Good day to all.

Presently I have a level 43/44 Brenton mage that does great. She can go into sneak and one-shot-kill enemies with the bound bow. She can slay and Elder dragon with a bound sword. But the destruction side is just crap.

I would like to make a new Brenton mage that is solely Destruction with some Conjuration for helpers, Illusion for sneaking and crowd control, and Restoration for healing and also for crowd control.

Any ideas on how I should achieve this. I have tried and all I get is a “wooshy” mage who the higher she gets, the worse she gets.

I am not a power player but would like a Destruction mage that can really kick butt. Any advice is really welcome.

There are many creatures you can use as a target dummy if you want to level up destruction
For spells join college of winterhold and you can get the highest damage spells when you get 100 in destruction
I personally spam lightening bolt on my destruction character
Also increase your enchanting until you have costs 100% less magicka on destruction if you want to compete with non mages

All you need is Destruction and Conjuration. The rest is a waste of points. With 2 conjured helpers you can stand back and pick off enemies at your leisure with Destruction. Also put some health in at some point so those pesky high level archers won't be able to one shot you. With Magicka use reduction on your gear you shouldn't be having any issues with your Magicka pool by the time you get to high levels.

Alright first thing is to get all the perks (duh). Especially impact: that is going to do you no end of good. Also, all the special perks for elemental damage (Deep Freeze, Disintegration and Intense flames) may seem gimmicky, but if you're playing pure destruction they will actually help with crowd control. Finally, and most importantly, UTILIZE ALL THREE TYPES OF ELEMENTAL DAMAGE. Frost is invaluable to a mage due to the slow effect, fire is overall the most powerful (due to the burn effect and the fact that it is the most mana efficient), and shock actually makes a HUGE difference against enemy mages, especially Chain Lightening.

I lied, one more thing. Make sure you can restore your mana. I always carry a staff as backup, but that will not always be enough, so try and have a stock of restore mana potions, one way or the other. Otherwise you're going to be spending WAY too much time jumping around like an idiot waiting for your mana to recharge.

Oh, also, take a higher mana regen over higher maximum mana. Destruction spells don't take as much juice as spells from other schools, but they will drain you like no other.

Thanks for all the info. I am really glad for it. I love playing the mage and hope to get her the way I want to. Thanks again.

I for one, would shy away from calling illusion a "waste of points", cuz, you know.. it isnt.

I've used destruction extensively on master, here are my pearls of wisdom.

You don't need any other skill trees to use destruction, you don't even have to use robes. Enchanting helps in the sense you can choose what to put your enchantments on, but you can find good enough gear to reduce the destruction costs. Unfortunately once you hit the adept/expert level spells the costs absolutely skyrocket, you have to use gear to reduce them.

You can find/buy:
- Master robes 22% destruction reduction.
- Peerless robes for 25%.
- High level (dragonscale, dragonbone or daedric) armor pieces with peerless destruction 25%.
- Ring for 25%.
- Circlet for 25%.
- High tier helmet for 25%.
Obviously these items are quite rare, especially the armor pieces, but there is a sure method to get daedric armor/helm of peerless destruction, using the atronach forge under the college of winterhold using a sigil stone (90 conjuration needed). Any three of the above will provide 70-75% reduction, which is good enough.

If you plan on enchanting, you don't need to worry about finding the right equipment as you can make your own. Aim for around 90% cost reduction, the perks grant 50% reduction if you need it. With the above robes setup, master robes 22% ring 25% and circlet 25% you get 72% reduction, so you end up with 86% reduction with the perk [100 - 0.5x(100-72)], this is definitely enough. If you enchant you don't need to invest in the perks, but you may struggle at low levels when your enchanting skill is low.

For damage perks unless you have RP reasons (vampire not using fire magic for example) use all three elements, get all 6 augmented perks as soon as possible. The shock disintegrate perk is brilliant, as is the frost paralyse perk, the fire fear perk is worthless. The aspect of fear perk in the illusion tree adds 10 damage (15 if you are a necromage vampire) to all fire spells including flames. The necromage restoration perk increases damage dealt to undead by destruction spells, so when using fire (most undead are weak to fire) you absolutely destroy undead.
Little tip: the frost/shock cloaks are affected by the disintegrate/paralyse perks.

The dual cast + stagger perks are useful, don't dual cast every single attack though. You have 2.2x the damage for 2.8x the cost and 100% chance to stagger with the perk. You don't need this perk though, I tend to just throw a dual cast in every four or five casts.

If you choose to be a necromage vampire (a vampire with the restoration perk necromage), every enchantment/active effect you have is increased by 25% and every spell/potion duration is increased by 50%. Being a necrovamp also increases some perks by 1.25x, the aspect of fire bonus mentioned above is increased from +10 to +15, nearly all illusion perks are increased 1.25x (+8 would now be +10). But you have to take the perks after being a necrovamp.

You should learn what enemies are weak to, trolls are weak to fire, dragons are weak to the opposite element they use, undead (draugr, vamps) are weak to fire for example. Quite a lot of human enemies are nords, so they are 50% resistant to your frost spells, fire or shock is preferred.

Once you have a good setup, you will be dishing out 100 (or 105) damage incinerates, which literally kill draugr deathlords in three dual casts on master with necromage. Bandit marauders (the highest level bandit) have 900 health on master, so you would need 10 expert spells or 9 incinerates with the aspect of fear perk to take one down on master, do remember you can fire those spells incredibly fast, much much faster than shooting a bow.

