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 Post subject: Best Mage Build?
PostPosted: Sat Jan 01, 2011 5:39 am 
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Looking for something that would work without armor, I know clothing and sigil stones, but what about endurance? Like, if im not wearing armor, i wouldn't use armorer, nor heavy armor, and block is more focused on a shield...Would I just need shield 100% and restoration to stay alive? Best sign would be apprentice right?


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 Post subject: Re: Best Mage Build?
PostPosted: Sat Jan 01, 2011 12:46 pm 
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No, best sign would be the Atronach.
And get yourself a High Elf, they're the best characters in the mage "side". :wink:

If you don't want to use armour then shield spells would help, indeed. There's also bound armour that could help you out but since you don't want to use armour...........


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 Post subject: Re: Best Mage Build?
PostPosted: Sat Jan 01, 2011 3:10 pm 
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100% shield will only net you 85% armour, remember that, the armour is capped at 85% damage reduction. So no need to use a slot to try to get the last 15%. Resist normal weapons and reflect damage CAN become your perfect physical armour - err, or, almost, bows aren't subject to reflect, and plenty of things - including creatures? - aren't normal weapons.

I will agree on the Atronach here, if you are going to weaken yourself for the magicka bonus, stunted magicka and spell absorption are a better tradeoff than a massive weakness to magic. As people say, stunted magicka isn't so bad if you work on your alchemy skill for the good magicka potions, but of course it's for strategical players.

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 Post subject: Re: Best Mage Build?
PostPosted: Sun Jan 02, 2011 11:54 am 
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krisCrash wrote:
100% shield will only net you 85% armour, remember that, the armour is capped at 85% damage reduction. So no need to use a slot to try to get the last 15%. Resist normal weapons and reflect damage CAN become your perfect physical armour - err, or, almost, bows aren't subject to reflect, and plenty of things - including creatures? - aren't normal weapons.

I will agree on the Atronach here, if you are going to weaken yourself for the magicka bonus, stunted magicka and spell absorption are a better tradeoff than a massive weakness to magic. As people say, stunted magicka isn't so bad if you work on your alchemy skill for the good magicka potions, but of course it's for strategical players.

Going from 75 armour to 85 might not look like much, but it's actually quite a big boost because armour works proportionally. 75 armour means you take 25% of the base damage, as you say. 85 armour means you instead take 15%. That's actually 40% less damage (because 15 is 40% less than 25)! So even though you "only" get 10 armour from the last enchant slot instead of 25 that a transcendent sigil stone "should" give you - which looks like you're getting a bad deal - proportional maths means that 10 points is worth much more than, say the difference between armour 0 and armour 10. 85 armour nearly halves all physical damage compared to 75!

Whether that's enough of a benefit to use an enchant slot on that rather than something else (like +50 magicka) depends on the player and the character, but an awareness of the maths behind armour helps to make an informed choice.

EDIT: oops, I misread and thought you were talking about the difference between using 3 sigil stones for 75 armour and 4 for 85 armour. D'oh!


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 Post subject: Re: Best Mage Build?
PostPosted: Sun Jan 02, 2011 10:11 pm 
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Ok, so here's what I have

High Elf
Atronach

Blade
Destruction
Illusion
Alteration
Conjuration
Alchemy
Need one more....

I also don't want armor because I want 100% spell effectiveness, so when I get to level 40, I can still command humans and such.


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 Post subject: Re: Best Mage Build?
PostPosted: Wed Jan 05, 2011 6:37 pm 
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Yeah but BEFORE you get to lvl 40, don some heavy armour, darn easiest way to train Endurance.

Well, since willpower will be useless to you, I suppose you can grab the third willpower skill for your major set. I have already argued in other threads about only taking 1 skill per governing attribute, so avoid having more Intelligence skills, I imagine you want to gain Intelligence fast, i.e. don't take Mysticism.

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 Post subject: Re: Best Mage Build?
PostPosted: Thu Jan 06, 2011 1:14 am 
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Rawe wrote:
Ok, so here's what I have

High Elf
Atronach

Blade
Destruction
Illusion
Alteration
Conjuration
Alchemy
Need one more....

I also don't want armor because I want 100% spell effectiveness, so when I get to level 40, I can still command humans and such.


