So I'm pure mage and currently running full Magicka. I build conjuration+alteration to let my summon kill the mobs while I buff myself with armor and destruction from far away. The problem is, I die in 1/2 hits though I have like 120 armor on(alteration buff).

So I was wondering, is it wrong to go full magicka? Do I need to go half magicka, half health?

Or do you guys have other solutions to this problem?(maybe you encountered this problem 2)

I would suggest using wards as well.

I have been going about a 5:1 ratio of Magicka:Health and it's been working for me so far. Sure, I can't take more than 2-4 hits, but it's all the time I need to find cover and heal up (and I don't even use conjuration for minions )

I've done about about a 4:1 ratio and I'm surviving ver well so far, but I'm only at level 14, so that may account for something. I try to keep up Oakflesh and use wards when I need to. I have put no points into Stamina.

I've been going 2/3 magic and 1/3 health. Going full magic just makes you way too fragile, IMO. You can die to pretty much anything that hits you. Leads to very frustrating fights.

And really you might as well give up on alteration as your only defense. From what I've seen you get a higher defense from wearing real armor + "Flesh" spell than you do from relying completely on the "Flesh" spell. The "Mage Armor" perk can triple your "Flesh" armor bonus? Great. Except you would get that anyway from wearing real armor, and the real thing doesn't need to be re-cast every minute to be effective.

I normally do Half magica and Half heath and can clean out just about any ruin, cave or quest ( right now my health is a little behind my magica ).. i hardly use wards because I like the Fireball in on hand and a frost in another.. I do Use my staff here and there when I have tuff creatures or humans to beat.. I have zero armor all robes and boots nothing heavy..

This has been working out for me since morrowind and I still been doing this since so it works for me.. But if your getting killed in one hit then health needs a boost some or a lot how every you want to do it..

I've going full magicka... it's cool til you are dodging arrows which snipe you down. Arrows are much easier to dodge than an insane up in your grill magic users but magic doesn't hurt as much.

Casting those armor spells every now and then helps you skill alteration thus helping you level, also it feels more mage ish to rely solely on spells the idea behind a mage in rags being more powerfull than a full daedric really devoted fan is tempting to me, also on the life / mana ratio i wouldn't go more than 1:1, the later you're in the game the less will your spell costs, you don't have to go for crazy 100% mana reduction gear but as a high elf with some mage gear getting those 10 mana points every 2 levels should be enough, played up till 37 that way didn't have mana problems

im a lvl 47 dark elf mage build with 2:1 health and i can still die pretty easy. if you want to maximize armor ratings, a heavy shield + 3x alteration buff works because a 'shield' isnt considered 'armor' for the 3x buff to not work.

also, ona alternate brenton build i made i trained with a mudcrab for 2 nights and 1 day to get my block up to 86 and he is pretty much invincible to anything but dragons and mages because that dmg reduction is godly. combine that with the perk that 'stops' time when you are being power attacked and the full speed run while blocking perk and melee npcs and creatures cant really touch you.

Same build ... frost spider can one shot me with the jump, aside from that no survivability problems, just mana regen problems

3/2 for me

I was full magika first, then switched to hp when I've been able to enchant -90% to destructive spells cost.
Still, with the perk that gives me 200% more armor (if I have zero armor) from the buff and 250 hp I get, sometime, oneshotted.
Not sure there is anything to do about that.

Oh wait there is, wait a patch that will make us do more than crap damage past lv 30 so we can actually 2shot ennemies too.

Cuz right now, playable mage are crap and npc mages are some kind of half god. Ininity ward with 150dmg icebolt (when mine do 31...)

I've been going with a 2:1 magicka to health ratio.

why dontyou just enchant some armor instead??? you can put 5 points into increasing light armor stats and make it even stronger... thats what i did... enchanted full dragonscale armor with 5 points into that first perk and i take shots like a boss and when things get too crazy i throw onn my shield and just spam shoot fireballs

Dont forget that you can turn health into mana guys, equilibrium.
For me healing spells can heal for 4x the amount of mana used, so having a good bit of health with ok healing can turn your own health into a mana potion.

Playing on Master.

I dumped about half of my points into health. I still die in 2 hits. The only way to survive is to just avoid getting hit. Thankfully, pets are ridiculously overpowered to the point of them being strong enough to take on dungeons alone, which eases that problem.