Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-25597018-20130201002445/@comment-4842239-20130216094949

ReapTheChaos is right. Magic is (potentially) underpowered; early on, it is extremely powerful. At 100 of your selected damaging skill, though, Destruction Magic is (fine, just don't burn down any buildings) underpowered because it doesn't scale nearly as well. Every batch of levels, there is usually a new weapon/armor set. Destruction, though, doesn,t scale nearly as well because the skills that are most effective stay the same. The toughest skills you can reliably use with a follower around are expert, but costs boatloads of Magicka, and you are left with little protection if you choose 0% Magicka cost (even if you use great enchanting and Mage Armor). Personally, I think being a Mage is a relatively good starter, but as you level, level other combat skills so you can scale effectively. The Dual-Casting Stagger effect makes anything easy, given enough Magicka, but takes longer. (By the way, as a side, I noticed the Master Level Destruction Spells not being much more effective than Dual-Cast Apprentice (bolt-based)/Adept (AoE in some way) spells, especially the Lightning Storm.)