Just a quick question here. I want to know if destruction magic (damage wise) is a viable choice on Master Difficulty. I would have the augmented perks and the new dragon priest masks for the added damage. Thanks (;

It's viable if you use conjuration or illusion to support yourself, or if you used 100% cost reduction.

Pretty much this. It's no good on its own.

This is what, the third Destruction thread this week? We're on a roll.

Fortify Destruction potions wouldn't be a bad idea either.

You know, I'm starting to think these threads have been made so often lately because some people took notice of how heated this topic gets and post them for fun.

I'm incline to agree.

I honestly don't understand why this couldn't have been discussed in the current http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1464402-destruction-is-underpowered/thread.

I agree as well, which is why I did not even bother to reply at first. But since you enticed me into it I will add that taking the necromage perk will also help against undead, since it will boost the damage of your destruction spells when used against undead.

Someone above mentioned fortify destruction potions, and a vampire with the necromage perk and a well perked alchemy boosted by enchant can make some uber powerful fortify destruction potions. I don't play on master, but on expert, my level 41 necrovamp mage took out Krosis in about two seconds with a couple dual single cast alchemy fortified incinerate spells.

If you have to ask, then destruction is not for you. Get a sword and a bow.

I made a Nordic frost spell-sword on Legendary....it's viable. With enchanting of course on that difficulty, but not 100 percent reduction.

Lol..sorry I haven't been on the site lately and didn't bother to look up other threads about destruction. I don't sit on here all day...

I don't know what to think about that last part. Especially how there are at least 2 destruction threads on the first page...

Viable but it won't be fun, it will never be worth spending mana doing the pitiful amount of damage for high cost when you can just let a dremora lord or two hack through everything while tanking for you for far less mana per damage.

Conjuration and illusion effectively don't change in power on master difficulty while destruction which was already way too infefficient mana wise now is doing half the damage for the same cost, while a frenzied enemy or dremora lord will be doing its full damage still. I would say master difficulty is broken, basically, whether it's worth playing depends on whether the game being too easy on expert/adept bothers you as much as the problems of master.

I would use 100% cost reduction enchants for it if you do play on master as a destruction mage. There's just no point in suffering through the higher health pools without it, running around regenerating mana to cast a few more fire or lightning bolts just isn't that fun. Neither is basically having no reason to ever cast higher level spells because they're absurdly inefficient.

I've played master "dead is dead" characters before and I can tell you it's not actually hard if you just use conjuration and illusion. Pacify w/master of the mind gives you control over practically everything, dremora lords can beat almost every enemy solo while keeping it off you and two of them is pure hilarity. The PC can outrun 90+% of enemies in the game so even if they don't go for your summons you can usually run over toward your dremora lords so they can kill it/take it off you. Good thing their voices are badass, as while it doesn't take much from the player it's still somewhat enjoyable hearing "I SMELL WEAKNESS" and "I WILL FEAST ON YOUR HEART" and other such gems. I hope they get that voice actor back for dremora in the next game. Sneak and archery are also good. Obviously, enchant/smithing/alchemy cheese can make anything viable for it as well, but requires a lot of grinding.

I couldn't imagine playing with a destruction character on master/legendary without a follower. Or a couple.. I always use 100% cost reduction by level 50.

Define pitiful. Fire Storm has a 150 damage input (lvl 100/ All perks)

I wonder if any of these people have actually mastered the skill. I kicked major ass on Expert with my pure mage, and I didn't need to do anything pathetic like resorting to alchemy.

Nope, you just don't know how to use those.

Your enemies rarely start off on melee range. They have to run into your direction, which gives you enough time to charge a Master lvl spell. A few seconds is all you need.

It's viable if you're a good kiter and can spend 10 minutes killing a bear without wanting to stick a pencil into your eye.

If you don't like that, but want to use Destruction anyway, just use a mod. There are plenty out there.

Damn. I haven't heard of anyone who'd want to shove a pencil into their eye because of Destruction. I hope it isn't sharpened.

A couple comments. You keep saying "damage input" but I think you mean "damage output."

Firestorm with both augmented fire perks does do 150 damage, but the OP was asking about Master difficulty, which cuts damage output in half. So, on Master difficulty a fully perked firestorm only does 75 points of damage.

Alchemy is not pathetic.

The comment about inefficiency was a reference to the amount of magicka needed to cast the Master level spells. Without cost reduction through enchant it is difficult to cast the master level spells, much less cast them more than once as you would need to do to kill much of anything on master.

I will say the same as I do on every one of these threads I comment on.

IF you are on PC, search the Nexus for "Skyrim Improved Magic System", which overhauls the magic system.

If not, do as other people have said and use other spells alongside it, as well as Destruction Enchantments on clothing.

Dremora Lords get multiple hits with a fire damage enchanted daedric great sword with 100 skill and most related perks. They take damage off you and stagger enemies. You can have two of them ready before entering combat at essentially 0 cost if your magicka regen is good - they last 60-240 seconds depending on perks and dual casting IIRC.

Conjure Dremora Lord has a base magicka cost of 358.

Fire Storm has a longer 3 second cast time, and deals its admittedly high damage at a base cost of 1426.

I can pretty much guarantee in 90+% of combat situations a dremora lord, definitely two dremora lords, will dish out more damage than a single firestorm, and when you take into account magicka costs firestorm is hilariously overpriced relatively. Dremora lords also scale with difficulty setting(since they're basically a NPC), so on master they perform the same as they do on adept while firestorm is doing half its damage. I meant it when I said pitiful.

There is no contest, conjuration wins. And you don't even need to spend 4 enchant slots on cost reduction to use them. Hell, all it takes is one magicka upgrade if you get the expert spell cost reduction and have 100 conjuration. An altmer can start the game capable of casting them the second they get the expert level perk. Firestorm requires either quite a few enchants or level ups spent on magicka to cast.

Destruction needs enchants and/or alchemy to deal effective damage per magicka, conjuration needs no support whatsoever and provides additional utility.

From his posts it sounds like Njordr is using free casting or close to it since he does not seem to be taking casting cost into consideration.

Free casting doesn't even close the gap on master though. You can casually pop out dremora lords for free too with a faster cast, and they're still better damage on master. Granted you can't spam them, but still, with that 3 second cast and dealing half damage on master, I don't see it as the ideal destruction spell to spam even.