Hey folks, just looking for some tips in building a pure mage character...

I'm an Altmer, currently level 19 playing on expert. I'm looking to build a glass canon of sorts, but not in the truest sense of the word. Here's a description of her...

1.) She'll wear absolutely no armor as I'm looking to use perks on the alteration tree and going with robes, hoods, gloves, and boots. The mage armor will be spec'ed out with ebony flesh for an armor rating of 300

2.) She'll be a master of illusion, using all the perks in the illusion tree and use only atronachs on the conjuration tree (no undead or conjured weapons). Adept/Expert in alteration and destruction and no restoration

So my question is what should I focus leveling up, health or magic? I DON'T want to be one-shotted by bosses/dragons, but 2 or 3 shotted is acceptable because I like to have that sense of vulnerability when in the tougher fights. What's the sweet spot for health and magic for an offensive mage such as this? I was thinking getting my health to about 250 with level ups and augment my mana pool and regeneration via enchantments so I don't run out of mana during battle. Hopefully this way I can get my mana pool to about 400'ish by level 40'ish.

Thanks in advance...

I'd say for every one level up into health, put three into magicka. A mage with no magicka is dead, regardless of health or stamina, so while health is important to a point, it's reliant on magicka.

I would say about 200 max on health and stamina (with enchants), everything else into magicka.

I have about 4:1 magicka to health increases, but make good use of fortify health potions against big hitters and those moments when ice spikes are flying everywhere, and always take the Blessing of Arkay.

So... 3:1 or 4:1 mana/health level up, about 200 max health, Blessings of Akray, and fortify health potions when in a jam against the bosses. Sweet, sounds good!

Thanks for the input lades/gents!

I too would (and have) put most into magicka. I have a very low armor rating at lvl42 so I need to be very careful not stepping into a situation where I can be one shotted or surrounded. The key for me is using atronachs as distractors and to also see what sort of issues are in an area or the next room, etc.

Rather early on I discovered that Destruction wasn't sufficient for me although others claim it can be. I increased my archery and one handed skills so I'm pretty decent in either. BTW, if you are used to OB, the archery in SK is much much easier to master especially for long shots. It's utterly unrealistic that an arrow can fly so flat but it makes archery really useful too.

Personally I go 1:1 health to magicka until I hit 250 magicka, then stack health. Stamina seems completely unnecessary.

It really depends on whether you're taking enchanting, and if so, what you plan on using for enchants. I boost my magicka/magic regen with enchants so stacking health mid-late levels is fine for me. Some people also use magicka cost reductions, which reduce the need for magicka dramatically. Kind of cheesy and IMO just the result of a complete negligence when it comes to game balance by Bethesda, but it is what it is and that includes very effective.

Slightly off-topic, I would seriously recommend delving into Restoration up to level 60 so you can get access to the two ranks of Recovery. Both ranks increase your standard magicka regen by 25%, so at level 60 in Restoration you can have +50% magicka regen without any enchantments on your gear. Should help keep you firing away.

My altmer sneak mage has 500+ magicka, 200 stamina and 200 health at level 59. I just posted this in another thread, but for people saying destruction isn't sufficient:

"My expert thunderbolt/incinerate spell doe 90 damage when used with one hand, when dual casted (which also staggers the enemy) it does 198 (90x2.2) damage. I have around 90% fortify destruction (which I made sure was the right amount, not to much), so I can cast a good few spells to do some damage, but not endlessly stagger the enemy.

Considering how fast you can shoot the thunderbolt, I can kill ancient dragons on master without to much difficulty. If I throw in a +110% destruction damage potion, I can do some serious damage.

Thats not even talking about the chain lightning master spell, which does 112 damage per second for me. Thats without the destruction potion, of which I have 50+ so I can use them whenever I need to."

My theory is that only putting a few points into health is a waste of time, as you will still get one-shotted. Therefore I go 100% Magicka, and it works well.

The problem I had was in the transition to those levels. You have 500 magicka and the ability to use very powerful spells. I found the middle ground around LVL20 or so was where I was too weak in Destruction to use it alone. That is, Destruction was ok to start and would be ok at my current lvl42 if I concentrated on it, but I had a problem at lvl 18 or so.

