I have owned Skyrim on my XBox 360 since launch, but to be honest, the entire combat system is so terrible in my opinion that I hardly ever play this game. I keep putting it away, then digging it out months later and try to play it again, only to be reminded why I boxed it up. I play on Adapt difficulty, though that doesn't really matter because the ONLY THING difficulty does is change the damage ratios, and I prefer the default one-to-one rations that all the internal numbers are built for.

I try to play a mage, but seriously the spell trees are so terrible compared to melee skill trees and melee is so boring to me. I am trying again right now and have a Breaton. I have been using me default "Summon Familiar" and after reaching level two I put my first skill point into "Novice conjuration." I am following the main quest line and am at Bleak Falls. The basic Drugar go down pretty easily to my wolf and my fire spells, though when there are three Drugar, the wolf drops instantly and is really terrible. Or, if there is a two handed Drugar, it will pretty much chop my wolf up again and again with single hits. Let's not even talk about restless Drugar!

I take a closer look at the skill tree for conjuration and one branch has to do with binding weapons. Okay, not what I want to do or I would play a spell sword or a night blade, but fine. Another branch has to just deal with cutting the cost of appropriate level spells all the way up to master level. Again, fine and dandy. Then there is the necromancy branch, not something am really down for right now. i don't think I want to be a dark arts wizard, at least not yet. Now we get to Conjuration Dual Casting. I am sure that later on this might be nice, and honestly, one of the things I have been doing recently was casting my wolf well ahead of combat just so I could regenerate my magic in time for upcoming battles. I am sure when I get to higher levels, that this will be a decent perk to continue that tactic... but we also only have one more branch in our conjuration tree yet to explore. That is the summoner tree. I can summon something twice as far away? Who cares when it dies right away anyway? The reward for completing this branch is that I can have two Atronachs that can be cast twice as far away, which are 50% stronger and last twice as long (four times as long if I dual cast it, right?) Again, what good does that do me if the enemies I am fighting at that level just rip them apart right away anyway? I am only a level two and am regretting wasting time and points on conjuration already. What am I missing? Is this as bad as it looks? The Necromancer branch pretty much looks like a mirror of the Summoner branch.

For me, the only reason I can see Conjuration to be useful is to summon atronachs (general) or for my vampire, to raise "zombies".

Basicly what you want to create is a meat shield that let you deal damage without taking damage yourself.

You could look for a fire atronach tome and work up to the perks to make elemental atronachs stronger. If your atronach is throwing fireballs and you're shooting flames, the draugr are gonna have a bad time.

Edit: maybe try a turn undead spell to thin out how many draugr are coming at you at once.

The Summon Familiar spell is the most basic summon you can get and is not much worth past level 5 and that's pushing it. He's good for alerting you to nearby enemies but not much more than that.

If you go Atronach summoning then you want to get to get Summon Fire Atronach quickly. She'll last longer because she tends to stay at range and pelt enemies with Firebolt.

Your workhorse Atronach will be the Frost because it's pure melee and will help keep enemies off you by tanking. Especially with Elemental Potency. It's power attack staggers which only helps, so you can blast at enemies with Destruction spells while it keeps them busy.

The Storm Atronach is like Fire except tougher and more damaging, and Shock spells aren't resisted by enemies as much as Fire and Frost are. Pretty handy against dragons. Also, if you have Shock spells, you can use Chain Lightning on your Storm Atronach and it will hit enemies near to it, but since it's immune to Shock damage it will never turn against you. You can even do this around corners and thus avoid damage entirely.

However, the heart of any Atronach summoner is our good friend the Dremora Lord. Against most targets you will be hard pressed to be able to get a shot off before the Dremora Lord has put it down; he does absurd amounts of damage plus his Daedric Greatsword does fire damage. Most of the Atronach perks in the tree apply to him as well, only Elemental Potency doesn't. So you can have two Dremora Lords running around, causing havoc for 120 seconds.

I personally don't use conjuration.

I use a combination of restoration and destruction whilst using a one handed Ebony Sword. I prefer a mixture of magic and melee.

I don't know, conjuration is pretty fun, and it works great if you want a decoy, or a soul, etc.

Conjuration is awesome and the familiar is completely useless. If you don't feel like summoning an atronach (or later, a Dremora Lord), then what about raising the dead to fight for you? It's immensely fun killing a bandit something and raise him/her to fight his/her (former) friends.

You can skip the whole skill as there are no conjuration spells worth a darn except for Dremora Lords and Wrathmen.

And everyone can get a free Dremora without being a master conjurer...

Dead thralls can be cool for some time, but there's just too much babysitting involved and you'll eventually pass the level cap for thrallable NPC's.

Here's a http://www.gamefaqs.com/ps3/615804-the-elder-scrolls-v-skyrim/faqs/64585?page=1

Conjuration is good for roleplaying purposes and to distract opponents temporarily, but I wouldn't rely on it too much.

If you want things done right, you have to do it yourself.

