How to get the most fun out of being a pure mage

[Comenius]

I'm looking for some tips on how to get the most fun out of my pure mage character. For instance, should I join the Dawnguard or the Volkihar Clan? Which school(s) of magic do you think I should focus on? What's the best gear? The best Magica - Health - Stamina distribution?

If you also have a link to any good guides out there on how to be a pure mage I would appreciate it!

 

[Hildolfr]

How do you get the most fun out of being a pure mage? Don't be a pure mage.

While I'm half joking, a lot of it depends on what kind of pure mage you want to be. I don't play pure mages, but from the advice I've read, you'll want to dabble in basically every school. Alteration is a must because of mage armor since a pure mage doesn't wear anything but robes. Archmage outfit is the best, I believe.

And as far as Dawnguard vs Vampire... it boils down to whether or not you want to take advantage of the necromage perk. Necromage perk makes your spells work better on undead and if you're a vampire, you classify as undead. If you do Dawnguard, though, you get some cool anti-undead spells, I think.

 

[LotusEater]

The most fun I've ever had with a pure mage was my Foul Presence build.

Miraak's Gear
Miraak's Staff (poison tentacles)
Bound Bow/Zephyr for nasty posion delivery
Poison Rune
Ignite
Fire Rune
Wall of Flames
Mora's Grasp (field of poison tentacles)
Poison Albino Spider Posse (6 of them)
Companion's Insight (to protect the posse)
the Shout that boosts allies (can't remember name of it)


The bow might take the build out of the pure mage realm, but I don't think so. It was the only melee weapon I carried and it was only used to soften a crowd from a distance using Weakness poisons to make way for in tight magic combat.

All my other 'pure mage' builds always ended up being kinda meh, but when I focused on poison and fire magic, it was by far the most fun build I ever had. The Absorption from Miraak's gear and the Atronach Stone let me throw Runes around like crazy.

 

[Professor Skalvar]

It's been a very long time since I played through the Dawnguard DLC. That being said, you can make an argument for either side.

• Joining the Volkihar Clan and completing radiant quests can result in rewarding you with the Ring of Erudite, which doubles the magicka regeneration and boosts your total by 100 points. There's also the Heal Undead spells, which would be ideal for a necromancer or a conjurer that uses the Soul Cairn summons.
• Joining the Dawnguard gives you access to Sun Spells, which will only damage Vampires and other Undead. The benefit they have that Destruction spells initially (excluding Black Book power from Dragonborn DLC) don't is that they won't hurt any companion you have if you accidentally hit them. They also cost less magicka compared to similar Destruction spells.

The school of Restoration is a definite must for any Mage. Without it, surviving would be a lot more difficult. Beyond the Sun Spells, there are the Ward Spells that block spells and shouts. Even a Lesser Ward can completely block the shout of a Dragon. The Turn Undead spells, though could have stronger magnitude, are pretty nice. They're the equivalent of a Fear spell; I'd recommend using Fortify Restoration potions when casting them on Draugr.

If you want to be a Pure Mage, all the schools of magic are mandatory. Conjuration (excluding the bound weapons) and Illusion are your distraction spells. Hell, you could create an effective character based on those two skills alone. Use Fury/Frenzy spells on a group of enemies and reanimate one of them to fight your battle for you. Destruction is the offensive skill for mages. Fire spells are effective towards Vampires, Ice Wraiths, Trolls and Frost Atronachs due to Fire Weakness. Frost spells are ideal against warriors because they drain their stamina. Without stamina, they cannot power attack; plus there's a chance that they'll be slowed down. Shock spells are the bane of mages, meaning they help deplete the magicka of an enemy.

The last skill is Alteration, which has a variety of uses. There are the flesh spells, which increase your defenses when not wearing armor. Then there's paralysis and ash spells, which incapacitate enemies. When casting an ash spell on anybody, you can't harm them until the effect runs out. Though you can cast a Destruction rune over the body so that it'll trigger when they get up. There's Water Breathing, which is self explanatory. Detect Life and Dead spells are for scouting out how many NPCs there are in a given area. Hostile (pink) and non-hostile NPCs (I think purple?) have different colors. The real advantages in this school are the Magic Resistance perks and Atronach Perk. Both are good defense mechanisms against mages; the former decreases magic damage taken while the latter negates the spell and has a 30% chance of absorbing the base magnitude of the spell.

