Mages, battlemages, and spellswords, come hither. Which of the three assault spell effects we know to be in the game will you use?

We know that Fire makes enemies burn for extra damage, Lightning damages mana, and Frost slows and damages stamina, on top of their base damage.

Some thoughts about this:

Fire, as usual sounds awesome.

I'm not usually a fan of Frost, but we might actually see archery characters using magic in skyrim, specifically Frost, to slow their targets down.

On the flipside, I'm usually a big fan of Lightning, especially if you can channel it (Unlimited Powah!), Sith style, but Lightning doesn't seem to have nearly as useful an effect...hurting their magicka? For one thing, this only is a hinderance to things that actually use magic. And even if they do, will reducing their mana really have much of an effect, especially when you can just outright Silence them as an alternative. I would MUCH prefer Lightning's bonus effect to be a chance to paralyze for a second, which is a no-brainer when you think about it - when you think of being hit by lightning, do you think mana drainage? No, you think muscles spazzing limbs locking up, much more realisistic and thus more immersive. I could be wrong, if Lightning steals mana, not just damages it, it could be a useful trait.

Anyway, which element will you choose? Perhaps a combination even?

Eh. Fire is so generic. EVERYONE uses fire. Also, the idea of hurling an icesicle across the room and see it impale your enemy or pin them to a wall would be awesome. as for lightning, i agree. its just kind of bleh :/

whatever is most practicle if they make it like bioshock, in oblivion/morrowind i used whatever i had for the strength of my victim and ignored the element

Fire's popular for a reason

I agree about throwing spikes of ice, that to me would be way more awesome than just a blast of frosty air.

I think it really depends on the situation so I would use all 3. I guess if I were to make a Mage though I'd just go with dual fire most of the time for epic damage not to mention the cool flame effects on the environment.

I agree on how lightning should paralyze instead of drain magic, seems way more useful. I'd rather kill mages faster instead of draining there magic then killing.

Well it depends on how stupid they set up the magic combat specialy in group vs group battles where you have to avoid hitting idiot npcs that jump around in front of you like richards simons on crack.

The Blizzard. Then work my graceful sword dance hacking and slashing away.

I agree lighting was my favourite in Oblivion, fast and few had resistance and many had weakness. However the damage magic bonus sounds pretty worthless.
Here frost sounds better, as I usually do ranged attacks it will give me extra time before the enemy reach me. However I suspect that many creatures has resistance to frost in Skyrim. Nords in Oblivion has resistance against it and many undead are imune.
Fire sounds good, a perfect enchantment on a slow weapon, also useful in a mage duel as it continue to do damage while you are behind cower however less useful if you throw fireballs at an enemy running towards you.

You don't have to limit yourself to only one, you know. You can have spells of all types and use whichever one best suits the situation, which is what I intend to do. Fire sounds like the most powerful for direct damage, so while it's kind of generic, in terms of practical applications, I'd probably use fire most often, but if I want to keep fast enemies from getting close or stop them from escaping, frost sounds pretty good, lightning seems like something with less broad uses, I'd probably have preferred if it had a chance to temporarily paralyze enemies, but I guess that would make it too similar to frost in terms of function, in any case, I could see it either being extremely useful or not worth bothering with, depending on how common magic using enemies are in the game and how dangerous they are.

Though, I like that Bethesda is trying to make it so there's actual practical differences between different damage elements, because in past games, they seemed to be pretty much the same, just with different visual effects. Usually in the end, what I'd do is just not bother choosing different effects and just use whatever spell does the most damage, unless I'm fighting enemies with resistence to a specific element.

Too specific a poll, really - one particular character might use only a limited number of elemental destruction magic, but that could be anything. My sorcerous types usually favour ice magic, though. So I voted for frost, and of course, for the cool aesthetics.

Not a big fan of lightning/shock spells, generally. They're not as satisfying as fire and ice are, in that primal, destructive sort of way.

No race had lightning resistance in Oblivion, if the resist magic is not counted as one, so that is what I'd use. For pratical reasons to inflict maximal damage to most enemies I encounter.

When I make my first mage character I will refuse to use frost magic cos it′s already too durn cold in Skyrim! In the same way I will not use fire in Elsweyr.

double lightening hands. big ole' thunderbolts.

Will make collecting as many spells as possible a priority, as always, and use everything. All three elements keeps all your options open.

Frost primarily, combined with shock if extra damage is needed.
It'll be sort of like a water + electricity combination, which is very deadly.

I would think it would be smarter to use frost magic in Skyrim. Think about it, a mage who primarily uses frost would be accustomed to the cold. Possibly to the point where he enjoys it or it doesn't afflict him. :thumbsup:

I've personally always been a fan of frost magic in fantasy settings so I'm leaning towards that. Though, fire sounds the most interesting in Skyrim. So, probably a mix of both.

