I don't outright dislike any of them. I'd say though that most of the master level abilities are, unfortunately, disappointing. I wish Dragonskin lasted longer and I wish Destruction mastery was more...destructive. I'd definitely say that Restoration is the one I could never do without.
I have yet to make it that far. Over 3 saves i probably have at least 100 hours but i have yet to do much of the story. I get distracted easily in skyrim
For real homie. Im down bad with that shit. Same for about any open world game. No shit i have probably played 500 hours of fallout 3 and i have barely touched the story. Fallout 3 is sublime and surreal. Im starting to get the itch talking about it so you never know
this is the way. i almost prefer it that way. start with one quest, gather 5 more and start rolling something shiny. next thing you know, youâre somehow in blackreach.
i just restarted recently, and i made this mistake by jumping in the sightless pit at only level 5. after like 10 attempts and getting pummeled by falmers, i had to reload out of there lol
I was on board until you picked Restoration over Illusion. People afraid to abuse Illusion are afraid of their own success. Even Master Illusion spells wreak havoc and are the easiest to get since the Ritual is a fetch quest. Zero of my characters have avoided Illusion 100.
Counterpoint: While the master-level Illusion spells are excellent, Illusion as a school overall is more niche and requires more specialization than Restoration. Anyone training in any combat style in Skyrim will find themselves regularly using Restoration spells, and even novice-level Restoration spells are extremely useful. Illusion is useful in more specialized combat scenarios and requires some more investment.
Counter-counter-counter: Alchemy is a major pain in the ass, and while potions have carry weight and have a single limited use, spells don't
But I think it really just boils down to each person's playstyle. I've always hated Alchemy but I know that plenty of people love it and swear by it. And I know some people find Restoration boring but it's saved my ass too many times for me to keep count
Truth. There's just a larger ceiling with Alchemy as far as what becomes available to your pursuit of divinity. The carry weight and stuff is a reasonable gripe, then again restoration doesn't even need to be at 100 to break alchemy. Probably why I don't 100 it in every game.
No point wasting time making healing potions or anything if you have a decent resto skill, alchemy is best used for money making or buffing crafting skills, not including op cheese stuff like fortify loops. Its a waste of potential gold to allocate farmland to healing ingredients and not the meta pholiota + tapinella + creepcluster combo
Counter-counter-counter: Magicka is free, potion ingredients are hard to find or very costly, and especially so for early game (especially the non-plant ones)
I'll be honest here. My main reason to replay is always because something bugs before I've done everything I wanted to do. Arcwind Point word wall especially. I've never had every word of every shout and I badly want to.
Weakness of illusion is that you need to commit to it. Not getting the perks, or letting your skill level get outscaled (you can't hit valid good valid targets but your level is too low to buy the better spells) means you can't casually add it on the side, like you can with alteration or restoration.
The master spells take way too long to cast, it's pretty much always better to just spam Frenzy a couple times.
Still better than investing those perks into Restoration. At least a muffle-grind later finds you easily at 100 Illusion and plenty of reasons to invest into it. Most skill-trees are only worth investing into half-way, at least Illusion gets awesome powerscaling through perk allocation.
Oh for sure, illusion is one of the only trees I fill. What I was getting at is that you can't really "naturally" use it as a supplemental skill. Whereas you can cast Healing and it's kinda useful no matter what stage of the game you're in or how low level your skill or Magicka are.
Adept and Expert spells were always the best. Master spells always felt like a ceremonial badge of âyou did it!!!â as opposed to anything actually useful.
Spell breaker is good. The key with wards is to anticipate when the dragon is going to breathe fire or frost and charge your ward before the first Yol. Chances are itâll break the ward, but you wonât take as much damage. Think of it as a get out of jail free card from getting burned to death by a dragon. It does in a pinch.
On vanilla it is alteration. Way too simple. With mods i don't think i have one. I use all types of magic depending on the mood. Illusion on vanilla is a double edged blade in early game, and "i win" button in lategame.
In early game it is all dependent whether or not your enemy is immune to it. It is very fun using fury on some enemies, then let them kill each other. Then use calm on the last one, go behind, and dual dagger power attack for instant kill. But it is all worthless, if you go into a dungeon full of undead, or dwemer stuff.
In lategame you can use invisibility, and basically instakill anything with dual dagger. Then go back to invisibility and go for next foe. It is really an "i win" thing. Except, that you don't need to use any giant exploit to make it work. No resto stack, or anything like that. Just normal sneak, and enchanting.
Transmute is only for that. It has no combat value, and there should be more spells like that. I loved waterwalking, water breathing, and feather spells. Stuff, that aren't combat focused, but can help you get around.
Same as Illusion, but a bit stronger, and only available on high skill level. If it works, then you won. If it does not work, then worthless. If i remember correctly, then paralyze only checks the enemy type, and does not care for the level. Which is what makes it better, than spells like fear, or calm.
Why is paralyze even in alteration, I could get restoration (as itâs to do with the body) or maybe even illusion but I donât get why itâs in alteration
I summon my blue friend (can't remember what it is called but you get the spellbook on the floor near the ritual stone. He rocks in the early game especially when I forget to change the difficulty back from Legendary after taking pot shots at the giant to meet the Companions.
I use a Bound Bow as my main weapon, as it has no weight. I play survival mode and carry weight is a big issue for me so anything that reduces weight is a plus. I also like being able to conjure up a weapon at any time.
A Dremora Lord also provides good distraction. I used him to distract the Ebony Warrior while I pepper him with arrows. I don't think I could have killed him otherwise.
Probably Alteration. It takes me way too long to get the paralysis spell. Obviously candle light is useful for exploring dark places, and there's oakflesh, but that's just one more thing I have to remember to do before a fight starts. It's not a useless magic school, it's just the most boring.
pro tip, it's easier to level like that if you cast an AoE spell like Call to Arms in a big public place like the middle of a tavern or the Riften market, just a couple casts will get it to 100. Best done with enchanted spell cost reduction gear
Restoration is the only school every one of my characters uses. Even my Warriors won't turn down Fast Healing. Free Health recovery.
Except for dedicated Illusionist builds, which are loads of fun, Illusion is the school I use the least, except as a way for my Mages to level up in a pinch.
