(snip)

Ummm... that's kind of the point. It's not broken, that's the whole point of Impact. It's representative of a staggering hit on your enemy. If you time everything right with physical weapon attacks, you can get the same effect. Does that make weapon Skills/Perks broken?


Exactly. My Dunmer Mage is level 81. Multiple times Master at Destruction, Conjuration, Restoration, and Illusion. I play on Expert (for right now at least), and Destruction has not let me down once yet. Destruction works just fine.


How are you pigeonholed? That smacks of a lack of creativity to me (or user error...).

Look. Destruction is pure damage battle spells. It's meant to deal out damage by the bucketful, and in the case of the 'Impact' Perk, make it so that your enemy doesn't get a chance to hit you. That's just smart strategy.

I've taken Ryukyu Kempo for fifteen-plus years. Never once have I looked at an opponent in a tournament and said: "Hey, let's just trade punches and kicks until one if us falls down." No, I dodge, block, and weave to avoid my enemy's attacks while finding the right moment to counter attack. If I stagger my opponent and really ring his bell, do you honestly think I'm going to let off and give him the time to recover? No. That would be ignorant. Should I stagger my opponent, I keep pressing the attack until the judge tells me that I've won the round/match.

The same works with 'Impact'. As a Mage, typically you aren't that hot in the armor categories. Why would you ever want to let the enemy hit you (unless you're trying to grind Restoration)? The fact that I can "stun-lock" an opponent and bring about a swift, brutal end to his/her/its existence is the most pure expression of the School of Destruction.

The fact that some people think that Destruction pigeonholes you into one playstyle is ludicrous. Destruction is only limited by your ability to think up new and innovative combat strategies.

Do you consider dealing 238 damage form a dual cast being viable?

Absolutely viable.

Destruction can be useful for the following:

1. Stun locking with dual cast and impact.

2. Increasing chaos damage to insane levels (I actually did this. It does about 500 damage per swing, and it's totally legit).

3. You can sometimes use it to set off Miraak's Robes. If there's a way to do this with any sort of regularity, that could very easily become a powerful way of outputting damage.

Indeed. And supported by Alchemy...


more here... http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1342463-complete-character-design-freedom-damage-resist-caps-and-ridiculous-damage-thread-10/page__view__findpost__p__20234538

As I posted earlier, 100% stun lock isn't essential.

I alternate a dual cast with two single hand casts, giving the equivalent of 50%.

That is one of my favorite things to make with Alchemy. The Fortify Destruction potions can turn you into a God in under a heartbeat. Then, if you down a Fortify Restoration potion before the Fortify Destruction... the damage can go even higher.

Not using every weapon in the shed so-to-speak in regards to potions and other Schools of magick... well, that's kind of like a Warrior picking a fight, then putting his weapon away and going at it fisticuffs style.

Except a Warrior can do damage effectively within his own primary damage tree. Melee and Ranged skills scale to +50% base attack damage, stacking and multiplying with another +100% damage via perks, and have an additional double-damage dealer that doesn't even require a perk. Is it more effective if you use Stealth, Smithing, Enchanting, and so on? Sure. Is it necessary? No.

I dsagree. My pure mage uses it as primary means of attack and she ruins just about everything, even at level 40 on Expert.

Its certainly the worst form of offense, but it isn't unviable. It has mobility and firing speed on Archery.

And it's not necessary to use those with Destruction either.