Spellsword vs Pure Mage?

[Cranyx]

I'm having a hard time trying to decide between two playstyles (yes I know that there are no classes anymore, that's why I'm referring to them as "playstyles.") The spellsword, with heavy armor, one handed, and the magical focuses of Destruction, Restoration, alteration and enchantingg or the mage with no armor, focus on all the magical schools omit illusion and with the addition of alchemy.

Which is a "better" class and more importantly which is more fun to play?

Bonus points if you can also answer the question for the previous games.

 

[gigastrike]

I assume you're playing Skyrim, but it's still good form to not assume the reader is keeping up with your life.

Anyway, this is really a personal preference thing. I don't like to play spellswords since they're really overdone, but I think they really are more fun unless you have a thing for the big spells.

 

[Voulan]

Definitely a spell sword. When you run out of mana, then you're still able to defend yourself in some fashion. It depends a bit on the game though, but to me it's not a brilliant move when you're suddenly out of magic and you have to run crazily around the battlefield waiting for it to regen to be able to do anything.

 

[Wayneguard]

I'm having a hard time trying to decide between two playstyles (yes I know that there are no classes anymore, that's why I'm referring to them as "playstyles.") The spellsword, with heavy armor, one handed, and the magical focuses of Destruction, Restoration, alteration and enchantingg or the mage with no armor, focus on all the magical schools omit illusion and with the addition of alchemy.

Which is a "better" class and more importantly which is more fun to play?

Bonus points if you can also answer the question for the previous games.

Spellsword in Skyrim is comparatively weak. You'll quickly find that your offensive capabilities do not keep up with the scaling bad guys. Now spellsword in Morrowind... it was a whole different ballgame back when Destruction had some balls. Damage Strength 100pts on Target... gtfo Boleyn Venim. Damage Intelligence 100pts on Target... stfu Archmagister Gothren. You know what? Why dont you just put down skryim and go play morrowind. You'll thank me later.

 

[Vern5]

My experience with Skyrim is that a Spellsword starts off more powerful than a Mage but, given a few levels, the right perks, and a some useful spellbooks, a Pure Mage becomes the more powerful choice. A Pure Mage can really take advantage of two-handed casting as well as the Stagger perk whereas a spellsword is more reliant on splitting his hands and time between casting and slashing. Hell, just pitting a spellsword and a Mage of equal levels will usually end with the spellsword being stun-locked with firebolts before being tragically burned to ashes.

 

[piinyouri]

Yeah single wielding spells will get you nowhere later on.

It will work well enough in the beginning, but that will only deceive you into thinking you'll be okay, only to be totally fucked later on when you can't kill anything. (You can barely do it dual wielding destruction with the staggering perk)

Sometimes it can be better, or at least better in a specific way to spread your skills out and be a jack of trades.
Unfortunately, Skyrim isn't really one of them.

 

[Euryalus]

If go with Alteration and get the paralysis spell then you can kinda make a spellsword, but then your kinda just a warrior who uses paralysis :/

If your gonna be legit about being a spellsword though don't put points in destruction, focus on spells that hinder your foes (i.e. illusion and alteration).

 

[Cranyx]

Yeah single wielding spells will get you nowhere later on.

It will work well enough in the beginning, but that will only deceive you into thinking you'll be okay, only to be totally fucked later on when you can't kill anything. (You can barely do it dual wielding destruction with the staggering perk)

Sometimes it can be better, or at least better in a specific way to spread your skills out and be a jack of trades.
Unfortunately, Skyrim isn't really one of them.

If go with Alteration and get the paralysis spell then you can kinda make a spellsword, but then your kinda just a warrior who uses paralysis :/

If your gonna be legit about being a spellsword though don't put points in destruction, focus on spells that hinder your foes (i.e. illusion and alteration).

So it seems what you two are saying is that I should either abandon the idea of destruction magic to go with spellsword and let my sword do the damage, or just go all out mage?

 

[Euryalus]

So it seems what you two are saying is that I should either abandon the idea of destruction magic to go with spellsword and let my sword do the damage, or just go all out mage?

For Skyrim yes (That's what we're talking about right?). Though, there are several styles of "pure mage" you can go with. Alteration/destruction, Illusion/Destruction, Conjuration/Destruction, Alteration/Conjuration, etc...

Your primary means of damage as a pure mage is going to need to be either destruction or conjuration. You can try doing other stuff but it would be needlessly difficult. I'm assuming your primarily an exploration/role playing gamer and not challenge oriented if you're playing Skyrim right?

You can also be a generalist if your boring

 

[piinyouri]

Yeah single wielding spells will get you nowhere later on.

It will work well enough in the beginning, but that will only deceive you into thinking you'll be okay, only to be totally fucked later on when you can't kill anything. (You can barely do it dual wielding destruction with the staggering perk)

Sometimes it can be better, or at least better in a specific way to spread your skills out and be a jack of trades.
Unfortunately, Skyrim isn't really one of them.

If go with Alteration and get the paralysis spell then you can kinda make a spellsword, but then your kinda just a warrior who uses paralysis :/

If your gonna be legit about being a spellsword though don't put points in destruction, focus on spells that hinder your foes (i.e. illusion and alteration).

So it seems what you two are saying is that I should either abandon the idea of destruction magic to go with spellsword and let my sword do the damage, or just go all out mage?

You are certainly welcome to try, don't take my word for it. You might be able to stick it out when one fireball or incinerate shot to an enemy barely moves their health.
I don't want to stop you from playing how you want. If you want to go spellsword, go for it.
It's just probably going to get really frustrating down the line.

