Skyrim: Archery-Alteration-Sneak-Conjuration Mage

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Robert Dodd

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Published on March 12, 2016 4:19:47 AM ● Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6Nko1uY0u8

Duration: 55:16

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Hi, meet Elsie Weaver. She is a Breton mage, specializing in Archery, Alteration, Sneak and Conjuration in more or less that order, with sides of alchemy and enchanting. She is going into Labyrinthian for the College of Winterhold main quest line. We are playing on Expert difficulty.

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The below information is basically for Skyrim nerds like me who care about such things. :)

About this build: most people who try to be mages in Skyrim (which often is a more difficult thing than being a straight up sword swinger) try to use Destruction magic as their main offensive skill. While this is certainly possible to do, and Destruction spells are fun to use, the Destruction school has several major drawbacks:

Destruction magic is slow to level compared to normal combat skills. Also, Destruction spell strength does not level with you (only the amount of magicka that you need lowers), destruction spells are often indiscriminate (doing damage to followers or bystanders), Destruction damage is not increased by using better gear (such as improving weapons with the Smithing skill for sword-swingers,) and there are no item enchantments that actually increase the power of a spell (only those which lower the required magicka.) Mage robes, while often looking like something a hobo would wear, don't offer armor protection in themselves while being almost essential at lower levels to be able to cast spells well at all.

However, there are several schools of magic that mesh very well with combat and stealth skills. Conjuration allows archers to use basically the best bow and arrows in the game, with a possible combined damage of 48 per hit BEFORE any modifiers for Archery skill or sneak attack bonuses. So, for a sneak attack with the Sneak skill perk for bonus damage with bows plus the mystic binding perk in Conjuration plus a level 40 skill in Archery, you are looking at something like 170 points of damage PER HIT. Well worth the investment in Conjuration for the stealth-oriented archer. Additionally, most archer characters benefit from having a "tank" NPC of some kind to keep the enemies occupied in melee combat while the archer deals the hurt from a distance. Conjuration allows for you to have excellent tanks on command in the form of Frost Atronachs and later, Dremora Lords, both of which are extremely hard to kill and excellent tanks.

Mages, to have the best magical gear, either need to use proper mage robes or else have insanely high Enchanting skills to enchant armor with the requisite enchantments for fortify magicka and magicka regeneration as well as enchantments to increase particular skills. If you wear robes, the Alteration mage armor spells are a must-have. These still are not as good as well-smithed armor and they (somewhat annoyingly) have to be cast frequently, but they are quite acceptable for a non-melee role. For stealth characters, this can give the advantage of not having to wear armor (wearing armor increases the likelihood of being detected) while still having some physical protection.

Every assassin or thief worth his coinpurse knows the advantage of having the Illusion spell Muffle, and the advantages can go on from there to actual invisibility, making melee enemies run from you, and so on.

So magic can be a very viable path to building a strong character - but you are better off not depending on the Destruction school for offensive capabilities. Use that magicka better to protect yourself using Alteration mage armor spells (the addition of mage armor to real armor makes you very tough especially starting out) or cast up powerful warriors to fight your battles for you using the Conjuration school. Build up your archery and use that magicka to cast up Daedric-quality bow and arrows for yourself. Using the Atronach stone or the Breton Dragonskin ability, you can use magic-using enemies attacks against them by absorbing their spells, while they will not have nearly as much luck absorbing your Daedric-equivalent arrows.

Hopefully anyone who is frustrated trying to be a mage in Skyrim will find this helpful.