While running a pure mage on legendary I found the disintegrate perk very helpful (you´ll avoid damage taken during deathkill camera by disintegrating the enemy as soon as he reach 10% lifepoints)
For some reason this video is so entertaining for me that i rewatch it every three months or so,also one of the few guides to builds that actually ended up pretty damn fun I award you as the spark of passion that made me enjoy skyrim again as if it was a new game
I've watched some of your runs. While I knew some of the mechanics like animation canceling using sheathing for melee weapon attacks, I never thought of actually using those for doging. Very interesting stuff, you deserve far more recognition imo
@@poormansproductions2402the idea of these builds are great I think. The only problem that I have is that the video is kind of missing more detailed separation of stages of this build, it's all just one big piece of information.
I got 1400 hours on skyrim and watched countless videos about builds and about pretty much everything and I can comfortable say this video is one of (if not) the best i have seen 👑 (Would definetly watch a whole playthrough of yours😅)
i love to play legendary mage. Early game I go Altmer, Necromancer amulet, Ring of Erudite, Apprentice stone. pump all levels into health. Very high risk gameplay but your magicka regens so fast it means you can cast your lesser ward with impunity.
Thank you for sharing this build! I only have vanilia Skyrim without the extensions so here is my adaptation of your build: 1. I turned into a vampire and took the Necromage perk from the Restoration skill. Thanks to this perk I reach 100% spell absorption by activating the Atronach stone and taking the Atronach perk from the Alteration skill. WARNING: you must take the Necromage perk BEFORE the Atronach perk otherwise it will not work. 2. Equipment: Nahkriin, expert robe of destruction, necromancer's amulet, any ring you found in chests that reduces destruction magic cost. 3. Restoration: I also took the Respite perk as stamina does not regenerate during day (remember you are a vampire) and very slowly anyway due to the necromancer's amulet. 4. Illusion: I took Aspect of Terror perk to increase a bit fire spells damage. 5. Alteration: I did not take the Magic Resistance 3/3 as with permanent 100% spell absorption is it useless to resist spells. Just my 2 cents.
Awesome stuff. People rag on magic a lot on the higher difficulties, interesting to see that you consider this the strongest of these no-crafting runs you've done so far. Reckon melee builds outpace magic WITH crafting and enchanting involved?
I do consider it to be the strongest no-crafting build, but I don't think that's telling the whole story. It's not the strongest because of insane damage or anything similar, it's the strongest because of how much more easily you can, compared to other builds, accomplish things that might not seem significant at first but end up making a difference. Take the ebony warrior fight for an example, ranged attacks don't proc his damage reflection so he just turns into a run of the mill NPC with a ton of health. Likewise, the main challenge with Karstaag is not his health or damage as he uses the same cheesable AI of giants, it's his regen and the fact that he summons ice wraiths. A mage can solve both of these problems with ranged DOT spells to disable his regen and AOE spells to nuke the wraiths as soon as they spawn. Pure melee no-crafting builds just don't have a way of safely dealing with the ice wraiths. The only way to do it would be to focus on armor so you can tank a few hits from the wraits but still, while you're chasing them around, Karstaag's constantly regenning 12hp/s. That being said, I don't want to oversell the build too much as it does rely on dragonskin and later on secret of arcana quite a bit. Without these, fights against some enemies would just be incredibly boring as you'd be running around, waiting for your magicka to regen. With crafting though, melee would definitely outperform magic builds and again, I think mostly because of the convenience. With a melee build, you can slap on enchantments that directly increase your melee damage while you'd have to chug potions every 60 seconds as a mage just to keep up. The only situation where mage would retain the edge would be the fight against the ebony warrior. Thanks for listening to my TED talk.
One tip for anyone trying to level restoration would be utilizing paralysis to buy restoration training with Colette and then paralyzing her and stealing all the money back (has a 100% chance just as she's getting back up). Then bringing one of the Volkihar Death hounds with you and spamming repel undead on it until you level up and then repeat the process. Speeds up the leveling a bit.
