- Location
- The Hague
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Controversial gaming opinion: video games are good.
What are controversial gaming opinions you have?
- Location
- Georgia, US
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Is this a problem with magic or are people just not suited to playing as mages? I've played as mages 99% of my Skyrim playthroughs and I've never had problems with that. Sure there were times that I might have to dodge enemy attacks while my mana recharges but... that's the price of cosmic power. Let's not forget that this isn't a neutral state, if magic was as easy as melee then why ever pick up a sword? Having teething problems early on isn't inherently poor design.
Skyrim's magic isn't free of problems, I've already cited a major one with Necromancy but the slow start isn't one of them. Mages shouldn't start off with comparable ease of use, their versatility inherently means there needs to be a counterpoint if you don't want a DnD situation. Skyrim for all its flaws does that fine.
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- He/Him
That's true enough but there's a few mitigating factors:
Firstly, if you're playing a mage, magicka should be where you put your levelups. You don't need health because you kill idiots with swords before they can actually hit you. And magicka regen is done as a percentage of your maximum (3% outside of combat, 1% in it), so the higher that maximum, the more magicka in an absolute sense you regenerate per second, and, obviously, the bigger pool you have to run through before you get regen capped.
Secondly, in Helgen, there's both a novice hood and a novice set of robes on the mage in the torture room. Between the two of them you get +30 maximum magicka and +75% magicka regen rate, which isn't enough for useful combat regen but gives you a reasonable starting pool and gets your out-of-combat recharge down to about twenty seconds, which is pretty reasonable given looting, exploring, etc.
In addition, the Novice Destruction perk is available as soon as you hit level 2 and is a dramatic increase in your sustain. Apprentice Destruction can be had by level 3, since it requires only a level 25 skill in destruction. Ten levels in destruction with no racial bonus easily fits within two character levels, and Dunmer outright would qualify at L1 because of their racial bonus if you didn't need to get two character levelups to actually buy the perks.
Thirdly, very few combat encounters early have so many enemies you're actually stuck in continuous combat and will run out of magicka. Everything on the world between Helgen on Whiterun is maybe three wolves tops and everything in Bleak Falls excluding the Draugr boss guarding the Word Wall is within death-by-L1-with-Flames territory. The boss himself has 210 HP if you hit him early (as a Draugr Overlord), which Flames can do straightforwardly if you've levelled up once and taken the Novice Destruction perk, which is available immediately regardless of Destruction skill level. And if you're doing the intended play sequence of Helgen -> Whiterun -> BFB instead of hitting BFB first you could have access to the Firebolt spell and magicka potions from Farengar, which trivializes the draugr into a five-second battle. You can kill him by the time he exits the sarcophagus.
And that's even without being an Altmer for the extra 50 magicka and the Highborn daily
As I've said before: To play a mage, play a mage. The early hill is definitely present, but it is exaggerated because people encounter it, stop playing mages, and and have made life far harder on themselves.
Firebolt gives you 50 DPS and you can get it going, efficiently, by level three. A blasty mage is, by far, one of the quickest and fastest things to set up.
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LunaMoth
Wings of Kynareth is my comfort song...
- Pronouns
- He/They
My issue with Skyrim magic is it doesn't feel arcane enough for my tastes, the only memorable spells are the starting ones, and a few conjuration spells.
Morrowind has my favorite magic of the series because the spells actually make you feel wizardly, Levitating around, creating broken custom spells, even the enchanting feels more magical since the enchanted items recharge naturally.
Morrowind has my favorite magic of the series because the spells actually make you feel wizardly, Levitating around, creating broken custom spells, even the enchanting feels more magical since the enchanted items recharge naturally.
- Location
- Russia
Honestly, enchanted items needing to be reloaded with soul gems always felt to me like an incredibly gamey mechanic. One of the few things that takes me out of the game for some reason.
- Location
- Russia
I liked what little we've had of the College, the issue is that it was ridiculously short and compressed.
Like... imagine if, instead of just digging up the Eye of Magnus, going for the Staff of Magnus and discovering Savos Aren's backstory in one fell swoop, you went on multiple digs as part of your education. Discovering history and pieces of the Staff of Magnus, and of Savos's old comrades from ghosts. Ankano getting more and more clearly unhinged with each step, until finally you assembled everything into one big picture.
Wouldn't even be too difficult to make, it wouldn't require anything the engine and the game doesn't already support. Just a bit more dialogue and a few more dungeons. Hell, repurpose some of the less interesting existing dungeons for that purpose.
Like... imagine if, instead of just digging up the Eye of Magnus, going for the Staff of Magnus and discovering Savos Aren's backstory in one fell swoop, you went on multiple digs as part of your education. Discovering history and pieces of the Staff of Magnus, and of Savos's old comrades from ghosts. Ankano getting more and more clearly unhinged with each step, until finally you assembled everything into one big picture.
Wouldn't even be too difficult to make, it wouldn't require anything the engine and the game doesn't already support. Just a bit more dialogue and a few more dungeons. Hell, repurpose some of the less interesting existing dungeons for that purpose.