Best mage armor?

[Purge]

So I had enough of constantly dying as a mage and got lv 100 smith and enchant. I've now made a full set of Daedric armor. What should I get? I mostly use destruction magic, though I do enjoy using a mix of everything to spice things up. Is it worth getting magicka regen on my armor? I have the two enchant perk so I was thinking maybe +25% destruction reduct and +66% magic regen. What're your thoughts? And what about the rest of my armor? I do not want to be an outright god, I want some challenge I just hated before constantly dying.

[John The Butcher]

Get fortify magika on everything you can unless if you want to get four pieces of destruction cost reduction (you said you didn't want to be a god so I'd go for the first option). Do you have a high heavy armour level? Because if you don't then I'd recommend getting fortify heavy armor.

Otherwise, it's all up to you.

[Eternie]

Think about what caused you to die frequently! Was it lightning bolts / chained lightning or was it drains from a vampire .. or flames ?

What ever you died from the most is what protection you need most! I do still add Muffle and sneaking to boots so that armor has less effect on being heard if I want to sneak.

Whichever spells schools you use most should get 1 or 2 boosts making it nearly free to cast. but I find I use a lot of magic so a boost in alteration or illusion can help if you use spells from those schools. I often add magic or health regen on the main armor. using Gauntlets etc for resistances

Making some rings or necklaces that have the same names that you can wear to aid with certain spell schools... allowing you to cast expert level spells more frequently

[Gyrmadet]

without mods that balance magic, you will soon realize that weapons vastly outdamage spells at high levels.
I installed:
Better Magic ( http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/4374/? )

and am absolutely happy with the result.
Also, there should be ingame some armors/weapons with double enchanting that are considered as one. Therefore you can unenchant them and then enchant something with THREE effects.

Of course, if you truly want to walk the path of gods, simply create "fortify enchanting" potions using "fortify alchemy" gear, rinse and repeat until you get godlike stats

[Purge]

I do have the mod better magic.

To the other opinions I kept on dying from mostly physical attacks as I had no defence and kept on forgetting to cast protection spells.

I mostly use destruction spells, I do like the odd thing to summon as they can be neat and illusion is fun.

My race is breton so magic usually isn't an issue but what I'm thinking of doing is having a (forgot exactly what % it was) 33% additional resist on magic, shock etc. so I can have with my passive resist and the better magic mod over 70%.

[Purge]

Originally posted by Eternie:

Think about what caused you to die frequently! Was it lightning bolts / chained lightning or was it drains from a vampire .. or flames ?

What ever you died from the most is what protection you need most! I do still add Muffle and sneaking to boots so that armor has less effect on being heard if I want to sneak.

Whichever spells schools you use most should get 1 or 2 boosts making it nearly free to cast. but I find I use a lot of magic so a boost in alteration or illusion can help if you use spells from those schools. I often add magic or health regen on the main armor. using Gauntlets etc for resistances

Making some rings or necklaces that have the same names that you can wear to aid with certain spell schools... allowing you to cast expert level spells more frequently

You said health regen, where do you get that enchant?

[Purge]

What're your thoughts?

[[Marbell_Crow]]

Try to use light armor, sneak and quiet casting from illusion skill tree (50). I use it and it`s actually impressive.

[John The Butcher]

Physical damage shouldn't be a problem if you have a fortify heavy armour enchantment and legendary daedric armour.

As for magic, just get agent of mara and you'll be fine.

[Purge]

Originally posted by Lord Shadow Friend of Cykaland:

Physical damage shouldn't be a problem if you have a fortify heavy armour enchantment and legendary daedric armour.

As for magic, just get agent of mara and you'll be fine.

If I rank up heavy armor would I need fortify?

Also no one has comment on magika regent - is it at all worth it?

What's agent of mara?

[MysticMalevolence]

Originally posted by Purge:

What's agent of mara?

You get it from doing "The Book of Love", a quest started by talking to the priestess of Mara in Riften.
It negates 10% of magic damage.

[John The Butcher]

Originally posted by Purge:

Originally posted by Lord Shadow Friend of Cykaland:

Physical damage shouldn't be a problem if you have a fortify heavy armour enchantment and legendary daedric armour.

As for magic, just get agent of mara and you'll be fine.

If I rank up heavy armor would I need fortify?

Also no one has comment on magika regent - is it at all worth it?

What's agent of mara?

You don't need fortify heavy armour if you have a high level in heavy armour.

I usually prefer fortify magika rather than fortify magika regen, but neither of those enchantments matter if you get four -25% cost reduction pieces for destruction.

[Purge]

Originally posted by Lord Shadow Friend of Cykaland:

Originally posted by Purge:

If I rank up heavy armor would I need fortify?

Also no one has comment on magika regent - is it at all worth it?

What's agent of mara?

You don't need fortify heavy armour if you have a high level in heavy armour.

I usually prefer fortify magika rather than fortify magika regen, but neither of those enchantments matter if you get four -25% cost reduction pieces for destruction.

Okay and what about summoning? Is that worth a cost reduction in? I enjoy using a mix of stuff so I don't get bored.

[Purge]

I meant is conjuration worth it

[Brandybuck]

You don't need cheat mods, just use the magic you have effectively. The secret to survivability as a mage is not raw damage output. If that's what you want then be a fighter.

1) You won't take damage if you don't get hit. Doesn't matter how good your armor or skills are, you can only cap damage resistance at 85%. So don't get hit. How? Summons can distract mobs, invisibility can keep you out of sight, spells like paralyze, frenzy, and fear make good crowd control, etc.

2) If you only have your base hit points from level one, then you'll soon reach a point where anything above a mudcrab looks scary. So at least put some extra points into health now and then. You don't need to be a walking bag of hit points, but if you're walking around as the 98 pound weakling, that's entirely your fault.

3) Perk your skills! The biggest mistake I see with mages is not properly perking up their magic skills. If you spend all your points on Destruction damage, then be prepared to play as glass cannon and expect to take a lot of damage in return. But there are also awesome perks in all other schools of magic. In fact, Illusion is the single most overpowered skill in the game, but it's useless without perks.

4) Don't pretend you're a fighter unless you're really a fighter. I don't care if you can summon bound battleaxes, if you can't wield them properly it makes no difference. If you want to be a swordsman AND a mage, then be a battlemage and get your weapon skills up. Otherwise focus on your magic.

[Eternie]

UESP is one of the best sources of knowledge about anything to do with Skyrim. So as a mage you want to see and work out which spells you want to be able to use.
AS reference http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Spells.

If you want to be able to say use Paralyze. Well that is an Alteration spell at level 75. You won't see it anywhere to purchase until you have achieved close to that Alteration level and items with that enchantment won't be available until you reach that level. So you need to work out which Alteration spells you know that you can cast to get better in alteration.

If you play skyrim normally without cheating that will take you quite a long time and with that time and experience comes knowledge on how to cast where it's useful where it will fail and where without perks you still won't be able to cast it as it will cost more mana than you have available.

As Brandybuck suggested try not to be everything! specialise and become great at what you do ... A jack of all trades is never a master in any!