I'm Starting my second playthrough on expert difficulty. this is what im thinking about rolling. any comments or tips would be great!


Race: Breton

Class: Mage/Necromancer

Primary Skills: Conjuration, Illusion, Enchanting, Destruction/One handed/Archery (for bound weapons, need help here!)

Secondary Skills: Restoration, Alteration, Speech?

I want to run a mage this time after using a straight up orc warrior my first play-through. Im thinking Breton, but would High Elf be better? or another race? I was thinking a conjuration build with illusion and cant decide on my other main combat method, either fire and storm spells or one handed or archery to work with bound weapons (and if so, which style?) . Any advice from people who have used a similar build?

Thoughts?

I've played a Destruction styled battle mage and nightblade that focused on conjuration and archery with a little one handed. I prefer the archer/onehanded myself, you'll have more mana for summoning and healing, you might want to mix in a bit of stealth too.

Don't stick with Destruction. Screw that, unless you're on PC, I hear that there are some great magic mods on PC(and thus I need one).

I made my third, and current, character a strictly magical fighter. Of course at first I used Destruction spells all the time. With no cash and no experience, it was the best I had. Then I got into the school of Conjuration. Started out small; raising zombies, onto Familiars, and now the Flame Atronach and Bound Sword. MUCH better!

Until a few hours ago(been playing since early afternoon non-stop, until now) I hadn't touched Alteration. I just didn't get what it was about. I had Magelight, Candlelight, and Stone-Flesh. The light spells are useless. Complete waste of time and cash. This game isn't dark enough for those spells to be even remotely useful. But then I noticed Stone-Flesh, and it's pretty useful. It's pretty useful to me because I only wear robes, with the occasional gauntlet/boots combo. So I started using Alteration for armor, and it's kept me alive against some powerful foes so far.

So now I mostly use Stone-Fless, Bound Sword, and throw in a Flame Atronach for a distraction. It's been working for me so far. I found the Atronach Forge, but I haven't been able to activate it yet, says there's a piece of the Forge missing. So no Dremora Lords for me yet.

And I went with a High Elf for my mage character. That +50 magic perk was the way to go.

I have done the same and prefer the same conjuration/illusion/archery is awesome IMO get silent casting and bound bow is at daedric level so it's really strong

conjuration is awesome at high levels, illusion also seems to have cool spells, but i mostly use conjuration, i conjure an an ally, then i conjure a bow with infinite arrows and i'm good to go, kill anything on master difficulty.

I'd go Breton, because the 25% magic resistance are more useful than the 50 extra mana. In the beginning the mana is nice, but eventually you will have enough by either investing in mana or enchanting your gear to reduce spell costs.

One question is whether you want to wear armor or not. I decided to go with pure robes/clothes and use Alteration for defense. Actually the Alteration tree was the first one I had maxed out. With 3 points in 'Mage Armor' and you can get up to 300 armor.

For offense I use 95% Destruction - obviously have to disagree with Lumenir on this one. The trick is not to let opponents get close to you. The perk you want for that is 'impact', which makes opponents stagger if you hit them with a dual cast offensive spell - they willl never reach you. If in doubt, back up a bit. I am Level 54 now with my main character and have no problems whatsoever (but on the default difficulty - don't think it makes a difference in general, though).

I use some conjuration (not the Dremora Lords, though - they are just too strong), but I rarely need it. I went for Fire Atronach and focused on Fire in the Destruction school. That way you will not kill your Atronach, who is immune to fire damage. Of course you could go for frost of shock damage instead - same thing.

I invested nearly everything in Mana until recently. If you go for enchanting, you don't need that necessarily, as you can enchant your robes/armor to bring the costs of two schools of magic down to zero. My Destruction and Alteration spells are for free now, which means I can have Dragonhide (a Master level alteration spell which reduces all physical damage by 80% - which is the same you can get with the best armor - but only for 99 seconds with perks and dual cast) on all the time and use higher level Destruction spells unlimited (I use Incinerate, mostly). That means you can invest less in mana if you like, but I don't mind my mage being a bit more fragile...

Cheers

I really appreciate the advice everyone!

just need this cleared up.. would conjuration + one hand for bound sword or conj + archery for bound bow be more effective? thinking bow since ill be in robes.

still deciding on if i should do that or just use conj for raising the dead and familiars and attacking with destro.

thanks!

I think it's just a matter of play style. I would go with bows for the same reason you stated. Bound sword might be a bit more tricky, as you are not very durable at the beginning - but it is definitely possible. In that case it would probably be helpful to go to the college of Winterhold not too late, for the higher level armor spells (you can get Oakflesh and Stoneflesh in Whiterun, Ironflesh and Ebonyflesh in Winterhold from Tolfdir).

Have fun with your new character!

thanks Rondra!

One tip is to bring a follower with you in the first few levels. You should learn to conjure a flame atronach as they draw a great deal of attention from your enemies, giving you time to cast spells.

thank you for the tip, this mage run should be interesting, only used resoration and alteration on my warrior run

Who are some good mage followers anyway? I never use followers, but I may change that.

I focus on destruction and conjuration myself. Could go for restoration but I make my own potions

Lydia for example. Anyone who can tank for you is good.

Why not, Destruction for early is actualy realy decent, and if you select enchantments to lower your Destruction cost then it will be useful for allot longer. Also Fire and Lightning storm spells are deadly when used correctly.

Marcurio! found in a Riften tavern, used him on my first playthrough. hes great

You are welcome

Just one more thing: If you are going the Alteration route, 'Paralyze' is another very strong way to avoid damage. Only downside is that you only get that rather late, as it is an Expert level spell. Once you hit Adept (skill level 50) you can get the telekinesis spell from Tolfdir, to level up Alteration quickly.

I used a dagger enchated with soul trap in combination with paralyze to go hunting for souls - lots of fun!

I like the bound sword. It raises conjuration so much faster and you never need to worry about disarm or improving weapons. As far as I can tell the same perks work for it that work for one hands. Also a great perk in conjuration for soul trap on bound weapons and banish

If you go for physical damage - especially melee - I would agree. If you go for magic damage I would rather recommend a mage, as you won't run into the problem of killing them with your destruction magic. Brelyna Maryon from the Mage's College in Winterhold is a very good choice. She conjures atronachs to tank damage and uses destruction magic plus any weapons you give her.

Most of the time I prefer no followers - just me and my trusty Atronachs if necessary.

The reason I say, anyone who can tank is good, is because it provides you with a great opportunity to level up your destruction while the tank is distracting your enemies.

Very true. You just have to watch out not to kill your follower with your destruction magic, especially in dungeons where there is less space to maneuver. That's why I prefer Atronachs as tanks. But either way is possible of course. It all comes down to play style in the end...

I use atronachs myself but I was thinking more towards the beginning when you need to level up destruction and don't have a lot of magicka to conjure a atronach.

I'd invest some into alt and resto for healing and Mage armor. Paralyze is also very good and wards can get you out of sticky situations. As far as destro goes, I went storm and fire. With illusion I'd take all perks but the master cost reduce one. You'll then be able to frenzy anything when dual casted. Or calmed...

Does that work on ghosts as well?