@@DrCarbox It's a ranged build so it makes sense to go for the same kiting playstyle you'd use as a mage. However, drawing a bow slows you down and prevents this so I'd probably try to get ranger asap. There's also a decent selection of items with the fortify marksman enchantment. Incorporate those into the build and you're pretty much done. All that's left is to pick your race, I'm thinking orc for the berserk rage. Mind you, I never actually used a bow other than to complete lost to the ages so I might be missing something obvious here.
@@poormansproductions2402 I have no doubt. I make videos myself as well and sometimes it takes many tries to achieve something difficult. Anyways amazing work!
You have got some good points man. I found pure mage hardest class give or take on legendary. Even as a brenton. I dont think Impact is OP consider the enemies when there are more of them can 1 shot you so many guys can. Its the hardest to start IMHO but fun down the road.
I mean, fevvy's videos are basically Pick Breton > Exploit > Exploit > Unicorn > Myrwatch/Gallows Hall > Exploit > Exploit. They're fun the first couple of times you watch them, but then they get boring rather quickly. This youtuber, on the other hand, really knows what they're doing.
So here's my review of the build.the build is very good when it is a 1v2 or 1v3 fight. The problem arises when you fight groups of enemies Notably dustpan caring against the silver hand.it is doable but it's very annoying. Also surprise jumps on you make you vulnerable. Hopefully it helps. I loved the build tbh
Appreciate the feedback. Lots of enemies and no mages would present a problem. Have you tried dropping a perk in novice conjuration and using conjure familiar to recharge your magicka? Being a glass cannon means surprise attacks more or less always result in your death, just the way the cookie crumbles. Cheers.
@@poormansproductions2402 ah yea,i did that.the reason I guess in dustman carin,is 4-5 melee characters came at full force. The way I mitigated it was running to the long circle bridge and blitzing as they came one at a time . But an archer from the edge shot and killed me,the second time it worked with the same strategy. Anyway,was a fun 4 day game session. I didn't do the dB questline,dlc and thieves guild tho.
Also ,I would like to give you an impossible skyrim challenge.if you can do it,great xD. Can you make a build where you can only use sneak melee attacks and only one hit per enemy is allowed.This also means you need to one hit dragons via sneak melee attacks.
@@ganeshbhat3681 Interesting, though it seems like it would be a minecraft simulator until you get to the point where you can one-shot everything. I'm assuming you can sneak/run past enemies or you'd fail the challenge right at the start of the game?
@@poormansproductions2402 yep. You can avoid or run away,but if you choose to attack .you have to sneak attack and you only get one hit. Also the challenge only begins once you escape helgen . Are you planning to take this challenge up xD
@@poormansproductions2402 Plus, that wouldn't make a very interesting video, now would it? Me personally, I enjoy having an entourage of minions I can place in strategic locations to spice things up. An atronach on an elevated position, a dremora to flank or bonk an archer, etc. Of course, the best strategy is just sit back and watch a dremora lord DT work, but where's the fun in that?
that's because the difficulty modifiers only affect damage dealt and taken by the player, not everything else. Everything is the exact same strength against anything other than the player regardless of difficulty
I think the quest Discerning the Transmundane didn't bug out. Turns out you have to be level 15 in order for the quest to continue after you bring Septimus the Lexicon
@@poormansproductions2402 It is now possible to get Destruction spells for free continuously without crafting and there are stronger and cheaper spells. That feels like the most important in this situation.
@@ye4thorn I did saw the cheaper and stronger spells on the UESP, but is there enough items to get 100 % destruction reduction no crafting ? Because with the ebony spell knight gauntlets + Mentor's ring + a robe of master destruction + Nahkriin and the amulet of Saarthal, it is still short of 30 percent. Am I tripping/ missing something ?
Too bad wards are so magicka-hungry, I wonder what would be the potential of using them to avoid dragonskin cheese. Alternatively you could use the necromage vampire but it's the same thing with more work. And you've already gone a long way avoiding Impact because that one really is busted
Yeah, wards aren't that great not to mention you need 60 restoration for them to even start absorbing. You could try avoiding dragonskin cheese simply by healing. Make healing spells as magicka efficient as possible, get as much magic resistance as you can and I think you'll eventually be at a net positive when face-tanking enemy spells even with just 50% absorption from the atronach stone.
