I Salute You, Mages!

[Strongbow]

Yikes! After playing my sneak + bow ninja cat Stormcloak to 25, I decided to give pure mage a chance and play the Legion side of things, with the idea to run them parallel and see the differences.

Wow.

Either sneak + bow is amazingly powerful, magery is amazingly underpowered, or I'm doin' something wrong.

As I've already conquered the areas I'm playing in with my sneaky bowkiller, I'm inclined to think magic is just not up to my high expectations! I had hoped that, with magical fire and electricity shooting out of my nostrils, I'd have roughly the same difficulty I had with sneak + bow.

So I salute you brave souls who trudge along as mages. It's a hard slog--at least for the early levels. Not too fun. I'm guessing they rock later?

[kyzhuchan]

yes, they suck at start, but rock in later lvls, although IMO mages can't solo boses, still need a companion,

and in higher lvls, you need to be careful not to friendly fire your companion since mages has AOE's on adept lvls

[FriedGerry]

sneak
bow
cat
mage
Ah, my fellow Khajiit

It's a hard slog--at least for the early levels. Not too fun. I'm guessing they rock later?
Yeah, destruction can be very weak in the beginning, as I took in dual casting and I usually had to switch to weapons because of how low damage it did

[evilclive]

My mage is extremely overpowered. Im using %100 fortify destruction gear so my spells cost nothing. I can stagger lock all opponents which makes it so they cant even fight back. Ive been playing master difficulty from the start.

Thief, mage and warrior are all overpowered with the right gear.

[Ardbug]

A good trick to save some early mana is to use the flames spell, but dont hold down the attack button to make a continuous cone of fire, just fire off tiny 0.1 second bursts of flames every 1 second, it will do the same damage but save you so much mana.

But yeah mages are frail at first .... you will do well to summon pets with conjuration, either the atronachs or the undead (havent tried the undead route myself), I think you only need 25 conjuration to buy flame atronach in Dragonsreach.

[Deathsyt]

Mages are one of the overpowered classes. The school of Destruction, however, is underpowered and is really only used for some added damage for master difficulty pure mage builds. Alteration and Conjuration make the game a complete bore due to how easy it becomes.

[Derek4Real412]

Ah, my fellow Khajiit

Hey hey glad to see there are others out there playing Khajitt's and not just me. :cool:

[Cairhiin]

I'm a level 50 Mage. Let me say that it gets better at higher levels, and one tip: level Conjuration - once you can Summon two Draemora Lords you are godlike.

I'm using Dragonscale Armour double enchanted and just like a poster above me, my Destruction spells cost 0 Magicka.

[FriedGerry]

Let me say that it gets better at higher levels, and one tip: level Conjuration - once you can Summon two Draemora Lords you are godlike.
When I started to get a little into Conjuration, the sword i summon does such terrible damage
I like spawning people though, yet I rarely do it

[Cairhiin]

When I started to get a little into Conjuration, the sword i summon does such terrible damage
I like spawning people though, yet I rarely do it

I never bothered with Weapons, neither normal or bound. I just spammed magicka pots at low level. Levelled Conjuration with Atronachs, Soul Trap and some Zombie stuff. Now I pretty much only use Draemora Lords, and Storm Atronachs for Dragons.

[FriedGerry]

Huh
Conjuration sounds kind of boring though, seeing you spawn people to fight for you, excluding the use of bounds swords and axes and all that

[Cairhiin]

Well it's for people who liked playing Necromancer in games like Diablo 2, and nothing stops you from spamming Destruction spells. They are just meatshields. You are very fragile as Mage. Most boss mobs one shot you.

[Obomonus]

I'm playing a pure mage and even at level 29, I still find myself hauling ♥♥♥ more often than I'd like to think. I don't conjure anything (probably should though) and I have yet to find a companion that I find worthy.

But yeah. It can be challanging and frustrating at times but if the sneak/bow and the Warrior/hacknslash seem so uber, then I'm kind of glad I went the pure-mage route.

[Andarvi]

Once you get your destruction cost gear up and master conjuration. (heck even alteration or illusion), you're nigh unstopabble. You start as weak as a kitten as it should be.

Also it's a bad idea to ignore putting points in HP, even as a pure mage you'll need HP to survive at high levels, all the shield spells notwithstanding.

