Yeah, but I have the same problems with that that I do with a lot of the buff spells: I simply want to use that mana for damage instead. I feel like I survive better when I can put my enemies down as fast as possible, and I get into trouble (due to low-hp squishiness) the longer the battle lasts. Those buffs don't seem to give enough protection to justify the mana expenditure to me. So far I've got protection spells that are the equivalent of 40 armor and 60 armor, depending on level. Compare that to my Dark Brotherhood armor (with a couple Light Armor perk points), which gives me about 150 armor. The spells just don't seem to do much to help me survive for much longer, and they eat up the equivalent of a couple double blasts, which is often the difference between putting down an extra enemy before they can close to melee. So, I prefer to go in guns blazing and wipe everything out in a flurry of destruction, chugging some potions along the way when necessary.
Again, this is only an issue because I spend so much mana dealing damage and I want to use it for those purposes. For people who use melee or archery as a primary damage dealer, the mana costs of the buffs are probably less significant as you don't need to throw fireballs everywhere.
[edit] As a postscript, it occurs to me that some of my difficulty with buff spells from other schools may be because I haven't put perk points into them, thus making them cost a lot more mana. I suppose I could have done this, but if I did that I would have to totally neglect non-magic areas such as light armor, archery, and stealth, which have gotten pretty much all of my non-destruction/restoration perk points. So, perhaps those spells are more viable if someone is playing a 'purer' mage than I am.
Middle difficulty (Adept?) for the the first playthrough. Will go to max (Master?) on my second.
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