Amazing build, Mage must be the most fun to play of all the possible playstyles, most fun to level too Since this was stated to be a non-exploit build, here's the full "it just works" method Step 1: pick any race, doesn't matter in the long run ( Orc is good for enchanting bonus and racial ability) Step 2: use mage gear and the following spells/perks Mage stone obviously, spamming flames w/ novice destruction and dual casting, oakflesh w/mage armor as you level, summons & soul trap is optional at this point but if it suits your playstyle go for it and of course healing with dual casting too Step 3: prioritize leveling enchanting, disenchante every piece of gear you find and don't need, buy lots of soul gems bound weapons with the soul stealer perks are nice since you'll level Conjuration too Optional: level illusion by spamming courage in cities we'll neet it later Step 4: with enchanting 100 join the college Craft your first leveling gear head/neck/chest/finger that reduces alteration and Conjuration cost to 0 Get telekinesis from tolfdir, use it on any item and fast travel: alteration 100 Kill anything use soul trap on it, after 5-10 mins: Conjuration 100 Step 5: craft 0 cost illusion/ Restoration gear Use muffle in a place with a lot of people until illusion is at 100 or high enough for the Aspect of Terror perk Now take these perks in the FOLLOWING ORDER Augmented Flames 1&2 then aspect of Terror, this gives a +15 damage boost to all fire spells (Ahziidal raised it to 18 allegedly of worn before taking aspect of terror) DO THIS BEFORE STEP 6 Step 6: now this can be done in any order, either use turn undead spells on a dead thrall until Restoration is level 70 then take The Necromage perk and join clan Volkihar, or join them do the bloodstone chalice quest and get a Vampire hound follower to spam with repel undead Remember do this at the college so you can buy the stronger turn undead spells once they're available from Collette Last step: now after becoming a Necromage Perk Vampire, you can take the Atronach Perk and the atronach stone, permanent 100% spell absorption Ebonyflesh now provides 375 armor with all the mage armor perks, magic resistance perks don't matter since you absorb 100% of all magic effects including poison and your own summons Exceptions to this are Reanimation spells, summon Avrak and ash guardian Perks to take after Necromage Vampire: Atronach from Alteration, the 2 ranks of Magic Regeneration(Recovery) and Avoid death from Restoration Optional gear: Archmage's robes, necklace/ring with fortify destruction & Conjuration, and circlet with destruction & alteration, boots and gloves of your choice lockpicking stamina regen and carry weight are good options Stat allocation: 50-50 magicka health until about 350 each then a little stamina for sprinting Playstyle: single cast ebonyflesh since with Stability & Necromage Vampire it lasts about 2 minutes and gives 375 defence with mage armor perks and necro vampire, spam dual cast incinerate and have a couple dead thralls, one if you want to use Avrak or ash guardian
You could absolutely go this route if you don't consider aspect of terror and necromage an exploit, though I think you can achieve the same thing with 60 destruction and 50 illusion. Everything that isn't immune to fire melts pretty fast to aspect of terror+damage over time spells and the other mage skills are more or less a waste of time at that point. Get ignite, zap Ahzidal with lightning spells to save yourself from having to grind enchanting to 100. Then you can get the whole kitchen sink with secret of arcana if you really want to.
Pretty great video but I don't understand one thing: Why not use Shock spells on Dragon Priests? Surely the slightly higher casting cost can't make them less preferable than Frost's Slow effect despite damaging the Magicka on a purely magical enemy like the Priests?
I only used them against Ahzidal since he's immune to fire, otherwise flame spells are a no-brainer. Frost cloak was slightly cheaper and freeze you get when you equip Ahzidal's ring so it was mostly for the convenience. The magicka damage is kind of a meme and you want your enemies to pepper you with magic attacks anyway because they'll just be recharging your magicka with your 100% spell absorption from dragonskin + atronach stone.
