Battle Mage Help!

[Skarv]

I am making a Battle Mage, I found some guides and I am going Breton, Conjuration, Destruction, Restoration, Alteration, and One-Handed. The problem is if I should use Light Armor or Heavy? I like how robes look, they look phenomenal, just awesome! I just don't want to get killed in 2 shots like sometimes on my first fail mage......but anyway yeah, I also have a problem if I should go for Stamina (Power Attacks) Magicka (More Magicka) or Health (Survival). Oh yeah and I don't know if I should get the Fire, Frost, or Sparks perk in the Destruction tree. So my 3 Battle Mage questions are:

1. Heavy or Light Armor

2. Stamina, Magicka, or Health

3. Fire, Frost, or Sparks Perk



Any additional tips will be appreciated!

 

[Derpo]

I am making a Battle Mage, I found some guides and I am going Breton, Conjuration, Destruction, Restoration, Alteration, and One-Handed. The problem is if I should use Light Armor or Heavy? I like how robes look, they look phenomenal, just awesome! I just don't want to get killed in 2 shots like sometimes on my first fail mage......but anyway yeah, I also have a problem if I should go for Stamina (Power Attacks) Magicka (More Magicka) or Health (Survival). Oh yeah and I don't know if I should get the Fire, Frost, or Sparks perk in the Destruction tree. So my 3 Battle Mage questions are:

1. Heavy or Light Armor

2. Stamina, Magicka, or Health

3. Fire, Frost, or Sparks Perk



Any additional tips will be appreciated!

well if your just starting, it depends on your playstyle magic more so than melee? than level magic up first and focus on melee when you get the extra points and vice versa. as for elements its really a no brainer, Either fire or shock, frost is utterly useless and broken in skyrim it says it takes stamina away and slows but it dousnt at all.((albeit the enemies does.)) and shock is the most expensive((albeit hard hitting magic school.)) although it dousnt do as it says and destroys enemy magicka. as for armor go heavy, 95% of magic enhancing equipment in the game is heavy only exception is morokais mask and saviors hide. so i say go heavy lastly as i previously stated first playstyle affects what you should focus on if magic, then invest more in HP and magic if your more melee HP and stam but dont forsake stam or magicka as you require all three as a battlemage. hope that helps.

 

[Medea]

frost is utterly useless and broken in skyrim it says it takes stamina away and slows but it dousnt at all.((albeit the enemies does.))

I don't know. I've used frost and it does seem to slow down enemies as long as I keep hitting them with frostbite. Also, I will hit dragons with ice spike spells and their flight speed diminishes greatly (which is actually worse, since you want them to land) and enemies moving through frost wall move more slowly. Frost also has one of the best final perks, where it paralyzes enemies who have low hp. But I do agree with you, frost is not as good as shock or fire.

But to answer your questions Skarv:

1) It doesn't matter. Heavy armor provides more protection but is heavier. You can get perks from either type to nullify the weight penalties, but with light armor it will cost you one less perk.

2) Magicka and Health are the most important. You can always add stamina with enchanting later and getting the unhindered perk with either type of armor gives you far more stamina to run around with. Also buy the perk where your one-handed strikes cost 25% less stamina. 150 Stamina should be all you need for this character build.

3) Fire and shock. Shock vs. magic-users and fire vs. everything else.

 

[Ragnarokk]

Personally, I originally found myself buffing Health and Magicka, but eventually started increasing Stamina instead (which also increases your carrying capacity) since it alllows you to bring more different weapons, so you are much better prepared and can re-equip yourself during battle if something doesn't work.

Another advice is to first complete the Winterhold Quests so you get a special set of robes which regenerate your magicka really fast.

As for the elemental choice, I found that Flames worked best. Shock is helpful against mages, and Frost is pretty useless unless you're fighting a rare fire-based enemy.

Another tip: take the Destruction Dual-Wielding Perk asap. This makes your flames far stronger when using both hands, and combined with a magic-restoring set of Robes you can pretty much keep on firing. I always equip the three-word FIre Breath Shout as a back-up against groups of enemies (blast them with the Shout for heavy damage, then finish any stragglers with Flames).