So, from the replies, it sounds like conjuration is a school of magic to dip into at later levels at best as a side thing to do.

Conjuration, like any school of magic, is best used in conjunction with at least one other school (at least at early levels). You could go defense (Alteration and/or Restoration) or offense (Destruction and/or Illusion), and you'll discover that each combo will have a distinctive playstyle. Whatever you do, though, Conjuration (again, like any other school) is not something to "dip into" "later," unless you want to be even more frustrated with it "later."

If you aren't simply looking for an excuse to dismiss Skyrim, try playing around with any summons tougher than the default Familiar. Even the Flame Atronach has nearly twice the hit points and does four times the damage without Elemental Potency. Of all the schools of magic, Conjuration has the broadest potential to meet any combat situation, even if you limit yourself to summoning atronachs. However, like any school of magic, it will take some investment to reach that potential.

Definitely not a waste of time. Dual storm atronachs are amazing

I do have a question about Conjuration.

How come if you have the Atronach Stone activated, than you can't summon anything?

Check in the "Illusion without Sneak" thread for J'Roqqa Khan's current build: he's playing a summoner/illusionist with some Restoration and Alteration on the side, I think. He seems to be having a blast - casting Fear on a bandit, and then summoning a familiar to chase the guy across the tundra.

The Atronach stone's spell absorption interferes with your summoning spells: When you go to summon any of the atronachs, you can end up "absorbing" the spell yourself. Notice that you get your Magicka back when this happens - but it's still very frustrating.

It can get even worse if you take the Atronach perk in Alteration or play a Breton and use Dragonskin. All of these spell absorption effects can actually make it impossible for you to summon anything.

The spell absorption doesn't affect bound weapons or necromancy spells, though; just the atronachs.

Nothing wrong with summoning, your technique is wrong. At early levels with the familiar or even the fire atronach you can't expect them to last long. Try summoning as close as you can get to the enemy without being detected and then running. Then after your summons dies come back and do it again. Or if you are detected and being chased keep summoning new familiars as the old one dies. It will at least slow the enemies down while weakening them. Having a companion as a tank helps also to draw enemy fire so your summons last longer.

If the wolf isn't working, use a little bit o' raise zombie. It will level you fast and in no time you'll be ready to move on to stronger atronachs. Its too early to give up on conjuration... It will get better. You must persevere!

Specialize in stealth but pick conjuration, get the perk that let's you summon two Daedra at the same time, sneak around and conjure Dremora from a distance.

Yes the Dremora twins are a force to be reckoned with alright. I always found conjuration extremely useful when I was running a "pure mage". Sending in an antronach is a good way of taking your enemies attention away from your glass cannon and also useful for stalling whilst you find cover or adopt a different strategy.

The way I see it, conjuration isn't about having strong temporary allies, it's about creating distractions so you can hurt the enemy while they're occupied.

I loved dual Conjuration and the twin atronach perk to where you could make up to two summons. Pretty sweet feature.

Did anyone like making undead thralls?

I liked thralls except for all the glitches that would make them dissapear when I least expected it, like right after I custom enchanted their weapons and entered a falmer lair. Dude, where's my thralls?.....

I never made thralls, didn't feel they were useful.

This is my impression too. Rather, they seem to require more maintenance (finding the "best" thrall candidates; outfitting them, etc) than their usefulness warrants.

I like Conjuration overall though. Atronachs and Dremora Lords have been good allies to my characters, and the bound weapons make me feel suitably mystical.

Thralls can be useful, I once thralled two of Malyn Varen's Dremora Warlocks inside Azura's star, they blew everything to hell.

You just have to do a fast travel after the quest and they will show up outside the star.

I have no doubt that they are useful. I expect that at some point, I will attempt a dedicated Necromancer build, because it seems to require a much different tactical outlook than fire-and-forget Atronachs, etc.

I love conjuration. Use it on almost all characters, because I know at some point I am going to want to have two Dremora Lords doing my bidding! Especially, if I am wearing Full Daedric Armor. Makes me really feel like the boss!

Being on console limits the number of followers I can have, unlike my much envied PC brethren. With conjuration, I can have a follower who conjures, two dead thralls who both conjure and a dog. So sometimes my team will have Me, my follower, her conjure, my thrall #1 and his conjure, my thrall #2 and his conjure, and my dog. That's 8 on my team!! Can't do that on console without conjuration!! To the comments about losing thralls...I don't mind losing thralls, I just make more!

Honestly, OP, do what you think is fun. If conjuration isn't fun for you, then why use it?! I never perk up the lockpicking, pickpocket, two-hand or blocking. Why? because they aren't fun to me. Other people love 2H and Blocking. I even know one person (yes a real person!) who likes to perk up Lockpicking... pretty rare! I have told him that he is dumb, but he agrees to disagree.

My sneaky, Illusion, archer has no use for conjuration, however, because he prefers to remain undetected for the most part.

If soliciting help from the various dead, and other dimensions doesn't suit you, then conjuration probably isn't for you!

Enjoy!