Folks, this is an open forum. You don't get to tell people to leave when they bring up other points - if you feel they are derailing the thread, feel free to use the report button. But just because they bring up a comparison of another class, you can read their post, and if you find it has no use to whatever it is you are trying to figure out, then you can move on to other posts.

Arrows are practically infinite in the game. You do not run out of them.

No gear you can find improves your magic damage.

Using the smithing (and sneaking) skill at the level you got it at game start is a LONG way from power-leveling enchant to 100 and using 5 perks to produce the -100% magicka cost sets. The benefits you get out of such smithing are minor and not really worth mentioning though.



And I'm still waiting for the name of that -xx% destruction cost necklace you can find as loot/quest reward! (and don't mention that -3% cost necklace from the first mage guild quest line please XD)

Dual Cast Stagger Fire DEstruction Perks Ftw,So easy i decided to make a new character because u can staggar dragons, wich is complete bs.. TOOOO EASY (guiles voice)

DieBySword, I truly wish that you'd elaborate at my views regarding this:



And I'm being honest. You've been skipping on this one for a few times now

How did you not run out of magicka against several deathlords on master?

By "gimp" yourself do you mean trivialize magicka by reducing costs to zero which makes the game utterly boring? Yea, because it's SO MUCH FUN spamming a spell by way of exploiting.

I hate to ruin your liberal use of the Caps Lock key but this thread is about Pure Destruction. Please see the title of the thread, I might use some alchemy but I'm not using other spells I only use Destruction and get what I call incidental upgrades speech lockpicking etc. The main question of the thread is how do people get beyond lvl 35 using only destruction? The answer is that they don't, each reply has listed every other skill as something they used to level their character. I don't use those skills. I will "finish" the game at a relatively low level, this is fine with me. I have acknowledged that destruction damage scaling +40 lvl is a problem but by playing the way I play I will never have the problems many people encounter. This apparently upsets people that use destruction as part of a total package that want to level past +40 and see this thread as a threat to having Bethesda release a patch for scaling damage.

The fact that he calls not exploiting "gimping yourself" proves the issue with Destro.

All the other damage skills do not require such cheesefests to play properly.

Arent you ppl so full of it.

Arrows dont magicaly restock you need to buy or loot them back how is it different from buying or looting mana potions - they are both ammo.
If you say you never run out of arrows and not be able to deal dmg then I agree .
The same goes for your mana - it will never stop regenerating so you will be able to dish dmg as long as you like.



Lolz your brain is shutting off. :spotted owl:
If I dont go higher than I can by just getting 100 in destro then my mana wont go higher either but the enemies wont scale past and wont scale infinite times just out of the blue. The lower I will be the more easier they will be actualy so I wont need to use the higher spells. And I can use enchanted gear and dmg pots right from the start making my mana suply nearly infinite and making the spell cost fall realy low. And even with all that if I stop at level 21 I still get 20 points to invest in my mana + mana gear + racial bonus to mana + stone bonus.

Oh now it doesn't count. New rule guys! No destruction gear is allowed at all, it doesn't matter how you get it now, using destruction gear at all is an exploit!


You tell me which bow, which arrow, which fortify archery gear, and which archery perks. I can get them. You know before even telling me that the damage won't be so outstanding with the same restrictions and expectation you are putting on destruction. So, lets hear it.


Take sneak out of that equation to skipper. That's not the same skill tree. You see what I did there?

I liked the part where he mentioned the difficulty... :liplick:



Are you for real? You need exactly 0 points into the sneak tree to get sneak attacks. Every single character can get a sneak attack with a physical weapon, just like everyone regains health/mana/stamina out of combat. Are you intentionally trolling? Nevermind, redundant question.

Even as a total package, Destruction damage is low plain and simple and there are many who would rather not trivialize magicka costs. Regardless of what the topic title is. If we always went off exactly what the topic title was around here it would be even more of a zoo.



Magicka potions are ammo?! HAHAHA Oh man, what a farce. Wooow.

Please play an archer and get back to us. You are so wrong on this issue that its funny.

Ohh you'll get no argument out of me that its out of balance. Though in a single player game I really see no need to nerf physical weapons. If I don't want to create the uber sword of doom I can simply choose not to. If someone else wants to play as an OP demi-god that is completely up to them. My mage doesn't have to fight against or compete with it so its not a problem. He has no trouble killing anything the game throws at him.

