Basically I was thinking of doing a mage character on my next playthrough and I was wondering in which type of spells should I specialize? I want to focus onto one type of magic and I'm wondering what should I take, and why.

Obviously, I'll have to consider what types of resistances enemies in the game have, especially dragons, so if anyone has some advices and insights, please do tell.

as far as i know, draugrs have a resistance to frost. Nords also have a resistance to frost, and nords probably make up for quite a substantial number of bandits out there. So frost doesnt seem like a really good idea against these two

Only one? Shock, no contest. Nothing in the game resists Shock and Disintegrate is great.

Frost and Fire, as far as I understand it, are DPS spells. Whereas shock is instant pain for the bad guy. All comes down to how you want to play.

I'm using a battle-mage, and I use Shock exclusively. Works well for me. Just make sure you have the dual-handed perk, and the impact perk in Destruction.

Fire = Damage over time
Frost = Damage to stamina
Shock = Damage to magicka.

Second vote for using shock.

Shock for sure. It's great vs mages and is still better for warriors anyway, because let's face it - doesn't get much more badass than TURNING THEM TO [censored] ASH

I played my mage to lvl 61 and went with fire, only because of the loading screen message that says targets on fire take additional damage from fire, implying some kind of stacking mechanic for repeated fire attacks. Worked well for me and I did not regret it. Although the slowing effect of frost is useful, as is the additional magicka draining effect of shock on magic users.

Sounds like people have tried it every which way and have had success. Preference is probably the only real deciding factor.

Anyone know which resistances dragons have? And does the damage magicka effect from shock affect their shouts?

Logically enough, ones that breathe fire are resistant to fire and weak to frost, and ones that breathe frost are resistant to frost and weak to fire.

Shock doesn't affect their shouts. At least it shouldn't.

Shock is obviously best just due to its speed in reaching the target, but also due to enemies with resistance to it being less common. There are fire and frost resistant races and dragons, but no shock. Also the stagger from impact kind of makes frost's slows obsolete since they don't last much longer than the stagger. As for fire, it might be alright if destruction did real damage, but its mostly for staggering while summons take care of actually bring HP bars down. Shock also benefits from this most since the best atronachs are immune to shock, you can stagger away without concern for your storm elementals.

i usually start with shock since it is the easiest hitting your opponent with it, and then change to fire because it in general does most damage.
Who cares about stamina or magicka damage, if you stunned your opponent anyway.

I find ice spikes very effective.

Shock spells are completely useless, they cost more than fire spells, and magicka regen on enemies is way too fast to actually be affected by shock damage.

Frost is alright, since it slows your enemy down, the stamina damage has the same problem as the magicka damage tho.

Fire is probably the best choice, doing a lot more damage, weakening your enemies defenses for the next fireball and some nice DoT from burning, while costing less magicka than shock and frost, essentially killing your enemy before magicka or stamina damage could even have an effect.

Useful link for you regarding resistances - http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1318762-enemy-weaknessresistance-list/page__p__19826499#entry19826499

Thanks for that mate, and of course all the advices from others. It seems Ice is out of the question with so many creatures with Frost resistances and even immunities. Fire seems very viable, since there are only Dragons resistant to it, depending on the type of course. Also Dunmer and Fire Atronachs, but I don't think I'll be fighting many of those. Quite a few creatures have a weakness to fire, and since it's the most damaging spell type and cheapest to cast it is very good choice, IMO. Even though casting costs can be rendered obsolete with Enchanting.

Shock on the other hand hits instantly and it is neutral to everything. Magicka drain is good as well, and so is the fact that strongest summons, the Storm Attronachs are immune to it so I can cast without fear of killing them. Also, the Master Shock spell seems better to me than Fire one. Not to mention I can play an Emperor Palpatine in Skyrim if focusing on Shock. Heh, decisions, decisions.

The Intense Flames is even more worthless than Deep Freeze. Chasing enemies with Fireball quickly stops being amusing and starts being annoying.

Disintegrate on the other hand - that's like permanently decreasing HP of all enemies in the game by 15%. How is that not awesome?

There's no weapon I love more than my dual-cast, double-augmented Firebolt spell. It staggers the enemy and I think the only one with a resistance to fire could be the Flame Atronach. I love the sound of firing it off too. Ice Bolt is powerful but some resist it and I have trouble with shock affecting Lydia if she's too near the enemy when I shoot it. Good luck!

Sounds like frost is the obious choice for enchants where the enchant damage is just an bonus but the 50% slow for 2 seconds is very powerful.

I always thought those perks (Intense Flames, Deep Freeze, Disintegrate) were worthless. How does Disintegrate works? Automatically kills enemies if their HP is low enough?

Yep. Hitting an enemy with 15% or less HP = instant Ash Pile.

My pure mage says, shock does more damage, more damage = dead faster.

As soon as you can, dual-wield chain-lightning, and get the "stagger" perk.

Chain lightning can reach distant targets, like enemies on top of the walls of those old forts - and you don't have to get close to them. It's almost like a bow. In dungeons, it throws their bodies all over the place - very satisfying.

Once a dragon gets close enough, even when flying, start zapping him. Once he lands it's over. Constant hitting and stagger prevents him from getting close enough to breath his spells on you.

Good luck.

PS: Only problem with chain lightning, it jumps to your follower and will kill them if they're close enough. I overcame that by making Lydia "essential," but she's still not happy when she gets hit.

Just took Aspect of Terror for my fire fun...

Probably Shock>Fire>Ice however I use Fire almost exclusively against Mages/things that don't have fire resistance and for those that do have a resistance, I use ice. Most of your animals have resistance to frost as well as the others listed above.

With respect to destruction magic, do it like some of the more advanced AI ingame, switch when necessary. I had a fight yesterday involving my archer vs. Hamelyn. When he tried to fry me, I quickly drank a potion protecting me from his flamethrowing... he realized and switched to shock-based spells...