Destruction magic underpowered?

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hexperiment

The Experimentalist
I hear a lot of people say destruction magic is underpowered in terms of fire power at higher levels.

I'll note some general pros and cons of destruction magic

Pros:
-Destruction magic can directly attack stamina and magicka with frost and lightening spells

-You can chain stun an enemy with impact perk

-Some enemies are weak against certain elements and destruction magic provides all 3 types of elements

-Some spells have AoE

Cons:
-There is a limited number of spells to choose from.

-The damage is set for each spell. The only way to increase your damage is through perks and potions. Even then, damage boosting perks are very limited and potion effects don't stack. On contrast, one-handed perks let you can upgrade the damage all the way up to 100% and you can make it even stronger with better weapons.

-Some enemies are just immune to magic. Especially with mages using magic shield.

-If you're playing as full mage, you need to invest a lot of points to magicka. Hence, your health is very low so you'll die almost immediately in close combat...

You can read more statistics right here.

So, I would like to know what you guys think. I think that destruction magic does gets pretty weak in higher levels... However, I haven't played with melee weapons yet so I can't give much comparison.
 

Onyx

Member
I have not played as a full mage but have experienced a drop in my magic damage playing with my spellsword. It kinda dropped of drastically around lvl 20 so I am relying more on my 1h wep instead of my magic.

I have not tried a full blown mage yet at higher lvls but it is not possible to enchant gear with + elemental damage, i.e Fire Damage increased x% on apparel?
 

hexperiment

The Experimentalist
I have not played as a full mage but have experienced a drop in my magic damage playing with my spellsword. It kinda dropped of drastically around lvl 20 so I am relying more on my 1h wep instead of my magic.

I have not tried a full blown mage yet at higher lvls but it is not possible to enchant gear with + elemental damage, i.e Fire Damage increased x% on apparel?
as far as i know, the only elemental enchantment is resist on gears and damage on weapons but not +damage% on gears. There is fortify destruction enchantment but that only decrease the magicka cost of each spell. Useful but it still takes the same number of fireballs to kill a dude
 

Onyx

Member
Ah that kinda sucks really....

Cannot really comment to much because I have not played a full mage but I do think their power comes not only from the destruction tree as I found things like re-animate dead, frenzy etc to be extreamly useful and powerful. So while their direct damage spells might not do as much damager as high level melee weapons, a dedicated mage has a lot of other spells that can kill enemies either by summons, re-animation or getting enemies to kill each other to name a few.

Again, not played at high level so this is all conjecture from my point
 

lemmyjftw

New Member
It's definantely underpowered in my opinion. I have multiple characters, a lvl 21 spellcaster and a 25 melee weapon char included, and the Melee character just seems to wipe away the competition. The Spellcaster is definantely more fun in the way of visual effects, don't get me wrong the random cut-scene insta kills are cool with melee, but spellcasting is more visually interesting. That being said, my melee character will survive a fight without needing to pot or heal in any way, while my mage has to cast 4 spells then run and heal since I have all of 140 hp. HOWEVER, since I have alot of mana (with gear I think it is around 530?) I can pretty much just stand in place while tanking hits and heal myself with dualcasting the healing spell, which also helps my armor and restoration skills. Destruction spells were definantely overpowered in Oblivion and I think the developers addressed that fact, but a little too much I think. It's funny how my firebolt spell does more dps than my fireball which according to the tooltip does 51 in comparison to 31. With the up-coming add-on should change the interface to allow spell enhancement or spell creation, meaning as you use a spell, it can get better. Sorry for the long-winded answer :p
 

Brother

Member
NO. Destruction magic is definitely not overpowered. I only have a few destruction spells and everything goes down easily for me. It's called destruction for a reason.
 

Deadnak

Breton - lvl 32
Don't forget about the rune spells you can cast with destruction. But I think you are right about it being underpowered. Especially if you are playing on Adept or above. That's why I prefer using Conjuration and Illusion as my primary skills for dealing with hostiles. Alteration and Restoration are good as secondary skills to keep you alive. But this is because I switch between Adept and Expert, plus I'm a Breton. If you want you character to deal damage using destruction, High Elf is your best choice to begin with.
 

thecelticlatino

Active Member
I agree with you OP. I have one such character (Argonian mage-assassin). He's not really a melee combatant since he has to sneak/backstab his enemies but relies on destruction magic in a straight up fight. Usually the Sparks and Firebolt spell get the job done but there's been more than one time he's run out of mana and gets owned soon after.

Because of this my other 'magic' character (Breton) doesn't use destruction magic and instead uses bound weapons. In a sense he is a pure mage because he relies on conjuring weapons to attack as well as spells to ward/protect/heal. Destruction magic IS useful, but playing a character who completely relies on it as at best extremely tough to at worst near impossible.

This game is definitely built for hybrid type characters despite earlier claims of 'specializing' characters. Pure melee types need a ranged weapon, pure stealth types either need some combat or magic and pure mages definitely need at least a backup.
 

