I think he morokei mask should be considered clothing, NOT armor. It's a very useful item for mages, yet any mage that uses it will not benefit from the mage armor perk. This little detail should be in the next patch AS WELL AS A FIX FOR THE SHROUDED COWL. I WANT MY RED FACE COVER GOSH DANGIT.

I agree, but I doubt this is getting changed

I found Mage Armor to be all around awful when I realized that the highest you could make your defense was 300. But I wasn't improving my health by much, so maybe it's manageable. I find the whole mage armor thing another reason why magic archetypes are horribly underpowered in Skyrim, but I will admit I was annoyed when I found out I couldn't wear Morokei.

well, i dont mind the damage threshold for mages to be low, cause mages shouldnt take much damage. those spells and effects are there just in case you do. the more i use restoration, the higher my skill gets, the higer my level gets, the more perks i get. So having to heal a lot is actually a good thing.

I'm fine with a metal mask being considered armor. Morokei is a regular part of my spellsword's armor. My mage put the mask on a shelf and uses other items to speed up his magic regen.

I know where you are coming from. You want that mage armor bonus. But a real mage shouldn't need it. In my opinion, only thing a mage needs to worry about is dying from one hit. If he can avoid that, he's all good. I love using Morokei as a mage, and I'm okay with it being an armor. I think alteration is a nice tree, but alteration flesh spells are unnecessary for a mage. Mages don't get hit.

i use alteration mostly for the magic resistance and atronach perks. I never use the shield spells, the spell system is far too cumbersome and NOT fluid to use more than 2 spells. i only use lightning bolt and healing on my mage.

edit: i do use the shield spells in situations where physical contact is unavoidable, like in dungeon corridors

I have trouble storing masks, I used to put them in display cases, only to come home and find the house a complete mess. My wife is useless. So anyway, I stuck my masks on the mannequins in Windhelm house, works well for me.