Weak destruction magic

[gdillon]

So I'm on my second play through and have a lvl 54 specializing in archery, light armor, sneak, and one handed (I also have smithing and enchanting maxed, so my gear is very good). I wanted to go back and start leveling magic skills because I haven't played a mage character yet, but all of the destruction spells seem SO WEAK compared to my archery and one handed. There are no enchants to buff destruction damage, only lower the magicka costs, and regen magicka. I made a new set of gear and enchanted it with full destruction magicka reduction, so mana is not an issue, but the damage output is VERY low.

 

Are there mods that can help with this or is destruction magic just inherently broken and weak? I was gonna download the Midas Magic mod, is that any good and will that solve my problem? I really want to TRY to play a magic-user character, but with it being so weak I don't see the point...

[GoldenBlossom]

You'll want this mod. Works wonders on not just Destruction, but all schools of magic. ^^

[BrettM]

Destruction magic is definitely not weak at higher levels. I have an archermage specializing in shock spells, and there are very few foes in Skyrim that he can't one-shot with a dual-cast Thunderbolt. Anything that doesn't go down right away can be stun-locked until it does go down, including dragons of all varieties. The Dual Casting, Impact, and Augmented Shock/Flames/Frost perks make projectile spells just devastating.

 

But, as you noted, there are no armor enchantments that can boost the power of your spells. It all comes down to perks.

[Bael]

Keep in mind when you visit a location it is locked to the level you were when you first came, so you may have to revisit old dungeons just to level the skill. Once you get the right perks you can stun-lock everything to death. The master level shock spell does a base of 75 damage a second as well as being a constant cast.

[thompsonar]

Yeah you're going to have to try out some mods or just start over and play a full game as a Mage. You could find weak enemies and use training to increase your skill level. The game isn't really set up for you to just be able to switch to magic after being a warrior all game. It doesn't mean the game is broken either. I mean your skill level is very low and you're facing difficult enemies at this point... it sort of makes sense.

[Matth85]

Destruction magic is definitely not weak at higher levels. I have an archermage specializing in shock spells, and there are very few foes in Skyrim that he can't one-shot with a dual-cast Thunderbolt. Anything that doesn't go down right away can be stun-locked until it does go down, including dragons of all varieties. The Dual Casting, Impact, and Augmented Shock/Flames/Frost perks make projectile spells just devastating.

 

But, as you noted, there are no armor enchantments that can boost the power of your spells. It all comes down to perks.

 

Without mods and getting 0% destrution cost?

No. Destruction is weak. This is not even a discussion.

 

With mods, and/or 0% destruction cost?

Sure it's not weak. You can keep casting infinite shock master spell and butn down everything, or spam expert spell for a "stun lock".

Even then it isn't stronger than melee. Why not?, you may ask. Simple, at 70ish you will start to notice your damage only tickles stuff. It takes half an hour of running in circles without 0% cost to be able to kill a bandit.

 

Now, I recommend some mods that add any form of "+x% destruction damage" item you can disenchant. This will help any enchanter at least.

Then use one of the million mods that changes the mechanism of destruction magic to something more logical. Wether it is stronger spell the more magicka you have gained through leveling up, or the ones who alter the perks to increase damage.

[CrazyShadowDami]

http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/8636

 

http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/611

 

ur welcome

[EnaiSiaion]

The problem with magic is that without mods you don't really have any of the wondrous tools magic is known for, just "firebolt" and "ice bolt" and "bigger firebolt". :(

[Perraine]

Apparently some people play a different game than I do :confused: ... I have level 63 Mage wearing an un-enchanted variant of the Nocturnal Outfit, 1 ring for +50 Magicka and +50 Stamina boost and one Necklace for +50 health and +47% Health regen. ... With Destruction @100 with all perks, I can walk through anything (on master difficulty BTW) in game with no problem ...

To me it's a simple matter of timing, using the 'stagger' effect of destruction spells means any enemy can never get a shot/hit in, but you have to wait for the 'stagger' animation to finish first, that's the first key!

The Second is to pick your spell depending on the enemy, as most (all?) enemies have a weakness to either cold/fire/electrical with a corresponding resistance to one of the others, so learn about who you're fighting and pick the right spell accordingly

[tetradite]

I've tried a game without using ANY magic, and a game using ONLY magic. Neither got to a massively high level but I found it much easier with magic but no weapons than weapons with no magic. There wasn't that much in it though.

 

The only point where it started to tip into weapons being noticeably easier was after I'd seriously levelled my smithing/enchanting up.

 

I found magic does compare pretty well to melee in vanilla, until you grind smithing and/or enchanting, THEN it becomes unbalanced towards melee, but that's because grinding smithing and enchanting unbalances melee, not because magic is too weak.

 

(All IMO from experience in game, not based on comparing damage stats etc).