First-time Mage advice

[Zagraeth Cold-of-Heart]

I am currently a lvl 52 sneak-thief assassin Dunmer, having completed Thieves guild, Dark Brotherhood, and Companions main arcs and only just started the main quests. Maxed out sneak, smithing, archery and enchanting and have a full set of double-enchanted dragon armor. I can one-shot most anything with my Nightengale bow and if not, can finish off with my custom Blades Burninator/Mace of Malog Bal duel-wield. I use magic very sparingly, mainly because I just don't need to. Basically, I'm so badass I am getting bored.

The biggest problem is, he's my first character and I was not very careful in M/H/S or perk selection (approximately this). In Oblivion and Skyrim, I have never created a pure mage and never dared going weaponless, let alone armorless. It seems the robed baddies are always the toughest for me and I would love to join their ranks. I've been playing around with the perk calculator and have a greater sense of the big picture of how perks can play well with one another, and have come up with this build for my first 40 perks. I would love to stick to as weaponless as possible, but I may cheat a bit and include an enchanted dagger and bow to grind 1H, sneak, and archery a bit, as this is my current comfort zone, it will make for a nice fallback.

But really, I want a real challenge. No physical armor means heavy illusion for Quiet Casting and Alteration for Mage armor perks seem to be a must. Casting from shadows, I expect to rely heavily on conjurations and companions to do my bidding. I think a Breton will offer me the best starting stats, but I'm not set on that. Obviously, the Mages' College will be a first destination, but I have not ruled out Thieves and Dark Brotherhood for the valuable XP, gear, and training. Can any pure(ish) mages offer any advice (combat or otherwise), useful spells, Guardian stones, or other valuable perks to help me in what I imagine to be a completely different gaming experience? Thanks in advance!

 

[Verac]

I am currently a lvl 52 sneak-thief assassin Dunmer, having completed Thieves guild, Dark Brotherhood, and Companions main arcs and only just started the main quests. Maxed out sneak, smithing, archery and enchanting and have a full set of double-enchanted dragon armor. I can one-shot most anything with my Nightengale bow and if not, can finish off with my custom Blades Burninator/Mace of Malog Bal duel-wield. I use magic very sparingly, mainly because I just don't need to. Basically, I'm so badass I am getting bored.

The biggest problem is, he's my first character and I was not very careful in M/H/S or perk selection (approximately this). In Oblivion and Skyrim, I have never created a pure mage and never dared going weaponless, let alone armorless. It seems the robed baddies are always the toughest for me and I would love to join their ranks. I've been playing around with the perk calculator and have a greater sense of the big picture of how perks can play well with one another, and have come up with this build for my first 40 perks. I would love to stick to as weaponless as possible, but I may cheat a bit and include an enchanted dagger and bow to grind 1H, sneak, and archery a bit, as this is my current comfort zone, it will make for a nice fallback.

But really, I want a real challenge. No physical armor means heavy illusion for Quiet Casting and Alteration for Mage armor perks seem to be a must. Casting from shadows, I expect to rely heavily on conjurations and companions to do my bidding. I think a Breton will offer me the best starting stats, but I'm not set on that. Obviously, the Mages' College will be a first destination, but I have not ruled out Thieves and Dark Brotherhood for the valuable XP, gear, and training. Can any pure(ish) mages offer any advice (combat or otherwise), useful spells, Guardian stones, or other valuable perks to help me in what I imagine to be a completely different gaming experience? Thanks in advance!

AHA! A fellow dunmer assassin i salute you! but honestly i to main a dunmer assassin so im no pro at pure mages but i know what im doing. if you really want a challenge simply up the difficulty you dont have to go hardcore as going weaponless, tho as a mage the only weapons you will use are staves, they are your "out of mana" weapon a side arm if you will, also as a mage it depends on race, if u want a big boost in destruction id go dunmer. if u want a big boost in conjuration and some magic resist go breton, but honestly id go breton for purely the magic resist as dunmer racial sucks for a mage. also as a mage conj is going to be your best friend, you NEED mnions to be meatshields but sadly you wont have that luxury for awhile till u get the official tank minion the frost atro which i got around like 15-20 so your stuck with flame atro((nuker)) famaliar((useless mutt that dies nearly as fast as hes summoned)) and reanimate dead, which i HIGHLY reccomend using for the majority of your playthrough even after you get a frost atro merely cause undead will continue what they are good with((example, if u res a mage they will cast spells)) however sometimes they will be derps and wont pick they're weapons back up((sometimes they do)) and just smack people but yeh Invest in necromancy((in general not the perk)) till u get a frost atro those suckers are TOUGH and can be further improved with the perk. also a word of warning do not get dremora lords if you are a hardcore challenger((lulz pun at dremora lord)) as they will DESTROY anything and everything before you can even take a breath of air.((not overexerting at all)) hope i helped ((i play a battlemage and a pure lighting mage UNLIMITED POWAHHHH)) also forgot to mention just stick with the mage stone. or get the Atronach stone south of bonestrewn crest.

