Playing a destruction mage

[docterj208]

Want to play a destruction mage but I have been reading some threads saying that destruction becomes very lackluster later in the game. I guess my question is do I really need a mod to play a destruction heavy armor mage? Or does destruction work just fine later levels of the game? I just find it a little disappointing if I can't kill things after a certain point with my standard spells. I am already level 6 and starting to get mana issues from killing things all the time with my spells but I just figured that was because I didn't get all the cool destruction perks and armor enchants.

TLDR version: can I run a destruction build or not with vanilla skyrim? Or do I need a mod to make it balanced?

[Parallaxe]

hmmm first of you can do it but you need more setup to do so. Playing high elf is EXTREMELY good as their special mana reg ability can help you bursting through a whole big fight. You will need enchanting and very good equipment with mana reg also alchemy for potions is a good decision. You see you need a hack of skills. On the other hand early game spells just smash everything until you get oom.

The main problem is that in the endgame, because of the brocken balance, the melee chars get absolute absurd power through smithing. And on the other hand spells don't get so much better later on but high lvl mobs can get really high health pools. Anyway, it is doable, harder but maybe more fun than plain one hit kill dragons with imba sword of uber perfectness ;)
This said, I totally owned dragons with destructions on my high elf mage ....

Personally I would recommend the use of the skyrime redone mod. It is really good, not to easy and helps destruction to be more potent in endgame. The choice is yours.

[Brigand01]

Depends. Classic vanilla destruction mages tend to require enchanting to make spells very cheap (or not cost anything at all) and then simply stun lock your opponent with impact, its an annoyingly slow way to kill things at times but it is what it is.

There are some simple mods that can fix this that I would recommend like Skyim Simple Spell Scaling Solution (http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/2585) which reverses potion and armor enchants (So that destruction enchants on armor increase damage done and potions reduce mana cost.) and there is also Better Magic (http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/4374) which is a very simple method to increase the overall potency of magic.

But in comparison to vanilla hack and slash or archery, magic is woefully underpowered in the overall damage department. Not so much that the game is impossible, not even close, just that its considerably more tedious.

[docterj208]

So.... I should look into magic mods :( How disappointing bethesda!

[Parallaxe]

Somehow I feel they were worrid mages would become far too strong as it was in other games endgame. But yeah the decision to allow 100% reduction in cost for spells does force a spam like gameplay. Not high damage but spamming the same spell over and over and over....

Take a look at skyrim redone. Normally i do hate mods as they often break the balance and make games far to easy but for skyrim there are many good mods for gameplay or grafics.

[docterj208]

@parallaxe - can you send me a link?

Right now I am looking at the following mods but want the "least buggy and most balanced" mod - looking at the following at the moment:

http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/2585
http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/4374
http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/2275


Open to other suggestions as well.

[Parallaxe]

Honestly, I myself went to nexus and looked at the top 25 files for skyrim. I did choose skyrim redone as one as it sounded good and i heared good things about it too. At the bottom of the redone page on nexus there is a list of some other good mods you can look at.

Anyway if you are new to the game take redone start on a not to high difficulty and just enjoy the show!

What ever else you may have heared the game blows your mind if you stand on a mountain and watching the sun go down...even more with the enhanced grafics addition and some nice weather and so on mods.

One last thing: Do yourself a favor and do not fall in the trap to believe more powerful is better. Once you become to powerful any kind of challenge just vanishes and with it the "feeling" to be in a living world. That was also my reason to stop a high melee char in vanilla. It was not fun anymore. Thats why stay away from mods that make "everything better" as they usually just pimp you to the roof after a short time. Skyrim redone is not one of those as far as i can tell. To be honest it can be dam hard :)

[That Guy]

its still to slow since in vanila skyrim magic gets zero sneak bonus so ranged wise a archer is better because with perks your doing 3 times damage and there is archery specific gear to add more. highest ive found so far is 30% but 3 of those and its almost 4 times damage

against melee its even sadder if melee has sneak perks with darkbrotherhood gloves. 30 times damage with dagger not counting other gear like a ring of imanent wielding 30% bost to one handed

casters just dont have much going for them if you dont want to use conjuration or alteration or mysticism imo even a tank type melee can just mow people down when you upgrade a ebony sword to legendary

[docterj208]

I have no problem mixing magic types - I was considering a destruction and conjuration build while wearing heavy armor - the build focusing on destruction for damage, conjuration for support, and smithing/enchanting for gear.

I am going to be using destruction though for my damage though. And I don't want to be "casting infinitely with my infinite mana"

[docterj208]

I've decided that I am just going to play vanilla skyrim as is until I feel that destruction isn't "balanced"

Not balanced in my opinion is I can't kill things without staggering "millions of times'. I am worried that boss fights might not be balanced. I faught a dragon already and I just feel like I do no damage to them. But I do use fire spells....

[jamesthegood123]

i was hoping since morrowind that destructionspells would really destroy buildings and tree's but it only destroy's lifeforce

[docterj208]

Originally posted by jamesthegood123:

i was hoping since morrowind that destructionspells would really destroy buildings and tree's but it only destroy's lifeforce

I did send a goat flying into oblivion though, does that count?

[Kinzuko]

hay if you change your mind may i make a sugestion? archer summiner! :D best combo evva

[docterj208]

I've played the conjuration sneaky mage before. got bored of it lol.

[frogprincess_q4]

Destructions spells can be made a lot more powerful with alchemy. I have not once seen that mentioned in these discussions on the lack of power in destruction magic.

If your Enchanting and Alchemy are good you can make a very powerful mage. Enchanting to boost your alchemy potion strength and reduce mana use. Alchemy to increase the power of Destruction, Restoration and Illusion spells and increase the duration of Conjuration and Alteration spells (from memory).

An easy Fortify Destruction potion: Nightshade and Glowing Mushrooms

[Daddy Shark]

Mix destruction with something else. Conjuration + Destruction is your classic "death and fire" mage that turns the game into easy mode. Alteration is good for a battlemage. Illusion is good for a "shady" sneakthief mage. Depends on what fits you and your character.