I have a level 46 mage master difficulty of course (go hard or go home) and personally I think magic is really weak, not that it is not viable I mean you can stun lock everything but that just annoying that you use shock as your only spell in the game to kill everything. I long for the days in Oblivion when I could turn invis and summon a Daedroth so it looks like I morphed into it. Good times I think the should bring back custom spells or at least give higher damaging novice spells like the continuous lightning or frost cause this is getting pretty boring. A off topic the spell Vamperic Grip in the Dawnguard Dlc are you forced to throw the person away or can you just hold them their for as long as you want and also I wonder if your armour enchantments stay with you when your in this form because if they don't I can't see it being viable on master difficulty in the higher levels personally.

The master level spells are practically useless specially blizzard too long too cast and just not worth it. Pure mage is not Viable besides thralling some guy and giving him a op weapon.

No, it's really not. Destruction is to some extent, but when complemented with another school - such as illusion or conjuration - magic can become very powerful.

I gave up playing a mage, it just plain svcked. Magicka cost was way too high for too little damage. Best way to use magic in Skyrim is with conjuration, with maybe some illusion/alteration on the side.

i dotn understand how you guys can say magica is underpowered when i got bored of my magic charcter because it was to easy ( i was playing on master also BTW)

Poweful isn't the word I would use its more like your gonna survive but you will do little damage. A mage has to time his stuns in order to kill if he messes up he can easily be one shoted by most enemies but I usually bring two bandit cheif thralls with me and the just one shot things with their enchanted weapons illusion becomes pointless in higher levels besides invis.

I thought it was a lil underpowered, but now i've just been using Paralyze and Thunderbolt/Chain lightning (spamming them).....but i do use icy spear on the odd occaision, only cause i like seeing giant ice spikes through peoples faces......

and that with the physics makes it svck, a fire ball should burn a building down or blow a whole through a wall....

Compared to meele characters it is. I want my mage to be able to demolish everything like in morrowind and oblivion not be weak ass who has to rely on pitiful minions who if the turned on me would kill me..

Well the game is way too big for that kinda physics me thinks

I mean remember the mass fireballs and paralyse in oblivion or doing like 10 damage for 120 seconds and turn invis for 120 seconds and slowly watching the person dying I feel like playing Oblivion again ^^

Magic is not underpowered destruction is.
What magic problem is is the fact that it lacks options and variety compared to what it once had in this series.
We use to have spell creation which gave you a lot of customization to your mages and that allowed even deeper roleplaying value by allowing to create spells and spell combinations that your magic user would use the spells then defined your character, you could set their power level and criss cross effects that would suit your build.
Then we used to have a great variety of spells if we could have out old spells back thay would add even more diversity and options to being a mage.
As is in this game being a mage is one dimensional and you have to use the more powerful spells as things level and rinse and repeat there is nothing new. This feels like an unfinished system it feels like a basic foundation to a magic system.

It is funny you say this.... i had a high level high elf and stopped playing him because I thought I was over powerful (on master). Between my enchanted robes and garments, spells and staffs I was untouchable. Gave it up for a life of crime with a dark elf and been much happier ever since!

I think this has got to be the first time I've ever agreed with you on something. Anyway, I do agree that magic in and of itself isn't reallly underpowered, but destruction is what is a bit lacking. Spells overall, as well as a lack diversity is a real problem...especially if we can't have spell creation back.

Is this a basic foundation for a new magic system? I don't know, but Bethesda sure as hell needs to tweak it some, if we can't have spell creation back, then at the very least we need more spells, and better scaling for our spells.

Magic starts out underpowered, but eventually you can make yourself into a god. I have to play on Master with my mage for it to be challenging.
The mods Balanced Magic and Skyrim Spells Restored are a must for me.

Things that kill magic for me:

1) I hate the limited hotkey system.
2) No spellcrafting
3) Novice spells don't really scale

Mages are different from archer/melee characters because I want to use lots of effects. The hotkeys are completely broken in Skyrim (PS3) and the favorites menu becomes quite tedious very quickly.

Not having spellcrafting makes the hotkey issue even worse because now we get just a single effect per spell. In OB at later levels I would craft mult-effect spells (especially to conjure armor and such) or to apply several effects.

Now in Skyrim switching spells is a chore AND I can't craft spells that maximize a characters skills. Ugh...

I have 7 different characters and many hours spent in most of them, but my destruction mage was very short lived. He has not been played since being dissapointed in the college of winterhold because of the boring gameplay imposed by these restrictions.

Only destruction could be argued as Underpowered, because it's about Raw Damage.

Illusion, Conjuration, Alteration and Restoration are all extremely useful at any stage in the game.

the magicka cost is what ruins destruction.also the master spells charge time needs to be reduced to 2 seconds instead of 3. while im at it shouts need separate cool downs or shorter cool downs.

Yes, however, those schools still lack diversity, and that seems to hamper us a bit when we want to play as a mage. That's not to say there aren't spells that I don't miss from previous games, but spells like open lock I do miss horribly.

I use alchemy with destruction. You really turn into a meatgrinding cannon then.

once again someone makes a thread and says that magic svcks, while he actually means destruction magic.


magic is strong, only destruction magic is weak. [censored] destruction is not the only magic school.

Alteration is pointless imo illusion is useless for a mage at higher levels conjuration is fine but companions work way better.

atronach perk(50% magicabsorb) and 30% magicresist is pointless?

Excuse you rektoh I do believe I said magic is underpowered not that it svcks. I do believe all trees of magic are underpowered for a pure mage. Alteration is almost pointless. In fact the only useful one is enchanting which can be op I mean I do more damage with my 15 one hand skill with a enchanted sword than I ever do with magic not to mention I can paralysis onto it. Alteration mage armour ? Screw that just use enchantment buffs. What else is their mage light lol I mean its neat but not very useful. Calm,frenzy and fear become easy to resist at higher levels. Pretty much all the master spells down right are svck and you will end up getting pwnt while casting them.

It is when you can have 100% magic resist and physical resist. The fact is Magic is boring all trees of it if your a pure mage. A illusion assassin is awesome don't get me wrong but invisbility is pointless for a mage seeing as we don't get sneak attack bonus.