When you equip an item with fortify magicka, it doesn't just increase your capacity, it gives you magicka as well. Combine this with the fact that you can't get into negative values, you can use it as an infinite magicka potion. Equip an item with fortify magicka, get to 0 magicka, unequip the item and you're still at 0 magicka. Equip the item again and voila, you just got free magicka. The hotkey is there to make the process more convenient.
Ngl I regularly make a robes mage on legendary with no crafting but the only thing I'll allow myself to craft are potions that increase destruction damage(no rest glitch, best potions you can craft without glitxhinf are around 200-202% if you make some good gear) I save these specifically for legendary dragons as they're super damage sponges and easily the hardest to kill enemies in the game. However I won't go craft myself up enchanting gear that will reduce spell costs to 0 as I feel that's cheating especially if you're already making use of necromage
Amazing. Still this damage is a shame. Looks like the devs designed the game to be played on master max for mages. Even with two handed it looks like you swing a sword, but you don’t feel like it’s a sword, more like a big stick or smth :)
As always, the answer is crafting. With sufficient cost reduction, you could spam incinerate non-stop which is pretty good as is. Use fortify destruction potions, which can more than double your damage for tougher fights. Kind of annoying, but it would do the trick. Legendary was hastily slapped on to nerf just how OP you can get by minmaxing crafting and it obviously wasn't balanced with these no-crafting builds in mind. Cheers.
@@ye4thorn What about them? You can only get three, they don’t increase the damage, only the duration so they only work with ignite/cloak and don’t make much of a difference. Not much point in getting them imo.
@@ye4thorn You're absolutely right, they do increase the damage and not just the duration, for some reason I remembered them being substantially worse. Guess the build is even better if you save scum a bit to get the scrolls. Nice work.
While running a pure mage on legendary I found the disintegrate perk very helpful (you´ll avoid damage taken during deathkill camera by disintegrating the enemy as soon as he reach 10% lifepoints)
For some reason this video is so entertaining for me that i rewatch it every three months or so,also one of the few guides to builds that actually ended up pretty damn fun I award you as the spark of passion that made me enjoy skyrim again as if it was a new game
@@ramat-tra Thanks man, I appreciate that
I've watched some of your runs. While I knew some of the mechanics like animation canceling using sheathing for melee weapon attacks, I never thought of actually using those for doging.
Very interesting stuff, you deserve far more recognition imo
Thanks man. I guess only time will tell if more people find these esoteric gimmick builds interesting. Tschuss.
@@poormansproductions2402the idea of these builds are great I think. The only problem that I have is that the video is kind of missing more detailed separation of stages of this build, it's all just one big piece of information.
Not many understand the Full power of destruction such as yourself, most impressive
*tips wizard hat*
Playing as a mage makes me wanna disable the kill cams SO bad
I usually don’t run any mods, but if I’m doing a mage that uses destruction I’ll always install violens
how do you even disable it in the first place
@@gluxetv8327 mods
@@wesdavis2696 violens? there's a 1kb mod that just called "No killcams" and it works fine, no fancy names required
Destruction is the most fun way to play this game in my opinion. Nothing beats blasting away your enemies with no armor on
I got 1400 hours on skyrim and watched countless videos about builds and about pretty much everything and I can comfortable say this video is one of (if not) the best i have seen 👑
(Would definetly watch a whole playthrough of yours😅)
The Battle Realms music at the start of the video. You just sent me right down nostalgia lane.
I am the root.
@@poormansproductions2402 I toil!
That golden axe intro was bloody amazing
You can interrupt kill cams by switching to another spell or weapon. Great video!
i love to play legendary mage. Early game I go Altmer, Necromancer amulet, Ring of Erudite, Apprentice stone. pump all levels into health. Very high risk gameplay but your magicka regens so fast it means you can cast your lesser ward with impunity.
Thank you.....you just made my day mate
Good stuff. Cool premise. Great bops. Here's a sub.
Appreciate it.
Thank you for sharing this build! I only have vanilia Skyrim without the extensions so here is my adaptation of your build:
1. I turned into a vampire and took the Necromage perk from the Restoration skill. Thanks to this perk I reach 100% spell absorption by activating the Atronach stone and taking the Atronach perk from the Alteration skill. WARNING: you must take the Necromage perk BEFORE the Atronach perk otherwise it will not work.
