Fire vs Frost vs Shock?

[Mordy]

Fire - Does the most damage, has dots, resisted by Dunmer, Flame Atronachs.

Frost - Does stamina damage, slows, resisted by Nords, Frost Atronachs, Ice Wraiths (others?).

Shock - Does magicka damage, resisted by Storm Atronachs.

Now i've never had the master level destruction spells, mainly cos they are annoying to get due to being tied to the College of Winterhold (which i detest) but discounting that, which of the elements would be, if not the most damaging, but all around best pick for magey gameplay in mind?

I've thought about Frost spells, but i feel it's the most resisted damage type (and thus maybe not that good?) + using SkyRe, i'd be unable to swap elements later on which would undoutably suck the fun out of things if the damage wasn't enough to bring things down reasonably fast.

Then there's fire, big blast, don't really like the element as throwing fireballs can be done in so many other games already.

Which brings me to shock spells, which i'm using at the moment, they are bit boring but the magicka damage is nice, since enemy casters tend to tear me apart if i don't murder them quickly enough and if they don't have magicka to cast anything then that just makes things all the more easier.

I'm slightly leaning towards frost mastery, as i'm playing a Nord so it would be kinda fitting but will there be issues regarding damage down the line, at higher levels/late game, during Dragonborn dlc?

You who play mages, would be interested in hearing how you handled the elements in your gameplay!

[Hare+Guu!]

http://elderscrolls.wikia.com/wiki/Ice_Spike
Ice stun is op. I have the Sha follower mod and everything just stops and falls to the ground with her ice attacks and just let me beat on them. Helps a lot since I switched to a custom armor mod and my def isn't capped as a result.

Those ice slows gets annoying too when high level enemies like dragon priest use them on you. Melee is practically useless unless you can one shot them.

[76561198133591931]

There are secret attributes to each as well. Fire lowers your opponents armor rating temporarily. I haven't figured out ice's secret. And electricity does bonus damage to opponents in heavy armor. I don't think it's much though. Like 5-10%. Since I usually have a tank as back-up when I play mage I tend to go with fire. Use a Fireball initially, then Firebolt the rest of the time. Don't want Lydia dying due to AOE.

[Delta 1038]

D&D has brought out my inner pyromaniac and so has Skaareeeeemmm!!! To quote:

There are some players who like to treat their favourite spell as the all-purpose answer to everything. It's usually something destructive, like Fireball.

Orcs are attacking? Cast Fireball!

The evil knight is kidnapping the princess? Fireball!

We need a way to cross the river? Fireball!

So when players start coming up with reasons why their favourite spell might not be perfect for some occasion, best not to argue.

Source: http://www.darthsanddroids.net/episodes/0037.html

On a more gameplay related note, fire elemental spells are the cheapest in terms of magicka cost of the three; in other words you can afford to spam them more. Also iin vanilla if you get that stunning perk, even the cheapest fireball spell can be used to stunlock that Super Draugr Deathlord or something. Plus it's pretty damn fun to conjure a stream of fireballs as long as you know the timing.

[Freedom-In-Moonlight]

It should be noted that shock magic will drain a dragon's magicka making them unable to shout as often. Also its very hard to miss a moving target suin a shock spell with the near instantaneous travel time.

[Roscaria]

I prefer the ice spells, damages health and stamina. The Ice Form shout is the one I use most, not only damages health and stamina but makes them an icy pole that falls over.

This puts them out of the fight for a short time unless they get hit again which releases them from the frozen state. Handy if you are fighting several enemies at the same time.

[Carl!!!!]

Tbh, what ends up being the more dangerous aspect for me to face is ice. I'm currently using ice becuase I'm roleplaying as a necromancer. Ice does provide more challenge as well, which is fun, but if casted right, Ice Storm is... quite deadly.

