In Skyrim, spells are learned by reading Spell Tomes and selecting a tome from the player’s inventory. These spells are classified by levels (Novice, Apprentice, etc.) but can be cast by the player regardless of skill provided they have sufficient magicka. The Alteration Magic skill allows for powerful Mage Armor spells that reduce damage and provide detection abilities. Alteration Mages can transmute iron to silver and gold, breathe underwater, and more.
Magic is one of the three primary skill groups in Skyrim, with five major magic skills: Alteration, Conjuration, Destruction, Illusion, and Restoration. These skills correspond to various aspects of the game, such as lightning bolts, healing hands, raising, sleeping, fast traveling, and leveling up. The rate at which Magicka is replenished can be increased by wearing special armor or apparel bearing the Fortify Magicka enchantment.
The Skyrim mage build guide has been made easier to follow and read, with spells, perks, gear, and trainers listed out conveniently. A few fixes regarding Illusion perks were also made. A mage is a master of utility, and there are few situations that a master of the arcane arts is not prepared for.
A basic mage build is a “pure mage”, which requires Magicka to be cast. To spam your spells for levelling each school of magic, follow these tips:
- Press tab> magic> assign the spell for right or left hand by pressing RMB or LMB.
- Double tap the spell you wish to use. If it is already selected, nothing happens and there is no animation or sound.
- To get new tiers of spells (adept, expert, and master), find a mage merchant that specifies on that type of magic.
In summary, spells in Skyrim are a form of magic and ranged combat that require Magicka to be cast.
📹 Skyrim Magic Guide (tips and tricks)
How to become a mage in Skyrim | •Comment down below what you think•Video ideas? Let us know down below•Leave …
Is Mage fun to play Skyrim?
Mages are a highly interesting class due to their ability to change spells on the fly. However, they often run out of Magicka quickly without specific enchantments, especially when casting Expert and Master level spells. Enchanting is expected to supplement magic skills, but it can be forced into the skill if playing as a mage. This is unlike other classes, as you can easily play as a warrior, thief, or assassin without needing Smithing or Alchemy skills.
Master-level spells, such as Destruction and Alteration, are spectacular and more impressive than melee or ranged skills. The Master-level Destruction and Alteration spells are particularly devastating, with Lightning Storm and Mass Paralysis being some of the most devastating. However, Master-level Restoration spells can be underwhelming unless fighting a lot of undead simultaneously.
Where can I find mage?
The Mage is a Mundus Stone, a type of magical object found in The Elder Scrolls Online. It can be found in the Summerset Isles, Stormhaven in High Rock, and Morrowind. Activation of the stone results in an increase in maximum magicka until another stone is activated. It also appears in The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, and The Elder Scrolls Online.
How to get spell tomes?
Spell tomes are sold by spell merchants, members of the College of Winterhold and Court Wizards like Farengar Secret-Fire. They can be found as dungeon loot, stolen from hostile magic users, or crafted using ruined books at the Atronach Forge. Merchants start selling apprentice tomes at level 15, adept tomes at level 40, and expert tomes at level 65. Master-level tomes are unlocked through quests at skill levels 90 or 100. Spell tomes have symbols to indicate their magic type, such as Conjuration tomes with an Oht symbol and Destruction tomes with a flame-engulfed hand.
Should a mage be a vampire in Skyrim?
In The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim, being a Vampire is beneficial for stealth builds due to its Sneak skill boost and aesthetic appeal. However, mages are the best class for being a Vampire in Skyrim. They gain access to Absorb Health spells and unique Conjuration spells, and the Restoration perk Necromage increases the effectiveness of spells on undead. The perk also boosts the efficiency of all spells, perks, and enchantments once taken. The game was released on November 11, 2011, and is now available on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S.
What button to use magic in Skyrim?
In order to gain access to the Skills and Inventory Menu, it is necessary to select Magic and then equip a spell in either the left or right hand by pressing L1 or R. The chosen button must then be held down and released in order to cast the spell.
How to get started as a mage in Skyrim?
One may commence a Mage game as a high elf, outfitted with Mage gear procured from Helgen, and utilize destruction spells in combat. It is recommended that alchemy ingredients be collected on the way to Riverwood. A Mage stone blessing should then be chosen, after which potions can be made in the Riverwood inn.
How do you use magic spells in Skyrim?
In order to access the Magic Menu, it is necessary to press the B button. To navigate to the Magic Menu, utilize the left and right triggers. The desired spell or item should be highlighted and the A button should be pressed. To conclude, the menus should be closed, a spell selected, Magic Mode engaged, and the A button pressed to cast the spell.
How do you give all spells in Skyrim?
This page provides PC Console Commands and Cheats for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, updated to include Skyrim Special Edition and Anniversary Editions. Console Commands are essential tools for players to enter cheats into the game. To enter Skyrim cheats, hit ~ or the key above Tab to bring up the developer console. These codes are not case-sensitive and can cause bugs or break certain quests. To ensure game stability, don’t save the game after using the command and disable autosaves in the main menu. Some console commands that players might find useful include toggles God mode, tcl, location, QASmoke, psb, and player. advlevel. It is important to check the Item Codes list for the Add Item cheat.
Is magic good to use in Skyrim?
In Skyrim, magic may initially seem like a decent path, but as enemies become stronger, it becomes harder to win with just a few Destruction spells. Even at higher levels, magic schools’ spells are weak compared to other perks in thief or warrior builds. This is a major oversight by Bethesda’s developers, which may be fixed in The Elder Scrolls 6. Despite the worst scaling of magic in the game, it still feels rewarding as players unlock more cool features, such as area of effect spells, as the fights become tougher with more enemies.
Where can I find mage spells in Skyrim?
Spells can be obtained from spell tomes, which can be purchased from merchants or looted in dungeons. Non-player characters (NPCs) do not directly impart knowledge of spells; however, general merchants, such as the Riverwood Trader, do sell basic spells.
How do I use my powers in Skyrim?
To use a power, you must first equip it, which is assigned to the Dragon Shout/Power button. Lesser powers can be used unlimited times per day, unlike Greater Powers. To reacquire a power, activate a cleansed stone. Lesser powers are listed in the magic menu under “Powers”. They can be used as many times as needed. In-game, a power is added in werewolf form but is unusable as you cannot access your powers menu. Powers can be equipped on a hand like a spell.
📹 Skyrim Special Edition – BEST Mage Starter Guide – How to Begin your Mage Build
The Best Mage Starter Guide for Skyrim Special Edition. This gives you a comprehensive assortment of tips, tricks and strategies …
Two things. 1). Restoration has an awesome perk (forget name) that enhances your Magicka regeneration by 25%. Totally worth it, especially early on. 2). Specializing in Shock spells lets you learn the Disintegrate perk, which is incredible. Kills people when you knock them below 15% health with Shock spells. Saves time and health. Otherwise, great guide!