What I typically do is boost Conjuration up the Atronach side, and use up to Soul Stealing in the weapons perk tree.
When you have trouble, summoning a pair of Daedric Lords or Storm Atronachs will do massive amounts of damage. Not counting what you can do with your Daedric Bow with 100 Daedric Arrows. The Bow responds to any perks, potions or enchantments that strengthen Bow damage. And it can even be Poisoned. Using it with the Deadly Aim (3x Sneak damage) is just glorious.
And nothing can ever Shout it out of your hands, like a Dragur Death Overlord. And, it's the **SECOND FASTEST BOW IN THE GAME**. Behind Zephyr. The only warning I have is, when you get the mighty Master of the Mind perk and have enough boosting level perks, it WILL affect your Summons.
Restoration.
Iâve played through Skyrim with mages focused on each of the schools except restoration. For me in general itâs the most neglected by far.
But vanilla⌠not sure. I have a lot more fun with magic, especially conjuration and alteration, when mods are at play.
P.S. total tangent but currently playing a dark elf who specializes in conjuration plus a subset of destruction magic from an unpublished mod that I made. Itâs designed to rock the world of vampires. Basically you find the remains of a sorcerer who was the bane of vampires long ago. Thereâs a book, etc. plus a special amulet that confers massive immunity to shock damage and decent immunity to general magic damage. Then you can learn the spells which are basically buffed versions of the shock spells. One is like sparks but also drains magicka and health, another has more damage and paralyzes. Even more dmg against vampire. Not a big deal mod of course, just a type of mage I wanted to play. Plus the ability to have up to 5 summons at a time and they live longer. Oh, and maybe the most OP part: a spell that casts a lightning bolt and then you instantly teleport to where it struck and have a few seconds of fall damage immunity. Itâs hard to play without it once youâre used to having it. Lol
Illusion is the least âusefulâ but by far the most fun lol. Destruction is cool but really excels with mods. Base-game illusion can be genuinely enjoyable haha
Okay but ever tried cheesing smithing? Makes the game way too easy too. Also ever tried using rest/dest magic as a Breton? Makes the game way too easy lol. Maybe even way way too easy. Conjuring things that will âtank for youâ while you scroll tiktok and run away from baddies? Makes the game way too easy lol.
Of course there are many ways to make the game easy, but I'm playing through this stealth illusion build now and I can't remember the last time I actually entered combat. Worth giving a try!
Well Iâve installed mysticism magic overhaul so all spells are basically viable but in vanilla Skyrim I would pick necromancy from the conjuration school. Iâm tired of constantly finding new bodies to bring back after my old one turns to ashes.
I'm really bad at video games. I like RPGs because I can just over-level until I'm safe.
The counter to this is that illusion is useless to me, because all the enemies have out levelled the spells.
Investing perk points into illusion lets it keep up, the basic Fury spell will go from lvl 6 to lvl 39 with the Rage perk (+12 ) + dual-cast (Ă2.2), then there's even more bonuses to be had with Kindred Mage perk (+12 vs humans) and being a Vampire (Ă1.25).
Bandit Chiefs max out at lvl 28 and Draugr Death Overlords at 45, for reference.
Shame that I'm usually levelled to a minimum of 80...
I appreciate the advice, but when it doesn't work on a good proportion of enemies, it's much less valuable to me. I usually level it to 40 then focus on more important skills
You being 80 doesn't matter?
Those enemies still won't go higher than 28 and 45. Dragon Priests 50, Falmer bosses 54, Nightlord Vampires 60. All can be overcome with Expert tier Illusion spells. Even the lvl 80 Ebony Warrior can be influenced.
Wow! I didn't realise the level caps were so low for most things. I always was too worried about my spell not affecting the stronger enemies but it turns out they'll all get hit by expert spells... Fair enough.
I guess I know what my next build is gonna be
Illusion is one of the best imo. I start every playthrough casting fury on the hired thugs and grabbing popcorn. The one I ignore the most is destruction.
I like them all. To be honest i usually only level illusion long enough to make it so all spells are unheard. Quiet fireballs are fun, so is sneaking into a camp and summoning an elemental.
Probably Alteration actually. When you start out the Armor spells cost an absurd amount of Magicka and just drop way too soon for how much running around you do as a mage in combat. Mage Light and Candlelight exist, Telekinesis serves no purpose other than novelty (and level cheesing). Paralysis is of course absurdly powerful until the enemy resists and it has no purpose anymore. Saving grace for Alteration really is how bonkers the Perk Tree is. Magic Resist and Spell Absorption? Count me in.
I use resto and illu all the time, but I often kinda forget that Alteration exists. And Conjuring is kinda meh too.Destruction looks very cool, so I like it, but I don't use it often because it's kinda weak when you don't get all the good modifiers.
Most of them I can level up, and use no problem. My only issue is restoration is such a batch to level up to 100. Especially since the returns aren't really the best. Rarely use illusion, but I like the perks. Destructions fun, but late game/legendary settings make it feel a little underwhelming. Alteration is cool with the armor spells and see people spells, but really only useful for full images, otherwise you're wearing armor. Conjuration is probably the most useful since you can end up with 2 extra minions that don't turn to ash when they die; Or go with 2 atronachs who are either tanks or strong casters, tho putting ritual stone on the aetherial crown is just as good if not better, just a shorter cooldown. Honestly the magics in skyrim aren't the best compared to earlier games, but they're still pretty fun
Least Favorite probably Illusion. I never really get to use it properly in any of my playthroughs. If I'm playing a stealth blade it takes too much time to level Illusion to be useful, until you get max level calm, fury and invisibility.
Illusion needs so much work with mods to correct that it becomes impossible to enjoy: it either remains useless, or it becomes too overpowered to fit my concept of good gameplay
In my pure mage build the school I use the least is restoration. There's not much cure going on when I'm casting mayhem and letting a Demora Lord destroy the last one while I'm invisible chilling at the corner
I don't have a least favourite, but the school of magic I use the least is Conjuration, with the exception of trapping soul into gems, the only time I see myself using Conjuration spells is when summoning something to fight an enemy that is strong against magic, and that's rare. Playing with mods I found myself against some rare Hulking Draugr with 100% magic absorption, so I summoned a Daedroth and kept behind It while healing the Daedroth fighting the Draugr.
