Really? I'll have to go find myself one of those then.

You cannot depend on venders as a reliable source on destruction potions since most draw from a random pool of potions; unless you abuse vendor reset saving tricks.

Ingredients for fortify destruction are: Beehive husks, Ectoplasm, Glowdust, Glowing Mushrooms, Nightshade, and Wisp Wrappings

notice these ingredients are all relatively rare and expensive; except for:
Nightshade : which is common
and Glowing Mushrooms: not exactly common, only found in select caves.

Potions at max; without abuses are around 60~ % increase in damage for 60 seconds.

Very few people actually grind alchemy to play mages like this, without abuses
Most haven't gotten up to level 80 is see its not worth the effort. But you can play theory craft as much as you like.

Practical solutions are all spamming one or two spells anyway.

I personally like the idea of a single, potent spell with which to magesassinate contracts. I want to be able to do this, ideally, without Alchemy investment (that, and it's kinda nice for roleplaying [buying restore magicka pots and all] as well as a good money sink).

No can do, only melee and bows have that kind of damage potential and actually remains silent. And magic has no sneak attack modifiers.You have to abuse the restoration glitch with alchemy to do that kind of damage with spells.

The illusion perk only makes the casting of spells silent; the hit effect is not.

You can try turning the difficulty down to novice though.

I beg to differ--I've already used a magesassin before who specialized in Alchemy, and I had little need for the potions. I also managed to stay stealthy during "sneak" attacks. Furthermore, the mage had 100 Pickpocket (really easy to level that thing up, honestly) and Poisoned, so I was both able to, without a weapon, make enemies weak to an element or magic (or both) and fortify Destruction, but I got by fine without doing either. I eventually deleted him because I don't like Dunmer, though.

This time around, though, I want to be able to do the same thing but without focusing on actual stealth skills.

Edit: Because I had access to Muffle and Invisibility (and later muffled equipment, thanks to the DB), I did not invest in Sneak at all (though the skill raised to about 60 or 70 pretty easily). Despite that, I was able to fire off multiple spells without being detected, including Destruction spells.

I know there's no sneak bonus for spells, but I find that pretty balanced given their possible effects. Even if you're just going to deal raw damage with a stealthy magic attack, you can hit multiple enemies at once (something traditional stealth characters cannot do) and immediately cast invisibility when you're done. I find a stealth mage superior to a melee one; a melee stealth character (even one with a bow) generally has to take breaks between targets to cool down the searching period and stay hidden. I never had that problem; my character was not one with the shadow, he was the shadow

If you're playing as a mage, uo against another mage, you'll need to change your tactic. Operate a Warding spell in one hand and the highest level lightning spell you have in the other. The Warding spell blocks their magic, the lightning spell damages them, but also saps their Magicka.

It's doable. It just takes work and practice. One of the hardest play types in Skyrim, but rewarding when you get it right.

Depends on what you're trying to kill then. Certainly not duagr death lords on master.Detection range vary among different kinds of NPC's and their levels I think.

but really, high level sneak is broken for anything; you can walk in front of people and they won't detect you anyway.

At high levels, it only takes a single fireball to break a dualcast steadfast ward and put you into hit stun

I use mine with custom Glass armour and Gauldurs amulet, burned several dragons with dual flames so far. And that wasnt even a pure mage, those who have trouble are doing something wrong.

Other creatures with magic only are:
Mammoths
Dwarven constructs
Falmer
Bandits
Giants
other beasts

As for the alchemy, I find fortify health to be a life saver. And playing a healer/alchemist, with destruction as a sideline, just makes sense for that character build. The difference between being two shotted, or three shotted with fortified health, can mean life or death if you have the chance to get that grand healing off.

Enchanting is all powerful and makes every type of magic easy. Without enchanting it's much harder, especially destruction. Stuff like conjuration with the right perks is still amazing though and doesn't cost that much mana.

I agree.

I've played 2 warriors on Master now, and I'm having trouble with my pure mage on Novice. Apparently, other mages take 1/10th of the damage they give to me from my spells of the same kind, and they have unlimited magicka so they can keep up a ward forever.

I had to ragequit after just beating a firemage on Novice when I can one-shot bandits on Adept. And atronachs are [censored], they don't follow me at all and can't [censored] [censored].

I find it funny that Conjuration is still as it was in hardmode Oblivion: a necessity. Or crutch, what-have-you.

Linear wizards, quadratic warriors? What's the world come to!

I'm not finding a pure mage too bad at all on default difficulty. I occasionally use a companion, but have very high spell absorption so somewhat rely on being hit by spells to recharge the magicka pool.

Well, that's strange. I've played my mage for 45 levels without realizing he svcks. Thanks for informing me of this. How will I ever play him again, knowing how underpowered he is????

Playing at Master with a pure mage is bloody difficult at the lowest levels but once you master Destruction you're basically unbeatable. I'm on my 2nd playthrough with a pure mage and gone straight to the College of Wintherhold, became Archmage at lvl 10 and beat Morokei after a looong fight. Without companions I wouldn't stand a chance against him.

You're doing it wrong, just cause you can't comprehend the basics behind it doesn't mean that magic svcks. I can mess everything up with my mage char.

Okay, how about something that isn't Impact + -100% mana cost for Destruction spells?

Or CC + dremora?

Double (not dual) cast at warded enemies; one to break the ward and the second for damage. Or dual cast as fast as possible; as soon as an enemy is staggered it's done for, assuming you have the Impact perk to stagger it in the first place.

Anyone else find people obnoxious that say "you must be doing it wrong" without offering the noob any tips?

Yes.


Paralyze + damage
Calm/Frenzy + damage/summons + Destro for support

Or some blend of physical weaponry with magic use.

Shouts can be all sorts of useful as well, particularly Fus Ro Dah (but not against warded enemies) and Timestop. The most useful shout for me was Throw Voice to lure those pesky warded things into a group + fireball, and Aura Whisper is extremely useful in dungeons.

>Run into a bandit camp
>One shot kill everything with a basic attack
>Loot them
>Walk off like it was nothing

Really sounds like you havn't played a Warrior with Smithing.

Instead of blasting you or telling you how good I am at master like a lot of these posters seem to be doing, I just want to share with you that from my personal experience, I found a mage character to be initially weaker at lower levels than my warrior character. However, once I leveled up multiple schools of magic from the adept phase onward, it became progressively easier to the point that I don't find many situations difficult at all. Right now I'm a level 43 mage with Master in Illusion and Conjuration and pretty good with alteration and destruction. No restoration for me.

This thread is yawn. If you arent very good, try a lower difficulty. If you feel that isnt enough, try some mods. If you play on console, well, try CoD or something...

So the whole last page of advice is essentially abuse cost reduction to 0 and spam impact for stun lock; how does anyone think that is fun ?

All schools of magic in skyrim devolve into spam one spell fests. ~ level 80

Destruction : spam incinerate / impact
Alteration : spam paralyze
Conjuration : spam summon demora lord or thrall
Illusion : spam frenzy or pacify
Restoration : spam grand healing

every school is a one trick pony.

Its not a power issue; you can pick one of any of these to spam and you can beat the game on master. With a few exceptions.

Useless post without suggestions as to why/how.