Hey guys, I've decided to start a pure mage, haven't played one yet. Could anyone give me some general tips and advice?

Are wards any good? What are the best spells?

Any input would help. Thanks.

Fighting other mages, wards can help you -- yes.

SHould I wear robes or armor???

Breton + Atronach = immune to magic once a day and 62% resistant always.

Robes seem more pure and give magic benefits early on.

Robes and other certain non armor pieces at the start of your game is going to be the only way to find pieces with useful stats for a mage. Later on , if you choose to , you can become a mage smith if you want to which will require really good enchanting skills to maximise other armor types taiored to your liking. There is no penalty for wearing heavy armors as far as magic casting , so you are free to go for a certain look , or just play the way you assume a mage would look.To be a haevy armor wearing mabe it isn't really necessary to go beyond Steel and the perk which allows you to improve enchants items. All other perks spent in smithing are preferrence .

My current mage has started using an awesome looking robe of vaermina that i found doing a certain quest , in the encounters you will be able to literally harvest a bunch of them. And they aren't enchanted. She's wearing this robe with Plate steel helmet , gloves , and boots enchanted to enhance magic using to my liking.

There is a perk to enhance your defense if you choose to go the traditional all-cloth vision of the mage called mage armor , you simply have to get in the habit of using it often and keeping it renewed as necessary , if your playstyle gets you locked in melee alot it's a needed perk , but as you play and learn you'll notice other ways to avoid the majority of mobs beating on you. Sometimes running can be a really simple change of the battle's outcome , it's all up to you. My mage is a scavenger type that likes to experiment and is fancying herseld to be quite the pugilist , envisioning punching and kicking people to death who get too close and at the same time protecteing her good looks with a nice helmet.

I take the alteration atronarch perk and also magic resistant perk. If you take the restoration regeneration X2 your magic regenerates faster also. I use a High Elf and put 3 enchantments on 28% destruction magic. Adding the arcmage robes it costs me 1 pt of magic per most master destruction spells.

Don't focus solely on one school of magic.

Consider bringing a warrior follower with you, but watch out you don't accidentally incinerate him/her.

Forget about using weapons and armor. Stick with robes and your magic.

Go straight to the College of Mages in Winterhold. Join them. Do all the quests. THEN go explore the world.

And the best tip anybody here is going to give you: Don't even think about power-leveling skills. Let them develop naturally or you will essentially be inserting uncomfortable (and shameful) things into uncomfortable (and intensely personal) places.

You know if you got an aptitude for magic you should visit the college of Winterhold.


Hehe...

Try to give yourself as much maneuvering space as possible. Even if you're going to wear armor, you'll need to be quick on your toes. While you'll want to increase your magicka as much as possible, don't neglect health and stamina either unless you like getting one-hit-killed.

There's basically two ways to go: Illusion or Destruction. Other schools are helpful for all mages, but I think you should decide at the start if you're going Illusion or Destruction. Don't do both as you're limited on perks and you'll want to invest a bunch of perks into either/or, not both. Also, Destruction levels quite slowly, so if you want it to keep up with your level you need to cast Destruction a lot. Which means don't waste time casting Illusion spells at stuff. Just blast away. Hell, probably don't even want a conjured pet fighting most of the time. Just blast away. It's the only way to keep Destruction leveling up at a good pace.

Robes/armor is a coin flip, I suppose. Both have their advantages. I'd say robes as it's often pretty easy just to avoid getting hit. See that big orc coming at you with a sword? Just move out of his way. Who needs armor? And since armor is only good if it levels up, and it only levels up by you getting hit often, you probably don't want that since you're a mage putting points into Magicka and not Health.

Put on your Novice robes from the tutorial and dual cast your flames or sparks spells. From a high vantage point if possible. Just blast the hell out out of them.