On my first character i got my destruction skill up to 90 and went to talk to the person at the college to get the quest for the master level spells because according to the strategy guide, it only had to be 90. i get there and there is no topic starter. i do some searching around on the internet and find out it needs to be 100 to get the topic starter.

so first thing that bugs me: errors in the strategy guide

even before i got to this situation, i learned there were problems with the guide when i would be making potions and using the tables at the end of the alchemy section that describe the summaries of which plants have the same effect. there are 11 ingredients that i crossed out of the "damage magicka" effect that do not have this effect. the ones that i did cross out either have "damage magicka regen" or "lingering damage magicka". makes it kinda hard to level a skill with errors like that. getting back to the master destruction spells, i do not know if it is a guide error or game error but the guide says one thing and the game says another. i have heard the same thing is true for some of the other magic skills as well where the quest topic doesn't appear until you reach 100 with the skill instead of 90 as the guide says.

Second thing that bugs me: the master level destruction spells (or possibly any master level spell)

the first character i always make is a dark elf battlemage and destruction spells are my favorite spells to use. after grinding the extra 10 skill levels to reach 100 destruction, getting the quest for the master spells, completing it and buying the remaining two spells i felt complete. i tested each one immediately to see what they looked like. the appearance of the spells is pretty cool. the first thing i notice about the spells is that there is a long charge time. i think to myself, thats not to bad i can take a few hits while im getting the spell ready to fire. at this point im thinking these spells are not that bad. then i go outside to the center of the college and an ancient dragon is attacking. good time to test my new spells. i start charging fire storm, the dragon lands, and this interrupts my charging and i have to restart. so i start recharging, the dragon breathes fire at me, i finish charging and release the spell, barely does anything to the dragon, the dragon then bites me and i die. now im thinking wth?

i also had a similar experience when i as getting towards the end of the main quest line and had to kill a bunch of drougar deathlords. like 3 at a time. i had some scrolls of bane of the undead and tried using them. just like the master destruction spells, there is a long charge time. at one point the drougar get close enough to hit me while im casting and it also interrupts me and causes me to restart the spell. this is my question: how in the world are you supposed to effectively use spells like this in a combat situation if a hit from anything causes you to have to restart the spell? this really disappointed me when i worked so hard to get destruction maxed and these spells are so horrible for combat. im not 100% on this but it seems any master level spell has this long charge time (i have not done illusion or alteration yet).

Third thing that bugs me: not being able to soul trap your own summoned creatures

why was this eliminated? azura's star is the first daedric artifact that i try to get because i like the reusable soul gem. but because i can not soul trap my own creature, i have to go looking for things to kill. i have actually gotten to points on my first character where i would have lots of extra soul gems in my inventory and most if not all of them would be filled. i would find so many of these gems in dungeons that it basically made the azuras star worthless. why would i need a reusable soul gem if i find gems everywhere? if i could soul trap my own summoned creatures, i would have no need for the extra gems. i would just soul trap my summoned creature, use the soul and repeat the process.

this last thing does not really bug me since it only happened once but i thought it was strange that it happened.

i ran into a quest issue today while doing some odd jobs for the thieves guild. i had completed the imperial legion questline with my character and i think it was vex who wanted me to steal something from the talos preacher guy's house in whiterun but the entrance to the house was blocked from the rubble from the battle so i could not get in. isn't there supposed to be something in the game that prevents this from happening like if the player has completed this quest then this quest no longer becomes an option?