As hearthfire has just came out ive decided to try something completely new to me. Never vefore have i played as a dark elf and never before have i just magic in a tes game.

Now my question lies in how do i play the battle mage role and is the dark elf a good idea as i plan on becoming a vampire during dawnguard.

So my main querys lie in what skills should i take and how should i approach combat on expert and perhaps master.

Now i have played skryim for quite a while on adept and i want to push my experience with skyrim.

Looking through i was considering these skills;
Heavy armour, Block, destruction, alteration, restoration and (maybe conjuation and illusion)

Any advive that could be offered would be greatly appreiated thank you very much.

My idea of a Battlemage might be different to yours, so bear with me.

I think of a Battlemage using Alteration and Restoration to supplement his/her sword and board fighting style (Ie, cast whatever spells you want before combat, then wade in). I noticed you don't have a weapon skill, is that because you don't want to use a weapon? Maybe relying on destruction in your right hand?

I'd say, Heavy Armour, One Handed, Alteration, Restoration, Block and perhaps Conjuration would give you a pretty much unkillable character.

Any race works fine, so just pick whatever you want. I almost always use Dunmer as I prefer the way they look and their versatility.

Another idea you might like, is wearing Light Armour, with a sword in the right hand and whatever magic you want in the left. This is more of a Spellsword build, and is capable of incredible DPS.

Double post my bad.

Dose this not related more to the classic dark elf style spell sword? I was looking through my guide and that was it pointed oit to me.

Basicaly i was seeing about using spells right hand and shield left hand this was i can gain pychal defence and magic resistance.

I've always thought about that. Giving you a last line of defense. I assume as a spell user you'll be wanting to keep your distance so a shield would hold enemies off if they managed to close the gap, especially likely in dungeons.

I've played nearly every class that you could play in Skyrim.
My favourite build for a Battlemage is :
Heavy Armor (for the higher levels), One Handed (for Dual Flurry if you are stuck in a sticky situation), Conjuration (for bound weapons), Destruction (obviously), Enchanting and the rest is up to you.
Put as many points as you can into Magicka in the beginning and try to farm sould.
Get Azuras Star and make it black because every Mer, Men, Argonian and Khajiit has a black soul and black souls are just like Grand souls.
Level up Enchanting as fast as you can and make items that give you more Magicka, faster recharg time, less cost for Spells etc.
Get the Archmage robes and a Dragon Mask that is made for mages.
Later in the game when you have a higher level and have loads of Magicka, get a strong armour (ebony, dragon or daedric) and enchant it. Your gauntlets should higher your one handed damage so you can destroy stuff even faster
Now you have to choose between more magicka or more health.
If you want to stay alive a little bit more stick to magicka but if you want to be a tanky mage then get health enchantments.
PS: Dual Flurry bound swords can kill a Dragon (even Alduin on master!!!) in less than 5 standing power attacks.
Hope that helps you out, and here you have some bunnies

Thats a great chunk of information from yous thank you so much ill take my bunies. Anyway ill start this later and let you know how i find it

It does, yes. As I said, it's open for interpretation. I find the classic Dunmer Spellsword to be one of my favourite classes in all TES games, so that's why I gave that advice.

I see! In that case, you should probably play on expert or master. I've not played a build like that, but others on the forums here have and from what I gather it's very powerful. I wouldn't think about skills and build too much, just take it as it comes and use the spells you like.

Saying that, I don't think Illusion would fit in with a build such as this, but it's a single player game so my opinions mean diddly-squat in your Skyrim

Illusion is pretty useless in Skyrim.
I think it's sad but even Invisibility doesn't help most of the time.
The only part about Illusion that actually helps is being able to cast spells soundless

I disagree. My current character is a pure Mage (using all the schools) and using just Illusion he can wittle down a big mob to one badly wounded enemy who succumbs to a dagger thrust.

Along with Conjuration it's his/the most powerful school of magic.

Hm, for some weird reason I hear that statment pretty often.
My comment about illustion was only my opnion and I should have written it different.
Ok, now to what I'm going to say.
As a pure mage it's even less usefull because you can conjure stuff and use the destruction school.
In the beginning it can be usefull to make Bandits kill each other with Fury but in most other situations you are better off just casting your thunderbolt (or whatever strong spell you might have)

Of course, everything in this game is a matter of opinion. Not bashing you for not liking my favourite school
While all of what you say is true, Illusion still has a use (for me) at higher levels. Enemy gets too close? Calm. Need to get away? Invisibility. The list goes on.

I'm curious, have you spent much time playing with Illusion? Couple it with Conjuration if you haven't already. Makes for an insanely overpowered build, and you don't even have to think about getting your lovely robes covered in blood.