The stat distribution I recommend would be 3 points in Magicka and 2 points in Health every 5 levels if you never tried it before. Stamina is irrelevant, unless you want to be a hybrid of Warrior and Mage. For best pre-enchanted gear, there are the Archmage's Robes and Miraak's Robes to choose from. The Archmage Robes reduce the cost of all magic skills by 15%, boost your total magicka by 50 points, and 100% in magicka regeneration. Miraak's Robes have a chance of casting a Tentacle Explosion when you get hit by an enemy. This staggers them and deals 100 points of magic damage. The other effect is that it provides 15% spell absorption. If you want, you can take enchanting to create your own uber gear should these two pieces not entice you.

My last major playthrough was a Pure Mage, that was focused on Rune spells, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Cheers good friend.

 

[Daelon DuLac]

Learn to love dieing or being lazy and having everybody else do everything for you since you're just a meat bag with no skills until level 40.

 

[Torok]

Right now, I'm playing a pure mage thief, he uses light armor, conjuration, restoration, alteration, illusion. I mixed classes. Maybe you too can mix classes. Have a heavy armored destruction mage, or a light armored summoner, healer. Mix and match to get the most fun. Or dabble in all schools and wear robes.

 

[berzum]

walk around in HA and when some person makes a rude comment i go into invisibilty and take my clothes off and deactivate it...surprise nudety!

 

[JoeReese]

The most fun I get from pure mage is reminiscing on the hilarity that was my feeble attempt at surviving as a pure mage. "I remember that time the troll killed me." "Reminds me of that time those bandits killed me." "...just like that time Grelod the Kind killed me."

 

[khazan99]

The most fun I get from pure mage is reminiscing on the hilarity that was my feeble attempt at surviving as a pure mage. "I remember that time the troll killed me." "Reminds me of that time those bandits killed me." "...just like that time Grelod the Kind killed me."

Exactly.....and death by mudcrab.

 

[berzum]

The most fun I get from pure mage is reminiscing on the hilarity that was my feeble attempt at surviving as a pure mage. "I remember that time the troll killed me." "Reminds me of that time those bandits killed me." "...just like that time Grelod the Kind killed me."

why summon a flame summins for the troll or use flames, and as far as bandits why not use frost to slow them down, flesh spells for armor rating? I find living asa pure mage was quite easy, just had to pay attention to what you are fighting.

 

[Daelon DuLac]

The most fun I get from pure mage is reminiscing on the hilarity that was my feeble attempt at surviving as a pure mage. "I remember that time the troll killed me." "Reminds me of that time those bandits killed me." "...just like that time Grelod the Kind killed me."

why summon a flame summins for the troll or use flames, and as far as bandits why not use frost to slow them down, flesh spells for armor rating? I find living asa pure mage was quite easy, just had to pay attention to what you are fighting.

Whatever. Flame antronachs can barely kill a wolf and frost is pointless on 99% of the beings in Skryim. To play a pure mage, stay home and hide in a corner while your "follower's" do the adventuring, you are far to squishy and easily killed.

I still want to know how you can be so gung-ho on mages at low levels? If you cast a flesh spell, you have no magicka left to do anything else! Magicka regenerates, but not that quickly! Sure, the first thing I do is reduce my cost by 50% for whatever I'm using, but, unless I want to look like an idiot in a dress (robes), the only way to get any regeneration at level 1-10 is to kill a vampire that's wearing the right armor and take it, find one of those few and far between rings or amulets or actually wear one of those gadawful getups.

Example: 2nd level mage in 50% regen robes from Helgen. Great, let's cast a flesh spell since we're heading toward enemies. Oops, guess what, I have no magicka now and they're 10 feet away. Choice: run like he** the other direction -or- pull out my dagger and pray my magicka recovers enough to defend myself before they kill me.

I luv ya berzum, but I just don't get how someone can play a solo mage, particularly at low levels (or even higher ones if you don't avail yourself of bound weapons). The only way I've found to do it is to have somebody or something else do the killing for me (while, of course being very, very careful with whatever spells I do cast, since the damage my followers), like followers or antronachs or familiars; or to just spend most of my time running away. If you're by yourself, you are quite literally screwed. Even if you cast Fury on someone, you had better be outta there 'cause, if they notice you, you're a goner. I'll stick with a mage with a big a** axe or mace. That way I'm not defenseless.