Mystism. being able to cast journeyman mystism spells allows you to use soul trap and make black soul gems (and consiquently, capture NPC souls) is a quick way to get grand souls to enchant with. Which can land you with a potent boost to your magika or a powerful enchanted weapon (under the proviso you go straight for the mages guild recommendations), And the NPC souls can be bandits so playing a good character is only wavered by your choice to use a few black soul gems early on.

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 Post subject: Re: Best Mage Build?
PostPosted: Thu Jan 06, 2011 1:59 am 
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Dragonov wrote:
Rawe wrote:
Ok, so here's what I have

High Elf
Atronach

Blade
Destruction
Illusion
Alteration
Conjuration
Alchemy
Need one more....

I also don't want armor because I want 100% spell effectiveness, so when I get to level 40, I can still command humans and such.


Mystism. being able to cast journeyman mystism spells allows you to use soul trap and make black soul gems (and consiquently, capture NPC souls) is a quick way to get grand souls to enchant with. Which can land you with a potent boost to your magika or a powerful enchanted weapon (under the proviso you go straight for the mages guild recommendations), And the NPC souls can be bandits so playing a good character is only wavered by your choice to use a few black soul gems early on.


I would not recommend mysticism. If you want to get mysticism up, it is easy to do so and would not affect your levels as a minor skill. Also, if you're considering using the efficient leveling strategies, I would rethink your current major skill decisions as having too many skills with the same governing attribute as major skills will have an affect on the effectiveness of your efficient leveling.

As for your final choice, it seems rather obvious, restoration.

EDIT: Also, because of how easy it is to increase Conjuration, I would not recommend it as a major skill. Using this skill as a major skill can be very disadvantageous when that spot could be better used to aid you in another skill that you may find useful, for example, I like to replace it with either Acrobatics, Athletics, or, more recently, mercantile.

My favored build is this:

Race - Altmer
Birthsign - Atronach

1. Destruction
2. Illusion
3. Acrobatics
4. Athletics
5. Restoration
6. Alchemy
7. Block

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Last edited by Cloud_Nine on Thu Jan 06, 2011 2:14 am, edited 1 time in total.

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 Post subject: Re: Best Mage Build?
PostPosted: Thu Jan 06, 2011 2:13 am 
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Im about to start a new character in oblivion,usually going with breton+mage,done that a lot,it is safe and all without any major drawbacks,and resistance to magic is nice,and the mage gives a small boost to the magicka.

did looked at this thread a few days back or so,having a save just at the sewers I can experiment a little,as a breton it would compensate a little for weaknesses to magic with the apprentice and bigger magicka-pool.
still some weakness left but it can be helped along the way later though.

New idea was high elf with atronach,huge magicka bonus,and using a mod who really makes destruction fun over 100,use elys uncapper btw,just that bretons height matches other races height better for some "fun" mods,enough of that,anyway didn´t managed to make a high elf I could live with during a long time,so that was binned.

Now I leaning towards a breton atronach,usually manage to make a character I´m happy with for long time with that race,not as powerful as a high elf,but powerful enough,and doesn´t have those minor weaknesses either.Did I say I care for looks ? in particular my own characters,mods takes care of the rest :D

and it was this thread that got me going,had a mystic elf going rather far into the game,wasn´t entirely happy with it,so a new game it is,again,so thanks people,thanks a lot ;)

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 Post subject: Re: Best Mage Build?
PostPosted: Thu Jan 06, 2011 6:27 am 
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I really need to give magic a go. Besides Restoration I use no other magics. Maybe one day..... maybe.


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 Post subject: Re: Best Mage Build?
PostPosted: Sun Jan 16, 2011 11:55 pm 
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Ok, I'll spread my skills over my attributes a bit more. I do want to get to 100 attributes for Strength, Endurance, Intelligence, and Agility. Like you said Willpower would be useless since I have enough fatigue as it is, and I can't regenerate magicka. Maybe not agility....I dunno, I would get staggered a lot, but if I'm a mage, people would crumble if they got they close.


