Although the criticisms of the mage playstyle are well-documented, it can ultimately be a very rewarding playthrough. Some people have adopted the same attitude of many hold guards - "Go cast your fancy magic someplace else." Admittedly, I have some discrepancies with the school of magic. Namely, mages can be too weak early, and can be difficult to develop later on.
But, one could go on for days critiquing Skyrim's various schools of magic. Instead, I set out to find a solution. This build is not only simple and straightforward, but becomes incredibly powerful about twenty levels earlier than most builds, and can be offensively potent as early as Level 12*. Furthermore, as a non-crafting build, there is no need to wait to get the final load-out, as the necessary garments can be attained quite soon in the game. Upon its completion at Level 32, not only will it be an offensive tour de force, but it will be a tank to rival the heaviest of juggernauts.
I believe that this build would be a good re-entry point for those that have closed their mind to attempting to play a dedicated mage. I hope that some of you will find in this build what I have: that it circumvents the tediousness of evolving from a frail weakling into a powerful sorcerer, all the while remaining fun every step of the way.
Without further ado, I present my inaugural build...
The Atronach of Argonia
Race: Argonian vampire
Stone: Mage (Restoration 20-75), then Atronach
Stat Distribution:350H/160M/100S (by Level 32)
Not only does the Argonian receive a nice +5 buff to two of the three skills we'll be using (Alteration and Restoration), but their Histkin power adds to the great survivability of this build, especially at lower levels. It even retains its utility upon the character reaching its “cap” level of 32, where it will be used in conjunction with Guardian Circle to attain near-invincible levels of health regeneration.
Despite the fact that this is a pure mage character, it does not need a large pool of magicka as we only need enough magicka to cast our most expensive spell (which will be Dragonhide) once. Instead, we invest the majority of our stat boosts into health to bolster the tanking ability of this character. Stamina is especially useless for this character considering that there will be no running necessary. One of my least favorite aspects of a mage is having to run away and cower once your magicka pool has been depleted, biding your time hoping for a speedy regen. In fact, the hallmark of this character is standing its ground in face of more brutish foes hoping to slice it to pieces.
This build is one of the few vampire builds that does NOT require the Dawnguard expansion. This is because the Vampire Lord form will never, ever be used. The sole reason for contracting vampirism is to make use of the Necromage perk. In Skyrim, one can simply contract sanguinare vampiris for this purpose. (I do, however, recommend Dawnguard for the added gameplay hours.) The 25% boost Necromage confers will boost the Atronach Stone's magicka absorption to 62.5%, and will increase the effectiveness of the Atronach perk by 7.5%. The new-and-improved Atronach stone (62.5%) and enhanced Atronach perk (37.5%) combine to offer 100% magicka absorption.
Major Skills
Restoration: While all of the below skills will be leveled to 100, Restoration is far and away the most important of them all. The Master-level spell Guardian Circle is the crux of this build. In conjunction with the Necromage perk, the Atronach stone, and the Atronach perk from the Alteration tree, we'll use it to attain 100% magicka absorption (which will be explained below), enabling us to invest less into a relatively smaller pool of magicka. It should be noted that the same magicka absorption effect can be attained with the Expert-level spell Circle of Protection, hence the importance of leveling Restoration to 75 as quickly as possible.
Minor Skills
Destruction: Shock magic will be this build's one and only form of damage for two reasons – 1) its Master-level spell, Lightning Storm, is a channel spell, and the best Master-level Destruction spell there is, and 2) its secondary drain magicka effect makes this build the perfect anti-mage build. 115 DPS at “no cost” is something to be feared, especially as early as Level 25**.
Alteration: Alteration completes the trio, and, thus, the build. The Atronach perk will round out the magicka absorption, and the Master-level spell Dragonhide gives us the armor cap much earlier than most warrior characters can possibly attain it.
Playstyle
As stated before, this is a simple build, that, at the height of its power, is incredibly straightforward to use. It's easy as 1-2-3. Seriously. The first step should always be to throw down a Guardian Circle. (“My Guardian Circle, without me, is useless; without my Guardian Circle, I am useless.”) The Guardian Circle will almost immediately replenish your magicka, then allowing you to cast Dragonhide to defend yourself from enemy archers and charging warriors who get too close. Once again, your magicka will replenish, thus making you clear to engage. You'd better have a good trigger finger, because holding down Lightning Storm can become tiresome when confronted with hordes of enemies.
