I'm basically looking for help with the game. My biggest question is, I'm in the mood to play a "mage" type of character, so one that uses magic and what not.

Can anyone link me to a good thread about what I should spec in for that type of character, what exactly will keep me alive and so on.

I'm trying to figure out everything so I can officially start playing the game properly.

Bump, anybodyyyy?

"mage" is rather broad in Skyrim as there are many types you can be.

For example; a battlemage wearing heavy armor and using a shield, a conjuration mage using bound weapons, a mage using only utility spells like paralyze, invisibility, wards, etc with normal weapons, or.... just a plain damage destruction mage.

What kind of flavor did you have in mind?
Also, what difficulty do you plan on playing?

Destruction magic doesn't scale very well (at all) on higher difficulties as your spells don't do more damage since the first moment you get them but enemies HP does increase.

Another thing you have to keep in mind is the enchantments for magic, Instead of increasing the power of the magic they only reduce the mana cost up to a 100% (which IMO is flawed game design).
So yeah, you run the risk of ending up with a character with a lot of mana but he doesn't need it anymore lategame. Which kinda svcks.

So plan ahead, do you want to use these -100% mana cost enchants without putting your points in mana (which means you have to powerlevel enchanting) or do you want to keep using mana and get the reduction perks and use other enchants instead.
The latter is more fun and will feel more mage like since you have mana control to be aware of, but it comes at the cost of not having as much health. But then again, a mage should be a glass cannon anyway.

Tell me about it, I'm playing on master and destruction is about as useful as harsh language, though less cathartic, when dealing with enemies.

I think my biggest beef with Destruction is the damage scaling. Maybe if we were to be able to pump more than just the one Perk point in to Augmented Flames/Frost/Electricity, then we would actually be able to do something against enemies in a fight. As it stands now, I have to sneaky attack an enemy with a potion of my choice to get them weak to the element that I am going to use against them before I ever sling my first spell... that isn't how Destruction is supposed to be treated.

I wanted to do destruction mage, as it seems like the most fun for me. So more so wearing gear where instead of using a weapon it's all magic. Anybody have a good talent treee they can lend to me and what extra perks I should level to help me out long term?

Correction...You can put 2 points in Augmented Flames/Frost/Electricity.

That said though, I do think the developers tried to move away from an all powerful one shot type magic character and tried to make you play more to your weaknesses as a mage. So while destruction gives okay dps it will need to be complemented by other schools of magic to be viable making it a bad idea to focus on only one school of magic. Personally I find destruction, illusion, conjuration and healing a good and quite powerful set but that's just me.

So are you saying if I max out all those talents in those I should be fine?

Personally, I maxed out Destruction, Illusion, and Conjuration. I have Restoration (for those really bad times...) at about 57 or 58 now.

The way it works is this;

I see a group of enemies an instantly hit Sneak mode. I do my ninja thing until they are in range (Illusion helps here as well), then I cast a Rune in front of me as a line of defense. Then I drop two Dremora Lords right in the middle of them, and use my Destruction spells to weaken/finish off any that the Dremora may be having a hard time with or missed. I generally don't lose any fights this way.

So start with maxing out destruction first then or? What are good alternatives to level up? Meaning if you were a tank character you would also level up heavy armor etc.....

First off, as the greatest mage ever, I urge you to not use Destruction.

It's not worth it.

If I were you,I would run a Sabatour build with 1H as your main attack form with Illusion and Alteration(Paralyze specifically) as the primary back ups.

Throw in Conjuration and a bit of Resto and you're good to go.

Damn, I'm glad I happened across this thread before I started a Mage class-less. I'll have to come up with a Plan B.