Agreed. I think the same thing every time I forget why I hate mage characters and try one again. The fact that magic requires mana and swinging a sword requires nothing means that magic should, logically, be WAY more powerful than swinging said sword. Instead, it's crap from the get-go and only gets worse. I don't know how much damage the lightning storm spell does, but I can't imagine it's DPS is any better than my orc character's berserker rage fueled >800 per swing. Never understood why it didn't scale with level.
Bethesda Hates Mages: 12 Reasons Magic in Skyrim Sucks
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I think I know which part you're talking about; fortunately, I had some really strong invisibility spells and just ran through the place without fighting anything. It feels like a cheat, but what can you do? Kind of like in Skyrim when a big bad would get caught on some landscape/furniture giving me free shots; it breaks immersion, but serves as a kind of unintentional balancing tool.Darth Sea Bass said:
In Morrowind, a simple detour to another town earlier than the quest log wants you to results in the ability to make spells, which results in being able to make spells that buff your stats. Permanently. As in, I cast this spell every 3 seconds, and in an hour my fireball has the power to kill the final boss. Also, in Oblivion if you can't get through the whole game with only fireball and spark, you don't know how to backpedal. Skyrim takes more effort, sure, but if anything it's Oblivion Lite in most of its mechanics.
You sir have discovered the true way to play Elder Scrolls games. The true game is not about the main quest line, nor is it about the sidequests, the stories, leveling your character, or any of that. It is to see how many mods you can pile on and make work together at once, preferably while just barely maintaining a vague resemblence to the original game. I learned this long ago with Daggerfall, as I spent many more hours trying out mods and other changes than I did actually playing the game. That was the game where I first learned how to use a hex editor, and the pattern has held with every TES game since. As the games have evolved and become more complicated, so to have the mods and combinations of mods. TES games are not meant to be beaten or completed, they are meant to be shaped into a magnificent mountain of mods! Only then can their true grandeur be appreciated.teebeeohh said:
One of these days I'll have to get around to seeing how much damage I can do to Arena!
But I like the Master mage robes... They make your character look like a scholarly professor who's knowledge also allows him to light people on fire. I love how casual they look compared to how over the top everything else is
My one and only character on Skyrim was a full blown mage but that wasn't my intent from the beginning. In both Morrowind and Oblivion I started as light armor, short sword fighters and slowly became a Jack of all trades as I leveled and got bored with other skills. By the time I was basically invincible, I would level up magic skills but at that point I didn't have a lot of magicka so I had to use a bug to increase it. I expected the same thing to happen in Skyrim so I only raised my magic at first and that became my main strength.
Honestly, I liked playing as a mage character but I had to turn the difficulty down at first. I was surprised when a friend of mine wasn't even level 30 and was playing on legendary. I had no idea how much easier and broken the other classes were. I just assumed the game was harder in general. It didn't really matter because I had plenty of time to level up all the skills I wanted. Plus the summons in Skyrim are way better. Magic doesn't suck that much when you can call 2 dremoras to fight with you. I also loved the Master magic quests to get the best spells.
I still liked it way more than Oblivion and Morroind's magic systems which were broken and boring due to the simple spell making mechanics. All spells were just a variation of "X damage for X seconds to X area" and spells were way too easy to get which made them unexciting. In the end, the stuff you said is still true and system definitely needs the tweaking provided by mods
My one and only character on Skyrim was a full blown mage but that wasn't my intent from the beginning. In both Morrowind and Oblivion I started as light armor, short sword fighters and slowly became a Jack of all trades as I leveled and got bored with other skills. By the time I was basically invincible, I would level up magic skills but at that point I didn't have a lot of magicka so I had to use a bug to increase it. I expected the same thing to happen in Skyrim so I only raised my magic at first and that became my main strength.