Because all of these spells require two-hands to cast, one must constantly be aware of the closeness of melee enemies. A well-timed power attack can, and will, cause a stagger, interrupting your stream of electricity. Furthermore, because these spells have a relatively long charge time, a fully-charged Slow Time shout will buy you precious seconds to set up your defenses, and get to shocking. This taken into account, you must always target the closest, fastest-approaching enemy in order to avoid having to set up again. In the event that you do become overrun by, say, a horde of Draugr, Whirlwind Sprint will be used to 'teleport' to a new vantage point.
One should also be mindful of the durations of their key spells as to avoid an untimely death, or an empty magicka pool. The two alternatives, however, are essentially one in the same. The length of spells are as follows:
Guardian Circle (+ Necromage), 90 seconds
Dragonhide (+ Stability + Necromage), 56 seconds
Thus, as a general rule of thumb, you should re-cast Dragonhide after about a minute, and Guardian Circle about thirty seconds after that. In the event that you forget these figures, you can always check your Active Effects list in your Magic menu to see the remaining duration of them, as Dragonhide and Guardian Circle will be listed there as well.
Equipment
Clothing: Archmage's Robes, Savos Aren's Amulet, Mage's Circlet, Ring of the BeastDG/Ring of the EruditeDG/Ring of Namira, Boots.
This section will be the answer to those of you wondering how a no-crafting mage can afford to invest stats at a little over a 4:1 health-to-magicka ratio, especially considering the number of Master-level spells that will be cast. As I mentioned before, we only need as much magicka as the cost of our most expensive spell. This spell will be Dragonhide. Dragonhide has a base cost of 837, but, when cast with the Master Alteration perk, only costs 419 magicka. The 15% reduction cost the Archmage's Robes provides then reduces this cost to 355 magicka. Thus, this character only needs 360 magicka to function to the best of its capabilities. This amount can be attained by adding the following to the base stat of 100 magicka:
Atronach Stone (+50 magicka), Archmage's Robes (+50 magicka), Savos Aren's amulet (+50), Mage's Circlet (+50 magicka), six levels' worth of stat points (+60 magicka).
Alternatively, if one has Dawnguard, it becomes possible with no magicka investment at all by adding the Ring of the Erudite, which comes with a +100 Fortify Magicka enchantment. This would allow for an additional sixty points of investment in health. However, if you have Dawnguard, it is much better to use the Ring of the Beast, which allows for an additional 100 points of health, making it a better net trade-off (+40 health) than forgoing any magicka investment at all.
Assuming we're using the Ring of the Beast, we have whopping stats of 450 health and 360 magicka at Level 32. Normally, this would require 51 levels' worth of stat boosts to attain. (It becomes 400 health if you have Namira's Ring and its special effect has been activated.)
To put this in perspective, with all things taken into consideration, we're essentially donning this suit of armor at Level 32:
Daedric Helmet of Fortify Destruction (-25%) & Resist Magic (+25)
Daedric Armor of Fortify Destruction (-25%) & Fortify Health Regen. (5%)
Daedric Gauntlets
Daedric Boots
Daedric Shield of Resist Magic (+25)
(Random Necklace) of Fortify Destruction (-25%) & Resist Magic (+25)
(Random Ring) of Resist Magic (+10) & Fortify Destruction (-25%)
Such items do not typically appear in-game until a character is in the mid-50s, and could only be produced by a character as early as Level 25 (with a 90 smithing, and 100 enchanting).
These enchantments were picked because: the Resist Magic of +85 is derived from the magic resistance built into magicka absorption, and is set at the cap of 85%, the Fortify Destruction simulates the “zero cost” of the Guardian Circle's regeneration, and the Fortify Health Regeneration is what we achieve (with 450 health) regenerated at 25 health per second (Guardian Circle) for 5.5% regeneration. The Daedric Armor was picked because it reaches the armor cap, much like Dragonhide.
Special Moves
Atronach of Argonia (Atronach Perk + Atronach Stone + Necromage + Guardian Circle) – You engulf yourself in a ring of restorative magic and inhale it as if it were the murky swamp waters of your homeland.
The eponymous, trademark move, this is where the character derives his power. Necromage boosts the magicka absorption rates of Atronach and the Atronach Stone to 100% collectively. Magicka Absorption is predicated on the base cost of a spell. Since Guardian Circle's base cost is 716, you'll be regenerating your magicka pool of 360 in about half a second. This makes it literally impossible to 'out-cast' your regeneration.
Histwalker (Fully-charged Become Ethereal + Ethereal Spirit + Guardian Circle) – Revert to your ethereal form and invoke your knowledge of the hist to heal yourself in your time of need, then emerge from your ethereal form, born anew in a circle of health.
