Less depth, customization, variety and more 'purdy' graphics. That's about it.



Pretty much. At around level 25+ Ebony flesh was giving me like one or two extra weak enemy hits. It's pretty much Dragonskin or bust at higher levels with the flesh spells.

Does everyone just ignore alchemy as a requirement for good mages? No one ignores enchanting in the same manner, or smithing for melee builds. What's up with that?

Buffoons, I say!

It's important to make good choices in Perks too so you get the build you're aiming for. It's all in there - many many choices to make...try again and good luck.

I was playing a Mage and found it pretty easy on master mode and also extremely boring i gave up once i hit 50 and started a new character.

Gloat somewhere else please.

What does alchemy have to do with my statement? Hell, we have less alchemical effects than ever before as well.

**peaks at you from under his bridge.

Hint: Use Dremora Lords. I never even have to fight

So your just spamming? Or are you continually quoting the wrong person (Me)? Because I haven't said anything about alchemy.

My only problem with magic in Skyrim is that the variables to increase it's effectiveness are very particular in how you can reach them.
Certain perks and potions are mandatory.
It's not that strict with physical damage output, as you can increase that damage through smithing, enchanting, perks, potions and the skill level itself. And any combination of those things.

Serious? Frost mages eat my ass for breakfast, I hate them...bastards D:<

i beg to differ.. my mage kicks ass

It seems to me that early on you are better off focusing on one particular school of magic and alchemy or enchanting to augment it. Not only does focusing on one school of magic punish you in terms of effectiveness, it punishes your lack of diversification through levels and perk points.

Essentially all the opinions boil down to this;

Abuse X Y and Z and magic is ok -> mostly meaning you can abuse fortify restoration potions to jack up your damage to about 2000000%; and grinding enchanting to make magic cost 0; then spam destruction spells with the impact perk for stun lock. Its also incredibly boring

Using illusion and conjuration -> summon or rage then wait for several minutes while enemies attack each other; repeat if necessary till dead.

Pick up a sword -> don't play a mage.

Don't play on master -> set difficulty to novice, all problems solved.

Though you are stating that magic is underpowered/stripped down/purdy/a joke. The truth of the matter is when all resources available are utilized, this just isn't the case at all, ie my comments about Alchemy.

Stop misinforming people, that's all I ask.

You can't abuse a fully implented feature of a game when said feature operates exactly how it was intended to.

Mage is fine, it's player skill and planning that needs work... soz.

Not misinforming people. That's you. Fact is, you have to exploit magicka reduction, or spam potions for things to be viable, that you never had to do in any other ES. That's a joke compared to previous systems. Lack of spell creation and cut down effects list, only makes it worse. Every magic user shouldn't have to use alchemy. Not to mention there's only one potion that's ups destruction damage level, and no alchemical shield effect anymore. Not even every pure mage should have to use alchemy, hell its not even a magic skill anymore. Lore wise, destruction magic is one of, if not the most powerful forms of damage in lore. Its lack of scaling confounds this to no end though.

The only thing that got better with magic from previous games to now is that it has better animation and graphics, hence the 'purdy'. That's pretty much all we gained.

It's all about playstyle. If you want to abuse the system, that's fine. If you want to use the system's of Enchanting and Alchemy within the intended limits (not glitching for 200,000% with the Resto Potion bug), you still become very strong when you craft the appropriate potions.

It is what it is, that's all I'm saying. There is too much misconception about the limits available to the player due to comments like yours.

Playstyle choices for magic have been diminished.

I'm not the one comparing apples to oranges. I'm explaining how it's possible in Skyrim, not Oblivion, Morrowind or Daggerfall. You make it sound as if it's not possible at all. I'm not talking about lore, I'm talking about existing mechanics.

I really do hope that proper scaling is introduced in the future, but with wise planning and smart playing, Destruction is just as overpowered, if not moreso, than melee builds in Skyrim.

See my above post. Playstyle choices have been diminished. Just because its possible to be viable the way you play, doesn't contradict any post Ive said. Its still a joke compared to older systems, the only thing that got better was the graphics. One game in the series compared to another in a series isn't Apples to Oranges. Know more about the ES series.

Yeah, I totally see how they did that with two spells equipped at any one time... and at least 40 perks to augment them.

Thats like saying player movement has been diminished because we can't backpedal at full speed anymore.

Perhaps, but last I checked this post was titled "Seriously, mages svck hard in this game", not "Seriously, mages playstyle choices make me sad from limitations".

It really feels that way.
I was thinking about illusion spells just now.
The spell to make targets hostile only affects up to a certain level of NPC, but the AOE version affects more higher levels. So even though they are the same effect, and just two different ways to apply it, the single target one becomes obsolete and the AOE one has to be relied on.
There should be a way to still use both effectively, but their effectiveness is almost hard-coded into the spell itself.