12-15-2011, 10:31 AM
(12-14-2011, 06:07 AM)Thenryb Wrote: it also appears that a battlemage is well advised to skill up blocking (ugh) so she can do some shield bashing like Kandrathe described. Or maybe just forget the shield and play as a spellsword. I may need to read a good guide if I want to try that stuff. Perhaps dialing down the difficulty would help, also.
You don't necessarily have to use blocking, but this is a case where good keyboard layout (re-mapping those keys), and use of favorites and mapped favorite keys (go to favorites, and hit 1-8 to make them quick actions), makes a lot of difference.
I actively switch between spells, weapons, shields and potions.
For example, my 1 and 2 keys are sword and shield respectively. 3 is health potion. 4 is my bow. 5-7 are spells (usually destruction, summon, invisibility. 8 is another weapon). I like to actively switch out weapons as I'm sneaking, sniping, backstabbing, and sprinting in and out of combat. I'm definitely no 'pure' mage, I'm a nightblade, a mage-assassin type.
My pure mage friend like dual-casting, destruction magic in either hand, then swapping a restoration spell, heal or ward, in the other, and spamming lots and lots of spells everywhere. He's quite literally having a blast.