gandalf fighting the Balrog - and that was just to distract the thing while the fall killed it.