Honestly, I liked playing as a mage character but I had to turn the difficulty down at first. I was surprised when a friend of mine wasn't even level 30 and was playing on legendary. I had no idea how much easier and broken the other classes were. I just assumed the game was harder in general. It didn't really matter because I had plenty of time to level up all the skills I wanted. Plus the summons in Skyrim are way better. Magic doesn't suck that much when you can call 2 dremoras to fight with you. I also loved the Master magic quests to get the best spells.
I still liked it way more than Oblivion and Morroind's magic systems which were broken and boring due to the simple spell making mechanics. All spells were just a variation of "X damage for X seconds to X area" and spells were way too easy to get which made them unexciting. In the end, the stuff you said is still true and system definitely needs the tweaking provided by mods
In general, the combat in Skyrim (and in fact in all TES games, in my experience), is pretty poor, be it melee, archery or magic, at least in my opinion.
Melee feels VERY unsatisfying. All the combat with swords, axes or hammers feels very "floaty", like I'm not actually hitting the enemies.
Archery is incredibly overpowered, specially when combined with stealth. A million jokes have been made of an enemy with seven arrows stuck in his face wondering if that noise he just heard is a rat or just a breeze of air.
Magic is just boring. You don't have the variety of the older games, and every spell just feels the same (in their respective groups), or is almost completely useless, even high level ones. I mean, as a Conjuration mage, how many times have you used "Bound Bow"?
Anyway, TES games aren't to be played for the combat. There are many better games in that regard.
Melee feels VERY unsatisfying. All the combat with swords, axes or hammers feels very "floaty", like I'm not actually hitting the enemies.
Archery is incredibly overpowered, specially when combined with stealth. A million jokes have been made of an enemy with seven arrows stuck in his face wondering if that noise he just heard is a rat or just a breeze of air.
Magic is just boring. You don't have the variety of the older games, and every spell just feels the same (in their respective groups), or is almost completely useless, even high level ones. I mean, as a Conjuration mage, how many times have you used "Bound Bow"?
Anyway, TES games aren't to be played for the combat. There are many better games in that regard.
It's because warriors and rogues can attack indefinitely, but mages get stuck in situations where they run out of mana and can't do anything but run around and get beat on.
Mana is a dumb concept. As is endurance.
You are already inhumanly capable of swining heavy objects. In real life, you couldn't do that more than 20 times or so in a given day without injuring your muscles...
Mana is a dumb concept. As is endurance.
You are already inhumanly capable of swining heavy objects. In real life, you couldn't do that more than 20 times or so in a given day without injuring your muscles...
Yes, you're entering melee combat. Tits don't up when you've entered melee combat, you've entered melee combat because tits have gone up. The only way to bring them back down is to exit melee combat and hide ASAP. If you can't sneak past a threat, dispatch it with a bow from a distant shadowed corner.Alleged_Alec said:
If the modders can make the magic both powerful and balanced, it means that Bethesda is very lazy to make their own game balance and fun. Because in their brain, Skyrim is the land where every people only like to use swords and steels to kill bandits and dragons. Sneaking and marksmanship is too overpowered while magic is too slow and unreliable most of the time, and Bethesda Game Studio are going one sided with their choices of gameplay lately. Hoping that Todd Howard realized these flaws.
This is why you say screw robes and run around in fully enchanted daedric armor. You can take a lot of hits and you can enchant it to get yourself free destruction spells. Is this abusing the system? Yes. Does it make playing a mage a lot more fun? Yes. Also, mages are actually quite overpowered due to one perk: Impact. Stun lock your enemies forever. But ya, even still, without mods, magic in Skyrim does get old.
Although, you probably know everything I just said since you've actually played the game about a hundred hours more than me.
Although, you probably know everything I just said since you've actually played the game about a hundred hours more than me.
Given how randomly NPCs run around in combat, I wish the game had a lock on feature for spells. At low level, each miss is a costly mistake.
