I have started over 10 characters and played about 10 hours on each of them and then I got tired and restarted. It's been getting really annoying and i'm not sure why I keep doing it. I've always been interested in the mage characters but the huge selection of magic (Destruction, Conjuration, Alteration etc) confuses me. Anybody want to give me some advice? I've never played a mage character on any game. I've always been an archer character.

If your going to be a pure mage then Alteration is a good start, its the best way to keep yourself protected.
Destruction is good up until a certain point and then it seems to be mediocre -although i found that Ice Storm is the best destruction spell to use-

Conjuration is pretty useful, especially when you get the high end perks.

Illusion can be a very useful tree when mixed with other -such as conjuration-, using the spells to make the enemies run or boost your own summons & followers, means you'll be able to handle most fights.

Restoration is useful for healing -of course- , blocking magic attack -wards very good when mixed with atronach and magic resistance spells- , and dealing with undead.

Enchanting is of course good for enchanting things, meaning you can be left with very good magicka and magicka regeneration rates. Plus resistances to different types of damage.

i think thats all.

Destruction is sort of the staple for being a mage, not sure about the previous post saying it is mediocre but I have always found that high tier destruction with plenty of magicka is pretty beastly. Practically nuking enemies. Id say conjuration is another big thing, summoned allies to keep enemies busy is a good choice. Alteration and Restoration for defense and healing options, never underestimate the power of a armor spell.

Well since dawnguard is around the corner, I would recommend a.
Dark Elf, assassin.
One handed dagger
Conjuration destruction and illusion
Sneak
Light armour
and become a vampire
I have started a character like this for dawnguard.

Don't use all the skills. Choose a playstyle that is more limited, Illusionist, Healer, Conjurer, Spellsword, whatever. Choose the skill that reflects that 'class' the most, and put most perks into it. I would suggest using Alteration for any mage, it's a really useful school with light, paralyse, mage armour and some nice magic resistance perks. The mage armour is a godsend if you are not playing an armoured Spellsword/Battlemage type. For a Spellsword, maybe stick to mostly destruction and restoration.

You can further specialise; perks are limited, so although they both use the same school, you might want to be an Atronach Conjurer or a necromancer, not a mix of both. Same with destruction, no harm in not taking all the damage up perks and playing a Storm- or Fire- mage.

If you want to use destruction to deal damage more directly than conjuration or illusion allows, you can find the magicka/damage ratio a serious hindrance at higher levels. Cost reduction enchantments are almost obligatory. While it can help all schools, alchemy can be a real help for Destructionists (hate that word but whatever). Don't be put off by it being under the Thief, enchanting and alchemy are valuable skills for any mage. Fortify destruction (unlike the enchantment, the potions increase damage) and restore magicka are your friends.

This should help (personal experience)

Find out what schools you are interested in, you have to understand you can't be a perfectionist. If you really don't have a preference of a school of magic, evenly distribute amongst the trees. I reccomend choosing the perks that decrease the magic cost of the spells (novice, apprentice, adept, expert, master) first, also pick two skill trees at the very most to choose other perks, these trees should be your preferred magic trees (eg destruction and restoration, the others can be specifically used for the magic reducing perks.)

Also don't forget to include role-playing, give your character a personality, for you are controlling his/her life.

Destruction can be a little frustrating at first, but once you get your "bolt" spells (Firebolt, Ice Spike, Lightning Bolt) and your first augment perk, its prettty good. But once you get the second Augment perk and your Expert level spell, you get pretty diminishing returns. Basically, destruction is a lot of fun around levels 12-40.

Conjuration can be VERY powerful, but personally I don't like the computer doing my fighting for me. Illusion is very strong as well, a skill illusionist can basially make the game easymode.

Alteration's perk tree is one of the best, with up to 30% of magic resistance. Paralyze is a useful high-end spell.

Restoration is a basic staple, not a big fan of wards but being able to self heal so you don't have to carry a ton of potions is always good. The staggering effect of turn undead is very useful.

A note about Illusion. If you take a few perks in any other schools, you deal less damage or get less benefits at higher levels, but with Illusion, you have to take them all to get any effect at higher levels. Fortunately there are only twelve you need, don't bother with Master, just dual cast expert level spells.
And be sure to join the College, access to training and all the spell tomes, as well as other benefits that I won't spoil for you.

So what I'm getting out of this is

• Don't use all of the skills, just pick 2 or so.
  
• Destruction is direct damage but gets weak/mediocre when I become a higher level.
  
• Conjuration is to summon allys to fight with me, and it becomes very useful in a hard fight.
  
• Alteration and restoration are defense-type spells
  
• Join the college for access to all spells.

Anything to add? Or any corrections?

There is no advantage to not wearing armor and going robes, unless you want to for RP reasons.

One thing I would add if you use destruction and want a follower. The obvious choice would be a tank warrior, but they have a terrible habit of getting killed, by you, as they run into your spells. Take an archer or another mage, they live longer.