In a particularly difficult battle, just assign Flames to one hand and Healing to the other... If you get smashed, just run, hide and heal (or heal while simultaneously fighting or backing away, as long as you don't run out of magicka).

Regarding Standing Stones, of course the Mage Stone (levelling up magic skills is 20% faster) seems the most logical, but I personally found the Lover Stone much better (only 15% bonus, but for all skills and not just the magic ones - so you don't neglect other skills too much). For example, if you later want to start the Thieves or Assassin's questlines, you'll regret not having at least put some effort into Sneak, Lockpicking, Alchemy etc.

Also max out your Enchanting (so you can enchant armor with Regeneration enchantments) and Smithing Skills (I now created Daedric Armor and with a few strong Enchantments you become a sort of tank - I often can fight a whole group of enemies while hardly taking any damage).

Finally, what worked for me was to complete all the Daedric Quests asap, since they yield some excellent and strong magic artifacts if you're playing as a battlemage. Don't want to spoil things by giving everything away (not sure how far you are in the game) but the quests for Peryite, Meridia or Sanguine might give you good things to work with.

Hope this helps!

 

[Skarv]

All of these answers helped me a lot! But another thing that is on my mind, should I use the Bound Sword or just use a normal sword? And I may disenchant the Novice Robes and Novice Hood you get at the start of the game and enchant them on some Iron armor, I am still not sure about that decision. I hear people saying Heavy but the robes really do look neat on my Breton, although this may seem simple it is a problem for me trying to find out these things, if I want defense or if I want cool looking robes and being able to escape your enemies (Stamina doesn't use up as fast as it would with Heavy) And please, if anyone finds a good guide on the Battle Mage please send a link it would really help me out!

Thanks!

 

[Stereofanic]

Imperial, Heavy armour, staffs, destruction, restoration, alteration, apprentice or mage stone

 

[Skarv]

Thanks, but I am sticking with Breton, that magical resistance is incredible and the Imperials look a bit like monkeys, like legit. And should I disenchant the Novice Robes and the gear from Mage College quests onto the Heavy armor? And Bound Sword or regular sword?

 

[Stereofanic]

Thanks, but I am sticking with Breton, that magical resistance is incredible and the Imperials look a bit like monkeys, like legit. And should I disenchant the Novice Robes and the gear from Mage College quests onto the Heavy armor? And Bound Sword or regular sword?

Breton's start off with quite poor at this role and their 25 magic resistance can be transfered to an imperial via the lord stone as well as an extra 25 armour. by lvl 15 though you wont notice

 

[Stereofanic]

Thanks, but I am sticking with Breton, that magical resistance is incredible and the Imperials look a bit like monkeys, like legit. And should I disenchant the Novice Robes and the gear from Mage College quests onto the Heavy armor? And Bound Sword or regular sword?

it takes a while to get a decent enchant skill, go to the college straight away, you get near enough the same robes and hood so disenchant a pair of them, bound swords are better due to enchanting perks

 

[Ragnarokk]

When you start the Winterhold quests you'll find lots of better robes. If you're new, it's best to just keep one st of robes you like, but start disenchanting anything else- as it basically gives you permanent access to enchantments and you can create your own later. Also, this makes sure that you don't lose the enchantment when you find too many stuff for your stamina and may be forced to drop some armor or robes (if you carry too much stuff you can no longer run or fast-travel,)

Also, you might want to collect every common/greater/grand filled soul gems (just ignore the petty ones and the fragments). The bigger the better, since if you later want to create a customized magic armor or other apparel, the enchantment gets stronger depending on the soul gem's size. Save the biggest ones for apparel (armor, boots, hoods, gloves and shields) since their enchantments do not wear off (contrary to weapons which need gems to recharge)!

Save some stuff for the better spells later though - eg to put Regenerate Health on your armour, Regenerate Stamina and Magicka on a ring and necklace respectively, and Muffle on your boots. You won't have access to the better spells right away (I'm level 75 and I still haven't found Muffle so I stick to pre-enchanted boots)...

I'd stick with a regular sword (maybe with Fire enchantment) for now, and save the Bound Sword spell for when fighting stronger enemies.