For a Mage, what is the most important school to concentrate on first?

[Daelon DuLac]

I'm going to recreate Den Moria (my former Thalmor high-elf) as a mage. I haven't decided if he's going to wear armor, but I'm going to try it with alteration armor spells and robes to start with.

I do intend for him to use bound weapons and carry a dagger, but am wondering from all you mage fans, what school do you consider to be the most important to concentrate when just starting (levels 1-10 before you get to Whiterun - or at least I do). Obviously conjuration and destruction are easy to up, but I'm a bit confused about restoration and alteration.

Remember - I refuse to use followers. They get on my nerves, although I will use conjure familiar and raise zombie from the very beginning.

Thoughts?

 

[Gregor Moon Fang]

For a mage Alteration is the most important. It's basically your armor if you're playing a pure page so it pretty much is essential.

 

[Daelon DuLac]

For a mage Alteration is the most important. It's basically your armor if you're playing a pure page so it pretty much is essential.

Thank you. So right away. Makes sense.

 

[Gregor Moon Fang]

Eh it wasn't much. Just helping out someone in need.

 

[Nighthiker77]

For a mage Alteration is the most important. It's basically your armor if you're playing a pure page so it pretty much is essential.

I disagree with this completely. The low flesh spells, especially without the perks, are barely going to make any difference. It's a lot better to just focus on not getting hit and putting your perks and experience into an offensive skill.

I would focus on either illusion or conjuration(conjuration for me). Once you have expert summons, everything will be so much less difficult, and after you have twin souls, you can do anything you want for the rest of the game and have a good chance of surviving.

If you aren't summoning, I'd probably focus on illusion, but you would need to stay above ground until you start developing another skill.

If you want to go dungeon diving right away, I'd start with destruction. Fire is the best at first if it works for your character. Just take advantage of on-fire damage

 

[Gregor Moon Fang]

For a mage Alteration is the most important. It's basically your armor if you're playing a pure page so it pretty much is essential.

I disagree with this completely. The low flesh spells, especially without the perks, are barely going to make any difference. It's a lot better to just focus on not getting hit and putting your perks and experience into an offensive skill.

I would focus on either illusion or conjuration(conjuration for me). Once you have expert summons, everything will be so much less difficult, and after you have twin souls, you can do anything you want for the rest of the game and have a good chance of surviving.

If you aren't summoning, I'd probably focus on illusion, but you would need to stay above ground until you start developing another skill.

If you want to go dungeon diving right away, I'd start with destruction. Fire is the best at first if it works for your character. Just take advantage of on-fire damage

So your reason for disagreeing with my statement is due to the need of perks for it to be effective? If that's the case then Conjuration is in the same boat as Alteration. Besides from the sound of his question he was asking what's the most important near the start of the game, not overall. If you were going to do an Arcane Warrior build and use bound weapons, you would think that you'd need a way to stay alive since you'll be in the face of your enemies for a good part of the game (until Conjuration got to 50). That's where the flesh spells come in handy. You aren't going to survive early on unless you have armor in some way. Plus if you think about it it's kind of difficult to conjure both weapon and familiar without waiting a few minutes.

 

[Twiffle]

IMHO, i would agree with Gregor on this, alteration is extremely important but forgotten at times, just think with a full set of leather or hide armor your protection will be around 53, although the first flesh spell is armor protection of 40, However, to get the armor rating of leather etc higher you need to put perks into 2 schools, smithing and light armor, but in Alteration you only need the one school for points, also, even though with light armor robes are a little more agile so will be able to keep out of the way, along with the fact that robes with enchantments are easier to get early in the game, plus a couple of points in Alchemy and your set to go for regen or extra magick to cast other schools that you may be using.

Well thats my 2 bobs worth.

 

[Nighthiker77]

Not exactly. I like alteration for the magic resistance, but flesh spells just don't do much on master and raising alteration first will give you some protection but leave you at a higher level with no offense.

Bound weapons with the mystic binding perk are available by conjuration level 30 doing pretty respectable damage, strong enough for anything in the game, especially if you have any fortify weapon damage enchantments.

 

[JoeReese]

I'd have to second Gregor's statement. In a world like Skyrim, breathing is first, but offense and defense place even before eating and sleeping, or you won't live long enough to get tired and hungry. Focusing on illusion before you can defend yourself is ... all hat and no cattle, so to speak.

If you're wearing armor (I would) and you're careful not to out-level your fighting ability, you can have it two ways. You can be on par without having to spend the time and magicka on mage armor, or you can have superior coverage with both. Yes, later in the game, your armor will prevent you from taking advantage of the mage armor perks, but what do you do until you have enough of an Alteration score to get those perks? If you answered "die, frequently," you would be correct.

If you're going pure page, starting with robes and a dagger, IMHO, you definitely want to be armed and armored first off, and that means at least one perk each in your alteration and destruction trees, and a mental note to make conjuration a priority.

