Just looking for some advice.....

First playthrough was a Sword/Shield Redguard warrior. Roughly spent 45 hours using him, and i am currently in the middle of my 2nd playthrough as a Khajiit Assassin/Thief and really enjoying sneaking about performing stealth kills and thief quests and so on, once i've finished up with him i really fancy doing a type of character who is focused on Magic and everything that goes with it.....

To this day i have still never put any points or perks into anything magical, i chose to ignore magic completely just through personal choice as i didn't want my first two characters to have anything to do with it. So when it comes to my 3rd character it feels like im totally new to the game as i don't have a clue about magic or enchanting and so on.

Just looking for some tips and advice i can relate back to when i create my 3rd character. Thanks

Get a companion because at low levels a mage will get shredded if alone

Untrue, never used a companion as conjuration/destruction mage.

Adding here too, I haven't had 1 companion and I'm LV25 almost at the point where I can just spam Firebolt/Lightning Bolt/Ice Spike multiple times before they even get close.

And if they get close I use Frostbite+Frost Dagger for those pesky 2H'ers.

I truly love Magic in this game, and it's under appreciated.

I am not a very good player when it comes to Mages, I have more of an assassin style of play.

When I did give it a few tries I found that atronachs helped and so does some Alteration spells, like Stoneflesh where they increase your armor rating.

Altmer (high elf) and Breton are the preferred choices for mages.

Choosing pure mage will undoubtedly be a profound challenge. You might want to work your way towards the winterhold college as soon as you can to have access to higher level spells. Get the Healing Hands spell as fast as possible so you can get into the college.

If you are using the Destruction school, use Fire spells. They use less Magicka than frost or shock spells, there are few enemies that have fire resistance and a good amount of enemies that have fire weaknesses, like annoying frost trolls.

I recommend you try a character that use all level up points into Magicka and start these spells below in my signature.

• You can use Bound Sword and Bound Bow when you feel like you need it for like a Dark Brotherhood quest or just for some good old fashion assassination of thugs.
  
• Get real with the undead, set them on flames with Destruction, feel the power.
  
• Too many enemies, not prepared? Use Illusion with Fear, Charm and Fury to make them fight each other insted.
  
• Alteration will give you the defence you are missing out with not using Restoration or armor, wear cloth insted - much cooler.

Avoid using summons to give you more challenge gameplay with insted using Illusion for crowd control in though spots. Attack from the shadows, return to the shadows with Invisibility to come back with master Destruction spell right smack in the middle of the crowd of thugs without they knowing it.

Did that sell?

I have made 3 accounts, all as mages from the very start, they were very effective when it came to killing the enemies. After a while I got used to them so it wasn't very hard when I start. Each time I chose a dark elf, they seem to work very well and also have a great resistance to fire, so your first dragon encounter will be quite easy as oppose to a race with a bad resistance. On the main one. I have almost 1000 magicka, I think I've upgraded my health only once. But when you get to the point of being able to slaughter your enemies with ease, health isn't really required. It's a good idea to upgrade your enchanting to make it so you use less magicka for destruction spells. Remember to also learn an effective healing spell. For healing, spend a perk so it costs half the magicka to cast so you will have some spare for your main spells. If your afraid your magicka will run out, then save up your magicka potions until you really need them, try not to waste them. For destruction, try and focus on mainly upgrading fire as it is effective against almost every enemy, quite a few npc's can withstand shock and ice. Fire is one of the only ones that can penetrate their defences. Getting the perk that lets you duel cast is also useful as it deals quite a bit of extra damage.

Damn, that was annoying to type on an iPad lol

I can see it being quite a challenge seen as I'm use to bashing people's heads in as a warrior or sneaking in to a town after they all go to bed with a dagger and killing everyone in their sleep and looting their jewellery (how my Khajiit made a living in life) From what I've seen on YouTube and Wiki etc im best to put all my points into Magica and not really touching health/stamina.... I really need to learn about enchanting and get a list of useful spells etc. I Think I might need a sword or staff incase the enemy gets too close, especially in the early levels. It genuinely feels like I'm brand new to skyrim trying to learn the Mage way.

Nice one mate, thanks for the list. Definitely going for the robes look. Still got some things to do with my Khajiit assassin so I'll be jumping back to this post when I create my Mage and start getting lost with the spells etc.

