Why is destruction so weak?

[endgamecutter]

I was really looking forward to play a mage in Skyrim, I've been working with destruction and have been filled with one question: Why is it almost completely useless?! I've got it to around rank 30, and I can use all of my mana to at best kill one enemy, usually only getting them to around half health. No, I'm not on master or anything; I'm playing on adept. For fun, I decided to try and use a sword or bow I found on the ground (both skills being at about 15, seeing as I never really use them) and guess what? Things actually died! Just for comparison, I used my lightning magic dual casted on a dragon (since I've read that they have no resistance to shock damage). A single arrow did double the damage I did with my entire mana bar. Is my game glitched? should my destruction level be higher than 31 or so at level 9? Are Falmer just really strong? I'm not saying I want the game to be a cakewalk, but I want to be able to fight basic enemies without having to fall back on my sword or bow, despite them being more efficient.

[Tarm]

When I play with a magic oriented character I usually snipe easy targets like bandits with lightning and flametorch everything else.

[Vagrant0]

spell damage doesn't scale with skill or level for the player. To do more damage you need to get stronger spells or use perks. Fully perked and leveled Destruction spells are actually fairly powerful... You just have to spend the perk points to boost damage and lower costs.

[lochlan1414]

my descrution mage lvl 12 is unbeatable and im on normal diffuculty

[Matth85]

And my conjuration mage at 34 is unbeatable on Master/Hardest.

Destruction is OK untill higer level, where it isn't enough. At level 34 the only way I can survive being destruction, is by getting 0 mana cost. But that is breaking the game, and is no fun.

[Euclid]

My character is destruction mage - menawhile lvl 100 with master perk. However, at a low level destruction I've played with shield because any melee mob tends to 1-s me. So shield block saved my life a few times.

 

Using the hotkeys (F and Q to assign number keys) it's fast and easy to switch to alternative combinations. For example, start with dual fireball (or corresponding lightning/freeze if you prefer) to nuke mobs from far. If they come closer switch to dual flame and run backwards while casting. If mob still alive then switch to shield, block if needed and nuke with right hand cast.

 

That worked fine by me.

 

As Vagrant0 mentioned the power of spells will not scale with the player's level. So the only way to become more powerful is to level up destruction to gain access to the expert/master spells (quest) and, simultaneously, increase you mama regen and decrease the destruction spell costs. I also strongly recommend to do the college of mages quest chain. The robe(s) you get are very useful.

 

Cheers Euclid

Edited November 20, 2011 by Euclid

[Snowsong]

The problem I have with playing a mage is that I always run out of mana/magicka half-way through killing a dragon. LOL.

[WarKirby3333]

spells are not good enough. even the highest level spells are generally weak compared to melee attacks, i'd say

[arcom]

Are you guys playing on normal? I've found a destruction/conjuration combo to be entirely unstoppable- in particular, the stun effect from a dual casted spell combined with proper timing makes it impossible for enemies to fight back if you have enough mana.