Where this can trick you is that the first perk will make oakflesh half as expensive, but then it's tempting to go for the next step up before you've got the magicka to do it. Often, and I learned this the hard way, you end up with a nice stoneflesh or even ironflesh, and then no "ammo" for your destruction.

Starting out, throw on a half-cost oakflesh, and then keep a steady flow of half-cost fire and frost on them until they're dead. In my experience, they die quicker and I have more magicka leftover, than if I try to use firebolts or ice spikes.

 

[Parselmagic]

It depends on what type of mage you're going for. If you plan on being out in the open and attacking, destruction and alteration are both viable starter skills.

Conjuration can be useful, but you also have the option of using followers, so when I play its not a necessity to start out. Restoration is always nice, but I wouldn't invest heavily until a few other trees have decent perks, as mages don't have a large pool of magic at the beginning of the game.

Illusion is also fun if you like it. I would recommend this one if you plan on being a sneaky mage.

 

[JoeReese]

Another thing to consider is, until you're putting perks in "wearing clothing" mage armor, anything armored you wear can only help. It might not hurt to supplement the robes with good gauntlets and boots, at least until your perks demand otherwise.

 

[Twiffle]

alas again we see another question of the inns n outs of how to play skyrim a certain way.

again another example of how much the developers actually put into the game as we again cant seem to get a definitive answer, just like the melee and sneak type posts.

Dont you just love the bloody game really, , , ,

 

[Nighthiker77]

Real armor also has the hidden 25 armor rating per piece, so it easily outclasses flesh spells at low levels, even without any perks.

I can see alteration being useful in some builds. I just prefer to defend myself with movement and terrain to control range and exposure, and use all my magica for other things.

It is awesome that the game can be played so many different ways.

 

[Daelon DuLac]

I can usually pick up Vampire armor that is either 12% reduc in conjuration or destruction and 50% regen by level 4 or so, so perhaps that's the way to go until I get above level 10 and get adept robes or better or invest in higher level robes. Yes?

 

[Nighthiker77]

If you are going the vampire route, you can upgrade to the royal vampire armor in the back of castle Volkihar at +125% I think, right before you go to the soul cairn.

 

[Daelon DuLac]

If you are going the vampire route, you can upgrade to the royal vampire armor in the back of castle Volkihar at +125% I think, right before you go to the soul cairn.

I have another character that is there already, but I can't find it. Any clues as to where to look? She's already a vamp and is about to head to the underkeep area and is currently looking all over the keep for it.

 

[Twiffle]

Real armor also has the hidden 25 armor rating per piece, so it easily outclasses flesh spells at low levels, even without any perks.

I can see alteration being useful in some builds. I just prefer to defend myself with movement and terrain to control range and exposure, and use all my magica for other things.

It is awesome that the game can be played so many different ways.

Erm, is that only for the DB set of armor ? or is there something that i have missed and unaware of.

 

[Raven Darkmoore]

alas again we see another question of the inns n outs of how to play skyrim a certain way.

again another example of how much the developers actually put into the game as we again cant seem to get a definitive answer, just like the melee and sneak type posts.

Dont you just love the bloody game really, , , ,

Nice post and a real truth. I LOVE this game, just because of the varieties in which you can play it. I also think part of the answer is individual based upon how you as an individual play. My suggestion (and it must be taken with a HUGE grain of salt because I have only played one mage character) is to decide exactly what kind of mage you want to play. I found that when playing my mage, alteration did little for me when wearing nothing but robes. I died all the time. I had to get some armor at first just to stay alive long enough to cast a fire spell or whatever. I also used conjuration (I know I know very typical and unimaginative, but then he is my first mage and only the second character I have played.) My suggestion is to use some armor to start with if you are going the alteration route. Especially if you are not going to use a follower. You will have nothing to distract your enemy and they will come after you big time. You will inevitably end up in h2h combat, so you will need something to save yourself so you can get a few good whacks in a kill them after damaging them with the destruction spells and running out of manna.

 

[Wetigos]

Well while i'll agree alteration is an extremely useful tool, i'd argue that it really isnt a necessity at the beginning of the game, as you're unlikely to run into a ton of enemies you cant easily dodge around.

If you're playing on legendary, you're gonna need to dodge enemies in the beginning regardless, that 40/60 armor wont keep you alive for long, and you wont have enough mana to just keep healing yourself up.

With that said, i usually do focus on Destruction and Alteration as the first 2, transmute ore is just such a good way to make some beginning money.

 

[Daelon DuLac]

I have a feeling that most of y'all are not concerned with your cash flow at all in the beginning and just head straight for whatever location you want to "really" start at.

Me, I need to gather enough cash in the Riverwood/Falkreath corridor so that I can purchase Breezehome and any other items (spells, weapons, etc...) before I begin.

I have no access to "transmute" or any other than the spells available in Riverwood or Falkreath until after level 10.