So i've heard that later on magic is weak, is that true? If so i'll continue with my dual wielding/archery rogue but any input is appreciated

Opinion is VERY divided (but mostly about the destruction school) . Playing on the default difficulty level, I've not run into problems as long as I focus more than one school of magic.

Edit: Additional, At high levels, I feel just as (over)powerful as any other build I've played. Having lower amounts of point in health means you are frail in a hand to hand fight once you run out of mana, but that's always been the case for a mage.

http://pix.playground.ru/download/gallery/276634/5ad5be549d4ca4b134369fd0f09b68c0.jpg.

also are there robes better than the final ones from the college? no spoilers please, i jus t want to know if its possible to upgrade mage gear once those have been obtained.

You can buy blank robes from the clothes shop in Solitude and enchant them yourself.

Also not sure if robes you get through quests are levelled or not. The wiki should say.

Certain robes offer bonuses higher than the Archmage's ones, but only in one type of magic. You can enchant any item with bonuses to magic, not just robes.

Actually, its impossible to enchant robes to Master level robes in the college without exploiting alchemy like a mofo. The magicka regeneration component is much higher than you can enchant yourself.

Really; though, magic doesn't have to be weak, but way it forces you playing it that way to be viable is extremely monotonous and boring. Spam one spell now and forever.

surely if i enchant i wont be able to match that kind of quality robe though?...

Depends... I haven't tried magic, specifically, but I can tell you that I can enchant items to +29% to a certain skill while the best item found/sold is only +25%.

oh ok, what compliments destruction well? I was thinking conjuration or maybe alteration... i dunno

Alteration for protection and Restoration for healing.

Everything else doesn't combine with destruction that well. Summons will get in the way and conjured weapons will just replace offensive spells in your hands.

But doesn't a sword and board spam hits too? I don't understand this logic. As a Mage you have way more options than a warrior. You have illusion, conjure, and destruction to manage while kiting. And in destruction you can choose AOE or stagger spells, change spells depending on enemy resistance, change spells by damage bonus (ie lightning against mages), defensive cloaks, etc.

I find my mage much more varied and challenging and fun than my warrior, which got so boring by lvl 35.

Destruction is only about one thing; spam dual casting with impact for stunlock.

conjured weapons are no where as effective as real weapons however, perk investment or not. They're just pretty to look at

Not to mention you don't get endless finishing moves with magic...

destruction dmg falls off later in the game, but if you combine it with conjuration you won't have any problems.

Weapons you enchant with special purposes like paralysis, or absorb life and switch among them, you bash, sneak attacks, you can do wide swings that hit everyone in front of you. you can use a huge variety of poisons... etc. the list goes on.

Destruction ? spam incinerate.

One nice thing about a magic build is that you can maintain it at a very low level if you want to. ( I do but I know not everyone else does) All you need is Destruction and Enchant. Everything else you use sparingly (Conjuration and Restoration) or not all all. No skill books, no armor, no weapons.

It's possible to finish the game around level 20 and avoid bandit and loot bloat while still having challenge from Highish level Draugr and Dragon Priests.

Course, that deny's you the ability to do level locked daedric quests and get good scaled items, and you must avoid gaining levels at all costs. But sure it works.

That's the cost, it's true. On the other hand, you don't need any items so you don't miss them. I'm finding it an interesting experience but it does take some of the fun out of exploration because loot and money have little use beyond equipping your companion. It's strangely liberating.

You'd probably want to avoid Peryite's quest though; since it features one of those NPC's with 100% immunity to destruction magic.
Having companions seems kinda bad as a mage though. Friendly fire killing your companion is pretty iffy. Short of enchanting full magic immunity gear for them.

This pretty much says it. On the one hand, there are those who believe destruction magic by itself should be powerful enough to equal a melee warrior focusing on a single weapons type. If you agree to this point, then yes, magic is gimped at higher levels in the game. Though there are mods that remedy this for the PC.

If you accept that mages needn't focus exclusively on destruction to win battles, then no, magic is not hamstrung at higher levels. Conjuration and destruction can accomplish a lot together. I recommend focusing on these. And though it's outside magic, don't disdain the help of companions, too. Meat shields are very nice to have around.

well fair to say i've been put off the idea of a mage :/

I played a mage and it svcked. The destruction was... serviceable I suppose,
but the vast majority of the spell effects I used in Morrowind and Oblivion are gone,
and I can't craft my own spells.

WTF: Warriors craft their own weapons and armor, rouges craft their own poisons,
mages: nope, cant make spells.

Before the die-hard "use more than one magic skill" people write me off-
The issue is not necessarily damage (or lack of).

My mage survived (most of the time),
I used maybe 3 restore mana potions before level 20.
Melee people couldn't get close enough to touch me.
I got good at sidestepping arrows and spells.

The issue is a lack of spell effects and spellcrafting.

Don't put off the mage. Currently have a level 61 mage and having no problems on expert. Could do master, but as stated destruction doesn't really scale so enemies on master would take so many hits it would be irritating.

The trick is to make your own robes. Ignore anyone who says you can not make robes better than the master ones. You don't need high magic regen, actually I have the atronach stone and nothing that raises my regen so my regen is at -50% and again I have no problems. The key is to 'lower' the cost of the spells you use the most... aka destruction. With enchant 100 and a grand soul gem(and no alchemy required) you can make a single item that drops the cost of spells by 25%. You can put that enchantment on 4 items of clothing. Get your destruction cost to -75% or lower, or even to -100% so 0 cost spells and your mage will be a power house. On master level 50+ enemies will be a pain because of the number of hits to kill. But on expert or lower you won't see a big problem. Most level 50 enemies have base(so adept difficulty) 400-600 health, and then deathlords, ancient vampires, dragon priests, and a few other very powerful enemies will have 1000-1500 health, with high level dragons having 3000+. Now figure in that incinerate and thunderbolt fully perked and dual cast will be doing 200+ damage and you can see most enemies will go down in 3 hits with powerful enemies going down in 5-6, and dragons taking 15. Those spells also auto stun your enemy, so you can lock one enemy in place. Now throw in a deadra... or 2, a few high level alteration and illusion spells and your mage is a power house.

Oh, and my level 61 mage on expert is also being played dead is dead. So he hasn't died yet. I also have a level 61 assassin. The assassin is almost boring to play because he kills everything so easy... except dragons, those take forever. The mage on the other hand is still fun, and actually has an easier time against dragons(thunderbolt has no travel time, so great for shooting them out of the sky).

If you feel like doing a mage, do one. One hint though, don't put all your level ups in magic, put most in health. Otherwise you end up at level 40 with no health and die. Rather be at level 40 with 100% reduction in spell cost, not really needing the magic, and have a few hundred health instead.

Sword and board characters can be built up to use illusion, conjuration, etc. as well, so if you just look at the act of dealing damage, Destruction basically has left hand, right hand, and dual cast, of which you're probably only going to be using dual cast later in the game. It has a lot of different spells, but by the end of the game the only ones that deal sufficient damage are the three incinerate level spells, which leaves a choice between three elemental damage types, all of which are very similar in terms of the mechanics of the attack. Sword and shield on the other hand has bash, power bash, shield charge, block, attack, standing power attack, running power attack, side power attack, backing power attack, all of which have their uses and make for some interesting options in combat.

I did have a ton of fun playing as an archer, and that only has a single kind of attack, but you can get its damage up higher than destruction, and also have sneak attacks, so you feel very powerful, while with destruction, your enemies seem weak due to the dual cast stagger effect, but you seem weak as well since it still takes you a lot of hits to kill anything.