Havn't played Skyrim in a while and just patched the game and deleted all my old saves. So, as title says - have destruction been patched? Imo it wasnt all that UP around lvl 35-40 before - but I know people say it gets terrible later on.

So have it been patched, or has it always been working as intended while melee and archery have been overpowered? at least with enchanting.

Not to my knowledge

Damage still doesn't scale if that's what your asking. So I'm pretty sure Destructiom still svcks something awful.

That's a shame really - I was going to start a thief but then i remembered how I always loved playing as mage and i thought, maybe just maybe isnt it as bad at high levels as people say it is - or it's been patched.

As I mentioned before, at level 35-40 I didn't think it was that bad playing a pure mage (no summons however) - but I guess compared to OHK's on a thief it might seem really bad. So you wouldnt advise on rolling a mage again for my first attempt to complete the game (I only got to 40 or so on my highest character before)

Off-topic:

I was planning on rolling a thief/scout/assassin sort of class - But I don't feel like only sneaking around counting on OHK (like this guy on youtube: /watch?v=F9zaRE6y8HU - awsome videos none the less) So I guess going more of a fighter/thief hybrid with sneak up to sword sneak attacks, focusing on light armor and one handed (dual wield) - alchemy ofcourse for poisons etc. Seems viable?

EDIT: I always play on master btw.

it's still too weak yeah.. it's a shame, because it is so easy to fix....

i use a mod that increases destruction dmg by 15% for every point i put in the novice, adept, expert, etc. perks. this way the dmg scales way better.

That's not a bad idea, but your going to be spending a lot of time making potions to survive encounters if your not going to use a dagger and the 15x sneak multiplier on master. Pure destruction is still not a very viable tree without the damage scaling sadly, if you use alchemy with destruction then it's not as awful but that's up to you, you're going to need destruction potions for every fight probably even with impact.

Actually the plan was to go with 1h swords in stead of daggers, only going for the 6x multiplier but being able to handle myself a bit better after the opener - as daggers are terrible in toe to toe combat. As far as master and daggers go, if you play by the never get deteced rule its not bad, you should really watch the videos from the guy I posted a link to (search for: Skyrim Assassin (Tutorial 2) on youtube. He havnt even put points into health, but he never has to fight toe to toe either. (On master)

Edit: Sorry I misread your post, the part about not using daggers. It all makes sense now what you said xD

It's viable as long as you include alchemy and enchanting early on. If you really grind enchanting then you can almost completely dispense with the alchemy later on. I have a mage right now at level 30 with 100 in enchanting. I have enchanted gear that reduces Destruction costs to 0; and that easily makes for a viable Destruction mage. It does svck that damage doesn't scale with your progress but I've found that it works well enough so that it's still fun even though I don't have to manage my magicka costs when casting any Destruction spell. I also use Restoration, Illusion, and Conjuration, so I do have to manage those costs with a low magicka count (260).

It can work as long as you're willing to collect soul gems and soul trap everything in Tamriel that you can.

I dont understand, i have never had an issue with Destruction magic. it always works fine as long as im not shooting fire at a flame atronach or Ice at a Vampire

They havn't patched that yet?

About alchemy, yeah I was def going to pick up alchemy erlie - I assume that the potions that increase dustriction damage etc makes some what of a difference.

Also since you are using conjuration I assume that summons help out alot with dealing damage. I'm only really worried about desruction tbh.

I didn't have much problem either around level 40, just alot of people say it's terrible later on. That could perhaps be because melee and archery might be overpowered with crafting to the point where magic seems bad.

I did however run into some.. survivability problems on my previous mage, but that was mostly due to a bad build.

Not officaly, but there are plenty of mods that fix the issue.

On lower difficulties it's fine. I should have specified that I'm referring to its viability on Master difficulty. This means you have to utilize everything you have available to you (in the vanilla, unmodded, non-super exploited game) because you're only doing half damage. This in turn means that your attacks are half as effective relative to the medium (Adept) setting. And this is where the main focus of commplaints about damage not scaling come into play. But it's more than doable. The stagger perk plus 90%+ cost reduction make a mage viable on any difficulty setting.

It's perfectly viable without enchanting or alchemy, I use it extensively on master without either, I never feel I'm underpowered. If you play on adept then it's very viable, you shouldn't have any problems if you keep a few things in mind:

1) At lower levels the spells are fine for constant use, they don't cost too much magicka. But at high spell tiers the spells starts costing huge amounts, for adept/expert/master spells all cost huge amounts of magicka. So you have to have cost reduction for the high tier spells, enchanting is nice so you can make your own enchantments, but it's not necessary. Here are some items in game that give you good destruction reduction at high levels:
-Circlet of peerless destruction 25%, you can also find high tier helms (ebony, glass, daedric, dragonbone & dragonplate) with destruction reductions of 22% and 25%, daedric and the dragon plate/bone can have 25%, the others have 22%.
-Robes of peerless destruction 22%, also armors of destruction, same as helms, 22% and 25% for daedric/dragonbone/dragonplate.
-Ring of peerless destruction 25%

The items are much easier to find as a cloth mage, the robes, circlet and ring can be easily bought at high levels, the armors with specific enchantments are quite rare, so it will take some time to find/buy the right gear, but it's viable. Here's a link to the generic magic apparel you can find/buy with fortfiy destruction - http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Generic_Magic_Apparel#Fortify_Destruction
Combining three of the above will grant 70-75% reduction, combined with the perk reduces the expert spells enough for regular use.

