Being a Mage

[samoyed1958]

Morning all and hope everyone is havin fun. I thought I would try to play as an Illusionist mage after watching the video about mage build, but as of yet am not impressed sorry. Would have been nice if the person making the video build would have mentioned, oh say what enchants they had on there armor instead of just casting numberous spells an saying how great it was, have died more times then I care to mention as of yet not even started the main questline into bleak falls barrow, I put perk points into Illusionist and some into health and magic, only have the mage robes and starter dagger so far. I have a question about the invisible spell. Where do you get it. I'm all ready lvl 12 been to the college asked a few mages in other towns, but as yet have yet to even find it to buy it Thought it was buyable from the Illusionist mage in the college? Any help. advice, would be great thanks :thumbsup: Edited March 22, 2012 by samoyed1958

[thompsonar]

I think is invisibility is an adept or expert level spell which means your illusion would have to be 50 or 75 to buy it. Playing a mage is generally more difficult that a warrior type. You have to use different tactics and starting out is very difficult. You can't just run out and find the best mage items right away. I've never tried an illusionist really but even a destruction mage is hard initially. There's a lot of trial and error to see what works and what doesn't. I would think you'd have to use destruction at least some, and many of the alteration spells/perks are useful for all mages (the stoneskin, oakflesh, etc and the one that increases resistances). If you want to only use illusion I'm sure you can but that's gotta be difficult.

[samoyed1958]

I think is invisibility is an adept or expert level spell which means your illusion would have to be 50 or 75 to buy it. Playing a mage is generally more difficult that a warrior type. You have to use different tactics and starting out is very difficult. You can't just run out and find the best mage items right away. I've never tried an illusionist really but even a destruction mage is hard initially. There's a lot of trial and error to see what works and what doesn't. I would think you'd have to use destruction at least some, and many of the alteration spells/perks are useful for all mages (the stoneskin, oakflesh, etc and the one that increases resistances). If you want to only use illusion I'm sure you can but that's gotta be difficult.

 

 

Thanks for responding... yea knew from the start that being a mage is tough at first.. we are a squishy lot in the beginning. Was mainly wondering when the invisible spell even shows up.. will tough it out for awhile and see what its like in 20 more lvls

[SubjectProphet]

You use magic? Hope the Templars find you.

 

What, I can't have a sense of humor?

 

 

Invisibility is unlocked around expert, might even be master. I'm pretty sure it's expert though.

[Chris94SL2]

My pure-mage is an Altmer that focuses on illusion and destruction. It's hard at the beginning but it soon switches to being OP. Invisibility is an expert-level spell but IMHO it sucks because it doesn't even make you invisible, enemies still will attack you if you don't have a good sneak skill. The best spells in the illusion school are calm and fear because it lets you take on enemies one at a time.

 

This is my illusion mage strategy:

- Get a melee-oriented follower to soak damage (I use Kharjo)

- Focus all perks in Illusion, destruction, and enchanting. I have completely ignored conjuration and restoration.

- I currently have about 180 HP and some rediculous amount of MP (lvl 36), playing on master difficulty you will get 2 or 3 shotted so make sure you are always ready to cast calm.

- Enchant all gear for max mana regen. I wear light armor with a robe but I don't train or put perks into it.

 

I use this mod for magic balance but the strategy should hold for vanilla.

[samoyed1958]

My pure-mage is an Altmer that focuses on illusion and destruction. It's hard at the beginning but it soon switches to being OP. Invisibility is an expert-level spell but IMHO it sucks because it doesn't even make you invisible, enemies still will attack you if you don't have a good sneak skill. The best spells in the illusion school are calm and fear because it lets you take on enemies one at a time.

 

This is my illusion mage strategy:

- Get a melee-oriented follower to soak damage (I use Kharjo)

- Focus all perks in Illusion, destruction, and enchanting. I have completely ignored conjuration and restoration.

- I currently have about 180 HP and some rediculous amount of MP (lvl 36), playing on master difficulty you will get 2 or 3 shotted so make sure you are always ready to cast calm.

- Enchant all gear for max mana regen. I wear light armor with a robe but I don't train or put perks into it.

 

I use this mod for magic balance but the strategy should hold for vanilla.

 

 

Thanks again for the informtion. As a new never really played a mage before, its hard but also exciting. the trilll of the kill.. him or me :devil:

[samoyed1958]

ok I just suck at being a mage.....was doing the mage college questline and in the first ruins, I am getting my bottom handed to me. so back to being a ranged/stealth guy. I gave it 5 days and just suck at it. It like I am summoning left and right but the skels in there kept going for me casting calm casting fury casting anything and everything and gettin owned like a red headed step child. My hats off to the folks that can play a mage, as a archer/stealth type I have a great time but as a mage.. well I'll leave it to those that can play em

[thompsonar]

It's not for everyone that's for sure. I think you'd have an easier go at it if you took your time. As a mage (at least from my experience) you can't just rush in and start exploring ruins and the like. I always (mage or not) spend quite a while in the wilderness leveling up my skills before I even attempt going into any dungeon.