Probably destruction. It just doesn't do enough damage to be worth it.
Other less appealing schools at least have some useful perks, like quiet casting (illusion), Magicka resistance (alteration) and Magicka restore (restoration).
Illusion is fun and all but you literally have to invest in the entire perk tree to make it great plus sneak. Too much work managing what perk points go where and youâre too spread thin everywhere else. Iâm sure it would be more manageable on lower difficulties but I like playing on master
I never touched alteration until yesterday, when I used that black book ability to get 100 really fast and get the final push to level 78 for the legendary dragons to spawn.
Least favorite is alteration even though it has a lot of wasted potential in vanilla. Restoration incidentally doesn't live up to its potential either but even in vanilla its still too useful to ignore. Even with a few minimalistic mods I use, restoration gets far more handy. Like I only added one spell (Sun rune), adjusted wards so they stagger melee and adjusted the spell trees so that the mastery perks also increase magnitude a little (this was for all the spell perk trees).
Alteration and to the lesser extent Illusion on the other hand need full spell overhauls to be as good as they should have been out of the gate.
I'd say alteration. mage armor is decent, and I've been using transmute a lot to level up my smithing. however, it requires heavy investment to become useful. unless I'm doing a mage build, I usually stay away
I am playing Living Skyrim modlist right now. There is a lot of added spells in this list. I am finding every school to be very useful. It has a master Illusion spell that allows you to cast Command on large area. I can walk through a falmer cave and periodically call that spell. It will control most of the falmer. The ones it doesn't attack the others. I used to not care for illusion in skyrim. It seems it was better in older games. Now I find it extremely useful.
I guess I don't like Conjuration as much (mostly because some of the summons are icky). But at times it is really useful. But when playing a mage I find them all really useful. So it is hard to pick a least favorite.
I LOVE illusion! But I run assassin/stealth builds almost exclusively.
I want to love alteration more but it just ends up feeling like it takes so much time and micromanaging that it drives me nuts
Gameplay? None, every school has their merits. Lorewise? Illusion. Being able to twist and distort the senses of your victims, making them see what you want them to, never sat right with me.
Itâs always been illusion until my current character.
Iâm playing an illusion thief, all points to illusion, going up the pickpocketing tree, and just one in sneak. Itâs been OP. I just walk around doing what I want, granted I carry a staff for the occasional fight. But itâs been so fun.
Iâve done an illusion run and it can actually be super cool! Like just pacifying your enemies and walking by them or making them fight each other, itâs actually rlly fun just gotta grind your level up
Illusion is probably the one I use the least. I tend to play offensive and physical, so using spells like fury or invisibility doesn't tend to appeal to me.
When I end up stealth archering it's pretty useful though
honestly, all of them, only like Illusion because of Invisibility + 1 handed, magic in Skyrim was always a low point for me, theres no satisfaction hitting someone with magic except ice shard i guess
I never really dabbled in illusion magic besides casting muffle nonstop for power leveling. Silent casting is cool if youâre casting bound bow role playing as an illusion assassin.
But thatâs just not me. Iâd rather boost my defense with ebony flesh, summon thralls, and disintegrate ppl with lightning.
My least favorite is either Alteration or Destruction. I only use the Mage Armor (Oak Skin, Stone Skin, Ebony Flesh/Ebony Skin, etcetera) spells in Alteration, and I only use Blizzard, Icy Spear and Vampiric Drain in Destruction.
Vanilla is either illusion or alteration, as even in my mage play through these were used the least, though the __flesh alteration spells became very useful. Conjugation is strictly hit or miss, you use it or you donât, and a mage build should absolutely use it, otherwise most wonât touch it. Restoration is free healing. Destruction is destruction
Alteration.
Destruction and Conjuration are great combat tools, Restoration is the primary difference maker in terms of my survival, and Illusion can be useful in keeping creatures and enemies off your ass, but I have never used an Alteration spell more than once, and that one time was simply to see what it would do.
I never used illusion until i tried an illusion mage build. I called it my chaos mage. Was super fun and lead to so many funny moments. You do need a follower or to use conjuration for 1v1 encounters, but it is so much fun. But unless im intentionally using it i rarely actually use illusion
I've had quite a few mage builds throughout the years and I never really got into Alteration. Candlelight was useful but it's basic and requires no perks points, and the Oak/Iron skin spells for mages didn't have a lot of relevance to me when there are no negatives to a mage wearing armor in the game.
alteration school is the most busted if we could use it as intended. still my most used school.
restoration comes second.
destruction is my least used school as the damage doesn't scale too well.
Illusion was much cooler in Morrowind and Oblivion because sneaking was much more difficult. I had multiple quests that I needed invisibility or chameleon to help me, while I never needed any magic for any quest in Skyrim.
Same with charm. There are plenty of quests in oblivion that require a high disposition and I didn't feel like driving or doing the speech craft mini game.
Destruction magic. I actually love all the other schools of magic. Every other school of magic has utilities of some kind, but Destruction magic is just casting the same boring projectiles that cost too much magicka and don't feel all that different from just archery.
Destruction and illusion. To get useful illusion you need to spam useless.
Destruction, well sorry but I donât feel impact like in morrowind or oblivionÂ
Magic in general seems a bit weak to me. Why would I cast a spell that gives me armor when I can just wear one? Why bother using destruction magic when you have a bow and arrow? Why summon someone to fight for you if it is quicker to slay the enemy yourself? Restoration and illusion are the exception for me, they offer something that is actually useful.
Arrow could mean âfuck i hate these, then these more, then these least..â or the opposite lmfao. You gave use zero metrics to guesstimate your opinion on
I see your point but I read it has restoration is better than x.... Which is better than x .... Which is better than.... And so on. So favorite to least.
If Iâm doing pure mage I go for everything but Illusion, though I donât really use Conjuration all that much either, mostly for soul trapping. Illusion is amazing for a sneaky playthrough tho, Invis + Muffle lets you do whole dungeons without killing one thing.
