no combat prowess at all exists with a mage. shoot enemies with something then walk bakwards while continuing to shoot them. reminds me of WoW
at least with my level 50 khajiit whom has skills in sneak, light armor, and one handed I can take out a room full of enemies while not walking backwards

Thieves are horrible. All that sneaking is a pain, reminds me of rainbow 6 . At least with my mage, I can take out an entire room of enemies with big bad area spells without having to dance around parrying sword hits and quaffing health potions


I suppose it really depends on what you like to do.

I never walk backwards when my two dremora lords are having a party.

I find it just as hard to hit people with melee weapons as to avoid them as a mage. I'll eventually swing my sword, miss, end up running past them with my back to them, and get hit. With magic I'm at a safe distance. I think ranged attacks are most important with dragons. I was just fighting an elder dragon. If I got within maybe 20 feet of him he grabbed me in his mouth and I died instantly.

Edit: Also, sneaking is much more fun than open combat.

Obviously you don't have impact.

For me the problem is more of a "people playing a mage character horribly and then complaining instead of learning how to be a more effective mage"...oh the horror...oh the humanity.

This all boils down to personal preference, I like magical characters or characters with magical support. :sorcerer:

^So true, i also made this mistake... Go back and try again~

Yeah, Impact is what makes destruction usable. Just spam dual firebolts and nothing can ever attack you.

Lol, obviously you haven't played a "Mage" playing a Mage consists of using ALL of the schools of magic...

E.g:I summon my Dremora Lords to take out a boss, if they end up dieing, I'll just use my master destruction spells to blow everyone away.

How about:

I summon my Dremora Lord
I step in front of my Dremora Lord and thin the room with Ice Storm and/or Fireball a few times
I step back and in runs my Dremora Lord
I stun lock cycle the remaining NPCs why my Dremora Lord chews through them since they cannot block
I summon another Dremora Lord because the boss just sent mine back to the Abyss
I stun lock the boss NPC until my Dremora Lord finishes with him

I then move forward into the room ... I only back up when things go horribly wrong

What this guy said lol

a mage shouldn't have to rely on summons to fight all his battles, his offense should come from a good offense not a good defense! if a mage cant do anything with destruction then whats the point of being a mage?

You need summons, otherwise everybody in the room is looking at you!

I, for one, welcome our new mage overlords.

The fact that you quantify being "mage" purely on destruction, and destruction alone, means you deserve no right to be in this conversation about how to play one well. You will inevitably blather on and waste everyones time anyways, but you shouldn't.

High Five

i never said i don't use the other classes, I'm talking strictly from an offensive point of view like you summing dremora lords to fight all your battles [censored]. i use a mix of every class of magic to fight but if you cant use destruction, a class that has its own skill tree, than whats the point of it past level 30? pull your head out of your ass.

That would be your concept for a mage, not mine. My mages are utility/support characters and they like to stand behind nice sturdy tanks (summoned ones in this game). I perceive my job as a mage to control the encounter and use my spells intelligently to ensure victory as needed

That all said, I do sympathize with the people that find the destruction tree does not meet their concept of what a mage should be.

For me, a mage is supposed to be an enlightened and very intelligent fellow. My concept of an intelligent, enlightened person does not fall in line with "A good offense is a good offense". My concept of an intelligent enlightened person boils down to "the right tool for the right job" or "a lever, properly applied, could tilt the very universe up on end" or "I can use this piece of bubble gum and a paper clip to stop this nuclear reactor from melting down, I need you to hold off the bad guys for 30 more seconds".

I lament the recent history that have turned mages into nuke and burn glass cannons concepts. People who spend their lives in libraries studying books and delving into the secrets of the universe reduced to conceptual grunts with a flame thrower when they should be king makers ... so much sadness.

I have a theory. Wear four items to reduce your destruction casting to 0, then dual cast chain lightning with impact and you've got a lot of dead enemies. Throw in a Storm Atronach(which is immune to electricity) for good messure. I'm not sure how well that work in practice but it sounds like it pulverize enemies.


Then walk around them in circles. What combat prowless is there in standing still and being pummeled

valid point. but i could argue the point of warriors as sword swinging barbarians who head to the front of the pack to deal with trouble. why cant i specialize a mage to do that. i just dont want to play the support mage like i did in dragon age origins.

I play mage on master and find I have little trouble with anything. My first mage didn't go too well even on the base difficulty. I remade the character and things are going much different now. I focus on Conjuration and Destruction. Even with 100hp level 25 has not been a problem.

I like being a mage

It has it's pros and cons much like any other class :shrug:

In fact, it works very well in practice. So well, that I do not often use it because I find it unsubtle and beneath me That said, I do not have 4 items because I have not found 4 sufficient in the game so my destruction spells still cost some small amount of mana