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 Post subject: Re: Best Mage Build?
PostPosted: Tue Jan 25, 2011 10:03 pm 
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I typically always go for the mage class and, personally, I've never really considered the atronach to be the best sign for the job. Perhaps if you were going for a sort of battlemage it would be good, use your considerable well of magicka to unleash an extremely powerful spell and then finish everyone off with your melee- but for strictly magicka based characters I think the apprentice is the way to go. Of course, this can be ruinous if you're a high elf what with their relatively high weakness to magicka, granted having all that extra magic with the atronach/high elf combo is admittedly an alluring prospect, but when you consider the rate at which your magicka replenishes with a higher willpower the atronach really isn't that much better than the mage or the apprentice. That being said; I personally believe the breton/apprentice is the more practical option, and as far as major skills go, the only magic skills I take as majors are destruction, restoration, conjuration, and alchemy and the reason for this is pretty simple- all the other magic skills level up quite rapidly in comparison to these even when relegated to minor skills. Destruction and restoration are willpower based, alchemy and conjuration are intelligence based. These attributes are your best friends and these four skills will enable you to level these two attributes faster, furthermore leaving the other schools as minors will allow you to choose three non-magical skills that you think will be useful. I'd recommend block, athletics, and acrobatics (these level slowly as well) as the ability to dodge, outrun, and minimize damage will certainly come in handy. Once you get into the Arcane University, craft low-level low-cost spells from all the schools and set yourself as the target- you'll literally be able to cast them forever and their levels will skyrocket. You should do this regardless of race or major skills really. Should you decide to use the atronach I'd recommend on raiding some ayleid ruins to stock up on welkynd stones, while they're heavier than potions they're a lot more effective at later levels when dealing with a larger pool of magic, as they'll replenish it completely- and you really can accumulate a lot of them rather quickly and easily. Outside of that, get yourself a decent staff (preferably one with a high charge) so you have something better to block with than your arms and a back-up in case you ever find yourself unexpectedly depleted. A good magic class is really all about preference and personal play style, so keep on experimenting and find what works for you. Sorry if this was a little long-winded, but I hope I at least gave you a few ideas.

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 Post subject: Re: Best Mage Build?
PostPosted: Sat Jan 29, 2011 12:08 am 
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Make a Pure mage Dunmer with the apprentice sign. The boost in destruction should let you blast most enemies at lower levels without a big magicka cost just make sure to be cautious around spellcasters. Get enchanted robes (if you actually want your char to wear robes otherwise clothing is fine too). Make sure to get into the arcane university as quickly as possible spellmaking is a big advantage. Later on focus on spell absorption and fortify magicka enchantments. It should work out. Oh and don't be shy about using minor skills in order to get some attributes up (eg. blade/block for strenght/endurance). Always carry a powerful staff with you for backup. And train. When you're not running around doing quests stay in a mages guild hall's basement summon creatures and kill them. Invisibility is also invaluable. phew that's all a bit unarganized but it's not hard to figure out in-game. (:
Edit: Luck is also a very useful attribute. Increase it whenever you can.

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 Post subject: Re: Best Mage Build?
PostPosted: Mon Jan 31, 2011 11:10 am 
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mars wrote:
Make a Pure mage Dunmer with the apprentice sign. The boost in destruction should let you blast most enemies at lower levels without a big magicka cost just make sure to be cautious around spellcasters. Get enchanted robes (if you actually want your char to wear robes otherwise clothing is fine too). Make sure to get into the arcane university as quickly as possible spellmaking is a big advantage. Later on focus on spell absorption and fortify magicka enchantments. It should work out. Oh and don't be shy about using minor skills in order to get some attributes up (eg. blade/block for strenght/endurance). Always carry a powerful staff with you for backup. And train. When you're not running around doing quests stay in a mages guild hall's basement summon creatures and kill them. Invisibility is also invaluable. phew that's all a bit unarganized but it's not hard to figure out in-game. (:
Edit: Luck is also a very useful attribute. Increase it whenever you can.


Uhhh sorry but when looking at "Best Mage Build" a Dunmer really shouldn't even be in the discussion. The magicka bonuses from the Breton and Altmer will actually still matter at high levels.

I'm currently playing an Altmer Atronach. Still low levels (level 2 very nearly 3) but it will work out. I'm completely forgoing luck, willpower and personality so when my character has maxed those he will be very strong and the enemies will be lower level.

Specialization: Combat (I think? doesn't matter)

Endurance, Intelligence.