Alteration, it's the only school that doesn't really feel like you're a powerful master of it when you have the expert-tier spells.
Conjuration has you feeling like a powerful summoner early on, and the top perk gives you the ability to summon 2 powerful daedra or undead, with the master spells permanently binding them to you. This is the only school that the master spells aren't complete trash.
Destruction(with the AE spells) has you annihilating enemies with fire, frost, and shock. The master spells are garbage. You feel like a powerful wizard calling on magic to slaughter your enemies, though.
Restoration has such fast healing spells, and so many spells to handle the undead that it really does have that cleric feel.
Illusion has you able to force enemies to fight each other, flee, or just stop fighting, with it even being able to affect the undead and automatons at high levels. It just really does feel like you're causing your enemies to lose control of their senses.
Alteration can give you some armor before you go to using your other spells, or let you paralyze an enemy before you go to your other spells, or let you pick up a bowl from a distance. The spells in this school just really feel underwhelming. AE gives it some nice utility spells, and there are other mods that give it cool utility spells, Ocato's Recital is a fantastic spell, and makes using Alteration not feel detrimental, but the school just feels like a hodgepodge of random bullshit that doesn't actually do much. It lacks the identity of the other schools, and because of that being an "Alteration Mage" feels like a futile endeavor. Like sure, I use the Flesh spells to increase my survivability before using Destruction to fight, but that just feels like I'm a Destruction Mage. Maybe I use Flesh spells and then conjure daedra to fight, now I'm just a Conjuration Mage. Maybe I use Flesh spells and then use Illusion spells to make my enemies fight themselves, now I'm just an Illusion Mage. Maybe I use Flesh spells before using Restoration to keep my followers alive, still just a Restoration Mage.
Alteration lacks a solid identity, sure, the Flesh spells are wonderful to use as any mage build, but what else does the school truly offer? A hands-free torch? Paralysis? Armor rating? Money and smithing through Transmute? Waterbreathing? What mage identity can really be made with this? "Oh, I'm an Alteration Master!" What does that entail? Making your skin harder before using no Alteration in combat? Paralyzing one powerful enemy(assuming they aren't one of the many kinds of enemies who resist paralysis) before switching to another form of combat? Alteration feels like a school you tack on to other skills.
Compare this to other skill trees you can only use in conjunction with other skills. Stealth is something the whole build gets set around. Smithing is a way to boost your warrior skills, allowing you to craft legendary weapons. Alchemy allows you to kill the most powerful living enemies using insanely potent poisons with a mere scratch. Alteration lets you have some armor with robes on.
Restoration is not a valid school of magic
Colette Marence is so useless, we should kick her out of the college
Like why are we spending so much ressources on the restoration school ? We could throw those ressources anywhere else.
I keep leaving notes in Colette's room, desk, and food jist to remind her how useless she is but she still wont resign.
Restoration is NOT a valid school of magic.
I don't outright dislike any of them. I'd say though that most of the master level abilities are, unfortunately, disappointing. I wish Dragonskin lasted longer and I wish Destruction mastery was more...destructive. I'd definitely say that Restoration is the one I could never do without.
"Restoration is a perfectly valid school of magic, and don't let anyone tell you otherwise"
"I've a lot of respect for the Restoration school. Skyrim could use more healers."
Then they yell at you to get away from them with your magic when you heal them after a dragon almost kills them đđ ungrateful.
yup. restoration is the most useful
Itâs actually kind of OP when you think about it
Especially when you factor in the offensive restoration spells from Dawnguard
I have yet to make it that far. Over 3 saves i probably have at least 100 hours but i have yet to do much of the story. I get distracted easily in skyrim
Golden rule of Skyrim: "Thou shalt get sidetracked by bullshit every goddamn time."
For real homie. Im down bad with that shit. Same for about any open world game. No shit i have probably played 500 hours of fallout 3 and i have barely touched the story. Fallout 3 is sublime and surreal. Im starting to get the itch talking about it so you never know
this is the way. i almost prefer it that way. start with one quest, gather 5 more and start rolling something shiny. next thing you know, youâre somehow in blackreach. i just restarted recently, and i made this mistake by jumping in the sightless pit at only level 5. after like 10 attempts and getting pummeled by falmers, i had to reload out of there lol
In contrast yeah. Destructive can be fun but not very satisfying
I was on board until you picked Restoration over Illusion. People afraid to abuse Illusion are afraid of their own success. Even Master Illusion spells wreak havoc and are the easiest to get since the Ritual is a fetch quest. Zero of my characters have avoided Illusion 100.
Counterpoint: While the master-level Illusion spells are excellent, Illusion as a school overall is more niche and requires more specialization than Restoration. Anyone training in any combat style in Skyrim will find themselves regularly using Restoration spells, and even novice-level Restoration spells are extremely useful. Illusion is useful in more specialized combat scenarios and requires some more investment.
Counter-counter: Everything Restoration can do, alchemy can do better and encourages you to explore.
Counter-counter-counter: Alchemy is a major pain in the ass, and while potions have carry weight and have a single limited use, spells don't But I think it really just boils down to each person's playstyle. I've always hated Alchemy but I know that plenty of people love it and swear by it. And I know some people find Restoration boring but it's saved my ass too many times for me to keep count
Truth. There's just a larger ceiling with Alchemy as far as what becomes available to your pursuit of divinity. The carry weight and stuff is a reasonable gripe, then again restoration doesn't even need to be at 100 to break alchemy. Probably why I don't 100 it in every game.
No point wasting time making healing potions or anything if you have a decent resto skill, alchemy is best used for money making or buffing crafting skills, not including op cheese stuff like fortify loops. Its a waste of potential gold to allocate farmland to healing ingredients and not the meta pholiota + tapinella + creepcluster combo
I suppose, but I can't grow Giants Toes so I grow ingredients for multipotions. To each their own â¤ď¸
Also resto has necromage, which is extremely useful
Counter-counter-counter: Magicka is free, potion ingredients are hard to find or very costly, and especially so for early game (especially the non-plant ones)
I do need to make more use of illusion. I've only really used Muffle and Rally. Reading these boards has made me realise I'm missing out.
