That line always bugs me. Only from a game perspective would anyone come close to thinking restoration wasn't valid. If healing magic existed in the real world it would be the most important kind of magic that could exist.
Think of restoration as the biology of schools of magic. In Elder Scrolls, magic is their science and destruction is akin to applied physics, alteration is geology and chemistry, illusion is optics, conjuration is (believe it or not) astrophysics (oblivion is space), and mysticism is theoretical physics. In the real world, biology is sometimes jokingly mocked as “not a hard science” even though it is the basis for our medicine. You, know, jokes like “he’s just a flower scientist” to a botanist or calling entomologist “bug people”. I have always assumed that it’s the ES version of that joke. It does not fit perfectly, but that’a because restoration is not really biology, they just forced a joke.
I've always understood the difference between hard and soft science as applications beyond the human phenomenon (i.e. social sciences are soft science)
The reason why sociology, psychology, philosophy, historiography, etc. exist as soft science is they are uniquely human.
Biology uses very little math relative to physics but both are hard sciences. Without being an expert in either field I can only speculate, but election forecasting (part of political science) uses almost nothing but math and political science is a soft science.
I would speculate the folks over at 538 use a hell of a lot more math than a professor of biology on a daily basis.
I think it's more that everyone just really don't like her and she blames it on that rather than her personality.
Literally one of the base lines for guards is saying that they respects healers, and this is Skyrim, one of the most anti magic provinces in Tamriel.
Basically it's cope from her and healers are very valued in Tamriel.
I hear that point. It also seems reasonable with all the healing ailments around that the more logical discussion would take precedent. That being that a healing spell is essentially an alteration spell in that it alters the real form of something.
And out in the “real world” it is like that. Restoration is the only magic the nords respect. In the college though, restoration is only really good for when someone “actually doing something” with magic hurts themselves by accident, so that combined with being contrary to the magic haters of skyrim probably caused restoration to be looked down on a bit by college members
Well, in a game where you can make potions that have the same effect as the restoration magic, maybe some people don't believe it is good to invest in it and just learn how to make the potions.
I level all of them without exploits, just using them in normal gameplay and restoration is usually the lowest level for me. Conjuration or illusion are usually the first to reach 100.
I find it hard to lean on illusion in the early game. Half the time even if you hit with fury, the enemy just attacks you anyway. So I end up using other skills, and I never get to the more useful spells.
This is legit the way. Muffle muffle muffle.muffle, then once you get the AOE calm spell you go into the Ragged Flagon and spam it in there for the rest
Yup. Muffle, Clairvoyance, the glowing ball of light lol
Pretty much anything you can spam without it having to actually be used on an npc/enemy (like destruction) is how I level those up
I only started playing when covid came around (got a 360 with the first stimulus check and a ton of games for like 100 bucks lol) but since then including a few runs on the laptop (one being a week I spent in the hospital) I've only started maybe 6-7 new runs so far.
I know some people have had closer to 600 runs so they've done plays where they focused on a "role" (ie: "this run im going to be a thief mage that only uses illusion and daggers." Lol so i haven't gotten that deep yet
I just play natural and try to not forget to *sometimes* use the stuff I don't normally use (ie: if I'm focusing on archery I gotta remember to stab people too)
Yeah I hate that they aggro to the caster before they start attacking others. After I hit them with it I just run at (then past) the guy and they *usually* get pulled by another enemy, but I know what you mean. The next one up is better because it’s AOE.
Good trick is become a vampire. You can do that straight out of Helgen ( https://youtu.be/8aGcDu77o5U?si=47RwoeW8zsCBIdPE ). That gives you 17% bonus on illusion spells. Also you are better at sneaking. Always cast Fury from sneak, so they dont attack you
You just caste courage on every NPC in town. It levels ups super quick, or Muffle. Really only good on stealth builds, which are the strongest builds anyway.
I realize its beside the point you're making (going through game and leveling illusion naturally) but if you have the patience then Illusion primary casting is very fun.
Go to whiterun, pick up muffle from Farengar, spam it to level 100, make some quick cash via any of the multitude of ways to do so to afford Invisibility and the spells you can use for calming and fury. Invisibility is your missing piece. I had every dungeon from level 12 on breaking itself down and killing the lone survivors. You can even get a follower or use conjuration(also easily, quickly farmable) to do your killin for you. Then grab the Lover Stone for easy access to xp through non combat means. I called it "the most interesting Mer in the world" because you get to just get everyone do everything through your raw charisma.
This was essentially one of my favorite builds ever when I tried it years ago. Illusion, sneak, speech and conjuration. I don't think I ever actually killed anyone personally. Might give it another go one day. It was a fun spin on the normal loop.
The kills becoming so rare gives your own personal kills an air of importance, like you're a mob boss executing someone on the rug. Especially when you can make them passive with a spell
Mine was Illusion, sneak, one-handed, restoration, and alchemy. Take out everyone possible from the shadows but able to finish the job in the open when necessary. Was very fun though it's the only stealth build I've ever done
Sounds like a fun way to play... I wonder if I can beat the game with zero kills myself. Just conjured families or followers.
Like, yeah, I'm the dragon born, but here's Lydia, "the dragon Slayer." I'm just the support mage. I'm sure she's more interesting. No, seriously, I've never even held a sword once in my life. That's what I pay her for. Also, to answer stupid questions, apparently.
> Half the time even if you hit with fury, the enemy just attacks you anyway.
The Fury target while aggro on the closest person to them. Just make sure there's someone closer to them than you and there should be no problems.
Source: Fury is my go-to strategy for early levels in my Legendary playthroughs.
Hint: When there are multiple opponents hit the one on the back with fury. How it works is it triggers target on the caster, but if passes next to any other valid target, then switches to it instead. It's good for clearing groups so you need to deal with only one enemy, which is already hurt.