This is way too true, scarily so. I feel that this may have possibly arisen from the game's Arena-y hacky-slashy roots creating an inverse of what goes on in D&D (well 3.5 and before). In this case we have our melee fighting types progressing at quadratic rates whilst the mages are progressing linearly, and as with the usual situation (Linear Fighters, Quadratic Wizards) it's not good for the game in general.
Although there are a couple of cheese-heavy methods of boosting magic to god levels in Morrowind and Oblivion if you try (most of which requires you to sludge around in mediocrity for like 10 levels or so) the case still stands in TES in general: magic (destruction) really sucks.
One thing I will admit though is that because direct blasting is terrible in TES I'm forced to think creatively about how I handle my mages (like in D&D), my main combat skill is no longer destruction in any capacity but instead a melee weapon or bow. Augmenting that with illusion, mysticism, restoration, alteration etc. can be one of the optimum ways to play. Interestingly enough I'm finding more and more parallels between the ways that Mages kinda of handle themselves in D&D and TES. This development might be a coincidence but it's interesting to think of from a design perspective. As some posters have described before, magic can be powerful in the hands of those who can wield it, which leads to it being a kind of an indirect method of combat: through subterfuge and trickery. Kinda like how magic should work or has been described to work in folklore and somesuch.
I don't know about ESO (since I've been very out of the loop with recent TES developments) but I don't find that the state of the rest of magic is that terrible, mainly just synergetic problems with resource management and destruction sucking ass.
Although there are a couple of cheese-heavy methods of boosting magic to god levels in Morrowind and Oblivion if you try (most of which requires you to sludge around in mediocrity for like 10 levels or so) the case still stands in TES in general: magic (destruction) really sucks.
One thing I will admit though is that because direct blasting is terrible in TES I'm forced to think creatively about how I handle my mages (like in D&D), my main combat skill is no longer destruction in any capacity but instead a melee weapon or bow. Augmenting that with illusion, mysticism, restoration, alteration etc. can be one of the optimum ways to play. Interestingly enough I'm finding more and more parallels between the ways that Mages kinda of handle themselves in D&D and TES. This development might be a coincidence but it's interesting to think of from a design perspective. As some posters have described before, magic can be powerful in the hands of those who can wield it, which leads to it being a kind of an indirect method of combat: through subterfuge and trickery. Kinda like how magic should work or has been described to work in folklore and somesuch.
I don't know about ESO (since I've been very out of the loop with recent TES developments) but I don't find that the state of the rest of magic is that terrible, mainly just synergetic problems with resource management and destruction sucking ass.
IMHO, one of the big Problems with Magic in Skyrim is the perk tree, especially for destruction, as well as some really odd design decisions with how some skills affect leveled enemies.
The Novice, Apprentice, Adept, Expert, Master perk tree in Skyrim is just completely pointless. Spells already get cheaper as your respective skill goes up. For some reason, Bethesda put in two systems that do the same, when you could have used those perk points for something that is actually interesting.
Overall, destruction perks are boring: Dual casting is inefficient and practically useless, if you don't have the Impact perk, which is overpowered because it is not based on a formula. Out of 17 perk points, 11 are just damage or efficiency increases. None offers any reason to switch or chain spells. Of the remaining perks, Rune Master is gimmicky (could be tied to skill instead), Intense Flames and Deep Frost are very situational. Disintegrate seems cool, but in reality it's just another damage buff. Basically, Destruction magic is really boring. Oh and the Master level destruction spells are very situational, too.
Added to that are Conjurations summons that aren't leveled, meaning that they will be OP when you get them, and useless later. Several different raise dead spells that all do the same thing. Also several different Illusion spells for each kind that all do the same thing. A paralyze spell that simply paralizes anything that isn't immune isn't really the best idea, either.
The Mage Armor perks are necessary if you want to play a pure mage, but mean that most of the enchanted items you find, including important artifacts like Dragon Masks, are off-limits for you. Until you get the Master level Alteration spell Dragonhide, which offers 80% damage reduction no matter your perks, which makes Mage Armor completely redundant and thereby also removes any limitation on what you can wear.
