Thoughts on my return to Skyrim builds

1) Den-Moria
My first Pure Mage build - High-elf, level 36 (at the moment), high 60's to 70's in all magic schools, wearing Mage Circlet, Arch-Mage robes, Savroth Aren's necklace and boots enchanted with lightning protection and gloves enchanted with additional magicka. Stats read at 598/200/100 at the moment.
Haven't used a weapon at all this run through with the exception of dual wielding bound swords when facing Morokei as he simply drained away all my magicka anyhow and did no other damage.
-Thus far I've been only clothing and robes and using flesh spells (currently ebonyflesh with 3X perk) but finding them irritating - they take too long to activate, last such a short time and don't seem to really offer me anything. Have been experimenting and find that wearing Vampire Royal and still use ebonyflesh for that little extra.
- Followers (at least living ones) are truly not a good idea if you like to use area affect spells. Antronachs are the way to go. Undead are fine, but they take far too long and don't last long enough. Haven't gotten to Dremora yet, although I'm sure they'll prove useful. Go it alone if at all possible.
- Lydia is great with staves. While I had her as a follower, she equipped both a fire-bolt and a lightning staff and just about flattened everything. What with my ice-storm spamming, the charaus and falmer didn't stand a chance.
- Alteration and Restoration are AWESOME schools. I've never really used them before, but they really are effective and certainly have some great perks.
- It's a good idea to keep a staff on hand, just in case. I keep Ice-Storm, Fireball and Chain Lightning, myself.
- It's a relief not having to worry so much about smithing. With the Vampire Royal, there really is no need for anything other than the Arcane Blacksmithing perk.
- The Soul Trap spell sucks. 1/2 the time it misses and who has the time! Without a weapon, what am I supposed to do.

Den isn't worrying too much about the main quests. Sure I've completed the College and the main quest to Blade in the Dark, but I'm taking my time. He'll probably go Dawnguard since he's a "Holy Warrior".

2) Noir Gris
Dark-elf, spellsword, level 22 (at the moment). Never played a Dunmer before - always freaked out by the red eyes. I just gave him black eyes and it seems to work out.
- it's odd that I'm relatively invulnerable to fire. I think this one will go vamp.
- this one I'm playing really slow. Haven't even been to Whiterun yet. I've decided I'm cleaning out everything before I move on to a new area. Example: I've cleaned out everything in the Falkreath area (with the exception of Pinewatch - but that's tonight). Once I get to Whiterun, it will be everything in Whiterun hold, etc... I'm trying to avoid the questlines for the time being. Perhaps I'll take him companion though. That might be fun, although, not being able to use magic until it's done will be a bit limiting, but I've built him in to quite the archer and one-handed.

3) Ulv Tunderfodt
Pretty obviously a Nord. This is my racist, xenophobic two-handed heavy build (only at level 12 right now) who is going Stormcloak. So far he has just cut a swath through Falkreath and Whiterun holds killing everything that isn't human (elf, khajit, argonian, etc...), and everything in an Imperial uniform. It's fun, we'll see where it goes. He'll probably go Dawnguard, but I can't see him in the TG, the DB maybe, but probably not TG and certainly not the college. No magic, no alchemy and no enchanting. Lot's of smithing though.

you should make one to be a rival against my Ancient Samurai and we have an honorable warrior battle

A few tips for Den-Moria, if you don't mind, though sounds like you're doing an awesome job with him thus far. First of all, Vampire Royal armor is one of the best things for mages IMHO.
I was using it on my main myself but it seems to have glitched out and is stuck in vampire mode, even though my main is a werewolf again. Go figure!
Oh and if you don't mind investing perks in it, Agile Warrior can make Vampire Royal armor give pretty decent protection. Before mine stopped working right, I had about, three out of five in Agile Warrior and the Ancient Knowledge passive which together gave it an almost 80 armor rating.
For a mage that's awesome. Anyway, since it sounds like you've completed the College of Winterhold quest line, a good alternative to both Vampire Royal armor and Flesh spells is to wear the Morokei mask and some light armor. An amulet of Akatosh will add 25 percent extra magicka regen as well, though since you have such a deep pool of magicka you probably won't need any extra.
Also, and this is a good way to raise your Alteration level as well, cast Flesh spells whenever you're in a dungeon or somewhere combat will most likely happen. Keep the Flesh spell on. That helps a lot.
I've also found that Cloak spells from the Destruction school last slightly longer and still have some form of defense, so you could cast say, a Flame Cloak and use that instead of a Flesh spell. It would also give you some extra offense.
There is a perk in the Alteration tree that makes them last longer - two actually. Stabilization I think it's called and the perk to dual cast them.
Both make them last longer. Most alchemy shops carry fortify alteration potions which make Flesh spells last longer as well.
So in short there are ways to get around the short duration and some of the hassle of Flesh spells. Now, as for the issues with Soul Trap - I personally never use it because it always misses and I tend to forget to use it anyway!
There is a perk in the Conjuration tree which allows Bound weaponry to automatically use Soul Trap. Of course you have to have the right sized Soul Gem on hand, but it's very convenient.
I recommend that versus Soul Trap. Much easier.
And finally speaking of staffs, if you don't have it already, get the Sanguine Rose. Very useful to be able to call in a Dremora tank even if you're out of magicka.
That's it for my recommendations lol. Hope it helps somewhat.