2) There are various permanent (non-alchemy) ways to boost the damage of the spells:
-The necromage restoration perk, all destruction spells deal 25% extra damage against undead (draugr, vamps etc).
-The destruction damage perks, they add 25% at rank 1 and 50% at rank 2.
-The illusion perk 'aspect of fear', it adds 10 damage to all fire spells (15 damage as a necromage vampire).
-Dual casting, deals 2.2x damage for 2.8x the cost, also the stagger perk has 100% stagger when dual casting spells.
-Enemies weaknesses, undead such as draugr/vamps have a weakness to fire, trolls have a weakness to fire and dragons have a weakness to the opposite of the element they use.
-The shock perk 'disintegrate' instantly kills enemies at 20% health, so you only need to deal 80% damage. This perk also works on the lightning cloak spell, so destruction syncs nicely with melee.
-The ice perk 'deep freeze' not a damage boost, but a nice paralyse effect when the enemy is at 20% health, keeping enemies of your back, works with the frost cloak spell.

I'd honestly not listen to the people who say destruction is weak, with the above damage boosting methods, on master you can 3-4 dual cast shot a melee draugr deathlord on master using incinerate, so destruction is perfectly fine for use at high levels, but you HAVE to have apparel that reduces the cost.

Hope this helps, I know this as I use it constantly on master without alchemy.

Level 37 pure destruction mage, every point dumped into magicka.
I still kill as good as I ever did.

I prefer not to use mods that alter balance or in any way the content. Only mods I use is unofficial bug fixes and graphic enhancers. I just prefer to play the game the devs made it, otherwise I feel like i might as well just pop the console at start using commands Just personal pref.

Thanks alot for your time and help. I already started a new mage - I will however use alchemy and enchanting, mainly because enjoy crafting, also because it can actually be helpful. And imo from an rpg perspective, both alch and ench goes well with a mage character (at least in my world).

My plan as it is now is to dump most of my stat points into health this time around - I was rather weak against other mages on my previous mage. Plan is to bring down the spellcost with enchanting and use the levels for health to make a bit more tanky. I guess I would have to put some points into magicka since I most likely wont be reducing the cost of all schools that I will be using - unless i get/enchant gear with general minus to spell cost rather then specific schools.

It still isnt scaled unfortunately-

As said, best option is a mod (there are tpns that scale)

Without that, destruction limps along, forget runes and cloaks- no scaling means these are jokes depending on difficulty and level.

Prepare to sacrifice all your enchant slots for cost reducers- unless you enchant and throw perks for double effect, then you can boost other things.

My current mage is a thief. I use illusion and conjuration. Illusion is amazing for a thief. The ability to pit your enemies against each other, invisibility, calm, ect all work extremely well for a thief. Conjuration is also great not only for adding a helper whenever you need one, or two with the right perk, but conjured weapons are great fun and you can duel wield conjured blades or summon up a bow whenever you like. It's been one of my favorite builds so far.

Just don't depend on destruction. That was really the only problem with magic in the game anyway. The other magic trees are just fine as they are.

Offensive magic in Vanilla Skyrim is still awful, oh, and buffing enchanting to give you infinite destruction doesn't count.

Actually IMHO it is better to concentrate on Magicka enchantments on wearables first, and destruction secondary, giving you about two or three enchantments for destruction, and 4 or 5 for Magicka (dual-enchanting). Using this method, I get a fairly strong destruction Mage. But max. strength Fortify destruction potions are still needed in tough fights W/dragons or large groups, even W/summoning or a follower. That's NBD to me, pretty easy to keep up the alchemy ingredients late-game. Of course, other max. strength potions are also recommended for the harder fights:
Fortify Alteration & Ebonyflesh (if you aren't wearing armor)
Fortify Health
Fortify Magicka
Regenerate Health
Regenerate Magicka (if it isn't a fast fight)
If vs. magic-use (incl. dragon):
Resist Magic (can get to 30% late-game)
Resist Frost, Fire, Shock


Using these, I can kill a dragon in about 3 hits of Thunderbolt (W/all but one perk in that branch, the shock branch) using both hands, no dual-casting perk. Usually kills other opponents in one or two shots, Draugr Deathlords in 4 or less. Lesser Draugr killed in two or three shots without potions. If I'm wearing the right clothes (I forget to change), I almost never run out of Magicka in a fight (using those potions).

So, to answer the OP, IDK, bc I only started playing Skyrim in March. You would have to decide for yourself from my report.
To other ppl: If you don't want to bother W/potions or enchanting, then either A. You shouldn't be a Mage, or B. You should lower the game difficulty level (do you know how?).

I'm wondering why people keep complaining about Destruction and magic.
I mean , I was near Fort Amol , with the Warzones mod enabled and the mages nearby can give you a really huge battle ( I actually died a couple of time there )

NPC mages scale.

There are so many possible personal configurations in Skyim, some ppl just don't get it, some don't enchant Wproper enchantments, some don't use the proper potions, some think they should be able to just run though the game using the items they looted like (when they played) "other shooters!" Some don't understand things like when you take a perk, the perk you didn't decide to take can be more important than what perk you did take. It can take an enormous amount of conversation just to get at what their loadout/balancing strategy problems are.

So unless you could see their exact loadout/skills/perks/etc. you just can't tell what their prob is. Personally, I am ready to try Master (game) skill level.

Enemy (NPC) mages have scaled magic, so they will always be effective- you the player do not, so you may struggle.