Min maxing major skills and attributes on an atronach mage help

[Googley Eye'd Bastard]

So A lot of the guides I find online are all saying that for most builds you actually want to have major skills that are spread out so you have all the attributes in the game, that way you can benefit from the attribute bonuses upon leveling more so and so that you don't level skills you use too often and cause the game to increase in difficulty.

If this is incorrect in anyway please let me know, any if I am right what skills should I use on a pure mage in this case?

[Johnny Casey]

Yes, that's incorrect. The correct answer would be not leveling up at all, and stay at level 1 for the rest of the game while unlocking the level scaling so that anything can spawn at any level. Then, you set up the difficulty to maximum so you make sure you'll die to anything in one, single blow.

The game then becomes an insta-gib fest where everything - including you - dies in one hit, and it only matters who lands the first shot. This is the one and only way to play Oblivion.

[Googley Eye'd Bastard]

Originally posted by Johnny Casey:

Yes, that's incorrect. The correct answer would be not leveling up at all, and stay at level 1 for the rest of the game while unlocking the level scaling so that anything can spawn at any level. Then, you set up the difficulty to maximum so you make sure you'll die to anything in one, single blow.

The game then becomes an insta-gib fest where everything - including you - dies in one hit, and it only matters who lands the first shot. This is the one and only way to play Oblivion.

...Alright thanks for the meme answer...

[Johnny Casey]

No, I am being serious. That's the only way to play this game remotely challenging.

You'll eventually get to the point where enemies are too strong to deal no matter what you do, and the only option you'll have to deal with that nonsense is to lower the difficulty, which makes you practically invulnerable and nothing will kill you.

Following the suggestion I've stated also allow you to set up the 'major; skills that you're going to 'majorly' use, like they're supposed to. It really is the only way to play this game.

[Heimdall313]

Atronach Mage, assuming no mods here, you need to know how to use Telekinesis to restore magicka, and Restore Magicka potions. Steel Blue Entoloma is very common around Weynon Priory and Chorrol, while Flax Seed is /extremely/ common around Skingrad. Those are Novice level potion ingredients. Bog Beacon Asco Cap around leyawiin is also a good ingredient at Apprentice and above Alchemy.

Anyway, I did Atronach Mage on PS3 for years / 1000+ hours. It is the ultimate suffering.
You could, for example run Blade (str) + Heavy Armor (end) + Mysticism (int) + Alteration (willpower) + Illusion (personality) + Sneak (agility) + Light Armor (speed) as skills; that's what I ran. You can trade Blade for Blunt, Mysticism for Conjuration, etc. the point is to have a Major skill you can +10 in one level via Training to level up and get a +5 attribute bonus, while having two Minor skills you can use to get +5 attribute bonuses without counting towards level-up. For example, in the above build, I could use 5 points of Blunt and Hand to Hand to get +5 Strength, and use Arvena Thelas' rats to get +10 Heavy Armor (which would level me up). Upon level-up, I get +5 Str, +5 End, and +1 Luck. Skill Trainers are used every other level for +10 Athletics for example.

Its complex to explain how and why you want that skill build, but I run Easy Leveling now to just enjoy the game, I did spreadsheet level simulator for years because I had to in order to not suck at level 30. The point is to generally max attributes at lowest level possible; which means that Thief, Atronach, and Mage are the only "viable" birthsigns. Mostly Thief.
Its also easy to use the creation kit to set a level cap on obnoxious damage sponges like Goblin Warlords; I have all the vanilla sponges capped at level 30 for example.

[WingedKagouti]

Originally posted by Googley Eye'd Bastard:

If this is incorrect in anyway please let me know, any if I am right what skills should I use on a pure mage in this case?

As far as I'm concerned there are three options: You can worry about your skill spread and efficient level ups, install a mod like Easy Levelling or just not care about having the most stats at the lowest possible level. But unless you really enjoy having to watch your skills like a hawk, you'll probably find the game more fun if you don't worry too much about efficient levelling.

Regardless of which approach you take, the only skill I would never pick for Major as an Atronach Mage is Alchemy. You want that as high as possible as early as possible to make more powerful Restore Magicka potions.

[Johnny Casey]

Originally posted by Heimdall313:

Atronach Mage, assuming no mods here, you need to know how to use Telekinesis to restore magicka, and Restore Magicka potions. Steel Blue Entoloma is very common around Weynon Priory and Chorrol, while Flax Seed is /extremely/ common around Skingrad. Those are Novice level potion ingredients. Bog Beacon Asco Cap around leyawiin is also a good ingredient at Apprentice and above Alchemy.

Anyway, I did Atronach Mage on PS3 for years / 1000+ hours. It is the ultimate suffering.
You could, for example run Blade (str) + Heavy Armor (end) + Mysticism (int) + Alteration (willpower) + Illusion (personality) + Sneak (agility) + Light Armor (speed) as skills; that's what I ran. You can trade Blade for Blunt, Mysticism for Conjuration, etc. the point is to have a Major skill you can +10 in one level via Training to level up and get a +5 attribute bonus, while having two Minor skills you can use to get +5 attribute bonuses without counting towards level-up. For example, in the above build, I could use 5 points of Blunt and Hand to Hand to get +5 Strength, and use Arvena Thelas' rats to get +10 Heavy Armor (which would level me up). Upon level-up, I get +5 Str, +5 End, and +1 Luck. Skill Trainers are used every other level for +10 Athletics for example.

Its complex to explain how and why you want that skill build, but I run Easy Leveling now to just enjoy the game, I did spreadsheet level simulator for years because I had to in order to not suck at level 30. The point is to generally max attributes at lowest level possible; which means that Thief, Atronach, and Mage are the only "viable" birthsigns. Mostly Thief.
Its also easy to use the creation kit to set a level cap on obnoxious damage sponges like Goblin Warlords; I have all the vanilla sponges capped at level 30 for example.

Originally posted by WingedKagouti:

As far as I'm concerned there are three options: You can worry about your skill spread and efficient level ups, install a mod like Easy Levelling or just not care about having the most stats at the lowest possible level. But unless you really enjoy having to watch your skills like a hawk, you'll probably find the game more fun if you don't worry too much about efficient levelling.

Regardless of which approach you take, the only skill I would never pick for Major as an Atronach Mage is Alchemy. You want that as high as possible as early as possible to make more powerful Restore Magicka potions.

See this? Are all of these nonsense worth cramming inside of your head to not worry about level scaling in this game? I'd say no.

Just unlock the level scaling so everything can be spawn, and forever be stuck at level 1 while ramping up the difficulty to maximum. That's the only way to play this game no matter who says what.

[Turtleswatter]

I should be sponsored by this page:

https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Oblivion:Leveling

To simplify, there are 4 ways of levelling up in Oblvion.

1. Carefully planning to make sure that you only use the skills necessary to ensure you get a +5 on the 3 attributes and delay levelling until you find the highest armour and weapons for that level. Some people mention spreadsheets, even.

2. Install a mod that sorts all that out for you.

3. Don't pay too much attention to 1, but turn the difficulty slider down to a point where you still enjoy the game.

4. Don't level until you are strong enough (underlevelling).

You choose based on your playstyle.

[Leon]

If you are playing the game at normal difficulty or you dont use a lot of overhauls in combination (like i.e ooo+mmm) that add a lot of enemies you dont need at all this ♥♥♥♥ about mix/max because at the end of the day the only thing that matter most is raising up endurance ASAP, and levelling that anyhow is really easy.

[Googley Eye'd Bastard]

Yeah I said fk it and decided to go with some mods that fix the leveling and scaling issues, I didn't remember that being so much of a pain from back in the day.