Hello All,

I wanted some advice from fellow spellswords who play on Legendary Mode. Right now i'm only about lvl 15 and almost everything in the game is destroying me. Right now I have focused on more one handed combat with a spell or conjuration here and there + alliteration for the armor. My main question is what methods or tactics do you use as as low, or even high level spellsword on Skyrim?

My main inspiration was from a video on youtube (type "spellsword skyrim dragon" should be first video).

Right now I usually use some sort of spell to increase my armor before combat (I currently wear light armor, specifically vampire attire as I am a brenton vampire). Any advice or tips would be useful.

Thanks

Focus on conjuration and illussion. These schools of magic are just as effective on legendary as they are on adept because the damage done by summons and frenzied enemies is not scaled down like your damage is. Paralyze spells from alteration are also very useful as they are not really hampered by difficulty level. I would avoid destruction and direct combat with your sword. Try casting frenzy then sending summons in and then paralyzingly stray opponents and then killing them with your sword.

Stealth should be your new best friend. Illusion is an effective complimentary, however is it essential to remain hidden unless you have magicka to spare on calm spells.

Also, with two daggers smithed to a reasonable level and the perk with allows then to do 1500% damage when sneaking you will be able to defeat even high level enemies.

As said above, your sword will not be effective and destruction will ?absolutely not be viable, nonetheless, if you really want to say true to being a spell sword, then the impact perk and a paralyze enchantment on your weapon should do you well.

Thanks for the quick responses . So correct me if i'm wrong, but what i'm getting out of this is a genuine spellsword (destruction one hand, cloak, and smacking enemies with a sword) are not viable at all in legendary mode. I use to play a night blade, and on legendary I could hold my own no problem when I got the right daggers, spells, etc. Is it just not possible to play a spellsword on legendary that eventually pwns enemies at higher levels? I saw a video on youtube by ImmortalisCabalDE but I can't post the link here for some reason, in the video he was playing on master at lvl 57 and was absolutely destroying an ancient dragon.

It's more than viable, that problem is that (for us lowly console users anyways) destruction doesn't scale very well into higher levels. Much less on the highest difficulty.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2yf-2X5XanA

You can see that the first few hits with that lightning spell hardly scratched that dragon. The sword did all the work.

No, same guy but different video. He didn't do half bad in that video either. So is it not viable to play as a mage on legendary either?

it is perfectly viable, just in a different way of playing. DEstruction is not viable above Adept, so a spellsword is going to rely more on the other schools and the fighter aspect of the playstyle if on master/legendary.

I guess i'll just conclude that since i'm on the xbox..i'm screwed, at least for destruction. Thanks everyone

You can use destruction on legendary, but I usually pay to train it as often as possible so I can get both damage perks ASAP(for at least fire, but usually lightning too). You just conjure up a tank and then pepper enemies with spells from a distance. It'll require using more efficient damage spells(like flames instead of firebolt) if you want to also play without using potions. Enchanting either extra magicka or lower destruction cost to help get extra castings can always help too(you can buy gear with these enchants if you don't want to level the skill)

not really, the damage is too bad, it barely scratches anything.

I'm not making that up....I play on legendary. The damage doesn't blow your socks off early on, but dual cast thunderbolts with disintegrate pretty much wrecks anything

sorry, but find it hard to believe. You must be abusing the impact perk then or on PC with mods.

Impact isn't even necessary if you have conjuration or illusion.......

however....if you get 100% reduction to the point where you can spam dual thunderbolts, you will destroy enemies(while stunlocking them) even on legendary.

Even reaching that point is not that bad....it's just a matter of training up destruction as quickly as possible to get the bonus damage perks.

I'm not real big on sneaking, though I'm sure it could help(quiet casting runes and such or dropping an atronach right on someone). I prefer the run and gun style(which requires ducking in and out of cover generally)

so yeah, abusing the impact perk which requires duel-casting, still must take a while though considering the low damage.

I just explained that you don't need impact, though it can be overpowered if you get it. The damage is low IF you let your other skills jump ahead of destruction to the point where enemies are scaling and you are not gaining damage(from perks) and new spells quickly enough. Proper character building is key for legendary

please show proof that Destruction causes any real damage on legendary, you are the only i have seen to say so.

I give up, just because you can't do something doesn't mean it can't be done

You could always use alchemy for fortify destruction, enchant your gear so your destruction spells don't cost anything, brew weakness to magic and element potions/poisons, use alteration, and make sure to use a combination of necromancy and atromancy.

A Spellsword doesn't have to be locked into using destruction to be labeled as such. Still...

The game's mechanics were torn apart in the first few months after release. There is a lot of info in this http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1342463-complete-character-design-freedom-damage-resist-caps-and-ridiculous-damage-thread-10/.This is one of the notable posts on Destruction.

Other than using the term 'mana" it's shows the numbers. 235 is on par with any perked out 2H weapon. Destruction is lackluster and implemented through an overall bad magic system to start with. However, once the Mage gets fully developed they are an equally viable force in the gameworld.

A weapon that does much over 300 gets tagged as overpowered. Yet a mage is called worthless when they can cast 615?

In the end however, that is from dual casting as a Spellsword generally utilizes a single hand.

One handed can certainly be viable in legendary if you use smithing/enchanting/alchemy to get uber damage. The problem is if you start out level 1 on legendary it is going to be a long hard road before you level those up. I think a lot of people switch to legendary after they build their character up to be powerful. It would take a carefully planned build and skilled player to legendary from level 1 and make it to high levels.