Mage Armor Spell or Alternatives? : V

» Fri Jun 01, 2012 3:57 am

Annoying to cast mage armor all the time. Is it better to enchant light or hvy armor instead of wearing robes? Or is that not a viable solution? How are other mages working? I am lvl 15, conjure quite a bit and usually mop up after my summons dies. Still, would be nice to have a more effective armor rating.

» Fri Jun 01, 2012 5:47 am

As it stands, fully perked ebonyflesh only nets you 36% damage resistance. Furthermore, dragonhide doesn't even use the perks. Hence, flesh spells and mage armor perks are largely useless in their current forms. If you're on PC, this can eventually be fixed with the CK, otherwise I recommend wearing armor - it doesn't affect spell damage and can be enchanted just as well as cloth.

Edit: I personally use only cloth, no alteration, only 100 health at level 34 on adept difficulty with no problem. My solution is a shield and block perks.

» Fri Jun 01, 2012 4:40 am

Didn't even know that about dragonhide, that's super lame.

edit: and if you still want to use the flesh spells then you should probably get dual casting and I think there's a perk for duration also.

» Fri Jun 01, 2012 2:06 am

Funny, I keep hearing you can reach the armor cap with mage spells..From console players I assume.

» Fri Jun 01, 2012 4:48 am

Funny, I keep hearing you can reach the armor cap with mage spells..From console players I assume.

Dragonskin. Automatic armor cap.

» Thu May 31, 2012 8:26 pm

Funny, I keep hearing you can reach the armor cap with mage spells..From console players I assume.

Dragonhide is 80% damage reduction, which is the same as the armor cap, but that can be cast by any character, armor or cloth, and the mage armor perks don't affect it.

» Fri Jun 01, 2012 3:40 am

Annoying to cast mage armor all the time. Is it better to enchant light or hvy armor instead of wearing robes? Or is that not a viable solution? How are other mages working? I am lvl 15, conjure quite a bit and usually mop up after my summons dies. Still, would be nice to have a more effective armor rating.

Light armor wins vs. unarmored+armor spells hands down, absolutely no contest.

You get +100 hidden armor rating just for wearing a full set of any armor, while the strongest armor spell only gives 100. And mage armor perks' 2nd and 3rd point only raise it by 50 compared to the first point's doubling of it. ~~A set of fur armor+ebony flesh, with only 1 point in mage armor, is better than 3/3 mage armor and ebony flesh~~. - Corrected by DragonOmega below.

Not to mention, perked light armor gives better mobility than unarmored. :/ Also, it's just a plain boring method of protection. A tedious recast. They should've either made it have a much longer duration, or given it an upkeep cost"ala Dragon Age. Or given mages more interesting defensive spells, like stoneskin style stuff with a number of charges or something.

» Fri Jun 01, 2012 6:37 am

Light armor wins vs. unarmored+armor spells hands down, absolutely no contest.

You get +100 hidden armor rating just for wearing a full set of any armor, while the strongest armor spell only gives 100. And mage armor perks' 2nd and 3rd point only raise it by 50 compared to the first point's doubling of it. A set of fur armor+ebony flesh, with only 1 point in mage armor, is better than 3/3 mage armor and ebony flesh. Not to mention, perked light armor gives better mobility than unarmored. :/ Also, it's just a plain boring method of protection. A tedious recast. They should've either made it have a much longer duration, or given it an upkeep cost"ala Dragon Age. Or given mages more interesting defensive spells, like stoneskin style stuff with a number of charges or something.

Agreed, but do remember that wearing fur armor would make that 1 mage armor perk useless.

Edit: I think unarmored should have had it's own skill tree to begin with.

» Thu May 31, 2012 8:20 pm

a true mage represents with robes. They're supposed to be distance fighters, thats why enemy mages dance around and blast you. it would be like a wood elf archer wearing full hvy armor, it doesnt suit them

» Thu May 31, 2012 11:08 pm

a true mage represents with robes. They're supposed to be distance fighters, thats why enemy mages dance around and blast you. it would be like a wood elf archer wearing full hvy armor, it doesnt suit them

for RP reasons i suppose, but heavy/light armor have more benefits.

» Thu May 31, 2012 10:46 pm

Real mages wear robes or nothing at all. You DO want to be a real mage dont you? Think of it in real life terms. Would you rather walk all day in a pretty robe and look awesome. Or spend the day wearing hideous leather pants and jacket?.... Leave the leather to people with big hair and other undesirables.

» Thu May 31, 2012 4:11 pm

Archmage Robes >>> any chest armor you can get for a wizard until your crafting skills get up towards 100. I have had Archmage Robes and Morokei on my wizard character since it was 22. I can't think of any other armor you could get at that level, without cheating the game and getting your crafting skills up, that could possibly surpass that setup for a wizard.

» Fri Jun 01, 2012 12:05 am

I like that mages don't need to wear robes in TES series, I like all the various hybrid style characters that result from it. However, I feel like magic needs a reasonably effective alternative defense for those who go the "pure mage" route, and unarmored should at the very least have one advantage(mobility) over armor. Currently it doesn't even have that.