http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RiUvxRdQ4Ho
Part 1. Nahkriin, Forst Dragon and Elder Dragon.

So yeah this is my Mage. I dump everything in mana and I run around with 100 hp and stamina on Master difficulty and I find it extremely easy and challenging. I do have enchanting maxed and alchemy maxed but I did not use any sort of loops or exploits and as you can tell I still mana dump. I also did not use any potions aswell only Highborn which is racial so no problem there.

As discussed with player and friends over at steam forums Impact is overpowered and is a full enemy lockdown, we all know this, but in this example I did not use dual cast to use Impact lockdown but to, more or less prove a point that it is possible to be a great mage in this game without by using proper tactics, shouts and kiting. I also have Illusion maxed and I do not use conjury magic save for Soul Trap so I can recharge my staves when mana is low.

Sure I died, mainly to Nahkriin do to mistakes in position but I actualy had 2 good strategies while fighting Nahkriin and the dragons but I captured this one because I liked it more. My 1st was similar to this one utilizing Become Ethereal and running across and focusing on dragons first but then I decided that Nahkriin needs to get taken care of first. It kind of svcks that he had half life but I think thats with everybody for some reason *shrugs*

In conlusion I think Magery is really powerfull here and challenging.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-gMUrNw2FY
Part 2. Krosis and Frost Dragon
Going to have to sacrifice HD *shrugs*. *shakes fist at fraps and camtasia*

Wasn't as bad as I thought. I actualy had about 4 good footages captured but this was one the better out of all of them. On this one I figured I need to dispatch the dragon first as Krosis had more health. Alot of really close calls and luck. I tried Whirlwind Sprint instead of Become Ethereal but dragon breath seems to lock on target so it wasn't as viable against the dragon. This was a really fun battle and very adrenaline rushed. Definately had to use environment on this one as well as fighting in the open with such low hp would be silly.
I guess next would be tight quaters in dungeons.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6UG0u5QkZ7U
Part 3. Inside Yngvild for close quater combat.

Decided to try out Wall of Storms as it's a beefed up version of sparks and work with that damage over time aspect, thought it was a pretty cool even though it was low on damage. Worked with Whirlwind Sprint and Unrelentic Force in this video as I've already used Become Ethereal. Just hit lvl 50 yesterday and decided to spend my last 5 perk points into hydromancer and pyromancer perks. I did not use Intense Flames perk as I dont want enemies running away from me but I did invest in Deep Freeze for paralyze effect. Going to use Ice and Fire when in proper situations against mobs. Will be focusing on Wall of Frost but I am not sure if it does stamina damage but I hope it does. Since I decided to focus on destruction mage playthrough I feel like a real mage now.

I am also working on final armor pieces. At level 50 I have 984 mana but I am running with 28%/28%/15% for 71%- destruction cost. From day I build this character to have the largest mana pool so I got some new enchanting potions so what I will be working on next is removing one of the 28% enchantings for more mana I just need to work out the pieces since I'd like to keep my Archmage Robes.

The video went through alot of editing because Camtasia is very weird and displays a large chunk of produced content as a pitch black video for some reason so this went throught alot of 720p to 1080p through various part so thats why it's like that. If anybody can recommend a good program. I am sure Vegas studio is good I've heard about it. I am not a fan of virtual dub it takes ages to render. Just now a days if its not 1080p why bother right
More videos showcasing Fire, Ice and what not soon.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mfFEEYWRVIs
Part 4. Otad the Mad in close quaters.

Hey whats up guys its me again with Part 4. Took some time off Skyrim and I actualy had a full dungeon run saved with commentary but I dont do good lets plays and I had alot of files to edit and didnt have time since I hate Fraps + Camtasia combo for video editing. Plus I am not a good video maker to beging with but I hope you guys enjoy this Part 4.

This one is .vs Otar the Mad with some pretty close quaters. It was really challenging and took a while to master different techniques but in this display I am using Fire Storm to start it off, Incinerate, Flame Cloak and Slow Time. My Slow Time is at level 1 so recharge is fairly fast + with combination of Flame Cloak I think it did some really good damage. Did get lucky a few tries as Otar has a staff of storm wall so thats where I got damaged at. Overall a fun experience.
Next will have to be Elder Dragon to see what I can come up with.

...what?

