Useful and not so useful schools of magic

Post » Fri May 27, 2011 6:42 pm

Not sure whther this kind of poll is created, but just want to ask you guys, what do you think are the most useful and most useless spell schools? Or iother words the one that you use most often and least often? personally for me the most useful for me is mysticism and the one I use lease is conjuration (preferred to kill with my own hands duh -_-).
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CHANONE
 
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Post » Sat May 28, 2011 6:26 am

I use illusion the most less but that`s for balance purposes for it is not the least useful as it can be used to achieve incredible power. I`d say they are all very useful.

Alteration - Levitation and open spells. LEVITATION! Oh, and the annoying locks...
Ressurection - Health and cure disease. Helps get rid off annoying diseases as soon as you get infected by them.
Destruction - Destructive spells. This is useful for obvious reasons.
Illusion - Sanctuary, chameleon. Almost invulnerable + unseeable.
Mysticism - Recall and Mark, almsivi and divine intervention. Very useful.
Conjuration - This one is really fun. I like to summon a bunch of dwemer centurions, daedra, bears, wolves and all kinds of other stuff and watch them do the fighting for me. This is most welcome if you are quite high level and able to kill everything in just a few hits but want to see some decent battle action. Have summons fight an enemy... or fight 15 summons all by your own.
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Rebecca Dosch
 
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Post » Sat May 28, 2011 2:15 am

i always use all magic schools but conjuration. but nevertheless i also find conjuration useful (and would use it if i don't use destruction or illusion).
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Chloe Mayo
 
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Post » Sat May 28, 2011 2:28 am

For me, the most useful is destruction. I prefer to hit the cliff racers with a fireball rather than futilely stab at it with a dagger.

Least useful is illusion because... I never use it. They're all pretty useful.
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Lillian Cawfield
 
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Post » Sat May 28, 2011 2:23 am

I can't vote. I don't know how to interpret the phrase "use most often".

I use a tower shield enchanted (CE) with Water breathing, Night-eye, and a fortified Attribute. Therefore I use Alteration, Illusion, and Restoration most often (i.e constantly).

But then I "cast" more Destruction spells than any other school.

But if I had to pick a school I'd most not want to do without, it would be Mysticism if only for the teleportation spells.

How do you vote for all 5?
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Alisia Lisha
 
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Post » Sat May 28, 2011 5:39 am

Well, do you mean as a skill to have (in other words, to cast) or a skill that's covered by enchanted items that don't require any skill level? Big difference IMHO. For example: unless I'm playing a Mage (and maybe not even then) I wouldn't take Alteration as a major/minor skill because I can easily get items for open, levitate, water breathing, etc. So, Alteration is important one way but not necessary in an actual build.

As to Illusion, the amulet of shadows covers chameleon, there's a cheap invisibility ring in Caldera and while Calm is great, I can't take advantage of it since I know it's seriously bugged and exploitish and if you use the MCP fix, it's not that useful. There's paralyze, I guess, but again, I would only take it as a pure mage. Just my opinion, of course, but the question is very situational.
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loste juliana
 
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Post » Sat May 28, 2011 7:35 am

Probably I'm not clear enough, :P it is based on must have, can't do without regardless of spellcasting or item enchantments, example, mysticism is a must have for me for the teleportation and the absorb health regardless of my level, from 1 till demigod levels, its a must have, while conjuration for me is not a must have unless I do not want to get my hands dirty or I need to command someone out and steal something.

But right, it is pretty situational also, but also in most situations.
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Music Show
 
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Post » Fri May 27, 2011 7:10 pm

Alteration, Mysticism and Illusion are by far the most useful magic schools, simply for utility purposes and those three schools have such a wide range of spell effects compared to the others. Destruction is probably the least useful, even though its my favorite, since you can use the absorb health effect of Mysticism instead.
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Isaac Saetern
 
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Post » Fri May 27, 2011 9:02 pm

I'd say Destruction is the only one I find only moderately useful. It's just not that powerful in Morrowind, especially with the large range of enemies that have the ability to reflect, absorb, or resist magic going--unless you're spamming damage while levitated at someone who is stuck on the ground with a melee weapon.

Conjuration is great, and has a new lease on life in my opinion ever since a mod was created that makes summoned creatures attack enemies on sight, without having you attacked first. (And to her credit, the companion Jasmine does this, too.)

