Having read various threads and discussions (both here and on other sites) I'm wondering how to effectively play as an offensive mage (note that I do not mean a mage who goes around offending people).
It would seem that while base damage increases with every skill level for physical attacks, the only way to increase base damage for offensive spells is to…buy stronger spells?
Since I don't have access to them until I a) level up quite a bit, b) I actually find someone who sells the specific spells I want and c) can afford to buy them, how do I keep my destruction spells from becoming useless when my physical attacks are constantly getting stronger?
Even the upgraded spells don't seem to make up the damage difference by the time I get them (e.g. Firebolt is 25 dmg vs base Fire which is 8/sec).
Am I missing something about how to effectively use destruction magic in the game? Is it currently not worth focusing on being a mage? (that last question is a bit subjective so feel free to ignore it)
Best Answer
You are 100% correct in your misgivings. Due to destruction magic not scaling, you will lag behind in terms of damage done late game (especially if you up the difficulty). The only way you can make up for this is via the enchanting perks that lower destruction magic costs so you can cast and spam more spells. If you can get it down to 10% or less cost via multiple enchanted items, it is still viable due to the fact that you have instant stagger at your beck and call with the dual casting and impact perks, not to mention heavy aoe with fireball and such.
If you don't mind modding, there are already mods out there that improves destruction magic.
Finally, you'll still need a backup plan in case you run into some highly magic resistant foes (Breton with dragonskin activated, for instance.)