 

[Cranyx]

I know that each individual spell will not do much damage, but with the enchantments later on that allow you to essentially cast for 0 mana, won't quantity somewhat override lack of quality? As long as an enemy is far away I can just spam lightning until they get close and then finish them off with my sword while keeping myself alive with restoration and alteration.

Or is this a bad strategy?

 

[Risingblade]

I know that each individual spell will not do much damage, but with the enchantments later on that allow you to essentially cast for 0 mana, won't quantity somewhat override lack of quality? As long as an enemy is far away I can just spam lightning until they get close and then finish them off with my sword while keeping myself alive with restoration and alteration.

Or is this a bad strategy?

You can't always assume the enemy will be far from you, sometimes they'll get the drop on you.

 

[Euryalus]

I know that each individual spell will not do much damage, but with the enchantments later on that allow you to essentially cast for 0 mana, won't quantity somewhat override lack of quality? As long as an enemy is far away I can just spam lightning until they get close and then finish them off with my sword while keeping myself alive with restoration and alteration.

Or is this a bad strategy?

As a level 50ish pure mage my dual wielding basic flame spell lasts for like 3 mins continuously firing... and It takes almost no health from the enemies even after all the magicka is used up. You can try it, but I seriously recommend using magic to beef or compliment your one-handed, rather than splitting your offensive traits. Illusion works rather well for this.

You can do whatever you want though, like piinyouri said. Skyrim honestly isn't that difficult of a game no matter what you do. Just be sure to have a lot of health potions and not rely too heavily on Restoration. It takes to long to activate the healing IMO.

 

[Texas Joker 52]

Well, for my part, I had my own 'spellsword' class that I made in Skyrim not too long ago, and it went rather well. I focused on Conjuration and Enchanting as my only magical skills, seeing as I had a plan in mind: Dual Bound Swords as my primary attacking powerhouse, with a pair of Flame Atronachs, later Flame Thralls, as my constant backup. I know, you start with only one summon, but with Twin Souls at 100 Conjuration, which you'll need for Flame Thralls in the first place, it does wonders.

For 'Combat' skills, I focused on Smithing and One-Handed. Getting One-Handed up, and putting a few perks into Dual Fury (Or was it Flurry? I can't remember, and I can't be bothered to look it up just now.), so that dual-wielded one-handed weapons attack faster, made things much easier.

For the 'Thief', I stuck with Light Armor and Alchemy. Yes, I used that exploit, but you don't necessarily need to. With Light Armor, you have some defense as opposed to robes, and that defense goes up with liberal Smithing. If you Enchant it the right way, you have gear that's likely better than Master Conjuration Robes, and you get the additional benefit of Damage Resistance. Add some healing or magicka potions, and you are set for whatever is thrown at you.

I also started as a Breton, which thankfully not only gets the jump when it comes to Conjuration, even starting with the Conjure Familiar spell, but also has, I believe, 25% magic resistance, which is a great boon against any kind of magic user.

 

[Gatx]

What about a mage that focuses on Alteration and Conjuration so you'd get those armor spells but also the ability to summon bound weapons.

Definitely a spell sword. When you run out of mana, then you're still able to defend yourself in some fashion. It depends a bit on the game though, but to me it's not a brilliant move when you're suddenly out of magic and you have to run crazily around the battlefield waiting for it to regen to be able to do anything.

That's what potions are for.

 

[KINGBeerZ]

Pure mage, always is more useful in the long run as when it gets to high level enemies duel wielding destruction with the stagger perk is invaluable, it's the only playstyle i can really enjoy, also conjuring atronachs is amazingly useful as well. But rather than go for alchemy i would reccomend enchanting.

 

[Fieldy409_v1legacy]

Destruction got nerfed way too hard in Skyrim. I have played one pure mage that I abandoned in disgust. Conjuration is great though.

 

[King of Asgaard]

The problem I have with spellswords is that you are unable to use any of the master level spells, because they take up two hands, meaning you'd either never use your sword and stick to Kamehameha-ing everything, or never use any big spells.
Either way, you're losing something.

 

[oplinger]

Spellsword and Mage aren't really the best thing to compare..

A spellsword doesn't use magic for attacking for the most part, but rather masters magics that will enhance his melee combat, such as..lighting his sword on fire, or stunning his enemies with a spell, and killing them in melee. Or using a spell for knock back, invisibility, accuracy,or other added effects. At the very least instant spells that do damage to increase the overall DPS.

You should never decide hey i'm going to use this sword, but also split my abilities so my melee is weaker and my magic is also weak. That's just silly.

Battlemages/Spellswords in many games tend to be either OP as fuck, or absolutely useless though. They are however, my favorite class to be.

As far as skyrim is concerned though...definitely go pure mage. The game is so ridiculously broken that it makes mage easy mode.

 

[Tdoodle]

I'm playing a bit of a Mage-Thief in Skyrim at the moment, which is a bit like a Spellsword but with Sneak thrown in, and it does work pretty well. I wouldn't recommend Destruction because without the stagger it's not that helpful, but Conjuration, Illusion and Alteration are a must - being able to summon two Dremora Lords from the shadows and let them fight it out with tougher enemies while I support with Paralysis and Fear spells has worked really well so far.

I tried a pure mage on Master and found the spells didn't do nearly enough damage, I want to try it again and see if I can make it work but I shamefully put the difficulty down to Adept because I couldn't hack it. So wouldn't recommend Pure Mage if you're on the highest difficulty.