blast them with Sparks, they will pull out a dagger and charge you when their magic is drained.

The question should be:

Are any high level (40+) Destruction mages struggling.

It's not magic that's gimped, just Destruction.

One should not have to abuse one element (Enchanting/Smithing), or rely on others (Conjuration/Illusion) to make another partly viable. They need to fix destruction.

I want to play a Destruction mage, not a Destruction mage who needs Conjuration, Alteration, Alchemy and Enchanting to get by kinda mage.

Seems kinda silly to call something "Destruction" when one handed swords do way more damage much more quickly.

Hey, maybe they could call it Whittling? The more powerful you get the more you Whittle down your enemies. Problem solved.

:teehee:

Nobody gets by with only one skill on higher difficulties. Thieves need sneak for one-handed to be particularly viable. Warriors need armor.

On difficulties above the default, you're not going to be able to build a casual one-thing-only build and get away with it. As anything. I don't know why people think Destruction is so strange in this.

True. Destruction, I mean Whittling is still broken. I'm not asking for 1 hit kills from a god like mage. I am asking it not take 20+ minutes to kill something it takes 40 seconds to kill as a physical weapon class. That's what Destruction is, a weapon.

If you look at Destruction as a weapon, then compare it to physical weapons, there is quite a drastic difference. There is no denying it. Why do physical weapons improve, but mage weapons don't? They in fact go backwards as the levels progress.

I have no issues with using magic but then again I am not using it as a big gun but as a tool. I use Illusion to help my assassin play style character achieve his goals and it works exactly as I thought it would.

This is great - u can become a master of one element only? And to do so it costs you being more proficient in other elemental damages and spell schools?

You don't have abuse enchanting/smithing. You just can't expect enemies to fall over dead to 1 spell, thats only fun for like 2-3 enemies, then its boring.

Destruction doesn't need to be "fixed" it works fine.

I don't use any conjuration (I did earlier in the game, but I was experimenting), I use restoration and destruction pretty much only. I'm a big alchemist, and a decent enchanter, but alchemy is at like 36 skill, enchanting is around 55, so they aren't "exploited".

One-hand swords require you to get right up to your enemy. Enemies with heavy armor sometimes take awhile to kill. Same with Destruction. There are enemies with magic resistance, but every enemy has a weakness, usually its fire, but sometimes its Frost or Lightning. You can't expect to only use Fireball on everything and for it to die in 2 of them, again, thats BORING.

Destruction has one of the most overpowered and broken skills in the game, impact. Use it.

They do improve. They improve different. They lower mana costs so you can use the stronger ones more often.

Both have an upper cap. And to break that upper cap you need to use synergies with other abilities. Like poisons or enchants.

At level 39 and I'm kicking a lot of ass with destruction. But the higher level spells don't seem quite as useful as the mid level spells. Thunderbolt is just a 50 percent increase in damage over chain lightning and can't strike multiple opponents, but it costs significantly more magicka.

Yeah, lets use something that you yourself call overpowered and broken to fix it, that works.

Why not just open the console, click enemy, then type disable? It's OP to. :shrug: It's just as entertaining as well.

Again, using one "overpowered and broken" thing to fix another is not a fix.

41 pure mage, adept difficulty; not struggling at all. Between my lasers, summons, and buffs, and shields; I have everything pretty well covered.

Not sure why so many people have been whining, but so far I have had few problems with pure destruction.

I am currently character level 30 and I just recently reached 70 destro skill. I have not pursued blacksmithing or enchanting. I am using pretty basic gear that I've found along my quests (75% regen/15% destro cost robes, 20% destro cost helm, and some basic boots/bracers, along with a light armor ring).

I am playing the game on expert and at first, I was beginning to agree with the fact that destro skills might be a tad underpowered. Then I realized I had been using only the starting fire skill from level 1 to level 22.

The fact that I made it so far with the basic flames spell, dying rather infrequently, says something. I have since purchased fireball and firebolt, and am cruising along at a reasonable pace.

To a poster above who mentioned fights taking 2+ minutes, you must be horribly exaggerating. I can kill most dragons faster than that, and everything else dies in a few hits.

Destruction is fine, and when paired with other schools of magic I'm sure is super powerful. Probably moreso than necessary.

Skyrim is so much damn fun :hubbahubba:

I don't struggle because the stun perk is so cheesy. Which is also really boring. I haven't really felt gimped though, no. I think it's just a matter of people upgrading and using powerful spells too soon. You do decidedly worse if you start using Fireball as soon as you're able to cast it.

No disagreement there. :thumbsup:

Broken as it is. :poke:

I have a lvl 48 High Elve pure mage and I must admit, by seeing and playing melee warriors and archers, that mages are harder. It doesn′t mean that its impossible nor boring. It′s just a different way of playing a little more challinging.

Destruction damage does not scale. At all. A level 15 destruction-based mage with 70 Destruction and 2/2 in Augmented Flames will deal the same amount of damage with fireball as a level 50 mage with 100 destruction and 2/2 in Augmented Flames.

When you say Mana Reduction, what do you mean? All spells cost 96% less?

The only problem I have with magic is accidentally dealing splash damage to my followers. I often have a companion tank/mule for me, but when they get in close I can't use spells like Ice Storm or Fireball because I'll kill them too!

Yea I'm confused about that too, is it 50% from perks and 46% from gear?

I'm using 96% destruction mana reduction. The summons are cheap all things considered.

It's four pieces of gear with 24% each. I guess there's a 50% reduction in there from the perks too. Which would make it 98% if you want to include that.

If not being able to step into a room and destroy everything around you is a problem, then yes, I am having problems. Since being able to do so would be dull, no, I am not really having any real problems.

I find that I can take out almost anything, but it has to be done right. Firebolt stuns, so with enough mana you can keep your target stunned until you finish him. With multiple targets a little thought is required. I like to take out some of the weaker ones and then run away. Repeat as necessary until you are left with only the more powerful. If you have more than one powerful enemy try to separate them and deal with one at a time. If they are willing to stay at range, try hiding behind things, pop out, fire, and drop back under cover. Restore health in between destruction casts.

Right now my only damage is from Destruction spells and I'm playing difficult level, so mobs have a lot more hit points then in normal. I must say that the dammage output from fire with all perks is quite low to say the least. Then again, I'm only level 20. So I'm using Lydia as my main damage output. Before each tough fight, I recharge 2 very good staff I gave her (fireball at 60 pts damage and lightning at 50) and she dual them to a huge output of damage while I try to do some with weak stupid fire... Everything works I guess. And I'll definitively switch to that lord stone to get that 50 defense point of physical and 25% of magic resist. Most of the time, I'm wasting time and mana just to heal myself especially against strong physicall damage dealers whor are 2 shoting me. Like those darn bears. Time for me to put some points in heavy armor I guess.

This

I don't mind that you can't race through a dungeon incinerating everything in your path in an instant

So far, I think Magic is just fine. My Mage is lvl 25 now. I am a mix of light armor, alteration and destruction and two handed swords. In the Destruction chain, I decided to go with only Shock spells, alteration is supposed to be my major school, as the paralyze option is what I want.

My strategy is to approach every battle cautiously. I try to get as much scouting done as I can. I weaken opponents with Chain lightnings, and I love me the Rune spells, with Rune Master. I struggle closing out battles with other mages. My strategy with them is the same, though I tend to soften up everything else then finish em off with my Two handed sword. Brutal, and it works for me.

So, I guess I am not a pure mage, but its how I play it.

1. Your still low level.

2. You are a battle-mage. Some of us do not want be battle-mages. I have no issue with my battle-mage. Who started out as a mage.