That's pretty much it, I wouldn't power level any skills as that bores me, level up skils naturally and with the above advice you'll find destruction pretty dam powerful.

Thank you bobjim123 for your "pearls of wisdom" for that is just what they are. Mighty fine. I read that to be a pure destruction mage, everytime you level up you should only take perks in destruction and put everything into magicka. Understandable. About level 20 you would have maxed out destruction and be feeling like a god, and then go to any other perks that intrest you. Also understandable.

I like the archmage's robes for they give you 15% spell reduction in all spells, although not near the amount you are talking about. I was also thinking on some of the equipment that my 44 level sneak archer mage has. The archmage robe, a circlet to fortify magicka, SavosAren's amulet which gives +50 magicka, the Gauldur Amulet which gives +30 in health/magicka/stamina. There is also Nahkriin's Mask which gives +50 magicka and improves restoration and destruction by 20%.

But I see what you mean about "cost reduction" on items. I have never used the Atronach Forge but will have to try it. I also do not intend to become a vampire, sorry vampire lovers, for I like the werewolf side. As a mage, I only do the Companions Questline far enough to get the word wall for one of the "fire" words and to become a werewolf. As a mage I feel funny going through the rest of a warrior's guild. Also as a mage, I have no problem with going through the Dark Brotherhood, but the Thieves guild is like going through the companions if i am going to be a destruction mage.

Anyway, I do not like Necromancy although I like conjuration spells for helpers and for the new spells in Dawnguard. I do not like the flesh spells at all, so I have no interest in alteration. I like Illusion for crowd control and as you said, more damage. I like restoration for healing, recovery and necromage. Of course, destruction.

Yesterday I started a new mage, and at level 6 I was done with the first major quest of the game, and the first major quest in the College of Winterhold. I used the fire and lightning rune for the first time since 11/11/11, and just adore them. I only killed Lydia once. lol I also understand that using short bursts with the flame spell ups the magicka regeneration faster. Seems to, for at level 6 I hardly run out of magicka.

I also use a light shield, hide or elven with fire/frost reduction against dragons and a set of boots against shock from mages.

Anyway, thanks for all the info and great advice, for once I get through "playing around" with this new character, I will know how to continue with her. I just never did pure destruction before. It was always bound bow, bound sword. I never really summoned helpers before. So I am enjoying this new character.

Thanks again. All of you.

That's interesting. Very good post.

Another thing to think about with a destruction mage that uses a bit of conjuration. There isn't really a need to use Dremora Lords or even Storm Atronachs as a summon, though they are great to have, you can hold off on putting perks into conjuration cost reduction if you just go with frost atronachs, as they are the best at tanking damage. and since they aren't the best a dishing out damage, he wont take away from you leveling destruction.

If you're an apothecary, you can create fortify destruction potions. My current character is level 85 alchemy and well geared with alchemy enchanted apparel...he can make a potion that makes destruction spells 110% more powerful for 60 seconds.

Most of the ingredients are hard to come by, except for nightshade and glowing mushrooms which are a more middling endeavor.

While it requires much to do this, it offers a plethora of other benefits that compensate you nicely for your trouble.

I use some destruction robes i got off of a pyromancer (Eminent robes of Destruction[22% off of destruction magic and +50 magicka i think]), Shoes enchanted with muffle, a ring + amulet with fortify magicka (110 altogether)

Expert difficulty (on level 51 now)

I almost always use chain-lightening (I dont even have the perk "Impact" because of stupid skill point spending)

Always use restoration

Use enchanting to make buffed jewelry

I never use any armor (not even mage armor) I just dodge. The only reason for alteration is "Paralysis", "Magic Resistance/Absorbtion"

The only offensive magic is destruction (You dont need conjuration unless you're a wimp)

The "Quiet Casting" perk in the illusion tree lets you get the jump on most enemies
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I started the build as a spell sword and then switched to full mage, so I actually have 13 wasted points, around 480 Magicka 230 health and 110 stamina

Im still incredibly powerful

Lvl only magika and only lvl destruction if you can. Take every perk in destruction as well. It will take you to the twenties and you will be insanely powerful at that time, I will try to find a link that's actually in the dawnguard thread for some reason that explains what I mean.

You can add in the other stuff after you finish off destruction.

Edit: http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1387285-guide-for-new-mages-pure-destruction-opening/page__hl__destruction%20guide here it is, it desribes how to use it and how to make a very powerful destruction Mage, I'm currently using this for my female character, and I will admit that if I wasn't on adept I would have died a few times, but I am having fun so far.

I disagree with you, the fire fear perk for example is worthless. You seem to have this fear of leveling other skills, the destruction damage is fine for higher levels if you know what you're doing, on master.

Read my above comment.

A robe mage that relies almost entirely on Destruction? Maybe it's just me, but that seems incredibly boring and highly challenging at the same time. Especially if you're playing on a difficulty higher than Adept.

Nevertheless, here's a build I made when I tried doing it myself: http://skyrimcalculator.com/#156962 (6 perk points for whatever you see fit)

Destruction doesn't offer a great deal of variety and the spells are incredibly weak under certain circumstances. I don't see how you could really even survive without having some sort of armor, so I suggest you invest a few perks in smithing, but if you're really trying to stray from crafting skills then you'll want the atronach forge when you have level 90+ in Conjuration.

I'd also say that Alchemy is never a waste of perks, as it opens the door to many possibilities.

This, I use alchemy, and -destruction cost on armor. We just gotta hope for destruction damage fix in the future.

Also: It's Breton, not Brenton.