[Obomonus]

Also it's a bad idea to ignore putting points in HP, even as a pure mage you'll need HP to survive at high levels, all the shield spells notwithstanding.

Yeah. I'm realizing this the hard way now. Working on it.

[Trooper HCR]

I'm running a pure mage elf with no armour, destruction, restoration & alchemy skillsets and 200% mana recharge.

I'm destroying everything in my path, I've not used a real weapon once and haven't had on any armour since the begining of the game. Not had any companions either apart from Barbas for that single quest.

Very overpowered. Although don't get me wrong, in a proper fight I'm quaffing potions like they're going out of style.

[x_rast_x]

Level 37 now.. been playing a pure Mage since the very beginning. I got my ♥♥♥ epically beat down more than once until I figured things out. Don't use conjuration much, nor have I put more than 2 or levels into HP, don't need it I don't think.

Enchanting made the biggest difference to me. The difference between 99 enchanting and 100 enchanting is huge, the last perk literally makes all your enchants twice as good, which opens up a lot of key enchants which make a minionless mage a lot better.

100% magicka cost reduction to Destruction spells is also huge, and easy to get without hobbling your other stats with 100 enchanting. This lets you use dual-cast incinerate (which is the strongest fireball-type spell) as your main attack, most enemies die in 1-3 hits.

Mage armor lets you take a few hits without dying (although I get one-shot sometimes if I'm surprised and don't have it up, such is life). Almost all ranged NPCs that aren't archers (which do little damage anyway, at least with an armor spell up) do some kind of elemental damage. Throwing Resist Magic on every piece of gear that will take it (and resist shock on the boots) will give you more than enough protection against dragons and mages.

Rune mastery is another nice perk. Runes can be placed quickly (unlike master level destruction spells, where you'll be dead 9 times out of 10 by the time you actually finish casting them), and do tons of AOE damage. They don't cost anything with 100% cast reduction and have good range with the perk.

For strongly magic-resistant bosses (usually other mages, and their wards which never seem to break), the Slow Time shout is really good. Shout, run behind them, hit them with dual-casted incinerates in the back until they die, which is never before the shout wears off if you do it right.

[PereKermann]

Hey hey glad to see there are others out there playing Khajitt's and not just me. :cool:

Khajiits are da shiznit!

I love my Bad Kitty. :)

[Beast357]

So with the destruction and mana regen enchants, just how much mana do you need? How do you split your points between mana/health/stamina as your character develops?

[Mulux]

I'm a lvl 12 dark elf, thieving, pickpocketing mage. I would like to master lightning spells but I kill my companion by accident too easily. I had one really good fight dual shotting fireballs at some tough boss for a college mission, in the excavation site. My armor is 75% magicka regen robe which I have worn since lvl 3 and some rings, necklace with +magicka. So long as nothing gets anywhere near me, I'm fine.

I've also just got a staff it does 25 dmg plus magic, I killed some icey dragon in the college grounds reallly easily with it and looking forwards to slaying any enemies I meet next with it. My companion since start of the game has been U.. the unbroken woman :)

All my points exept one are in Magicka. One is in Health

[Cyclometh]

I'm a level 43 Khajiit warrior/mage. I roll with one-handed weapons in the right, spells in the left. My favorite combo for alerted enemies is a fireball from range, then Marked For Death and flames plus sword at close range. I'll use the Bound Sword but lately I've been favoring this lovely ebony sword- quicker to draw.

I also enjoy the challenge of a good sneak; getting through an entire dungeon with 100% backstabs (even took out a minor boss once doing that) is a lot of fun.

For dragons, I love having Lesser Ward in the left hand. Just ward up for the breath, run in and apply the beatdown and swap spells if you have time to pop them with something like frostbite or flames.

Fast heal while running away has saved my butt more than once.

[Fieldmarshall3]

Either sneak + bow is amazingly powerful

yep
5char

[geronimo789]

So with the destruction and mana regen enchants, just how much mana do you need? How do you split your points between mana/health/stamina as your character develops?

Personally, mana all the way. I've just begun putting points into health every once in a while past level 35.

[Burbots Revenge]

I played all kinds of classes so far and from Warrior ( 1h/Shield) Thief and "normal" Mage the Mage realy is bad.

BUT

Now im playing an High Elf Mage with HEAVY ARMOR and its so damn easy