Hello,

I was wondering if anyone has played a mage but not in the usual sense as just destruction. I got a few ideas but I have no idea if they are actually viable in real fights or on higher difficulty settings. First thing is that I don't really want to get into smithing and enchanting because they simply break the game. Second, no heavy armor at all, just clothes but light armor can be an option too.

So the first idea was to make a conjuration/illusion mage. I was thinking a mix of having a summoned atronach and myself going invisible and use my conjured sword to take down enemies. This would give me a good chance to join both the thieves guild and TDB, this would be of somewhat a mage assassin. I just had a question that even if I use invisibility then I would still need to level up sneak if I wanted to go past enemies unseen?

The second idea was to make a conjuration/destruction mage. Same idea with summoned atronachs and conjured weapons but this time no illusion. Just flatout run into the enemy with a conjured sword in one hand and destruction spell in the other. I am guessing that I need alteration at least to increase my armor or I would have to use light armor if I want to avoid alteration school.


Any thoughts on these builds? Would they work?

Ive tried doing the second one but I turned into a alteration/conjuration mage cause destruction is pitiful it's basically useful to lock an enemy in place while your damage kills them VERY slowly, i found paralyze better because i could paralyze many enemies and my summons would kill them I stopped using destruction entirely.

I heard conjuration/illusion is a very good build especially with the silent casting perk

btw i suggest dead thralls most people do not use them cause dremora lords are strong but I used dead thrall on a bandit cheif and he deals more damage than I do with fully perked one handed

I use an Destro/Conjuration/Alteration build and find that it works out well. I can effective control the battle and defend myself, while conjures/reanimated provide support. I have a little in Restoration (magicka regen) and no perks in illusion.

Starting out the game i was going to specialize in 6 skills and nothing more, these were:

conj
destro
1h
illusion
alt
smithing
sneak

now don't get me wrong, these skills were great and are perfectly viable on their own, but then i kept leveling and was curious about what other skills i could take with my character. i ended up taking enchanting around 40 and resto around 70 and love these skills.

the point im trying to make is that you may want to broaden your horizons down the line. pick a few skills you KNOW that you'll want right off the bat and after awhile of leveling and trying diff combos out then invest.

personally, i mainly use invis w/ a bound sword and for straight up combat usually a boud sword with a ward or a double cast destro (not dual cast).

i also use the frenzy spells and buff my character before battle. paralyze and wall spells make for a deadly combo and same with a ward and a wall spell. along with any of my strategies come summons. ill summon both frost and storm atronachs and have them along by my side.

i hope these examples help and i want to let you know i play a glass cannon with only 150hp, which means i ALWAYS get 1 shotted.

anyway, enjoy!

Your just crap with destruction, I can kill an ancient dragon in 12 dual incinerates with a potion, 28 if I don't use the potion (this is on master, they have the equivalent of 6000 health). Considering the speed that you can cast, destro isn't pitiful, you just svck.

You could never meet those numbers with any other combat style without exploiting smithing. I don't have 100% reduction either.

seriously ugh he saying about using CONJURATION with destruction you can't use incinerate with conjuration unless it's with flame atronachs which are useless high levels and you could easily beat those numbers without exploiting i killed an ancient dragon with two power attacks with 62 one handed dual wield not to mention combat has elemental fury which is the best shout in the game IMO

I just finished my destruction(fire), alteration(mage armor), restoration(healing/undead damage) mage on master with PISE mod and dead is dead rules. That mage is so strong that she started to bore me so I shelved her. Honestly she is easier to play than my assasin or warrior.

Im currently building a Conjuring/Destruction mage too, however this would mean you are purely offensive and you will likely lacking in restoration magic to defense your self so you must depends on summoning and the pure brute damage of destruction magic to kill and survive. I reccomend to max one of the 2 first then focus on the other one, Master destruction spell at 100 are brutal so I would like to get those first, also you should tried to complete the College of Winterhold quest as early as possible to obtain some really benefitcial gears for mage.

anybody who says destruction isnt good doesnt know how to use it. simple as that

On high levels your conjurated creatures are killed with one or two hits. You can distract enemies with it and kill them will Destruction spells after the creatures disappeared, then recast them and so on. Destruction is an acceptable fighting method and perk line, I cannot understand people who mourn abouts its allegedly weakness. Dual wielding is a problem of its own, the power of some perks is incredible. However, you have nothing else to win with dual wield than damage, so the damage may be ok, esp. against a multitude of enemies.

