I really don't understand why people keep making threads about it.

I've made a thunder arch mage and killed just about everything that moves using chain lightning.

I was 1-2 shot killing everything.

Not even using Master level spells.

Are people saying that destruction is too weak or something?

Destruction is fine on Adept, but there is no simple way to make the spells deal more damage, and so they start to lag behind regular weapons which can be smithed up and enchanted when enemy health goes up as you increase difficulty.

Yes, there are two sides to this coin.

The sides differ because of lack of depth in the destruction skill (understandable) and the way damage and mana mitigation (and mana regen) /etc. is handled in game.


There are mathematical formulae involved, and it gets people into heated debate about what or what should not be fixed.....


So.........Expect this thread to be "debated".

Do I have a problem with destruction? yes and no.

Yes, there are fixes that could be made.....(im short winded here)

No, there isn't a LOT wrong right now, so I don't have a problem using the skill in game......i just think It could be better

Alchemy. Simple. Glowing mushrooms and nightshade makes an excellent fortify damage for destruction potion.

So people choose to give their enemies more health then complain that their spells aren't killing the enemy as quick as they want it to?

You should try it in Oblivion, it's really hard to start off as a Mage, much easier in Skyrim.

I restarted Skyrim as a Mage and I'm enjoying it more. Mages are powerful.

Lol, yes. Like I said, I play on master, use destruction almost exclusively, and conjuration if there are a LOT fo enemies, and use alchemyto account for the extra health enemies had, in my opinion, if you play on master you should be a master of the gameplay mechanics, and not whine.

I'm fine with Destruction as it is.

I don't see many issues with it. It could be better, but I personally think it's just fine.

Destruction doesn't scale, which makes it inferior to weapons.

If you want it to be better, use alchemy. I have to eat dinner now, bt I could give out some useful recipes. I take pride in my alchemy knowledge, lol.

Destruction is supposed to be different, and require different ways of making it better, hence alchemy and enchanting, as a mage should use more than just one school of magic / knowledge....since they are ALL about knowledge.

Spam, Stun... Spam, Stun... Spam, Stun... Spam, Stun... Spam, Stun...

Spam, Stun... Spam, Stun... Spam, Stun... Spam, Stun... Spam, Stun...

Spam, Stun... Spam, Stun... Spam, Stun... Spam, Stun... Spam, Stun...

Loot Deathlord Corpse...

*Aggro 2 more Deathlord's*

Drink Potions...

*Rinse and Repeat*

I thought one of the issues was melee/bow damage increase with skill level, but destruction doesn't. It only allows you to access higher level spells. So, dest. damage is static (increased with perks, enchanting, and alchemy) but the other two can increase with skill level (also perks, alchemy, smithing, and enchanting).

I play on adept and haven't started a mage, yet. It sounds like this ends up being more of an issue with higher difficulties, but I guess I'll find out.

Magic is augmented with:

enchanting
alchemy
perks

Melee/Archery is augmented with:

enchanting
alchemy
perks
smithing
skill level

So, it seems that magic doesn't have the same advantages.

Yea...or you can mix it up with Conjuration or Illusion so you don't die of boredom after 1 dungeon.

This exactly

My opinion is that people look at how uber you can be with a melee weapon if you try, and then they find they can't be as uber if they just use Destruction and nothing else, and they are annoyed. But the equivalent to Enchanting + Smithing + Melee is Destruction + Dual Cast + Impact. In fact both are overpowered and boring (again IMO).

If Destruction by itself let you coast through the game, pure mages would go from being interesting fun builds to being as boring as the melee builds folks post here to complain about being OP.

When you are high level pure mage, you own everything. If people choose only to use one skill, yes, you will struggle. Of course you will struggle. It's like some just don't get what's required to balance out the skills across all playstyles.

without mods i used to conjure a fire or frost golem then spam spells until everything died

I relied on potions and my highelf power at first then I became a master enchanter and I just nuked everything to oblivion.

now with Midas mod, balanced magic, and the new spells (93) can't remember name playing mage is very cool although I don't use the OP spells like paralysis rune

I was going to start a thread like this, but thought it would just get blasted. Seems to be ok, actually. I started with a Battle Mage build and at first my magic just was not doing the trick, but as I leveled up, dumped perks into Destruction, and mixed it up with desturction, conjuration and melee in battle (as a battle mage should) my character is already slaughtering things left and right, and I'm only level 20. Doing pretty good for me, but you just have to find the balance.

Sounds like this guy ^^^^^ has never actually played a destruction mage the whole way.

By and large, the criticisms of destruction seem to come from either people who don't really understand it and probably haven't used it much or expect it to work just like melee characters and/or keep pace with the broken smithing skill.

Well how do I play the destruction mage the whole way?

Ofc it is supposed to be different - but it is also supposed to be overall as useful as the other damage skills. That means it may do more damage but have less side-effects/other advantages, or vice versa. The thing is, it has much less of EVERYTHING.

Also... why is it that people always bring up the other scools of magic in talks about destruction? WTF do they have to do with it? Yes, you can summon daedra and cast oakfless, brew potions and enchant items. Yeah. So can an archer, and they can do 5 times the damage at twice the distance...

The talk was never about it being hard to play a destruction mage - it's just about Destruction being EXTREMELY WEAK. Which ofc makes it super hard to play one early game, and late game it's:
1) get 100% cost reduction
2) Get impact
3) Stunlock enemies for a minute till they die.

When a high level archer is
1) Enchant everything with Fortify Archery
2) Get the slow time perks
3) One-shot everything in slow-motion

There is no point discussing which is easier, however it's obvious which of the 2 is just WEAK...

Play it through level 45 or 50?

Yes but the opposite is also true. By the time you reach higher levels in Oblivion you would be extremely powerful as a mage. In Skyrim this is not the case. The magic in Skyrim does not become more powerful as it does not scale at all. There is no gear to make you more powerful. There is only one potion that can enhance destruction and I haven't found an easy way to get plenty of it so that is not something I tend to rely on. Destruction magic as a whole is weak. Most here who say it is fine are relying on the stun effect or something they conjured or illusion to compensate. There is no denying that by the end levels destruction magic by itself is relatively weak. I'm not talking about enchanting to reduce Magicka usage. Magicka is not the issue here. The high level spells themselves simply don't do enough damage. This becomes most apparent when facing multiple high level enemies where the stun effect is no longer effective.

Personally I get by with conjuration help but I would prefer not to have to rely on it so much. Enemy mages have very powerful destrucion spells even when wearing totally crap gear. I have no idea why Bethesda decided not to give us the same.

People bring up other skills because using only Destruction is as unlikely as using only Archery and nothing else. If all you have is a bow at low levels, people will rush you and kill you.

The average build will have at least five skills. If you make it so that Destruction is all you need to own everyone, it unbalances everything else.

High level mages (with a full skill set, not just Destruction) not only rock but they have loads of options. If you have a mage with 100 in four magic skills (achievable quite early due to not using armor or weapons) you will see this.