If I had to single out one magic school that's better than the rest, it would be Alchemy. Since it includes so many things that you can do with the others, plus consuming a potion doesn't take the amount of time out in battle that casting does.
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lolly13
 
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Post » Sat May 28, 2011 12:10 am

Conjuration is great, and has a new lease on life in my opinion ever since a mod was created that makes summoned creatures attack enemies on sight, without having you attacked first.



Which mod is this?
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Nathan Hunter
 
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Post » Fri May 27, 2011 11:54 pm

Best Imo? Mysticism, hands down:

-Absorb Health is better than any other DPS spell, can't be reflected either
-Teleporting
-Telekinesis allows me to disarm traps and makes up for my lack of stealth
-Dispel is very handy to have
-Soultrap ftw
-Spell Absorb/Reflect ftw

I'm also biased towards Restoration:

-Fortify spells are very good for hitting harder (STR), running faster (Athletics), etc.
-Cure spells say FAWK YEW to status effects
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Your Mum
 
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Post » Fri May 27, 2011 11:51 pm

For me Alteration is the most useful school of magic simply because of the jump spell. It′s amazing how much faster you can cross long distances that don′t have a boat or a silt strider at your destination by popping a 100 point jump and jumping. Really it′s expensive at first but most definitely worth leveling Alteration for it and investing in a good jump spell. It′s become my main form of transport these days.

Edit: I voted Conjuration as least useful because if you level it up normally (that is if you don′t grind it near a bed or something like that) then by the time you can summon anything good with it you′re already far stronger than the creatures you can summon. I′ve never had a conjurer whose creatures I could not beat in melee or with destructive magic. At the start ancestor ghosts and scamps are easy, and by the time you can summon something like a Clanfear you can beat a Clanfear in melee or with magic anyway, and when you can summon something like Hungers you can beat those also and finally when it′s time for Golden Saints you should already be godly enough to beat those in melee or with magic.

Reason being that conjuration is expensive and to be able to survive long fights you′re forced to rely on other things than just your summons, and said 'other things' tend to overshadow your summons in the long run.
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Ash
 
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Post » Fri May 27, 2011 7:20 pm

most often: restoration
healing magic saves potions. also: buffs. restore fatigue is also very handy until you get a certain ring.

least: conjuration
from uncastable to moderately useful "let them fight for you" to total crap one-hit critters in the late game...
also, i like real armor better than summoned armor. summoned weapons are useful i admit, but that's
not worth it spending one of your major/minor slots for.
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Channing
 
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Post » Sat May 28, 2011 6:40 am

Most useful for me: Alteration,mysticism,conjuration(i usually pick the atronach sign), illusion(since i don't feel like picking speechcraft) and sometimes destruction,restoration and alchemy(1 for getting rid of poison and the other for cha-ching) And the rest of the magics except for enchant.


Least useful for me: Enchant(I don't use it and i don't waste a skill slot on it)
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Brian LeHury
 
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Post » Fri May 27, 2011 7:51 pm

I always pick Mysticism for the transportation spells. No matter what character it is. So most useful.

Least useful would be Destruction for me. First off I prefer a weapon anyway and second there's the reflect on some higher level creatures. I play with GCD so I don't get many hit points on my usually magic/stealth oriented characters. So reflect is a big problem.
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Adrian Morales
 
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Post » Fri May 27, 2011 11:50 pm

Which mod is this?


Useful Summoned Creatures, by ElderScroller. I don't see it currently on PES, TES Nexus or Elric's, but it might be Fliggerty's--only he's down at the moment. I'll check later, and if he doesn't have it, I'll probably upload it.

EDIT: I've uploaded it Fliggerty's Morrowind Modding History site, which means it's in queue for review.
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Laura Wilson
 
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Post » Fri May 27, 2011 9:17 pm

Heh, Mysticism is the most useful and the least useful? Wow.

Personally I find restoration to be the least useful skill. In terms of health and fatigue, it's really better to use potions for those things.
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Pumpkin
 
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Post » Sat May 28, 2011 8:29 am

Useful Summoned Creatures, by ElderScroller. I don't see it currently on PES, TES Nexus or Elric's, but it might be Fliggerty's--only he's down at the moment. I'll check later, and if he doesn't have it, I'll probably upload it.

EDIT: I've uploaded it Fliggerty's Morrowind Modding History site, which means it's in queue for review.



