Mage build help

[J_R]

Howdy ya'll, happy turkey day.

 

Already have ideas for my next character, being a pure mage - but as far as stats and perks go, was wondering if you people who have already run through as a mage could advise me so I'm not wasting points.

 

For stats, (assuming I'm wearing robes and planning not to get hit), 75/25 health/magicka? More magicka? Less? I'm assuming mages don't need stamina.

 

For perks, all I've planned so far as is max enchanting and max destruction.

 

What did you mage players find crucial? Useless?

 

Cheers.

[J_R]

Shameless bump

[oldspice2625]

Get the robes that apply to your magic school that most applies to you... Conjuration and Destruction are two viable ones, the rest are support schools so you don't need to reduce them heavily if you are getting mastery perks...

 

I would advise ONLY maxing out restoration and destruction, the rest, get chunks of them. For enchanting, you already do fire/first/shock damage, so you'll most likely not need that half of the enchanting tree, the middle path is the most effective as it pertains to what you are going to be adding toyour robes/circlets/hoods/gloves/etc..., which is to say, reducing your favorite magic school's cost down as much as possible, and boosting magicka. So you'll only need like five points in enchanting realistically.

 

For conjuration, pick atronachs or undead, and stick to that path, get the mastery skills, and no more perks, the others are not very good and worth investing in for the long run, they may work, but they aren ot worth it in the end...

 

illusion isn't very good anymore, it's alright, but severely wattered down from what it was in oblivion. I would advise getting Quiet casting ASAP as it is invaluable, and yes, you will need to be more of a ninja mage in this game, especially early on. You CAN get the mastery skills, as Paralyze and Invisibility are valuable and will consume a great amont of magicka, but if you max out stealth, you REALLY don't need invisibility, and quiet casting makes it so they won't find you, so you don't need to paralyze them very much with it... also there is impact from destruction to help... so you don't NEED this one very much other than quiet casting.

 

Alteration is another watered down skill. The mastery skills are useful until expert, then you only need Mage Armor for your shield spells, and the one that nullfies incomming elemental damage, as well as Atronach, the others aren't worth getting.

 

Destruction like I said should be maxed out totally, you use all elements... lightning for mages and dragons, fire for undead, and ice for humanoids. The augmented damage is welcome, and the specialty skills like disintegrate, freeze, and intense flames are very helpful for crowd control. You are going to want to get Rune Master, as setting up traps to back track to is helpful and tactical... you can set them and when the going gets tough, set up a fire run near an oil pile, run over it, and have them die quickly... dual casting and impact are invaluable.

 

Restoration is another to totally max out, you need everything except for Necromage, which is useful anyways and is one point... Mastery skills are self explanatory, Avoid death is especially useful for mages since we are fleshy and weak. Dual casting is good for in a bind and to get max hp real quick, Recovery is a god send for this game PUNISHING you with only 33 pct magicka regen during combat (Which is dumb on their part). Regeneration is good for when you are running fomr palce to place, you can heal your stamina up too with Respite.

 

So that's that... also max out stealth, you ARE going to want to carry a dagger on you for when you run out of magicka and potions, so having the stealth maxed out to be able to stealth assassinate when ever available is a god send and conserves magicka and your elementa of surprise until you need to go head to head with enemies.

 

Other good things to invest in... hmm... lockpicking is good, pickpocketing, esepcially for the 100 carry weight upgrade, ALCHEMY...

 

The other two stealth skills are negligable, and for when/if you ahve spare points...

 

ALCHEMY IS ABSOLUTELY VITAL TO BEING A MAGE IN THIS GAME... I cannot stress that enough.

 

You NEED to have magicka potions in this game, Regeneration, Recovery, and Fortify magicka are a MUST and in GREAT QUANTITIES and QUALITIES/POTENCIES. You can make paralyze poisons for when things get hairy, other poisons to help augment your damage for multiple enemies and recover HP so you don't waste magicka during a fight recovering HP.

 

MAX ALCHEMY OUT, it is also a GREAT SOURCE OF MONEY... one Giant's Toe, Wheat, and Creep Cluster yields a potion worth easily 2-3K a pop which is good money, not early on mind you, but once you get Alchemist and Benefactor/Phycisian up...

 

Hope this helps :)

[invertedpanda]

I bump my health every 5 levels, the rest goes into magicka. Get the restoration magicka regen perk ASAP, and the Destruction dual casting stagger perk. Do the College of Winterhold quests early on to get nice gear (the robes are awesome and will be your mainstay for some time). Maxing enchanting is a good idea early on, but don't let your combat skills suffer doing that. Make sure to carry a staff or two that casts offensive magic. Illusion can rock if you get the perks to allow the spells to affect higher level baddies. Alchemy helps, too, but don't worry too much about the perks early on. Having a beefy tank companion is a good idea, too, but sometimes they get in the way (and prevent you from using more powerful AOE spells).

[danshive]

I, too, am a mage, and uncertain of how many points to put in health. I don't seem to need any boosts to health until a warrior gets up close, and then... OW. Of course, if they never GET close, I'm golden, so I'm not sure.

[J_R]

Thanks a ton Old Spice - very helpful post!

[oldspice2625]

No problem... i'm having trouble with my mage at the moment, but these are some tricks i've learned that have saved me time and time again, when I wasn't dying lol.

 

word of advice though, I got fed up with the rediculous regen reduction, it was totally unnecesary and kind of unfair when the other classes (warrior/thief) get so much damage output, criticals, knockbacks, etc... that they are pretty much God by lvl 50 and your mage is pitiful compared to them :(.

 

There's a really nice mod for changing that back to so you have it on normal regen rate all the time, or less, or more... A HUGE difference between living and dying is that sole factor, so i'd advices looking into it... "Magicka and Stamina combat regen rate" is the name of the mod.

[Kalkus]

you want to get up to 300 or so magicka work enchant up with your other skills head ammy chest and ring can all be enchanted with cost reduction to whichever magic school suits your fancy(keep muti sets of ammys and rings to rethrall...) if you dont plan to exploit enchant with alch(you dont want to right?) you can make do without alch as it eats a lot of perk points that would be better sent elsewhere alteration is the strongest magic school in the game btw...(wont seem that way at first but once you get up to para no need to impact spam 1 on 1^^)

 

really thralls are neat from conjuration and all but nothing like invis into mass para into chain lighting spam for some lols... after you cap enchanting and have mana reduction perks youll find the magic schools you use (so you ench for will cost just about no mana and after enough time and grand soul gems youll have ring/ammy sets for the others.

 

If you play on master, conjuration (not the undead such a pain to find and keep good undead thralls :( is very useful for meat shields so you can free up a perk from impact as it can make you deal no damage during their recovery.....(plus most things can be paralyzed which is better than impact master spells can be a erm.. stormclaok to cast if you catch my drift)

if you have more specific questions free free to ask ^^