I prefer to use healing to stay alive, coupled with fortify health potions to help avoid getting one-shotted by big hitters. I have every restoration perk except ward absorb.

My experience is that anywhere a ward spell would be useful, a Shout does the job better - ice form, slow time, unrelenting force, or etherial form do a good job of stopping enemy attacks.

._. Agreed... They look cool but...... They are just...... Not useful at all.................... I think its just one of those skills where you really need to limit your playstyle and stuff... Which isnt fun imo =S

This is the only time I have ever used a ward spell. I still find it easier to use whirlwind sprint in these situations though...

I found wards to be pretty useful against dragon breath. Apparently even the weakest ward can block all damage of dragon breath from most, if not all types of dragons.

And are wards any better if you duel-wield / duel-cast them? Last time I checked, I could have sworn that using 2 wards / dual-casting was only as strong as a single ward.

It never occurred to me to dual-cast a Ward spell. Seems like that wouldn't be a great tactic, though... you should have a hand free to deal some damage to the enemy, rather than just focus on avoiding damage, I think. Especially since you can't sustain a Ward forever.

As a bit of an update, I've been playing through my Restoration-focused wizard and had a little more luck with Wards. This, however, is not a "typical" pure mage - he's sort of a Gandalf type, using a sword or a staff in addition to spells.

I've found that Wards are nice even in close combat with some enemies, especially since I don't wear armor. Makes it easier for me to hack them down. It's also nice against archers (at least at the lower levels... I'm around level 10); I just Ward up with my left hand and get a ranged Destruction spell or staff in my right.

Against strong casters the Ward gets broken more often than not, but it still seems useful; the stagger isn't too bad, and I seem to have enough time to recover if I'm not mobbed.

Haven't fought any dragons yet, but I just got Steadfast Ward and am on my way to Whiterun... wish me luck!

Yea i use wards along with potions to get as much protection as possible. Nothing like rushing into a mob of mages and having a good laugh as they go down like bowling pins as they do their darndest to destroy me.

I don't care too much for the wards on my mage.

They're too slow to act as shields and if you play as a mage that uses destruction you'll be wasting yourt magicka for offensive spells too quickly to keep either one going.

what mage doesnt use a ward when dealing with an enemy mage with deadly spells

I haven't been inclined to use wards so far... and I'm at level 46. I'm open to try it more. I know wards protect you from harmful magic. But if healing spells recover you from harmful magic, isn't the only difference the school of magic you're advancing? I suppose you could even go the alchemy route and make all kinds of healing potions.

I fought a dragon at a word wall yesterday, and lesser ward negated all the damage from its ice breath, provided I started casting it in time.
Maybe its just me, but I've found it tricky to cast a ward and attack at the same time.

Yes exactly. The same might be true of fighting one particularly powerful mage but I haven't tried.

The mana cost is horrible. Also, with the destruction's impact perk, (which makes destruction near to worthless without dual casting), there's even less reason to use wards.
Furthermore, they stun you if they break. And the charge time makes it necessary to on it all the time, which goes back to the mana problem.

I totally agree. I use spell wards very often against spellcasters and the like.

I usually just dodge the slow moving Ice and fire bolts and try for a stun lock. Wards just drain mana and prevent me from hitting back.

Even though I'm a pure mage by heart, I never really use wards, at low level they drain your magicka like *that*, and considering how hard it is to get the timing right... Well, they're just a waste of time... With some perks they may be useful, but why waste your perk-points on improving your wards, when you can do double damage with a fireball in each hand?

Maybe if the ward was a short-duration one-time-cost spell,I'd use it, but then they wouldn't really be much different from the Armor spells. Anyway, as someone mentioned earlier, having a high spell-resistance kinda nullifies the point of wards.

I found that Healing Spells are a much better, cheaper investment. I'll take the fireballs to the face while holding some kind of Heal effect.

The Sustained spells in Skyrim eat magicka WAY too fast to be useful.

And, I can't really start the College of Winterhold becauseYes... let that be a lesson to you, apprentices- Wards are worthless.

I use Spellbreaker shield, if that counts. It's very practical. Saved my skin from mages and dragons numerous times.

Not really, I personally find them useless.

Tried it out didn't like it so back to the old fireball molag bal combo.

I used em a lot, they saved my ass a lot in fact. Just as much as they messed me up when mages used it against me.

I didn't use them on my mage at all playing on expert. I've upped the difficulty to master on this spellsword playthru and they've become essential as I don't use any of the block skill tree. "Sword and Ward" is a good combo if you come across a Breton out in the open

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7025/6760485633_0ec5d392db.jpg

I don't. Too much magicka depletion and too fast. It's really not a nice skill to use early on or without much investment in restoration.

yes

but only when i get a big mana pool and when facing a powerful necro/mage (I have PISE mod u NEED WARDS to servive)

against dragons i never try cause I have deadly dragons mod and they simply destroy it in 1 sec