TheBalance Posted January 23, 2012 Share Posted January 23, 2012 Originally posted from my blog, if you're interested in more articles on Skyrim and/or want to check out any of the other stuff I've written about the latest games coming out head on over after you finish reading! :) Playing a pure mage in Skyrim can be a fun, rewarding experience. It can also be absolutely nerve wracking and frustrating - especially if you turn up the difficulty in the game at all. I've found that playing Pure Mages on the master difficulty can be one of the most challenging experiences video games currently have to offer. But if you try to take the build I am about to propose and play it on the master difficulty, you need to do so with a warning: one mistake, and you die. Playing a glass cannon on the master setting is a commitment to understanding - not just understanding that you'll be saving and loading often, but an understanding of your environment, all your spells, how to use them, and when not to use them. Not everyone will choose to go the path less traveled and undertake Skyrim on its hardest difficulty - this build will work for everyone, novice and master alike - and should provide you with a base understanding of magical perks as well as the spells they allow you to use more efficiently. One important note is that unlike Oblivion, Skyrim doesn't let you customize spells. You can click here to view a list of all the perks in the game, and then from there click on any school of magic to get a full spell list with descriptions. I used the term build loosely, as I'm not a fan of spoon-feeding people a direct way to play their characters. Instead I'll explain a few notes, and let you take the perks you feel best augment your playstyle. -First and foremost, destruction will always be your fallback. You quite simply can not count on the AI in the game (either via a fury spell, or a conjured minion) to act as you intend it to. Therefor it's important to not only invest time into your destruction tree, but to consider completely ignoring conjuration as a primary source of damage until it nears level 100 and you receive some of the higher level summons in the game. *THIS DOES NOT MEAN DO NOT BUILD CONJURATION SKILL AS YOU PROGRESS IN LEVELS. It means don't count on it as a way for things to die. Don't blow perks in it until you've rounded out your character, and understand that conjuring weapons mid-fight is the best way to raise the skill, not by summoning minions and hoping they get a few hits off before they die. I highly suggest building down the fire tree first, and ignoring ice and lightning until level 40+, and even then, use them understanding that you could just kill things faster with fire then draining their stamina, or magicka with ice or lightning (respectively). Completely ignore the intense flames, disintegrate, and deep freeze perks simply because by the time an enemy is already low on health, you can just finish them off with another spell, which you'd have to use anyway to get the effects mentioned in those perks. -Utilize the Illusion skill tree extensively as both a time saving device and a primary source of damage (in most situations) The fury line of spells that makes enemies attach each other can let you clear a room of enemies almost effortlessly. This, coupled with silent casting and muffle lets you do it while hidden and without risking detection. I highly suggest avoiding use of the calm line of spells EXCEPT for situations when you need to rush through an area, and/or pacify an enemy in order to recover. Pacifying enemies to skip over parts always comes back and bites you in the ass one way or another - especially if you're not the sneaky type. -Alteration has some incredible perks available to you, from magic resistance to magic absorption. While just about everything in the alteration tree can be valuable, its important to note that buffing yourself with armor before a fight isn't always possible. Invest in things like the Mage Armor, Magic Resistance, and the Atronach perks. NOTE: If your mage will wear heavy armor instead of clothes, you can somewhat ignore the spells that increase your armor, and you can completely ignore the mage armor perk. *HOWEVER note that your skill raises significantly based on its use. If you take the novice alteration perk, and cast oakflesh on yourself once combat begins, you'll get quick skill gains throughout the game. -Conjuration is great, and really shines late game, but it's little more then a minimal source of additional damage until level 75 or so. Conjuring a weapon mid-combat is the best way to level up the skill quickly. After that, go for the twin souls perk, and summon your favorite companions of choice at level 100. -Enchantment is something that should be completely ignored, perk wise, until level 35+. You'll weaken your character significantly by spending perks in enchanting and receiving almost no benefit for doing so. Once level 35 rolls around, you'll pretty much have your adventuring perks selected and can spend your next few levels getting enchanting perks and double-enchanting your equipment that you've collected up until that point. -The restoration tree really is sort of a waste. While you can throw a few mid-level points in the magicka casting reduction perks - you'll pretty much always be able to heal yourself to full with the level one restoration spell, even without Novice Restoration. I can't keep droning on about how useless wards are - but aside from being staggered if they break (and they will break often) you can simply sidestep almost every ranged attack in the game. Don't waste the magicka instead of just strafing to the left. Combat with a pure mage really comes down to one, obvious, question: 1 - Can I kill everything in this room before it kills me? (If there are a lot of mages, or a lot of ranged damage, the answer is probably no. If this is the case, fury a few enemies or use your conjured minions as a distraction and then finish off the stragglers). Rinse, repeat. It takes some practice, but as I've mentioned - playing through the game as a pure mage is a rewarding experience. It requires not only cunning and patience but a little creativity in order to be successful. As always, feel free to leave your feedback below! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rooker75 Posted January 24, 2012 Share Posted January 24, 2012 You're wrong about wards. It's very effective to hold up a Greater Ward in one hand and spam thunderbolts in the other to clear a room full of hostile mages. It'll absorb most of the damage from an expert-level spell and all of any lower-level attack and then transfer the magicka used back to you (if you take that perk). It requires gear enchanted to eliminate the magicka cost of restoration and destruction spells, but it's worth doing. They also completely block dragon breath attacks, so long as you get it up and running in time. I made a video a few days ago of me dueling Morokei, using wards and thunderbolt. I wouldn't ignore shock damage either. Like you say, it's easy to sidestep most ranged attacks, assuming you're at range. There is nothing more annoying than trying to hit a flying dragon. Unlike fire and ice spells, shock spells are instant hit within their range. I think next time I do a mage character, I'm ignoring the Mage Armor perks. You get a max of 300 armor rating with Ebonyflesh + perks. Dragonhide is a joke because of how long it takes to cast and because it doesn't last nearly long enough. Next time, I'll max smithing and just enchant armor. The other Alteration perks are very good, although Atronach tends to interfere with conjuring (because they're cast on yourself, the perk tries to absorb it). I also found a very funny, probably overpowered attack combo for a high-level mage. Aggro any enemy, shout "Become Ethereal," casually walk up to them, then cast Firestorm. Laugh at what happens. Just don't have any followers/friendlies nearby. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matth85 Posted January 24, 2012 Share Posted January 24, 2012 It requires gear enchanted to eliminate the magicka cost of restoration and destruction spells, but it's worth doingYou mean 100% lower the cost?By then, you've broken the game. You can simply free-cast your AoE spell in a room and watch everybody, and everything, die out rather quick. No, wards are terrible. You can get 85% ( cap) magic resistance without any effort, so that a bunch of mages wouldn't hit you for a thing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rooker75 Posted January 24, 2012 Share Posted January 24, 2012 No, wards are terrible. You can get 85% ( cap) magic resistance without any effort, so that a bunch of mages wouldn't hit you for a thing. No, wards are not terrible. You are just terrible at using wards. Use them correctly and you get 100% magic resistance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chanchan05 Posted January 24, 2012 Share Posted January 24, 2012 Conjuration and Illusion aren't terrible skills. They're excellent skills, if you know how to use them. I've actually played a pure mage with no Destruction spell/skill AT ALL except for the Flames spell they give you at level 1 for free, at Master difficulty. I've leveled him up to level 20 right now, but I must say its an awesome and exciting play through. In all practicality, using that build turns you into a spellsword that can use a bow and summon a couple of allies in the process. Not really trying to offend anyone, but for me, the "guide" written on the first post was made by someone who was too much bound into the traditional way of being a mage in RPG, which is basically shoot everyone with elemental spells as damage and everything else is just for show. There is really no wrong or right way to make a pure mage. Based on what this says, I've been doing my mage entirely wrong since he knows nothing about destruction, and put most early perks into conjuration to get a decent atronach up and decent damage using bound weapons. Also I make quite a use of the restoration tree as well, excellent if you are a necromancer type since restoration perks that make spells more effective against undead makes your resurrection and undead buff perks stronger as well. Wards are pretty useful if you know how to use them and perk them up. Saying wards aren't usefull only pertain to your style of play alone, not in general. For example, I could say that Shields are useless in close combat since I never really got the hang of using them and just prefer dual wield all the way, but many people swear by the effectiveness of shields in battle that I am tempted of getting a new character as mainly a shield and sword type. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rooker75 Posted January 25, 2012 Share Posted January 25, 2012 There is really no wrong or right way to make a pure mage. Based on what this says, I've been doing my mage entirely wrong since he knows nothing about destruction, and put most early perks into conjuration to get a decent atronach up and decent damage using bound weapons. I'm thinking of trying that next time, leveling up conjuration instead of trying to powerlevel destruction early. I had a lot of fun with the Sanguine Rose staff, spamming dremora lords and hiding behind an invisibility spell while he charges at everything. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stars2heaven Posted January 25, 2012 Share Posted January 25, 2012 I agree to disagree with the OP, wards are very useful. I also disagree that playing a pure mage on master difficulty is difficult. I've had to resist using illusion and I haven't taken the impact perk just so that I can keep things interesting. That said, I'll also have to disagree about the focus on fire spells. Atleast the way I play, I've found that fire spells don't kill fast enough to justify using them exclusively over the others. If I use ice I can kite melee types more easily and Magic users seem to run out of mana faster than they do hp when using lightning as opposed to fire. Of course, if I were using impact and illusion spells these tactics would be useless to me and fire would be the obviously better choice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rooker75 Posted January 25, 2012 Share Posted January 25, 2012 I agree to disagree with the OP, wards are very useful. I also disagree that playing a pure mage on master difficulty is difficult. I've had to resist using illusion and I haven't taken the impact perk just so that I can keep things interesting. That said, I'll also have to disagree about the focus on fire spells. Atleast the way I play, I've found that fire spells don't kill fast enough to justify using them exclusively over the others. If I use ice I can kite melee types more easily and Magic users seem to run out of mana faster than they do hp when using lightning as opposed to fire. Of course, if I were using impact and illusion spells these tactics would be useless to me and fire would be the obviously better choice. I do like tossing down frost runes for that exact reason. Just remember that Nords and Draugr have a big 50% resistance to frost damage. Fire probably is better against them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gamenode Posted January 30, 2012 Share Posted January 30, 2012 Magic was broken the moment they gave casters 100% stagger for dual casting. The rest is just icing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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