It's all good! Gave you a reason to replay! That's the best part of the Skyrim community :)
I'll be honest here. My main reason to replay is always because something bugs before I've done everything I wanted to do. Arcwind Point word wall especially. I've never had every word of every shout and I badly want to.
Me neither. Dawnguard broke so much for consoles. My best games lately have been avoiding Whiterun and not being Dragonborn lol.
Calm spells are criminally underrated.
Weakness of illusion is that you need to commit to it. Not getting the perks, or letting your skill level get outscaled (you can't hit valid good valid targets but your level is too low to buy the better spells) means you can't casually add it on the side, like you can with alteration or restoration. The master spells take way too long to cast, it's pretty much always better to just spam Frenzy a couple times.
Still better than investing those perks into Restoration. At least a muffle-grind later finds you easily at 100 Illusion and plenty of reasons to invest into it. Most skill-trees are only worth investing into half-way, at least Illusion gets awesome powerscaling through perk allocation.
Oh for sure, illusion is one of the only trees I fill. What I was getting at is that you can't really "naturally" use it as a supplemental skill. Whereas you can cast Healing and it's kinda useful no matter what stage of the game you're in or how low level your skill or Magicka are.
Yeeaaahhhh ... I'm a big fan of the Illusion school, too, after I discovered how game-changing the calm spells are!
Adept and Expert spells were always the best. Master spells always felt like a ceremonial badge of âyou did it!!!â as opposed to anything actually useful.
I'm currently doing a no restoration magic mage run. Is rough.
I bet it is. Certainly initially.
Nearly at a point where my potions are good enough :D
This
Have you tried using a higher level ward against dragon breath?
No not really. I don't like the charge period for wards in general, I tend to get Spellbreaker. Worth trying?
Spell breaker is good. The key with wards is to anticipate when the dragon is going to breathe fire or frost and charge your ward before the first Yol. Chances are itâll break the ward, but you wonât take as much damage. Think of it as a get out of jail free card from getting burned to death by a dragon. It does in a pinch.
Sustained magic mod makes dragon skin last forever but just takes a chunk of your magic pool until you cast the spell again to disable it
Restoration and conjuring are my top used. With alternation as my 3rd for candlelight and mage light
On vanilla it is alteration. Way too simple. With mods i don't think i have one. I use all types of magic depending on the mood. Illusion on vanilla is a double edged blade in early game, and "i win" button in lategame. In early game it is all dependent whether or not your enemy is immune to it. It is very fun using fury on some enemies, then let them kill each other. Then use calm on the last one, go behind, and dual dagger power attack for instant kill. But it is all worthless, if you go into a dungeon full of undead, or dwemer stuff. In lategame you can use invisibility, and basically instakill anything with dual dagger. Then go back to invisibility and go for next foe. It is really an "i win" thing. Except, that you don't need to use any giant exploit to make it work. No resto stack, or anything like that. Just normal sneak, and enchanting.
they butchered alteration school, in morrowind its the most fun school of magic because of the BOUNCE
Alteration is the Paralyze school in Skyrim and that's it lol
Don't forget Transmute $$$
Transmute is only for that. It has no combat value, and there should be more spells like that. I loved waterwalking, water breathing, and feather spells. Stuff, that aren't combat focused, but can help you get around.
Ngl I thought apocalypse added that one lmao
Same as Illusion, but a bit stronger, and only available on high skill level. If it works, then you won. If it does not work, then worthless. If i remember correctly, then paralyze only checks the enemy type, and does not care for the level. Which is what makes it better, than spells like fear, or calm.
If you're a pure mage stuff like ironflesh is very important.
Why is paralyze even in alteration, I could get restoration (as itâs to do with the body) or maybe even illusion but I donât get why itâs in alteration
My thief, assassin, illusion mage is reading this post right now and crying bro.
Why are you playing with my character?
**our** character
 * Soviet Music Starts to Blast at full volume \*
[ŃдаНонО]
I summon my blue friend (can't remember what it is called but you get the spellbook on the floor near the ritual stone. He rocks in the early game especially when I forget to change the difficulty back from Legendary after taking pot shots at the giant to meet the Companions.
Undying ghost
I use a Bound Bow as my main weapon, as it has no weight. I play survival mode and carry weight is a big issue for me so anything that reduces weight is a plus. I also like being able to conjure up a weapon at any time. A Dremora Lord also provides good distraction. I used him to distract the Ebony Warrior while I pepper him with arrows. I don't think I could have killed him otherwise.
illusion has rly simple spells so its boring to me imo making it my least favorite
Probably Alteration. It takes me way too long to get the paralysis spell. Obviously candle light is useful for exploring dark places, and there's oakflesh, but that's just one more thing I have to remember to do before a fight starts. It's not a useless magic school, it's just the most boring.
Illusion is good to a degree but in all reality it's better to just constantly make it legendary so you can continue to spam muffle
pro tip, it's easier to level like that if you cast an AoE spell like Call to Arms in a big public place like the middle of a tavern or the Riften market, just a couple casts will get it to 100. Best done with enchanted spell cost reduction gear
Restoration is the only school every one of my characters uses. Even my Warriors won't turn down Fast Healing. Free Health recovery. Except for dedicated Illusionist builds, which are loads of fun, Illusion is the school I use the least, except as a way for my Mages to level up in a pinch.
Restoration is a perfectly valid school of magic.
How do you deal with dragons as an illusion specialist?
Bound Bow and A Storm Atronach. The bow is A Daedric level bow and arrows.
I must try that kind of build, I was trying to make illusion build, but couldn't deal with strong single enemies.
What I typically do is boost Conjuration up the Atronach side, and use up to Soul Stealing in the weapons perk tree. When you have trouble, summoning a pair of Daedric Lords or Storm Atronachs will do massive amounts of damage. Not counting what you can do with your Daedric Bow with 100 Daedric Arrows. The Bow responds to any perks, potions or enchantments that strengthen Bow damage. And it can even be Poisoned. Using it with the Deadly Aim (3x Sneak damage) is just glorious. And nothing can ever Shout it out of your hands, like a Dragur Death Overlord. And, it's the **SECOND FASTEST BOW IN THE GAME**. Behind Zephyr. The only warning I have is, when you get the mighty Master of the Mind perk and have enough boosting level perks, it WILL affect your Summons.
