I've read a lot on these boards concerning destruction mages, and after getting bored with my stealth archer character, I've made a Khajit sorceress. I am currently at my mid-30 levels on Adept difficulty and it has been pretty easy so far.

I have invested exclusively in mana on level ups, and I use no armor whatsoever. Not even Alteration school of magic. I tried at first, but having to switch the spells for both hands is a chore and soon I abandoned it for sake of my nerves. Still, it's pretty easy with no armor, mostly I don't get hit at all. I've only got problems with few leveled bandit archers two-hitting me when I wasn't cautious enough.
I don't use any exploits - and I also consider 100% cost reduction an exploit, or at least a very poor design choice.

So far I haven't noticed being mage non-viable. It's just pretty damn boring, due to limited number of spells, botched mana management, and annoying switching interface. Followers AI also doesn't help, and as it seems the only reliable way to get your companion killed is to friendly-fire them with your spell, you get the picture.

Difficulty slider is a joke. Master doesn't really make the game harder, merely longer, more tedious and annoying. The game is easy itself, you don't practically have to think playing it whatsoever. Every choice will do.

That is at least my perception. It puzzles me how somebody could consider Skyrim challenging at any degree.

icy spear and incinerate are amazing at 50.

Playing a destruction mage at about 20 on expert, using a mod which boosts destruction damage, I can't kill dragons in a few firebolts. I can't kill them with a full mana bar worth of firebolts. I can kill them using my mod boosted flames spell with about a whole mana bar.

So I'm not calling you a liar ... well I don't know how to finish that.

I have the same problems I don't understand alot of people saying it's OP when my skyforge sword does more damage unperked compared to my destruction fully perked and it's takes to long to kill when IMO it should be the fastest to kill out of all the combat skills due to it's limits you can't sneak attack, you can't power attack, you can only increase spells permanently by 50% and your mana is your ammo which runs out ALOT

level 64
Incinerate kills most in one it.

destruction is fine. spamming 1 spell for 90% of your playtime is really good fun.

lmao j/k, I had more damage spells in dragon age 2 ...


Waiting for construction kit, wtb scaling.

Can someone explain something to me?

I get that destruction damage doesn't scale, so after a certain point (in the 30's, 40's for 50's, wherever, it probably changes with difficulty) you're not doing the same percentage damage to an enemy, which makes you weaker. I get that.

But I see people constantly complaining about the inability to play a "pure destruction mage". What exactly does that mean? Because it sounds to me like it means using no other magic and no other skill besides destruction.

I see suggestions in threads like this to use conjuration or illusion, to use sneak, to wear armor, etc. - all of which, it seems to me, would help the problem of not being able to kill enemies before they kill you. And when those suggestions are made, I see people shoot them down, saying "but it's not a pure destruction mage anymore" or something similar.

So what exactly do people mean when they say "pure destruction mage"? Because if it means what it seems - using nothing BUT destruction - I think you're asking for too much.

If it means something else, please explain it to me.

I play my pure destruction mage using NOTHING ELSE besides destruction and I ONLY use cloth armor. No other magic, no armor, no weapons.

I agree with bringing back spell creation. This is a game of CHOICES, if I want to exploit I should be able to its a singleplayer game. The only person effected is the one who exploits. I feel like elderscrolls games should do "ADD things to the games and polish whats already there". The only reason something should be taken away is if it causes issues with the games.

My only problem with Destruction magic is that the master level spells are completely useless. Far too much magicka cost for far too little effect. Can't actually use them in battle most of the time because the casting time is stupid. The only one I get any functionality out of is Blizzard, and only because it is an AoE that lasts ten seconds; I can cast and then run away while they take 30 damage walking right through it. Yippee.

Yes, I was very disappointed with the Master spells. They are completely useless. Even with Blizzard, you may as well use wall of frost instead. (50dmg/sec and can be cast a lot quicker)

And does that work for you?

My point is just that melee players need more than 1- or 2-H weapon skils . . .they also need armor skills and blocking.

Archery builds also use stealth.

