81 skill in Conjuration and you're having trouble with mages? It's past time you went to Solstheim and learned the Ash Spawn and Guardian spells. They tank much more damage than an Atronach. As a bonus you can always have a Guardian conjured at the same time with a Spawn or an Atronach without perking Twin Souls. With Twin Souls you can have all three summons active. It's not a glitch or anything, it's how the game works. You won't have any more problems with mages this way. 

I'm always really slow to get started on the main quest and to get over to Solsteim.  I'm not sure why, as I love mage builds, and Solsteim offers a number of interesting spell tomes, a number of which I've never used, such as the Ash Guardian.  I think that it's because the Flame Atronach is one of my favourite spells, so I end up relying on it for longer than I should.  Off to Solsteim I shall go and thank you for the advice :).

[blockquote][b][url=/profile/Noodles]Noodles[/url] said:[/b] You don't need to start the main quest to travel to Solstheim. Just head over to the docks on Winterhold and speak to one of the captains there. My Exorcist didn't even kill the dragon outside Whiterun.[/blockquote]

This would explain why shouts are not discussed in the build.

In all the years I've played this game, I thought you had to start the main quest to get to Solsteim.  Thanks for the tip.

Yes, Ash Spawn and Ash Guardians are both going to shrug off fire spells.  I've encountered this problem before with other builds which I have made.  Bound sword is definitely a much more effective option against them.

Yeah, I didn't feel the need to learn any shout. I had all I needed in my spell book. I was under the same impression for a very long time too but then while playing a different charcter I received a misc quest from the Thieves guild pointing me to Solstheim. I had not done any Dragonborn quests but regardless, I tried my luck in Winterhold.

Oh boy Ordinator has my head spinning. Shinjin, is there any chance or way you could link me the perkspread you used when playing this? I'd love to compare notes! :D

This was my first or second foray into Ordinator (so I know what you mean when you say your head is spinning xD). With that in mind, I had no idea how a lot of the perks I chose worked, so I'm wondering if I were to play again, would I choose differently? Dunno. 

Unfortunately, I can't remember offhand the perks I chose for this build, and I won't have access to my computer till tomorrow morning, but soon as I wake tomorrow, I'll fire up my save and start taking notes ;D

The one thing I DO remember though, is with so many varied and specific perks and branches I found myself agonizing over entire branches knowing that I wouldn't be able to take them all. I think that's what I most like about Ordinator: each branch serves a well-defined (and thought out) purpose--you really get to specialize and play several different types of characters for each skill.

Ironically, Ordinator does a better job allowing you to delve into TES classes than did Bethesda's original perks. No ire directed at Bethesda; I'm thrilled with their decision to go with perk trees, and have enjoyed what they're done immensely. It's just that Ordinator really let's you go places with them. I hope the folks at Bethesda take a look at what Ordinator has done and keep that in mind for their next go-round :D

I was able to quickly hop on the computer and take some screenies of my perk spreads and put them into an album. It's only level 39... I foolishly saved over the late ones rather than the early ones (this happens a lot more than I care to admit xD). Still, it gives me a chance to relive the build ;D

Hopefully this gives you a basic idea for now. I'll hop on later tomorrow and message you to answer any questions you may still have.

Thanks a lot Shin! These pics will come in handy to give me a basic start though I confess I'm considering restarting a brand new character and learning everything from bottom up. I wonder if Ordinator gives extra spells too...