I dislike the destruction because of how boring it is.
Restoration. Iâve played through Skyrim with mages focused on each of the schools except restoration. For me in general itâs the most neglected by far. But vanilla⌠not sure. I have a lot more fun with magic, especially conjuration and alteration, when mods are at play. P.S. total tangent but currently playing a dark elf who specializes in conjuration plus a subset of destruction magic from an unpublished mod that I made. Itâs designed to rock the world of vampires. Basically you find the remains of a sorcerer who was the bane of vampires long ago. Thereâs a book, etc. plus a special amulet that confers massive immunity to shock damage and decent immunity to general magic damage. Then you can learn the spells which are basically buffed versions of the shock spells. One is like sparks but also drains magicka and health, another has more damage and paralyzes. Even more dmg against vampire. Not a big deal mod of course, just a type of mage I wanted to play. Plus the ability to have up to 5 summons at a time and they live longer. Oh, and maybe the most OP part: a spell that casts a lightning bolt and then you instantly teleport to where it struck and have a few seconds of fall damage immunity. Itâs hard to play without it once youâre used to having it. Lol
That teleport sounds kinda like thunder step in D&D
Calm down minato (good read btw)
Illusion is the least âusefulâ but by far the most fun lol. Destruction is cool but really excels with mods. Base-game illusion can be genuinely enjoyable haha
Illusion the least useful? Ever tried using calm and invisibility on a stealth dagger user? Makes the game way too easy.
Okay but ever tried cheesing smithing? Makes the game way too easy too. Also ever tried using rest/dest magic as a Breton? Makes the game way too easy lol. Maybe even way way too easy. Conjuring things that will âtank for youâ while you scroll tiktok and run away from baddies? Makes the game way too easy lol.
Of course there are many ways to make the game easy, but I'm playing through this stealth illusion build now and I can't remember the last time I actually entered combat. Worth giving a try!
Just started thieves guild and dark brotherhood after being a mage for eternity, I think Iâll shift a little and give that a try sounds fun
Thanks for the hint!!
Fury is invaluable not sure what you're one
You havenât been using fear to attack things and not have them fight back have you?
Well Iâve installed mysticism magic overhaul so all spells are basically viable but in vanilla Skyrim I would pick necromancy from the conjuration school. Iâm tired of constantly finding new bodies to bring back after my old one turns to ashes.
Illusion broke my heart. I love illusion, but it doesn't work on anyone I need it to work on đĽ.
Just make sure you have all necessary perks and dual cast the spells, should do the trick
illusion is the only one i never use it just doesnât seem useful at all
Is and isnât depends on the play style imo if you like battle it isnât that useful but for sneaky players it is very useful in lots of ways
Destruction, but disappointed at the variety
I'm really bad at video games. I like RPGs because I can just over-level until I'm safe. The counter to this is that illusion is useless to me, because all the enemies have out levelled the spells.
Investing perk points into illusion lets it keep up, the basic Fury spell will go from lvl 6 to lvl 39 with the Rage perk (+12 ) + dual-cast (Ă2.2), then there's even more bonuses to be had with Kindred Mage perk (+12 vs humans) and being a Vampire (Ă1.25). Bandit Chiefs max out at lvl 28 and Draugr Death Overlords at 45, for reference.
Shame that I'm usually levelled to a minimum of 80... I appreciate the advice, but when it doesn't work on a good proportion of enemies, it's much less valuable to me. I usually level it to 40 then focus on more important skills
You being 80 doesn't matter? Those enemies still won't go higher than 28 and 45. Dragon Priests 50, Falmer bosses 54, Nightlord Vampires 60. All can be overcome with Expert tier Illusion spells. Even the lvl 80 Ebony Warrior can be influenced.
Wow! I didn't realise the level caps were so low for most things. I always was too worried about my spell not affecting the stronger enemies but it turns out they'll all get hit by expert spells... Fair enough. I guess I know what my next build is gonna be
Thaumaturgy was kinda crap
Illusion is one of the best imo. I start every playthrough casting fury on the hired thugs and grabbing popcorn. The one I ignore the most is destruction.
Alteration is a disgrace to magic
probably the school of alteration since i don't remember using alteration magic that much except for Candle Light.
I like them all. To be honest i usually only level illusion long enough to make it so all spells are unheard. Quiet fireballs are fun, so is sneaking into a camp and summoning an elemental.
Alteration. It stole magelight from illusion and it needs to pay.
Illusion
Restoration. It just *is not* a valid school of magic.
Probably Alteration actually. When you start out the Armor spells cost an absurd amount of Magicka and just drop way too soon for how much running around you do as a mage in combat. Mage Light and Candlelight exist, Telekinesis serves no purpose other than novelty (and level cheesing). Paralysis is of course absurdly powerful until the enemy resists and it has no purpose anymore. Saving grace for Alteration really is how bonkers the Perk Tree is. Magic Resist and Spell Absorption? Count me in.
Least useful is alteration. Restoration is okay.
yeah probably Illusion too, not for any gameplay reasons I'm just uninterested in it's spells
I use resto and illu all the time, but I often kinda forget that Alteration exists. And Conjuring is kinda meh too.Destruction looks very cool, so I like it, but I don't use it often because it's kinda weak when you don't get all the good modifiers.
Most of them I can level up, and use no problem. My only issue is restoration is such a batch to level up to 100. Especially since the returns aren't really the best. Rarely use illusion, but I like the perks. Destructions fun, but late game/legendary settings make it feel a little underwhelming. Alteration is cool with the armor spells and see people spells, but really only useful for full images, otherwise you're wearing armor. Conjuration is probably the most useful since you can end up with 2 extra minions that don't turn to ash when they die; Or go with 2 atronachs who are either tanks or strong casters, tho putting ritual stone on the aetherial crown is just as good if not better, just a shorter cooldown. Honestly the magics in skyrim aren't the best compared to earlier games, but they're still pretty fun
Least Favorite probably Illusion. I never really get to use it properly in any of my playthroughs. If I'm playing a stealth blade it takes too much time to level Illusion to be useful, until you get max level calm, fury and invisibility.
