If you use a one second soul trap, the enemy must die within one second. Buffy's bow has a one second soul trap and works wonderfully on its killing shots. She has spells she uses if she wants to capture the soul of a poisoned victim while she patiently waits - those are up to 30 seconds long.

Restoration levels 2-3 times slower than Destruction. If you want high Resto, definitely choose it as a major or plan to put several hours into levelling it. Destruction is slow, but feasible as a minor and easy enough to level once it hits Apprentice. Alteration goes up pretty quickly with use, faster than Illusion or Mysticism.

Mara

Yeah, restoration is like the slowest leveling skill in the game <_<

No matter if it is a major or a minor, it takes ages for it to level for me :shrug:, and no, I will not sit there for hours and hours to gain a couple levels in restoration.

Yeah, Restoration is very slow skill to level up :facepalm:

Probably because we mostly see it as a 'healing' school, but doing this http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Oblivion:Absorb_Health more often, instead of only Destruction stuff to harm ur foes may accomplish ur desired immediate goal ---> death <---- as well as increase Restor.

It has been a while since I last played as a Wizard, but I remember that a Fortifying Intell or Magicka spell (or both?) was of great help...

I know I had plenty of 'Fortify Skill' spells that allowed me to repair with always one hammer, open any locks, get good prices and speechcraft for info and these are all restoration spells

Ok so here is what I am at right now:

Race: Argonian
Birthsign: Mage
Specialization: Magic
Agility and Intelligence

Majors:

Marksman
illusion
Alteration
Destruction or Restoration (whichever I choose)
Mysticism
Light Armor
Armorer

Seems good to me :dance:

Looks pretty good to me, but hey, im a noob :banghead:

Lol, thanks I guess :dance:

Anyone else care to give opinions :unsure:?

so 4 / 7 skills are magic related. combat-wise, how do u expect to deal with the situations? I mean, do u expect bow shots to take care of it all? or do u want to use destructive spells as well?

anyway, my opinion would be, if u wanna keep 4, then i'd suggest Illusion, Restoration and Destruction be among them. Even though Restoration can deal damage using 'on touch absorb' effects, u may feel tempted to just cast a distant lightning bolt or drain health one. alteration has a few nice to have spells (not shield, as ur light armor will take care of combat protection - water breathing and walking). Mysticism has som e nice ones, mainly detect life.

u could also ditch light armor and totally rely on alteration's shield spell, in otheer words u'd have 5 schools...

I plan on my bow doing alot of the work, the magic is mainly for when they get close, either to finish them off or imoblize them and keep fireing with the bow (or when I feel like having fun with a powerful spell :dance:)

Your on-touch destruction spells will be dramatically cheaper mana-wise, than if they were target spells. When my bow fails me, these touch spells save my life. You also want to have Soul Trap be one second longer than the longest damage in either your enchantment or spell. For the sole reason that sometimes enemies will take their point damage, and die, just outside the end of your Soul Trap. That one second longer, gives me a guarantee.

Yeah, touch spells are considerably cheaper then the target spells. And yeah, it gets annoying when the enemy dies as soon as the soul trap effect wears off :facepalm:

Yeah, it is always better to set soul trap to a time you know the enemy will die within <_<