Ethereal Spirit bolsters health regeneration by 25% when in ethereal form. At 450 health, this means your health will regenerate at a rate of eleven points of health per second. A fully-charged Become Ethereal shout will last eighteen seconds, which means you'll regenerate 205 points, or 45%, of your health in under twenty seconds! Before Become Ethereal's duration expires, cast Guardian Circle to continue the healing process. This is a good backup move when one or more of the following scenarios presents itself: 1) Histkin has already been used, or is being saved for a more difficult situation later, 2) Avoid Death has already been used, 3) Guardian Circle has dissipated.
Nephromancer's Fury (Fully-charged Storm Call + Lightning Storm + Atronach of Argonia) – You beckon the clouds to do your bidding as the heavens rain down hell on your foes.
When all three words of Storm Call are used, a bolt will descend from the sky, doing 80 damage to all within a 150-foot radius. Assuming this occurs at the low end of the three-to-six seconds rate, and only hits one foe, you're still putting out 770 damage every six seconds (Lightning Storm's [115 DPS x 6] + 80) . If Guardian Circle is up for ninety seconds, this means you'll do at least 11,150 shock damage in that time. Hypothetically, that's enough to kill Alduin twice (2.45 times, to be exact), even taking into account his 50% resistance to all forms of damage. Killing the main boss in 37 seconds? Yes, please.
The Final Product
After relatively few hours of playtime, we have a complete and powerful character that's capable of sticking with the biggest baddies and is wholly capable of surviving on Master-level at a surprisingly early level.
I've had a lot of fun with this character, and I'm certainly not done with it yet. Sticking to your guns as a mage character is a very rewarding experience, especially early in the game when magicka reserves are hard to come by. I seriously hope that you consider using this character for your next playthrough. If you have half the fun I've had with it, this trusty Argonian mage should be worth your time.
Footnotes
*= Lowest level possible if you've only leveled Restoration from a 20-75
** = Lowest level possible if you've only leveled Restoration and Destruction to 100.
Image sources: from DeviantArt by victoriadaedra, nikaleles, and JoyAffliction, respectively. Perk trees made by myself at skyrimcalculator.com.
Although the criticisms of the mage playstyle are well-documented, it can ultimately be a very rewarding playthrough. Some people have adopted the same attitude of many hold guards - "Go cast your fancy magic someplace else." Admittedly, I have some discrepancies with the school of magic. Namely, mages can be too weak early, and can be difficult to develop later on.
But, one could go on for days critiquing Skyrim's various schools of magic. Instead, I set out to find a solution. This build is not only simple and straightforward, but becomes incredibly powerful about twenty levels earlier than most builds, and can be offensively potent as early as Level 12*. Furthermore, as a non-crafting build, there is no need to wait to get the final load-out, as the necessary garments can be attained quite soon in the game. Upon its completion at Level 32, not only will it be an offensive tour de force, but it will be a tank to rival the heaviest of juggernauts.
I believe that this build would be a good re-entry point for those that have closed their mind to attempting to play a dedicated mage. I hope that some of you will find in this build what I have: that it circumvents the tediousness of evolving from a frail weakling into a powerful sorcerer, all the while remaining fun every step of the way.
Without further ado, I present my inaugural build...
The Atronach of Argonia
Race: Argonian vampire
Stone: Mage (Restoration 20-75), then Atronach
Stat Distribution:350H/160M/100S (by Level 32)
Not only does the Argonian receive a nice +5 buff to two of the three skills we'll be using (Alteration and Restoration), but their Histkin power adds to the great survivability of this build, especially at lower levels. It even retains its utility upon the character reaching its “cap” level of 32, where it will be used in conjunction with Guardian Circle to attain near-invincible levels of health regeneration.
Despite the fact that this is a pure mage character, it does not need a large pool of magicka as we only need enough magicka to cast our most expensive spell (which will be Dragonhide) once. Instead, we invest the majority of our stat boosts into health to bolster the tanking ability of this character. Stamina is especially useless for this character considering that there will be no running necessary. One of my least favorite aspects of a mage is having to run away and cower once your magicka pool has been depleted, biding your time hoping for a speedy regen. In fact, the hallmark of this character is standing its ground in face of more brutish foes hoping to slice it to pieces.