 

If you get tired of your normal build you should give it another go and take it slow. You'll find that once you get some levels and skills/perks it gets much easier. Try out some of the magic system mods too. I have been waiting for them to get all the bugs worked out and everything balanced but there seem to be a few promising ones out there.

[cruzkitwiz]

I love being a mage for the very simple reason is that I am lazy or very clever. You're vote. :laugh:

 

I don't like getting my hands dirty and I do enjoy the idea of letting other things (magic) and people (followers) do most things for me. Yet there may be problems in my way of my thinking in the lands of Skyrim. One, it's not the most manly of professions. By default you don't get the uber cool looking armor! One doesn't growl or beat on ones chest and mages generally are slim and hairless (think bicycle rider) in the common visions of being a mage. Oddly enough in an offline game you may not think this would mean much, but to some it does and they will send hours just making their character. In fact my toon runs around Skyrim almost naked! Look up Revealing Robes and I must point out that Aoki is a Mod God. Plus, as of late my toon can be killed with a single arrow. :blink:

 

Now once you do get into becoming a mage I would suggest that you head off to the mage college. I must warn you: It was clearly an afterthought and I found it depressing.

I was expecting something more like the Circle Tower in Dragon Age 1.

And another thing, if you're not careful you can become very powerful in a very short period of time. That can make the game almost dull.

 

So my suggestion is to play a mage like a mage. [Master Level/Mostly Naked] :laugh:

Look through the 100s of wonderful mage based mods out there. Pick one or 100 and enjoy. Get a Hunky/Sexy Tank to protect you when you face something fearsome... (think arrow). Choose the skills that you enjoy and take your time. :wink:

 

Playing a mage in Skyrim is like drinking fine wine.

Yes, it is true that you can chug fine wine, but you'll may miss a lot in the proses.

Plus if you're wanting to play your game in chug style... become a warrior. :P

 

Shameless plug: Premium member to Nexus... Become one. Dark0ne does a great job and this may encourage him to do more blogs. :wink:

[Bubblz]

I love my mage! But I don't really use illusion so probably most of my comment will be useless to you but I'm going to leave it anyway. Maybe some will be helpful for you.

 

My "focus" was destruction, restoration, enchanting, and a lil bit of alteration for the low level mage armors (oak/Stoneflesh) and a little bit of conjuration. And a little alchemy because I relied fairly heavily on pots. Oh and some speech so I could afford to buy said pots and soul gems. And I had to grind enchanting to make it worthwhile, but it paid off.

 

Every item I had (but one) did Destruction magic cost reduction so my novice skills were <1 to cast. It's like infinite magicka ^.^ The other item is a health +30 or something. That mitigates the need for lots of +magicka items.

 

I expected this build to be problematic because it was all over the place, but it actually worked well and I had very few problems playing on mostly Master. When things got too rough I just turn it down to expert or adept, but I rarely needed to. Most of the time just um, running away for a minute worked pretty well.

 

Some of the strategies that really worked for me (but might not work for you):

 

* Conservative dual casting on destruction. gets expensive. Impact is nice but not really necessary. I only used it when I was confident about my magic supply/totally desperate.

 

* well placed Atronachs! I didn't bother with putting much in the conjuration tree because they are fodder. They don't need to live that long and I almost always had enough magicka to just cast another one. Use them to block tunnels and hide behind them. Cowardly, yes but who cares. No one's handing out purple hearts. Except maybe Steam :D

 

* Get a tank helper. Give them a soul trap weapon and all your empty soul gems. Voila, soul gem vending machine!

 

* Re-summon the Atronachs before they die if you're in a fight. Place them a little further away so the enemy has to work for it, But not so far away that you are an easier target.

 

* Summon your helper before a fight you to lure out enemies/set off traps, but maybe not so soon that they run off and grab aggro before you're ready. Sometimes after fights I waited for them to die so I could start fresh in the next fight.

 

* Using restoration on the helper during fights when I was not under attack. When needed. Didn't bother much except in emergencies/after fights. I also had most all the perks except the wards and stamina restoring one.

 

* Run away! Exit the dungeon if you can/need to. Sometimes they will follow you out in more manageable numbers.

 

* Use the right dest. magic spell on the right target. Shock for mages, fire for draugr, ice for fighters. Jack up your destruction accordingly-I basically hit everything in the tree.

 

* Use pots that increase the effectiveness of your offensive spells.

 

* Do a lot of strafing and hiding behind pillars and such

 

* Use two different types of offensive spells if you aren't dual casting and have spent the perk points. Ice is a nice choice because it slows everyone down.

 

* Use offensive shouts liberally. The freeze shout was awesome because it paralyzes at the second level (I'm pretty sure?). I checked the wiki and got this early on. It was a huge help. So was the ethereal one, whirlwind and detect life. I killed Janessa an awful lot with it though. Maybe you'll have better aim than I do.

 

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Anyway, I'm not that great or thoughtful of a player, but this is what worked for me.