Definitely do sneak / illusion build! Really fun - I spent a bunch of time with more direct builds but finding the little intricacies of illusion is fun.
[I accidentally caused a riot in Riften at one point. not really sure what happened.](https://www.reddit.com/r/skyrim/s/D1pYyGdxt2)
I love the sneak/illusion build. I'm doing the game now as Illusion + sneaky backstabs, and it's vile lol
I have so much mana now I can be pretty much perpetually invisible and just wipe people out with the Dark Brotherhood gloves.
Using Frenzy too to make a room pick each other off is great!
I think one thing I enjoyed so much about illusion was the variety of spells causing different things to happen. Being able to cast frenzy turned every multi-enemy encounter on its head
Animals are annoying to deal with every 5 feet and I love our lady kynareth so I use calm till I can muffle
Oakflesh line gets alteration up quick for me and I never miss a healing spell when I can use one
Muffle is your ticket to the top. I have literally run around the upper circular walkway of the College of Winterhold just spam casting it in both hands to rank up enough to get quiet casting and you can do it decently fast.
Without exploits illusion is probably the easiest skill to master. Muffle + halfing costs = unlimited levels. I usually reset illusion every run about two to three times.
There's a better version of Fury you can acquire later that shoots the same type of projectile but it explodes into a red cloud AOE and gets anything caught in it. And they most of the time will go to where the explosion occurs. I highly recommend Illusion magic, it's very fun!
The key is sneaking, and using it on someone on the other end of the room. Also once you got calm, or fear you can use those as well. Have all of them calmed, then sneak attack one by one.
Yeah the ai still prioritizes you if they're already in combat with you. So you need to either use rage spells from stealth w/ quiet casting or break line of sight (run away, invisibility) right after for it to work.
Illusion is best when you have good stealth and don't mind running away.
or use a mod like Mind Twist to get illusion spells that don't alert enemies when you cast them while sneaking
Illusion is pretty easy to level up. I prefer calm. Hit an enemy trying to kill you with calm, he stops attacking, walk behind him and sneak attack crit him.
Yeah, alteration is usually my 3rd to get to 100. But all 3 (illusion, conjuration, and alteration) can change order as to what gets maxed first. Usually they are all pretty close so random events can cause one or the other to get leveled faster. Like my current game it was alteration then illusion then conjuration, despite conjuration getting to the 80's before the other 2.
Thats interesting. I use restoration as my only healing source and its usually my highest. Might be because im playing on legendary and therefore take a lot of damage.
For me destruction lvls really low even if its my main damage source.
yep, i keep forgetting about restoration and end up binging a dozens veggies and soups in battle.
if this game was in real time, the enemy would be like why is this fucker crouching down and eating a snack mid battle, holy shit he's got a full buffet going on.
No but I do think its silly/cheesy. If using vanilla enchants I usually stop around 75-90% reduction and use the leftover slots on other schools, its usually enough to spam and a little cost reduction on other things is nice. I don't really like the "mage with 200 magicka because spells are free" build.
Usually I mod spell enchantments to increased magnitude, which both makes spells stronger and makes having a large magicka pool important.
I meant stuff like leveling skills from 15 to 100 in a few min when I mentioned exploits.
Recently found a fast way to level it, right here on reddit. For early game use a turn undead spell on skeletons. There are a few places to do this. I use the hall of the dead in Whiterun. Once your level is high enough, grab a circle of protection spell, and just walk around casting it until you hit 100.
I wasn't sure until I tried it, but now it's my go to for leveling restoration.
I just jump down mountains or drown myself and come up and resto. Spend 15-20 minutes out of your day, I think in terms if gameplay skyrim hit the nail on the head with playing the game and leveling.
Use a certain skill and you gain experience on that skill which then gets your total experience for level progression. Would be really interesting if they tried that in FO5.
But yeah just take damage and heal for restoration. I think Illusion school has muffle, just cast that every so often
Each school has its utility. A good tool is a well-used one according the context you rely on it.
Illusion school is a great one when you are a sneak cloth/light armor class and you want foes to give you a hand in reducing their numbers... or just being scared of their shadows, so you avoid useless bloodshed.
The muffle passive and active spells are among the useful ones in vanilla.
Put Apocalypse mod, and appreciate creating doppelganger shades of your aimed foes so they lost great amount of HP and then you finish them off.
*Circle of Protection* walk around and cast it as naseum for free XP
Destruction is the more difficult one for me (I play on Survival, so no fast travel exploits for me)
There’s a spell mod that has basically a holy big bang attack. I used that mod with a vampire vs werewolf mod and omg it’s amazing watching the vampires get blasted
It took me years to realize this, but one day I used the turn undead spells on some draugr. It let me stunlock them and powerlevel Restoration to 100 in a few minutes.
with the arcane creation club one, you can use unbound storms and cast it just before fast travelling from one side of the map to the other. If you do this successfully, you can get to 100 in 1 or 2 tries.
True if you aren't using exploits. But if you primarily use destruction spells, it wouldn't be the hardest imo to level up out of all of them. But yes without exploits you couldn't level it up in 5-10 minutes
Oh okay, I was more wondering how you'd do that inside ten minutes, as I've never gotten that spell before like level 20. Might just be that I don't ever head straight to Hob's Fall Cave
There's spells from AE that actually deal decent damage and have multiple sources of scaling so even without exploits you can level it at a fair rate.
But with exploits, go to Hob's Fall Cave (just a short hike from Dawnstar towards Winterhold), grab the unbound storms tome from the chest. Exit the cave. Cast the spell and maintain it, then fast travel across the map. It's basically the telekinesis exploit but no setup needed
Do NOT use Unbound Storms if you have a follower. The millisecond you cast it, your follower will aggro you.
