All of these are amazing with the word being the biggest draw for me.

Oddly enough, even fists do more damage than spells by the end of the game. Remember that perk that translates armor rating into damage? Well, with the right perks you can get gauntlets that have around 120-150 armor...plus power attacks. Heh. Heh. Hehehehehehehe.....

Iam using Shock Magic mostly and to me it seems that they can run out of Magicka. Even Dragons. At least they start meleeing pretty soon or in case of Dragons sit there and stare at me up on the Tower sometimes.

Edith edited: For the unworthy worms who dont know the power that is the mighty Shock: Shock Magick drains Magicka.

Exactly - Agree 100% with OP

Yes this is just insane to me, fist more powerful than a fireball or a wall of ice.

It's possible that using magicka drain effects cancels out their unlimited magicka. All i really know is that NPC's can use far more magicka than i've ever seen a PC mage use. But when i see a mage shoot off about 20 ice spikes in the course of 5 seconds or so, and keep right on chugging them out, i start getting a wee bit suspicious, y'know?

I've never done 4000 damage with a sword before, then again I don't use enchanting or blacksmithing.

I have one worse, ice storm after ice storm. I had to run in a hut and shoot shock spells and my bow like crazy until I new her magicka was low then I rushed and finished her off with a sword.

Yeah, 4000 damage per power attack is likely relying on the x30 sneak multiplier stealth characters use, as well as smithing and enchanting. Still, mages should be able to compare at least to some extent...especially at the endgame.

It would be great to have a perk that makes AoE effects not hit your allies, that would help >.>

Hey guys, can i ask what difficulty everyone is playing on? I mean if mage-play is weaker at expert/master level, its more a case of the other skills being too op (i think, seeing as it is a harder difficulty) but if it's on adept then i can totally understand that destro would need to be powered up a little. BTW, i play on adept, not a masochist

See, that is for your personal preference and roleplaying I assume. They are there fully functional in varied displays of power you have the option to use it or not. Spells creation on the other hand guess what its gone.

I will say that I'd like more frequent updates to spells. Not necessarily spell making, but how incinerate was a direct upgrade for firebolt, and could simply have been called firebolt II.

Also I think spells should have a minimum mana cost.

Also would love it if wards were more useful.

Also for a very diverse mage like myself since i use 4 spell schools very heavily having to switch out equipment based on which spells I need to cast is a giant pita. Need to be able to enchant fortifies for all spell schools. Would use more mana but I don't care I'd rather use a mana pot more often then have to switch gear all the time.

What are you asking for then? The way I have been using destruction works great and I play on master, I mainly use a combo of traps and frost to slow down and paralyze melee enemies. It works great for me, but then again I don't rely soley on destruction to kill everything I see. Then again, I don't really rely on any one skill to kill stuff for me, I tend to use all of them since I play perma death on master difficulty. If I wanted to use to just one skill to win all the time I would put the difficulty on the lowest setting possible.

Spell creation alone would open up so many option for us mages.

It would be awesome if they put in a "Spell Crafting" skill, perhaps...or maybe just made it linked to your level in the skill. Rather than make new ones necessarily, you can upgrade the old ones you get?

Then, rather than have everyone have the same spells, you put cool unique spells all over the place. They wouldn't have to be all that different from eachother, just enough to tell the difference, y'know? You could have Flames, Level 2, from the Mages College, with 16 damage/second and 32 magicka/second, and you could have Plume of Flames from a random dungeon that does 20 damage/second for 30 magicka/second, but with less range. And then you could collect fire salts and dragon's tongues and use them to enhance the spell for you, just like smithing for weapons.

Plus, i totally want Baranoff's Bloody Icicle back.

What we are asking for, what we are lamenting is the loss
Why cant I cast invisibility on my companion?
Why am I stuck with 60 sec. of magelight? I want to increase both its magnitude and duration. (Yes I have eyesight troubles)
Where is waterwalk? What? I know there isnt much water but why must my mage swim?
Same for locks. Where is my open spell?
Why cant I single cast 3-7 effects at once instead of going into the menu for every single spell?

asking nothing.
Wanting to know why standards arent being kept, why there must be such a simplification.
Asking?
Right.
Why are mages so incredible worse of, in a TES game
Why, when you know what people like, you know what works, and you know what got you the awards.

You are keeping to your argument that everybody is directly talking about destruction.

For me its spell creation and lack of spells. Last I checked them two related to all schools.

Also yes destruction is useless if not supplemented with another thing like a sword, or atronach or companion. I use ALL of my tools as a mage but this does not change fact.

Also why cant I decrease my light or magelight spell in case I wish to briefly light the area and try not to gavi away my position if I need to see something?

I cant defend magic as a main pure mage player... I only got 1/5th of the spells & effects from former TES games and pretty much no utility more than stagger.

Give me back my spells god damnit! ;(

This is a major issue people are overlooking it for some reason, some people only wish to focus on destruction.

Right I forgot about that.
Where is dispel?
Honestly. dispel?

The thing is, even for a mage using multiple spell schools, it simply doesn't make sense to use Destruction compared to any other damage dealing method. Destruction does far less damage and scales far worse than every other damage method, so it's far more effective to shoot an arrow than a fireball, where the arrow will do more damage AND leave you with more mana for your other spells.

The only purpose of Destruction is to deal damage, but there are several other skills which serve this purpose much more effectively. I honestly can't think of any reason why any build of character would ever be better off with Destruction, or bother casting Destruction spells at all, compared to the other damage skills.

From my own experience, I played a spellsword, but eventually realized I was much better off just replacing my Destruction spells with a cheap dagger. I killed things faster and had more mana for my defense, healing and utility spells. For a pure mage, using all those other schools only becomes more effective if you drop Destruction entirely, shoot arrows instead, and save that mana for your other spells.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention it got axed with other useful abilities and spell creation.

So, really what this all boils down to is that you're upset about the lack of spells in this game and with that I will agree, its disappointing. But it is what it is, and you have to look at games these days differently then we did 10+ years ago because the expectations are different and people care less about those missing spells than they do about playing a challenging game. Thats just the way it is, as games become ever more complex there are ever more things to balance and combat/animations become a chore, these aren't 2d worlds we play in anymore fellas. Companies cannot spend as much time adding depth as they would like to because they have to spend more of it making the actual world feel real and full of life. Its a trade off that hopefully will even out again in a few years, maybe the depth will come back when technology makes it easier for independant gaming companies to enter the market again. For now, we have to accept and make the most of what we have.

And lets be honest, anyone complaining about this game is a sad person. Being able to play video games is a privelage that 99.9% of the world just doesn't have, and even less so in generations past. You should all feel privelaged just to be able to sit down at your PC or console and enjoy such a great game as this while many people in the world are starving right now.

Mage is still easy on Master, though it is more difficult on Adept then Melee is on Master.