so, I am guessing that playing a mage is still garbage ?

[Capt.Luke]

and need tons of mod to be fun and playable ?

and that playing a assasin with a bow still 1 shot everything

[Captain Pansy]

sneaky archer
it is the way

[Water Shaper John]

I highly recommend getting Sanguine Rose staff, especially for mages who focused on Alteriation, Restoration, Mysticism and Destruction, and not on conjuration like me.

[Damon]

Skyrim Mage is more garbage for sure. In this game it's viable. Maybe train with Light Armor good for effective spell but I forgot how you do it fairly fast, google.

[Varanus]

Important note: I didnt not play Oblivion before this. So I dont know how things were.
That being said.
I'm playing a custom class, which is pretty much just a modified spellsword or battlemage. Magic seems really strong. However having the magicka to cast it is another matter. Even with 100 int, and a couple pieces of magicka+ gear, I run out rally fast. But it also seems to regen pretty quick. So its really just cycling back and forth between a few sword swings, and then popping a spell. Basically its spell > block > swingx3 > block > repeat. Seems to work pretty well.

[Damon]

Originally posted by Varanus:

Important note: I didnt not play Oblivion before this. So I dont know how things were.
That being said.
I'm playing a custom class, which is pretty much just a modified spellsword or battlemage. Magic seems really strong. However having the magicka to cast it is another matter. Even with 100 int, and a couple pieces of magicka+ gear, I run out rally fast. But it also seems to regen pretty quick. So its really just cycling back and forth between a few sword swings, and then popping a spell. Basically its spell > block > swingx3 > block > repeat. Seems to work pretty well.

Which birthsign? I think the Mage one is obvious for spell points and I forgot if it makes Willpower regen the MP even better. Willpower is very important for pure Mage. Then try find gear and fortify MP as well.

[Lucidess]

Originally posted by Delphinus:

Dude if you are not doing the archer stealth build YOU ARE DOING IT WRONG >_>

damn sneaky archers always telling us they are the best.. and they always are.. grr haha.

[Gibbo]

I maxed my destruction out fairly early and I'm pretty unstoppale atm. Just use the right spells for the right enemies. Frost Atronachs don't like fire. Neither do trolls. Fire Atronachs don't like snowballs. One shot those with a decent frost spell. The dodgiest enemies are vampires so far and simply because I don't want the disease and it's easy to miss catching that. Mountain lions are pretty tough, but they don't like fire. No animal does.

[SadPlatty©]

I am having fun without mods.

My build is also old-school inspired since I didn't know about the leveling til later :
- Dunmer / Morrowind background
- Atronach birthsign
- Major skills are Armorer, Athletic, Hand-to-hand, Heavy Armor, Destruction, Acrobatics, Sneak

It took a little time to get off the ground due to me also doing a weird couple of quests first, but basically I run around with the heaviest armor (started with the bound armor glitch though - right now is the Cataclysm DLC one at level 20).

Repair that all the time (especially now I can do up to 125), and have enchantments on it for "Shield" or "Resist Normal Weapons".

Became a Vampire and try to stay at 25% for the additional resistances, like disease, and an additional 5% to "Resist Normal Weapons". Weakness to fire just gets balanced out between the racial 75% resistance + 50% chance to absorb spells.

My weapon usually then has an enchantment to weaken the enemy to magic in some way, so I can fire off one or two "Finger of the Mountain" and clear house, using the sword on anything left to avoid wasting my non-regenerating magic -- unless there is a mage enemy nearby, as then I have infinite MP usually. Do also have a few damage over time + up-front damage paired custom spells for smaller MP casting.

More "battle mage" like, but am at the point where I mostly stood there as the Gatekeeper wailed on me, hit him once for the weakness poison proc and then melted him with like 3 spells.

Edit : Mind you - I do also preserve my weapons in 1 off encounters, and carry 30+ sorcery potions, hence I do play more "mage" then "warrior", but have the weapon there for Lich encounters and other "magic resilient" enemies... and originally so I could get more levels on my character xD

[Varanus]

Originally posted by Damon:

Which birthsign? I think the Mage one is obvious for spell points and I forgot if it makes Willpower regen the MP even better. Willpower is very important for pure Mage. Then try find gear and fortify MP as well.

Lord. No extra magicka for me. :D

Originally posted by Gibbo:

The dodgiest enemies are vampires so far and simply because I don't want the disease and it's easy to miss catching that.

I found the remove disease spell in the temple in Bruna. I dont know if spells being sold are randomized or anything. But it was there for me. Certainly worth the purchase. :O

[Water Shaper John]

Chosing staff of paralysis as the one you recieve when entering arcane university is a big help too against all enemies except skeletons, keep some small soul gems to charge it, and you basically win every fight because ur enemy is lying on ground the entire fight lmao.
I had shttone of fun with this staff especially in realm of oblivion, if you will use it properly enemies will fall into lava, and on top of that they added new ragdoll to paralysed enemy here, if u will cast spell on it, it will be pushed, so you can do even more to throw it down the cliff or to lava.

[Dr.Abscondus]

I don't know why anyone would play this game as a melee character. The combat isn't good enough to make it even remotely interesting. This isn't The Witcher. Bow plus magic at least has a decent feel to it even though the bow is clumsy to use. The appeal of the game isn't it's combat. The age of the game really shows in that. It's atmosphere, story, character, and exploration that keep me engaged. Combat is more of a nuisance, and dispatching enemies from stealth keeps the combat brief. Having a conversation with Sheogorath is pure gold.

[MrFlipside]

My first ever build, back in 2006 was just a bloke with a sword, and he was unstoppable, but then, at high levels, most builds are.
Magic is gruelling at low levels, I'll admit, levelling always felt too difficult with all the schools to learn, but once you get Alchemy up and start downing Potions like it's a Saturday night at Wetherspoons, THEN it gets more rewarding :D

[Half-Vampire]

This ain't Skyrim, kid. You can craft spells.

[Water Shaper John]

Originally posted by Half-Vampire:

This ain't Skyrim, kid. You can craft spells.

:teeth::haveasmoke:

Ima hoping in tes 6 we will have levitation spell like in morrowind.

[Kman]

Magic builds are fun, summon creatures and sit back.