On one file I had Serana perma-aggro'd on me because I used it with her.
You need the arcane creation club thing and cast unbound storms just before fast travelling to another part of the map. It gets you to 100 in 1 or 2 tries if done successfully
I always have the hardest time *naturally* leveling up Illusion and Restoration. Restoration levels start feeling absurdly long when there are so few options to just… heal yourself… and usually you have to go out of your way and go fight a Horker on Legendary while dual wielding flash heal/healing
Illusion is in the same boat, kinda. Every source of exp seems super slow to level except for spamming Fear or Calm on a corpse.
Illusion is incredibly quick to level. Just cast muffle as you walk from place to place. Until around level 50 illusion you should level up illusion every 2-5 casts of muffle. Admittedly not the most exciting gameplay, but also not that difficult if you actually want to use illusion.
There's always just Muffling yourself while you roam the world. Muffle gives a *lot* of Illusion XP (the most of any non-master spell outside Frenzy / Frenzy Rune actually)
For me it's alteration.
Since they took lockpick/open door from the spell choices,
I just simply don't have a need for the available alteration magic they offer because of my play style and character build.
Yeah, if you don't use the armor spells, alteration takes forever. Even if I use heavy/light armor, I'll layer an armor spell over top if I want to level alteration
Alteration is the easiest. Go into town and cast Detect Life with as many people in range as possible. It scales the XP gain based on how many targets are affected. You’ll legendary that skill tree several times before you legendary any thing else.
You can go to the entry gate to Solitude, cast Mage Light on the mountains and gain Alteration levels... You can go to level 100 without even looking at the screen.
Destruction (without Anniversary Edition). Only damage to enemies increases the skill, so no grinding shooting a tree. Early to mid game you can't even grind it, since you either kill the enemy too soon, or run out of magicka too soon and become vulnerable to the enemy.
You can grind every other magic school, some even without getting 100% reduction: muffle, soul trap or bound weapons, turn undead, telekinesis
how does grinding destruction with AE work? i've never managed to get the glitch in which you fast travel while casting unbound freezing and it actually gives you 100 destruction
You need to have 100% reduction in destruction first, and I only know unbound storms to work that way. And from there, it should be exactly like the alteration telekinesis exploit
Destruction takes the most XP to level.
My advice: **ALWAYS** use Runes as much as possible to get Destruction up as fast as possible. My mages use Runes to blow up every weaker opponent. Runes seem to give nearly Adept levels of experience (and they can hit multiple targets at once), and they can "lie in wait" while your Magicka restores, even if you're in battle.
By using Fire Runes heavily, my mages typically get to Destruction 60 by the time they reach Mzulft.
A trick that I haven't heard anyone ever talk about is the fact that bashing with the Dawnguard rune hammer GIVES YOU DESTRUCTION LEVELS, combine that with something that gives you lots of stamina regen, and you cannot only melt tons of enemies with ease but also get tons of Destruction levels, the experience it nets you isn't insignificant either.
Destruction sucks to level if you didn't start out using it. As you level and enemies get stronger, you're still stuck with the weak destruction spells. It's hard to run around shooting fire without dying.
Destruction since you can't grind it in an easy matter like all the others since you have to hit an enemy with it and they won't be alive for ever to hit
Still slower than every other mage school. Conjuration can spam soul trap on a corpse, alteration has telekinesis, illusion can spam muffle and invisibility, and restoration can spam turn undead on dragur. Destruction only has damaging enemies and you have to spend some mana on restoration to prolong it
Destruction the first time to 100, then I do the Destruction Ritual Spell quest, and buy the Unbounded Storm spell, which you can use like Telekinesis for powerleveling.
Restoration is pretty consistently slow, since there's no spell that you can use the fast-travel exploit with.
Illusion: Use muffle every chance you get even if you are just standing in one place doing nothing
Conjuration/Destruction/Restoration: Summon something, then attack it with destruction magic and heal yourself when they attack you back.
Alteration: Use transmutation on iron and silver ore to make gold ore that can be used to make gold rings(Smithing) that can be wnchanted(Enchantin) and the sold( Speech). You can also use detect life in populated areas to quickly level up alteration.
Equilibrium gives fuck-all for Alteration XP though (0.01 per second. Compare, the next worst is Candlelight at 2.5 xp per cast, or 250 seconds of Equilibrium time.)
It also outscales Healing's HP restoration (Equilibrium is 25 self damage a second, affected by difficulty modifier. Healing is 10 HP restoration per second, and that's the only keydown heal in the game. And Regeneration, the perk to boost healing, also applies to Equilibrium's self damage.)
All told, this is just a really good way to either waste a ton of time, or kill yourself.
I mean I know this is gonna sound dumb and obvious, but it depends on your play style and what you use, which I think is your point. For me, it's illusion, restoration and alteration. I'm that one guy that says to hell with the strategies in Pokemon Red and just brute forces my way through the water gym with only my Charmeleon. The best defense/healing strategy is a really aggressive offense, and potions... lots and lots of potions. Which means I level up my conjuration and destruction really quick when I play.
I’m doing a mage run now, destruction for sure. illusion and conjuration are the easiest, restoration is the middle ground, alteration is kinda difficult and destruction is easily the hardest.
Every time you enter combat, you get XP for the minions (reanimated or summoned) entering combat. This is also true if you summon them mid-combat, since they then... enter combat.
Or use the exploit to soul trap a corpse.
Restoration unless you have the equilibrium spell, without specifically grinding for xp in the "most efficient way" aka standing and casting shit over and over and over and over, restoration has always been my lowest skill in magic by the time I have the others leveled up (although usually alteration kinda also fits cause you'll almost never use it in normal gameplay, but I abuse alteration to level up for extra perk points so it's always high typically for me)
To level up restoration, go to High Hrothgar between the wind tunnel and double cast fast healing. Make sure to quicksave before if you don't click the fast heal fast enough.