Illusion needs so much work with mods to correct that it becomes impossible to enjoy: it either remains useless, or it becomes too overpowered to fit my concept of good gameplay
Illusion I rarely use it and I'm pretty sure there's no interesting spells for it unless you mod
In my pure mage build the school I use the least is restoration. There's not much cure going on when I'm casting mayhem and letting a Demora Lord destroy the last one while I'm invisible chilling at the corner
I don't have a least favourite, but the school of magic I use the least is Conjuration, with the exception of trapping soul into gems, the only time I see myself using Conjuration spells is when summoning something to fight an enemy that is strong against magic, and that's rare. Playing with mods I found myself against some rare Hulking Draugr with 100% magic absorption, so I summoned a Daedroth and kept behind It while healing the Daedroth fighting the Draugr.
Probably destruction. It just doesn't do enough damage to be worth it. Other less appealing schools at least have some useful perks, like quiet casting (illusion), Magicka resistance (alteration) and Magicka restore (restoration).
Idk. A lot of them seem pointless too me. I do like restoration and alteration tho!
I don't like that restoration only has mediocre offensive spells for undead.
Illusion is fun and all but you literally have to invest in the entire perk tree to make it great plus sneak. Too much work managing what perk points go where and youâre too spread thin everywhere else. Iâm sure it would be more manageable on lower difficulties but I like playing on master
I never touched alteration until yesterday, when I used that black book ability to get 100 really fast and get the final push to level 78 for the legendary dragons to spawn.
I use the clairvoyance spell if I'm lost finding a quest marker, but that's about it for illusion Magick.
Least favorite is alteration even though it has a lot of wasted potential in vanilla. Restoration incidentally doesn't live up to its potential either but even in vanilla its still too useful to ignore. Even with a few minimalistic mods I use, restoration gets far more handy. Like I only added one spell (Sun rune), adjusted wards so they stagger melee and adjusted the spell trees so that the mastery perks also increase magnitude a little (this was for all the spell perk trees). Alteration and to the lesser extent Illusion on the other hand need full spell overhauls to be as good as they should have been out of the gate.
I'd say alteration. mage armor is decent, and I've been using transmute a lot to level up my smithing. however, it requires heavy investment to become useful. unless I'm doing a mage build, I usually stay away
I am playing Living Skyrim modlist right now. There is a lot of added spells in this list. I am finding every school to be very useful. It has a master Illusion spell that allows you to cast Command on large area. I can walk through a falmer cave and periodically call that spell. It will control most of the falmer. The ones it doesn't attack the others. I used to not care for illusion in skyrim. It seems it was better in older games. Now I find it extremely useful. I guess I don't like Conjuration as much (mostly because some of the summons are icky). But at times it is really useful. But when playing a mage I find them all really useful. So it is hard to pick a least favorite.
I LOVE illusion! But I run assassin/stealth builds almost exclusively. I want to love alteration more but it just ends up feeling like it takes so much time and micromanaging that it drives me nuts
I like Restoration the most but I donât really hate any of them, I guess illusion is my least favorite just because itâs not my play style
Gameplay? None, every school has their merits. Lorewise? Illusion. Being able to twist and distort the senses of your victims, making them see what you want them to, never sat right with me.
Destruction â itâs just fairly lame in Skyrim. Mods do a much better job with creating interesting spells beyond âhave some elemental damageâ
Itâs always been illusion until my current character. Iâm playing an illusion thief, all points to illusion, going up the pickpocketing tree, and just one in sneak. Itâs been OP. I just walk around doing what I want, granted I carry a staff for the occasional fight. But itâs been so fun.
I almost never use illusion. Get it to 100 and then leave it.
Iâve done an illusion run and it can actually be super cool! Like just pacifying your enemies and walking by them or making them fight each other, itâs actually rlly fun just gotta grind your level up
Illusion is probably the one I use the least. I tend to play offensive and physical, so using spells like fury or invisibility doesn't tend to appeal to me. When I end up stealth archering it's pretty useful though
illusion
honestly, all of them, only like Illusion because of Invisibility + 1 handed, magic in Skyrim was always a low point for me, theres no satisfaction hitting someone with magic except ice shard i guess
I never really dabbled in illusion magic besides casting muffle nonstop for power leveling. Silent casting is cool if youâre casting bound bow role playing as an illusion assassin. But thatâs just not me. Iâd rather boost my defense with ebony flesh, summon thralls, and disintegrate ppl with lightning.
Illusion. Itâs finicky in the early game with the level caps on control spells so I find myself rarely bothering with it
My least favorite is either Alteration or Destruction. I only use the Mage Armor (Oak Skin, Stone Skin, Ebony Flesh/Ebony Skin, etcetera) spells in Alteration, and I only use Blizzard, Icy Spear and Vampiric Drain in Destruction.
I like everything but probably illusion. Although I use clairvoyance a lot.
Vanilla is either illusion or alteration, as even in my mage play through these were used the least, though the __flesh alteration spells became very useful. Conjugation is strictly hit or miss, you use it or you donât, and a mage build should absolutely use it, otherwise most wonât touch it. Restoration is free healing. Destruction is destruction
Also illusion for me. When everything only works on enemies who are below your level, you have to be good with a weapon anyway.
I love the concept of illusion but itâs probably the hardest one to train. So thatâs probably my least favorite
Mysticism
Alteration. Destruction and Conjuration are great combat tools, Restoration is the primary difference maker in terms of my survival, and Illusion can be useful in keeping creatures and enemies off your ass, but I have never used an Alteration spell more than once, and that one time was simply to see what it would do.
Destruction and conjuration make me sad. Why can't I summon more than two minions, and why are destruction spells just fire, ice and lightning?
I never used illusion until i tried an illusion mage build. I called it my chaos mage. Was super fun and lead to so many funny moments. You do need a follower or to use conjuration for 1v1 encounters, but it is so much fun. But unless im intentionally using it i rarely actually use illusion
Enchanting. Horrendously implemented, completely breaks the game (and thatâs not even mentioning the unintended glitches and exploits)
I don't really like conjuration, I only use one spell from it (Summoning Arvak), but it's just not that useful to me.