If you've played Diablo 2, it's similar to the sorceress's Frozen Orb. Blizzard is... meh. It doesn't have much use past melee range, and it's hard to get a good cast off because you're often interrupted a lot due to the long cast times. There are mods that make the cast time slower.. but then that's kinda OP. xD

Lightning is the more universally beneficial, as it's only resisted by storm atronachs and a couple bosses, however it does have the highest magicka cost, and lowest range, at least the apprentice and expert level projectile spells, but it has a near instant travel time. Fire has the most magicka efficiency, especially once you invest in the illusion tree. I'm not sure if it's fuxed in the unofficial patches, but once you get the destruction perk to make fire spells cause enemies with low hp to enter a fear state, and then get the illusion perk to make fear spells work on higher level enemies, it adds 10 points of damage to all your fire spells. You have to get the destruction perk first, then the illusion perk.

[Tenacity]

Originally posted by Dresden69:

If you've played Diablo 2, it's similar to the sorceress's Frozen Orb. Blizzard is... meh. It doesn't have much use past melee range, and it's hard to get a good cast off because you're often interrupted a lot due to the long cast times. There are mods that make the cast time slower.. but then that's kinda OP. xD

You mean shorter/faster?

[Carl!!!!]

Yeah, that's the one. XD

[Mordy]

What about the master level spells?

Originally posted by darkknight4321234:

There are secret attributes to each as well.

Really?

Haven't heard about that but it's something to keep in mind, i think.

Originally posted by Freedom-In-Moonlight:

It should be noted that shock magic will drain a dragon's magicka making them unable to shout as often. Also its very hard to miss a moving target suin a shock spell with the near instantaneous travel time.

That does sound kinda useless, maybe after the dragons become activated later on, it would be a beneficial thing to have on spells.

Originally posted by Roscaria:

I prefer the ice spells, damages health and stamina. The Ice Form shout is the one I use most, not only damages health and stamina but makes them an icy pole that falls over.

This puts them out of the fight for a short time unless they get hit again which releases them from the frozen state. Handy if you are fighting several enemies at the same time.

Never used that, but will give it a sho(u)t when i find and unlock it!

Originally posted by Dresden69:

Tbh, what ends up being the more dangerous aspect for me to face is ice. I'm currently using ice becuase I'm roleplaying as a necromancer. Ice does provide more challenge as well, which is fun, but if casted right, Ice Storm is... quite deadly.

Ice has been annoying thus far, the slows are pretty crippling as can't move, dodge or even run away that well which has lead to some very tricky situations already.

Maybe i should give it a shot, see how it goes, as always gone with shock spells before so lower/more resisted damage be damned, i think it'd be worth it for the roleplay aspect alone... maybe.

[therussmeister]

I like fire, because, well, explosions, and half the critters in Skyrim are resistant to cold. I use lightning when I don't want to blow up my companions, and the fact that there's no projectile travel time makes it easy to score hits.

Midas Magic has some nice spells for fire mages.

[Mordy]

Originally posted by therussmeister:

I like fire, because, well, explosions, and half the critters in Skyrim are resistant to cold. I use lightning when I don't want to blow up my companions, and the fact that there's no projectile travel time makes it easy to score hits.

Midas Magic has some nice spells for fire mages.

Yeah, that frost resistance is a real downer alright. :(

[Freedom-In-Moonlight]

Yeah I just avoid ice entierly its pretty useless when so much of Skyrim is cold resistant. I also like fire spells those are nice but for fats moving enemies I tend to use shock. I like to use lightening on dragons because depending on what dragon difficulty mods you use they are real hard to hit.

[Tenacity]

Originally posted by Freedom-In-Moonlight:

Yeah I just avoid ice entierly its pretty useless when so much of Skyrim is cold resistant. I also like fire spells those are nice but for fats moving enemies I tend to use shock. I like to use lightening on dragons because depending on what dragon difficulty mods you use they are real hard to hit.

Ice isn't supposed to be damaging spells, it's mostly openers for fire/shock spells since they have strong immobilisation.

[frznghost]

A big benefit shock damage has is that it meets the target instantly. That makes a lightning bolt a bit better chance to hit a moving target.

[sisyphus]

I like to do fire because Incinerate is op if you dual cast it. Frost and shock have good master spells. If anything the best to do would be conjuration and fire. Daedra summon or Fire Atronach and Incinerate is pretty good.