IMO In Oblivion: archangel/angel wings, Ice walk - screw the "corridors of dark salvation", just fly up there, though you'll need to avoid that fire column. Holy spells - use flare when "sniping" burst when surrounded and fire or breath when many daedra are charging at you Out of comba: chest - keep those imperial scum off your pilfered goods and bypass encumbrance, but know that if you add lots of stuff to it, it will take a while to open bone to pick - unless you run a mod like mysterious bears epic necromancy (great mod for role-players and RTS fans), bones are about as useful as a fart in a spacesuit. But for most players who like lockpicking, this is invaluable if you don't have a skeleton key Summon carpet - though I question how that carpet is operated (let's be honest, it does kind of look like you're about to take a dump on it) it's undoubtably one of the best ways to travel in cyrodiil (and in terms of flashiness, it's the hummer limo of it's time) Indoor combat - confined: Force push - when fighting, if you can't kill your foe before they can hit you, your battle just got harder. Fortunately, this spell can "reset" that timer and the projectile's handy size and range means it can clear a fair few enemies out of the way as it's wide enough so most foes in a tunnel won't slip past it and each blast goes quite a long distance while carrying your foe. It's also a solid object so it can ward off those pesky archers attacks Any trap spells - they're pretty powerful and stagger your foe, but they only activate when stepped on and aren't too big either, but in a cramped area it's hard to avoid them and you can also take the stagger time as a chance to get in a few weapon attacks Stonewall/Igloo/Dark Nebula - all different spells but when the crap hits the fan, I use igloo to totally block the path to any foes that don't wield fire. Stone wall is the most permanent of the spells but it occasionally gets climbed over by particularly ambitious bandits. Nebula is essentially a "grand smoke screen" of sorts: when your foe runs into it, they get lost in the fog and just stand there, bewildered. Of course, this spell has a con too: it's just a temporary fix. While the other two have a specific deactivation method, nebula just times out. Missile Rain/Storm - though "missile" often implies explosions, these missiles bounce off surfaces and that makes them very useful in cylindrical tunnel with a 7ft radius or a cave with a rather low ceiling. I've also found that they're two of the more powerful spells in MM too. Indoor combat - open space When I say "indoor, open space", it sounds rather oxymoronic, so to clarify, I'm thinking of places like the arena or the hall in Khaza-Dun (where you fight the Balrog). Basically, any place where you can't command the weather, call down beams of fire or use any of the other spells normally reserved for gods. Ice trap/breath - in a fight where you could be facing a multitude of attackers coming from all directions, crowd control is a must. It's best to keep as few enemies as possible attacking you and if you can't control the amount of foes, you can use these spells to control the direction of the flow, I recommend dropping traps in an arc behind you to freeze assailants and using the breath to cover your back while you set more traps Statis field - a remarkable defensive spell indeed, melee attackers will be frozen by it and any arrows that hit it will freeze up too, in fact the only threat to you with this thing up is another Mage so I'd recommend focussing on them until your field disperses. Missile fountain - combine this with all four glyphs and the lesser AoE missile spell and you have all the tools necessary to rip close range fighters a new one Anti magic field - this spell drains the magicka of everyone caught in it, and I literally mean EVERYONE so if you can't use any other attacks or don't have any good CQC followers then this spell isn't for you Sound/healing/soul/force burst - again with the crowd control, but it's very important and the force burst spells will help you with their various added effects, you can throw your foes while healing, use a soul trap to charge up that enchanted weapon you plan on using during the anti magicka field or utilise the higher speed and reach of the sonic burst Shock/fire burst - though they both require a high destruction skill, they are a great spell for protection and attack. Though they aren't that powerful, they do have a pretty good knockback. Holy judgement - it's a horribly useless spell on any living targets but it obliterates the living dead. Prism spray - this spell is basically a scattergun, but while using it, it's useful to remember that not only does each cloud do different types of damage, they also do different amounts e.g. the purple cloud does 80pts of frost, but the yellow cloud does a mere 20pts of fire damage Stone storm - a very good "pseudo shield", it knocks back foes and does trap damage (so that marauder in fancy daedric armour has about as much resistance to this spell as a mud crab) Eruption - another defensive spell that combines earthquake with a bunch of rocks that punch people in the chin. I like