If you are a mage (and not just a Destruction mage) you have other possibilities than just direct damage. However, it will bring you enormous effort to level Alchemy or Enchanting at least a little bit. I don't like Alchemy, therefore I choose Enchanting. Don't bring it to 100. With Enchanting you can reduce spell costs and don't have to use potions or run for longer times.

Alteration without Illusion is a pain imho, because the first paralyze spell is an expert spell, you need 75 Alteration to use it well. With Illusion you can also play with your enemies (except undead and machines), it's really funny to burn them, calm them, burn them, calm them, burn them.... . I used it especially on those pesky Falmer insects with pleasure (one hit from them and I'm dead). If you use Conjuration, you don't need Illusion however. I made a Destruction/Illusion/Alteration mage with a little bit Enchanting, its easier than with a onehanded or twohanded warrior on master, but a special kind of fighting and quite interesting.

I think you mean fireball, the adept level AoE fire spell. Incinerate is the expert level spell, which hits one target. Does 100 damage with the right perks, so 220 dual casted. That will usually outperform archery, unless you make a crazy powerful bow using crafting.

Well thats a lie, ancient dragons have 3000 health normally, 6000 on master. So your little power attack would have done barely anything on master. I prefer become ethereal and slow time, elemental fury is pretty good though, depends how you play.

The problem with destruction is magicka cost, thats why most people just go for 100% reduction. I went for 90% reduction, it works well. I can't endlessly stagger the enemy, but I can cast a good few spells of my 500 magicka.

Most people doesn't realize how powerful a mage with Destruction at 100 and all perks max out can be . I like how I could literally blast huge laser beam over half a mile with destruction lighting attack!

Well, I play a Destruction/Restoration mage. You know, just "get them head on". It has worked rather well on Apprentice difficulty setting, but raising it more than that makes the game somewhat annoying to play. Destruction magic seriously needs boosting. A bandit shouldn't be able to take 10 fireballs before falling. Most of the time, I found myself running in circles with a large number of mobs on my tail, waiting for my Magicka to reboost. I suppose there will be a mod for it soon.

Conjuration + archery + sneak makes a powerful character. Sneak close to a room, conjure something then back or run away until hidden again. Sneak back and repeat until most opponents are dead (this can take quite a few repeats). Finish off whatever is left with a bow while sneaking.

I play a robes only conj/Ill Mage and its a blast. Though, I always gravitate to necromancy, summoning and enchanting classes in MMOs and RPGs.

Early on you will need some form of direct damage. I started with bow (which I enjoy), but found out that using destruction worked better because I could keep fear in my left hand and a damage spell in my right.

After a while you can do away with dealing direct damage entirely if you choose to.

I die sometimes, but it requires planning and tactics. Above all, I find it to be a lot of fun. Ymmv.

Don't rule out enchanting. I have it maxed out at 100 with the dual enchant perk and it only breaks the game if you let it. What I mean is that if you use a complete cost reduction on one or two schools of magic, then it's a possibility. I use it to get a ~70% cost reduction in Destruction and a ~30 percent cost reduction in conjuration. I feel this is about right since Destruction feels underwhelming on Expert and Thunderbolt uses lots of Magicka. Chain lightning is something I try to avoid because I killed 3 followers this way. Haha. The rest of my enchants are used on fortifying magicka stats. I have close to 700 mana with 100% augmented regen. I still run out during large groups or boss fights, but I feel this still keeps it challenging. I like to feel powerful enough to easily handle groups of 3 or 4 middle range enemies. I'm a pure cloth mage who doesn't use ANY weapons... even the conjured ones.

As far as your two options go, I prefer to keep my distance when I'm a mage. You can use a conjured bow to achieve that, but I believe Destruction is more versatile. For example, my character specializes in lightning. Often when I'm in a fight, my storm atronach would charge and melee the opponent. Since I use mostly lightning destruction magic, I don't have to worry about hitting it. This especially goes for chain lightning.

For your first option, remember that once you attack your opponent while invisible, they will detect you, rendering invisibility useless. They can still detect you with your footfall, especially if your close, so you still may need to cast muffle. I'm probably one of the few that find illusion more useful than conjuration. Especially at higher difficulties like expert and master, your conjurations get their asses kicked. This even happens in adept the higher you level up. I can't describe the amount of times illusion has saved me from a bandit chief while I casted Pacify on him MID-SWING! The reason why illusion is so handy at higher difficulties like expert and master is because the higher level difficulties only adjust damage numbers, but don't adjust how your spell effects characters and their respective levels. Your conjurations are directly effected by the adjusted damage, illusion is not. Unfortunately, they don't work on undead, daedra, or automatons, so you can't use them for those purposes until you get the "Master of the Mind" perk.