Vendor: “Clairvoyance! This spell will let you know exactly where you need to go. It’s great if you’re the adventuring type, doing a lot of quests in obscure places and-” Dragonborn: “Oh, so it works like my quest marker?” Vendor: “Your… what?” Dragonborn: “My quest marker. It appears on my compass.” *pointing at thin air* “Right here.” Vendor: “… what?” Dragonborn: “If I just follow the quest marker, it’ll get me where I need to go. And it doesn’t even cost magicka! It’s just…” *waves at thin air* “… right there. You really can’t see it?” Vendor: “… what!?” Dragonborn: “What about the mark on the door there? Surely you can see that. It tells me there’s something I need to do behind that door.” Vendor: “…” Dragonborn: “Which reminds me… I do have an errand in this town. I better go check on that now. Oh, and don’t bother holding on to that tome for me.” *leaves* Vendor: “I HAVE SO MANY QUESTIONS!!!”
With my mages I also focus on Alchemy. Make some potions to increase and/or restore my magicka in a pinch as well as make some potions to enhance my spells. For this, I have a few tips; We all know Anise’s Cabin. If you walk through the wooded area straight toward her cabin at the start of the game there will always be a random encounter. Use that to get some items or level some spells. Right by Anise’s Cabin on the drop off there is a random tree on the edge. Jump to that and between it and the rocks there is an animal skeleton. There will always be a flawless emerald worth 750 gold inside the rib age which will respawn. In the areas of the rivers where the salmon jump upstream is where you should farm for Salmon Roe. Simply catch them *as they jump*. The river by the road on your way to Whiterun at the start is full of Salmon jumping upstream. In the river traveling away from Riverwood is where I suggest you search for Histicarp. And if you head far enough down that river you can come accross a small ruin in the water. There may be some items down there but mainly you should be collecting Nordic Barnacles that grow on the ruin walls and steps. Take the chicken egg(s?) in Riverwood. You can either use the alchemy station in the inn there or head to Whiterun. The farms located around it have several chicken nests. Use an alchemy station (in the inn in Riverwood or the alchemy shop in Whiterun). Combine these ingredients. You can use three at a time or two, but always use the Salmon Roe.
Tip for Destruction Magic: Use more than one element. This will make sure you always have something your enemy isn’t immune or resostant to. It’d be pretty embarassing when your fully decked out pyromancer can’t do squat against a flame atronach. I suggest fire and shock, since both are available before you leave Helgen. Also, get that Magicka cost down, or else you’re going to be magicless in about four or five firebolts.
Pure mage tips: As soon as you are able, get your hands on a Staff of Chain Lightning. An invaluable tool for a mage, it can stagger entire groups of enemies for as long as you have soul Gems to fuel it. Combine with illusion and the Quiet Casting perk to set up massive infighting amongst enemy groups or even just to maintain Magicka efficiency. Alchemy is a decent tool to make money with, but enchanting is invaluable to you. Particularly at lower speech levels (though stopping by Windhelm and helping the Dark Elf shop keeper to get some speech training also helps) enchanted rings and such are popular buys from the mages you frequent, and casting a soul trap or two plus some Transmute Mineral Ore spells can make you some serious money. Having trouble making dragons go down? Lesser Ward is an easy spell to maintain in the face of a Dragon’s onslaught, and can absolutely change the way combat goes down for you against them. Unless they get cheeky and toss you off the top of a high place, you’re probably going to win that attrition battle. Of all the different elemental damage types, shock damage is probably the most reliable in the game, with only a small handful of enemies having specific resistances to it, though fire is respected for its own reasons. The fire breath shout can get bonus damage from several sources: speaking to Parthurnaax, getting both ranks of Augmented Fire and stacking it with Aspect of Terror can make it truly terrifying to see in action. In fact, it’s very nearly viable to make a build where you only use fire breath to deal damage.
When I play a pure mage, I usually roleplay a benevolent Nordic Cleverman, fighting the undead, helping the injured and punishing the wicked. So I usually forgo conjuration unless I’m playing a necromancer. My main skills I focus on out of the gate are destruction, restoration, and alteration. But I can see why you’d choose conjuration instead.
Only problems I had with it was, lack of characters in the “College” just a couple more students would of been enough. Also fleshing out more of the teachers. Each teacher could of had there own quest line, in addition to the master spells ones. Maybe each one was connected to one of Skyrim’s many provinces helping to breath life into these regions. For example if the restoration teacher had a quest to cure a a sickness effecting the people of Dawnstar. They would take you along and you would start curing people but eventually you found out someone was poisoning the food. You tell the restoration teacher and you two track down and stop the poisoning of the food. Each one could have a unique quest and they don’t have to be all about there respected school of magic. perusal some of the teachers also cast high level spells including the master spells would make you want to learn more in the arts of being a mage, you should finish the quest saying damn I want to be able to do that. Now you have better character development, and you create a drive for players to continue being mages. This will also create more progression as the teacher will give you up to expert level spells once you completed each respected quest line. Once you got the first major quest done and you are the right level you can take on the master spells quests. Granted I think almost all the master spells need a little bit of a rework so they really feel like master spells that you should want to have. Things like the firestorm spell should summon fire wyrms, giving the master spell far more utility over the other fire spells.
As a side not in the beginning when you leave Helgen Anise’s cabin is a nice stop and is just on the other side of the river from the guardian stones. It has some nice alchemical ingredients (you have to “steal” them), an enchanting and alchemy table in the basement, a book to level up alchemy, two poisons on top of a shelf in the basement, a barrel you can keep your stuff in for three in – game days before it despawns (be careful with that one), a short way to jump up the nearby mountain and get to bleak falls barrow fast and last but not least Anise herself can be killed without any bounty and this levels up your skills (be careful she is secretly a witch) and on her body she will have a steel dagger some robes with 50% magicka regen a minor potion of magicka and some boots. Overall her cabin is worthwhile stop before riverwood and I wanted to let the few of you who see this and read the whole thing know adios.
For any newer players, what rare ones you are, I recommend not power leveling too many skills because enemies in Skyrim level with you and if you are a master illusionist but only in the 30s or something with destruction or conjuration, then you might have a hard time because the enemies are stronger with each level.
