was wondering how effective destruction was...i am lookin to make a mage but cant quite seem to get a good build going...i hate summonin frost atronachs especially indoors...if u r to lvl destruction all the way...should u specialize in all there types of magic fire. frost.shock...or specialize in one to free up some perks for something else..

I love destruction, especially the shock and lightning spells, but they can only be increased by 50% using the Augment perks, or more if you guzzle potions.

One of the best spells is Lightning Storm, the master shock spell. Your stuck in place when casting and can get distracted by attacks, but once you fire up you can re-aim your powerful lightning bolt and wave it across your enemy lines doing continuous damage. Helps if you get destruction enchantments to reduce the cost though.

What I was meant to say is 'Yes' but you might need something to back it up against higher level opponents.

I use a mage with destruction as their main attack spells, and just use conjuration as a support school.

My advice for specialising is go with the Shock school as this helps when up against other mages, as it also drains magicka. But, Fire does more base damage, and Frost slows enemies down (but alot of them have resist) so there are pros and cons for each type of destruction.

I would also get duel wield and stagger perks as soon as possible to balance the issues of lower damage in later levels.

Destruction is worth while, but its not "set the world on fire" good. Supplement it with other schools like Illusion or Conjuration for more effectiveness.

Has anyone noticed how enemy spell casters appear to have infinite magicka? When facing them they can constantly bombard you with high powered destruction spells that would zap your own magicka in seconds. And then when I do finally kill them they have no Destruction enchantments.

They dont, I often see them run out of magica and attack me with a blade because I zap them with lightning. What they do get is extreme levels of magica regen compared to the player, so they often run out and regen it faster than most people realise.

I never take the robes into consideration

The only thing that bothers me is that is seems almost none of the NPCs use fire or lightning. 99% use ice in some form. Occasionally you'll run into a fire mage but it's pretty rare. If they ONLY just made spells level up and be on par with hand to hand, nothing else would be need to be changed.

What bugs me are those stead fast shields that last forever when your fighting them. I normally pop out the sword and tell them to block this !! I wish I had that much Magica !!

I'd go ahead and invest in the augmentation perks but I would save my cost reducing perks and invest them in enchant instead to get a good suit of cost reducing gear. You can go all the way to zero mana cost or stop at something less than that, like 5%. Either way, you are going to be better off saving the spell cost reduction perks for enchant because without enchant, you cannot realistically cast master level spells no matter how many points you put into magicka and spell cost reduction. With enchant, you can bring the mana cost down to realistic levels with or without the spell cost reduction perks.