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ecozombie said:

A few tips for Den-Moria, if you don't mind, though sounds like you're doing an awesome job with him thus far. First of all, Vampire Royal armor is one of the best things for mages IMHO.
I was using it on my main myself but it seems to have glitched out and is stuck in vampire mode, even though my main is a werewolf again. Go figure!
Oh and if you don't mind investing perks in it, Agile Warrior can make Vampire Royal armor give pretty decent protection. Before mine stopped working right, I had about, three out of five in Agile Warrior and the Ancient Knowledge passive which together gave it an almost 80 armor rating.
For a mage that's awesome. Anyway, since it sounds like you've completed the College of Winterhold quest line, a good alternative to both Vampire Royal armor and Flesh spells is to wear the Morokei mask and some light armor. An amulet of Akatosh will add 25 percent extra magicka regen as well, though since you have such a deep pool of magicka you probably won't need any extra.
Also, and this is a good way to raise your Alteration level as well, cast Flesh spells whenever you're in a dungeon or somewhere combat will most likely happen. Keep the Flesh spell on. That helps a lot.
I've also found that Cloak spells from the Destruction school last slightly longer and still have some form of defense, so you could cast say, a Flame Cloak and use that instead of a Flesh spell. It would also give you some extra offense.
There is a perk in the Alteration tree that makes them last longer - two actually. Stabilization I think it's called and the perk to dual cast them.
Both make them last longer. Most alchemy shops carry fortify alteration potions which make Flesh spells last longer as well.
So in short there are ways to get around the short duration and some of the hassle of Flesh spells. Now, as for the issues with Soul Trap - I personally never use it because it always misses and I tend to forget to use it anyway!
There is a perk in the Conjuration tree which allows Bound weaponry to automatically use Soul Trap. Of course you have to have the right sized Soul Gem on hand, but it's very convenient.
I recommend that versus Soul Trap. Much easier.
And finally speaking of staffs, if you don't have it already, get the Sanguine Rose. Very useful to be able to call in a Dremora tank even if you're out of magicka.
That's it for my recommendations lol. Hope it helps somewhat.


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Great suggestions! Thank you.

I am trying to avoid bound weapons as much as possible though. Last night I took my extra copy of Halldir's Staff (for some reason I always end up with 2 of them - one on the floor and one in the ashes ?????) and have been using that. It is much more accurate and costs me nothing. I've been filling soul gems like mad and doing my enchanting.

I, personally, have found that Vampire Royal, Morokei, the Alteration (Restoration?) perks to increase regeneration and a couple of regeneration enchantments on my gear make my magicka almost endless. BTW - I am currently in love with Restoration, particularly Healing Hands and Fast Heal and am almost at 90 on that school already! My only problem with using Morokei is that it hides your face. Once I get a Falmer Helmet I can wear both that and Morokei and really start slamming down my destruction costs as well as those for alteration and restoration (I never really have an issue with Illusion, although I am enjoying both Frenzy and Pacify - just so much fun!).

Playing a pure mage is interesting. With only 200 in health I am really having to avoid physical confrontation, cast a lot of antronachs and use range spells a lot. Fortunately, with fast heal I can run away pretty quick and heal myself before confronting again. Oddly, no issue with Dragons, Drauger Deathlords or any of the myriad of mages (it's amazing how little Lesser Ward costs when you've a big pool and high regeneration and it stops just about anything). My biggest issue is, believe it or not, bandits. They're always rushing you and power attacking if I don't get off a couple of chain lightnings or fireballs quick enough. They even take out my frost antronachs pretty dern quick!

I love reading about peoples' spellcasters. I never get far with one because I love playing an archer. All the bows and arrows, and you can poison them ... So fun in the early stages to poison an arrow, shoot the enemy, have him run at you, only to wilt to the ground from the poison before he can reach you. I love my soul trap bow, and the powerful crossbows with exploding arrows from the Dawnguard dlc.