Conjurer builds actually need Illusion and here's why nobody tells you

[WhiterunModder]

the thing that always bugged me about conjuration guides is they act like you can just spam Atronachs and win, but honestly that falls apart fast on anything above Adept. your summons get shredded, you're standing there with your dick in your hand waiting for the cooldown, and suddenly you're dead because you have zero defenses.

I've been running a pure conjurer on my current playthrough and the real carry is pairing it with Illusion perks - specifically the one that makes enemies fight each other. you summon your atronach, cast Fury or whatever on a second enemy, and suddenly they're tearing into each other while your summon tanks. it's actually broken in the best way and it completely changes how the build scales into mid-game.

also you actually need Alteration for Mage Armor or you're just a glass cannon. the conjuration tree alone doesn't give you survivability and I see so many guides just... ignore that.

anyway if you're thinking about going full conjurer don't sleep on the support schools. the summons are the flashy part but they're not the whole build.

 

[DragonbornVet]

Yeah this tracks. I did a conjurer run last year and hit the same wall around level 20-25 on Adept - your summons just weren't tanky enough and I was eating damage I shouldn't have been. The Illusion angle is legit though, that perk that makes enemies turn on each other (the one in the middle tree I think?) completely changes the math. Suddenly your atronach isn't the only thing dealing damage and enemies are distracted enough that you actually have breathing room.

Mage Armor is the real MVP though, not gonna lie. Stacking that with the perks that boost it makes a ridiculous difference - I was getting like 50% damage reduction at one point and it let me actually stand in melee range without getting deleted. Without it you're basically praying your summons aggro everything before it looks at you.

The thing I'd push back on slightly is that it's not really a "pure conjurer" build at that point - you're spreading perks across three schools which is a perk tax. It works great but it's more of a hybrid. Still way better than trying to solo-carry on Conjuration alone though. Most guides do skip over the support stuff which is dumb because yeah, your summons do the work but you need the defenses or you're just a liability.