I'm e'er looking for new ways to play Skyrim. I've already talked most the fourth dimension I decided to play it as an NPC, function-playing every bit a cabbage-picking serf with no desire to be an adventurer. This fourth dimension, nevertheless, I thought I'd effort something a fleck more heady. When I play Skyrim, I unremarkably focus on bows. I like being sneaky and fighting enemies at a safe altitude. I'll never get bored of the slow-motion kill photographic camera following a well-placed pointer as it soars gracefully through the air and lodges itself in a bandit's forehead. But this time I didn't want to apply whatsoever weapons at all. No bows, no axes, no swords—just magic.

I've experimented with magic in Skyrim earlier. If I'k playing as a melee character, I unremarkably put a sword in one hand and a Destruction spell in the other. A quick blast of burn down to soften a monster up, then a swing of the blade to finish them off. But this time I wanted to roleplay every bit a mage who finds the idea of hitting people with lumps of metal terribly unsophisticated. A pure magic user who doesn't even carry a sword in her inventory, let alone wield one. I wondered if it was possible to play—and, more than importantly, bask—Skyrim this style. Is information technology possible to become through a dungeon with spells and spells solitary?

I escape Helgen, ignore my destiny, and head straight for the College of Winterhold. Not only are the quests here tailor-made for a mage character, merely it's a prissy style to fill your spellbook with some tasty incantations early on on. I bring together the college equally a student and get myself tangled upwards in a story nearly a magical antiquity chosen the Eye of Magnus, which has the ability to destroy the globe. Simply I don't really care near that. My grapheme but wants to practice her spellcasting in the monster-filled crypts these quests volition inevitably transport her to. In my head, all she cares about is becoming a more than powerful mage. World exist damned.

Skyrim

Information technology's hard work. The main issue is that I'm low level, so my magicka meter drains incredibly speedily. This means I spend a lot of my time in dungeons aimlessly backpedalling away from enemies, waiting for it to fill back upward so I tin resume attacking them. I'g wearing novice robes, which make my magicka refill 50 pct faster, merely it's notwithstanding painfully slow. It besides takes a while to kill enemies, whether I'grand toasting them with Flames, zapping them with Sparks, or hurling Ice Spikes at them. Before you lot kickoff levelling upwardly your Devastation skill and unlocking perks, being a mage in Skyrim makes you experience woefully underpowered.

It'southward frustrating, and at times I miss just being able to just batter monsters with an axe. Managing stamina is a lot easier than managing magicka. But it'due south also a very satisfying dungeon itch feel. I love making my mode through these dusty one-time halls, fighting back giant spiders and the undead with nothing only my blank, flame-wreathed hands. The impale camera is pretty fun as well, showing you a cinematic angle of your mage as fire streams from her hands and melts her unfortunate target. Spellcasting in RPGs can often feel somewhat flimsy and lightweight, but in Skyrim y'all get an intense feeling of ability.

Skyrim

Equally my Destruction skill increases, and I first unlocking spell-boosting perks, existence a magic-only graphic symbol all of a sudden becomes a lot more fun—and a supremely powerful play manner. I'g able to increase the base power of my spells, and reduce the amount of magicka they use up. Frost spells can now paralyse enemies, and flame spells make people flee in terror when their health dips beneath a certain indicate. Then I beginning casting more powerful spells similar Ice Storm, which lets me conjure upwardly a deadly, freezing blizzard, or Wall of Storms, which I can use to create a barrier of electricity that shocks anyone who crosses it.

Playing as a pure mage is the most fun I've had in Skyrim for ages. You just take to get over that initial hump, where all you have are some shitty spells, a shallow pool of magicka, and basic gear. I won't blame y'all for giving up. It'south quite tedious at times. But now, with a spellbook bursting with powerful magic and an enchanted robe that grants me +50 magicka and +100 percent magicka regeneration, shooting people with arrows and whacking them with sharpened chunks of iron feels horribly boring and, dare I say, uncivilized. I'm an altogether better grade of adventurer at present. It's a mage thing. Y'all wouldn't empathise.

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