2. Equipment: Nahkriin, expert robe of destruction, necromancer's amulet, any ring you found in chests that reduces destruction magic cost.
3. Restoration: I also took the Respite perk as stamina does not regenerate during day (remember you are a vampire) and very slowly anyway due to the necromancer's amulet.
4. Illusion: I took Aspect of Terror perk to increase a bit fire spells damage.
5. Alteration: I did not take the Magic Resistance 3/3 as with permanent 100% spell absorption is it useless to resist spells.
Just my 2 cents.
Good build
Awesome stuff. People rag on magic a lot on the higher difficulties, interesting to see that you consider this the strongest of these no-crafting runs you've done so far. Reckon melee builds outpace magic WITH crafting and enchanting involved?
I do consider it to be the strongest no-crafting build, but I don't think that's telling the whole story. It's not the strongest because of insane damage or anything similar, it's the strongest because of how much more easily you can, compared to other builds, accomplish things that might not seem significant at first but end up making a difference.
Take the ebony warrior fight for an example, ranged attacks don't proc his damage reflection so he just turns into a run of the mill NPC with a ton of health. Likewise, the main challenge with Karstaag is not his health or damage as he uses the same cheesable AI of giants, it's his regen and the fact that he summons ice wraiths. A mage can solve both of these problems with ranged DOT spells to disable his regen and AOE spells to nuke the wraiths as soon as they spawn. Pure melee no-crafting builds just don't have a way of safely dealing with the ice wraiths. The only way to do it would be to focus on armor so you can tank a few hits from the wraits but still, while you're chasing them around, Karstaag's constantly regenning 12hp/s.
That being said, I don't want to oversell the build too much as it does rely on dragonskin and later on secret of arcana quite a bit. Without these, fights against some enemies would just be incredibly boring as you'd be running around, waiting for your magicka to regen.
With crafting though, melee would definitely outperform magic builds and again, I think mostly because of the convenience. With a melee build, you can slap on enchantments that directly increase your melee damage while you'd have to chug potions every 60 seconds as a mage just to keep up. The only situation where mage would retain the edge would be the fight against the ebony warrior.
Thanks for listening to my TED talk.
@poormansproductions2402 Can't key binding pots fix that though? I mean I get that it's consumable but it doesn't stop the flow
@@chrissant6277still isn't as efficient compared to melee or archery. Solely because you can buff their damage way higher compared to magic builds
@@pachicore true
The Legend says that there is a forbidden Nexus in a faraway land that holds to key to true magic.
One tip for anyone trying to level restoration would be utilizing paralysis to buy restoration training with Colette and then paralyzing her and stealing all the money back (has a 100% chance just as she's getting back up). Then bringing one of the Volkihar Death hounds with you and spamming repel undead on it until you level up and then repeat the process. Speeds up the leveling a bit.
Never clicked so fast on a new video. Your views and subs are criminally low.
Keep it up legend
Thanks. I appreciate the support.
Have you done one of these guides for archers?
@@DrCarbox Not yet, might get to it eventually though it seems like there isn't that much room for improvement at first glance.
You mean it would be pretty much the same as one/two handed but with bows?
@@DrCarbox It's a ranged build so it makes sense to go for the same kiting playstyle you'd use as a mage. However, drawing a bow slows you down and prevents this so I'd probably try to get ranger asap. There's also a decent selection of items with the fortify marksman enchantment. Incorporate those into the build and you're pretty much done. All that's left is to pick your race, I'm thinking orc for the berserk rage. Mind you, I never actually used a bow other than to complete lost to the ages so I might be missing something obvious here.
After watching the first minute of the video you leave me no choice but to subscribe.
Thank you for sharing how to achieve full power, now miraak will tremble in fear
Amazing build but first of all amazing gameplay. Beyond my skills I suppose :-)
Keep in mind this is an edited video. Failing miserably from time to time is part of the fun, at least for me. Cheers.