And remember the mage armour perks in alteration only work without armour, and stuff like Dragon Priest masks count as armour. They are very useful without armour, no use so don't take them if you are going to wear any at all.

Small point about Illusion and Destruction, there is a glitch (unpatched AFAIK) which gives +10 damage to fire spells if you take the Aspect of Terror perk.

So, does it matter which 2 spell trees I pick? Or could any of them work.

mages are really fun
destruction magic is basically your bread and butter when it comes to killing ... duh lol

but you can choose whatever element you fancy as your favourite , be warned though there are many creatures who are immune to a certain element .
relying on your magic to survive gives you a pressured sense of survival , making sure you dont use up all your magica .

i chose shock and ice magic as my favourite for destruction magic.

conjuration can be helpful as well , i find that the Ritual stone can give you a spell which you can use once a day to summon all undead around you to be very helpful .

you can basically create any type of mage you want , one that relies on a select few spells or one that uses them all .
for instance
i rely on destruction magic most and my characters goal is to kill quickly because her restoration power is basic or weak .

Conjuration and illusion is my favorite so far. So many ways to play using that combo. Let your conjured helpers do the fighting. Use illusion to make the enemy fight themselves. Conjure up a bow or sword to do the fighting yourself. It's an extremely flexible play style that i've gotten a lot of enjoyment from. Having high sneak fits perfectly with the build too.

Off-topic to the OP, but I don't think this is a glitch--accoridng to the UESP, it's coded that way: there are 70 different fire-type effects in the code, and this one is written up specifically as "Intense Flames Fear" ( from http://uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Fear :


Seems to me that coding wouldn't make sense unless it was in the game by design, and what else would it be in game for? Undead reactions to fire?

Edit: my bad--conflated the "Intense Flames" and "Aspect of Terror" perks in my brain. Apologies. Perhaps it's a glitch after all...

Use your spells but when you are out of magic use unarmed attacks only. Be a Khajiit, Fists of Steel perk, enchant gauntlets with unarmed capabilities.

Well, I'm off to go make a mage character. I'll tell you guys how it's going later on. I'm going to start with destruction and then try conjuration and alteration. I'm not exactly sure where to buy any other decent spells, but i'm going to guess that the college has everything that I need. Wish me luck in my new adventures

As someone who plays Mage a lot

- don't focus on destruction, focus more on illusion, it's more fun and more practical
- Of course don't forget about destruction entirely
- conjuration is a good skill, but not needed
- get dual casting in illusion, I've only had like one illusion spell fail at lvl. 24
-you don't always have to use the strongest spell, use only what the situation needs
- impact in destruction is good
-dont tank with a Mage, sneak up observe the situation and choose the best spell for it.


I find a mage to be the most fun class of all because the combat is always different, I hope you enjoy your experience.

I don't find alteration that useful as a Mage, but I've always wanted paralyze, so that's the skill that I have the trainer train.

This is my first go round as a pure mage... EVER. I've basically been trying to level up and perk each school equally and am currently at level 28. I'm doing this mainly just to find out which school I end up using most often.

Here's the basic breakdown ranked by usage:
1) Conjuration
2) Illusion
3) Destruction (followed closely by...)
4) Alteration

In a distant 5th place is Restoration... but that's because wards still cost a lot for me to use and I've gotten good at avoiding direct face-to-face confrontation with enemies so I rarely have to use them.

The most used skill has been Enchanting followed by Alchemy. I'm nearing level 70 on that though I haven't invested too many perks in it yet. However, I can see how perking it up will really boost my magic skills. I've spent no perks on Alchemy but am close to level 60 on it. If you just mix and match ingredients rather than only using recipes you know, you'll eventually discover almost all of the effects from every ingredient, so you don't have to waste perks on the alchemy skill that reveals the effects by eating them (of course, always eat each ingredient the first time to at least reveal the first effect).

Depending on the difficulty level, I would highly recommend you have a melee follower at all times as a meat shield.

For me it's

1) illusion
2)destruction(just shock)
3) conjuration
4) restoration
5) alteration

Ive created my mage. I made him an Altmer. Right now i am using sparks and I have just begun the first quest at the college. What spell do you guys recommend I buy first?

definitely sparks shock magic seems to cause allot of damage plus you will encounter allot of enemies that arnt resistant to shock which is good .

good place to get spells when you begin in the game is the court wizard at whiterun

As an altmer you already get fury
I would get muffle to sneak up on enemies and because it seems to be the only thing that can lvl up illusion( I don't power lvl illusion I just use it to sneak up on enemy's like I'm always muffled in dungeons)

That's just me play style though, although I am recommending it

Use all forms of magic if you want a rich gaming experience. They are all useful in their own ways and compliment each other greatly. I would suggest getting the quiet casting and impact perks because they really give you an edge in battle.