 

[Finalchrono]

Holy crap Verac, I didn't even want to read your post because it was one big wall of text lol. You should try putting some breaks in there to make it easier on the eyes.

Anyway, just a heads up for your ward. It seems to only block magic damage, and there are a lot of melee enemies. I'm glad you're putting a lot of points into illusion because you will need it if you don't plan on taking a merc with you take play meat shield. Also, as a mage you will be dumping a lot of points into mana and not into health because you will need as much mana as you can get which will leave you with low health. I constantly run out of mana in almost every battle I go in and have to down all my potions.

So, having this downside of low health will cause you to get one shotted a lot. Here's a few pointers to try and avoid that: NEVER stand in front of a dragon, always use high ground or any kind of ground that forces foes to work at getting to you, and never allow melee bosses to gain aggro on you.

One last thing, I do not recommend using any raising zombies or animating the dead spells because they are so freaking slow to raise that you end up dying while waiting for the damn zombie to come back to life. They have to go through a long ass animation til they're finally able to attack and pull aggro.

 

[Verac]

Holy crap Verac, I didn't even want to read your post because it was one big wall of text lol. You should try putting some breaks in there to make it easier on the eyes.

Anyway, just a heads up for your ward. It seems to only block magic damage, and there are a lot of melee enemies. I'm glad you're putting a lot of points into illusion because you will need it if you don't plan on taking a merc with you take play meat shield. Also, as a mage you will be dumping a lot of points into mana and not into health because you will need as much mana as you can get which will leave you with low health. I constantly run out of mana in almost every battle I go in and have to down all my potions.

So, having this downside of low health will cause you to get one shotted a lot. Here's a few pointers to try and avoid that: NEVER stand in front of a dragon, always use high ground or any kind of ground that forces foes to work at getting to you, and never allow melee bosses to gain aggro on you.

One last thing, I do not recommend using any raising zombies or animating the dead spells because they are so freaking slow to raise that you end up dying while waiting for the damn zombie to come back to life. They have to go through a long ass animation til they're finally able to attack and pull aggro.

I take a bit of offense to that, im not the greatest grammar genius in the world and my typing isnt amazing, im guessing your a grammar nazi if that can be associated with this situation, also i highly disagree raise dead is extremely useful if used right, if your a moron who uses it during combat and dousnt pay attention, then yes its rather useless, yours suppose to use it BEFORE combat. also raise dead is the only form of tanking a mage has at low level alteration sucks. i say use dead till frost atro's

 

[Finalchrono]

You didn't need to take offense because I didn't mean to be mean or offensive. I did read your whole post and I am kind of a grammar nazi. I only wanted to give a recommendation.

Yes, you can use zombies effectively, but they only last 1 minute and the problem is that you don't immediately go from fight to fight within 1 minute.

 

[Zagraeth Cold-of-Heart]

Thanks to both of you. My only experience with magic is in destro and resto, so any effort to reduce the learning curve is appreciated. One question I have that will hopefully help keep me from becoming cream cheese: Higher-level mages wearing nothing but robes seem to be the most resistant to arrows and 1H attacks, even though both of these skills are very high. Are they likely using spells like Stoneflesh or Wards to protect themselves? Basically, I want to emulate them!

 

[Finalchrono]

I can only assume so since you can't exactly see what they have going on. Robes offer no armor whatsoever, so oakflesh + the perks you get for it make it extremely viable. Also, like I said, wards are only for absorbing magic damage. They also drain your mana so fast that they aren't viable early on. You'll use ward to protect yourself, cast one magic spell, and be out of mana within about 5 secs.