Magic Is So Dissapointing

[Menace651]

So I brought myself to try another playthrough with a magic user. This is how 99% of my fights go: Spams all energy on first enemy doing not even 15% damage to their health, sits back for the next 2 minutes waiting for my energy to slowly regenerate while my followers kill everything in sight. This is of course on Legendary difficulty and after like an hour of gameplay I just couldn't take it anymore and wnet back to my uber-bow character.

 

Am I doing something wrong or is magic just useless? Are there any mods or spell packages that make magic more useful and fun? I currently have Smart-Cast and Apocalypse spell package mods installed but they are nothing special. I also hate spell switching. Melee and bows are just so much easier to use since you just need to hotkey 2-3 weapons.

[Rennn]

It does vary depending on what level you are.

 

A couple tips:

1. Get a good staff for when you run out of magicka. Make one if you have the Dragonborn DLC, it'll be faster than hoping to find a good staff.

2. Take up alchemy and make potions to refill magicka.

3. Make sure you get the damage perks for destruction spells.

[Constance]

Maybe you should consider trying out Wands of Skyrim ;)
It doesn't just remodel staves, it's a set of proper, scripted wands for the battlemage who doesn't have time to sit around casting over-expensive spells haha.

Otherwise, i would recommend looking for a mod that allows destruction to scale better, because in vanilla it's quite facepalm;
I'm also using Requiem - The Roleplaying Overhaul which makes everything stronger and more realistic, in the sense if you set somebody on fire, they're going to burn haha. However the same goes for enemies, if they set you on fire, your followers are going to enjoy some lovely barbeque :3
Requiem also overhauls the perk trees quite drastically, allowing for better Destruction perks aswell :)
I personally believe it's the best in terms of damage overhauling, i couldn't miss Vanilla for a second if i tried haha xD

A lot of people prefer SkyRE for balancing of damage and perk trees and such, i would honestly consider using one of these to make your Skyrim, and your Skyrim character far more dangerous and deadly ;)

[Drax8]

Consider trying Forgotten Magic Redone - http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/35339/?

 

My favorite magic mod. The spells "level up" allowing you to customize them. They are broken up into categories too, for roleplaying if you are into that, like Paladin, Cryomancer, Druid, Pyromancer, etc. Give it a shot.

[pheo3309]

Apocalypse Spell Package is something special. You just have to know how to use it.

 

As for gameplay, Magecraft isn't about slinging spells. It's about knowing how and when to cast. Proper locations, properly executing spell combo's... This is what I would do in your situation that you're running into.

 

1) You're wasting more magicka on the first enemy, rather than choosing when to cast. As a mage, you already have the short end of the stick, especially when going against a melee character. Carry potions, scrolls, and staves.

 

2) Back to spell combo's. Use two different spells rather than the same one. Preferably something that you can use to get the upper hand. Apocalypse adds tons of spells where you can use the environment to your advantage. Teleporting behind an enemy NPC, you can gank them from behind. It also has spells to change terrain for you to get out of the line of fire for the most part.. I'd take the time to learn about the spells in the package fully and experiment with them.

 

Addendum for 2: I can't state this enough, look through the list of Apocalypse (the full list of spells) and see what you can use together. I'm a fan of Illusion and Destruction, but I've also been known to use Conjuration and Destruction, some cases Restoration and Destruction, and sometimes Alteration and Destruction.

 

3) I've said it in other threads on here about Magecraft, experimentation with the spells is key. Knowing them means you know what you have at your fingertips. A quote from Practical Magic comes to mind. Jett says it to Sally. The quote? "You can't practice magic while looking your nose down at it." Same applies here. Know what you have, know how to use it because then and only then do you know what you're doing as a mage.

 

4) Potions, scrolls, and staves are good, but enchantments are also good. Make sure you have decent gear with that. Gear meaning robes of Destruction, or something that reduces your exhaustion cost or something that increases Magicka Regen speed. Example of Regen Speed? Morokei's mask is a PERFECT example.

 

4.5) Perks. Using those reduces your magicka exhaustion majorly. It's the one thing in legitimacy I've seen that people can claim being 'overpowered'. Pick those up as you level up. They help tremendously in Magicka, spell strength, spell effects, and dual casting.

 

5) The other thing to make sure of, is that if you're switching between spells too much, you really don't know your enemy. With Smart Cast, I have my spell combos organized depending on what comes in my path. So what to make sure of, is what you're going against. If you're cycling through loads of spells, then perhaps lowering the difficulty until you get the principle of the system down better. It's nothing like Melee.

 

If you've tried those and they don't work, or you still feel comfortable with a bow I wouldn't force yourself to play a full on mage. I've been rolling Mage since Arena. It takes patience and practice. Magical arts weren't designed to be easy in the beginning levels. If you STILL want to try, I would recommend lowering the difficulty setting just a bit until you get the hang of it.

 

Edit: Edited for further details on tactic.

Edited December 18, 2013 by pheo3309

[Gremxula]

There is always another way to look at the problem.

Legendary difficulty unbalances your game making the PC weaker in relation to NPC's. So rather than than try to compensate by using UBER spells or weapons, Switch back to normal difficulty and make the game harder to play using say "Skyrim Redone" or similar to up the Enemy AI etc. for a harder but very different to the vanilla game. I an playing a stealth archer in my current play through with SkyRe and my observations are that all NPC's are more balanced Bosses are hard but no longer uber so in general the actual killing is more balanced but with the enemy AI a lot harder.

 

Lifted from page 86 of the SkyRE manual.

 

 

Combat in vanilla Skyrim basically consisted of spamming power attacks with an ”Absorb Stamina” enchantment or vegetable soup. No tactic was required, and stamina did virtually nothing.

Thus, I decided to make a new combat system that heavily relies on stamina (and, to a lesser extent, on health) and forces you to use more tactic, especially when using the other enemy boosting modules EnemyAI , EnemyScaling and EncounterZone.