Bane of Alduin
Member
Pyromancers, cryomancers, electromancers unite! I made this thread for all my fellow destruction mages to share your strategies, tips, and ideas. Anything is helpful. Thanks!
The Art of Destruction
- Thread starter Bane of Alduin
- Start date
Psiberzerker
Author
Oh, man. First of all, no 1 skill will do it all in Skyrim, so some of these combos are with other trees.
Flames: Don't just hose them, but hit them with pulses as fast as possible to stack up the Afterburn effect. Less XP, but a lot more DPS for those tough bosses. Also, Draugr are the best sparring partners for Destruction. Crypt dive for the first few levels to get up to Augment Flames.
Firebolt: Like Flames, you can rapid fire to stack up Afterburn, but with 25 more damage with each hit. Excellent single target damage dealer, but doesn't spread it around like some others. With Impact, you can cast 2 or 3 more singles before you have to stun them again, and get more bang for your buck.
Ice Spike: Slows them, so you don't have to Stun them as often, and can run circles around the melee.
Lightning Bolt Hit Scans, so you don't have to lead targets, you won't get as many off, but you won't miss as much either. Good to proc Disintegrate so they're weak against follow up shots (Especially nice set-up for a Spellsword's Critical Charge.) Can 1 shot a Flame Atronach, hopefully with them clustered in the blast radius. (Even your own!)
Fire Rune: A "Poor Man's Fireball" until you get to Adept, the Strategist can also cast one, and let his Magicka recover before kiting the enemy into it. Also blasts Draugr out of their coffins, you can do this at the end of proving Honor before you pick up the Fragment, and skip the last fight entirely. (Also keeps Frakas from stealing all your XP.)
Ice Storm: Probably the best offensive spell in the game. You can kite armies into a line to hit all of them, fatigue, and Slow. With Impact/Deep Freeze you can add Stun/Paralysis to the mix. Can also be comboed with Flaming Familiar to detonate on contact (or Runes work too) and hit them with both Elements. nothing is significantly resistant to both.
Flame/Frost Cloak: Storm Cloak looks nifty, but the Magicka Drain effect is less than stellar because other mages tend to fall back spellcasting instead of engage you in the AoE. Not a decent replacement for Weapons in a melee, but you can run circles around them (Unencumbered Altmer are the fastest.) to hit people with Afterburn/Slow en passant. Spellswords, Battlemages, and Sorcerers can use this even more effectively with Weapons/Armor.
Incinerate/Icy Spear/Thunderbolt: I don't use these, because I can do more damage with 3 Bolts, and let my Magicka recover more in between. If you're just Stand&Spam, you pretty much have to make Destruction free to be effective in anything more than a duel. None of them AoE to multiply Targets, even. Thunderbolt, and Ward Absorb is my "I don't need Dragonrend" combo. It takes timing, but you can shoot them down, and block all their shouts.
Wall Spells: Here's yer damage! Each pulse does a total of 1000 damage unaugmented, if you can keep them in the AoE for the duration. Wall of Storms glitches Impact, however, so it won't stagger as long as they're still sparky. Unrelenting Force stuns them down long enough to pulse a puddle at their feet, and switch to Impact for keeping them there. The fastest way to kill a dragon I've found is Dragonrend, then hose down their broad footprints with all 3 elements. That's 150 damage per second for every spot they cover on the ground. If you side straffe, you can get every nook, and they tend to turn instead of crawl after you. You can also cast them at your feet while running away to kite Giants over. You can make do with just Fire, and Frost. The cold one slows them down for kiting, and also drains dragons' Stamina so they can't take off for your to Dragonrend them again. For my Perks, Shield Bash, or Windshear are the best ways to keep them stunlocked in the AoE...
Absorb Health: (Vampires) Benefit from all Fire enhancements, including Ahzidal, and Aspect of Terror.
Flames: Don't just hose them, but hit them with pulses as fast as possible to stack up the Afterburn effect. Less XP, but a lot more DPS for those tough bosses. Also, Draugr are the best sparring partners for Destruction. Crypt dive for the first few levels to get up to Augment Flames.
Firebolt: Like Flames, you can rapid fire to stack up Afterburn, but with 25 more damage with each hit. Excellent single target damage dealer, but doesn't spread it around like some others. With Impact, you can cast 2 or 3 more singles before you have to stun them again, and get more bang for your buck.
Ice Spike: Slows them, so you don't have to Stun them as often, and can run circles around the melee.
Lightning Bolt Hit Scans, so you don't have to lead targets, you won't get as many off, but you won't miss as much either. Good to proc Disintegrate so they're weak against follow up shots (Especially nice set-up for a Spellsword's Critical Charge.) Can 1 shot a Flame Atronach, hopefully with them clustered in the blast radius. (Even your own!)
Fire Rune: A "Poor Man's Fireball" until you get to Adept, the Strategist can also cast one, and let his Magicka recover before kiting the enemy into it. Also blasts Draugr out of their coffins, you can do this at the end of proving Honor before you pick up the Fragment, and skip the last fight entirely. (Also keeps Frakas from stealing all your XP.)
Ice Storm: Probably the best offensive spell in the game. You can kite armies into a line to hit all of them, fatigue, and Slow. With Impact/Deep Freeze you can add Stun/Paralysis to the mix. Can also be comboed with Flaming Familiar to detonate on contact (or Runes work too) and hit them with both Elements. nothing is significantly resistant to both.