I found that destruction damage is strong at low levels, it's when you get level 40+ people have a problem. But I see your point, the magicka use can be stupidly high without the fortify destruction gear.

Hmm.. interesting way to go. I definitely do plan on enchanting stuff to increase my mana pool and mana regen to over 400 and only plan on taking a cost reduction of about %30 percent on destruction spells. Don't want to make fights too boring. Did this with my level 43 Redguard warrior and kinda lost the will to keep playing.

But that's the thing... if I get my mana pool above 400 with maybe a total combine mana regen of over 200%, then is there any point of putting any more into mana? Might as well spend it on health.

I was pure mage in OB but failed at it here. I think I could probably do it now that I have a better understanding of the game & also my game skills have returned. I was pretty rusty as I'm generally not a gamer. I tend to only do a few but always TES.

Here ya' on that one. Turning 30 and haven't played an RPG in years! Really didn't want to get into it again because it was time consuming and I just got married, but a buddy o' mine practically begged me to get this game and I haven't regretted it since!

I decided to level up a mage character. Level 20. Never has any magicka. Have all the possible magicka reducing and restoring perks. Had to start using a bow and arrow.

It's incredibly frustrating. I continue to play only with the hope that it'll get better.

I enjoyed OB and MW so much there was NO way I was going to miss SK. My wife (me too) clearly thinks this is something I should have left behind, but...I do love her but I am having a great time here at lvl42 too.

I can definitely see this happening if you're using solely destruction as it's an absolute mana gorger. I feel Illusion/Conjuration can really help a mage at lower levels, especially illusion. However, doing this route, I have NEVER, EVER had to pick up a weapon of any nature. I don't even conjure up my own weapons.

I hope you don't stay frustrated. If you made too many wrong decisions in your leveling path, don't be afraid to re-roll another character. My buddy did it because he spread his perks out too thin and didn't put nearly enough in combat oriented perks. His second playthrough went MUCH faster!

I go for a 2:1 magicka to health ratio. This is more than enough as I use the atronach stone, enchant my gear and make potions.

My wife hasn't gotten to that point yet where she critiques the amount of hours I play, primarily because she works evenings and comes home around 11'ish, but it svcks not seeing her that much so I stay up. Haven't slept for more than 5 hours in a weeknight since I got married. Haha

I currently have a thief/ illusionist and it's probably the single easiest way to play the game. I have no enchanted gear although I do have weapons improved to Exquisite standard.

Once you get sneak and Illusion to ~70 the game is far too easy. Between Invisibility, Frenzy and Calm you can control the combat totally to remove all risk.

If you want to maintain some challenge in the game then I wouldn't invest in Illusion, it's a game breaker.

I'll look into an atronach stone, but I'm not much for potion abuse. I try to limit my usage of them as I feel it's kinda like cheating, but that's only my POV. I feel they're justified for a pure merchant/thief character as their combat/magic can be heavily gimped if their investing in the speech or sneak tree.

I don't see potions as cheating any more than loading a save game is cheating. They're both similar in a sense. I have found many times I walk into a situation where I get overwhelmed and it's either die and reload or use a potion.

Some of the times I've needed a potion aren't foreseeable in any sense at all. Frex, one time I'd finished off a dragon and was down quite a bit in HP. Right as the dragon died, I got attacked from behind by a bear. It was either potion or die. BTW, after I did in the bear, I got attacked by a giant spider. There was no way to save the situation aside from potions.

Similar has occurred to me often in this game.

that was my hole plan!!

Yeah, I can see how illusion can definitely do that, but I have a weakness for watching NPC's kill each other. I don't plan on using Invisibility or calm, mostly frenzy. Maybe I'll just invest on the right side of the Illusion tree insead of the middle perks (Hypnotic Glaze, Aspect of Terror, or Rage). That way, I don't manipulate boss characters and waste two perks on calm and fear when I really don't use them at all.

Thanks for the input! You just saved me three perks! Possibly more, since Frenzy is an adept level spell, so I don't need to get the expert spell reduction perk.

On the aspect of breaking the game... I keep hearing two dremora lords in a dungeon is basically a "Get out of jail" card too. Don't really plan on doing this since my mage is a lightning specialist with an affinity for storm atronachs.