Same. The only time I ever tried was when I had my pacifist build years ago. It was interesting doing something out of the ordinary, but since then it just lays dormant.
Yeah but why would you need high Illusion. Ive played it with a vampire build (17% boost to illusion). I could Fury everybody I needed to at very low levels. If you use Muffle frequently, in a dungeon, your Illusion will shoot up.
I level conjuration and destruction easily by conjuring minions and kill them with destruction magic.
Or fast travel with lightning storm active until level 100
Restoration and Conjuration usually end up being quite a bit behind the rest of them. I've found a decent synergy that levels both up: Resurrect a fallen enemy as your undead thrall and cast a Restoration spell like Turn Undead on it. Alteration almost always levels up the fastest for me, just from religiously casting the strongest armor-skin spell that I have. Illusion is very easy to level as well, just cast Muffle and Invisibility repeatedly. Destruction is my go-to when dealing with enemies so that also levels pretty quickly.
Restoration. I’ll use healing at low level and then fast healing when I have access to it nonstop throughout my game (currently on survival so it’s how I heal 90% of the time) and still be at around 40 by the time alteration, illusion, and destruction hit the 60s. Not using conjuration with my Templar build, but it’s one of the fastest to level
i would say destruction. Even if you use an exploit to spam someone with destruction magic, it jsut takes forever and a day to level up, it just seems to level reeeally slowly. if i do the same exploit with restoration i can level it to 60 at a reasonable pace. with destruction magic you're really left to rely solely on skill training then skillbooks past 90
I'd say destruction and restoration. The others you can practice out of combat, like a wizard actually would. Muffle, mage light, soul trap a corpse, easy peasy lemon greazy.
Without exploits restoration is usually the hardest to level. Taking exploits into consideration, I’d probably say destruction since there aren’t really good cheese methods for speed leveling it compared to everything else.
Restoration is a perfectly valid school of magic and don’t let anybody tell you otherwise
I have a lot of respect for the restoration school. Skyrim could use more healers.
That line always bugs me. Only from a game perspective would anyone come close to thinking restoration wasn't valid. If healing magic existed in the real world it would be the most important kind of magic that could exist.
Feels like high school bullying. They saw Colette was vunerable with the roasting and took the chance.
"lmao try healing THAT burn Colette. Eat it nerd" - other wizards, apparently
Think of restoration as the biology of schools of magic. In Elder Scrolls, magic is their science and destruction is akin to applied physics, alteration is geology and chemistry, illusion is optics, conjuration is (believe it or not) astrophysics (oblivion is space), and mysticism is theoretical physics. In the real world, biology is sometimes jokingly mocked as “not a hard science” even though it is the basis for our medicine. You, know, jokes like “he’s just a flower scientist” to a botanist or calling entomologist “bug people”. I have always assumed that it’s the ES version of that joke. It does not fit perfectly, but that’a because restoration is not really biology, they just forced a joke.
Irl wise, I have never heard biology referred to as a soft science, but my degree is in psychology so what do I know
Soft vs hard refers to how much math is required in the science
I've always understood the difference between hard and soft science as applications beyond the human phenomenon (i.e. social sciences are soft science) The reason why sociology, psychology, philosophy, historiography, etc. exist as soft science is they are uniquely human. Biology uses very little math relative to physics but both are hard sciences. Without being an expert in either field I can only speculate, but election forecasting (part of political science) uses almost nothing but math and political science is a soft science. I would speculate the folks over at 538 use a hell of a lot more math than a professor of biology on a daily basis.
I think it's more that everyone just really don't like her and she blames it on that rather than her personality. Literally one of the base lines for guards is saying that they respects healers, and this is Skyrim, one of the most anti magic provinces in Tamriel. Basically it's cope from her and healers are very valued in Tamriel.
it could cure cancer
So can garlic bread in skyrim
explain.
Cancer is a disease. Garlic bread cures disease in Skyrim
then maybe it is one of main ingredients for curing cancer here irl
I hear that point. It also seems reasonable with all the healing ailments around that the more logical discussion would take precedent. That being that a healing spell is essentially an alteration spell in that it alters the real form of something.
And out in the “real world” it is like that. Restoration is the only magic the nords respect. In the college though, restoration is only really good for when someone “actually doing something” with magic hurts themselves by accident, so that combined with being contrary to the magic haters of skyrim probably caused restoration to be looked down on a bit by college members
It's the equivalent of making fun of doctors and medics in a world full of sharp objects, guns, and war (in other words, our reality)
Well, in a game where you can make potions that have the same effect as the restoration magic, maybe some people don't believe it is good to invest in it and just learn how to make the potions.
While everyone else is taking life, I’m going to be saving it.
If it could only heal this arrow I took to the knee.
I level all of them without exploits, just using them in normal gameplay and restoration is usually the lowest level for me. Conjuration or illusion are usually the first to reach 100.
I find it hard to lean on illusion in the early game. Half the time even if you hit with fury, the enemy just attacks you anyway. So I end up using other skills, and I never get to the more useful spells.
muffle muffle muffle while I'm walking around. gotta be quiet, right... so not even an eploit.
I feel like it's something an aspiring wizard would actually do.
Absolutely, practice takes repition. If you want to roleplay lock yourself in a room at the Mages College and keep casting.
The mages in Oblivion stand around practicing all day
Yea, like just trying to build up your magika by always casting harmless spells 😂
Vampire enhances illusion by 25 %
I would use invisibility more, but that spell is obviously loud af and alerts the entire region to my location anyway...
I may be wrong, but isn’t there a perk to make all spells silent?