Tip for training Destruction: You get a lot more XP from Rune magic (even if you hit an ally) than any other spell. Go to fort Kastav on the road from the college of Winterhold. Inside are prisoner cells with barred ceilings. Cast a summon into the cell without unlocking the door (for safety) then, while using sparks to trigger them, cast runes until they die. Rinse and repeat until maxed. (also lower the difficulty to novice as XP for destruction is linked to spell damage)
dont forget to use conjuration staffs, its very helpful in the beggining, you can craft storm atronach staff in the atronach forge at lvl 1. Recipe: Great Soul Gem, Void Salts(you can find one in arcadia’s cauldron), Broom, Amethyst, and a orichalcum ingot(you can find one close to the atronach forge)
I’ve recently started a Breton mage build, and I’ve substituted Destruction spells for Conjuration spells for combat. Bound weapons are far more effective damage wise and easier to level up for your build. I decided to solely focus on a Bretons starting skills and have had quite a good time playing this…
Tips for getting money from enchanting: 1. Dont loot armor from enemies, only their weapons. The reasoning is that weapons you enchant sell for a lot more gold than armor you enchant. 2. The top 5 most valuable enchantments for weapons are Banish, Paralyze, Absorb Health and a tie between Turn Undead and Damage Stamina. The latter 2 of the 5 can be purchased or found earliest.
Great guide. I have a Breton pure mage and by the time he was 46 he was so overpowered that I had to download a mod to make the game even harder than legendary. It was just broken. Since then, I’ve been playing a lot as a dark elf vampire spell sword. Destruction, Sneak, and One-Handed. As I leave Helgen, I go to Loreius farm and help Cicero, then hop a ride to Windhelm and do the first part of the quests for the Dark Brotherhood. As I’m there, I grab the cloth version of the Shrouded Armor, which offers 25% better sneaking, 15% destruction magic reduced mana cost, muffled movement, and double sneak attack damage with one handed weapons). I use fire primarily, because targets on fire take extra damage, and when I light them on fire and smack them with my sword, they go down even faster than if I just burned them with fire alone. I deliberately don’t level past level 7 until after I’ve done the companion’s questline to avoid vampire attacks and dragon attacks (which begins at level 8). After I have everything that’s werewolf mandatory, (like the rings of Hercine from the Frostmoon Pack in Solstheim and the three werewolf totems from Aela’s radiant quests, and after I’ve cured the brothers of their lycanthropy), I cure myself, then head to Morvath’s Lair and become a normal vampire. All of this before I even get the dragonstone for Farengar. As a dark elf, the 50% resistance to fire negates the negative effect of being a vampire, and along the way, I get the Lady Stone, which helps me to regenerate health and stamina during the day time, so there isn’t much downside to being a vampire there.
I found the mage armor perks to be useless when you have the master level alteration spell Dragonhide to hit the armor cap instantly. You save an extra perk point this way. Investing in stability and dual casting and reducing alteration casting cost, you can actually dual cast dragonhide so it lasts almost 200 seconds. More than enough time to prep before charging into a fight.
if your trying to level up your destruction and restoration just buy a horse at whiterun stables change the difficulty to legendary and attack it and restore it when majika is low wait a hour then do it over and over itll level you up simply and quickly with conjuration kill something and use soul trap over and over again then do the winterhold mission that when completed gives you a conjuration dreamora lord
I replace Conjuration with a follower, typically Janessa or any tank, for the early game. That way I can focus on Destruction, Alteration, and Enchanting, and keep the enemy scaling in check. By the time I hit 50 or 75 in Destruction and can reduce the cost significantly (not 100% right away), then I go back and grind Conjuration for the levels and the Thrall spells. By that time, any non essential follower will have hit their level cap and started to become a liability, anyway.
To get level 100 Alteration in 5-10 mins (Must Have 100 Enchanting) (Must have 4 enchantable items (25% Less To Cast Alteration)) 1.Purchase the ‘Telekinesis’ and ‘Detect Life’ spells 2.Go to ‘Riften’ and pick up a bucket with telekinesis and use the detect life spell. 3.Tape down the ‘L’ and ‘R’ buttons on controller 4.Sit back and watch your alteration increase RAPIDLY!
To level up restoration for a mage build (I only recommend for players above level 30 merely for the skill perk to use the spells) use the spells Equilibrium and any of the restoration spell….Equilibrium drains ur heath to regain magicka and the restoration spells restore health…use them over and over til u level up…soon you will be able to access master level spells like GRAND HEALING or CLOSE WOUNDS.
Clairvoyance isn’t a garbage spell I my opinion because when you hit that mountain that is always in the way that quest it shows you the quickest way there around the mountain and if you’re lost in a ruin that you are currently doing a quest in it helps a lot to figure out where the heck you’re going I always make sure it’s one of the first spells I get it helps me a lot
Magic is so fun in this game. I did a poll on my twitch asking viewers which build they all like to play. It was pretty evenly spread… between combat and stealth builds; almost no one picked magic at all. I don’t get why people don’t want to be more into magic. Maybe it just seems confusing to build a very good mage
I don’t think that this is the most effective way of doing a mage build. Firstly, you main goal should be to get level 100 enchanting. This is because you can use the twin souls perk and get 100% spell cost reduction on two schools of magic of your choice. For leveling up enchanting you will need to collected as many soul gems as you can (and fill them). You can you bound weapons with the soul stealer perk from the conjuration tree to fill your soul gems easily, while also have good damage. I find that the best thing you can do though is get the Black Star (Azura’s Star) ass soon as possible. Then enchant a normal weapon with soul trap. You level up enchanting every time you charge an enchanted weapon (more xp for larger souls). Therefore, you can constantly kill people for black souls and then instantly recharge the weapon, while filling your empty soul gems as well. I recommend not putting ANY points into your magika when you level up because when you have 100% spell reduction, you total magika won’t make any difference. Alteration focuses on defense, whereas restoration focuses on healing. Therefore, restoration is far better when you have 100% restoration spell reduction the alteration because you can heal yourself forever. With this method, you WILL be far more tanky because every point that you might have put into magika, you can put into HP. I wouldn’t put any points into stamina, because you can obtain the ‘Respite’ perk from the restoration tree. This makes your healing spells also restore stamina, therefore you get unlimited stamina.
I love to play as a mage! It is so much more fun than just slashing with a sword. It adds a whole new dimension to the gameplay. Personally, I get the novice perk for each school right from the start. I tend to focus on illusion and conjugation, because that works for the play style I am trying to build. Which is a mage-assassin. I level illusion for quiet casting and conjugation for the helpers and bound weapon damage (for the dagger and bow). I level destruction to apprentice as I tend not to use the adept or expert spells that often, certainly not early on. For alteration I get the apprentice perk and the mage armor for obvious reasons. I must say that I really appreciate restoration. There are some nifty perks I use, for example the regeneration perk and necromage. I also use restoration to scare the crap out of drauger and to heal my beloved Lydia as she fights of trolls and dragons for me. Restoration will be levelled in no time in this way.