I really hope torches have the same effects as fire based magic. I,e dropping a torch in a pool of oil would set it ablaze.

Fire, of course! :flamethrower:

Honestly, it's been soo boring in the last few games. If you hit something flammable, it should burn! I believe Fire in Skyrim will torch the environment to some degree, and ignite nearby enemies. It sounds exciting! And imagine Dragon attacks on villages, the damage potential is awesome.

However, in all cases I played a Fire Mage, I used other spells as well. Each element should do something amazing; ice should chill (I believe it did this in Oblivion, not sure about Morrowind), and lightning should stun (although the stamina drain will be nice). If Bethesda wants to make Magic feel special, it should look amazing and perform wonderfully with your environment, and your enemies. I also am hoping for information at some point on the other spells as well, like Paralyze, Charm, Summoning, etc.

I'll be dual-wielding Fireball in each hand, the damage output should be astounding! :happy: :flamethrower: :chaos:

I've never been a fire spells addict, I tend to prefer the the cool effects (ha-ha) of frost. Particularly if they slow down enemies. And lightning is just awesome
But now that fire will actually make thing burn, I don't know, it may be a lot funnier to play.
So it'll be as usual, lightning most of the times, and frost or fire depending on the situation.

But I think it's not made correctly in Skyrim.
Fire should do damage over time, and lightning should have a stun effect, as you said. Frost... well, freezes ^^

Hmm? Fire does the most damage, and it is over time. Frost does slow people down, and takes some of their stamina I believe. Lightning is the only one that doesn't make sense. It does damage to their health as well as their magicka.... I agree. A stun or possible paralyzing effect would be better.

I'm very concerned that many creatures of Skyrim will have cold magic resistance, seeing as it is a cold climate. For example, I can't imagine freeze spells will work well against an Ice Wraith...

All three! Where is the poll option?

Haha, I have to admire a post so outright pyromanical. I salute you. And I'll most likely be firebender-inclined when Skyrim comes out as well, heh.

I agree about it sounding more exciting in Skyrim - setting the scenary on fire, for one thing. But even more so, the ability for more control over what kind of effect you want - tap to launch a condensed ball of fire, or hold to spray fire like a flamethrower.

Why not an option for whatever suits my needs? if i fight a mage ill use fire and shock, a warrior, fire and frost/fire and the same for archers, if i fight a spell word i'd use frost and shock. If i fought an extremely magical enemy who was quite annoying i would use shock and shock, maybe frost.

EDIT: hmm, i did not see that last option in the first question before. NVM i guess.

I agree with you on that lightning's bonus effect seem a bit misplaced, but we'll have to wait and see to know if it really is.

As for channeling it Sith style, considering that there's a "flamethrower" spell or that one spell could be fired as a flamethrower, it wouldn't be too much of a stretch to hope for a channeled lightning spell as well.

"If you will not be turned... you will be destroyed!" *Force lightning*

I guess with dual-wielding Lightning Bolt the possibly of eternally stunning or paralyzing the enemy is too much. Besides, what good would the Paralyze spell be? I reread the "Building Better Combat" article, and your right about the three spells above. Personally, I think Lightning Bolt should drain a small amount of Magicka, and a small amount of Stamina, taking it away from frost; I'm sure slowing is enough. Or, place some sort of diminishing duration on the stun if it were given one when used in rapid succession.

Honestly, now that I think about it, Lightning might serve only as a mage killer, and nothing else. Lightning will offer increased effectiveness vs. magic users, but lack power or versatility to Fire and Frost vs. non-magic users. If I duel another mage and I use Fire and he uses Lightning, if he does hit me, will the magicka drain be overpowering or too weak? In a battle like that, assuming all shots connect, it boils down to who can use their ward spells in the most opportune fashion. Either I get drained til I'm out of mana and worthless, or he's a pile of smouldering ash. :flamethrower:

However in a actual fight against a ranger or warrior, will the lightning damage be enough to kill them before they kill you? I understand that as a mage there are other spells at your disposal, but for argument's sake, let's assume you wanted to stick with Lightning spells til the end. If you were a frost mage, the archer would be a battle of shoot and cover until you drop or he is KOed, while the warrior would just be crawling after you, cursing as loudly as possible, dying easily with little effort on your part. Even with sprint, the slow would probably still keep you far enough to be of little concern, not to mention you have a sprint, and your draining his Stamina? Oh yeah he's fawked. In fact, you could be typing this ridiculously long post while keeping him at a snail's pace. :shifty:

However, if you were a shock mage, all you'd be doing in reality to an archer or warrior is deal magical damage. Perhaps they won't have the mana to heal, but if they aren't magical users, then you might as well use Fire for more damage output or frost for more control. Either fight would end up in you being a pin cushion or shredded meat.

--TL:DNFR--
Lightning should do something that is effective to every class equally. Also, tired, somehow addicted to this forum, mistakes happen, point them out and correct, thank you.