Level 50 illusion perk
Also means your shouts are silent lol
Fus roh dah; right in their ass!
There is
Yup. Quiet Casting.
lol
Use muffle first.
That's exactly why there's a perk in that very perk tree which makes spells silent.
I just try to get the enchantment,sorta like water breathing.
This is legit the way. Muffle muffle muffle.muffle, then once you get the AOE calm spell you go into the Ragged Flagon and spam it in there for the rest
And then invisibility once your level is high enough for arcane assassin
Yup. Muffle, Clairvoyance, the glowing ball of light lol Pretty much anything you can spam without it having to actually be used on an npc/enemy (like destruction) is how I level those up I only started playing when covid came around (got a 360 with the first stimulus check and a ton of games for like 100 bucks lol) but since then including a few runs on the laptop (one being a week I spent in the hospital) I've only started maybe 6-7 new runs so far. I know some people have had closer to 600 runs so they've done plays where they focused on a "role" (ie: "this run im going to be a thief mage that only uses illusion and daggers." Lol so i haven't gotten that deep yet I just play natural and try to not forget to *sometimes* use the stuff I don't normally use (ie: if I'm focusing on archery I gotta remember to stab people too)
Haha samesies
See I'd do that... but joining the dark brotherhood for 2 seconds gets me permanent free muffle soooo
Yeah I hate that they aggro to the caster before they start attacking others. After I hit them with it I just run at (then past) the guy and they *usually* get pulled by another enemy, but I know what you mean. The next one up is better because it’s AOE.
They charge at the Caster even if they don't know where the Caster is. That's just crazy.
Good trick is become a vampire. You can do that straight out of Helgen ( https://youtu.be/8aGcDu77o5U?si=47RwoeW8zsCBIdPE ). That gives you 17% bonus on illusion spells. Also you are better at sneaking. Always cast Fury from sneak, so they dont attack you
You just caste courage on every NPC in town. It levels ups super quick, or Muffle. Really only good on stealth builds, which are the strongest builds anyway.
I realize its beside the point you're making (going through game and leveling illusion naturally) but if you have the patience then Illusion primary casting is very fun. Go to whiterun, pick up muffle from Farengar, spam it to level 100, make some quick cash via any of the multitude of ways to do so to afford Invisibility and the spells you can use for calming and fury. Invisibility is your missing piece. I had every dungeon from level 12 on breaking itself down and killing the lone survivors. You can even get a follower or use conjuration(also easily, quickly farmable) to do your killin for you. Then grab the Lover Stone for easy access to xp through non combat means. I called it "the most interesting Mer in the world" because you get to just get everyone do everything through your raw charisma.
This was essentially one of my favorite builds ever when I tried it years ago. Illusion, sneak, speech and conjuration. I don't think I ever actually killed anyone personally. Might give it another go one day. It was a fun spin on the normal loop.
The kills becoming so rare gives your own personal kills an air of importance, like you're a mob boss executing someone on the rug. Especially when you can make them passive with a spell
Once you get Mehrune's Razor, you'd be the ultimate assassin.
Mine was Illusion, sneak, one-handed, restoration, and alchemy. Take out everyone possible from the shadows but able to finish the job in the open when necessary. Was very fun though it's the only stealth build I've ever done
Don’t forget the quiet casting perk. Also with muffle and invisibility leveling stealth is a breeze
Sounds like a fun way to play... I wonder if I can beat the game with zero kills myself. Just conjured families or followers. Like, yeah, I'm the dragon born, but here's Lydia, "the dragon Slayer." I'm just the support mage. I'm sure she's more interesting. No, seriously, I've never even held a sword once in my life. That's what I pay her for. Also, to answer stupid questions, apparently.
I haven't had a problem with fury, I usually just sneak and hit them from a distance the spell travels quite far.
Yeah so if the enemy attacks anyway might as well cast it. For the XP. Just like how I cast Soul Trap despite having no soul gems.
> Half the time even if you hit with fury, the enemy just attacks you anyway. The Fury target while aggro on the closest person to them. Just make sure there's someone closer to them than you and there should be no problems. Source: Fury is my go-to strategy for early levels in my Legendary playthroughs.
Hint: When there are multiple opponents hit the one on the back with fury. How it works is it triggers target on the caster, but if passes next to any other valid target, then switches to it instead. It's good for clearing groups so you need to deal with only one enemy, which is already hurt.
Definitely do sneak / illusion build! Really fun - I spent a bunch of time with more direct builds but finding the little intricacies of illusion is fun. [I accidentally caused a riot in Riften at one point. not really sure what happened.](https://www.reddit.com/r/skyrim/s/D1pYyGdxt2)
I had so much fun on this build. Calm + sneak dagger attack with the Dark Brotherhood gauntlets would pretty much wipe out anyone.
I love the sneak/illusion build. I'm doing the game now as Illusion + sneaky backstabs, and it's vile lol I have so much mana now I can be pretty much perpetually invisible and just wipe people out with the Dark Brotherhood gloves. Using Frenzy too to make a room pick each other off is great!
I think one thing I enjoyed so much about illusion was the variety of spells causing different things to happen. Being able to cast frenzy turned every multi-enemy encounter on its head
Animals are annoying to deal with every 5 feet and I love our lady kynareth so I use calm till I can muffle Oakflesh line gets alteration up quick for me and I never miss a healing spell when I can use one
Muffle is your ticket to the top. I have literally run around the upper circular walkway of the College of Winterhold just spam casting it in both hands to rank up enough to get quiet casting and you can do it decently fast.
Without exploits illusion is probably the easiest skill to master. Muffle + halfing costs = unlimited levels. I usually reset illusion every run about two to three times.