Flame/Frost Cloak: Storm Cloak looks nifty, but the Magicka Drain effect is less than stellar because other mages tend to fall back spellcasting instead of engage you in the AoE. Not a decent replacement for Weapons in a melee, but you can run circles around them (Unencumbered Altmer are the fastest.) to hit people with Afterburn/Slow en passant. Spellswords, Battlemages, and Sorcerers can use this even more effectively with Weapons/Armor.
Incinerate/Icy Spear/Thunderbolt: I don't use these, because I can do more damage with 3 Bolts, and let my Magicka recover more in between. If you're just Stand&Spam, you pretty much have to make Destruction free to be effective in anything more than a duel. None of them AoE to multiply Targets, even. Thunderbolt, and Ward Absorb is my "I don't need Dragonrend" combo. It takes timing, but you can shoot them down, and block all their shouts.
Wall Spells: Here's yer damage! Each pulse does a total of 1000 damage unaugmented, if you can keep them in the AoE for the duration. Wall of Storms glitches Impact, however, so it won't stagger as long as they're still sparky. Unrelenting Force stuns them down long enough to pulse a puddle at their feet, and switch to Impact for keeping them there. The fastest way to kill a dragon I've found is Dragonrend, then hose down their broad footprints with all 3 elements. That's 150 damage per second for every spot they cover on the ground. If you side straffe, you can get every nook, and they tend to turn instead of crawl after you. You can also cast them at your feet while running away to kite Giants over. You can make do with just Fire, and Frost. The cold one slows them down for kiting, and also drains dragons' Stamina so they can't take off for your to Dragonrend them again. For my Perks, Shield Bash, or Windshear are the best ways to keep them stunlocked in the AoE...
Absorb Health: (Vampires) Benefit from all Fire enhancements, including Ahzidal, and Aspect of Terror.
Psiberzerker
Author
Going through my playtime notes, here's an example of how I approach a common tactical situation with just Destruction (Expert.)
Fort Greymore, Expert Destruction, about 250 Magicka (Level 16) and Expert Robes of Destruction/Morokei. There was some Alteration, and other stuff in there too.
Running up, double cast Lightning Bolt into the Archer over the Arch, and drop a Fire Rune in front of the opening. Switch to Wall of Frost/Flames, and straffe the entrance. [S+D/A] to arc around, and back until they start coming, and your magicka recovers. Dual Cast Lightning Bolt as they walk through first the Cold, then Slow going into the Fire AoE, stagger them as needed as they start to come out. There's a hand full of random bandits in there, and a couple more archers you might have to run around the corner, and hide from.
No glitch exploits I'm aware of, this was on Adept difficulty, and 100 Health.
Fort Greymore, Expert Destruction, about 250 Magicka (Level 16) and Expert Robes of Destruction/Morokei. There was some Alteration, and other stuff in there too.
Running up, double cast Lightning Bolt into the Archer over the Arch, and drop a Fire Rune in front of the opening. Switch to Wall of Frost/Flames, and straffe the entrance. [S+D/A] to arc around, and back until they start coming, and your magicka recovers. Dual Cast Lightning Bolt as they walk through first the Cold, then Slow going into the Fire AoE, stagger them as needed as they start to come out. There's a hand full of random bandits in there, and a couple more archers you might have to run around the corner, and hide from.
No glitch exploits I'm aware of, this was on Adept difficulty, and 100 Health.
Pretty Vampires
Bunny Foo Foo
Don't remember all of my playthroughs, but my current one (40 hours in)...
Against a large group Undead:
Conjure Flame Atronach/Storm Atronach
Dual-Cast Circle of Protection
Flame Cloak/Lightning Cloak
Wall of Flames/Wall of Lightning
Fireball/Chain Lightning
Against a small group of Undead:
Conjure Dremora Lord
Flame Cloak/Lightning Cloak
Incinerate/Thunderbolt
Against mages:
Conjure Storm Atronach
Lightning Cloak
Wall of Lightning
Chain Lightning
Against dragons:
Conjure Storm Atronach
Flame Cloak/Lightning Cloak
Incinerate/Thunderbolt
Against Alduin (plan):
Lightning Storm
Against Kaarstag (plan):
Firestorm
Funny thing happened yesterday. I'm level 50 going up against a Dragon Priest. He summons a Storm Atronach, I command his summon and his Storm Atronach then turns and kills him for me.
Storm Atronachs>>>>>
Against a large group Undead:
Conjure Flame Atronach/Storm Atronach
Dual-Cast Circle of Protection
Flame Cloak/Lightning Cloak
Wall of Flames/Wall of Lightning
Fireball/Chain Lightning
Against a small group of Undead:
Conjure Dremora Lord
Flame Cloak/Lightning Cloak
Incinerate/Thunderbolt
Against mages:
Conjure Storm Atronach
Lightning Cloak
Wall of Lightning
Chain Lightning
Against dragons:
Conjure Storm Atronach
Flame Cloak/Lightning Cloak
Incinerate/Thunderbolt
Against Alduin (plan):
Lightning Storm
Against Kaarstag (plan):
Firestorm
Funny thing happened yesterday. I'm level 50 going up against a Dragon Priest. He summons a Storm Atronach, I command his summon and his Storm Atronach then turns and kills him for me.
Storm Atronachs>>>>>
Epic Keith
By Ysmir you're going to FREEZE to death!
It gets a little OP as you move up the ranks but who cares?
I once had the disintegrate perk and killed a dragon. Never found it's body or it's soul
I once had the disintegrate perk and killed a dragon. Never found it's body or it's soul
