Simple question. Have they patched it yet where I can play a mage without getting my ass handed to me? Or is the warrior build still infinitely better? I want to play this game again but as a mage, there is no incentive to 'try' to get better.

Nope.

IF you want ot play a mage you have two choices, be super stealthy with Illusion, or summon minions and support them with destruction.

If only I played on PC....

I'm sure they will patch it to level up with you atleast they better sick of having to use nothing but potions to make magic hurt someone while a npc mage can kick your ass so fast on master it is unreal.

I played straight mage since launch, I hand everyone's ass to them with no problems except sometimes the number of asses is greater than the number of my hands.

Wow you must be a naturally good mage /sarcasm.

What does that even mean?

Sure anyone can play skyrim and kick ass, but the problem is that the higher level you achieve, the worse off you are. In the end, it takes a ridiculously large amount of time and effort to kill one guy on Master difficulty. Also, as a mage, you get killed in one hit if you're not careful. On the other hand, the warrior build has absolutely no problems whatsoever. Their damage actually strengthens as they level up.

OK, so did you ever actually play a mage up to 50? Because mine is 47 I think, and she only gets one-shotted if I am not paying attention. Which frankly is a good thing, because I don't want to be able to play the game without paying attention. If I am on the ball, she is like a god. Ancient dragons are cat food, a Forsworn camp is an oppotunity for lulz.

The funny thing about this character is, I was playing on Expert since the start, and I went to change the difficulty to Master, and realized I had already been playing on Master accidentally for about two weeks (since I tried an experiment) and hadn't realized it.

They never fix balance issues like this.
Im afraid we are stuck with magic as is, meaning that most spells are useless.

Just because they have not done so histrorically does not mean they wont do so this time around. Of course its more likely they wont given the history, but its not a certainty they wont either.

I can play a mage fine without getting my ass handed to me, and have always been able to.

Are you asking if destruction magick is as strong as a sword, the answer is nope...

What one shots you?

PS I've been playing on master with my mage the whole time. I can pretty easily handle a few giants/mammoths and a forsworn camp (max of 3 briarhearts only though) and a couple ancient dragons, when I'm on my game. If I'm not paying attention, though, I have to use potions and a summon. I'm lame, I know.

Seriously though, I've not tried mage yet. It's really lame that their damage doesn't increase like bow/melee damage. I hope for all the mages, this is addressed, though I'd be surprised.

Good point.
Lets keep our fingers crossed cause I would like to see some balance issues being fixed.
Mainly that levelling up is way too fast and that there should be diminishing returns for lower tier crafting as your level rises.
Its simply silly that you can make iron daggers all the way to level 100.

With 100 health on master, a saber cat can one-shot me if it attacks from behind... But that just means I am actually engaged in the game. Conversely, if an ancient dragon attacks the College I go up to the top of the main tower and battle it one on one. Just about anything can kill you by suprise, just about nothing can kill you if you are aware of your surroundings.

Thats why you get one shotted, not because your a mage. My mage has over 300 HP and well over 500 magicka and I still have a tough time of it with Ancient Dragons, unless I use lightning storm and just laser beam them out the sky. In any kind of group engagement its backpeddaling time.
Mages can be just as survivable as a warrior if you want them to be though.

I like being one shotted, sorry if that wasn't clear.That is the main attraction to me. But in offense I can do stuff my warrior chars couldn't dream of.

I dont know why people are complaining that playing a mage is not good. I am currently playing one now and yes it does take time to kill the enemy but it's effective.

Destruction and conjuration are your best friend

I've been playing a pure mage (level 48 now), and I'm enjoying the challenge. I know many encounters could one shot me if I let myself get hit, so I have to use the environment - doorways, columns, trees - to avoid projectiles and conjure pets to distract melee creatures. Various armor spells and resistance gear help, too. It's a totally different style from the melee smasher or the strike from the shadows build. Yes, it's hard, but it's viable.

Actually...having to use more than one school of magic in order to be a succesful mage sounds about right.

No one, not a single person against balancing understands the argument and they never will. I don't know why I'm bothering but I can't help myself: Nobody is trying to play the game with nothing but Destruction, the problem is Destruction is a pure Mage's go-to for combat and it's too weak to actually be useful at higher levels. It invalidates any attempt to play as a traditional Wizard without ridiculous crafting exploits that many of us do not find enjoyable and are not willing to do. All three archetypes should be enjoyable and perfectly viable without being forced to utilize the fundamentally flawed and arduous system this game calls crafting.

Should have bought the game on PC. Some awesome mods out. Also some nice new spells as well.

Wrong, they made a balance patch in Fallout New Vegas, sniper rifles were stupidly overpowered at release while energy weapons were very underpowered. They fixed this with a later patch that added an additional armor debuff to energy weapons and they toned down the critical multipliers for sniper rifles.

I have no doubt Bethesda will fix this problem, its a glaring issue.

You're playing on Master and trying to make a balance argument? That's laughable.

Uhm i killed always dragon priest and dragon in 2-3 min, dragon alot lesser when i get the shout to make them land, and i not use illusion or stealth or conjuration, or potion or 100% reduction of magic cost (my max is 75% for destruction) or follower (i shouted lydia from the highest mountain of the game),don't use armor (i have armor cloth for the buff of alteration spell), and i have 200 hp(is a risk but i'm a pure mage is normal have low health and risk to die) i played on master and i get the lvl 63 and i played 196 hour, and playing on console.

Now i have a question, you playing another version of skyrim? Destruction don't have problem of damage maybe you must learn to play if you get hitted by arrow and magic or melee, and don't said is a problem of game.

The only problem of destruction is the lack of variety of spell make them annoying , not damage.