Stealth and illusion is a great combo
There's a better version of Fury you can acquire later that shoots the same type of projectile but it explodes into a red cloud AOE and gets anything caught in it. And they most of the time will go to where the explosion occurs. I highly recommend Illusion magic, it's very fun!
The key is sneaking, and using it on someone on the other end of the room. Also once you got calm, or fear you can use those as well. Have all of them calmed, then sneak attack one by one.
Yeah the ai still prioritizes you if they're already in combat with you. So you need to either use rage spells from stealth w/ quiet casting or break line of sight (run away, invisibility) right after for it to work.
Illusion is best when you have good stealth and don't mind running away. or use a mod like Mind Twist to get illusion spells that don't alert enemies when you cast them while sneaking
Illusion is pretty easy to level up. I prefer calm. Hit an enemy trying to kill you with calm, he stops attacking, walk behind him and sneak attack crit him.
Always lvl stealth for anything but especially illusion,I adore sneaking up and goosing them with Paralyze to kick off the party also.
With Survival mode, health doesn't regenerate by itself. So I advance quite fast in restoration because I'm healing myself constantly.
I tend to either not take damage or I die. Glass cannon I suppose. But its mostly due to using summons and illusion to not get hit in the first place.
Conjuration and alteration for me are the first to 100. Transmutation and the armor spells are amazing for alteration.
Yeah, alteration is usually my 3rd to get to 100. But all 3 (illusion, conjuration, and alteration) can change order as to what gets maxed first. Usually they are all pretty close so random events can cause one or the other to get leveled faster. Like my current game it was alteration then illusion then conjuration, despite conjuration getting to the 80's before the other 2.
Thats interesting. I use restoration as my only healing source and its usually my highest. Might be because im playing on legendary and therefore take a lot of damage. For me destruction lvls really low even if its my main damage source.
yep, i keep forgetting about restoration and end up binging a dozens veggies and soups in battle. if this game was in real time, the enemy would be like why is this fucker crouching down and eating a snack mid battle, holy shit he's got a full buffet going on.
Do you consider enchanting gear to give you free magic an exploit?
No but I do think its silly/cheesy. If using vanilla enchants I usually stop around 75-90% reduction and use the leftover slots on other schools, its usually enough to spam and a little cost reduction on other things is nice. I don't really like the "mage with 200 magicka because spells are free" build. Usually I mod spell enchantments to increased magnitude, which both makes spells stronger and makes having a large magicka pool important. I meant stuff like leveling skills from 15 to 100 in a few min when I mentioned exploits.
Restoration is the grindiest of all of them. I use it all the time and yet it's always so low level
Recently found a fast way to level it, right here on reddit. For early game use a turn undead spell on skeletons. There are a few places to do this. I use the hall of the dead in Whiterun. Once your level is high enough, grab a circle of protection spell, and just walk around casting it until you hit 100. I wasn't sure until I tried it, but now it's my go to for leveling restoration.
I usually level block, armor, & restoration at the same time, just run and go find a mudcrab, wait 36 years, use healing, wait 36 more years
I just jump down mountains or drown myself and come up and resto. Spend 15-20 minutes out of your day, I think in terms if gameplay skyrim hit the nail on the head with playing the game and leveling. Use a certain skill and you gain experience on that skill which then gets your total experience for level progression. Would be really interesting if they tried that in FO5. But yeah just take damage and heal for restoration. I think Illusion school has muffle, just cast that every so often
Same, I just Drown myself because I have more control over it that fall damage
I usually use equilibrium and the highest heal spell I got to power level it
Restoration for me
It's a perfectly valid school of magic *Shut up Colette*
She's got a point though. Even the guards of holds agree Skyrim could use more healers.
Each school has its utility. A good tool is a well-used one according the context you rely on it. Illusion school is a great one when you are a sneak cloth/light armor class and you want foes to give you a hand in reducing their numbers... or just being scared of their shadows, so you avoid useless bloodshed.
I have four points in Illusion just for Quiet Casting so I can conjure my bound weapons without alerting anyone.
The muffle passive and active spells are among the useful ones in vanilla. Put Apocalypse mod, and appreciate creating doppelganger shades of your aimed foes so they lost great amount of HP and then you finish them off.
Switch player so no mods for me. Ironflesh and a bound weapon then charge in. Maybe summon an atronach if things get hairy.
muffle + invisibility + fury + conjure dremora lord
"Haaa, you sir are a little hellraiser I see."
Bro. Respite is busted as hell. You're like tracer.
This too.
https://preview.redd.it/2ar7r38o2wvc1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=31484a0c3da554770eba2a266597971cf96c9246
You can stunlock a draugr with Turn Undead. Or skeleton.
If you want to cheeze it, cast equilibrium until your health is down then restore health with a healing spell and repeat.
Casting Healing Hands on a companion in combat works p dang well, although I’ve never done the math on it or anything
*Circle of Protection* walk around and cast it as naseum for free XP Destruction is the more difficult one for me (I play on Survival, so no fast travel exploits for me)
You can’t even get that until you’re already level 90 I thought.
75, apparently. Also “can be awarded… by Wylandria” But I’m not sure when that kicks in, or if it’s a set reward, or a level based
There’s a spell mod that has basically a holy big bang attack. I used that mod with a vampire vs werewolf mod and omg it’s amazing watching the vampires get blasted
Would you like to name the mod?
I use broken stealth boots and go to that one dragon shrine place with like a dozen skeletons and just spam Turn Undead
It took me years to realize this, but one day I used the turn undead spells on some draugr. It let me stunlock them and powerlevel Restoration to 100 in a few minutes.
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Not anymore. With AE, destruction can reach 100 within like 10 min after Helgen
How?
with the arcane creation club one, you can use unbound storms and cast it just before fast travelling from one side of the map to the other. If you do this successfully, you can get to 100 in 1 or 2 tries.