The thing I find funny though is how everyone seems to be complaining about the difficulties of mages at high levels. For me, the game is a piece of cake at high levels. Where I struggled was on the mid levels. At this point my enchanting was not high enough to have completely free spells. I could only cast a few fireballs before running out of magicka so I was pretty much stuck with firebolt which simply wasn't cutting it. This is where I feel destruction needs some work. You either need easier access to casting cost reduction at mid levels or simply mid level spells need their cost reduced. The problem is not with the damage dealt though, my fireballs hit plenty hard, I just needed to be able to cast more than 4 of them.

There really aren't any damage improving enchantments for destruction spells though. That's one of the main reasons physical weapons are so OP. You can get ~200% damage bonus on your armor for your weapons. However, I don't think its really necessary for either spells or weapons to have +200% damage. So it doesn't bother me that it doesn't exist for spells. If they wanted to add it to make it "fair" I wouldn't really care. I wouldn't use it, just like I don't use the other +damage enchants anymore as IMO they break the game.

I already proved that to be 100% false. No enchanting/alchemy/smithing/anything-other-than-destruction is required to cast expert destruction spells efficiently = 100% Fact. :thumbsup:

How are you gimping yourself by specializing in destruction magic? I quit leveling because If I only use destruction magic I won't level barring the occasionally level due to sneaking, speech, or lockpicking upgrade.

What does Halo have to do with this? This isn't MarioKart64

Jesus christ you people make it difficult to remain civil. I'm talking about the [censored] sneak tree bonuses. :facepalm:

Enemies won't scale past you, they'll just be plain higher than you. Say high to Mr. Dragon Priest for me as he melts you. There are at least 8 of them in the game, and you are guaranteed to meet one in the main quest. The enchanted gear you find at whatever level you'd be from JUST maxing destruction will be pathetic at best, still not enough to cast more than two or three expert level spells. That is, of course, assuming that you are using light or heavy armor for your helmet, as there are no non-armored head pieces that have -destruction spell costs in the game that I am aware of. And even then, you're using an armor skill, so that kind of breaks the rules.

What? Where? By efficiently, you mean casting 8 dualcast expert spells and stopping to regen magicka? You are aware that in master difficulty 8 casts isn't enough to kill the strong enemies you find right? And that is using the best peerless destruction items you can find and putting every single level up bonus in magicka along some magicka boosting gear.

Sooo apparently, some people think trivializing magicka entirely is fun, and if you aren't doing it you are "gimping yourself". Also potions equal ammo, as arrows are ammo for archers. If you're going to play using Destruction you should stop leveling at 35.

Oh yea, this thread is full of brilliance.

Without offensive skills using enchanting(or smithing), Destro does the least dps in the game by a large margin - stupidly low for Master. This is due to DPM (damage per magicka) and the fact that the magicka bar reaches 0 after a few seconds using expert skills.

With all offensive skills (ab)using enchanting , Destro still does the least dps :) -> but is a bit more bearable for Master.


Now this results in many issues on Master, since mobs take 3-4 magicka bars to kill. One is forced to strictly use enchanting or go home. And even then it takes years, and you only have 2 spells as opposed to Todd's super hyped "sprays/glyphs/cloacks" which get phased out + horrible master spells.

He's saying that in order to keep Destruction viable as the main damage dealing channel, you have to intentionally not level yourself past the normal range.

And nowhere did I mention anything about "sneak tree bonuses" so why did you quote me and then reply as though I did? You don't need anything from the Sneak tree, just like you don't need anything from the Smithing or Enchanting trees. The difference is that one is an inherent bonus to everyone by default while the others are not. You really enjoy arguing without using logic.

No one said you should stop leveling at 35, I've never said that. I've said you'll get to a point around level 35 where if you are only using destruction magic you'll be "finished" with your play-through, I never said stop leveling. Stop deliberately being disingenuous when paraphrasing peoples' arguments.


EDIT: "Even as a total package, Destruction damage is low plain and simple and there are many who would rather not trivialize magicka costs. Regardless of what the topic title is. If we always went off exactly what the topic title was around here it would be even more of a zoo."

That still doesn't negate the fact that he said "NO ONE SAID WE WERE ONLY TALKING ABOUT DESTRUCTION"

Lol what kind of [censored] straw man is that? So now spells shouldn't use any mana, or regen at such a rate as to make it insignificant. Thats what you're saying, you know. <- I didn't put a question mark there.

Yes mana eventually runs out. Thats part of being a mage son. When mana runs out and you aren't willing to use a potion then damage per second TENDS TO GO DOWN???
[censored] it man, lets redo that math! Lest start the fight with empty mana and judge destruction's damage based purely on combat regen.
I hope anyone reading this will realize how [censored] ridiculous this argument is. :sarcastic smiley face:

Ancient Dragons, Dragon Priests, and most everything else dies long before your mana runs dry.

You lose. Good day sir.