I’ve been playing Skyrim for years now And no matter what I do I can only stand the game for 10 minutes at a time now… this was the favorite part of my childhood playing this game I wish I could still play it but no matter what build I do or quest I do I know the outcome it’s too goddamn repetitive 😭
There’s an even better way to power-level Alteration, though this is really meant for lategame use if you need perks in other skill trees. Enchant gear to give you free Alteration casting, then pick up an object with Telekinesis and while doing that, fast-travel (I recommend going from Markarth to Riften and back, you’ll level from 15-100 each way.)
I’ve certainly changed my Mage habits these last few years (looking at my old comment) – now Illusion is absolutely a necessity for me. The first Spell I get is muffle and then Soul Trap. Then I might get Firebolt or Lightning Bolt. But in the meantime, I rely on sneaking around people and letting my conjures kill them while I take their soul. I’ve stopped trying to even out my Magicka/health/Stamina at the beginning, and I no longer put anything into stamina. I’ll switch between restoration and potions because I’ve developed a pretty deep interest in alchemy lately. I’ve gotten pretty good at figuring out how to level the magic skills without enduring frustrating wait times for it. It certainly smooths out my playthrough when I get to certain skill levels quickly. I also almost never use dual cast anymore, so I never get those perks. Idk I just found it lacking, and I found it more useful to have one spell in one hand and a different in another.
I’m so glad I found this article. I love playing archer/mage classes in games, but in Skyrim I always found it so hard to play a magic-user. They really gave the trophy to archers – the game is a total breeze, and comically fun. I still have my gripes about playing a Mage, but this guide is phenomenal. Thank you!
Hey, where’s the love for orc mages? They’re pretty good too! The berserker rage power is great for stopping random ganking, and shores up your weapon skills when you need to grind those up later in the game! Also, orc paladin-type characters are BOSS, Paralyzing Fools and beating their skulls in if they get too close, instantly recharging their stamina with grand healing to keep them in the fight, bashing things to death with a shield and going giant-bowling, what’s not to love? 😁
This is an old article, but early game I’d add that Alchemy is almost more useful than Enchanting. Spell costs are not that bad that early, and there are two really good options with accessible ingredients: blue mountain flower and wheat for restore health/Fortify health, and more importantly moon sugar(buy from khajiit traders), red mountain flower and jazbay grapes for a potion that restores magicka, increased total magicka, and speeds up regeneration. Pretty great stuff, and late game you can utilize weakness poisons and Fortify destruction potions to make spells a lot more viable. Perks you might put onto Restoration are waaaay better spent in Alchemy.
1)Get a dagger 2)Use Calm spell or a higher level version of calm spell on an enemy 3)Stand behind them 4)Sneak-attack them while they’re in their happy-place 5)If they do not die, repeat You can two-shot a giant with 0 effort, maximum style, if you have the 15x dagger dmg in the stealth tree, plus you can lvl up illusion by spamming muffle while walking anywhere 9/11
I’m 2 years late but for the 15 people who haven’t played the game yet and are just about to and are also perusal this article Pro tip if you play a pure mage until you get a bunch of enchantments late into the game conjuration is a much more cost-efficient form of damage than destruction and later you can reduce your destruction to 0% cost through enchanting and dual casts will stagger people with a perk don’t make the mistake I did on my first pure mage build focus on conjuration first destruction second otherwise you’ll constantly run out of magic and then just want to play a warrior or play a pure Mage in Oblivion Edit: a tip I almost forgot to put as a pure Mage become ethereal is your best friend that’s a shell that makes you temporarily Invincible as long as you don’t attack gives you some breathing room for getting swarmed since you’re going to be putting almost nothing into health
Mind Bender Build: High Elf or Breton Major Skills: •Destruction •Illusion •Conjuration •Archery or One-Handed (bound Weapons) Minor skills: •Restoration •Enchanting •Light Armor (Optional) Strategy: Turn the tide of battle by turning kinsman against eachother. Then have your Daedra come in as tanks while dealing massive damage. As the fight pursues you have the option to use a bound bow or a bound sword with a destruction spell In the other hand. If you find yourself using the Bound sword with a destruction spell more, Invest In light armor perks or use Alteration spells such as Stone Flesh.
I’ve played Skyrim so many times, still haven’t seen all the possible builds. I want to give a tanky mage a try. Here are my thoughts on a build: 1. Race – Breton or Nord (maybe Dark Elf) 2. Skills – Heavy armor, Conjuration, Destruction (one element only, either fire or lightning), Restoration/Alteration (could be both), Enchanting and Blacksmith 3. Playstyle – Destroys everything with conjured Bound weapons and Destruction magic in heavy armor set, enchanted with absorption/resistance (almost 100% frost resistance with a Nord ez). The Immersive armor Mod has a very decent battlemage heavy set for such a build. P.S. Don’t know though if it’s necessary to have One handed skill tree if fighting with conjured weapons
“and to be honest battles dont really last that long” In my playthrough, Legendary difficulty + level 45 + 2 draugr deathlords + 1 draugr overlord + all ebony gear with a one shot ebony bow = 14.5 minutes in a dungeon dying repeatedly, yeah that battle wasnt that long (I had dragon bone weaponry from spamming arrow making to level smithing) that fight took a legitimate 14 minutes
Decent guide aslong as your not playing survival dificulty (legendary) even if you are a master at skyrim, taking the mage path is always “tank mage” and you have to carry lots of food items so you dont use up all your potions and use them sparingly as possible. Meaning you need to use resteration school, conjuration, alteration and pimp you armour with blacksmithing and enchanting often as possable. Not to mention alchemy is essential for making potions you need most of. Ie. Health magica destruction damage and maybe a coward will need invisibility lol
Destruction and alteration are the easiest ones to level up because you can fast travel, while websiteing telekinesis boom, like level 87 alteration and do the same with unbound storm easy way to get level 100 in both of them. I don’t know if they patch this, but you can just cast soul trap on a dead mud crab and use the wait action to regain your magic while empty, and you can do the same with muffle, there you go illusion and conjuration the only one I don’t know a strategy for is restoration in terms of magic
I have a feeling that TES6 is gonna be insanely detailed with so much depth to it. Skyrim already has a lot of depth, so I imagine they’re going crazy with TES6. Can you imagine an Elder Scrolls game, where you can LITERALLY do ANYTHING you want? Like, open your own shop, become a mage teacher at a college, etc. I think it would be cool if they even made it to where you can become an emperor with an agenda. Having bodyguards, and assistants. I’m hoping that’s why it’s taking so long for it to come out. Imagine playing an Elder Scrolls game, where you start from childhood, and get trained while growing up, to prepare for the world. That would be cool. Oblivion came out when? 2006? Skyrim only came out 5 years after that in 2011. Now it’s been a little over 10 years, and they’re still working on the 6th game, which hopefully means they’re making it a HUGE game with tons of detail to it, and a huge map. I have a feeling that it’s going to redefine RPG games.
