Lord Garon Posted March 12, 2013 Share Posted March 12, 2013 I don't think Destruction, by itself, will get you there without a lot of experience with mages. I've ran two "pure" mages to the end on max in vanilla Skyrim. The first thing I learned was to get health over 200 as quickly as possible to limit 1-shots. (Archers are your worst enemies) As mentioned, Conjuration will own Skyrim relatively easily. Even without a regular companion, a couple of the right thralls (Forsworn and Vampires) and some summoning staffs and you can have your own little army. Include a buffed Lydia for a tank and its really not that hard if you're careful. I did use Alchemy, though, which some don't consider a "real" magic skill in Skyrim. But I didn't use any armor or weapons, except for daggers. I did actually use a lot of shouts (every little bit helps), something I almost ignored with my Fighters and Archers. But, I have the opposite experience of many others; Mages seem to be my most powerful characters. They are a little boring to get going (very squishy at first), but get health up, level destruction and conjuration early, then get enchanting and alchemy going and they own, IMHO. On max difficulty, you HAVE to delay things until you're ready for them. It's hard, but you have have to turn tail and run the instant things start going wrong. If you try to force it, it will just be frustrating. But, if you wait a little and buff up, whacking that Orc Boss sure feels good. :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikeprok17 Posted March 13, 2013 Share Posted March 13, 2013 I have seen some recommendations for mages to use paralyze then hit the frozen bad guy with one of wall spells and watch their health plummet. I have tried this and it really is a nasty combo. I like mages but the lack of vanilla spell power advancement can be frustrating. There are alot of great magic mods that I still need to explore for the PC. Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RatcatcherOfKvatch Posted March 13, 2013 Share Posted March 13, 2013 Heh, like Wuunferth said, you have to go looking for power when you're a mage. Paralyze / Wall of Hurt sounds pretty sweet. Paralyze is sweet all by itself. And I recently used Incinerate and Thunderbolt for the first time. They make FD potions almost obsolete. Use an FD anyway and you'll be 1-hit killing stuff ... as a mage! No armor? No way I would do that. However good you are with Impact and Paralysis you will inevitably get hit. It's only a matter of time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Garon Posted March 16, 2013 Share Posted March 16, 2013 ... No armor? No way I would do that. However good you are with Impact and Paralysis you will inevitably get hit. It's only a matter of time. Well, it's really no time at all. A 200+ damage hit is commonplace and even archers can do that at fairly low levels. You'll certainly get hit; the trick is to get health over 200 asap, and then not get hit twice in a row. :confused: Even Oakflesh looks pretty good to a wandering wizard in only a pair of pants and a shirt. Frost spells are your best friend in melee. Except for potions. And a conjured friend. And Lydia. And a cowardly playstyle. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sherhi Posted March 16, 2013 Share Posted March 16, 2013 I played mage character several times, if you dont want to mess "basic" game so much a i recommend "balanced magic" mod, almost all spells scale, perks are changed, expert destruction spells do lingering damage (which is pretty strong). + you can actually use some of those bad-ass dragon priest masks since mod changes alteration (its like power and duration of shield spells is increased by every unarmored part of body), but whith this mod you can lower casting cost only by some 50% which is fine because mana regen is boosted a bit also i recommend "left hand rings" mod along with "cloaks of skyrim", two additional pieces to enchant My strategy is this: 1st 50 points to health, then magic health magic etc and u wont have problems with low HP. As pure mage you wont do anything without distraction (conjuration is a must - lvling via soul trap on horse is easy) and once u get dragonhide spell archers wont trouble u anymore. Spell absorbing standing stone near darkwater crossing is also a must (and dont forget quests from temple of Mara, thats like 15% magic resist for free). I usually choose a path of a vampire in dawnguard just for that awesome mana ring. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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