Definately use Alteration then if you're not using armor like Kami said.

I am always amazed at the range of seemingly contradictory advice given on this type of thread. I think the answer is that there are just many ways to play it and there is no one answer. It's going to be different for everyone. It's a good thing, really, the more you know about the specific benefits of each skill the easier it is to pick the right combo for you.

I used spells from all of them, but in the end Conjuration/Restoration was the most used *and even then it wasn't often* because magic just didn't stack well at all at higher levels/difficulties... Destruction magic is pathetic unless you abuse the restoration glitch on Legendary mode... =/ hope Bethesda learns from SkyRE, but honestly they could have added an enchantment to the game to boost damage... /lazy

My current mage is concentrating in Illusion and Conjuration, with Restoration as a secondary. I'm challenging myself not to use Destruction at all (except for a couple of spots where the CoW questline forces you to). The way I've dealt with the above situations (so far) is:

• Cast Fury/Frenzy on bad guys in groups; cast Fear and a summoned atronach on lone bad guys.
• Have a follower with me for those pesky automatons, as I'm not at 90 Illusion yet. Undead are vulnerable to Restoration spells, so I've got an answer for them.
• Last guy standing? Cast Fear and a summoned atronach (Dremora Lord, when I get to a higher level).

So far, I've been able to meet my challenge of almost never using Destruction spells. Actually, I barely use Alteration--I almost never get hit.

You're absolutely right. Theres so many different mage styles. To truly understand each one you need to know every aspect of each and see what works. But this right here nails it.

Oh and as for the other part of your question, for a pure mage, easily the Altmer. Where mages are difficult is during your first few levels before you can get decent summons and alteration spells. With the removal of a class system, the magicka start off for races other than the Altmer is ridiculous. Plus, the familiar spell is garbage while 'Fury' is the best race-specific starting spell in the game. Mages in this game are ridiculously overpowered at higher levels and ridiculously underpowered during the first 10 or so levels. You can also get your health up without sacrificing magicka so you don't feel like a squishy pillow.

Bretons are better for spellswords and battlemages. Although they were the best mages in Oblivion.

Nearly every single Skyrim dungeon except for the Dwarven ruins are nearly exactly the same thing. Waves of easy enemies anybody above level 5 shouldnt have a problem with and then one or a couple of big hard bosses at the end, for this reason I think powers like 'Highborn', 'Orc Rage', and 'Histskin' are better than resistance. Highborn is a saviour for big tough bosses at early levels for mages before you get enchanting up or start discovering decent loot. Dragonskin was kind of hard to use and along with resistance made for a much better battlemage or spellsword than pure mage.

However, it may simply to me preferring offensive fighting styles no matter which class style I play. Definitely if you're planning a purely defensive mage, go with the Breton.

What about duel cast? Is this beneficial in all schools?

I don't really agree with this, but I can see how it happens. If you're playing on Adept difficulty and you're performing all the crafting skills (Smithing, Alchemy, Enchanting) and you're buying/collecting supplies from all the possible sources (loot, vendors, guilds) and you're using a follower, it can be this easy. However, start restricting your access to vendors, reduce the crafts you practice, bump up the difficulty and it gets very tough, very fast.

Greetings,

I can only comment on what I have done so far in the game. I have had many spell slingers be they pure or hybrid. My main focus was on spellswords until I made a High Elf mage focused on mastering all schools of magic. It was not always possible to perk out all the schools but xpacs have fixed that issue.

The mage I worked on had a decent enough magic pool at the start so I put the first 5 levels into HP which gave him 150 total. I put all following points into magic. To help him survive he mastered enchanting to enchant his gear with +health and magic. With a very large magic pool he could cast spells from any school pretty freely and when in trouble could use Highborn to get his magic back.

Resto was handy for those pesky Draugr as even the lowest level of turn undead staggers high level Draugr giving your summons time to get more hits in. Mainly used ward for dragon breath attacks, and not so much for other mages.

Alteration perks for better flesh armor and magic resist were very nice. All schools of magic have their use and it is nice to be able to use those spells when needed.

I did master Alchemy as well to give spells a little boost in power and to keep a few paralyze potions on hand for times when I ran out of magic and had to knife someone so I could fall back.

In the end he ended up perking everything and would fall back on Lightning storm for dragons as he had enough magic to keep it going till most things were dead.

I would encourage experimentation with spells you find yourself not using much. There were tons of spells I ended up not using for many play throughs and missed out on a bit of fun until I gave them a go and tried to figure out interesting ways to use them.