I just started my first mage build, decided I would ONLY use magic, nothing else and see how relevant I can make it. I did a khajiit build for two reasons 1. Unarmed damage (haven’t used) and 2. Can see better in dark anytime I want (use all the time). First thing I did in the game was travel by foot to complete the main winterhold quest line and get the arch mage robes. Then I got the Clavicus Vile helm for 20% better prices and started to work on Smithing 100. Worked on odd quests and cleaned out caves and sold for gold. Completed the quest to get the Gauldur Amulet during this time. Completed smithing 100 to make dragon scale boots and gauntlets to pair with my arch mage robes, Morokei mask and Gauldur Amulet. Soon I will legendary smithing to get perk points back. Did all that before meeting with the Jarl of Whiterun on main quest. Gotta admit getting all that wasn’t easy so early, I had Faendal as a follower which I’ll admit using him for the first time, I like him. I used Lydia and Cicero in the past but did different missions early on this time. My mage focused on only Lightning in the perks tree. I like lighting bolt a lot. Chain Lightning hilarious, for example I just started the dark brotherhood questline, decided on selecting chain Lightning, hit the right guy and all 3 hostages fell down dead instantly via a lightning, it was really bad azz lmao. Anyway I have yet to get Lightning storm, looking forward to that. I’m level 22ish at this point and met with the jarl of whiterun, but have not met with the graybeards yet.
I’m a warrior mage. And every time I play, I mainly use restoration, conjuration, and sometimes alteration. I’m usually a nord, but my next gameplay was I chose to be a Khajit, and I’m gonna be extra and try to master as much as I can. Also, restoration is valid, you can heal your followers, and yourself. You’re unstoppable.
On the spell-absorb perk/standing stone….Does anyone else have the issue with it absorbing your Atronachs, soul cairn summons, seekers, etc.? It seems with Special Edition, 99% of the time, when I try to summon something (not raising the dead), 100% spell absorb seems to take in said summon, in effect: canceling out the summon. It gets kind of irritating when you’re surrounded, near death, and trying to summon some support.
1000 hours in accumulated on and off over the years and i’m only just now trying to play as a mage. started a new game, was focused on magery and then i did the same thing i do in every playthrough… which was start stealing everything in sight, pickpocketing jewelry to enchant it later… stealing all the alchemy ingredients i see end up raising alchemy and enchanting and pickpocketing, trying to get better loot, then end up leveling speechcraft to get better prices then, now i have to go to riften to unlock the thieves guild fences… then i’m pretty much a thief with destruction magic.. i get really pissed off about the magicka cost of my spells and having to wait for it to recharge. i end up over leveling, being unable to handle the higher leveled enemies that now spawn because i only leveled up non combat skill so, i get tired of being 1 shotted by archers and 2 handed power attacks.. so, i start leveling smithery i smith myself some armor i max out enchanting skill i put 100% magicka cost reduction on it then proceed to break the game, spamming dual casted fire spells at zero cost, stunlocking enemies with impact perk then, finally, at like, level 60, i finally get around to doing the winterhold quests. then i get bored and make a set of fortify 1 handed weapons armor and and play the rest of the game like that… every playthrough i attempt, i spend hundreds of hours at it and i have never completed the main storyline and barely touch the dawnguard or dragonborn dlcs, because i want to do everything, like getting all the daedra quests done, getting all the stones of barenziah, finding every book in the game and finally sitting down and reading them but then never actually sitting down to read them, finding all the dragon shouts, but never finish all the vanilla content but then never finishing and then moving on to some other shiny new game i did the same thing in fallout 3 and 4.
I usually go Breton on all my different characters for the magic resist, but the cooldown power sucks for conjuration (spell absorption causes summoning to fail 50% of the time). On my mage playthrough I’m going to roll high elf instead, and just use the Lord Stone/Agent of Mara/Magic Resistance perks/whatever enchants needed to get to 85% magic resist. Also, I’ve found casting Fire Rune on crabs/wolves/low level stuff to be the best way to level up Destruction.
I reccomend using high elves for this because with necromage + atronarch perk and atronarch stone you have a permanent 100% magic absorbtion. You do NOT want any magic resistance if you have 100% spell absorbtion because it will reduce the amount of magic you absorb. There’s a way to get a permanent 33dps flames and 26dps ignite (stackable) without any potions. You need to get the necromage perk followed by lvl 2 augmented flames then animage and then aspect of terror WHILE equipping ahzidals mask. This will permanently apply a portion of the 25% damage buff from the mask. without the mask your flames will do 30dps and with the mask itll raise to 33. Sometimes it doesnt work properly, so make sure to have a save made right before selecting perks. Sometimes youll get stuck with slightly nerfed damage like 25 or 27dps until you reload so that it calculates correctly. Once done properly the damage buffs are permanent UNLESS you set certain skill trees to legendary. Oddly enough, resetting the necromage perk or restoration tree will NOT reset your damage, but any of the other perks mentioned will reset it. I alao highly reccomend dead thralling ulfric stormcloak, cicero, miraaks cultists, or orchendor. The 1st 3 listed keep all of their speech and unique abilities but orchendor loses his ability to speak (he does the normal dead thrall groans). Ulfric and orchendor both keep their shouts though and will use them in combat! Ulfric has 6 different shouts! He will even fus ro dah people off walls on occasion and disarms many bosses for me.
Five year old article that perfectly encapsulates my own experiences. Mind you, I have mods that alter everything from Racial abilities to Standing Stones to Perks. Still, the basics described here apply even with those mods. Now the important question is; do you have a similar guide for pure warriors (no magic) and pure rogues (daggers, bows, no magic)?
Its 2022 who is still playing Skyrim besides me? been playing this game since it was released for switch and I still love it for the different ways to play and the hilarious glitches. I just deleted a lvl 80 unkillable character to start a new playthrough 😀 This time i will be using the bound bow and dremora lords so basically a conjurer. plan to complete every skill tree but it will be a journey I will enjoy. no mods vanilla!
about these tips… you should consider this, do you want to be more able to follow the difficulty of your opponents, or do you want your endgame character to be the most powerfull it can be? if the latter is true, i would not spend any points into magica as you can simply nullify the cost of atleast 3 entire schools of magic (never completely maxed it so dunno if 4 is possible) with enchanting, so i’dd get around 200-300 health, so you can survive any hit and let restoration do the rest, and put everything else in stamine for lootability, more carry weigth. if you do want to be more secure i guess you could say, eventually you don’t really need to loot anymore so the stamina becomes less usefull, but that ‘s up to you to decide
Great tips. However, for Daedric armor with enchantments early in the game, I highly recommend getting the Conjuration level 100 as soon as possible. It will also level up the Hp to level 21. After conjuration is level 100 head to college of Winterhold and go for the Conjuration of Daedric quest to get that special ball needed to make Daedric armor in the underground college basement. Those who had already done this know what I’m talking about. Conjuration is a worthy skill to master first and as fast as possible. It is one of the easiest ways to level up the HP and Magicka too. It takes an hour or so to do though.
