So I'm currently level 42 in my spellsword character. It's been a strange thing so far. First I was using glass armor/1h/destruction and then I stopped doing that in favor of Alteration. So I had the Lord stone going, 350 DR with the Ebony alteration spell, and it was going pretty well. I've decided to go back to light armor since I have 100 smithing, so I've made myself some dragonscale armor.

My gear before the dragonscale:

Boots: 40% 1h damage, 40% pickpocket success
Circlet: +62 Magicka, 25% Alteration spell reduction
Gloves: +62 Magicka, 40% 1h damage
Necklace/Ring: +62 Magicka, 40% 1h damage
Master Alteration Robes: 150% Magicka Regen, 22% Alteration spell reduction

Totals: 160% 1h damage, 47% Alteration spell reduction, +124 Magicka. (Pickpocket was a useless last thing)

So I'm planning on enchanting my dragonscale soon and I need to know what to do. Before, my strategy was just keep healing/ebony in one hand and use my ebony sword in the other. (My Legendary Ebony Sword currently does 202 damage with the gear listed above)

But since I'll be maxing out my resistance with the dragonscale (forget the exact number, somewhere in the 500s), there's no need for alteration. Therefore, no need for the same robe enchantments and helm enchantments.)

Now my main dilemma is figuring out what to do with my left hand. With my ebony sword currently at 202 damage, and I only have 72 1h at the moment, I feel like 90 damage from the expert destruction spells won't carry enough weight when I go to slash people up. So that's my main problem right now. I really don't want to waste any perks on conj/illusion/other magic schools as I already have tons wasted in alteration which I won't even be using anymore.

So am I wrong about the destruction thing? Or should I adopt a different style?

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Going to bed, will check back in the morning.

u should do this:
1 - reach 100 in enchanting and activate the double enchantment perk
2 - double enchant your armor pieces, they are already good without enchantments btw
3 - put a destruction spell or start double wielding with the other hand
4 - write shorter questions (nah, jk)

You should do this:

1. Read a post before replying. If you read, you'd see that my previously used equipment had two enchantments on them.
2. Spell correctly.

That is all. Goodnight.

You could stick to the alteration you've built up, and use paralysis maybe?
Just a thought, but it would certainly ease your 'slashing'

u should read posts too before replying, as you may notice my third point says "3 - put a destruction spell or start double wielding with the other hand", am i wrong or it answers your main question that is "Now my main dilemma is figuring out what to do with my left hand" ?
1 - I wrote the first two points just in case someone else wants to know
2 - sorry for my not being english or american, I'm italian, you wanna buy me some english lessons?
goodnight to you too

Throw a frost enchant on your sword. This is what I'd do.

Boots: 1 Handed / Stamina or Muffle, depending if you sneak around a little. Stamina is more useful than pickpocketing.
Circlet: Magicka / Destruction
Gloves: 1 Handed / Magicka
Necklace/Ring: I personally have Destruction / Resist Magic on my spellsword. As having 4 Fortify Destruction enchants negates the need for Magicka. However I don't see any resist on your current build so 1 Hand / Destruction is probably the way to go for you.
Armor/Robe: I currently sport Health / Destruction as Magicka regen only effects out of combat regen. ( IIRC, I could be wrong but this was true as of 1.1 )

Also throw a frost enchant on your sword, when the enemy gets close, slash him and kite him around with destruction. Generally you shouldn't die unless something manages to one shot you. Probably asking why not just use frost destruction spells, because Skyrim is cold, and 70% of the things you run into are resistant to it. Fire > Frost. Frost is only good for slowing people down.

I mean, you can have two swords, but you won't be a spellsword anymore, and if you decide to use a shield, same goes for that. The spellsword style has been most entertaining for me, after having a sword and board/archer/assassin.

edit: Also, dont underestimate conjuration, summoning anything before a fight is a huge advantage, DPS/Damage soak wise.

Dor, I use Paralysis for big things I can't solo but Paralyze isn't going to make up my build, and armor at this point in the game is going to be much better than 350 damage resistance. (I do have dragonhide but I only use it for boss fights since it takes so long to cast, same for mass paralysis).

Thanks for the suggestions Dash. I've always been using magic as more of a starter than a finisher like you use it. Because melee > magic up close, I'd just rain ice storms on the enemy till I was close enough to cut them down. I never really kited to keep people away, so maybe my playstyle is a bit different than yours. And again, destruction caps out at 90 damage for one handed spells. Whilst you emphasize magic, I emphasize my sword hahah. Thanks for the post though, maybe I'll try it out one day.

Edit: Also, I said I didn't want to get into conj because it'd use up a lot of perks. My first build on my high elf was a pure conj/destruction mage so I know the power of 2 dremora.

As far as your problem with destruction, I came across that problem also. The 90 damage is laughable when your weapon does 200. So I scaled everything down to make destruction equal my melee. What I mean by this is that I took away all my one hand damge enchants, and I am using a basic 1 hand with no enchants and no smithing bonus. I also reduced the diffuculty down from master, and I am wearing lesser unupgraded armor to compansate. I do less damage but the enemies have less health, I absorb less damage but the enemies deal less. Because everything was scaled down, I still kill enemies in roughtly the same amount of melee swings, but my destruction is useful. Because I reduced my armor, the enemies kill me in roughly the same amount of hits as they would on master. Its sad that at level 61 I have find ways to make destruction a valid option for me, but until they fix it, its what I have to do to have fun with the game. Basically it still feels like master, but my magic does more damage because everything was scaled down. If you really love destruction then its worth the try.

Also I use alteration but paralazying people and then wacking on them felt a bit cheap to me. How does illusion scale past lvl 50? Does it become useless? If not using illusion for crowd control could be alot of fun. If illusion doesnt scale, then stick with paralazying for crowd control as it doesnt have a level cap

Honestly not sure about Illusion. I was going to look into it, so I'll edit this post if I find anything. But the base perks all have a level they work on, then the perks in the tree increase that. But if I'm being direct with my combat then making the enemy run away while I chase them trying to kill them might not be the best ahah. It'd work if I was a conj mage but I'm not. Idk, I'll look into it.

Still don't know if I should just take a shield/another sword/another magic style.

Expert level illusion spells work on enemies up to level 20 by default. There are perks that increase this, but I'm not sure how far it would go. Do enemies scale past 50 or do they stop there as well?

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your PC lvl wont stop at 50, actually you can go up to 81.
this said, if it's true that enemy level-scaling follows the player's level eventually you will face some enemies whose level is more than 50.
this is only a supposition, because I have three chars and the highest one is lvl45, so idk yet, just answered to see if you stop bumping.

also I think that if you max a magic school to 100 with all perks its spells will work on any level

I still don't know what I'm going to do. Two valid suggestions and they don't really apply to my play style. So I'll keep bumping till I can get some responses. >.>

-Bump-

One more bump and this topic gets closed, read the forum rules please.

so, let me see if i got it, you know I'm italian and I probably misreaded something: you don't know what you want to do with your left hand (insert six joke here), but you don't want to use dual wielding, destruction, conjuration or restoration. this kinda leaves out only illusion and alteration.
the final answer is: pick one of those