Yeah haha I guess it doesnt make sence now that I read it. I guess what I was thinking of trying to say that it's easy because of the elements I can utilize to get the job done and control the field and challenging because I always have to keep a look out of my low health as I can die in 1 hit from a non normal enemy.

Except hiding behind a wall isn't my idea of fun. I think Mages are very weak and they only have speed and distance as their advantage to a warrior.

Gotcha.

You use terrain well, that's for sure. I don't think that it's impossible to be a good mage as things stand. I just think it's a damn sight harder to do that than use any other method.

I counted 56 casts, most of them being dual cast. I am guessing about 3 minutes of hiding behind a wall. Now let us do that in a cave when you have to run backwards all the way back to the start. I don't think anyone says Destruction is HARD to use, we keep saying it's just very boring compared to the other skills.

Now do a hour long video of you killing krosis as a mage on master without impact

When I read your post I immediately imagined a warrior chasing a mage with the Benny Hill tune playing in the background

What I mean on dual cast is that I didnt use dual cast to utilize Impact for challenge. I see that I've worded it wrong. I think dual casting was alright, if not the video had been much longer and boring but it would of ended the same way + I hate fraps and then camtasia sometimes it works good sometimes it doesnt. Yes my next challenge is Shearpoint with Ancient Dragon (I think the game will scale it to them now) and Krosis as it's open field

I can definately see and will most certainly agree that it is tedious but I figured I'd try heh.

thanks for this

with all the whining and moaning that goes on around here about mages i wasn't too sure if it was worth rolling a destro mage on master but your video has convinved me

cheers again

I want to see you do this kind of thing in cramped quarters. :B

Truth be told before I got to the end of Skuldafn I captured long footage while inside south and north towers in the area. About 4 parts of 4-6 minutes and it was pretty good footage. The problem is I use Fraps which I hate and then Camtasia Studio 7 which I hate even more. Alot of times after rendering videos I hear them playing in the background and sound effects but they just freeze. I still have tons of stuff I didnt finish on this character so I will do more videos.

I have Unrelenting Force meditated so I dont know if Deathlords or Overlords shouts blast me away anymore.

I don't understand how this is supposed be a display of power when you could end the whole thing faster and easier with practically any other method of dealing damage.

My only real complaint about mage abilities in the game is that I feel the upper level magic spells are way underpowered considering the Magicka they require. If the magicka useage was less It would be ok or if the spells were sufficiently powerful but the magicka remained the same it would be ok. As it stands it is very imbalanced. We also have very little in the way of crowd control other than a shout or two and chain lightning. But any aoe type effect can get your companion killed so if you want to use a companion it severely limits the spells you are able to utilize in combat. And the shouts barely last long enough to control anything for the time necessary to get the job done considering the weakness of the spells. Toss in 2 or 3 high level opponents are you are basically screwed since even the double blast stun won't help you then. I had a fight like this recently although I won't go into details here to keep from spoiling anything for anyone. But needless to say I felt extremely underpowered even though I'm at 100 destruction, have very nice equipment, and a good array of shouts at my disposal. This was at level 47 and like you I've put all my points in to Magicka except once I put some into health and once into stamina at the beginning when I hadn't quite decided whether I was going to go full mage or spell sword.

Awesome. Post on this same thread, so I can just subscribe and check back? I really am curious.

I think the damage was ok. Comparing 90 damage on thunderbolt to my fully decked out legenradary daedric orc with legendary Volendrung damage of 105 (non exploited) I am not that upset about damage. I think that if bethesda desides to increase the damage it will make a mager really broken and unstopable, just that my opinion.


Well Illusion is great for crowd control in tight spots but rage can get you killed as it takes a few moment for the enemy to lock off you. By rights as a pure mage you dont want enemies near you which is self explanatory. I am sure even if I had over 500+ hp and I aggroed a high level monster I'd die in 1-2 hits just because I am wearing clothes. Even skeevers give me trouble @ 100 hp when they get close to a point where I have to kite them lol.

I went for a tactical approach on this one to simply just see if it's possible and it kinda sorta is. Not the best way and yes tedious but it was fun.

Thing is your weapon doesn't require you to stack one stat exclusively to be able to swing it more than a few times. Destruction without enchanting costs a TON of magicka for anything beyond apprentice and even that does poor damage per magicka ratio wise. You could argue that magic is ranged, but so is a bow and that also does more damage and doesn't require stacking of a stat to point of making yourself extremely vulnerable.

