Hi guys, after playing a warrior to around level 38 and finally starting to understand most of the game mechanics, I'm working on planning out my pure mage.

So far my plans are to make a Breton pure mage, who will have Destructions spells for free due to gear, and capped Magic Resistance, most likely focused on Shock as a main dmg type. His main spell lines will be Dest, Conj, and Illusion, unless alteration is really neccesary?? I was hoping some of the more experienced pure mages could impart some knowledge on me.

First off, what perks are generally considered to be completely neccesary?

I was wondering, if you have 80-85% magic resistance, is it still neccesary to have very high Fire/frost/shock resistance as well?

Any recomendations for gear? I want to wear robes, and I figure 3-4 enchantments will be taken up by Fortify Destruction enchanments. Besides that I have no ideas really.

What is the best way to mitigate physical dmg? Are the flesh spells and alteration perks that increase them very neccesary/ really that good?

Also one thing that has been bugging me is how difficult is it going to be to level Destruction, and reach a level where my enchanting can lower the cost of Dest spells enough, without taking the apprentice/adept/ etc, Dest. perks?

Thanks all for the advice. I'm really hoping to make this guy my main character, and I really want to avoid making a bunch of poor decisions like I did with my poor lvl 38 Tank.

Thanks!!!

First off mate, save yourself a lot of frustration, hassle and major disapointment and ignore alteration armor spells. Just wear armor, there is no downside to it. If you going destro mage, take the damage perks but ignore the 1/2 cast perks since your going to make free casting gear. Magic resistance works best for all types, with other resistances getting added after it. Desctruction is a bit underpowered so make plenty of fortify destro potions, and I suggest using a fair bit of illusion and or conjuration to back you up. Summons and conjured weaponry are very effective early to mid game, with summons working well even late game.

The alteration armor spells look good on paper at first, but are completely pointless in the long run and the master spell is total BS to be frank. And just so you know I am playing a pure mage atm so my advice is sound and based on experience.

Appreciate the fast response. Thanks.

Any ideas on the quickest way to get some good gear with fortify destruction. Even if its not 100% i figure 1/2 cost from gear would help a whole ton.

I will offer completely opposite advice than Lex concerning Alteration...

Religiously using the Protection spells before every fight will level your Alteration skill quickly (which you need to get MR perks, which are awesome). I have been having a blast as a pure mage (no armor) by using a Bound Sword in one hand and my most powerful "skin" spell in the other and just casting both of them at the same time before every fight. I know the Bound sword will get outleveled by enemies eventually, but it will be a fun ride getting my onehanded up to 100, and supplementing my melee damage with bursts of fire/ice/lightning. Anyway, you can wear armor AND do the protection spell before every fight if you want... it will eliminate having to train/grind alteration for the MR perks.

Also, you might want to skip getting both Illusion and Conjuration together, as they fill the same purpose (crowd control) and are superfluous together. Using the Bound sword technique and perking it up will unlock the ability to get free soul trap (good for boosting Enchant skill) and banish/turn effects at Conjuration 50 -- which helps, because most enemy casters will conjure/raise their own beasties, and you can quickly sort out these spawned enemies in short order. I have not been summoning my own stuff very much, just using the bound sword... but when I do want to start summoning for protracted battles, I am able to conjure some powerful critters -- a bonus for using bound sword so much.

-Loth

What is the MR perk? Also what is "skin" spell?

MR perk = Magic Resistance perk
"skin" spell = Oakskin, Stoneskin, Ebonyskin - the Alteration protection spells that temporarily add Armor Rating to your mage.

-Loth

Alteration does have for me at least one nice perk. This is Atronach, an upper level perk, where you can absorb 30% of the spells cast against you. If I understand the guide correctly, this perk helps with the level of magicka the character has.

On my mage, the first thing I did was get Alchemy, Smithing, and Enchanting all to 100. That allowed me to make a set of Legendary Daedric Armor. I enchanted the helm, armor, ring, and necklace with Fortify Destruction and Fortify Restoration, each piece reduced the cost by 27% each so spells from both schools are completely free.

With one perk in the Heavy Armor tree my armor rating capped out near 700, which is more than the armor cap, giving me 80% reduction in physical damage. All the numbers are nice, but for reference, when I get hit by nearly anything I can hardly see my health drop, and I play on Master.

I got a few Destruction perks (Dual Casting, Impact, and the spells that boost elemental damage) and I specialize in Shock spells. With powerful Fortify Destruction potions made via Alchemy (+162% Spell Damage) I can consistently kill Elder dragons with one or two dual casts of Thunderbolt, and anything else doesn't even stand a chance.

The only, and I do mean the only issue, is that I have almost nothing in the way of magic resistance. I'm sure I could make potions for that, but I haven't bothered looking for the recipe.

Thank you very much.

Lothario already provided good answers for most of your questions, but I figured I would add a few more tidbits.


Focusing on one damage type in Destruction can save you a few perk points, but I wouldn't recommend it. You'll want each elemental type at full power for when you're facing an enemy that's weak against or resistant to a school, and it's generally more fun to have them all at your disposal. You also shouldn't be short on perk points playing a pure Mage.


As Lothario mentioned, Conjuration and Illusion fulfill the same basic function in combat-- crowd control. I recommend Conjuration over Illusion because Illusion requires a heavy perk investment and 4 x Fortify Illusion enchants to remain viable, whereas Conjuration only need 5 perk points, and is less mana intensive. On the other hand, Illusion is more compatible with Magic Absorption if you want to go that route and can't mod out the bugs on PC.


Necessary? No. But if you're playing on Expert or Master, 80% Magic Absorption or significant Elemental Resistance will definitely make a noticeable difference in your magic mitigation.


