Hello there.

For those of you who've completed the College of Winterhold Questline, i have a few questions.

I'm not really the Magika type of player, nor is it my playstyle. I can't get into it, but i would like to complete the quest-line and I have the first quest accomplished where you are intorduced to the Eye in the dungeon. That Dragur boss was a tough SOB. I kept on fus-ro-dah'ing his ass off of the second floor of the boss room into the orb.

My current character is LVL 40, with a 100 in sneak, 80 in archery and 75 in one-handed. Now you can probably imagine where my magicka ranks with my playstyle...It's pretty much default as i wanted to beef up on the sneak/ mele skills as I got owned on my previous charachter going into the Thieves Guild Quesline.

How hard will this be for me? Should i wait to get my magika skills up prior to continuing or am I ok at a LVL 40?

I like the rewards at the end of the quest-line, as you get the awesome Arch-mage's Robe as well as the quarters. I've wanted the robe ever since I first saw it. Unique and bad-ass looking.

(*edit: I just realized I f'ed up on the title. Sorry for the blatant typo)

You'll be fine, you don't need to be a magic expert to finish the College questline.

I was fine with Assassin's Blade and Legendary Ebony Daggers (15 x 155) because I could sneak attack 1-shot anything, but I'm not sure how much melee versus archery you're doing. Either way it can be done with very low to no magic usage.

You may actually be better off not using a mage for the questline. I would certainly not recommend trying to be one now because your spells will do dike to the leveled opponents.

If I recall correctly, there's only one quest in the entire questline that requires you use magic, and if you don't know the spells, there are spellbooks in the room with the spells you need. So you should be fine to continue without leveling magic.

Yep. Technically, you only have to cast 3 spells to become Arch Mage (some say two because there's apparently another way to get past Faralda), but I believe you can even use Shouts for the quest to which you're referring.

IIRC, i only had to cast a spell 3 times in the entire questline.

I don't really remember now, but I know it wasn't many spells. Which actually was a bummer - it's the MAGE COLLEGE questline after all.... *sigh*

I'm not a good mage, but I'm a good administrator.

Yep. That's about the only way to look at it really.

Yep. Technically, you only have to cast 3 spells to become Arch Mage (some say two because there's apparently another way to get past Faralda), but I believe you can even use Shouts for the quest to which you're referring.

There are three spots where it looks like you need to use magic - two of which are not true:
1. Impressing Faralda to enter the College. If you wait until the right time in the MQ, you can Shout instead.
2. In Saarthal. Feel free to wear the amulet and attack the wall with a Shout instead of a spell.
3. In the dwarf ruin Mzulft. You must specifically use Flames and Frostbite; the books are provided at the location, just in case.

If you are a thief/assasin build then illusion/destruction are the schools for you. Conjuration is useful for the bound sword and bound bow to use as a back-up (there is a certain quest in Markarth). Yeah mages got gimped content-wise.

what about at the occulary? you need to use at least frostbite there.

That was Sandslice's third point I think. Some people need both spells, I only needed frostbite.... depends, and on WHAT it depends, I have no idea.

I thought he was talking about those doors that release a spirit when you cast at them.

for the occulary,frostbite turns the orb, flames reset it, afaik

Oh.... hmmm. Aren't those in Labrynthian?

i cant remember!
You could probably use a staff on them anyway, i dont think you HAVE to use a spell.

Yes, the keyed "spell-type" doors in Labrynthian can be done with staves.... But IIRC, the oculory has to have the actual spells cast.

You don't need any magic. Everyone can get flame at the start, Feralda will sell you whatever you need for 30g and there is a frost book there when you need it.
It's a disappointing decision, IMO, to go this way but it wasn't any different in Oblivion. I think this is one of the reasons why Morrowind fans miss the old days when advancing in a guild or House meant meeting minimum requirements.

Yeah, I don't like that either. I liked it better when you had to have certain skills at certain levels to continue *cough*Morrowind*cough*. But that's the way it is.

Oh.... hmmm. Aren't those in Labrynthian?

Forgot about Labyrinthian. I was thinking about the Oculory in Mzulft, which is actually part of the MQ (and also Discerning the Transmundane.)
For Labyrinthian, I'm not sure if you need to use spells or if you can use Breath shouts instead; it's something I'll try out.