A mage question

[Deleted368419User]

Hi there, I have a question about spell making,is it good idea to create weakness to magic followed by weakness to element spell,or should i create 2 spells ( 1 for magic weak,second for element weak) ?

[The_Vyper]

It's fine to make one spell with both effects. Just make sure the 'Weakness' effects are added in last.

[Striker879]

Something to consider is how much magicka cost your character can "afford". The reason is how the spell effects are applied by the game, especially when they are all included in a single spell cast. For example if you have a spell 25 pts fire damage, 50% weakness to fire for 5 seconds and 50% weakness to magicka for 5 seconds, on your first hit with the spell only the 25 pts fire damage will have an immediate effect on the target (in other words the two weakness effects won't alter the initial fire damage). If you hit the target with a second cast before the 5 seconds is up then the second fire damage will be increased by the two weakness effects from the first cast and the second cast's weakness effects will be added to the first (so weakness will be now up to 100% until the first timer times out). If your character's magicka can't support two casts within 5 seconds you'd be better served by just casting fire damage at lower magicka cost. As The_Vyper points out, the weakness effects need to be at the bottom of the list of spell effects (I always make sure weakness to magicka is the lowest on the list).

 

I've tried different combinations using various damage amounts, and percent weakness amounts and durations on my various dark elf characters, who usually don't play as pure mage (95% spell effectiveness). I have a bunch of custom spells for my current level 22 guy, some chaining fortify magicka to make them continuous castable when starting out with full magicka, but I usually wind up getting the most mileage out of two simple spells. First is weakness to magicka 100% in 20 feet for 20 seconds on target (could be shorter duration for lower magicka cost and/or smaller radius). I hit the target with two or three casts of that while they're at a distance and then closing (which is why the 20 foot radius ... makes it easier to get hits while backpedaling). Then I switch to either a standard fire damage spell or better yet my favourite ... a custom absorb health 25 pts for 2 seconds plus damage health 25 pts for 4 seconds on touch. Even ogres will get knocked back and fall to the ground, sometimes dying just as they get back up.

Edited March 9, 2014 by Striker879

[Deleted368419User]

thx for the reply.Can I make a weakness spell like this : Weakness to magic 100% in 10 feet for 10 seconds + weakness to shock 100% in 10 feet for 10 seconds. second spell is 25 shock for 2 seconds in 10 feet.Do you think these are good and efficient spells example for later levels ?

[Striker879]

Yup ... I'd suggest making them two spells, first with weakness to shock for a shorter time than the weakness to magicka to reduce casting cost and make sure the weakness to magicka is at the bottom of the list. The second spell would be your shock damage. Look at the magicka costs of your custom shock damage vs the vanilla shock damage spells as often you can get a cheaper vanilla spell. I'd also look at making your weakness spell just weakness to magicka for the same reason (cheaper casting cost). Having the weakness to magicka also makes it more versatile (you can combine it with any other spell without wasting the magicka cost of weakness to shock) ... or have one with just weakness to magicka and one with both weaknesses.

[Deleted368419User]

thx for the reply i think ill just make weakness to magicka as it is cheaper and I can use different spells