Stone

Retired Moderator
I don't think destruction magic is under-powered either. Some of the master spells you get absolutely own everyone, at least they do when I'm using them ;).

It all depends on your Destruction level and spells I guess.
 

Deadnak

Breton - lvl 32
I don't think destruction magic is under-powered either. Some of the master spells you get absolutely own everyone, at least they do when I'm using them ;).

It all depends on your Destruction level and spells I guess.
And it depends on the difficulty you play on. Like I said in my reply...using destruction on adept or higher is going to give you a hard time unless you have a lot of magicka potions.
 

hexperiment

The Experimentalist
I agree with you OP. I have one such character (Argonian mage-assassin). He's not really a melee combatant since he has to sneak/backstab his enemies but relies on destruction magic in a straight up fight. Usually the Sparks and Firebolt spell get the job done but there's been more than one time he's run out of mana and gets owned soon after.

Because of this my other 'magic' character (Breton) doesn't use destruction magic and instead uses bound weapons. In a sense he is a pure mage because he relies on conjuring weapons to attack as well as spells to ward/protect/heal. Destruction magic IS useful, but playing a character who completely relies on it as at best extremely tough to at worst near impossible.

This game is definitely built for hybrid type characters despite earlier claims of 'specializing' characters. Pure melee types need a ranged weapon, pure stealth types either need some combat or magic and pure mages definitely need at least a backup.
I find your hybrid theory very plausible. I feel compelled to categorize the skills in terms of usage. Some are major skills that you need to get through the game, while some are minor or supporting skill. Theoretically, all skills should be equal in their own rights but as an action RPG, Skyrim fails to pass the 'true' RPG test in some sense. RPG is a very complicated game genre...

To be back on topic, yes, I do feel that destruction magic is pushed a little to the minor or supportive skill at higher levels. It's always hard to find that right spot between underpower and overpower at all skill levels.
 

Sebastián Piazza

Mother fluffer Jones
..

This game is definitely built for hybrid type characters despite earlier claims of 'specializing' characters. Pure melee types need a ranged weapon, pure stealth types either need some combat or magic and pure mages definitely need at least a backup.
That's why i always carry my trusty shield and my mace of shocks with me, everytime i go adventuring with my breton mage (and some good old armor wouldn't hurt too to survive close encounters).
 

Kasha

Active Member
I have 250 magic 250 health and 150 stamina, i do pretty good, only time i run out of magic, is when im doing big spell, i still stick with the basic fire, ice, and shock, and i do power attacks with my blade, it works out pretty good, if i say so my self.
 

Garrison

Active Member
Level 23, so not high level yet... but currently I also typically use both. Using dual weapon with destruction has my ranged attack. I usually toss a couple of fireballs while closing...then it's slice and dice; I haven't had much trouble with any adversary for about 10 levels now.
 

thraashman

New Member
I've been reading how some people have managed to use increased enchanting potions to give themselves equipment with enchanments equaling Destruction Magic - 100% and have unlimited use of Magic as a result. So in that case it seems quite useful. I may look into trying that myself soon.
 

zeva

Meanwhile in Skyrim...
Yep, if you can get your enchanting up top, you can put full strength enchants into your armor. I'm still not completely clear on it all, but here is a good video explaining the process...

 

Justin Kriegel

New Member
I think Destruction is definitely lacking in power. With my character wearing his "Mage outfit" which consists of a bunch of fortify magicka and fortify magicka regen stuff, I've gotten up to 560 Magicka and ~+240% Magicka regen (With Atronach Stone). That's obviously if I need to cast myself a lot of spells. His other outfit consists of Legendary Dwarven Armor that gives a total of +50 Magicka, +115% Magicka Regen, and -20% destruction spell cost. So I'm always prepared to cast spells... But I have noticed that it's so much easier to pull out my Legendary Daedric War Axe (With +25 fire damage) and Spellbreaker and beat a dragon's face than straight up dual casting fireballs.
 

Annabd

Anna
I'm playing as almost a pure mage with a high destruction skill, but I'm still using the same "Flame" spell that everyone gets at the very beginning of the game. I got a fire bolt spell that's a bit stronger, but it isn't a continuous stream of fire, which is useful for accuracy, so I don't use that. I hope it doesn't get worse in the higher levels though - I mean, even now my dwarven dagger (un-enchanted) does more damage then my fire spell. I think I'm going to have to dual cast my fire spell and get rid of the healing one :sadface: Suggestions anyone?
 

Flamingtaco

Active Member
I'm playing as almost a pure mage with a high destruction skill, but I'm still using the same "Flame" spell that everyone gets at the very beginning of the game. I got a fire bolt spell that's a bit stronger, but it isn't a continuous stream of fire, which is useful for accuracy, so I don't use that. I hope it doesn't get worse in the higher levels though - I mean, even now my dwarven dagger (un-enchanted) does more damage then my fire spell. I think I'm going to have to dual cast my fire spell and get rid of the healing one :sadface: Suggestions anyone?
Don't go pure mage. Use one handed weapons. War-axes combined with shock spells are how I do it.
 

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