Help a battlemage today!

[kradus]

Beeing a warrior/mage combo means I dont have much magika to cast spells, so what if I stack on fortify destruction gear up to 100%, will I still need any base magika to activate certain destruction spells that require a lot of it to do so? Will I be able to cast everyting with 100% fortify?

 

More important, are there any tricks to raise destruction fast, other than frequent use and training?

[RedRavyn]

You have to have the magicka to cast a spell. Period. It's not based upon your "base" magicka, but upon what you have available at any point in time. Fortify magicka potions are your friends, here. Personally, I've found (and I generally play an archer-destruction mage) that fortifying magicka regeneration is frequently more useful than fortifying magicka. The reason is that you can always fall back on your mundane combat skills (or just hide) while your magicka regenerates.

 

I push for Impact as soon as I can get that perk, without neglecting my other skills. This gives me a chance, especially with magicka regen, to stun-lock an opponent. You don't have to spam with destruction spells. Just dual cast once. Your opponent will will be stunned. His forward motion will be stopped. He'll stop whatever he was doing, in fact. Wait until he starts forward, again, backpedal to keep your distance, and blast again. Even at lower levels you should be able to keep enough magicka in reserve to wear him down, without him ever getting an attack off on you.

 

I don't know of any way to "grind" Destruction. Just as you can't heal yourself when you're at 100% already, and get experience by casting a Healing spell, you have to do damage to a valid target to get experience by casting a destruction spell. I use destruction magic a lot against certain types of opponents: Draugr and skeletons (especially susceptible to fire) and nuisance animals (mudcrabs, wolves, skeevers), as well as using it to do some hunting. Bunnies are damnably difficult to shoot with arrows but go down quickly with Flames. Goats are another favorite for Flames or Firebolt. Use your destruction magic to kill slaughterfish. There's no point in running away (or swimming away) just because Bethesda screwed up and decided that underwater combat was "unrealistic" and didn't allow it in this game. Projectile spells, I know for sure, can penetrate water, even though you can't cast them when you're immersed, although you have to lure the slaughterfish close to shore. Sometimes they'll even "swim" onto the shore out of the water.

 

So, there are a lot of ways to practice Destruction just in your everyday activities as an adventurer. I haven't tried this, but get the Familiar spell and cast it and then kill your familiar with destruction spells. It might not work if familiars are set to ignore friendly hits, but this did work in Oblivion with conjured creatures. Other than that, just use your spells when you don't have to resort to mundane weapons, and do a lot of hunting. All that leather can be used to craft armor, which you can sell, and then use to buy new and better spells.