This build is one of the few vampire builds that does NOT require the Dawnguard expansion. This is because the Vampire Lord form will never, ever be used. The sole reason for contracting vampirism is to make use of the Necromage perk. In Skyrim, one can simply contract sanguinare vampiris for this purpose. (I do, however, recommend Dawnguard for the added gameplay hours.) The 25% boost Necromage confers will boost the Atronach Stone's magicka absorption to 62.5%, and will increase the effectiveness of the Atronach perk by 7.5%. The new-and-improved Atronach stone (62.5%) and enhanced Atronach perk (37.5%) combine to offer 100% magicka absorption.
Major Skills
Restoration: While all of the below skills will be leveled to 100, Restoration is far and away the most important of them all. The Master-level spell Guardian Circle is the crux of this build. In conjunction with the Necromage perk, the Atronach stone, and the Atronach perk from the Alteration tree, we'll use it to attain 100% magicka absorption (which will be explained below), enabling us to invest less into a relatively smaller pool of magicka. It should be noted that the same magicka absorption effect can be attained with the Expert-level spell Circle of Protection, hence the importance of leveling Restoration to 75 as quickly as possible.
Minor Skills
Destruction: Shock magic will be this build's one and only form of damage for two reasons – 1) its Master-level spell, Lightning Storm, is a channel spell, and the best Master-level Destruction spell there is, and 2) its secondary drain magicka effect makes this build the perfect anti-mage build. 115 DPS at “no cost” is something to be feared, especially as early as Level 25**.
Alteration: Alteration completes the trio, and, thus, the build. The Atronach perk will round out the magicka absorption, and the Master-level spell Dragonhide gives us the armor cap much earlier than most warrior characters can possibly attain it.
Playstyle
As stated before, this is a simple build, that, at the height of its power, is incredibly straightforward to use. It's easy as 1-2-3. Seriously. The first step should always be to throw down a Guardian Circle. (“My Guardian Circle, without me, is useless; without my Guardian Circle, I am useless.”) The Guardian Circle will almost immediately replenish your magicka, then allowing you to cast Dragonhide to defend yourself from enemy archers and charging warriors who get too close. Once again, your magicka will replenish, thus making you clear to engage. You'd better have a good trigger finger, because holding down Lightning Storm can become tiresome when confronted with hordes of enemies.
Because all of these spells require two-hands to cast, one must constantly be aware of the closeness of melee enemies. A well-timed power attack can, and will, cause a stagger, interrupting your stream of electricity. Furthermore, because these spells have a relatively long charge time, a fully-charged Slow Time shout will buy you precious seconds to set up your defenses, and get to shocking. This taken into account, you must always target the closest, fastest-approaching enemy in order to avoid having to set up again. In the event that you do become overrun by, say, a horde of Draugr, Whirlwind Sprint will be used to 'teleport' to a new vantage point.
One should also be mindful of the durations of their key spells as to avoid an untimely death, or an empty magicka pool. The two alternatives, however, are essentially one in the same. The length of spells are as follows:
Guardian Circle (+ Necromage), 90 seconds
Dragonhide (+ Stability + Necromage), 56 seconds
Thus, as a general rule of thumb, you should re-cast Dragonhide after about a minute, and Guardian Circle about thirty seconds after that. In the event that you forget these figures, you can always check your Active Effects list in your Magic menu to see the remaining duration of them, as Dragonhide and Guardian Circle will be listed there as well.
Equipment
Clothing: Archmage's Robes, Savos Aren's Amulet, Mage's Circlet, Ring of the BeastDG/Ring of the EruditeDG/Ring of Namira, Boots.
This section will be the answer to those of you wondering how a no-crafting mage can afford to invest stats at a little over a 4:1 health-to-magicka ratio, especially considering the number of Master-level spells that will be cast. As I mentioned before, we only need as much magicka as the cost of our most expensive spell. This spell will be Dragonhide. Dragonhide has a base cost of 837, but, when cast with the Master Alteration perk, only costs 419 magicka. The 15% reduction cost the Archmage's Robes provides then reduces this cost to 355 magicka. Thus, this character only needs 360 magicka to function to the best of its capabilities. This amount can be attained by adding the following to the base stat of 100 magicka:
Atronach Stone (+50 magicka), Archmage's Robes (+50 magicka), Savos Aren's amulet (+50), Mage's Circlet (+50 magicka), six levels' worth of stat points (+60 magicka).
Alternatively, if one has Dawnguard, it becomes possible with no magicka investment at all by adding the Ring of the Erudite, which comes with a +100 Fortify Magicka enchantment. This would allow for an additional sixty points of investment in health. However, if you have Dawnguard, it is much better to use the Ring of the Beast, which allows for an additional 100 points of health, making it a better net trade-off (+40 health) than forgoing any magicka investment at all.