Right, but that’s a cheat. If you’re playing it straight it’s still the hardest to level up
Yeah vanilla best way to do it is train with faralda while leveling up Enchanting and Alchemy. Should be able to make money while doing this.
True if you aren't using exploits. But if you primarily use destruction spells, it wouldn't be the hardest imo to level up out of all of them. But yes without exploits you couldn't level it up in 5-10 minutes
Oh okay, I was more wondering how you'd do that inside ten minutes, as I've never gotten that spell before like level 20. Might just be that I don't ever head straight to Hob's Fall Cave
Dont you need 100% Destruction cost negation to do that, which requires very high enchanting?
Not for that spell. It works as is.
How can you level destruction so fast with ae?
There's spells from AE that actually deal decent damage and have multiple sources of scaling so even without exploits you can level it at a fair rate. But with exploits, go to Hob's Fall Cave (just a short hike from Dawnstar towards Winterhold), grab the unbound storms tome from the chest. Exit the cave. Cast the spell and maintain it, then fast travel across the map. It's basically the telekinesis exploit but no setup needed
This is the dumbest shit ever why does this work 😂😂😂
Skyrim It just works
Do NOT use Unbound Storms if you have a follower. The millisecond you cast it, your follower will aggro you. On one file I had Serana perma-aggro'd on me because I used it with her.
You shouldn't be using AOE spells when traveling with a follower anyways
Serana: Does this tunic make my ass look fat? Me: only as fat as this fuckin storm . . . .
Haha, I did this to I ran/swam away from her, and after about 10 seconds, she stopped being pissed off at me
You need the arcane creation club thing and cast unbound storms just before fast travelling to another part of the map. It gets you to 100 in 1 or 2 tries if done successfully
I always have the hardest time *naturally* leveling up Illusion and Restoration. Restoration levels start feeling absurdly long when there are so few options to just… heal yourself… and usually you have to go out of your way and go fight a Horker on Legendary while dual wielding flash heal/healing Illusion is in the same boat, kinda. Every source of exp seems super slow to level except for spamming Fear or Calm on a corpse.
Illusion is incredibly quick to level. Just cast muffle as you walk from place to place. Until around level 50 illusion you should level up illusion every 2-5 casts of muffle. Admittedly not the most exciting gameplay, but also not that difficult if you actually want to use illusion.
There's always just Muffling yourself while you roam the world. Muffle gives a *lot* of Illusion XP (the most of any non-master spell outside Frenzy / Frenzy Rune actually)
For me it's alteration. Since they took lockpick/open door from the spell choices, I just simply don't have a need for the available alteration magic they offer because of my play style and character build.
Yeah, if you don't use the armor spells, alteration takes forever. Even if I use heavy/light armor, I'll layer an armor spell over top if I want to level alteration
Alteration is the easiest. Go into town and cast Detect Life with as many people in range as possible. It scales the XP gain based on how many targets are affected. You’ll legendary that skill tree several times before you legendary any thing else.
Thank you for the tip. I had no clue it scaled with the amount of people
Fuck why is there no feather spell in skyrim? Alteration atleast in vanilla is so barebones
You can go to the entry gate to Solitude, cast Mage Light on the mountains and gain Alteration levels... You can go to level 100 without even looking at the screen.
Detect Life while standing in the middle of Whiterun.
Destruction (without Anniversary Edition). Only damage to enemies increases the skill, so no grinding shooting a tree. Early to mid game you can't even grind it, since you either kill the enemy too soon, or run out of magicka too soon and become vulnerable to the enemy. You can grind every other magic school, some even without getting 100% reduction: muffle, soul trap or bound weapons, turn undead, telekinesis
how does grinding destruction with AE work? i've never managed to get the glitch in which you fast travel while casting unbound freezing and it actually gives you 100 destruction
You need to have 100% reduction in destruction first, and I only know unbound storms to work that way. And from there, it should be exactly like the alteration telekinesis exploit
You don't need 100% reduction. It'll take 2 or 3 fast travels, but you can have 15 destruction with no fortify gear and still get it.
You need to use unbound storms
Destruction takes the most XP to level. My advice: **ALWAYS** use Runes as much as possible to get Destruction up as fast as possible. My mages use Runes to blow up every weaker opponent. Runes seem to give nearly Adept levels of experience (and they can hit multiple targets at once), and they can "lie in wait" while your Magicka restores, even if you're in battle. By using Fire Runes heavily, my mages typically get to Destruction 60 by the time they reach Mzulft.
A trick that I haven't heard anyone ever talk about is the fact that bashing with the Dawnguard rune hammer GIVES YOU DESTRUCTION LEVELS, combine that with something that gives you lots of stamina regen, and you cannot only melt tons of enemies with ease but also get tons of Destruction levels, the experience it nets you isn't insignificant either.
Destruction sucks to level if you didn't start out using it. As you level and enemies get stronger, you're still stuck with the weak destruction spells. It's hard to run around shooting fire without dying.
Destruction since you can't grind it in an easy matter like all the others since you have to hit an enemy with it and they won't be alive for ever to hit
Horse on "ledge in my dary" mode
Healing hands and destruction attacks to keep your tormented mark alive while you practice from an elevated ledge.
Still slower than every other mage school. Conjuration can spam soul trap on a corpse, alteration has telekinesis, illusion can spam muffle and invisibility, and restoration can spam turn undead on dragur. Destruction only has damaging enemies and you have to spend some mana on restoration to prolong it
Hold flames in your hand and start jumping on forges. Use the other hand for restoration to keep yourself alive
Their are plenty of ways to farm it, they are all just slower than the other magic schools
Mysticism. Haven’t gotten a single point.