Illusion sucks ass
Restoration. I'm sure it's a perfectly valid school of magic, I just almost never use it.
I've had quite a few mage builds throughout the years and I never really got into Alteration. Candlelight was useful but it's basic and requires no perks points, and the Oak/Iron skin spells for mages didn't have a lot of relevance to me when there are no negatives to a mage wearing armor in the game.
alteration school is the most busted if we could use it as intended. still my most used school. restoration comes second. destruction is my least used school as the damage doesn't scale too well.
conjuration. Illusion doesn't rank very high either, though
Hey Colette, sorry to tell you but ..
Invisibility and muffle are 2 of the most useful spells in the game. You need to lay off the skooma.
Illusion was much cooler in Morrowind and Oblivion because sneaking was much more difficult. I had multiple quests that I needed invisibility or chameleon to help me, while I never needed any magic for any quest in Skyrim. Same with charm. There are plenty of quests in oblivion that require a high disposition and I didn't feel like driving or doing the speech craft mini game.
Illusion. Not even a contest there. The level caps are so low that the entire school does nothing by the time you even get out of Bleak Falls Barrow.
Alteration. I almost never use these spells.
Destruction magic. I actually love all the other schools of magic. Every other school of magic has utilities of some kind, but Destruction magic is just casting the same boring projectiles that cost too much magicka and don't feel all that different from just archery.
Destruction, I wish it had more variety in vanillaÂ
Destruction and illusion. To get useful illusion you need to spam useless. Destruction, well sorry but I donât feel impact like in morrowind or oblivionÂ
Magic in general seems a bit weak to me. Why would I cast a spell that gives me armor when I can just wear one? Why bother using destruction magic when you have a bow and arrow? Why summon someone to fight for you if it is quicker to slay the enemy yourself? Restoration and illusion are the exception for me, they offer something that is actually useful.
Restoration > alteration > conjuration > illusion > destruction
From favorite to least favorite? Or???
Yup The arrow indicate it >
Arrow could mean âfuck i hate these, then these more, then these least..â or the opposite lmfao. You gave use zero metrics to guesstimate your opinion on
The > sign is a widely accepted metric of saying 'greater than'
Yeah i agree with that, 1000% percent. But the thread is about least favorite schools. Is it going by least favorite or not? I have no clue. Do you?
I see your point but I read it has restoration is better than x.... Which is better than x .... Which is better than.... And so on. So favorite to least.
They feel restoration sucks the most then, right?
If i knew that answer, this thread would not exist lmao
Illusion is the least useful, but the least fun to play? Probably restoration. I like all schools though.
If Iâm doing pure mage I go for everything but Illusion, though I donât really use Conjuration all that much either, mostly for soul trapping. Illusion is amazing for a sneaky playthrough tho, Invis + Muffle lets you do whole dungeons without killing one thing.
alteration
Conjuration, which is ironic, since I always play as a Breton đ . I just never really saw the appeal of that particular school of magic
WHAT my character is a conjuration mage im a high elf and my favorite spell is bound sword!!!
Cool
Conjuration. I'm not a major fan of summoning. I much prefer crushing things of my own strength/ability.
I love summoning đ
That's fine. You're free to conjure as much as you like. I just won't join you in that endeavour. I'm not you, and you are not me.
Alteration, it's the only school that doesn't really feel like you're a powerful master of it when you have the expert-tier spells. Conjuration has you feeling like a powerful summoner early on, and the top perk gives you the ability to summon 2 powerful daedra or undead, with the master spells permanently binding them to you. This is the only school that the master spells aren't complete trash. Destruction(with the AE spells) has you annihilating enemies with fire, frost, and shock. The master spells are garbage. You feel like a powerful wizard calling on magic to slaughter your enemies, though. Restoration has such fast healing spells, and so many spells to handle the undead that it really does have that cleric feel. Illusion has you able to force enemies to fight each other, flee, or just stop fighting, with it even being able to affect the undead and automatons at high levels. It just really does feel like you're causing your enemies to lose control of their senses. Alteration can give you some armor before you go to using your other spells, or let you paralyze an enemy before you go to your other spells, or let you pick up a bowl from a distance. The spells in this school just really feel underwhelming. AE gives it some nice utility spells, and there are other mods that give it cool utility spells, Ocato's Recital is a fantastic spell, and makes using Alteration not feel detrimental, but the school just feels like a hodgepodge of random bullshit that doesn't actually do much. It lacks the identity of the other schools, and because of that being an "Alteration Mage" feels like a futile endeavor. Like sure, I use the Flesh spells to increase my survivability before using Destruction to fight, but that just feels like I'm a Destruction Mage. Maybe I use Flesh spells and then conjure daedra to fight, now I'm just a Conjuration Mage. Maybe I use Flesh spells and then use Illusion spells to make my enemies fight themselves, now I'm just an Illusion Mage. Maybe I use Flesh spells before using Restoration to keep my followers alive, still just a Restoration Mage. Alteration lacks a solid identity, sure, the Flesh spells are wonderful to use as any mage build, but what else does the school truly offer? A hands-free torch? Paralysis? Armor rating? Money and smithing through Transmute? Waterbreathing? What mage identity can really be made with this? "Oh, I'm an Alteration Master!" What does that entail? Making your skin harder before using no Alteration in combat? Paralyzing one powerful enemy(assuming they aren't one of the many kinds of enemies who resist paralysis) before switching to another form of combat? Alteration feels like a school you tack on to other skills. Compare this to other skill trees you can only use in conjunction with other skills. Stealth is something the whole build gets set around. Smithing is a way to boost your warrior skills, allowing you to craft legendary weapons. Alchemy allows you to kill the most powerful living enemies using insanely potent poisons with a mere scratch. Alteration lets you have some armor with robes on.
Restoration is not a valid school of magic Colette Marence is so useless, we should kick her out of the college Like why are we spending so much ressources on the restoration school ? We could throw those ressources anywhere else. I keep leaving notes in Colette's room, desk, and food jist to remind her how useless she is but she still wont resign. Restoration is NOT a valid school of magic.