 

[berzum]

Daelon you seem to be the type of person that would throw a charmander up against a Blastoise and say fire is a weak element lol.

 

[Daelon DuLac]

Daelon you seem to be the type of person that would throw a charmander up against a Blastoise and say fire is a weak element lol.

I can only agree with you since I don't really know very much about Pokemon (I seem to remember that those are the names of two of them).

I'm serious though. You seem to be really good at playing a mage and I find myself getting so frustrated with it (I hate dieing and I'm tired of playing my mages on novice just to keep them alive) so any advice you've got (other than "get a follower", that one I know already - my issue is keeping that follower alive since they always seem to get in the way of my spells!) is really valuable. Don't let my sarcasm throw you off.

 

[berzum]

on;y advice i can give, is don't give up, just like with any other build, all have strengths and all have weakness's

 

[berzum]

forgot to mention, i went to the mages college asap, and the only dungeon or places i traveled to were quest related, my goal is to not enter a cave/place untill lvl 100 unless it is quest nescary.

 

[Daelon DuLac]

forgot to mention, i went to the mages college asap, and the only dungeon or places i traveled to were quest related, my goal is to not enter a cave/place untill lvl 100 unless it is quest nescary.

I don't think I could make it to level 100 without doing something.

 

[berzum]

well i kill bandits and giants alot, best place for bandits is just outside white run to the left, there is a broken carrage and a horse there.

 

[khazan99]

berzum and Daelon you guys are great, srsly. nice friendly debate and good information all around. and sarcasm, of course, lots of that.

I struggle...no, that's not right.... I fail at playing a 'pure' mage as well, and as I have mentioned, it's partly due to my impatience when running around the big wide World. I have used a follower or two, and found them to be quite helpful when they're not being a complete and utterly frustrating obstacle. I have used Alchemy to ensure that I am equipped with 14000 Restore Magicka potions so that I can attempt to keep casting, and agonized over being totally encumbered. I have rejoiced when finally getting the Flame Atronach spell, only to then stare dumbfounded as the flighty little thing twirls her way all over the place and blasts my follower (obstacle) in the back with a fireball.

All said, I truly believe (or desperately want to believe) that a pure mage is possible and not an exercise in futility, but I think it does come down to really altering one's playstyle, and for some people that drains the 'fun' out of the game. There's probably no right or wrong 'answer', just two ways of looking at all of this I suppose.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have a mage character to roll up and suffer through.

 

[berzum]

berzum and Daelon you guys are great, srsly. nice friendly debate and good information all around. and sarcasm, of course, lots of that.

I struggle...no, that's not right.... I fail at playing a 'pure' mage as well, and as I have mentioned, it's partly due to my impatience when running around the big wide World. I have used a follower or two, and found them to be quite helpful when they're not being a complete and utterly frustrating obstacle. I have used Alchemy to ensure that I am equipped with 14000 Restore Magicka potions so that I can attempt to keep casting, and agonized over being totally encumbered. I have rejoiced when finally getting the Flame Atronach spell, only to then stare dumbfounded as the flighty little thing twirls her way all over the place and blasts my follower (obstacle) in the back with a fireball.

All said, I truly believe (or desperately want to believe) that a pure mage is possible and not an exercise in futility, but I think it does come down to really altering one's playstyle, and for some people that drains the 'fun' out of the game. There's probably no right or wrong 'answer', just two ways of looking at all of this I suppose.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have a mage character to roll up and suffer through.