The Novice, Apprentice, Adept, Expert, Master perk tree in Skyrim is just completely pointless. Spells already get cheaper as your respective skill goes up. For some reason, Bethesda put in two systems that do the same, when you could have used those perk points for something that is actually interesting.
Overall, destruction perks are boring: Dual casting is inefficient and practically useless, if you don't have the Impact perk, which is overpowered because it is not based on a formula. Out of 17 perk points, 11 are just damage or efficiency increases. None offers any reason to switch or chain spells. Of the remaining perks, Rune Master is gimmicky (could be tied to skill instead), Intense Flames and Deep Frost are very situational. Disintegrate seems cool, but in reality it's just another damage buff. Basically, Destruction magic is really boring. Oh and the Master level destruction spells are very situational, too.
Added to that are Conjurations summons that aren't leveled, meaning that they will be OP when you get them, and useless later. Several different raise dead spells that all do the same thing. Also several different Illusion spells for each kind that all do the same thing. A paralyze spell that simply paralizes anything that isn't immune isn't really the best idea, either.
The Mage Armor perks are necessary if you want to play a pure mage, but mean that most of the enchanted items you find, including important artifacts like Dragon Masks, are off-limits for you. Until you get the Master level Alteration spell Dragonhide, which offers 80% damage reduction no matter your perks, which makes Mage Armor completely redundant and thereby also removes any limitation on what you can wear.
Kudos to Mister Chippy. Enchantment and Alchemy are indeed the keys to success in melee combat.Mister Chippy said:
That said, I had terrific success as a melee/sneak khajit in Skyrim. In the early game, you can often one-shot targets using sneak attack, or at least whittle off enough health that they only take a couple of good whacks to finish off. There are some drawbacks to this strategy, however. Inevitably, enemies will become aware of you and you'll be swarmed. This is particularly a problem in boss fights. To help with this, I recommend the following tactics:
- Where possible, have a fallback position. Don't be afraid to sprint away from a fight and come back when your health is restored.
- Alchemy is your friend. Carry potions of restore health and paralyze. The benefits of restore health are obvious. Even a one-second paralyze will buy you about five seconds while your opponent keels over and has to re-orient themselves.
- Bring a companion with you. They won't be seen unless you are and they are excellent at drawing enemy fire. And they can't die unless you kill them yourself or they fall to their deaths.
- Level your conjuration. Flame atronachs are relatively easy to summon, do good damage and also draw fire. If they die, just summon a new one.
- Learn to use a bow. There will be times you can't easily get up close and personal and bows are much more effective for a sneaky character than destruction magic (as should be clear from Shamus' article).
- Save often. You will still die frequently.
In the late game, all characters are melee fighters. By then you will be all but invincible anyways.
Has the writer for this never played morrowind?
Seriously mages in morrowind had to be the most viable and over powered class in the game, soon after you join the guild you get the ability to make spells from the effects you have spells for which leads to soultrapping buffs to yourself and extremely lethal destruction magic along with an army that you can summon that never expires.
If anything in morrowind a mage was the most lethal class, in skyrim you may need some mods to make them powerful which is fair enough considering how powerful they used to be, can't say much on oblivion since I haven't put that many hours into it yet and haven't been too focused on mages as by that point I was more into stealth builds.
Seriously mages in morrowind had to be the most viable and over powered class in the game, soon after you join the guild you get the ability to make spells from the effects you have spells for which leads to soultrapping buffs to yourself and extremely lethal destruction magic along with an army that you can summon that never expires.
If anything in morrowind a mage was the most lethal class, in skyrim you may need some mods to make them powerful which is fair enough considering how powerful they used to be, can't say much on oblivion since I haven't put that many hours into it yet and haven't been too focused on mages as by that point I was more into stealth builds.