And I never use my destruction stuff. Ever.

Destruction is bad.

I am basically running around using illusion stuff, backstabbing, raising zombies, conjuring swords and bows (I have low skill and few perks in archery and one handed. The damage is significantly greater than destruction, along with having an unlimited resource).

Shall I start again?

Are my many many perks in destruction going to be desperately missed elsewhere?

I think possibly, however I am not keen on starting again. I had a level 50something warrior type before and accidentally deleted it. Don't ask. I died a little inside.

Then I made a mage. Who turns out isn't a mage anymore. Kind of.

What do?

There are still allot of balance issues with the game; underpowered destruction magic is one. When you get to a higher level the game also becomes VERY easy more so than it did in Oblivion.

Beth said they were going to have this fixed by January but balance has not been addressed in the latest patch 1.4

I know they hare probably working their socks off fixing the many bugs the game has, but they should not have promised a january balance fix unless they were sure they would be able to fulfil that promise.

How are you not doing sufficient damage!? You should have the expert spells and items that fortify destruction, either made or found.

You use illusion so you should have the aspect of fear perk, giving fire destro spells +10, then the +50% fire damage perks. This results in 100 damage incinerates, is that not sufficient?

It's fine for my character, level 56 on master. I have around 80-90% destruction cost reduction and a 650 magicka pool, I take down deathlords quite happily by dual single casting (not dual casting due to the cost).

Nah, it is technically possible to reach lvl81 so thats a lot of perks, so not all is lost. Emphasize(or even powerlevel) Enchant 100. Then, or at the same time, enchant mana cost reduction for Destruction. This should give you a passable support skill. Switch to light armor. Conjuration is quite a powerhouse school as well, later you can summon powerful things.

destruction svcks, the damage dealed by spells is horrible compared with all weapons.

dmg magic is really all about conjuration. funnily, destruction without mods is only support. quiet lame for something that is supposed to be... well.... causing destruction.

Look at it this way. My bound bow does more damage than a dual casted icy spear/incinerate.

You say you have lots of destro perks, so at least one of the elements must be at +50%. So the expert spells will be doing 90 damage, 198 damage dual casted, you are not doing that damage with your bow.

You saying destruction is useless is because you don't know how to use it, you likely prefer the easy mundane hack and slash melee system improved hugely by crafting.

Hold mouse button>aim>release button.

Am I missing something?

Yeah, tactics, skill and basic simple planning with perks etc.

Hold mouse button.


Aim.


the spell is in my favourites list.

Again, am I missing something here?

No that's pretty much it. Make sure you dual cast though if you want to get the most out of it obviously.

Same thing kinda happened to me. I was gonna focus on smithing but found out it wasn't for me after investing numerous perks. I ended up finding armor and weapons better than I could make from scratch, so I see those perks as wasted now. It was just overkill for me. I thought it was more fun to use things you found rather than make. Sad day

i don't think thats what he means

If you're a console gamer, you're out of luck.

If you're a PC gamer, I suggest installing this mod in order to fix Destruction to the best you can right now.

http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=1245

He probably is doing more with sneak attacks, even unperked.

On my first Mage I played with Destruction all the way through then decided to try out the Bound Bow spell and I was just amazed at the damage it dealt. It was less than my spells without sneaking criticals, not by much though. My Archery skill was 15 and I had no perks in it yet it still wasn't far behind these high end Destruction spells with the +50% damage perks.

You have no idea about destruction damage, how to use destruction, what perks to take to do sufficient damage. How is it that I can play the game perfectly fine using destruction, level 56 on master?

You've ignored what I wrote above, on how I do sufficient damage and just reply with pathetic petty replies.

Because you spend several minutes downing a high level enemy by chain stunning it to death with Impact. An Archer/Melee character would do it in seconds, if not a one hit kill.

Destruction balance is utter garbage right now. It's all about chain stunning with Impact and nothing else. Walls, Runes, Cloaks and Master spells are completely useless.

Destro is the simplest way to play the game. Especially with stagger.

Aim and shoot, and the perks tree isn't exactly rocket science - he probably has it completely filled out at his level.

Maybe if glyphs/wall/cloacks scaled and didn't svck there would be more to it...but they do svck...and there ISN'T more to it.

Hardly...

Sneak+dagger/bow user is.

Several minutes?! One fire storm takes of a good 1/3 of a draugr deathlords health, incinerates do a good 1/10 of their health (on master) which you would struggle to match without huge sneak bonuses or crafting godly weapons. Consider how fast you can cast destruction spells, a hell of a lot faster than bows.

But your argument against destruction is that you can do more damage with sneak bonuses and godly weapons, going down that road I could use a poison of magic+fire weakness, then use incinerate killing even ancient dragons in a few shots.

My main point is, if you know what your doing destruction damage is perfectly viable even on master at high levels. I manage this very well, without endlessly staggering the enemy or having cost free spells. I'm happy playing my game, you should probably play a different combat style.

No. Its that it svcks.

I can use destruction fine. I see no fault with how I am doing things. If I run out of mana, I go invisible and wait for it to recover, or I switch to a bound weapon and then wonder why I'm bothering with destruction.

How long does it take to kill a dragon with destruction? Now compare that with an archer or warrior for instance. This is the problem I have.

Don't be confused here. I'm not looking for "easy" gameplay. I'm on expert. Not on master because getting one shotted isn't fun.

I don't think this has anything to do with YOU'RE DOING IT WRONG L2P. More to do with destruction being crap.

Lets look at runes for instance.

When I got runes, they were cool. When I got the perk to place them further away, I used them alot. I would happily place them and play about with people to make them wander into them and fly across the room and I'd have a little giggle.

If I use one now, it barely dents their healthpool. I don't use them anymore.

No its not.

In those you have to atleast sneak and position first.

With Destruction you just spam 1 attack really fast and chain stagger I'm not talking about whats easier, just what is simpler.

If Incinerates are doing 10% of a Draugr Deathlords health then a Fire Storm would do a lot less than 33%. Especially if you are talking about dual casting. Stop pulling figures out your ass, it doesn't do well for your argument.