You'll want at least 8 points in Enchanting (5/5 Enchanter, Insightful Enchanter, Corpus Enchanter, Extra Effect; or, if you plan to cap Elemental Resistance, skip Corpus Enchanter in favor of Fire, Frost, and Storm Enchanter) so you can enchant your cloth or armor to two sets of 4 x Fortify (25) for free casting in two spell schools. You'll be best served by zeroing out mana cost for Destruction and Conjuration or Illusion (whichever you picked for crowd control).

What is the best way to mitigate physical dmg? Are the flesh spells and alteration perks that increase them very neccesary/ really that good?

You can either perk Smithing + Light/ Heavy Armor or heavily perk Alteration and wear cloth. The former provides the best mitigation, as you can easily hit the armor cap with as little as 3-4 perks invested, but the latter is a more Magey option that offers other benefits as well, since Alteration offers more than just defense.

To help you compare, you I'd recommend one of these two options: (1) 2 points in Smithing (Steel, Elven) and 3 in Light Armor (1/5 Agile Defender, Custom Fit, Matching Set) allows you to craft an armor capped (80% mitigation) set of Elven armor which weighs only 7 lbs total; or (2) fully perk Alteration (14-15 points), which will cause your Ebonyskin spell to grant 300 Armor (48% mitigation) for 4 minutes, along with lots of other benefits. Toss in the Lord Stone to bring your Armor up to 350 (54%).

Those other benefits include: (1) Dragonhide, a master level Alteration spell, which caps your physical mitigation at 80% for 1 minute; (2) Paralysis; (3) Detect Life; etc. I favor wearing cloth perking Alteration because it's more a Magey option that keeps the game somewhat challenging and offers lots of other useful spells, but if you want maximum mitigation at all times, Smithing your own Elven armor is the way to go.

Also one thing that has been bugging me is how difficult is it going to be to level Destruction, and reach a level where my enchanting can lower the cost of Dest spells enough, without taking the apprentice/adept/ etc, Dest. perks?

Level your Enchanting ASAP, and then Skill up Destruction on Shadowmere or the Companions NPC that spars with you.

I'd recommend http://skyrimcalculator.com/#26172 if you want to use Alteration for defense, and http://skyrimcalculator.com/#26173 if you want to wear armor.

Thank you for the lengthy, and extremely helpful post Whiskeyjack(p.s. go whiskeyjack in MBotF), and everyone else.

Grrr the problem with so many options is its hard to choose. I was trying to avoid wearing armor for RP reasons and simply because I just really like mages in hooded robes. Armor route is just SO much more perk friendly. One reason I'm not really so into alteration is I'll be a breton who uses lord stone, so 1 well enchanted item can almost cap my magic resistance. Also have the once a day racial power. I figure I could always use a nice set of armor and then switch to robes whenever i'm not doing very hard quests. Not like you need a ton of dmg mitigation when your nuking the crap outta stuff with thunderbolt. Easy to just enchant armor and robes the same way I figure.

As for conjuartion.....i figure no real reason to get the 1/2 cost perks right. Just switch to fortify conj gear...or not....and cast the perma minions. This sound right?

Workin on a build right now but its looking like (very rough estimates here).

Destruction 9 (aug fire/shock/frost 2/2), Dual cast, imact.
Conj 5
Enchanting 8
alchemy 7
smithing 5-7 (dunno light or heavy armor)
Resto like 4-5 maybe not even that
possbly a bit of 1h


Thought of one other question. Any purpose to ward spells, what with dmg and magic resistance so high?

Also does magic resistance effect dragon shouts/breath?

Thanks all!

The problem with that plan is that the enchanting slots for Fortify and Resist Magic overlap; so, you want to take full advantage of all eight Fortify slots, you won't be able to enchant any Magic Resistance onto your gear. Breton racial + Lord Stone + Agent of Mara + 2/3 Magic Resistance in Alteration gets you capped at 85%. OR, if you're on PC and can mod the Magic Absorption bugs out, Breton racial + Agent of Mara + 3/3 Magic Resistance for 70% MR, and then you can grab the Atronach perk + Atronach Stone for 80% Magic Absorption, too. That's my favored solution.

As for conjuartion.....i figure no real reason to get the 1/2 cost perks right. Just switch to fortify conj gear...or not....and cast the perma minions. This sound right?

You could always enchant a 2nd set of robes/ armor with Conjuration and Alteration. You'd have all bases covered that way.

Thought of one other question. Any purpose to ward spells, what with dmg and magic resistance so high?

It will mitigate any magic damage beyond what you resist, but they drain your mana pretty quickly.

Also does magic resistance effect dragon shouts/breath?

MR mitigates Dragon Breath, but only Magic Absorption can knock out Dragon Shouts, Poisons, etc.

There is a certain undefinable awesomeness factor to throwing up a ward right before a dragon tries to roast you with a breath weapon, and you just take it like a man and come away unscathed and smiling like a boss. But except for early game (before you get MR and absorb boosted), there really isn't THAT much of a benefit. It might be fun to roleplay a wizard that relies on wards instead of magic resistance, in which case you could use enchanted gear to reduce Restoration to 0 cost... with the added bonus in that healing and anti-undead spells are free, too. Also, Ward Absorb perk is pretty cool when you don't get Destruction gear and rely on mana to kill stuff. Fighting wizards is more of a "magic duel" that way, instead of being you simply overwhelming them with superior stats.
Yes... dragon breath is damage-mitigated by MR... shouts can be absorbed with Spell Absorb effects, which will negate slow and on fire secondary effects as well as straight damage.
-Loth

Edit: Damn... Whiskey jacked me again. This is becoming a disturbing habit, sir...