first of all i'm getting tired of hearing some people picking on magic and calling it overpowered cause we can reduce magic cost to a field of magic ot bascially zero %, for one thing magic is not balanced, it lacks punch at high levels and prob should scale a little, bascially the strongest magic attack is 200 damage and the strongest non magic attacks can be as high 800 for heavy weapons and bows etc, or even daggers...its tricky to play as a mage, so it being pointed out as somehow being exploited cause we can use enchanting to make magic cost close to zero is stupid, its a game mechanic to reduce magic cost, period....the extra few % reduction you get from enchanting and using potions is pretty insignificant, once it only costs a few points to cast a destruction spell, the fact you can get it to zero isn't significant, its overkill anyway, you still have to use magic reserves for other fields of magic in combat, i use everything in combat..alteration, destruction, illusion and conjuring, so i don't have a full magic bar at all times during battle, it still takes strategy to be efficient..i see some acting like OOOOOOHHHHH magic is exploited and you get it for free..NO YOU DON'T Get it all for free, hardly, i run out of it a lot still, maybe not for destruction but i'm using other magic in battle, so magic isn't overpowered, its a bit underpowered and unbalanced at high levels and needs some option for high damage attacks to more closely equal what you can do with a bow or heavy weapon.

It should not be possible to cast for 0 magicka, period. That said however, magic does need to be appropriately adjusted damage vs mana cost/enemy health wise to be enjoyable at upper levels. Enemy mages clearly are able to scale their spells in some way, so it should not be too difficult of a thing to add to players in theory.

However, magic damage does not need to be boosted to the levels of physical damage at the moment in my opinion. Rather, physical damage needs to be scaled back a bit, with magic brought up to a reasonably comparable level.

I love the "Flames" spell that you start out with but I hate that it svcks horribly when you get to a higher level, I wish that your spells scaled with you or you could get training to level up that spell to make it more powerful.

I agree, I don't like how the spells don't level at all. Plus magic regen is a joke in combat. That's the reason why people exploit the zero cast reduction. If they upped the magic regen rate in combat or made spells stronger as you level. It would stop people from doing it. It would also make the mages robes worth keeping.

The zero Magica thing isn't really an exploit because the game clearly makes it attainable via enchanting and no cheating or loopholes are required, I do find it a bit cheesy though which is why I don't personally use it. If others do, that is up to them, it is their game to do what they want with.

Personally I feeel that instead of having 4 items that can be enchanted with cost reduction, they should have had 2 that did cost reduction and 2 that increased spell effectiveness (damage/duration etc.) This would have made up for the percieved weakness of Destruction spells at later levels while limiting the cost reduction attainable via enchanting.

However, what is done is done, if Beth changed that then the 0 Magica casters would be bursting blood vessels over the forums about it, so something like this would only be likely to happen via a mod.

Everything's overpowered. Stealthy people could take out an entire city one by one without being seen. Warrior-types could charge in and just destroy everything head on. Mages can cast infinitely without running out of magicka. Mages seem the weakest, though, if they aren't stealthy.

considering the unbalance of magic, as far as magic regeneration and cost of spells and lack of punch at higher levels, i would say the "exploit" to be able to get a field magic for free doesn't offset the lack of oomph it has, and also magic compared to other fields of offense isn't overpowered, a heavy weapon does like 4 times the damage per strike as compared to magic, so thats like 4 times more damage, so magic is like 25% as strong as weilding a sword at the same skill levels perks etc, so the complaints about zero cost spells is miniscule, once they address the slow magic regeneration and high cost per spell and make it more even with lets say a bow or heavy weapon or dagger attack as far as "damage per strike", then we can talk about the so called "free magic".

use the wall of flames, its basically a stronger version of flames but the fire burns on the ground for a minute

does anyone have a link to the best way to achieve free destruction casting?