I made a mage build that worked on Legendary difficulty and although this guide seems naturally intuitive you’ll only have enough magicka to kill 1 bandit, and then you’ll die. Here’s some tips from a mage pro: -Bretons and Dark elves are best. Dark Elves becasue of +10 Destruction/+5 Alchemy/+5 Alteration and 50% fire resistance. -Wabbajack: Best staff, can be obtained at lvl 1, and the quest is really easy. (Quest is given by a mad hobo in solitude) -Leveling up is bad because enemies scale with your level, so try to level up only what you need. -Enchanting/Alteration/Alchemy/Destruction are the best skills for a pure mage build and take priority in that order. -Vampire Lord form is great and can be obtained at lvl 1 by prematurely starting the Dawnguard questline (get a horse to speed past direwolfs). Should be used instead of human form until you get Petrify or Paralysis + 100% cost reduction. -You can use armor and cloak spells whilst in Vampire form by casting them before transforming. This is great for leveling Alteration and Destruction early on. -Common Reagents for Fortify Destruction: Glowing Mushroom(all over falmer caves) and Nightshade(graveyards, and treestumps). -Common Reagents for Fortify Alteration: grass pod(northern coastlines, morthal) and River betty(Taverns, and water). -Necromage and Aspect of Terror(fire only) secretly enhance destruction spells by 1.25x each. -The Dragonborn DLC has lots of goodies for Mages including black books, Dragonpriest masks, Petrify and whirlwind cloak spells, and Azihdal’s enchanting gear. -The “Fire Breath” Shout scales with your Fire damage, and can be upgraded to summon fire wyrms. -The “Become Ethereal” Shout is great for keeping you safe while casting the Mass Paralysis spell. -Ice Spells are garbage. -Lesser Ward can completely protect you against dragonflame from lvl <20 Dragons if cast in preparation. if you feel like exploiting, you can also reequip a +x magicka item while at 0 magicka to gain x magicka and this exploit can be used indefinitely for infinite magicka at lvl 1.
The tip about the alteration magic in the beginning of the game and those bandits and thalmor i don’t knew. Very interesting. But i think that is not viable use just destruction and conjuration and alteration and other things you said on the begining… You should count the difficult that someone is playing. That makes a huge difference. Difference like you cannot kill an enemy with spell “flames” and have to run out of mana then flee. But in general is very good your guide.
Alteration leveling: 1. Get enchanted gear to reduce your alteration spell cost down to zero. 2. Get telekinesis spell 3. Stand outside and hold a random item 4. Fast travel somewhere at least moderately far away (distance from Riften to Windhelm seems to suffice) The game will count that as though you spent the whole in game travel time casting telekinesis.That will instantly fully level your alteration to 100. If you then make it legendary you can repeat that, getting alteration from 15 to 100 in one fast travel. Once you have things set up, you can get to level 253 to get every perk in the game in about an hour or two.
one of my favorite Restoration perks gives you permanent faster magical regeneration. i also heard (i haven’t tested it) that putting your hands down (the equivalent of sheathing your weapons) will make your magica recharge faster! oh, and another good way to level up Alteration is to repeatedly cast Breath Water while standing knee-deep in water. I also know of an underhanded way of increasing Destruction skill without actual combat… you cast a Rune spell, then summon something near it, then cast summon AGAIN. this somehow triggers the rune, which earns you Destruction experience. i only used it a few times, when i needed to get my Destruction back up after i did the Legendary trick to get rid of a Perk i didn’t like. FYI, it was “disintegrate”. what i disliked most about it was that if you disintegrate a dragon, you don’t get any bones, hides, or DRAGON SOULS!
I have played Skyrim over and over and always wanted to do a character that’s good with magic, but I love stealth archer so much, I never get around to starting my mage skills until my enemies are super-powerful and I still have almost no perks dedicated to magic schools, lol. I watch people play with magic and I think, “Wow, that’s kinda cool; why can’t my guy do that? He hits someone with his flame spell and almost nothing happens…”
My build is a kajjit or how ever you spell it but anyway he is super skinny and is a sneaky archer merchant type character so here are he’s stats standing stones and back story Stats: Sneak Speech Archery Light armor Lock picking Pickpocket Alteration Race: kajjit Armor: dark brotherhood, thief’s guild, the ex thief’s armor from dragon born dlc. Weapons: zefur from dawn guard, blade of woe. I think that’s everything so thanks for reading
Or, if you like using magic you can do this: *Pick whatever class you want. *Go to Riverwood and pickpocket the Orcish bow from the Inn Keeper then do Bleakfall Burrow *Go to Whiterun but DO NOT kill the tutorial dragon by going to the tower. (This prevents dragons from spawning anywhere until you kill it – even at shout locations.) *Go to Solitude and head north/west to find the Steed Stone. (Grands 100 Extra carry weight and removes all weights from all worn armours and armour you’re carrying that matches the same type as what you’re wearing.) **Go to Markarth and gain the right to buy a house (whether you can buy it not yet). You can bypass this step if you’re confident in your play skill – the next step will make enemies scale despite you having no combat proficiency – but it’s not essential. *Go to the Inn in Markarth and Pickpocket your money back from the Scald that teaches speech as you buy lessons and go to level 50. Invest in Health or Stamina (whatever you find more useful but NEVER into Magicka – it’s pointless as a magick user… trust me.) *Stealing LVL 50 Speech also gets you Pickpocket LVL 100 and a ton of points. You want to get “Buy & Sell Anything to Any merchant” from Speech and at least Extra Pockets from Pickpocket for another 100 points of Carry Weight. *With this extra carry weight, do the Nechuand Zel quest and carry all the Smelting Dwemer scrap with you. You’ll get about 300+ ingots to use. *You should be able to buy you house and use it to store for your stuff for later.
I know this was 4 years ago but I say any character that uses fire destruction should work on illusion as well because the fear spells work in higher level enemies perk increases fire damage reason being fire makes some enemies run away in fear from fire damage when they get to half health (I do believe correct me if I’m wrong)
I recommend getting the Arch-mage robes and the Morokei dragon preist mask. Together they give you 200% Magika Regen. They can both be aquired late in the College of Winterhold (Or COW) questline. And, don’t be afraid to use a weapon every once in a while if needed. If you’re going for a pure mage, (Which I failed in the first hour of playing.) You could use a bound sword/weapon so you can still attack with a weapon, but, like… A magic weapon.