@@poormansproductions2402 I have no doubt. I make videos myself as well and sometimes it takes many tries to achieve something difficult. Anyways amazing work!
You have got some good points man. I found pure mage hardest class give or take on legendary. Even as a brenton. I dont think Impact is OP consider the enemies when there are more of them can 1 shot you so many guys can. Its the hardest to start IMHO but fun down the road.
Impact is way too powerful. I never pick it. Avoiding it adds a lot more strategy than if I were to be charging enemies 1 at a time with the perk
2024 and just found this. Starting new playthrough. Probably do Master not Legendary though. Having to run from mudcrabs is frustrating
your videos are more ridiculous then fevvy's, i like that, very good, please make other builds besides the standard archetype
I mean, fevvy's videos are basically
Pick Breton > Exploit > Exploit > Unicorn > Myrwatch/Gallows Hall > Exploit > Exploit.
They're fun the first couple of times you watch them, but then they get boring rather quickly.
This youtuber, on the other hand, really knows what they're doing.
@@SorenToKeiran-Murasaki Ain't that the damn truth.
So here's my review of the build.the build is very good when it is a 1v2 or 1v3 fight.
The problem arises when you fight groups of enemies
Notably dustpan caring against the silver hand.it is doable but it's very annoying.
Also surprise jumps on you make you vulnerable.
Hopefully it helps.
I loved the build tbh
Appreciate the feedback. Lots of enemies and no mages would present a problem. Have you tried dropping a perk in novice conjuration and using conjure familiar to recharge your magicka? Being a glass cannon means surprise attacks more or less always result in your death, just the way the cookie crumbles. Cheers.
@@poormansproductions2402 ah yea,i did that.the reason I guess in dustman carin,is 4-5 melee characters came at full force.
The way I mitigated it was running to the long circle bridge and blitzing as they came one at a time .
But an archer from the edge shot and killed me,the second time it worked with the same strategy.
Anyway,was a fun 4 day game session.
I didn't do the dB questline,dlc and thieves guild tho.
Also ,I would like to give you an impossible skyrim challenge.if you can do it,great xD.
Can you make a build where you can only use sneak melee attacks and only one hit per enemy is allowed.This also means you need to one hit dragons via sneak melee attacks.
@@ganeshbhat3681 Interesting, though it seems like it would be a minecraft simulator until you get to the point where you can one-shot everything. I'm assuming you can sneak/run past enemies or you'd fail the challenge right at the start of the game?
@@poormansproductions2402 yep. You can avoid or run away,but if you choose to attack .you have to sneak attack and you only get one hit.
Also the challenge only begins once you escape helgen .
Are you planning to take this challenge up xD
I dabbled in a build like this, but using Conjuration a great deal. There are few things a Dremora Lord double team can't handle, even on Legendary.
Of course, but you know what every encounter boils down to when using followers. I don't find it fun, but that's just me.
@@poormansproductions2402 Plus, that wouldn't make a very interesting video, now would it? Me personally, I enjoy having an entourage of minions I can place in strategic locations to spice things up. An atronach on an elevated position, a dremora to flank or bonk an archer, etc. Of course, the best strategy is just sit back and watch a dremora lord DT work, but where's the fun in that?
that's because the difficulty modifiers only affect damage dealt and taken by the player, not everything else. Everything is the exact same strength against anything other than the player regardless of difficulty
The desire to completely delete my current save and try a full mage again
intro is so nice
I think the quest Discerning the Transmundane didn't bug out. Turns out you have to be level 15 in order for the quest to continue after you bring Septimus the Lexicon
That’s the thing, I was level 25 by the end of the build and still no sign of the courier.
@@poormansproductions2402 well ok.. that sucks
That is one way to do it.
When I play as a mage I think the person in the most danger is my follower
What about the summons?
I don't use summons as much as I would like
this like a atronach build very cool
Time to make a different non crafting mage for Anniversary Edition, Poor Man's Productions
What's new?
@@poormansproductions2402 It is now possible to get Destruction spells for free continuously without crafting and there are stronger and cheaper spells.
That feels like the most important in this situation.
