Why would you use highlvl spells as a mage?

[saldu]

So, there's the apprentice level spell "Fire Bolt", which currently deals 37 dmg for me and costs 8 magicka. (4.625 dmg/magicka)

Then there's the expert level spell "Incinerate", which currently deals 90 dmg and costs 61 magicka. (1.475 dmg/magicka)

True for lightning and frost, too.

 

With magicka always being the limiting factor, who in their right mind would use Incinerate? Need a mod for that asap.

And yes, they are both single-target spells, the aoe spell is "Fireball", which has a good d/m ratio if it hits multiple enemies.

 

 

Edit: And before anyone asks, yes, those numbers are including the perk that reduces cost of expert spells by 50%.

Edited November 17, 2011 by saldu

[ShuMaKisO]

cause they be cooool! also if you max enchanting with perks you can make a gear set that lets you cast up to 2 spell schools for free :)

[940220]

cause they be cooool! also if you max enchanting with perks you can make a gear set that lets you cast up to 2 spell schools for free :)

 

But then you lose other important enchantments. I have enchanted with magicka regen, 1h weapon and health aswell. Would kinda suck to only be able to use Destruction and one other school. This really needs a balancing patch.

[saldu]

cause they be cooool! also if you max enchanting with perks you can make a gear set that lets you cast up to 2 spell schools for free :)

 

Which would make every levelup spent in magicka useless after having those items. (about 80% of levelups for me)

 

And either way, there's the problem that you get the apprentice spells as soon as you manage to get 500 gold or so and go to whiterun, and you never ever replace it until you max out enchanting, that's running around for 40+ hours with the same skills.

That is just very bad design that needs to be modded.

[Reddimus]

There's a difference in travel time. Incinerate reaches your target faster. You can also nuke your target down pretty fast with that much damage instead of waiting out smaller hits (good for dragon fights).

 

WIth -cost to Destruction, regen, there really isn't an issue for me. I can shoot 4-5 rapidly, wait a few seconds and shoot 2 more. I always have a summon taking aggro. 1-handers with a fair amount of skill points does good damage as it is.

 

I don't disagree that it's bad design though. Overall the skill system is better here than it was in Oblivion, but it still has a ton of holes. Power attacks with bad range/animations, no hand-to-hand tree, no block key, lack of scaling skills, archaic hotkey system.

Edited November 17, 2011 by Reddimus

[saldu]

If I want to play a pure mage, then I should be able to, if I don't want to use melee weapons, I should never need to.

That's exactly what I can do by using fire bolt. Plus, I get great control over the battles, because double casting stuns them every time. I never used a melee weapon, except for the short brawl to join that guild in whiterun.

If I used Incinerate, I couldn't do it, since battles are usually against 3 enemies, and I'd be lucky to have killed 1 of them when I reach 0 magicka.

 

Melee characters upgrade their weapons all the time while playing, why should mages be stuck with their apprentice spells because the higher spells are inefficient?

 

 

edit: also about nuking down a dragon with incinerate: with 4-5+2 incinerates you take about 10-15% of an elder dragons hp, where's the nuking down?^^

Edited November 17, 2011 by saldu