Your second option is a conventional build for a mage because like I alluded to above, they can often complement each other. Like I mentioned, I don't prefer conjured weapons, but to each his own. I prefer to have destruction with the option to dual cast with the impact perk. If you don't do a total cost reduction, you won't be able to stun luck higher level enemies like briarhearts, which still keeps it challenging.

Think about illusion for crowd control and turning foes against eachother. It's also worth think about for silent casting and illusion and muffle. Restoration is good for healing obviously and taking out the undead and its very powerful later on. Think about alteration for the flesh spells and maybe paralysis and the magic resistance spells are definitely worth it spell absorbtion is worth it too. Conjuration is good to get a summoned creature to tank and distract your enemies. Also it has the bound weapons if you want to use them go for it. Then get destruction to supplement your illusion and conjuration. Think about one handed as a backup. Also consider enchanting for some magic reduction to be able to use higher level spells. You do not have to max it out just try different reductions and see what works for you. Then think about alchemy for various buffs and restoring your health and magic, remember a mage without magic potions is a dead mage.

Conjuration / Illusion mage would work ... it will keep you on your toes as you have to use crowd control on the enemies and your buddies. I would want to be able to deal some form of damage.

Conjuration / Destruction mage does work ... but I don't get into the bound weapons too much (although you can poison them which is good for higher level enemies). Dual casting destruction spells works great.

My mage started out as a Destruction / Alteration mage and has since mastered Illusion and Conjuration. I'm level 53 and play on expert mostly (i switch to master when outside and I think about it). I used a dagger maybe for the first two levels before realizing I didn't need it at all.

Being a mage is not as difficult as they say. The only way I can die now is if I do something really stupid.

Ya my breton mage can kill a whole room of forsworn with a fireball or two.. very powerful in combat.

I tried to get him to do some thieves guild stuff.. each heist ended hilariously with all the guards chasing me (cant sneak worth crap), so I resorted to calming anyone that might see me steal, and they dont care at that point.

My Argonian is still the most versatile to play as though..

look a combat skill that only changes 50% from damage and nothing else is pitiful in my eyes sure you have different spells buy if your adept spell doesn't do the job and that's your highest spell what do you do? infinite stunlock? with other combat skills have perks that increase by 100% damage, raising the skill increases damage, you can use posions and sneak and the enchanting effects damage. I feel destruction Is pitiful because it relies on other skills to do it's job and that it doesn't have any good progression for damage in a game where everything levels with you and increases health and your spell does the same damage as level 1 your going to have a hard time If their wasn't the impact perk then it would be near impossible to play a destruction Mage at high levels.

No way. On easy maybe. But on Master difficulty and even being a level 45 with 98 in Destruction magic, it is the pits. It does jack and squat with any of the higher level spells. I'd have expected way more damage from destruction magic at the higher levels.

The girl in my avatar pic is my Destruction/Conjuration mage. Nothing but staves, robes, gloves, circlets and jewelry and maybe daggers. Pretty much 1 hit kills her, even being a level 45. I put most points into Magicka and only 50 into health. None into Stamina. She dual casts ALL of the time pretty much and she svckS with rooms full of people. The only thing that helped was Ice Storm, but that usually ends up knocking off my companion because he/she is freaking [censored].

I'd be willing to try an Illusion and Alteration Mage, but would have to have Conjuration as well to take off some of the incoming damage load. Personally I find mages running around in heavy armor Takei (that's gay to some of you folks out there that don't know what Takei means).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRkIWB3HIEs

That 50% is enough, it would be nicer if it was 75% or 100%, but its enough for use on master. If you know what you're doing.

Expert spell incinerate, 220 damage dual cast. Now you say you have to rely on other skills, but without the crafting skills, melee and archery wouldn't even be able to come CLOSE to 220 damage. Also think how fast you can cast those spells. If I throw in a +destruction damage potion, I can kill ancient dragons on master in 12 shots, like I said above.

Who cares if it isn't as strong as an exploited weapon from crafting, it's strong enough for use. I don't want it to be overpowered. What a terrible idea of having a skill that needed tactic rather than just hack and slash with super strong weapons!?

Same damage as level 1? At level 1 my flames spell did 8 damage per second, it now does 22 damage per second. +50% and +10 damage from the illusion fear perk. I use archery with destruction, I can use a bow to fire a weakness to fire/magic potion, then just nuke the hell out of them. I'm sure I could kill an ancient dragon in 6-7 hits if I do it right, yeah you need alchemy to hit those numbers, but to be stronger than destro all other combat styles NEED crafting.