Are playable mages any good?

[Kirlack]

Being a mage is great, although it can be hard at first (can't they all?) :mellow:

 

but ultimately well worth the effort.

 

My mage char is and always has been Breton female born under the Mage and she got along fine.

 

She did go through potions quickly and does clock up a lot of time resting BUT she is probably the most versatile character i've got (out of the 15 or so i play)

 

besides there are some nifty artifacts out there that hugely boost ur magicka (namely the Robe of Woe from BM)

[wesaynothin]

One thing to remeber while being a mage: Conjuration. The most helpful skill.

 

Put a lot of attribute points onto int. and Wisdom, and put a lot of training into conjuration. Your helath will be low, yes, but you wont need it. Your creatures do everything for you.

 

It's like magic!... Oh wait, It is.... :huh:

[DreamOfTheRood]

By definition, a mage that is playable is good. However, I'm going to have to disagree with Shakara. I think the idea of a battle mage is rather like going online to buy a car. You're placing another step in the process.

 

In this case, the process is that of the defeat of an enemy. You can use magic, but you'll eventually have to use weapons. So, why not just use weapons all the time.

 

Pick one or the other.

[ohGr]

well, i prefer mages over fighters, with fighters, you run in, swing block swing kill, and its over, with a mage, you have to actually think, you have to think about a way to weaken the opponent, a way to stay alive, and a means of protection, then its lightning all the way.

[Kirlack]

i have to disagree with dreamsoftherood, the battlemage is as viable a class as any!

 

sure u have to revert to weapons eventually but thats what a battlemage would do, its all about roleplaying ur character (isnt that the point of an rpg?)

 

every class has its own form of play attatched, a nightblade wouldnt take on an enemy direct like a warrior would, nor a Knight hide in the shadows like a thief!!!

[Limorkil]

If your going to add a birthsign with 5x Magicka and regen why not just give your self a starting spell with 100% success that will do 3000 dmg in 500ft. The entire point of being a mage is using strategey instead of brute force, and ALOT of that strategy revolves around conserving your magicka and using it wisley. Being able to cast non stop is the same as a orc with 150 str and a daedric axe.

I don't see that as being the same thing at all. The larger mana pool and regeneration only means less need to rest for 8 hours after ever fight, less need to carry around tons of potion, less need to use the summon ancestoral ghost "exploit". A mage would still have to conserve mana because that regeneration is not going to allow the mage to cast spells constantly. Basically, it just means less downtime.

 

Giving yourself an uber spell with which you have 100% success chance is not the same thing at all. For a start, you might not have enough magicka to be able to cast the spell anyway. Even if you could, your spell would kill almost anything instantly which takes all the fun out of the game.

 

I totally agree about strategy. I'm all for strategy, but not for pointless downtime. Besides, having a limited amount of magicka just means that the mage ends up resorting to a weapon, particularly early in the game. I am thinking of a mage that cannot use any weapon at all, which is why the star sign sets all weapon and armor skills to zero.

 

Basically, I view magicka as being more like fatigue than health. I.e. it goes down when you fight but it comes back fairly quickly outside of combat. One of the things I like about having more magicka is that it lets the mage make use of a wider range of spells, such as shield and sanctuary, rather than having to save all his or her magic for the purely offensive spells.

[Xiris]

Firstly I'd like to agree with most of what's been said already, as I too think mages are a very viable class type to play, but then I guess I would like to add a few Septims of my own.

 

The thoughts I would like to add are around the beginning of the game. Even when you first step out of the Excise office as a mage you have the edge!

 

Some of you will disagree here I am sure, but in my opinion a Fire Bite that costs all of 6 Magicka IIRC and does a max of 30 dmg is pretty good. (A lot better than any single swing with the weapons available to you at that point) The cast rate is pretty regular and as long as you have the Magicka you can kill the creatures you find early on with one or two spells. Not wishing to add any specific spoilers here, as we are obviously in the wrong section of the forums, but the Magicka issue of not having enough is second in my mind to the approach you take to combat.

 

The key I think is not using more Magicka for any battle than you need to! Why cast a Fireball doing 100 dmg costing 100 Magicka when a lesser damage spell costing less than half of that will get the job done. I.e Five Fire Bites costing 6 each and an average of 20 dmg each will kill off a monster with 100 Health the same way one spell with 100 dmg would and it will cost you a lot less.

 

If you look at my signature you can see I have played a few different characters, but the piece I would draw your attention to is the coloured line. This is the tactic I employ for each of the respective characters above, and I guess what I am trying to get at here is specialisation. If you specialise in something ultimately you will be good at it. :)