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One of the questions i see most often when browsing forums such as these is "what should i focus on when making a mage?", good question. Let me start off by saying from experience that if you try to play this like its Oblivion you WILL die...A lot. I designed this guide through hours of play time and many deaths in order to develop the best build for a pure mage(not a spell Sword). I will begin by listing a few points, and then outlining perk selection.

1) Forsake Illusion: i enjoyed illusion in oblivion(spamming invisibility while running through a dungeon untouched...godly), but sadly this is not the case in Skyrim, and I just didn't find it very helpful in actual combat.

2) Magicka Regen over Magicka Supply: I find the speed at which you recover magicka to be more important than the amount that you have, afterall you can't kite forever while waiting for your magicka to recover. This is not say that magicka supply isn't important, it is but you should probably cap yourself at about 250-300 magicka(not including enchantments), and focus on your health

3) Enchanting is very important: with enchanting you can effectively make your spells cost little, to nothing. with this you can sling master level destruction spells as if they were novice.

4) Have a follower: having a follower will take the attention off of you, you'll want to choose someone with heavy armor to absorb aggro, and tank your enemies.(I recommend lydia)

5) Wear Robes: If you don't already know this armor weakens spells to get the full effect you'll want to wear, clothing instead of mail.

6) Dual casting is helpful: This is not true for every school of magic but is invaluable for destruction, as it staggers your enemies and ups the damage, also if you still want to make an illusion mage duel casting doubles the the strength of the spell, for example fury effects level 6, but when dual cast effects level 12.

now that i've got that out of the way i'm going to go over perk selection. Perks differ from mage to mage, so or the sake of this guide i'm going to go over a destruction based build.

Destruction:
-Destruction Dual casting
-augmented fire, frost, or shock
-Impact
for destruction i chose to go with dual casting and impact in order to stagger would be attackers so i could better keep them bay as for what element to specialize in, it is completely up to you here's a break down to better your understanding.

Fire- lowest magicka cost and highest damage output, it's traveling speed is in between frost
and shock making it a great primary attack option. Dark Elves, Flame Atronachs, and Fire dragons resist this element

Frost- medium cost, and slow moving frost is most effective for slowing down melee attackers a draining their stamina. Nords, Frost Atronachs, and Frost Dragons resist this element

Shock- fastest movement speed, and highest cost it is most effective against fellow magisters because it drains them of there magicka. Storm Atronachs resist this element

Restoration:
-Recovery
-Avoid Death(maybe i thought it was pretty cool)
For restoration your focus should be on the magicka recovery aspect you may also choose to invest in the "regeneration" perk to better your health recovery in a pinch.

Enchanting:
-Enchanter
-Insightful Enchanter
-Extra Effect
your focus should be on increasing your enchantments strength this will allow you to drastically reduce the cost of your spells as mentioned above.

Alteration:
-Magic Resistance
-Atronach
Focus on passive effects, perks such mage armor can be helpful, but with magic resistance you can kite easier by not having to worry about getting killed by another mage.

You may also choose to invest into conjuration as well and that's fine, but if you use to many perks on things you want you'll find yourself lacking in what you need.

This is my first guide and i would enjoy feed back as to how i could make it better. this guide only outlines the destruction character build, a different type of mage say a conjuration mage would have a very different build.
 

Annabd

Anna
Cool guide! My first character was a mage and I epically failed. Personally, I'm not going to make another mage anytime soon, but I'm sure this will help tons of people! One suggestion though, add what spells people should use - like what destruction spell has the highest dps?
 

Propheous

New Member
Don't forget that if you want to be a necro you can get some really crazy things going on with the highest level zombie spell. Its a permanent pet that when it dies the dead body is left. If you put items on the body and reanimate it then it has new gear.
 

Ellios

New Member
So basically do you just recommend using destruction most of the time and put points in talents that cause your spells to stagger enemies?
 

Skullrattla

Button Pusher
Sounds good, check the UESP Wiki for more tips. These guys seem to know what they're taliking about.
 
So basically do you just recommend using destruction most of the time and put points in talents that cause your spells to stagger enemies?

For the most part. Dual casting destruction spells to stagger an enemy is going to be the primary way to do confront multiple enemies, the other schools of magic should be used to support you not neccessarily do damage
 

Skullrattla

Button Pusher
Impact is a major upgrade, stops or puts a break on the ****ers rushing at you with axes.