FUS RO DAH! the group first, then cast frenzy as they are getting up, no worries then. Then KRII! (marked for death) so they kill each other faster. Frenzy then invisible works well also and allows you to shout KRII! right away.

Become ethereal is also good in combination with Mass Paralysis, or Harmony because it allows you to do that ridiculous 5 second charge up and won't go away until you cast.

Become ethereal, then Harmony or Pacify, then back up cast frenzy and then KRII!

What I used to do is frenzy, invisible, KRII!, then raise the dead. But nowadays I just use my call to arms buffed dead thralls, casting frenzy and KRII!

The video's hit and run tactics are good, but the game's magic is still handicapped. Spells just don't scale as they should.
A lightning rune relies on strategic placement and you can only have one rune at a time. But as mage players know, unless you mod your game you have to abandon such strategies in order to keep up damage-wise. Lightning bolt, lightning bolt, lightning bolt...

Probably the thing that bugs me most is the other classes get damage enhancing items and mages don't. Why is that? Why don't we get gear and enchants that boost our damage? If we had acceptable crowd control that didn't kill our companions I might also find the current damage acceptable but the way it is you need to kill them fast or it's hopeless and killing fast just isn't possible with mages currently. And the perma stun only works on single enemies even if you do go that route so it doesn't help in the scenario I was facing that was also in a tight cave area with very little room to maneuver. It also doesn't help that enemy mages can easily one shot me while my spells barely put a dent in them. My only hope is to take out the melee while avoiding their spells, which is difficult, and then catch them with ward down with a double stun and keep them stunned to death. It is certainly a challenging class to play under those circumstances and if anyone wants the game to be more difficult a pure, cloth wearing mage is the way to go. Most destruction mages will find themselves relying heavily on one of the other spell trees whether it's conjuration or illusion. Personally I use conjuration to provide decent tanking while I whittle down the opponent's health. However even my Daedra Lord was of little use in the aforementioned fight as even he would die in one to 3 shots. Thankfully those fights are fairly rare and for the most part Destruction has served me well. But I still feel the upper level spells should be more powerful.

with conjurations dead thrall spell, twin souls perk and a companion you can have 3 tanks, give them resist magic gear and you can cast whatever aoe spell you want...mix that with free destro gear and impact perk and you are an unstoppable force.
although that makes the game too easy, so yea the problem is balance
you ca either feel weak and have to use tedious tactics to win battles or you can be all powerful and have a dull experience, theres really no middle ground for mages

You know what I saw there?

A mage that just hides behind a wall jumping out and casting magic so that the pesky enemies could never get a shot on them.

A pure mage has no health bonuses....which means they need to be powerfull enough ot destroy enemies before they get too close.....in Skyrim the only way to keep enemeies away for the required 10 mins ot kill a boss is to use the gameplay mechanic tricks like AI pathing.


EDIT:
Can you play a mage? Yes, obviously many people are.

Is it at all as fun are easy as another class? No way, compared to every other damage they are the weakest, and since they get killed quickly you have to keep running away to aviod death.

I can see and agree your guys points which is why I am here to hear them and see on improvement and more challenge. While some of my main post text can be misleading and wording not in the right places as best as I can say is that this was a tactics thing. May not be a big man thing here but I felt scared fighting those 3 at the same time. I can only imagine doing Krosis and dragon right in the open trying to handicap myself.

I have destruction potions and never ending supply of mana potions and maybe, not all the time I could of Impact lockdown Nahkriin and 1 of the dragons w/o Become Ethereal but I am most certain that wouldn't last long.

Yes its possible to have fun with a pure mage but yes its tedious. Good thing even though alot of aspects of Skryim is linear we can still have fun EZ123abc said.

Again this is not a big man look at my YT video and praise me post. I want to learn to utilze mage better with the current tools this game is giving us. (no mods)

New video is up. More in the open but still tricky. Next I'd like to try to utilize Whirlwind charge more often and going to capture more footage inside dungeons

Thanks for comments

I think I'm going to make a mage on master after seeing these videos though, it seems like the only playstyle where you don't have to purposely gimp yourself.
I mean a warrior can become so powerful nothing really stands a chace agaist you unless you self gimp, with a mage you're already gimped lol
idk i just want to see what it's like knowing I can be 1 shotted at any momet