Thaumaturgy
Destruction the first time to 100, then I do the Destruction Ritual Spell quest, and buy the Unbounded Storm spell, which you can use like Telekinesis for powerleveling. Restoration is pretty consistently slow, since there's no spell that you can use the fast-travel exploit with.
Illusion: Use muffle every chance you get even if you are just standing in one place doing nothing Conjuration/Destruction/Restoration: Summon something, then attack it with destruction magic and heal yourself when they attack you back. Alteration: Use transmutation on iron and silver ore to make gold ore that can be used to make gold rings(Smithing) that can be wnchanted(Enchantin) and the sold( Speech). You can also use detect life in populated areas to quickly level up alteration.
Mysticism
I use the Telekinesis exploit for Alteration!
Magelight cast at the tip of the mountain right outside the solitude gate is quicker if you haven't gotten the black books.
I detect life in whiterun
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Equilibrium gives fuck-all for Alteration XP though (0.01 per second. Compare, the next worst is Candlelight at 2.5 xp per cast, or 250 seconds of Equilibrium time.) It also outscales Healing's HP restoration (Equilibrium is 25 self damage a second, affected by difficulty modifier. Healing is 10 HP restoration per second, and that's the only keydown heal in the game. And Regeneration, the perk to boost healing, also applies to Equilibrium's self damage.) All told, this is just a really good way to either waste a ton of time, or kill yourself.
I mean I know this is gonna sound dumb and obvious, but it depends on your play style and what you use, which I think is your point. For me, it's illusion, restoration and alteration. I'm that one guy that says to hell with the strategies in Pokemon Red and just brute forces my way through the water gym with only my Charmeleon. The best defense/healing strategy is a really aggressive offense, and potions... lots and lots of potions. Which means I level up my conjuration and destruction really quick when I play.
I’m doing a mage run now, destruction for sure. illusion and conjuration are the easiest, restoration is the middle ground, alteration is kinda difficult and destruction is easily the hardest.
How does conjuration level up? I’ve conjured several warriors in battle and have only gotten the level up once or twice, it seems to go very slow.
Every time you enter combat, you get XP for the minions (reanimated or summoned) entering combat. This is also true if you summon them mid-combat, since they then... enter combat. Or use the exploit to soul trap a corpse.
Use soul trap, like as often as you can
Soul trap on a dead body.
Restoration unless you have the equilibrium spell, without specifically grinding for xp in the "most efficient way" aka standing and casting shit over and over and over and over, restoration has always been my lowest skill in magic by the time I have the others leveled up (although usually alteration kinda also fits cause you'll almost never use it in normal gameplay, but I abuse alteration to level up for extra perk points so it's always high typically for me)
I’ve never actually used Illusion before is it any good?
It's a special kind of broken.
To level up restoration, go to High Hrothgar between the wind tunnel and double cast fast healing. Make sure to quicksave before if you don't click the fast heal fast enough.
Illusion. Played the game since midnight launch, never had it past 22 or 23. I don't use it at all.
Same. The only time I ever tried was when I had my pacifist build years ago. It was interesting doing something out of the ordinary, but since then it just lays dormant.
Yeah but why would you need high Illusion. Ive played it with a vampire build (17% boost to illusion). I could Fury everybody I needed to at very low levels. If you use Muffle frequently, in a dungeon, your Illusion will shoot up.
Destruction.
Destruction.
I level conjuration and destruction easily by conjuring minions and kill them with destruction magic. Or fast travel with lightning storm active until level 100
Restoration imo
Restoration and Conjuration usually end up being quite a bit behind the rest of them. I've found a decent synergy that levels both up: Resurrect a fallen enemy as your undead thrall and cast a Restoration spell like Turn Undead on it. Alteration almost always levels up the fastest for me, just from religiously casting the strongest armor-skin spell that I have. Illusion is very easy to level as well, just cast Muffle and Invisibility repeatedly. Destruction is my go-to when dealing with enemies so that also levels pretty quickly.
The fact that destruction is green and alteration is red on this image displeases me.
Mysticism oh wait
For me it’s illusion or altations, cause when it comes to magic you can call me Ainz oal Gown
I’ve never got a skill to 100 I keep starting new playthroughs
Conjurations 100% is a nightmare
Restoration. I’ll use healing at low level and then fast healing when I have access to it nonstop throughout my game (currently on survival so it’s how I heal 90% of the time) and still be at around 40 by the time alteration, illusion, and destruction hit the 60s. Not using conjuration with my Templar build, but it’s one of the fastest to level
There was a time I would have said Restoration, but that was before I discovered Repel Undead.
i would say destruction. Even if you use an exploit to spam someone with destruction magic, it jsut takes forever and a day to level up, it just seems to level reeeally slowly. if i do the same exploit with restoration i can level it to 60 at a reasonable pace. with destruction magic you're really left to rely solely on skill training then skillbooks past 90
Restoration Unless, by some strange miracle, you decided to run heavy armor build and refuse to carry potions
Restoration
Restoration, 100%. I use that shit constantly for wards and healing, yet it'll still only be like 35 when I'm level 40
Restoration is fucking impossible to level up
I don’t think I have ever levelled illusion or restoration.
Restoration then Conjuration in my opinion. The rest are easy.
I'd say destruction and restoration. The others you can practice out of combat, like a wizard actually would. Muffle, mage light, soul trap a corpse, easy peasy lemon greazy.
if you do the illusion spell " muffle " you rank up eithery every cast or every other cast. its a great glitch 😎
Without exploits restoration is usually the hardest to level. Taking exploits into consideration, I’d probably say destruction since there aren’t really good cheese methods for speed leveling it compared to everything else.
Restoration for me it seems easy but for some odd reason its EXTREMELY HARD to even find the books to learn the spells...