Assuming we're using the Ring of the Beast, we have whopping stats of 450 health and 360 magicka at Level 32. Normally, this would require 51 levels' worth of stat boosts to attain. (It becomes 400 health if you have Namira's Ring and its special effect has been activated.)
To put this in perspective, with all things taken into consideration, we're essentially donning this suit of armor at Level 32:
Daedric Helmet of Fortify Destruction (-25%) & Resist Magic (+25)
Daedric Armor of Fortify Destruction (-25%) & Fortify Health Regen. (5%)
Daedric Gauntlets
Daedric Boots
Daedric Shield of Resist Magic (+25)
(Random Necklace) of Fortify Destruction (-25%) & Resist Magic (+25)
(Random Ring) of Resist Magic (+10) & Fortify Destruction (-25%)
Such items do not typically appear in-game until a character is in the mid-50s, and could only be produced by a character as early as Level 25 (with a 90 smithing, and 100 enchanting).
These enchantments were picked because: the Resist Magic of +85 is derived from the magic resistance built into magicka absorption, and is set at the cap of 85%, the Fortify Destruction simulates the “zero cost” of the Guardian Circle's regeneration, and the Fortify Health Regeneration is what we achieve (with 450 health) regenerated at 25 health per second (Guardian Circle) for 5.5% regeneration. The Daedric Armor was picked because it reaches the armor cap, much like Dragonhide.
Special Moves
Atronach of Argonia (Atronach Perk + Atronach Stone + Necromage + Guardian Circle) – You engulf yourself in a ring of restorative magic and inhale it as if it were the murky swamp waters of your homeland.
The eponymous, trademark move, this is where the character derives his power. Necromage boosts the magicka absorption rates of Atronach and the Atronach Stone to 100% collectively. Magicka Absorption is predicated on the base cost of a spell. Since Guardian Circle's base cost is 716, you'll be regenerating your magicka pool of 360 in about half a second. This makes it literally impossible to 'out-cast' your regeneration.
Histwalker (Fully-charged Become Ethereal + Ethereal Spirit + Guardian Circle) – Revert to your ethereal form and invoke your knowledge of the hist to heal yourself in your time of need, then emerge from your ethereal form, born anew in a circle of health.
Ethereal Spirit bolsters health regeneration by 25% when in ethereal form. At 450 health, this means your health will regenerate at a rate of eleven points of health per second. A fully-charged Become Ethereal shout will last eighteen seconds, which means you'll regenerate 205 points, or 45%, of your health in under twenty seconds! Before Become Ethereal's duration expires, cast Guardian Circle to continue the healing process. This is a good backup move when one or more of the following scenarios presents itself: 1) Histkin has already been used, or is being saved for a more difficult situation later, 2) Avoid Death has already been used, 3) Guardian Circle has dissipated.
Nephromancer's Fury (Fully-charged Storm Call + Lightning Storm + Atronach of Argonia) – You beckon the clouds to do your bidding as the heavens rain down hell on your foes.
When all three words of Storm Call are used, a bolt will descend from the sky, doing 80 damage to all within a 150-foot radius. Assuming this occurs at the low end of the three-to-six seconds rate, and only hits one foe, you're still putting out 770 damage every six seconds (Lightning Storm's [115 DPS x 6] + 80) . If Guardian Circle is up for ninety seconds, this means you'll do at least 11,150 shock damage in that time. Hypothetically, that's enough to kill Alduin twice (2.45 times, to be exact), even taking into account his 50% resistance to all forms of damage. Killing the main boss in 37 seconds? Yes, please.
The Final Product
After relatively few hours of playtime, we have a complete and powerful character that's capable of sticking with the biggest baddies and is wholly capable of surviving on Master-level at a surprisingly early level.
I've had a lot of fun with this character, and I'm certainly not done with it yet. Sticking to your guns as a mage character is a very rewarding experience, especially early in the game when magicka reserves are hard to come by. I seriously hope that you consider using this character for your next playthrough. If you have half the fun I've had with it, this trusty Argonian mage should be worth your time.
Footnotes
*= Lowest level possible if you've only leveled Restoration from a 20-75
** = Lowest level possible if you've only leveled Restoration and Destruction to 100.
Image sources: from DeviantArt by victoriadaedra, nikaleles, and JoyAffliction, respectively. Perk trees made by myself at skyrimcalculator.com.
