Share Your Strategies for Fighting Against Magic Users

[TheWilloughbian]

During my adventures in Skyrm I have found that the most diffecult enemies to battle are mages. Once one has a bead on me that health bar doesn't seem to last long. Even with magical resistance.

 

Now I use a bow primarily and one handed or duel wield for when the battle gets close. I don't really use offensive magic much at all. Typically I prefer to take a mage out before they know I'm there. But one can't always count on that, especially if it's a group of them. I'm not sure how strict melee players manage against them at all.

 

I know something like Spellbreaker helps, and there are plenty of perks that offer protection, but I'm more interested in hearing about combat tactics rather than buffs.

 

Anyone feel like sharing?

Edited June 24, 2018 by TheWilloughbian

[3aq]

The easy way: Invest in a Staff of Storm and Frost Atronach. When confronting Fire or Light mage use Storm staff, for Frost mage use Frost staff. Hide behind a wall, recast when necessary.

 

The hard way: ignore them. Magic will do havoc if you don't have 50+ resistance even with 300+ hp. If you encounter Frost mages, take them out ASAP. Blizzard will eat you regardless of how high your resistance is.

 

My personal cheesy way: See a ton of mages? -- Drink a slew of resistance potion and a fortify health. Turn into a werewolf and pounce them all. Arm your mercenary with a Staff of Fireball and Staff of Storm Atronach. Pray that you can out tank that Double Blizzzard killer. (thing drops me from 500 to 60 in 1 second even with 70% frost resistance).

[WastelandAssassin]

as far as I see it , unless you use magic yourself , there really isn't much you can do

a lot of spells are so fast to cast , and the projectile is so fast , there is really no way to avoid them (specifically lightning is terrible in this regard) . so for this , I highly suggest getting shock resistance , and trying to dodge out of the way of fire\frost spells (as these move far slower)

 

if you are going for archery , using the terrain or any obstacle as cover , and just using the cheesiest techniques of ready an arrow , take a peek , shoot , hide and repeat seems to work pretty well , but it's not guaranteed

and it really depends on the mods that you use to determine just how dangerous spell casters are , and what your options are (as well as your playstyle)

 

while using shock spells could drain an enemy of magicka , I don't think I've ever seen an enemy stop spamming spells because they ran out (it seems like they have such gigantic pools of it , you'll probably never actually be able to really hinder them like that , but again that really depends on the mods you use)

 

so all in all , I would really suggest that you stay far away , use hit and run tactics , and use your surroundings to avoid getting hit

yes it's cheesy and not so epic , but especially if you are using some really difficult enhancing mods , you are going to need to play smart rather than stylish

so better to be lame than a human torch or frostsicle

[TheWilloughbian]

So I guess I not the only one that finds it easiest to just fight dirty. While the sneak attack is a little boring, offering a mage a fair fight only gives them a bigger target apparently. Still I wonder how melee guys do it. I've never really put my mind to a Tank build though. Some of the reading I've done suggests stacking up resistance buffs and just sponging up the damage while closing the distance with haste.

 

The seemingly endless magicka pool is something I've noticed, even with NPCs I've made in the ck. I've purposely nerfed their magicka so they couldn't spam spells and it seems to have no effect.

 

I agree that frost magic is the most deadly. It's like being hit with a concentration cast paralyze spell. Not much you can do once you're caught in it.

 

It's looking like going toe to toe with a powerful mage successfully is more about the passive defences and the right equipment. I guess it's sort of "realistic". Chances are if one were to run into a fellow, IRL, that could shoot a snowstorm out of the palm of his/her hand, death would be the probable outcome.

[Rasikko]

I have a hard time against the ones the lob Firebolt and Ice Storm. With all shield perks, I just hold my shield up and run at them.

Edited June 24, 2018 by Rasikko

[tomomi1922]

I started using Ordinator.

There are some perks that lets you stun people. So it seems, with Ordinator, the best counter against mages are archery. You need a fast drawing bow. But unless it's a boss fight, most magic users will go down pretty fast. I got archery to 70 now, and fully perked out, some target died before they even knew what hit them.

Also, there is a mod called TK Dodge, it lets you dodge in all 4 directions which comes very handy against projectile shooting enemies. Skyrim has a very basic combat system, so TK Dodge comes in like a good fix. The mod also allows the player a few seconds of invulnerability while dodging to properly simulate a good dodge (versus just animation). So if you are good, a mage cannot hit you until you get up close to swing.

[TheWilloughbian]

I have been using TK Dodge. I haven't tried Ordinator.

 

I have archery maxed, but I didn't care for the Bullseye perk. I tend to think enemies are dead when they fall over and I find it disconcerting when they get back up after I have moved to a new target, so I don't use that one. I think I'd like it better if it just froze them in place. But, now that I'm thinking about it, a paralyze poison might be handy against mages that get out of line. I think I'd prefer that to the randomness of Bullseye.

[tomomi1922]

I used to avoid modded perks and trying to stick with vanilla perks. But frankly Skyrim's perks are really too simple and straight forward. Ordinator makes it very interesting. The reason I mentioned Ordinator and archery is that it has several perks that slow/stagger charging enemy, making it viable to play an archer solo. Don't you hate it if the game is all about "who with biggest health bar wins"?