Has anyone had success with in-combat use of fear, frenzy, or calm spells?

What are your strategies and tactics?

The title is kind of misleading. The title states whether or not we use illusion spells on non-stealth builds, and I do. Clairvoyance, Candlelight, and Magelight. Your comment mentions Fear, Frenzy, and Calm. I've never even touched those spells.

You're right, it is. I'm guessing I can't edit the title now.

You could probably ask a mod. Or better yet, report yourself in the first post and politely ask for a title change in the report reason field.

I use Illusion extensively with my mage, more than destruction and I never sneak because I don't want the extra levels.

Edit: tactics- in dungeons the most effective is fear to collect a group, then frenzy, then invisibility and sit back out of danger. In the open against individuals or small groups, calm gives time to consider, then summon a flame atronach while you move out of range. I try to use destruction as a last resort only.

Candlelight and Magelight are Alteration spells.

Clairvoyance is Illusion I believe, but it's decidedly non-combat. And the other Illusion spells, Muffle & Invisibility, are pretty much sneak aids. So the OP actually doesn't seem too misleading to me.

On-topic, though - I've only used those offensive Illusion spells as part of a sneaky mage build. You could definitely use Fear & Calm without sneaking, but Frenzy would be tougher since npcs would tend to target you if they saw you.

Title edited by request.

Calm when I can't be bothered to kill enemies in a dungeon - just walk past them to the quest objective. Calming an enemy running at you will make them turn around and walk back to where they came from, setting up a perfect back stab - you don't need to have high sneak, it always works. I've had great fun fearing draugr and making them run through swinging blade traps too.

Thank you very much.

Made me think of a new build. Illusion to calm them and then punch them to death with my bare fists muahaha. And maybe destruction to have a flame cloak and burn them when close.

I have yet to use Illusion spells at all to be honest. Bows are far more effective, and when my Sneak is at 100 with all perks I don't need any Invisibility or Muffle.

Attacking an enemy breaks the calm spell effects.

To me, it seems like half of the NPC's I use Calm or Frenzy on resist it. This goes for spells as well as poisons. This is at level 81 with the perk trees maxed out. I had fun with both spells at lower levels but they seem to have lost their usefulness.

Yes, I often use Fear and Calm spells with my Mage Warrior to disable strong opponents for a while and taking care of the weak enemies that tend to get in my way.

Is it correctly perked and are you dual-casting?

Yeah that's a good question. A dual-cast Fury with all perks, the lowest level spell, should affect any enemy in the game, I believe.

http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim_talk:Illusion#.22Higher_Level_Opponents.22

EDIT: Sorry, that list is for NPCs only. High-level Draugr, Falmer, Vampires, and Dwemer constructs will require the use of higher level spells.

And correct perks. If I recall correctly, originally, Illusion does not effect Dwemer machinations, Daedra, and Undead.

Oh, so you have to dual cast, then. I was trying to play with a dagger in one hand, spell in the other. My dude is more of a thief assassin, not a mage but I do have all 100% skills, all perks (Oghma Infinium + Perk book mod).

Right, you need the 90 level perk for undead, plus the kindredmage perk doesn't apply to undead/constructs/daedra so low level spells may not work even dualcast.

I use Illusion a lot as it's my favorite magic school. I have not used it without sneaking though but I may give it a try... one day.

I thought Master of the Mind applied to Daedra, Dwemer stuff, and undead, not just undead?

I'm playing a 'psionic ranger' right now, which is a non-stealth illusion heavy archer. So far so good.

Yes, I abbreviated it; it applies to all those.

I use all illusion spells with a mage character, you turn your foes against eachother for crowd control, calm or fear so you can flee. Then you can use a summon to farther cause chaos and discord on the battlefield, use destruction to rain death at your enemies as they fight eachother, then as fury fades away then mass paralysis for fun.

Illusion, I find, is most effective when used at the start of battle while stealthed, obviously. *on low difficulty settings*

That being said, it absolutely held a place in my arsenal when I was using the illusion tree. Calm excess enemies, frenzy extra enemies to thin the herd (never used fear, mobs running away was far too obnoxious). Stealth is overrated on high end difficulties (modded 4x, 8x master etc) because when it takes 15+ arrows to kill off the mid range mobs and like 70+ for brairharts and deathlords, it is better to start the battle without the sneak attacks because range and cover are far more valuable.

Once I got efficient with the tree though I abandoned it as it pretty much took away any difficulty in Skyrim, since it seemed only vampires - who are tough as nails - and bosses / dragons were immune.

I think you will find, as you become better at micro-managing, illusion used at any point in the battle turns the tide. I read one of the loading screens saying Illusion magic is under appreciated, and boy is it, because once you use it and find your niche, you find it is one of the first trees you max in subsequent play throughs.