Thanks for the feedback :)
I'm not going the vampire route personally, although for those who are you make great points.
Partly, necromancy is to get around the vanilla bug involving spell absorption and summoned atronachs/dremora. This doesn't mean you can't summon Ash Guardians (or, for those with USKP, atronachs - or heck, those without USKP can just take the Lord Stone, store the Atronach in the Aetherial Crown and wear it when they want to eat hostile spells, or take it off when they want to have a better chance of summoning atronachs). Even in the original build, when I was planning to use atronachs exclusively, I didn't plan to take perks in the left branch apart from Summoner. So in this revised version, I can still do that and raise some decent undead when appropriate.
Similarly, fire is perked because it's arguably the best bang-for-your-buck element, thanks to taper mechanics. I can still cast frost and shock spells as needed, but they just won't be as powerful. Which is OK, since we have other ways to whittle down foes. Yeah, sometimes I'll harm my own summons, but that's to be expected, and this character won't always rely on summons in any case. If he were a dedicated necromancer, I'd be looking at Dead Thrall. Instead, he'll use necromancy when a good opportunity arises. When that occurs, he may switch to Fear or Turn Undead spells, or frost magic, or paralyze - you get the idea.
Rune Master offers some ranged options. A dualcast Frenzy Rune should affect foes up to lvl 42ish, from 100 feet away. A dualcast Poison Rune can do some nice DoT. Ash Rune is great battlefield control - slap it down from far away so foes go looking; meanwhile, your Magicka is recharging. Rune Master isn't so much for the Destruction runes, although it's nice to have that option too.
Quiet Casting - well, perks are at a premium, so I don't want to max out Illusion. The way I see it, Quiet Casting offers a lot of utility, allowing this guy to summon/paralyze/detect/armor/blast/etc in relative peace. With the ability to Muffle up without fear of alerting enemies, he can always win initiative. (Regarding Aspect of Terror, I won't be able to take advantage of that bug, but even if I were I'm not too sure I'd want to grab 2 perks for it.)
The trick here is trying to blend all the schools of magic, preferably without getting too high level. So that means not investing too deeply in the schools. Because this character isn't going to be a master necromancer, or a master illusionist, or a master destructionist, he'll need to switch up spell types. As a result, there will certainly be more efficient builds, since it's eminently possible to build a very powerful mage who *only* uses Destruction, or Conjuration, or just about any skill.
I guess part of the goal here is to make sure that this character has a very diverse 'toolbox' of magic effects. They may not all work for every situation, but I want to be sure that he has *something* that will work for any contingency.
Thanks for the feedback :)
I'm not going the vampire route personally, although for those who are you make great points.
Partly, necromancy is to get around the vanilla bug involving spell absorption and summoned atronachs/dremora. This doesn't mean you can't summon Ash Guardians (or, for those with USKP, atronachs - or heck, those without USKP can just take the Lord Stone, store the Atronach in the Aetherial Crown and wear it when they want to eat hostile spells, or take it off when they want to have a better chance of summoning atronachs). Even in the original build, when I was planning to use atronachs exclusively, I didn't plan to take perks in the left branch apart from Summoner. So in this revised version, I can still do that and raise some decent undead when appropriate.
Similarly, fire is perked because it's arguably the best bang-for-your-buck element, thanks to taper mechanics. I can still cast frost and shock spells as needed, but they just won't be as powerful. Which is OK, since we have other ways to whittle down foes. Yeah, sometimes I'll harm my own summons, but that's to be expected, and this character won't always rely on summons in any case. If he were a dedicated necromancer, I'd be looking at Dead Thrall. Instead, he'll use necromancy when a good opportunity arises. When that occurs, he may switch to Fear or Turn Undead spells, or frost magic, or paralyze - you get the idea.
Rune Master offers some ranged options. A dualcast Frenzy Rune should affect foes up to lvl 42ish, from 100 feet away. A dualcast Poison Rune can do some nice DoT. Ash Rune is great battlefield control - slap it down from far away so foes go looking; meanwhile, your Magicka is recharging. Rune Master isn't so much for the Destruction runes, although it's nice to have that option too.
Quiet Casting - well, perks are at a premium, so I don't want to max out Illusion. The way I see it, Quiet Casting offers a lot of utility, allowing this guy to summon/paralyze/detect/armor/blast/etc in relative peace. With the ability to Muffle up without fear of alerting enemies, he can always win initiative. (Regarding Aspect of Terror, I won't be able to take advantage of that bug, but even if I were I'm not too sure I'd want to grab 2 perks for it.)
The trick here is trying to blend all the schools of magic, preferably without getting too high level. So that means not investing too deeply in the schools. Because this character isn't going to be a master necromancer, or a master illusionist, or a master destructionist, he'll need to switch up spell types. As a result, there will certainly be more efficient builds, since it's eminently possible to build a very powerful mage who *only* uses Destruction, or Conjuration, or just about any skill.
I guess part of the goal here is to make sure that this character has a very diverse 'toolbox' of magic effects. They may not all work for every situation, but I want to be sure that he has *something* that will work for any contingency.
My own take? Stick with the element you use the most and level it it to the max while the one you use the least remains at apprentice level. For example, if you focus on fire spells then by all means level the skill up to master. But if you use frost spells the least, then keep it at apprentice level like ice bolt. Shock spells would stop at adept. Just get Chain Lighting and be done. Personally I would avoid the standard cloak spells and get the whirlwind cloak spell just to round up the mage though I wouldn't use it often as getting close and getting smacked with a bandit wielding a war hammer invalidates the whole point of being a mage in the first place.
My own take? Stick with the element you use the most and level it it to the max while the one you use the least remains at apprentice level. For example, if you focus on fire spells then by all means level the skill up to master. But if you use frost spells the least, then keep it at apprentice level like ice bolt. Shock spells would stop at adept. Just get Chain Lighting and be done. Personally I would avoid the standard cloak spells and get the whirlwind cloak spell just to round up the mage though I wouldn't use it often as getting close and getting smacked with a bandit wielding a war hammer invalidates the whole point of being a mage in the first place.