Since daggerfall I have always been the Altmer, no exceptions. I just enjoy them, more interesting to me i guess. However, none of my High elves have ever been a mage, simply an acrobat with destruction instead of speechcraft, never had any problems with the weakness to magika, arrows seem to be my enemies weakness as they never see me in time, and who needs to summon a character when you can stab them repeatedly?
Rambling aside....

I played as a Wizard Apprentice... so you can imagine the DISASTER it was when I entered Oblivion Gate the 1st time.

Now, imagine when I met a Lich, with all that spell reflection it has.

You may have a chance, provided you get 5 sigil stones to get 100% magic resistance and included in every spell you create an invisibility effect... Painful...

I have an Altmer Mage. He wears street clothes. At level 17 and higher, you get the best sigil stones in Oblivion Gates. So for three out of his five clothing slots (I keep the wrist irons from the tutorial dungeon, they do not count as armor) He gets fire, frost and shock shield sigil stones, and puts them on his clothes. So not only does he cancel out the weaknesses, but instantly achieves an armor rating of 75, and I'll never need to fix my clothes, ever.

I have an Altmer Battlemage.

I had a classic high-elf mage (Igodah^Gope). I think early on, she had to rely on everything she could to survive, but eventually she became so powerful, she was like using pure magic spells 90% of the time. But I went crazy with her; bought every spell that she could afford! She used alot of conjuration & illusion, mostly...some Alteration (sheilds, walking on water, etc) and she had an assortment of magical swords for backup, but she pretty much stopped using potions, scrolls, armor of any sort, bows, etc.

Caiphalon is an altmer Atronarch mage. he uses his bow a lot and counts on his magick for killing when he really needs it. he trains his magickal skills when in town so he can easily accuire new magicka. he is looking for a cure.

I just started my first pure-mage Altran. Let's see how she'll fare.

I'm finding the Breton warrior/mage combination better and better as my game goes along. I started out melee'ing my way through everything and have become a reasonable fighter, even though it was tough at first, and now I'm slowly starting to use magic and don't have to start from scratch cause I'm Breton. Very handy.

Why yes, my second character was an Altmer mage!
I'm afraid I can't remember her name (I was on the ps3 back then) but I certainly remember that we kicked a lot of ass together
You just have to be careful around magic. I'm quite good at magic combat, so I didn't usually get hit by a spell unless it was on touch.

If you're going to play as a pure mage, just make sure you include conjuration so you can summon a tank (Storm Atronach, Dremora lord or whatever) that can take care of the Liches for you. It worked for my Altmer.

I have played Altmer pure mages before, and they were lots of fun. I had no problems at all. Except perhaps the work it took to make her look good with that pointy head that Altmer tend to have.

I've had many Altmer mages. I think always with the Atronach sign. The spell absorption does wonders to counter the elemental weaknesses.

Ive played with a bit of everything, and settled on my Orc. However an Altmer Apprentice is loads of fun to play with.

I rarely play as an Altmer Mage but when I do its a lot of fun when you do.

Yes, Altmer Apprentice is a nice "unbalanced" build, with a profound weakness to the very thing that is its greatest strength (magicka.) One of my ongoing characters, very difficult to play, is an Altmer Apprentice with the default Barbarian class. (I had to come up with a personal backstory to justify the build.) It's a lot of fun, and a challenge, to play a character who has a tremendous untrained "talent" for magic, but who must struggle from day to day with a serious vulnerability, using crude and ineffective weapons and armor.

One advantage for atlmers over the other races: They're taller, so they run faster.

is that true? height matters concerning speed???

I haven't tested it, but somebody else did: see http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Oblivion_talk:Races

Subjectively, I'd say it's correct.

This is running speed, not the "Speed" attribute, of course.

Well, I think this is relevant info that should be somehow on races description.

awkward, since an altmer's 100 speed <> Breton 100 speed . I mean how logical would be an orc's 100 'stronger' than an altmer's 100 str ?