Or should I just go with the bound bow. I hear most people say destruction is just there to be a backup for other magic skills since it doesn't scale well at higher levels compared to other combat skills. That sort of svcks. Is archery more viable? I want a skill I can focus on, not one that will be overshadowed by other skills.

Destruction, even though it is a bit lacking, is still worth investing points in, but I wouldn't suggest using it as your primary tool. With the use of enchantments, and potions, you can effectively have zero cost magicka, but that still won't change destruction's primary drawback. Cost to damage ratio is out of whack.

Yeah, I want something I CAN focus on. I want my character to focus on actually hurting things, not primarily using minions or illusion. I'll use those two of course, but I hate focusing on that as opposed to blowing things up like, in my mind, a mage should.

My lvl 63 character is focused mainly on destruction and he has worked out fine. I still only use lightning bolt which is one of the lowest level destruction spells. I duel wield it because it shocks the enemy which gives me enough time to get away from them and stall them again. Then can never hit me. It is cheap if you have a lot of magika too.

Hmmm cool. Do you ever use any of the higher level spells? If not, why?

Well i have a level 22 dark elf whos only way of attack is from destruction. I play on adept and have no troubles with combat at all. I use arch mage robes so i have no armor rating but on ocasions i do use stone skin to boosts my defense. On higher difficulties i can understand that destruction may be underpowered but for now it works well for me. I use firebolt and fireball for most combat situations.

Destruction when you get the expert level spells you'll be choking on laughter from how far they fly away.

Destruction in Skyrim makes my rp on my current High Elf mage a bit more challenging...a former Thalmor agent who was tossed out on his ear for excessive cruelty to the people of Tamriel. I'm finding I am having to use illusion to [censored] with peoples' minds, and then use my destruction spells occasionally.

Oddly enough, even though my desrtuction is higher than illusion, it still is not my primary school of choice, illusion is. It's a very powerful school of magic...as is conjuration.

Don't listen to people when they say Destruction is weak. It's very strong if you focus on it and learn how to use it. There are couple of techniques that makes a lot of difference in the beginning. I just did a playthrough with focus on Destruction, with a bit of alchemy and restoration. No Followers, no conjuration, no alteration, no smithing, no enchanting. It was fun and I was surprised how strong it was.

I don't use higher lvl spells unless against dragons because I always end up killing my melee follower when I use them. Also they drain my magika too quickly. I use the master level shock spell called lightning storm I think but only on ancient dragons.

Lightning storm is very useful for killing dragons when you do not have dragonrend. Also the winterstorm spell (not sure if thats what its called) is very good at staggering multiple enemies without hurting yourself. But of course weapons are usually better during endgame....

So you guys think it's on par with other combat skills without exploits? ie one handed, archery etc?

No it is not on par with melee or archery or conjuration or illusion. Despite what they would have you believe, Destruction is not that strong of a school of magic anymore.

Destruction can match melée and bows if you don't focus hard on sneak, smithing, and enchanting.

Destruction doesn't make use of those skills as melee and bows do.

Also keeping your overlall level down helps. Most of the people complaining are the level 81s that don't understand that there blood thirst for extra perks is weakening their magic schools.

I haven't used Destruction much myself but I do think Destruction is viable.

Hmm so I guess that gets to the meat of my question: which is more viable? Destruction, or weapon skills?

I would say that archery is still very useful for sniping but you can always use lightning bolt, fireball and ice spike on far away enemies.
As for being better than one handed. If you have both of the duel wielding destruction perks and enough magika then yes it can be better than a lot of melee weapons.

proof please. I use D magic and its epic, I find it blows away the enemies and it is my main and only way of survival as a mage, among potions for healing

Dual-Casting spells actually provides a worse cost to damage ratio than doublecasting. I think the default is 2.2x magnitude and 2.5x magicka cost. You get the stagger from impact, though.

Just fyi.

@Adrien. Destruction magic scales poorly compared to weapons at higher levels because weapons have more methods of scaling their damage. While you can use enchantments, smithing, and the weapon skill itself to boost damage with weapons, the only thing that boosts destruction damage is potions and the +elemental damage perks in the destruction tree. While this is fine early game, it becomes very tedious around level ~40, since your primary method of killing a difficult enemy is stunlocking it with impact until it A. Dies or B. You run out of magicka and bail. Destruction is fine at lower levels, however.

If you have more magika than health and stamina then always use magic and rarely use melee. My lvl63 Mage has tried using melee weapons at high levels but because I have little health and stamina I always have to revert back to magic just to stay alive. Even with legendary daedric armour.

Go with the frost tree. The paralysis, while heelllarious, is super effective, and the slowing down effect is great.

I've never even made it to level 50 on any of my characters. Started playing on 11-11-11.

Both my dual wielding warrior and my one handed warrior at level 40 witout enchantment and smithing would mow down my opponents far quicker than my level 48 mage with 100 in destruction fully perked, no enchantment, no potions. Face it, Destruction is a shell of what it used to be...hell, magic as a whole is a shell of it's former self.

Its okay but not brilliant... i personally grab a warrior companion the, use conjuration, to summon 2 Dead Thralls, and illusion, so i can buff my zombies and followers with the master rally spell.. and watch them take on an army

The amount of damage that
Magic in my opinion is worth more if you don't plan to level much. But if you plan to invest heavily in smithing, enchanting, and alchemy, and plan to get to a fairly high level, then weapons will yield a much much better damage. However I do find magic often feels more fun since it allows you to fill any class in a fight wether it be a melee fighter, a stealthy assassin, or a ranged killer.

Destruction is NOT on par with Archery, One-Handed, or Two-Handed.

Destruction/Enchanting both at 100 does less damage than an unimproved melee weapon. I've played pretty much every archetype and every build possible and I can confirm this to be true on Master difficulty. Hell, a bow with NO SMITHING/ALCHEMY/ENCHANTING WHATSOEVER will still do more damage than Destruction spell that cost 0 magicka. Those of you that are saying they're on par, what game are you playing?

If you really want magic then oblvion is your game. Spell making and way more spells even if the effects aren't the best.