A pure mage build is very possible, I am currently doing it, and with some ease might I add. How ever I am only level 43, and no I didn't take advantage of exploits. Conjuration is at level 100 along with Alteration, though Alteration I made Legendary. Illusion is also now Legendary, destruction is at 63 or 64, and Restoration is 31 or 32. I hate leveling restoration it is by far the slowest to level. Now on this build I started out as a High Elf, which gave me +50 Magic to start with. Also note that from level 1-15 I left the difficulty setting on novice. Basically my strategy for most battle was simple, conjure up a summon, go into battle casting flames(sometimes other destruction spells) I never let my summons do the main damage but rather as back up. Also later on instead of a summons I would conjure a sword and have flames in my other hand, sometime cast a flesh spell if i was expecting to be hit a bit. The secret i have found to a mage is that it is alot like an archer, deadly at a distance but up close it's iffy at best. Now I tried to keep my distance but in reality some enemies just gank you, solution is a cloak, such as flame cloak. Now as a pure mage i decided to stick to robes for one reason, Alteration. So far I loved my mage and despite having some challenging moments it has been a nice journey, atm I'm debating to side with the vampires. Going vamp has it's drawbacks, but seeing how i have mastered several skill trees in the magic section I plan to become an assassin. my base magic atm is around 450, health is well over 200 and stamina is default (100). the reason I'm going assassin now is just to be able to keep myself leveling more and more, at some point I will go full warrior, perhaps a spell sword even. Basically this character will be a god by the time I'm done, if i decide later on to return to the mage way i can, for my magic pool is large enough, he will be a very flexible character and hopefully I can have him reach level 1,000, or maybe higher(just for bragging rights). So Daelon I hope this post a bit helpful i gave some advice here, and in my other posts about mages I'm sure you can peice it together and maybe play a mage one day, just don't give up(trust me i was just like you and hated mages till i forced myself to play as one).

 

[Daelon DuLac]

berzum and Daelon you guys are great, srsly. nice friendly debate and good information all around. and sarcasm, of course, lots of that.

I struggle...no, that's not right.... I fail at playing a 'pure' mage as well, and as I have mentioned, it's partly due to my impatience when running around the big wide World. I have used a follower or two, and found them to be quite helpful when they're not being a complete and utterly frustrating obstacle. I have used Alchemy to ensure that I am equipped with 14000 Restore Magicka potions so that I can attempt to keep casting, and agonized over being totally encumbered. I have rejoiced when finally getting the Flame Atronach spell, only to then stare dumbfounded as the flighty little thing twirls her way all over the place and blasts my follower (obstacle) in the back with a fireball.

All said, I truly believe (or desperately want to believe) that a pure mage is possible and not an exercise in futility, but I think it does come down to really altering one's playstyle, and for some people that drains the 'fun' out of the game. There's probably no right or wrong 'answer', just two ways of looking at all of this I suppose.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have a mage character to roll up and suffer through.

A pure mage build is very possible, I am currently doing it, and with some ease might I add. How ever I am only level 43, and no I didn't take advantage of exploits. Conjuration is at level 100 along with Alteration, though Alteration I made Legendary. Illusion is also now Legendary, destruction is at 63 or 64, and Restoration is 31 or 32. I hate leveling restoration it is by far the slowest to level. Now on this build I started out as a High Elf, which gave me +50 Magic to start with. Also note that from level 1-15 I left the difficulty setting on novice. Basically my strategy for most battle was simple, conjure up a summon, go into battle casting flames(sometimes other destruction spells) I never let my summons do the main damage but rather as back up. Also later on instead of a summons I would conjure a sword and have flames in my other hand, sometime cast a flesh spell if i was expecting to be hit a bit. The secret i have found to a mage is that it is alot like an archer, deadly at a distance but up close it's iffy at best. Now I tried to keep my distance but in reality some enemies just gank you, solution is a cloak, such as flame cloak. Now as a pure mage i decided to stick to robes for one reason, Alteration. So far I loved my mage and despite having some challenging moments it has been a nice journey, atm I'm debating to side with the vampires. Going vamp has it's drawbacks, but seeing how i have mastered several skill trees in the magic section I plan to become an assassin. my base magic atm is around 450, health is well over 200 and stamina is default (100). the reason I'm going assassin now is just to be able to keep myself leveling more and more, at some point I will go full warrior, perhaps a spell sword even. Basically this character will be a god by the time I'm done, if i decide later on to return to the mage way i can, for my magic pool is large enough, he will be a very flexible character and hopefully I can have him reach level 1,000, or maybe higher(just for bragging rights). So Daelon I hope this post a bit helpful i gave some advice here, and in my other posts about mages I'm sure you can peice it together and maybe play a mage one day, just don't give up(trust me i was just like you and hated mages till i forced myself to play as one).

You have the patience of a Saint my friend and my admiration. I wish I had your stick-with-it-ness.