Best Schools of Magic?

[McCum Sauce]

I certainly favour some schools over others, but are there some schools that are just undeniably better than the others?

From my experiences, Conjuration has been the strongest. You have Atronachs to tank the damage, and you get decent spawnable weaponry; the only reason I prefer it over Destruction is because it's hard to run out of magicka with Conjuration. Alteration and Restoration have their role as defensive spells, and Alteration has other miscellanius spells. However,

Illussion seems almost... pointless. It's level restrictions make the spells hard to use, and their effects seem pointless when you could just me killing the enemy. Now, I haven't been playing very long at all, but I do know that invisibility is a spell that you get in the Illussion school at one time or another. And that seems like it could be useful; but even then I wouldn't see myself using very often, unless I was working for the Thieves Guild. AND EVEN THEN, is it worth all of that dedication when you could easily craft/find/buy invisibility potions?

What is you most favored school of magic? And can Illussion spells be useful?

[76561198133591931]

Illusion is arguably the strongest school og magic of them all. Don't forget I said "arguably". No, Illusion is not a dps school. All damamge it does is INdirect. But with it you can control large groups of enemies. Control the flow of battle. Make your enemies kill each other for you, instead of killing them yourself. It's not useless. It's just underappreciated and underutilized.

[Amycus]

Originally posted by darkknight4321234:

Illusion is arguably the strongest school og magic of them all. Don't forget I said "arguably". No, Illusion is not a dps school. All damamge it does is INdirect. But with it you can control large groups of enemies. Control the flow of battle. Make your enemies kill each other for you, instead of killing them yourself. It's not useless. It's just underappreciated and underutilized.

Its an all or nothing spell though, either it is OP or useless, depedning on your illusion level and enemies. And even if you max illusion , once you hit a certain level all your illusion spells become useless in the vanilla game due to levelscaling.

Most powerful school in the vanilla is probably destruction,if you enchant gear so that you can cast destruction spells for 0 mana, and have the perk which staggers enemies 100% of the time when you hit them with a dualwielded spell.Then just throw fireballs all over the place until everything drops dead.

[Hare+Guu!]

Conjuration. 2x Dremora lord > everything in vanilla.

[ballpoint202]

Originally posted by Hare+Guu!:

Conjuration. 2x Dremora lord > everything in vanilla.

Yes. Combine it with silent casting and high-level sneak abilities, and you can sit safely in a corner throwing Dremora Lords at your enemies two at a time.

[Foi]

I used to like Destruction purely for hte damage, but indeed, casting minions to tank for you is more useful and survivable...

[The Filth]

I never understood the whole. Turn the Tide of Battle thing. If anything, You cast the spell and then run until they aggro on eachother other than you.
You are however, Totally Forgetting how Amazing Muffle is for a Thief and Courage/Rally/ and Call to Arms are for a Bard. Fear spells maybe be kind of fun to use when you also send an Atronarch or an undead Archer after the other Enemy and Calm spells are the core Survivability of Pacifist Classes, even though I hate to play as them.

[Delta 1038]

Originally posted by Amycus:

And even if you max illusion , once you hit a certain level all your illusion spells become useless in the vanilla game due to levelscaling.

That might be true in most cases but get this; vampires in vanilla get a passive 25% Illusion effectiveness bonus. Not Fortify Illusion (The mana thingie) but a straight up spell strength bonus. Perk it right (Illusion is also hilariously easy to grind) and

*evil laugh*

almost nothing in-game has a resistance high enough to defend it.

EDIT:

Also Destruction is my favoured school because I personally find it the most fun to use but I would say Alteration with Paralysis is hilariously powerful.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XF-MDuXXiSI

[Brandybuck]

Originally posted by Atticus Finch:

Illussion seems almost... pointless. It's level restrictions make the spells hard to use, and their effects seem pointless when you could just me killing the enemy.

WTF? Illusion is the single most powerful skill out there! The level restrictions go away when you take the perks. As such it needs to be one of your primary skills. If you want it to be secondary then skip it, but get it perked up and on parity with your level, and you can take on anything in the game except dragons and two or three named bosses. Everyone dances to your tune.

It's seriously overpowered. Overpowered to the point that if you level it too quickly you make the game way too easy.

[Brandybuck]

Originally posted by Amycus:

once you hit a certain level all your illusion spells become useless in the vanilla game due to levelscaling.

Nope! Unless you've added a mod that adds extra high level opponents, you can affect everything in the vanilla game except dragons an a tiny handful of bosses. Watching the highest ranked named dragon priests flee from your fury is awesomeness defined. There used to be chart but I can't find it now, but using quick seat-of-pants calculations, Calm is effective up to level 76, with Fear and Frenzy affecting even higher. You'll need dual-wield but I'm sure you can handle that level of mouse dexterity.

[Rocket]

the best school of magic is Hogwarts.

[Gladys Saotome]

Yeah !!

[Brandybuck]

The Unseen University gives swirlies to Hogwarts. Real Magic for Real Men, not some silly kindergarten with talking hats.

[Armchair Civilian]

It would be amusing to play games with HEX :) And not the "disable the FTB" variety either.

[callipygous_tp]

Originally posted by Brandybuck:

It's[illusion] seriously overpowered. Overpowered to the point that if you level it too quickly you make the game way too easy.

^This

My first mage play through I went with the traditional skill set in destruction and my mage was so underwhelming. Started playing around with illusion.... wow, what an over power school. Easily cleared out dungeons using this school on its own.

Current playthrough I am level 81 using High Level Enemies and Duel - Combat realism mods and I rarely, very rarely, run into enemies that are immune to my illusion spells.

Having said all that about illusion I do use a pretty even mix of illusion and conj with a small dose of alteration(specifically paralyze). Resto and destruction I rarely use.

[ballpoint202]

If you play as a fighter/warrior type, restoration is great. After a certain point pretty early on, you'll never need a healing potion, and once you have the perk that allows you to "heal" stamina as well, you can put out constant power attacks. I like to use "fast healing" in my off hand instead of a shield.

Skyrim could use more healers. ;)