Thanks a lot!
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Brad Johnson
 
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Post » Fri May 27, 2011 7:27 pm

IMO Ring of Far Reaching, Amulets of Divine and Almsivi Intervention and Amulet of Recall cover Mysticism so well I voted it least useful. :P Besides, teleportation is really not that USEFUL. You could always travel by foot. They just save time and patience. Even Soultrapping is easily possible with common scrolls. Detection is not necessary IMO.

Couldn't decide what's the most useful. Voted restoration even though potions do cover that well. It's the same basically with every school. And it always depends on character which school is the most useful. For me it's usually Restoration to heal my wounds and status changes (Pokémon terminology ftw!) and Destruction for causing those to others. :P

There IS Absorb Health, though...
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Valerie Marie
 
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Post » Fri May 27, 2011 7:08 pm

The reason Mysticism doesn't seem entirely useful is the vast majority of its abilities have no real use for magnitudes. That is, I've never made a Dispel spell that didn't have 100% magnitude, as anything else could get me killed. Mark, Recall, Almsivi and Divine Interventions all have no magnitude or durations. Detect spells only need a rather smallish magnitude, as that represents area in feet around the use, and anything more than 50 gets really silly. Reflect is so hard to use as a spell (as opposed to an enchantment) that people rarely make reflect spells. Spell absorption is much the same in that regard. Soultrap has no magnitude. So the only thing that really matters are absorb spells, and the most widely and easily used of those is absorb life. Granted, absorb life is an extremely powerful spell, and I consider it to be THE most powerful of the damage spells, since enemies can not have resistances to it like they can all the elemental spells, as well as it healing you.

Mysticism is considered weak because it is overlooked and underrated. People just set their mark and go on their way, but they never really consider how much time is saves them, or that teleportation spells can save your ass. I know they've saved mine many times before.
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Melissa De Thomasis
 
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Post » Sat May 28, 2011 2:52 am

Agreed though mysticism may seems useless, it has one of the most powerful spells absorbing health, though there some cost in it, it is also considerably useful be it spells or enchantments on weapons.
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Lindsay Dunn
 
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Post » Sat May 28, 2011 5:37 am

What I love about MW is that all of the schools are useful. But here's my rankings:

Hands down the best: Restoration - because you can use 'fortify restoration' to boost everything else to obscene levels. Example (you would do this at an altar, or with restore magicka potions): you create a number of spells to be cast in series, one immediately after the other as follows (adjust magnitudes according to your current restoration skill level): 1) Fortify Restoration 90 pts for 3 seconds 2) Fortify Restoration 90 pts for 12 seconds (x3) (meaning 3 entries in the same spell) 3) Fortify INT 99 pts for 6 secs + Fortify Magicka 100 for 6 secs 4) Fortify Restoration 98 pts for 110 secs

Now the cast series is 1), then immediately 2), then recharge your magicka with an altar, or the drain int trick, or with potions - then 3) which gives you a giant magicka pool by raising INT plus the fort magicka boost, then immediately cast 4). Now for 2 minutes you have an obscene restoration skill which you can use to do almost anything like fortifying stats, fortifying skills including other magical skills like enchant or alteration, etc. Your INT and magicka will probably be 0 after this so you will need to use an altar again or have an enchanted item which restores INT. My next character is going to take this idea to the limit, Im pretty sure I've only scratched the surface of this serie's potential.

and the others,

Mysticism - teleportation and absorb health
Alteration - critical utility effects which are obvious, although most dont really need to be cast directly and are better in enchanted items
Destruction - aside from attack spells you have damage strength for ghetto paralysis, debuffing resistance with weakness to magicka, and the drain int trick for restoring magicka in 2 seconds (i.e. drain INT 99 pts on self - costs 10 magicka to cast, get all your magicka back when casting animation completes 2 seconds later). - BTW I feel like a cheater for using this, I understand MCP will nerf this or already has.
Illusion - aside from training up personality you get invisibility, chameleon, light and nighteye, sanctuary, paralyze, and frenzy for legal murders.
Conjuration - the 'worst' skill which gives you creatures and command (important if you like moving NPCs around where you like them), and bound weapons are very helpful when your character is young - I often fall back on bound battle axe when in a seemingly impossible fight at lower levels - you can take out golden saints at level 5 with the bound axe.

For sure there are no 'useless' schools of magic.
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elliot mudd
 
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