Best start 1. go to Riverwood to collect items from Alvor 2. go to Whiterun and take a carriage to Winterhold 3. go to Winterhold and pass Falreda”s test 4. go to the right and do the exploit to get the mage chest Mage Chest Exploit – able to get all spells that aren’t location specific based on your magic level in the school (Example: Destruction = lvl 15, able to receive Novice spells only, can get higher lvl spells up to Expert if lvl is high enough) These aren’t mods and can get you super OP for people at all levels, they have robes, soul filled gems, gold, staffs, spells(obviously) and anything you need for a mage. their are 4 easy chest in the categories of Conjuration, Alteration, Destruction, and Restoration, the Alteration chest is somewhere upstairs or something, just look it up and you can be OP in no time, it won’t harm your save or trophies, its a great way to be OP.
The mages build in my however is much more easier and much more combat focused rather than jack of all trades. By leveling up enchanting to 100 you can reach a none mana consumption state. And putting two enchantments will allow you to have 2 school of magic cost none mana in the same time. I usually go with 3 sets of armour 1. Destruction + restoration + shock resist + magic resist 2. Alteration + conjuration 3. Destruction + conjuration + shock resist + magic resist. 1. If going to this is your choice then get shadow mere and burn it with flames ( wall of fire if you have it )to level up your destruction . For restoration, go to the torture chamber in thalmor embassy and use flame ( don’t use wall of flames, it’ll kill him ) and use healing hands with the heal more hp perk and cast them at the same time to level up your restoration on the guy. 2. This is a support build. Both builds uses this. Change the conjuration to restoration if you chose build 3. This build if for the support set you start with where you cast buffs first before going in battle. Wear this all the times and use the buffs nesscasary and change it to either 1. or 3. later. 3. Get the double conjuration summons perk and summon two deadras every time you enter battle. Use the incinerate, ice spear or thunder bolt to support your familiars. Note that you can also use the double summons perk on 1. As it’s a good perk to have but if you don’t want to worry about hitting your teammate, get fire ball, frost tornado or chain lightning with the impact perk.
The Choice for Nords as a mage would make a great tank so I would just place them as a battle mage. Also the argonian would make good mages cause of regeneration of health race perk, also wood elves can be magic archers maining conjuration an enchanting light armor, Orcs would mage also good shamans maining in conjuration, the Imperials would mage good illusionist Agents maining illusion an spacecraft, the Red Guards would specialize in conjuration as Sword singers an having the ability to conjure weapons… just putting it out there any race can offer magic playstyles. I forgot to mention Kahjit would make excellent stealth mages.
Nice article. Currently trying a heavy armor mage even with a shield. Also using a robe early on for the better regen/cast stats. Leveled enchanting first to get the better regen/cast & the lower casting of destruction to nearly zero. Putting points in destruction skill you can certainly get destruction down to zero casting cost. Trouble is i also enchanted a few things & gave em to Lydia .. so now she is a monster owning everything. The adventures of Lydia & that other guy. lol. But i really like the 1 hand & shield combo. Ive tried playing like bow or 2 hand but it quickly becomes a juggling quick button nightmare. But with the shield in one hand you can juggle all the spells in the other with as little efford as possible. Also having the shield means you dont have to “duke” around as much as other builds.
-finish the main quest (the first trip to high hrothgar), then visit big city to meet cultist ambush -travel to solstheim -go to fort fortsmoth (not sure its the correct name), its a fortress east from raven rock, not too far, wont miss it -enter the fort (the enemy quite hard early game, so you might want to escape), go straight to the right and pick the lock -theres ale,eidar cheese,and moon sugar, all in that one room, enough to make 6 or 8 elsweyr fondue -escape without finish the stage, revisit the place in 7 or 8 day in game time, the ingredients will be there again
One thing- don’t buy spells before going to the College of Winterhold, save money by seeing which spell she wants you to have so you can buy it from her much cheaper instead of spending way more money by buying from a court wizard. Another unmentioned benefit to shock is very few enemies resist it, though it does have the highest magicka cost with the least useful secondary effect.
Normally go with Khajiit (simply love them) or Altmer (for your reasons) when playing a mage, but I’m going to go Orc once again and play him like your Sorcerer build. Did it once but I got attached to all the Orsimer I met, and had to stop playing after the Malacath Quest with Yamarz. Hoping I can get past that when I recreate Murmir.
For alteration dont use flesh spells to level up, if you’re trying to grind levels find telekinesis and use it on an object and fast travel with it, the game will recognize it as you traveled the distance carrying the object with telekinesis the whole way, best routine go to solitude and fast travel to riften
I’ve played skyrim for literally thousands of hours over the years. And never ever did a mage character or really used magic at all only healing in the beginning of the game and enchantment. But I’m thinking i really wanna theres so many spells and skills and everything else I’ve never experienced but I dont know where to start at all lol hopefully this article helps
No matter what character I role, once I leave Helgen, I will go to that bandit camp, then the hunters camp next to stones, then that old lady’s house, then the bandit camp just up the mountain, and then the mine near Riverwood… all before actually getting to Riverwood, turning up already at level 5-6 with 1000 odd gold with decent stuff to sell too!! Do it every time
So before perusal I would like to say my way Start the game as a breton or dark elf so you can overcome the weaknesses of being a vampire Get the novice robes and go straight to the college of winterhold and so the whole quest line, you will get the mask of morokei and that is really op along with arch mage robes then become a vampire lord and do the entire dawnguard quest line to get the ring of eurdite and your done with the very beginning way to Overpowered build
early mage, i like to do dest/conjuring. use destruction magic to fuck them up, revive them with conjuring, kill them again with destruction. sigh. the article character sorta looked like geralt. i already made a FO4 character that looked like geralt, now i kinda want to make one that looks like him in skyrim. can even bust out steel and silver swords in one hand, and magic in another hand. also, the problem with high spell absorb is, you have a harder time casting spells on yourself. like, the skin spells, wards, healing, conjuring essentially works like that, etc.
One thing I don’t like about “pure mage” builds is how people choose to define mage purity. They tend to treat mages like they can absolutely never touch a weapon of any kind, and I think this really serves as a bit of a self nerf. Granted, if you are carrying around a dedric greatsword, then yes that might be breaking from your class, but if keep a dagger or even a bow on hand as tools to use various enchantment or poison effects, then are you really breaking from your class? Like if I use a long bow to tag a mammoth with weakness to fire, and then switch to pummeling it with fire spells, am I less of a mage for that or am I being a smart mage? If I use a long bow enchanted with perk boosted chaos damage and a single point of soul trap in conjunction with fortify destruction positions and maybe weakness to magic poisons am I breaking from my class? In my perception, enchanted weapons are a hybrid of magical and physical attacks, you wouldn’t look at a warrior using a great sword with a fire enchantment as being less of a warrior for having an enchantment, so why would you look at a mage with an iron dagger enchanted with absorb magicka and a weakness to magic poison as being less of a mage? There are magical effects and magical support effects that are not available as spells, and therefore must be applied using a weapon. Fortify school enchantments only reduce spell costs, leaving fortify school potions as your best option for boosting spell effects against multiple targets.
