So I am making a mage, planning to use Destruction restoration primarily, and alteration enchanting as a second. I am just wondering how conjuration fits in with builds. It seems to weird to me because bound weapons encourage skills like one handed two handed and archer which makes makes you something like a spectral warrior, all they need to add is a bound shield. And having an Atronoch that pumps free damage once it is up seems like it might get boring. Once you can summon 2 dremora from what I have heard the game is just stupid easy.
So if you use conjuration could you just tell me how you like it. Or anyone who uses it on the side tell me what you use it for.
I'm thinking i might dip into it just so I can oneshot dremora, but I don't know how often I will need to do that.

It's fun. You're not really forced to use Bound Weapons, I've never used them even once on my Mage character. But yes, two Dremora Lords can pretty much steamroll anything thrown at them, it's quite ridiculous. Maybe Illusion is more up your alley if you enjoy manipulating and controlling the tides of the battle. Well, either school makes things extremely easy, and with both of them combined even a 2 year old could survive.

Personally, when I play Mage characters I try to make sure my maximum level doesn't get too high due to Destruction not scaling, so I see why you would be worried about bound weapons leveling your skills.

I have used the necromancy tree and have enjoyed it. However, unlike the summoner tree, it is limited in that you need fresh corpses and depending on your level, some corpses may be beyond your ability to raise.

That being said, it is nice to have an extra source of damage and distraction. Still figuring out how to maximize the potential though...

If you are going to be a mage with a large magicka pool, you can get by with using only 4 perk points in conjuration by going up the necromancy tree and get to twin souls.

I don't even use the dremora lord conjuration spell anymore. I use dead thrall and summon an unbound dremora with a skull, a daedra heart, and two different kinds of raw meat at the atronach forge. Kill the dremora loot the daedra heart and weapon then do it again. Then put upgraded, enchanted weapons on the corpses and cast dead thrall and voila! Two permanent dremoras with 100 more health and much better weapons.

I don't use this method that much any more however, as I prefer to use Orchendor and Sild the Warlock armed with fireball staves and I have Belrand as a follower who also uses spells and a chain lightning staff. This is because dragons like to harass me too much and melee followers stand around looking up at the sky all day long. I don't know if it has to do with the PISE mod however.

As far as destruction goes, I let my followers engage and while the enemy is distracted I sneak around and lay firewall at their feet. I learned that firewall is way cheaper in terms of magicka cost compared to the best fire spell incinerate as my incinerate does 100 damage and costs a crapload to cast, compared to firewall which does 50 damage a second and is much cheaper to cast. Alteration goes good with firewall too since you can paralyze someone and they will sit and burn in your fire for 10 seconds.

I prefer to use illusion with conjuration though, because I really enjoy a puppet master type character. The illusion helps because you can cast Frenzy on a group which helps your summons survive much longer. You can cast courage or rally to boost your follower's hit points and if you get the master of the mind perk, you can boost your atronach or zombies.

As far as the mystic weapon perks, you don't need them if you have smithing and enchanting.

Way too few summons.

maximum potential = 2 permanently raised corpses. first you kill 2 ressurectable npcs that arnt terrible at archery (i prefer those high HP bandit archers) then you take all their weapons from their corpse. give each a super-smithed daedric bow and 1 daedric arrow a piece. you have just reached the end of the game. nothing will stop you and your 2 corpse buddies and a follower and a dog. you have a private army that outmatches everything.

look at the amount of things you were able to summon in oblivion and then onto skyrim, see any difference?

My mage is full conjuration and it's really easy. Summon your 2 lords, keep paralyze in your other hand and that's all you need. Keep your ethereal shout for invincibility if you need it but that's it. For dragon fights I might switch it up and summon two flame thralls but not much else you need. I have like 17 unused skill points at level 36 that I have no use for. Just dump all your level-ups into magicka and your all set.

My characters an archer/thief but I bought Conjure Fire Elemental early on and it almost makes it too easy (on Expert). At early levels the elemental can own bandits and things that would chop me to ribbons. I suppose it will be less effective at later levels but for now it's doing most of my killing for me.

I didn't even have to raise my magica much either because of the hood (which also looks cool on me) you find in the torturers chamber at the start.

There were so many creatures to summon in Oblivion. I was a little disappointed in the small selection, but I love bound swords and soul trap. Not only do you never need a weapon in your inventory, but the bound weapons have a perk to make them soul trap. It's pretty awesome and works great with
Oh, and necromancy is always a classic too. Raising the dead is pretty cool.

We have hardly any summed creatures.