Thanks Paul!  

I too love to specialize, especially in Skyrim, where specialization is rewarded in several ways.  You feel like a real master at any skill you truly focus on!  And I find that Destruction is probably the strongest *single* skill anyone can focus on in the game.  Conjuration and Illusion are great, but individually they have their quirks.  Destruction really does live up to its name if played correctly!

Awesome take on destruction. I don't usually plug my own builds on other folks' posts, but this made me instantly think of my War-caster: http://theskyrimblog.ning.com/m/group/discussion?id=6452022%3ATopic%3A1309567 I'm deffinatly goin to rework some of this into tht build

ahh very nice idea with the staves. Im level 10 now and one hitting alot of bandits with runes. Yes i do use bursts with the flames. One question i have about the mechanics of flames: cast with both hands but not dual cast, is it worth it, or does it have the same afterburn effect as with 1 hand? I think it was pcoutcast in one of his excellent videos that used flames in both hands without dual casting

How in the blazes have I not liked this beast? Fantastic as always Paul! :)

Really??!!  I knew that dualcasting increased the range of the cloak spells... But wow, I'll definitely have to test out the potions and see what kind of range I can get!  

I wonder if things like Azhidal's mask and the Shalidor's Insights: Destruction scrolls also increase the range...

I'm pleased to get as many likes as I have gotten so far, to be honest - this is a fairly long read, and it doesn't introduce much if anything in the way of new mechanics.  More than anything else, I wanted to have the build up here just so I could finally get it done, if you know what I mean.  

Thanks Chris!  

I think the afterburn damage of Flames is fairly minimal (I don't think you can reach the heights of something like Fireball or Firestorm), but I would assume single-casting it in each hand would be twice as effective, no?  As for whether it's worth it or not, that would be situational.  Dualcasting slightly more than doubles the damage output (2.2x, I think) but costs more than double the Magicka (2.5x, I think).  So strictly speaking, dualcasting isn't as efficient as single casting.  

Why dualcast at all, then?  Impact aside, dualcasting allows you to get more damage put out faster than two single-casts.  So if you're not concerned about your Magicka reserves (which you won't be in a few more levels), and you need to kill something quickly, dualcast is a better option.  

Some people don't like that Dualcasting is inefficient - they think it should be more Magicka efficient than single-casting.  That doesn't make sense to me.  As it currently stands, there is a reason to do both dualcasts and singlecasts - each option has a situational use.  If dualcasting were more efficient than single-casting, there would be no reason *not* to do it.  I like how, currently, there's upsides and downsides to each option. 

A self-crafted potion can boost cloaks to fill half of a dungeon! The same goes for Stendarr's Aura and Restoration potions.