Platform: PC
Mods: None
Difficulty: Master

I'm approaching the 200 hour mark of my first and only play through of Skyrim. I am playing as a mage. The destruction and conjuration perk trees on my character are pretty much maxed out, both skills are at 100.

Over this entire last year there have been a lot of threads discussing whether or not a pure destruction mage is underpowered. It seems like most people agree that it is but there are a number of people who fiercly argue that a pure destruction mage is not underpowered. This has left the mere mortals (of which I am one) to be unsure of the truth.

I don't really know anything about the underlying math that drives Skyrim including how damage is calculated to the statistical affects of varying strenghts of perks - nor do I care. I am no power player. But now, at 200 hours, I can clearly state how the game plays by having simply played it.

Take a dragon fight for example. It can be any kind of dragon really. If I want to take a dragon down using the best destruction spells, it is going to be one looooonnnnnngggg fight - and I have zero issues with mana availability and zero issues with mana regeneration. Each successful hit will remove only pixels of the dragon's health. In the meantime, I have to be careful not to get hit by the dragon - ever. One hit is usually all it will take as I have a small health pool and my protection from armor is insignificant. On the other hand, this isn't to say that such fights are NOT fun - they are. Trying to stay alive by not getting hit ever while killing a dragon 'by a thousand cuts' is actually a lot of fun for me personally.

Now if I decide to take out the same kind of dragon by conjuring up a couple of Dremora Lords, the fight will be over as soon as the dragon lands and it will be under 15 seconds - add perhaps another 10 to 15 seconds for stronger dragons.

So there you have it. No math. No statistics. Just the gameplay. If you are wondering if a pure destruction mage is underpowered I'd answer with an emphatic 'yes.' But that doesn't mean the game is NOT fun because that depends on the player. If you're like me and you enjoy the thrill of only being able to peck at your foe little by little while your foe as the ability to one-shot you - then the game can be quite 'fun.' If you don't like that kind of thing then a pure destruction mage probably isn't for you. If you are neutral to this outcome but find the imbalance distasteful, then a destruciton mage is not for you. Unless you're on the PC and you can mod the destruction mage gameplay to your liking.

Hmmm I usually play a mage but I haven't been able to to get very far into the game as a pure mage the farthest I have been is to level 23. So can I ask what did you do to make your mage successful because I'm definitely doing something wrong.

Anyway but I agree with you 100% on your last paragraph.

Originally I just wanted to play a pure destruction mage, max out the destruction mage perk tree, and then use remaining perk points for non-combat skills such as enchanting, alchemy, sneaking, pickpocketing and so on.

All the time in the universe to play Skyrim coupled with my patience to get through lengthy fights given the anemic strength of destruction spells after around Level 25ish - I would have played exactly that way. But I don't have all the time in the universe. So I went ahead and added conjuration to my repertoire.

How I play in any given Skyrim gaming session is a function of how much play time I have for that gaming session and the number of things I want to accomplish.

If I have 4 hours of time to play and only want to get 1 or 2 things accomplished, I will play as a pure destruction mage taking the time it takes to slowly chip away at opponents using destruction spells. If I have 30 minutes of time to play and want to get 10 things done before my play time is up, anything that gets in my way will have things quickly 'explained' to them by my two Dremora Lords.

But like I started out saying, if I had all the time in the universe I'd play a destruction mage all the time. But many times that requires too much time when there are so many other interests I have with the game besides combat.

Congratz buddy !(hope i can call you buddy without offending no one)

OK that makes sense