Whatare the best magic to specialize in as a mage?

[Qwertion]

I wanna make a mage char. What's the best trees for it? I heard mages suck after lvl 20 or so somewhere. Is that so? How do you deal with that? Also what is the best level to do college of winterhold quests?

[jancawa55]

The "best" way is what you figure out for yourself. The worst that can happen is you don't like what you did and you start over. Almost always better the next time.

[velvetsanity]

The best magic to specialize in is the magic that makes it easiest to crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of their women, to quote Conan :D

[Qwertion]

Nguyên văn bởi jancawa55:

The "best" way is what you figure out for yourself. The worst that can happen is you don't like what you did and you start over. Almost always better the next time.

Repetition spoils the experience. I have a friend who tried to go mage/thief only to grow humiliatingly weak hours later. I wouldn't wanna restart a bad build like that. I did play through prologue enough times to not want to play it any more times than I have to now.

[DrSuperEvil]

If going destruction the impact perk is a must. Good alchemy and enchant are a must for all characters. +% spell tree efficiency potions are a must at higher difficulties as are cost reduction enchanted items.

Alteration has transmute early on for gold rings to level smithing, the magic resistence perks and the paralysis spell which has uses against enemies resistent to paralysis poisons.

Illusion has muffle which is good for sneaking. The silent caster perk can help but not puch. The fear/frenzy spells are only limited to weaker foes so no use when they would be most useful. Invisibility is best done using potions.

Conjuration is always useful either as a decoy or damage dealer. Summoned bows are good damage at low levels. Flame atronauchs are the only decent way to kill slaughter fish. Draemora lords rock.

Destruction is ok but all the dot effects like the walls are worthless. Stick with lightning bolt, take a +% destruction potion and spam it while using cost reduction gear. The runes can also wake sleeping dragur which can help in some boss arenas.

Restoration can heal but potions are better and all tougher undead are unaffected. The necromage perk is good for vampires though.

[injected11]

Nguyên văn bởi Qwertion:

Nguyên văn bởi jancawa55:

The "best" way is what you figure out for yourself. The worst that can happen is you don't like what you did and you start over. Almost always better the next time.

Repetition spoils the experience. I have a friend who tried to go mage/thief only to grow humiliatingly weak hours later. I wouldn't wanna restart a bad build like that. I did play through prologue enough times to not want to play it any more times than I have to now.

Live Another Life mod works wonders. Let's you skip the prologue and start from a list of circumstances.

[Qwertion]

I'm biased about mods, cause I've permanently mutilated my favorite lvl 27 Breton warrior with some of those. Would like to stay away from those.

[Qwertion]

Nguyên văn bởi DrSuperEvil:

If going destruction the impact perk is a must. Good alchemy and enchant are a must for all characters. +% spell tree efficiency potions are a must at higher difficulties as are cost reduction enchanted items.

Alteration has transmute early on for gold rings to level smithing, the magic resistence perks and the paralysis spell which has uses against enemies resistent to paralysis poisons.

Illusion has muffle which is good for sneaking. The silent caster perk can help but not puch. The fear/frenzy spells are only limited to weaker foes so no use when they would be most useful. Invisibility is best done using potions.

Conjuration is always useful either as a decoy or damage dealer. Summoned bows are good damage at low levels. Flame atronauchs are the only decent way to kill slaughter fish. Draemora lords rock.

TBC.

Aren't alchemy and enchant all about applying effects to weapons? I was thinking about magic only mage. Of what use will those be for me?

[MysticMalevolence]

Nguyên văn bởi Qwertion:

Aren't alchemy and enchant all about applying effects to weapons? I was thinking about magic only mage. Of what use will those be for me?

What, no! Enchanting can be used to make magica-boosting, cost reducing, and restore-rate enchancing objects; alchemy can give you access to almost free magica potions.
Both are crucial for a mage.

[injected11]

Nguyên văn bởi Qwertion:

I'm biased about mods, cause I've permanently mutilated my favorite lvl 27 Breton warrior with some of those. Would like to stay away from those.

I don't see how a mod that allows you to start in a different location and situation would "mutilate" any existing characters, but whatever floats your boat. Just means you'll need to do the prologue every time.

[alexander_dougherty]

Nguyên văn bởi Qwertion:

I wanna make a mage char. What's the best trees for it? I heard mages suck after lvl 20 or so somewhere. Is that so? How do you deal with that? Also what is the best level to do college of winterhold quests?

Well, you want Destruction magic to do damage.
Restoration magic will give you healing spells, and wards, to defend yourself, not to mention turn undead spells, which can be useful.
Illusion magic will give you muffle and invisibility, the fear, calm and fury spells (and later versions) are of limited utility to be honest, and always seem to backfire when I try to use them.
Conjuration magic allows you to summon a wide variety of allies, and also to conjure summoned weapons, which can be useful.
Alteration magic allows you to cast light spells, to transmute iron into silver&silver into gold, and stone skin spells, which raise your defense value.

All are useful, but you need to pick which ones to go for first, I personally go for destruction, restoration and conjuration for my mage, using illusion more for thieves guild quests, and only really use alteration for transmuting iron all the way to gold, for raising money, provided I need money at that point.

[Gapk]

Illusion - get invisibility and muffle with quiet spell casting, Conjuration - bound weapons perks and get the bound bow spell, now you are a stealth mage archer assassin

[peppermint hollows]

Nguyên văn bởi Qwertion:

I'm biased about mods, cause I've permanently mutilated my favorite lvl 27 Breton warrior with some of those. Would like to stay away from those.

If you take care, use mod sorting tools, and don't install 1000 mods, you won't break your game.

[arcasor]

My standard build as a Mage is a sneaky conjurer using the Bound Bow and the armour Alteration spells: at low difficulty levels it can become hilariously overpowered; once you reach level 65 in Conjuration and can throw a Dremora Lord or two into the mix it is basically God mode.

[Qwertion]

Nguyên văn bởi SpookberryPi π:

Nguyên văn bởi Qwertion:

I'm biased about mods, cause I've permanently mutilated my favorite lvl 27 Breton warrior with some of those. Would like to stay away from those.

If you take care, use mod sorting tools, and don't install 1000 mods, you won't break your game.

I was careful. There wasn't all that many mods. Just some mod for altering skeleton physics and a mod for prettier models. I did it with nexus mod manager and followed instructions. Turns out I probably missed something as now my breton warrior has a gaping hole in his neck in all the saves. Even though, I didn't play him when using those modes even once.

[MorningStar625]

Nguyên văn bởi Qwertion:

Nguyên văn bởi SpookberryPi π:

If you take care, use mod sorting tools, and don't install 1000 mods, you won't break your game.

I was careful. There wasn't all that many mods. Just some mod for altering skeleton physics and a mod for prettier models. I did it with nexus mod manager and followed instructions. Turns out I probably missed something as now my breton warrior has a gaping hole in his neck in all the saves. Even though, I didn't play him when using those modes even once.

Yeah, I use Mod Organizer and play as a mage, and I specialize in all schools of magic and have lots of magic packs.