Conjuration. There is nothing more satisfying then having a former arch enemy become your slave. Dead thralls make this so much more satisfying. Ancano is now my personal servant.

I would have to say illusion. Whats better then having your enemies kill each other while you are invisible going around calming or fearing people away. in my case i am a mage/assassin so i either calm, or fenzy everyone while i go around doing x30 sneak damage.

For RPing purposes, certainly, but the most useful skill in terms of the magic schools is Restoration followed by Destruction. In my experience anyway...

There isn't anything funnier than a conjured minion hanging out 30 yards behind me, confused, pointing at walls, and occasionally chucking fireballs at the back of my head. Friggin useless.

rp wise it has to be illusion, nothing beats messing with the minds of my foes

Mysticism

that makes me a saaaad panda

Thaumaturgy :laugh:

And there's nothing more badass than reaching into Oblivion itself and pulling out the soul of a daedra and turning it into a weapon.

Restoration is the most useful but Conjuration is probably the most powerful. Destruction is the only one that does direct damage but the direct damage suffers the higher the level you get...

Magic:

1: Enchantment
2: Conjuration
3: Illusion
4: Alteration
5: Restoration

7: Destruction



This.

Where is the unsummon option to make that frost atronach stop blocking the exit?

...
and of COURSE you dual-casted him there...

Summon familiar is the unsummon button.

You could summon familiar or expel daedra or use banish weapon(bound weapon with perks it the same)

No need to waste perks on bound weapon banish. You can enchant "banish" on a dagger or whatever and use as a backup, helps a ton against conjurers and necromancers to have it as a backup anyway. And it's one of those enchantments you can sell for a fortune.

You must not have played all that much...


Gameplay wise, conjuration is amazing due to dual summoned Daedric Lords or dual storm atronachs.

Alteration is great because of paralyze.

Alteration.

Restoration.

I prefer Restoration, even more with the Turn Undead spells being included(Circle of Protection is my favorite TU spell). It's very Paladin-ish.

The best school of magic is so obvious..


its the one you really enjoy using =)

I think it's a tie between Conjuration and Illusion.

Restoration is the best, in terms of number of useful spells. Alteration would be my favorite but with the removal of Levitate it's just middling. Destruction is good, but severely nerfed compared to its Morrowind glory days of town-decimating super fireballs (magic in general is nerfed compared to Morrowind). Illusion, with the removal of the Chameleon spell and the ease of producing potions, is totally worthless.

Sorry I almost completely disagree with your anolysis.
Restoration is the worst imo in terms of useful spells because its possible to go through the entire game casting only the beginner lvl healing spell.
As for wards:
*spoiler*

Spellbreaker is a deadric artifact shield that casts a permanent ward whenever you block with no charges and no cost of magicka.


Alteration has an amazing perk tree and spells with great benefits for those people who don't want to abuse the hell out of Enchanting, Alchemy, Smithing synergy and still want to play at high difficulties as a mage. Imo its practically invaluable.

Destruction is good, it would be great if higher lvl destro added to damage from spells and/or if it was possible to at least upgrade the lower lvl spells to allow for increased flexibility of spell usage. Spamming thunderbolt and chain lightening is kinda meh -___-

As for Illusion I also find this school invaluable because of CC (crowd control). Fear and Calm are amazing ways to control crowds and save your butt from deadly mobs of bandits at higher levels.

Pretty much this.

Conjuration. There is nothing more satisfying than summoning Atronachs to do your bidding, while you loot for stuff.

Can't get into Necromancy, though. It's so... dirty. Meridia wouldn't like me if I dabbled into that.

Conjuration and Illusion


Walk in a room with 3 enemies. It starts 1vs3 against you. After you conjure 2 summons and calm 2 enemies, it suddenly becomes 3vs1 in your favor. Awesome.