I naively thought it would be a free upgrade. Is it worth the 20 bucks?
@@poormansproductions2402 I say that there is enough good content that it is worth 20.
@@ye4thorn I did saw the cheaper and stronger spells on the UESP, but is there enough items to get 100 % destruction reduction no crafting ? Because with the ebony spell knight gauntlets + Mentor's ring + a robe of master destruction + Nahkriin and the amulet of Saarthal, it is still short of 30 percent.
Am I tripping/ missing something ?
Too bad wards are so magicka-hungry, I wonder what would be the potential of using them to avoid dragonskin cheese.
Alternatively you could use the necromage vampire but it's the same thing with more work.
And you've already gone a long way avoiding Impact because that one really is busted
Yeah, wards aren't that great not to mention you need 60 restoration for them to even start absorbing. You could try avoiding dragonskin cheese simply by healing. Make healing spells as magicka efficient as possible, get as much magic resistance as you can and I think you'll eventually be at a net positive when face-tanking enemy spells even with just 50% absorption from the atronach stone.
@@poormansproductions2402 Right, of course. That's what most mage players do, I imagine, but I never tried a no craft mage. Good job again
Amazing build, Mage must be the most fun to play of all the possible playstyles, most fun to level too
Since this was stated to be a non-exploit build, here's the full "it just works" method
Step 1: pick any race, doesn't matter in the long run ( Orc is good for enchanting bonus and racial ability)
Step 2: use mage gear and the following spells/perks
Mage stone obviously, spamming flames w/ novice destruction and dual casting, oakflesh w/mage armor as you level, summons & soul trap is optional at this point but if it suits your playstyle go for it and of course healing with dual casting too
Step 3: prioritize leveling enchanting, disenchante every piece of gear you find and don't need, buy lots of soul gems bound weapons with the soul stealer perks are nice since you'll level Conjuration too
Optional: level illusion by spamming courage in cities we'll neet it later
Step 4: with enchanting 100 join the college
Craft your first leveling gear head/neck/chest/finger that reduces alteration and Conjuration cost to 0
Get telekinesis from tolfdir, use it on any item and fast travel: alteration 100
Kill anything use soul trap on it, after 5-10 mins: Conjuration 100
Step 5: craft 0 cost illusion/ Restoration gear
Use muffle in a place with a lot of people until illusion is at 100 or high enough for the Aspect of Terror perk
Now take these perks in the FOLLOWING ORDER
Augmented Flames 1&2 then aspect of Terror, this gives a +15 damage boost to all fire spells (Ahziidal raised it to 18 allegedly of worn before taking aspect of terror)
DO THIS BEFORE STEP 6
Step 6: now this can be done in any order, either use turn undead spells on a dead thrall until Restoration is level 70 then take The Necromage perk and join clan Volkihar, or join them do the bloodstone chalice quest and get a Vampire hound follower to spam with repel undead
Remember do this at the college so you can buy the stronger turn undead spells once they're available from Collette
Last step: now after becoming a Necromage Perk Vampire, you can take the Atronach Perk and the atronach stone, permanent 100% spell absorption
Ebonyflesh now provides 375 armor with all the mage armor perks, magic resistance perks don't matter since you absorb 100% of all magic effects including poison and your own summons
Exceptions to this are Reanimation spells, summon Avrak and ash guardian
Perks to take after Necromage Vampire: Atronach from Alteration, the 2 ranks of Magic Regeneration(Recovery) and Avoid death from Restoration
Optional gear: Archmage's robes, necklace/ring with fortify destruction & Conjuration, and circlet with destruction & alteration, boots and gloves of your choice lockpicking stamina regen and carry weight are good options
Stat allocation: 50-50 magicka health until about 350 each then a little stamina for sprinting
Playstyle: single cast ebonyflesh since with Stability & Necromage Vampire it lasts about 2 minutes and gives 375 defence with mage armor perks and necro vampire, spam dual cast incinerate and have a couple dead thralls, one if you want to use Avrak or ash guardian
You could absolutely go this route if you don't consider aspect of terror and necromage an exploit, though I think you can achieve the same thing with 60 destruction and 50 illusion. Everything that isn't immune to fire melts pretty fast to aspect of terror+damage over time spells and the other mage skills are more or less a waste of time at that point. Get ignite, zap Ahzidal with lightning spells to save yourself from having to grind enchanting to 100. Then you can get the whole kitchen sink with secret of arcana if you really want to.
