I'm curious who actually uses Wards of all levels when fighting mages?

Do you think it's practical? How do you like the timing?

Do wards level your restoration quickly?

I don't know if wards level your Resto and if they do it is VERY slow. I used to use wards before I reached the Spell Resistance cap but now that I have they're kind of a waste of time, magic simply doesn't have any effect on me. With enough skill and the right perks I think wards are useful and if nothing else... blocking flames with a ward looks cool.

I'm not playing any sort of mage, but I see NPC mages use them fairly regularly.

I used wards a lot against dragons, it was extremely useful for me.

I only use them when fighting dragons. Steadfast ward blocks all damage from dragon breath attacks, I think. Against mages? Not really. Mages cast magic pretty quick most of the time. As a pure mage character, using wards would pretty much deplete my Magicka because I'd be using it all the time to protect myself from their rapid attacks, especially really powerful mages.

I guess the only time using wards works for me is when I can use my surroundings for cover. Put up a ward, and then retreat behind something big, recharge, and go at it. I don't use it against people who use Ice Spikes, and I run into them a lot. Ice Spikes are easy to dodge.

If you get the perk that makes wards absorb magic you can usually sustain your ward indefinitely when fighting 2 or more mages.

If I need a ward, I use Spellbreaker.

They just break, so I don't care to. I rather use Spellbreaker.

I use wards against dragons sometimes.

I tried to use one once. The result was to not use it again, ever.

Spell-breaker only blocks the first 50 damage though guys. It's a useful shield and all (dont get me wrong), but also keep that in mind as well if you don't have the proper gear set-up to fully resist magic

With a two handed mage, a ward seems like a waste of space.

I tired to like them. using them over and over in various situations on 2 mages (both over level 50) and it just boils down to (for me) it is better to dual cast offensive spells and fire off a close wounds every now and then if I need it. I wanted to like them and use them all the time but I just don't.

I've got a level 8 or so Imperial wizard whose specialty is Restoration. I hope to make Wards a major part of his arsenal.

So far, though, I haven't seen a ton of success. I've tried them a couple of times against Restless Draugr, but their frost spells seem to punch right through. This is possibly because all I have right now is Lesser Ward. I had a little more success, oddly, against a boss at the end of a dungeon.

Others have suggested that a Ward in one hand and an offensive staff in the other could be a good strategy, as you're not depleting your Magicka quite so quickly as if you were casting Destruction magic while warding. I haven't tried that yet, though.

I think they're only useful when you have the Absorb perk, in any other situation it just requires too much magicka to sustain.

2 or more mages, but not one mage? I took the ward absorb perk in the middle of a battle with a wisp mother to see how it worked and I could keep the ward up longer than without the perk, but it still drained more magicka than it was worth. I reloaded and saved the perk for something else. If I get two mages hitting me at once does that mean I will be hit with enough magicka to absorb it that it will offset the cost of holding the ward up?

good to have in dungeons when you're up against what i'll describe as a soul gem 'turret'. you know the things that fling fireballs at you til you remove the soulgem. if you can't dislodge the gem with a fireball of your own then your only other option is to ward up, run in close when you can and grab the gem with your hand

One of my favorite spell types... don't see why they're getting such bad press in this thread. With my Wizard I consistently used wards + staff to fight some of the most difficult fights I came across, memorably the liches and powerful mages. My Wizard, however, did focus on reducing restoration cast cost. However, with a couple things in mind, the magicka drain from using the wards is not so severe:

-There is virtually never a reason to dual cast a ward unless you are being attacked by expert spells in "rapid fire" or an elder or ancient dragon or something like that, there is almost no splash damage from a ward being overpowered. Getting broken by a single lightning bolt is no sweat.
-Wards rarely have to be sustained for a long duration, the longest I ever have to hold a ward is for a dragon attack, just remember to start a few seconds early.

I am actually playing a spellsword right now that makes excellent use of wards.

I will admit the ward is not ideal for "pure" mages who only ever use two hands for spells and do not mitigate their magic use with anything else.

That may be my issue as I play more of a pure mage style. I have a couple of staves but never use them, mostly because I manage my magicka well so don't need them that much, but I see how a staff could offset the ward magicka cost. My problem with the wards was that it was eating too much magicka, even with the Ward Absorb perk, leaving me with not enough left for offense. But using it in conjunction with a staff and putting them up in bursts, rather than trying to sustain them for long periods sounds like it might work. Maybe I will give them a second change because they look cool and would be fun to use If I could get them to work right. I will admit that they helped out on a couple of occassions, even without the Ward Absorb perk, when I was short bursting them against another mage just long enough to get close enough to him to get a good attack off (at distance the fast little guy was dodging too quickly for me to hit).

I love them, they are really useful in a pinch, the trick is short bursts, get a feel for your enemys 'rhythm'. Learn to accurately judge charge times, smash enemys wards with a quick lightning bolt. Practice with a fire atronach, many people complain that they are useless, I just find they're hard to learn to use well.

Same.

only way I beat my first Ancient Dragon...

well, mix of ward AND ethereal dragon shout...

damn breath attack would kill me in under 1 second... but lesser ward would hold it off amazingly enough.

If my lesser ward wasn't up and ready in time though, I had to pop ethereal form

Same... I tried to like them but... Eh......

My problem isn't the magicka drain. It's just better to slaughter the stronger enemies faster rather than sit there and take hits. Dual cast stagger them, blast off a close wounds if needed. Once you have any kind of respectable magic resist, wards beocme pointless. My Breton Mage can basically stand in absolute defiance of magical damage and roast marshmallows in dragon breath.

These spells would be much more usefull if Impact wasnt 100% chance... Should of made it a 20% chance to stagger with Dragons being immune imo =(