Yes you can easily get like 800 damage bows and swords in the game (without need for cheats) so are spells like fireball or thunderbolt obsolete? Certainly they are not better over all but I think destruction can still compare and be valuable in the right battle situations.

First you must make destruction magic costs nothing so you don't run out of ammo as that is the first step of making destruction magic useful at all (if you fight on high difficulties as you should) compared to normal weapons. Assuming you've at least done that (I don't care for any nay sayers who say this part of the game is cheap when you could then say so is 800 damage weapons: both are still earned legitimately using the game) let's make this comparison:

800 damage bow vs Thunderbolt.

First you will duel cast obviously and the perk for better duel cast adds 10% more damage so it should be 198 damage so let's just say 200 damage.

Second spells fire WAY FASTER than a bow even with the QuickDraw perk. They fire easily twice as fast if you have good controller reflexes and I've noticed shock spells seem to fire even quicker. I can duel cast thunderbolt like a machine gun. So that obviously adds to the damage OUTPUT compared to the much slower bow so in that comparison well say thunderbolt roughly has around 500 damage now compared to the 800 bow.

Now we get to the perk differences and this is where one weapon might be better than another in the right situations. Of course a bow can stagger and paralyze but all of that is still only a percentage not anything close to a GUARENTEE. Consequently some melee enemies will undoubtedly reach you still if the numbers don't help you that battle.

But we all should know how awesome the impact perk is for destruction spells...GUARENTEE STAGGER ON ANY OPPONENT. It doesn't matter if it's a dragon or even Miraak or Karstagg or the freaking Ebony Warrior: EVERYTHING I've EVER fought gets staggered by a duel casted destruction spell.

And that huge advantage plays even greater because you can shoot that staggering lighting way faster than a bow. Not to mention the fact shock spells hit instantly make them far better to
aim and so have much better accuracy than a bow. If we were to do a fireball comparison, the AOE of it helps accuracy hugely not to mention gives a way better damage output when hitting multiple enemies close up.

That instant hit from thunderbolt means it doesn't matter at all if you're aiming at sidestepping enemies. You never have to factor in the speed of an arrow as you still have to even with archer's eagle eye ability.

This also means spells like thunderbolt are very deadly as ranged attacks when used with the Slow Time shout. People think it helps archers too but since your arrows and so shots are also slowed down, that shout can even have a negative effect on archers in some situations. But of course lightning hits instantly still when using slow time, making spells like thunderbolt especially more accurate and deadly with that shoot. And I consider Slow Time shout one of the best combat shouts in the game especially with all 3 words and if you're a vampire with necromage so it lasts longer.

So is destruction magic useless? Of course not? Yes it's much lower damage makes it more open to creativity in how you use it but then it's perks can make it very effective if you use it right. The Ebony Warrior can be easily killed with no challenge at all from the impact perk. Of course I consider that fight cheap and wouldn't do it myself, but the point is it CAN be done through destruction.

And let's also not forget flame cloak. They svck initially but when you get the aspect of fear perk, they like all fire spells do much more damage. When you duel cast it, the length of its reach extends greatly so that I find it very useful when fighting swarms of melee opponents. Vampires who use it make it last longer and extend its reach even more. It's damage output then becomes insane and inevitably leads to some running away yelling "I'm on fire!" with fire's built in fear capability.

So to answer the topic question: NO.

Is it better than Oblivion's magic?

It just takes alot more work to get good spells

I agree. I still hate that they took out custom spells. Like I said I'm not saying destruction is BETTER over all than any other combat feature. It's just different but still great when used right. I would say all the master spells are stupid though aside from Mayhem and Mass Paralyse which are worthy of the description: awesome.

Now conjuration is where I like that they might it way more powerful then oblivion as two dremora lords kills almost everything. By comparison with oblivious messed up leveling system, guards could kill your conjurations in seconds. Now they get decapitated lol.

But then tho conjuration is STRONGER in the end than oblivion I think, it's not as varied and gets boring quicker.

destruction is useless at a certain point and under certain situations and stupidly overpowered in others. its hard to find a sweetspot.

Right.

As I say in this thread

http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1503314-pure-mage/

A pure mage favoring destruction is very viable in this game. Less powerful than Oblivion, but still very powerful. Even at level 61+.

You're welcome for my input.

I think the problem is in the concept of "Destruction Magic" itself. People who think in these terms are setting themselves up for frustration before they begin.

The Elder Scrolls games are not party-based games like Dungeons & Dragons. Party-based games reward specialization. The Elder Scrolls games are all about lone adventurers. They tend to reward multi-class, mutlti-skill characters.

Personally I think it is mainly people who come to these games with expectations formed by other games who are most frustrated with Destruction magic. In my opinion, Mages who utilize all of their magic skills during their careers encounter fewer frustrations than Mages who try to specialize in one or two schools of magic.

It's not that destruction magic useless but melee is over powered.

If you want to be fair melee attack using sword, axes, etc should use stamina even it is not power attack similar how every magic attack need magicka.

Exactly my thoughts too. Of course multi skilled characters will depend largely on the 'balance' between skill classes and on RP purposes, but generally speaking, I agree.

I never play characters that specialise in a few skills only, game can get very boring, very quickly. Better to challenge one's self with various strengths and weaknesses developling in your characters, makes for more creative gameplay imo.

I believe that Destruction magic is quite balanced.

On the other end, melee combat is broken. Weapons can be made and modified to ridiculous levels with crafting exploits. Stealthy characters have their own sneak attack buffs. Stamina is useless.

The NPC levelling system is bonkers as well due to the fact that common enemies receive ridiculously large health pools at higher levels.

Once you get the Impact perk, destruction becomes way more useful. If you pair it with enchanting mastery and fortify Destruction on 4 items of gear, you can cast for free and perma-stagger any opponent, including dragons. Since that's at range, it makes the mage arguably more overpowered than a fully kitted out pure warrior.

The suite spot would have been simply having a Fortify Destruction Damage enchantment in the same vein as One-handed, Two-handed, and Archery. That is ALL that would have been needed.

I settled for an extended duration in the effects of http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Shalidor%27s_Insights:_Alteration#Shalidor.27s_Insights:_Alteration. Two minutes was too short in my opinion.