Power level illusion using muffle, power level altercation telekinesis, then detect life in white run. Then for destruction cast your highest destruction on shadowmere. When doing the companion quest line when you go to get rid of kodlaks curse there’s a spider web that keeps them away from you while you cast bound swords to power level conjuration. Congrats you can now summon dremora Lords while casting ebon skin, while using flame cloak and incinerate to completely stun lock your opponents. While you’re at it fuck robes and just dunk in people by being a battle mage.
I have tried many other builds, but pure mage is always a personal favourite. I get tired of hearing people say the magic in Skyrim sucks. The trick as a pure mage is to utilise all of your spells collectively, like a big bag of tricks. Start a fight by frenzying a group of enemies, then immediately toss in a couple of atronachs or Dremora, raise your mage armour and charge in by launching fireballs at your foes. You tell me that is not powerful! By level 40ish you will literally be a god.
I really love to use a wood elf. With leather armors, maybe the daedric werewolf armor And play as a druid Friend and command animals A master of the gun and poisons A friend to nature Capable of using a sneaky dagger or axe Able to cast traps like paralyze runes And illusion One or another destruction damage, on ice magic, since it is skyrim. Any built around
“…run away and heal up to raise Restoration…” No! Turn Undead is a restoration spell and it works on Draugr. You find one, hit it with Turn Undead, then trap it in a corner and enjoy the sad noises it makes as you spam more Turn Undead spells on it. It’s so much more efficient at raising Restoration than healing.
Possible spoilers up ahead, if you’re new to the game! If you want to level destruction or restoration when you’re further along in the game (for example if you legendary your skills), the torture room in the Dawnstar sanctuary is honestly pretty neat. It feels a lot less like cheating than the horse trick does/any other levelling tricks! Normally, if I’ve done the dark brotherhood quest line and legendary my skills, I’ll get the first few levels in the torture room. As I said, feels a lot less cheaty. 🙂
I really like your articles! Just rediscovering (spelling? sorry, I’m swedish) Skyrim for the 100th time, and found a article of yours, been perusal like five of ’em now. Super helpful and I like the fast pacing and non-repetitive nature of your content. Just great all in all, so thanks man! You’ve got a new subscriber as well 🙂
Thanks for the handy tips! Didn’t know I could level Conjuration quickly by spamming Soul Trap on a corpse. Kinda found my own methods for leveling the other magic schools quickly. I spam Calm on cows for level illusion quickly. I spam Telekinisis while in a small room to level alteration. I enchant daggers and rings I make to level enchanting. I clear alchemy shops of ingredients and craft potions like crazy to level up Alchemy. Destruction is the only one I have trouble leveling up quickly without accidentally breaking the game. XD
I tried making an orc mage that was really good with conjuration, alteration, and restoration. The other schools were worked on but not as much. Like destruction was only used for ranged attacks and sure illusion was used outside of battle, but I had learned that the berserk ability works on magic damage and attacks so my head canon joke was my orc just imagined so hard weapons manifested
I never play as a pure mage. I started that way and leveled my mage armor but once I got the Dragon Flesh spell I realized that instead of casting that constantly, I could just…smith armor to the 80% armor cap and not have to worry about it, lol. So I usually just go “battle mage” and wear armor I smithed to the armor cap and have a sword on stand by while concentrating on destruction and dual cast the incinerate spell. Not too much that can stand against that.
Great article as always. 👍 I know this is a vanilla guide but for anyone looking for a good place to start a modded playthrough, Ordinator is a must have regardless of build. The only real downside to it is that it offers a truly insane number of perk options and therefore requires a lot of making skills legendary, grinding them back up and repeating. Personally, I use SkyTweak to give myself extra perk points and avoid the grind. You can give yourself any number of points right off the bat but I’ve always felt that’s kinda immersion breaking. What I do is give my character a perk point whenever they complete some sort of difficult challenge. Killing a dragon (which is no mean feat with the right mods), getting through a dungeon without any equipment, defeating a certain number of opponents at once and so on are worth another skill point, at least to me.
For restoration you can also repeat cast Turn Undead in the crypt in Whiterun. Just kill 2 skeletons and just cast turn on the 3rd every time he gets done staggering. If your mana regen is high enough you never run out. if your goal is to cap Restoration you will want to grind to 75 and grab Circle of Protection. This will let you grind to 100 faster. Also a good habit for mages is while you are traveling around just pop off Muffle every time you mana caps. this will allow you to cap Illusion for perk points if you have no plans on doing anything with Illusion although I always get Quite Casting no matter the build. Plus you never know when a good calm spell will save your life.
Alchemy is a good starting skill for any character at all, for making money. The Bleak Falls Barrow run should leave you with enough gold to buy all available ingredients from the nearest alchemy shop. Then make potions, sell, travel to a new town and repeat. The process will be a net profit — and a pretty good one. Speechcraft perks up to merchant is nice, but not absolutely necessary. Note that alchemy will be profitable even with no perks at all. After maxing alchemy and doing the rounds to all the big cities, you’ll be filthy rich. And if you didn’t use any perks, then you’ll have thosr saved for when you build magic skills. Now move on to enchanting. I’ve never done this without perks, but the idea here is that you make a suit of enchanted items to enhance a school of magic by 100%, making it free to cast. Then you can wear that suit and practice your desired school of magic up to 100 skill. I always fill up enchanting perks no matter what kind of character I play, since crafted items are better than anything you will find. If you’re resetting skills to build up more perks, conjuration is the best bet because it levels the fastest. Just cast soul trap on something you killed. For destruction, the fire/lightning/frost sigil spells are the very best. My tactic was to find a reasonably tough opponent, almost kill it, and then heal it up to full while we run circles around a room. And I’m pretty sure you have to be in combat to gain experience. To level alteration, your best bet is the stoneflesh spell.
My current character is a sort of hybrid battlemage-mage. I don’t use any weapons, but I do use light armor. I focus on destruction and restoration over all other schools of magic, and I make sure to level my smithing and enchanting as much as I can. I just got my smithing to level 70 and my enchanting to level 100, so I have a full set of glass armor with enchantments that reduce the cost of destruction spells and increase magica and magica regen. It’s a pretty fun way to play the game but I do find it to be a bit overpowered sometimes lol.