Alchemy, H2H, Heavy A, Blunt, Speechcraft, Marksman, Restoration.

I'm using Blade, Light Armor, Alchemy, Destruction in particular, but basically all magic other than Restoration. But I'm going to max Alchemy, Restoration and Marksman at least before I stop leveling. I can use Illusion if I ever need someone to have higher disposition towards me. Basically, when I stop leveling I can just choose not to use my Majors, as I don't need 4 of them at all.

I just need to get 100 Endurance and strength ASAP so I can spend less time worrying about my efficient leveling.

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 Post subject: Re: Best Mage Build?
PostPosted: Mon Jan 31, 2011 8:53 pm 
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dkjestrup wrote:
mars wrote:
Make a Pure mage Dunmer with the apprentice sign. The boost in destruction should let you blast most enemies at lower levels without a big magicka cost just make sure to be cautious around spellcasters. Get enchanted robes (if you actually want your char to wear robes otherwise clothing is fine too). Make sure to get into the arcane university as quickly as possible spellmaking is a big advantage. Later on focus on spell absorption and fortify magicka enchantments. It should work out. Oh and don't be shy about using minor skills in order to get some attributes up (eg. blade/block for strenght/endurance). Always carry a powerful staff with you for backup. And train. When you're not running around doing quests stay in a mages guild hall's basement summon creatures and kill them. Invisibility is also invaluable. phew that's all a bit unarganized but it's not hard to figure out in-game. (:
Edit: Luck is also a very useful attribute. Increase it whenever you can.


Uhhh sorry but when looking at "Best Mage Build" a Dunmer really shouldn't even be in the discussion. The magicka bonuses from the Breton and Altmer will actually still matter at high levels.

I'm currently playing an Altmer Atronach. Still low levels (level 2 very nearly 3) but it will work out. I'm completely forgoing luck, willpower and personality so when my character has maxed those he will be very strong and the enemies will be lower level.

Specialization: Combat (I think? doesn't matter)

Endurance, Intelligence.

Alchemy, H2H, Heavy A, Blunt, Speechcraft, Marksman, Restoration.

I'm using Blade, Light Armor, Alchemy, Destruction in particular, but basically all magic other than Restoration. But I'm going to max Alchemy, Restoration and Marksman at least before I stop leveling. I can use Illusion if I ever need someone to have higher disposition towards me. Basically, when I stop leveling I can just choose not to use my Majors, as I don't need 4 of them at all.

I just need to get 100 Endurance and strength ASAP so I can spend less time worrying about my efficient leveling.

Don't knock it till you tried it.I'm telling you the build I posted is good. Maybe I didn't explain it well enough but from the experience that I've had I can recommend it. You don't need insanely large amounts of magicka in order to be a powerful mage so you don't need the altmer or bretons. Dunmer have other bonuses that are quite useful (Speed, blade). After 15 different characters I created looking for the "perfect" mage build that's what my final recipe was. And it hasn' let me down. Now if you're playing max difficulty that's a different story but for normal and normal/hard it's the best I've made.

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 Post subject: Re: Best Mage Build?
PostPosted: Mon Jan 31, 2011 9:39 pm 
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Well just looking at the stats, I can tell you, Bretons or Altmer are much better mages. That bonus means they can cast stronger spells. The initial skill bonuses from the race matter very little, as they're still capped at 100. So really, when you max out the only difference between them will be like maybe 10-20 HP and at least 50 or 100 Magicka.

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 Post subject: Re: Best Mage Build?
PostPosted: Tue Feb 01, 2011 12:35 am 
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It's true that they miss out on a bonus, but they are generally tougher than Bretons or Altmer - of course this lends more towards versatile gameplay than BEST MAGE BUILD gameplay. Personally I say choose a race because you like it, and not based on stat differences. I see a lot of threads like this of people focusing solely on magicka pool, less on willpower and other magicka related stats - things like that make even Orcs viable mages.

I don't know how bad the Altmer Apprentice weakness to magic will be if you pursue maximum endurance from lvl 1 and play on medium difficulty at most. Again, it's best to not ignore Endurance, having enough lets you spend your enchantment slots on things to empower you, removes a worry, makes your play time easier.

And this was a build thread, not a race thread, so use your build to play against them odds :B

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