I know twin thralls/ dremoras is pretty ridiculous, but it can't top illusion. It's so easy to level with muffle spam and with a few perks becomes an instant win button in almost every fight. Usually you would want to combine it with some other ability, but it goes well with anything. Crowd control for destruction or dual wielding, silent casting and invisibility for non stop throat slitting(this is the most overpowered thing ever.....)

No best. Too many useful spells to claim a best school, but you can't go wrong with restoration. That's my personal favorite school.

all are equally good and very helpful it depends on the playing style of people sometimes i dont use illusion sometimes i only use illusion but i love conjuration conjuring dremora lord is so freaking cool and also the only being who honors the players. they will say

how cool is that i just love summoning them even if im not playing a mage character i always use conjuration

http://i.imgur.com/0wtTpzE.jpg to the most bad-ass summonable bodyguard/minion/henchman/conversationalist!

No love for alteration

Illusion: you don't even have to fight most enemies you can just hit them with pacify and stroll past.

Pacify is overpowered and I love it, those 1 Trillion higher levelled Falmer you have to defeat in the Forgotten Vale? Why bother when you have pacify...

now thats awesome

Alteration used to be my favorite school of magic ... in Oblivion. It had feather, shield, water walking and water breathing. I know, before someone says it, Skyrim has fortify carry weight and the elemental shields.

Skyrim has the alteration mixed with the no longer present mysticism school.

Now the only way that I know to get water walking is with a potion or an item in Dragonborn.

with conjuration you barely have to play so i pick that even though i try to avoid it

The College.

I think conjuration is the best due to its versatility. The other schools of magic are all rather rigid; they only serve a single purpose.

Destruction: damage. though you can set up traps with runes. Restoration: healing. Alteration: Slightly versatile, but mostly you'd only use the shield spells. Illusion: It either works or it doesnt. Bad for mages, good for assassin characters, hah.

Conjuration allows you to summon monsters (either for offense OR defense), and you can also use spells like bound weapon and soul trap. which is pretty neat. I think conjuration is the best skill to use if you're going to limit yourself to one magic skill. Summon monsters, then summon bound sword and hack away. Or summon the monster and start running

I love it. The college of winterhold is the best school of magic in Skyrim. That is awesome.

My last character was a conjure/smith/1H. Me in my enchanted daedric armor, wielding my enchanted daedric sword and conjuring two Dremora Lords. Oh, the good times we had.

Based on that Experience, I would say conjurations.

My current character casting frenzy from a distance, waiting a bit, then going invisible and wading in and backstabbing the weak ones. Hmmm... I don't want to deal with you atm, Draugr Death Lord *dual cast pacify*. You just wander over there for a bit, I'll deal with you later. Oh, the good times I am having.

Based on that Experience, I would say illusion.

It's the only school of magic in Skyrim.

I miss the Arcane University.

I think conjuration is one of the best for my.. play style. Nothing says conjuration better then raising a sixy female nord warrior to fight at my side until sadly she crumbles into a charred heap of dust. I also like illusion for its great looking and comforting light spell lighting up the night as if some spiritual guardian is with me for a short while.

My favourite is conjuration, then illusion.
Maybe I haven't really played it enough, but I just don't see the value of restoration - by the time my Mage got to the stage in a fight where they needed their health healed, they were out of magika so can't cast restoration, so what is the point? And while you are healing, you are getting hit, so you have to run away and if you have run away, you just have to wait a bit longer and you'll heal with out the spell.

Conjuration is the single most versatile school of magic. It can compliment all three archetypes.[mage, warrior, thief]

A talented conjurer can morph into just about any fighting style that may be required. They can be untouchable wizards, with Daedric minions forming a nice shield in front of them. Warriors can summon minions to give them a hand in combat. And they can spawn a battle-axe with the snap of their fingers. In Oblivion & Morrowind, they could even http://i.imgur.com/xD086i6.jpg Daedric http://i.imgur.com/1eF2Fbq.jpg. Or a ranged summon to give support and also offers a counter to archers/wizards. Assassins/thieves can utilize them as distractions/diversions so they can flawlessly sneak away. In open confrontations, they have a summonable minion to draw heat for their escape/relocation.

Conjurer, master race.

I would agree on Conjuration, but all schools can collaborate together and benefit the mage. I usually prefer a Conjuration/Destruction mage.

True, but a real mage will have reserve magicka for those sticky situations. Also they added some offensive restoration spells with Dawnguard, which are immensely useful against undead.

Definitely conjuration if we're considering best to = most powerful. Dremora lords or storm atronachs can handle most of the combat in the game on their own. The bound weapons are pretty solid before you do the smithing grind as well, early game they can be a major advantage and the bow is the best to use for leveling archery skill. It's not a very diverse school but it makes combat very easy.

Next would be illusion for pacify which gives you complete control over everything but a few immune enemies, and of course quiet casting perk and invisibility for stealth.

Restoration isn't amazingly powerful but it's definitely good to have up to maybe adept with regeneration and respite for convenience. Wards are unfortunately garbage due to bad implementation of the concept along with just unreasonably magicka efficiency, and turn undead while useful against a common enough enemy type, isn't worth spending extra perks on when you can just get the perk for illusion to affect undead eventually.

Alteration has good perks for the passive resist/absorb, but the armor spells are worthless and it's mainly useful for convenience - detect/candlelight/transmute are nice to have. Paralyze would be good except it's competing with pacify which overlaps it in function to some degree, and i'd say it loses.

Destruction is a complete dud unless you're going 100% cost reduction along with potions to boost it. They had some interesting variety for once but they just made it so inefficient and poorly scaled that all the new forms like runes/walls/cloaks and so on were kind of for naught.

All arcane arts are important. I have become the sole head of all arts within Skyrim, because I killed the others... hahahaha!

After reading through these posts, I will say I'm considering spending a little more time with Illusion than I have in the past... I really haven't given it much of my attention at all and I'm beginning to feel a little ashamed of that. Normally, Conjuration (especially with the higher level spells) and Restoration are the schools I depend upon the most during combat. Although, adequately perked Destruction does make for some pretty gorgeous kills...

Basically, I completely agree that all the schools have their merits and the usefulness of each is entirely subjective.

Alteration

Why? Simple. As a huge mage fan and a Breton, I love the fact that no matter who I face I can defend. I can always throw on some armor spells and defend myself from a mad Nord berserker, or I can pop up the Atronach stone and perk and buff myself with Dragonskin and be immune to spells while absorbing their magika into my own pool, not counting the fact that I'm ALREADY 25% resistant as a Breton. The Paralyze spells and Rune (DLC) are extremely useful when fending off a large amount of people, especially ones that want to cut me into tiny pieces.

Best or most powerful? I think that's close enough to asking for the same thing.

Without question, Conjuration or Illusion. Used together it's no doubt.

Out of 37 characters, I have only invested in Restoration with one.