As for Lydia, when I hit around level 25 she just kept dying too much even though she had Ebony Armor of Eminent Health and other goodies. I switched to Mjoll, and even though she is a blabbermouth with not enough variety of things to say (had to turn down voice volume!), she seems a lot tougher. But still gets in the way. Using chain lighning is a problem, because it arcs to her as well and she complains and loses health. Had good results standing behind her with healing hands.

FG, are you sure that levelling up Enchantment reduces Destruction spell magica costs? i thought that happens when you level up in Destruction.
 

M'aiqaelF

Male, 32 years old, Denver area, CO
Impact is a major upgrade, stops or puts a break on the ****ers rushing at you with axes.

FG, are you sure that levelling up Enchantment reduces Destruction spell magica costs? i thought that happens when you level up in Destruction.

I don't think I'll get into enchantment w/ my mage b/c I'm doing the mage guild quests and the arch-mage's robes have 100% magicka regen
 

Nathalean

Professional Vampire Ninja
I don't think I'll get into enchantment w/ my mage b/c I'm doing the mage guild quests and the arch-mage's robes have 100% magicka regen

100% regen is not all that much. If you get to around level 40 you can get the ordinary master robes which grant 150% + cost reduction for your preferred school of magic. The Arch-Mages Robes also don't allow you to wear an additional hood which would grant way more than the 50 magicka that are included in the Arch-Mages Robes.
 

M'aiqaelF

Male, 32 years old, Denver area, CO
100% regen is not all that much. If you get to around level 40 you can get the ordinary master robes which grant 150% + cost reduction for your preferred school of magic. The Arch-Mages Robes also don't allow you to wear an additional hood which would grant way more than the 50 magicka that are included in the Arch-Mages Robes.

good to know.....I'm still getting the hang of this mage thing, I usually play the hack and slash juggernaut type. I still may not want to develop enchanting that much and will probably go for alchemy instead and just stock a lot of restore magicka potions. It seems like a waste to use perks for enchanting when I won't be using weapons or conventional armor.
 

Gemini Sierra

Pre-emptive Salvage Specialist
FG, are you sure that levelling up Enchantment reduces Destruction spell magica costs? i thought that happens when you level up in Destruction.

I think they were implying that if you level up enchanting you can make items that help in reducing magicka costs. that's the only way that I know of to use enchanting to that effect.
 

Teritus

Giving it to you straight since 1869
Good guide, but Illusion is actually very helpful. You can cast Frenzy and such to help fight in large groups. And there's Invisibility in this as well as in Oblivion.
 

Teritus

Giving it to you straight since 1869
good to know.....I'm still getting the hang of this mage thing, I usually play the hack and slash juggernaut type. I still may not want to develop enchanting that much and will probably go for alchemy instead and just stock a lot of restore magicka potions. It seems like a waste to use perks for enchanting when I won't be using weapons or conventional armor.

No, it's not a waste of perks. You need enchanting to reduce the cost of a school of magic, so you can cast expert/master spells while wasting little mana.
 

Straumgald

Member
Dual casting Illusion spells doubles the levels it effects? If that is true, I might have to make a character using those schools.
 

Necromis

Well-Known Member
I think the OP is incorrect on one thing within his thoughts. From my understanding armour doesn't impact your casting ability what so ever. So you can be fully armoured in daedric armour and still cast as efficiently as if you were naked or in robes. Granted unless you have that armour enchanted you won't have the same perks as the robes have, but with enough enchanting skill you could walk around like a tank with the same perks.
 

mcfrg

Member
100% regen is not all that much. If you get to around level 40 you can get the ordinary master robes which grant 150% + cost reduction for your preferred school of magic. The Arch-Mages Robes also don't allow you to wear an additional hood which would grant way more than the 50 magicka that are included in the Arch-Mages Robes.
You can still wear a circlet and the Arch-Mage robe. The Arch Mage will give you his circlet at one point, which adds an additional 50 magicka (total 100 magicka).
 
I think the OP is incorrect on one thing within his thoughts. From my understanding armour doesn't impact your casting ability what so ever. So you can be fully armoured in daedric armour and still cast as efficiently as if you were naked or in robes. Granted unless you have that armour enchanted you won't have the same perks as the robes have, but with enough enchanting skill you could walk around like a tank with the same perks.

This is correct.
 

Mannulus

Article Writer
Lets not forget to mention Morekai's Mask. <_<
 

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