Whats the point of Mages guild?

[allstate69]

I have finally got the highest rank in mage guild, but i never really got any cool armor throughout my completed quests, only conjurers robe and the wizards fury spell. Why would i want to wear the Arch-Mages robes when thier are no enchantments on it, and the ones I have tried to put on arent better than the conjurers robe. To get to the point, is thier any particular reason to work your way up through guild, or just do it to master the game?

[i9ub]

It's fun.

[GrayMouser]

I have finally got the highest rank in mage guild, but i never really got any cool armor throughout my completed quests, only conjurers robe and the wizards fury spell. Why would i want to wear the Arch-Mages robes when thier are no enchantments on it, and the ones I have tried to put on arent better than the conjurers robe. To get to the point, is thier any particular reason to work your way up through guild, or just do it to master the game?

You can enchant the Arch-Mage robes if you wish. But even so, they probably won't be as buff as some of the other armor you will find. Hey, it's fun, you get a cool pad to hang out in, a decent staff, and you get an enchanted chest that duplicates ingredients. If you play any magic at all, you will be hopping back and forth to the Academy anyway just to create spells. So you might as well get the Arch-Mage room and do your spell and item creation there.

GM

[Vook]

The moment you wear any piece of armour, your spell efficiency drops by at least 5%. Often much more. The mages way is to enchant clothes with elemental shields up to the cap of 85%, and this will give you better protection than best armour anyway. I don't understand why you'd expect armour as a prize in mages guild.

[Snoolas]

The mages way is to enchant clothes with elemental shields up to the cap of 85%, and this will give you better protection than best armour anyway. I don't understand why you'd expect armour as a prize in mages guild.

Wait, elemental shields? Wouldn't that only protect against other magic? It seems like it would be better to use reflect physical damage. Or a mixture of both. Maybe I'm just mixed up about these different spell effects....

[Guest]

I agree that the Arch mages robes should have some enchantment but you could just enchant them with a shield spell.

[GrayMouser]

The moment you wear any piece of armour, your spell efficiency drops by at least 5%. Often much more. The mages way is to enchant clothes with elemental shields up to the cap of 85%, and this will give you better protection than best armour anyway. I don't understand why you'd expect armour as a prize in mages guild.

Vook, describe your typical mage's outfit. I just started a mage character and I am curious as to the type of stuff that I should be striving to find.

GM

[Vook]

phehehe,

first, a decent amount of gold, a few grand soulgems, shield or fire shield spell and some nice comfy clothes - partial ones, not outfits. And don't dump the bracers you start with, they seem to be the only non-armour handwear in the game Make the grand soulgems into black ones (or just use filled ones) and enchant clothes with shield / elemental shield. Later when you start getting better sigil stones, replace your clothes with stronger, enchanted ones. This kind of mage can play the "weakness stacking" tricks at will with 100% efficiency, killing any enemy in 2-3 spells.

Personally I'm more of an alchemist character. Wearing light armour which is so-so, more for looks than for protection. My potions are my armour. I just drink up 4 potions of restore health and show me a hero who can hurt me faster than I heal.

[GrayMouser]

Hmmm, weakness stacking? Now where did I leave those bracers...

Is there a way to enchant clothing/armor with more than one attribute? Is this a nOOb question?

GM

[i9ub]

Is there a way to enchant clothing/armor with more than one attribute? Is this a nOOb question?

No and no.

Hmmm, weakness stacking?

Something that completely imbalances the game and renders no fun whatsoever. Don't look into it.

[rkMerafel]

I would suggest that the main point of the Mages' Guild is to provide the player with some more quests?

[Vook]

Everything used in moderation is fine. I mean, I definitely prefer to kill a WillOTheWisp in two spells than fight it for a looong time.

[GrayMouser]

Hmmm, weakness stacking?

Something that completely imbalances the game and renders no fun whatsoever. Don't look into it.

Good, thanks for the advice. I am always looking for glitches that will speed up the pace of play but I don't like to make the game boring. For example, I am all for the infinite gold glitch because gold is actually infinite in the game anyway, it just takes 'time' to accumulate it. I don't like tedium (see the post where I talk about taking 2 hours to clear out the loot that I found in a dungeon and sell it to the nearest merchant). So infinite gold, or near to it, does not detract from the enjoyment of play for me.

GM

[willow]

My character went with light armour and blade, else was a mage. Now I have enchanted clothes (used Sigil Stones) that give far more protection than any armour, which breaks too quickly at higher levels anyway. I still wear partial armour (enchanted now) for the 'look' of the character. The Mages' guild is a lot of fun as a quest; it also gives your character a place to belong. At higher levels, the rewards from the quests aren't really as good as the things that you can make yourself anyway.

[Vook]

The "smart" way to do the Mages Guild is to finish the recommendations early. Finger of the mountain is useful on low levels, useless on high, then access to the Uni = spellmaking, enchanting, 3 free filled grand soulgems, lots of ingredients and so on, is really a huge boon.
Then you postpone any advancement until level 20 or more. Mages Staff wisely chosen kicks ass then (paralysis 8s?). Wizard's Fury costs about 1/3 of what would an equivalent spellmade spell cost, it's really a great spell. Spelldrinker amulet is a reasonable item, and helluva expensive. Enchanted chest is rarely helpful, as are the apprentices you can call to assist you, and Mannimarco's staff is hardly useful, but still, the earlier prizes more than make up for that.

[PTemplar]

Hey Vook, is alchemy in Oblivion as much pwnage it is in Morrowind?

[Vook]

No, they are much weaker. You can drink 4 at most and fortified int doesn't make them stronger so no loop-strengthening. They still PWN though - restore healths drunk 4 at a time make just the same "minor immortality" effect as in Morrowind, Restore Magicka are much easier to make (common ingredients) and more efficient meaning you spellmake some ultimate megaspell that runs your magicka dry in one cast, drink up 4 restore magicka and start casting that spell like mad on anything that moves, and above all, poisons, make the 3-effect "elemental" poison (fire, shock, health damage) and strongest enemies go down in one hit.

[I am me]

Cause you can go in the U without getting atacked.

[Guest]

You can also loot the corpse of Mannimarco to get a staff of reanimate for 30s, and you can take his robes which i think look kick ass.

[mandangalow]

i am good at alchemy in my newest file, but i have to say some raw ingriedents are better than the potion i can make. Suck as if you eat 30 flax your magikca retores like crazy, and keeps restoring and restoring. You can cast spell and watch you magika keeps restoring, fast too. But the poisens aren't very good until higher lvls, but they are worth it.