Btw Ancano at the college in the beginning will not aggro on you no matter what you throw at him. Feel free to use him as a literal punching bag.
Seems like the devs knew exactly what they were doing there.
6:30 that's genius.
very magey mage
Pretty great video but I don't understand one thing: Why not use Shock spells on Dragon Priests? Surely the slightly higher casting cost can't make them less preferable than Frost's Slow effect despite damaging the Magicka on a purely magical enemy like the Priests?
I only used them against Ahzidal since he's immune to fire, otherwise flame spells are a no-brainer. Frost cloak was slightly cheaper and freeze you get when you equip Ahzidal's ring so it was mostly for the convenience. The magicka damage is kind of a meme and you want your enemies to pepper you with magic attacks anyway because they'll just be recharging your magicka with your 100% spell absorption from dragonskin + atronach stone.
You should make a illusion stealth build with no crafting
I already did something very similar.
Alchemy and enchanting are mages staple. Mage damage do not scale with level
You said something about hotkey micro what's that ?
When you equip an item with fortify magicka, it doesn't just increase your capacity, it gives you magicka as well. Combine this with the fact that you can't get into negative values, you can use it as an infinite magicka potion. Equip an item with fortify magicka, get to 0 magicka, unequip the item and you're still at 0 magicka. Equip the item again and voila, you just got free magicka. The hotkey is there to make the process more convenient.
Ngl I regularly make a robes mage on legendary with no crafting but the only thing I'll allow myself to craft are potions that increase destruction damage(no rest glitch, best potions you can craft without glitxhinf are around 200-202% if you make some good gear) I save these specifically for legendary dragons as they're super damage sponges and easily the hardest to kill enemies in the game. However I won't go craft myself up enchanting gear that will reduce spell costs to 0 as I feel that's cheating especially if you're already making use of necromage
Fun fact: you can actually dupe the pendants to get as many as you want, just be careful not to dupe too many cuz your game will just crash
Good stuff cause it's not limited by the gold in his inventory. Pretty obviously an exploit though so not usable in this particular build.
Unclear instructions I ended up making another stealth archer 😢
Nice intro👍
Лайк уже за 8-bit музычку!
Does it still count if I used a torch to stun people once in a while?
It is acceptable
Amazing. Still this damage is a shame. Looks like the devs designed the game to be played on master max for mages. Even with two handed it looks like you swing a sword, but you don’t feel like it’s a sword, more like a big stick or smth :)
As always, the answer is crafting. With sufficient cost reduction, you could spam incinerate non-stop which is pretty good as is. Use fortify destruction potions, which can more than double your damage for tougher fights. Kind of annoying, but it would do the trick. Legendary was hastily slapped on to nerf just how OP you can get by minmaxing crafting and it obviously wasn't balanced with these no-crafting builds in mind. Cheers.
@@poormansproductions2402 You both seem to be forgetting or not knowing about the Insights Scrolls.
@@ye4thorn What about them? You can only get three, they don’t increase the damage, only the duration so they only work with ignite/cloak and don’t make much of a difference. Not much point in getting them imo.
@@poormansproductions2402 50% more damage at half price by an item that can be acquired repeatedly, that about them, that about Modify Destruction.
@@ye4thorn You're absolutely right, they do increase the damage and not just the duration, for some reason I remembered them being substantially worse. Guess the build is even better if you save scum a bit to get the scrolls. Nice work.
Do you know what baldur's gate is?
The old-school RPG? Yes, but I've never played it.
Mage is so rough early on
ah yeah, farm 50k worth of gold ingot to pay a 250 fine.
Nice
Wtf magic actually deals damage?
Took me by surprise as well.
Jesus Christ. You are so hardcore.
Nothing personnel.
No crafting? Pfft.