I'm not saying you do this, but I seem to see a lot of people who say they want to ONLY use destruction, and nothing else, and then complain it's not feasible, and so the game is broken. And it seems to me that destruction isn't MEANT to be used alone. If you can, great . . . but it would be like someone using ONLY one-handed weapons - no shield, no armor, no bow, no stealth, etc . . .and expecting that to work well.

It works perfectly for me. I can take out enemies before they touch me and if they get near me I dodge their attacks while shooting firebolt at them

Destruction is good to use alone as long as you have enough magicka

It means...

You can be a warrior and use your weapon of choice the whole game. You don't need any other source of damage.
You can be an archer and use your bow of choice the entire game. You don't need any other sources of damage.

To be a destruction mage you NEED another source of damage OR you must level enchanting enough to get 0 spell cost and even then it's just spamming a spell that does very little damage. Conjuration is supposed to be a support skill, it dominates in this game. Illusion is supposed to be a support skill, it dominates in this game. Destruction is supposed to be a primary damage skill, it's actually a support skill.

You could play on a lower difficulty but that also means the bad guys also hit you for less damage. On master they hit for 2x damage, which means that if you get hit you are probably dead. That's a good thing by the way. Mages are supposed to be killing machines but also very easily killed. That's not the case in this game.

Depending on how you look at it I see one of two things 1. Destruction is underpowered or 2. Everything else is overpowered


In my opinion not only is Destruction not balanced with archery and melee, it's not even balanced within magic itself. Conjuration can be used and you don't need another damage skill, not even on master level. The same thing with Illusion, you frenzy the group and calm the last guy. Attack, calm, attack, calm. You could just punch him to death. Of course now you can't frenzy/calm every single thing in the game but my point is that most of the game becomes way too easy.

With Destruction there comes one great perk, impact, and that makes the game even worse. Instead of having to run around in circles throwing 30 spells at a guy I can just stand there and stagger him the whole time. Still not fun though.

So true. It's bizarre that I can get hit with a frost spell and barely be able to walk for five seconds, and when I throw ice storm at an enemy, he is still able to jog at me and then regains his stamina in two seconds. This just doesn't make sense. At the very least balance it so they walk for three seconds compared to my five.

Not exactly. At least for me (level 42), the three master spells svck. They are interrupted by attacks, yet you have to be within close range for the spell to affect your enemies. They make no sense. I use the three expert level spells now. I can three-hit draugr death lords and wipe out elder dragons in a matter of seconds using incinerate.

Have any of you actually taken the time to play as a PURE detruction mage using nothing else besides destruction magic? You all keep talking about how bad it is and that it is useless but I dont think you guys have actually taken the time to use it alot!

Become Ethereal, cast, voila~ *or so i have been told*

The main gripe and reason i stopped playing with my pure mage is because every few seconds you need to switch into your fav's menu, then back again... It's like im playing a turn based actionrpg, but much much worse...

Why are you all saying that in order to play a pure destruction mage you NEED another source of damage? NO you DO NOT! And you also do not need to enchant items to get a 0 magicka cost another alternative could just be to get a lot of magicka! I dont think ANY of you have taken the time to actually play a pure destruction mage.

If you want to play pure destruction, level enchanting and alchemy. That way you can make fortify destruction potions that could almost triple your damage output for a whole minute and never have to worry about running out of magicka. Just set your fortify destruction potions to one of your hotkeys and all you have to do is press one button for uber-mode.

Thanks to enchanting, you'll be able to put more points into health as you are leveling up and you can double enchant health bonuses to your equipment so you won't get one shotted. Easy peasy.

Is your character level 50 already? No? Then come back when you do. Most of the complaints are about higher levels when the spells don't scale well enough and everything just gets too strong.

Another twist using enchanting would be to use weapons to deliver magic damage as if they were melee range staves. It isn't really weapon damage since you would use an unimproved dagger with no weapon perks so only a few points of damage. This gives you a fast magic attack of at least 120 damage without potions or any other boosters. Plus you can have absorb health damage which is unaccountably missing as a castable spell.

I dont get one-shotted because i run away from enemies that get too close and dodge arrows and spells.

I have a level 41 that uses destruction magic and it is fine.

He is also playing on default difficulty. Nothing wrong with playing the game on default but even wearing robes you can take a lot of damage. I don't like being able to stand there and take all the damage thrown at me and still live.