I don't 'like' certain things in this game as well but if you choose not to develop an aspect of being a mage you can't very well complain about it too. It's like saying you want to play DID but you don't like getting one shotted.

It's fair because mage is intentionally crippled by that balance of power. I know some seem to do well mage all Destruction but not me. I tried and realized that the game is beyond me that way so I added some added abilities. In my case, I added Conjuration and Archery.

Since so many seem to be able to mage only here, I have to put it down to game playing skill. Comments like the OP just say to me, "I'm not a very good player but I want to play the game by my rules rather than the world laid out by BS."

I do have impact though i don not have chain lightning I'll go buy it now and tell you if I notice a differance
Question is chain lightning a spell i can spray or do I have to shoot it like fireball?

Agreed...i hope that the mage angst shout is loud enough to reach beth on their high pedestal on high hrothgar and they do sonething for us console players.

Stopped reading there. Enchanting = Cheating.

And I still haven't seen a proof that Destruction is "pathetic"...

The staves are pretty useless.

Also all the things you mention above I might fear Bethesda has a vendetta against us mages and spell casters. As the system it is a severely watered down concept compared to the older titles on the series.

You're level 40 and you're using adept level destruction spells? What is that, 37 damage , dualsated about 85 damage? At level 40, with a steel dagger (12 dmg?) and 15x backstab perk + some gloves2x15x you could be doing 360 dmg. Without losing any magicka.

But isn't this somewhat balanced by the fact that destruction magic spells are a ranged attack.
I havn't gotten a lot of archery perks, so I might have a different opinion after quickshot and powershot, but in comparison to a bow destruction magic is a heck of a lot easier to take out an opponent.

If your using bound weapons and were talking melee than I believe a lot of your one handed or two handed perks apply. That being said I look forward to some new bound weapon spells that will include enchantments, new visuals etc.

Also being able to dualcast and stagger **any** opponent (at least so far) is pretty awesome. But whatever your opinion there will be plenty of options come Jan for you to choose from (unless your on a console, then I feel your pain).

The damage of destruction spells is perfectly fine. The only problem is mana cost, so you have to dabble in enchanting a bit (but you have to use this to make melee as powerful as it is as well, so this isn't really a problem). Playing a Destruction/Alteration/Enchanting mage right now, works very well (some Restoriation too).

I personally use almost all of my magick skills, but I was hoping to make a Destruction-only focused mage in a later playthrough. I should be able to play as I want, I shouldn't have to get 75 conjuration and 75 alteration to be actually useful as a destruction mage. This is TES afterall, I could do it in Morrowind and Oblivion. And the zero-cost cast is an explot imo, so that's a no-go

that's an opinion and in no way true you could just as easily argue that Heavy Armor is cheating

I can't make the difficulty less than novice sorry

And you don't. I'm playing a more or less pure destruction mage and it's fine.

What level are you and what difficulty are you playing at? What is your destuction skill and your other highest skills?
You understand why I would doubt your hnesty, correct?

I like how no one has responded to this I'm playing on novice as well so that makes this even more pathetic!

As I stated, I don't care about dual casting. The comparison was to a 1h weapon, allowing for the addition of a second ability or shield. And while the dual casting does increase the damage, it's still pathetic in comparison to my 1h axe. And as for the comments on blacksmithing and enchanting being "Cheat Codes" The fact is, they are in the game, and so should be balanced with the rest of the game. if instead, Bethesda decided to reduce the damage benefits from enchanting and smithing, which would have to be a considerable reduction, I'd be fine with that too. My point is it needs to be balanced. and being able to swing one weapon in less time than it takes to cast a spell and do nearly 4 times the damage is not balanced.

The fact that it takes at least twice as many hits to use kill an enemey with destruction than with melee or archery.

I tried and failed at this. It was my first PC because my OB chars were mage only concentrating on D. As I posted before, I don't believe that my failure as a pure D mage was due to any issue with the game but my so so gamer skills.

For example, in OB I remember some immense spells of lightning and fireball. Even the highly touted chain lightning in SK isn't a patch on the one in OB. OK, that's the way it is so complaining about that is to me, like complaining that the bears in SK are much scarier than those in OB (they are). It's a new game with a new deal and we can either rise, as gamers, to the skill needed to play the new game, or take a different path.

So just because it's a new game and a new experience, I'm now unable to play AS I WANT? Such a shame, I hope you see why this is just stupid.

It depends what you mean by Destruction only. They are never going to have Destruction balanced so that you can just walk into the room dressed in robes and cook everything without being killed. Then it would be too powerful when combined with other stuff.

Destruction is a ranged skill, it will always have to be used with other skills as part of a wider playstyle. As I said, I think the problem is not that Destruction is "pathetic" but that other attacks can be made overpowered due to crafting. But then you can use Impact and Alchemy and people say Destruction is overpowered.

Although TES tries to give everyone what they want, that does require compromises.

I wanted to make a true glass cannon archetype. As in, walk into a room and raise hell, but if they hit me onece or twice im dead. As it is, trying to play a true dest. mage wil result in quick death and very slow kills, because of destruction's poor damage output.

for my destro only I'm using heavy armor(smithing and enchanting for the armor) illusion, and enough resto to get recovery perks.

No, I couldn't.

Enchanting is completely broken. Of course it's not really cheating, because you still work within the framework of game mechanics, but it's so insanely overpowered it makes everyting [censored] in comparison.

Compare melee/archery with magic without insane bonuses from enchanting and then argue what's better or worse.

I already did look back a little

Darn it. I want to play the DB quest w/o hurting anyone. Should I be allowed to? BTW, I'm serious. I'd prefer playing a bloodless game but that's not SK and it wasn't OB nor was it all the way back to Arena. If I want to play a bloodless game, I won't choose a TES one.

Here, you can either get to be a good enough gamer to play in the way you wish or accept ( as I have ) that your skills demand you play a broader PC.

I have around level 60 destro with the majority of my perks there and about 20 one handed with no perks and I do more damage with a base steel dagger than I do with upgraded dual-wield impact flames.. I play on novice as well.. this means the system is flawed. why so much emphasis on cost reduction and not damage increase?