Well, Do the part of the main quest so you can get Fus Ro Dah (unrelenting force) so that if something strong comes along, such as a giant, you can use the shout to get a bit of space and time, after it has a bit of distance you will have some time to think about how to kill it and what types of things to use.

Best shout for mages without a doubt... ice form. You even get the first word in a mage quest. In crowds that spell thins the heard long enough for you to kill a couple enemies, and stops deathlords in their tracks. I've had a few mages, and I play dead is dead. First only made it to around level 35. I put almost everything into magic, and still ran out a lot. Very rough to play. Spent more time running to replenish magic then I did fighting. Primary skills were destruction, alteration, and conjuration. He died when a deathlord with an ebony bow 1 shot him.

Second mage. Made it to level 72, game was a breeze on adept so turned it up to expert and eventually master. Difference, I put most of my level ups into health instead of magic, and then invested early on in some destruction cost enchantments. Got the spells to 50% cost early on, and I didn't miss the extra magicka, but I really appreciated the extra health. I know a lot of people prefer 100% magicka at level ups, but I don't see many of those players with characters past level 40... and there is a reason for that. Ebonyflesh fully perked will not keep you alive if you only have 100-200 health at high levels... sorry, doesn't work at least not on adept or higher.

My words of wisdom...
1. 60/40 health/magic or more(health)
2. atronach stone, keeps you alive against mages, and the extra magic makes up for the slower regen. Note: no matter what your magic regen rate is it will always be super slow in combat. That is probably a mage's greatest weakness so don't worry about raising it, focus on more magic instead.
3. destruction cost enchantments. You don't need 100%, but at least 50-75% if you want to play to higher levels on a difficulty higher than novice.
4. conjuration is your friend..... literally. Keep a companion by your side 24/7, you don't want to be wasting magic and time when you are already in combat.
5. carry lots of magic and health potions, and don't be to prideful to run.

Honestly I'd rather go with Frost spells TBH. Fires almost useless against more things than you can realize.

Plus, the perk in the Frost tree is well worth it. Once there life depletes enough you have a HIGH chance of paralyzing the target. Why is this good?

Because Warriors are the only thing you SHOULD worry about in the long run. Using Frostbite+Frost Dagger you can make sure they won't destroy you.

Same for Sparks, if you're a Breton like I am you don't need that bit of "Anti-Mage" power.. not even worth it. You have so much magic resistance that it's not important. Fun to use mind you, but not needed.

Here is a list of things that have helped me progress as a Mage:

• Play as a High Elf because it has a higher starting xp level in each of the schools of magic, and can regenerate magicka quickly once a day
  
• Go to the College of Winterhold as soon as possible to get access to the best trainers/suppliers of magic
  
• Buy spell tomes whenever possible
  
• Don't waste money on scrolls because they can only be used once and then they disappear from your inventory
  
• Start your fights by summoning an atronarch (Conjuration) to weaken/distract enemies, then blaze them with your spells
  
• Bring a follower to fight with you
  
• Get all the spell perks
  
• Activate the Mage Stone early b/c you will learn all magic skills 20% faster

Not true at all. You can either go 50/50 or through enchanting bring 2 schools of magic to 0 cost. If you go the enchanting route you can stop putting any points into Magika at about level 20 - 25. The other advantage is you can pick up 4 schools of magic since you can ignore the aprrentice, adept, expert and master perks in two schools. Alteration being the exception.

The general pure caster strategy in Skyrim is hold it down and beat it to death. A rogue and knight can kill things in a few blows and can take a hit if more is needed. A pure mage will need seveal blasts to kill something, so you will need the Impact perk, paralysis spell, calm/fear or a summons to hold the enemy down.

Alteration is a good tree to invest in for the magic resistence and Antronach perks. You can avoid the mage armor perk though since it does not improve the top line armor spell.

Some notes:
- Lightning is underrated. One thing to remember is your spells have a travel time. Fire being the slowest. Archers and dragons will dodge your fireballs. They cannot dodge lightning since the travel time is instant.

- Illusion is very powerful.... once it is fully perked. Before then undead will be a problem.

- I've done very well not putting a single point into alchemy or blacksmithing.

- The impact perk is very powerful. Once you have this any one-on-one encounter you will win easily. Including dragons and giants.