it Chilling tentacles - though this spell sucks on nords and other things that resist frost (we can only wonder what made Xilver think "what if the tentacles belonged to an underground ice squid?") they boast decent power and serve as a great distraction Spike growth/inferno/glacial eruption/biohazard - use it on any foe and the area around them becomes ground zero, a hazard to them but just a pretty light show to you Any seeker spell/living glaive - they hurt foes a fair bit, but their main purpose is to distract foes as creatures and NPC's are inexplicably drawn to them like light to flies Mass entangle/death grasp/earth to mud/tar field - all of these spells have the ability to cripple a foe and set them up for a slower, more powerful spell like nuclear blast or magic flare or even... Destruction's end - a spell that brings swift, flashy, impractical death to all caught within it's glowy wrath; keep in mind that when I say "swift", I mean once the spell has totally set up as this spell takes at least 10 seconds to reach full power. I find that it's always a necessity to cripple a foe first Outdoor combat: Outdoor combat is when Midas really shines, you can use a whole bunch of grotesquely powerful spells to dominate foes, so I'll only list them Lightning/Ice/Hail storm - these spells take huge chunks off your enemy's HP while requiring no work on your part. If in any big outdoor fight, you should get of these going. Assuming you don't have to worry about friendly fire, of course. Meteor storm - it's a little different to the spells above as the meteors fly in the direction you're looking so, while it doesn't work in hit and runs, you can keep friends a little safer and focus all fire on wherever you want. Sun flare/comet/column of fire/ion beam - these spells, though they have a few seconds of charge time, are incredibly powerful and you can also stack the targeting beams to unleash all four spells at once (again, these spells often miss if you don't trap a foe first). Sand storm - not recommended for bow users. This spell takes all the real world sandstorm effects and translates them to oblivion, for example, a sandstorm blinds you so this spell has drain marksman 100. You get the idea. General combat: These are spells I find useful in any fight Avalanche - it's kind of like crushing stones, but it holds enemies in place, freezes them, then drops a ton of rocks on them Water globe - hit anyone with this and they'll spend the next 30 seconds removed from the battle and in a fight, that feels like forever Tornado - though it has rather lacklustre damage, it causes a great obstruction to head on attackers Mega fireball - while it can glitch up, it causes a lot of damage and disruption Magnetic arrow - it's definitely not winning any prizes for power, but when it takes down a foe it can set them up for many attacks Plasma rupture - this spell rips up anyone and looks good while doing so too, but it doesn't kill - it destroys! Which means you should take great care in avoiding use on foes that carry items you want or need Poison cloud - I recommend using this at the start of any fight against non - argonians as the damage really stacks up in any fight Ring of blades/fire 3 - these spells should make any CQC user tremble, but because AI doesn't acknowledge such things, they just walk right into you. Win ensues Rose of kindness - when it works, it works great. Nuff' said Slime ball - it slows any enemy by a fair bit, giving you many set up opportunities Grow ray - this spell gives victims all the cons of being giants and none of the pros. Foes become slow & clumsy, they also become easy targets and grow to big to fit in many small corridors Combos: These are spells I've found very effective when used in succession Dark nebula then healing fount - cast nebula and while you stand in it's centre, use healing fount for 30 seconds or so of continous healig Igloo then biohazard and/or spike growth - while fighting at close range, cast igloo and back out before it fully forms: this will leave foes trapped within it and you can use biohazard and spike growth to make their time in there a living (and hopefully, dying) he'll Earth to mud and/or tar field and/or entangle and/or dark nebula then biohazard and/or spike growth and/or inferno - pretty much the same as above, but you don't need to put yourself in harm's way as much (you'll still need to get within a few feet to use DN, TF and E2M). Although these spells are only temporary, they don't block your attacks and you can use inferno without dispelling your traps. Earth to mud and/or tar field and/or entangle then ion beam and column of fire and sun flare and comet or Destruction's end - the first three spells will cripple any foe, allowing you to nullify those boring wait times on these insanely powerful spells Igloo then Destruction's end - a simple one-two punch. Trap with igloo, kill with DE. Freeze ray or stasis field or glacial eruption then igloo - this combo basically takes the danger out of igloo trapping by using temporary immobilisation to set up the igloo Well that's about it, I'm not sure if you'll find this helpful or rambly so feel free to PM me on it.
