Weird... "Trying to" got deleted from the title.

So I decided I actually wanted to go back and actually play through some of Oblivion, and do most of the side quests. I started up a Mage character because I normally always play a melee character. The first thing I decided to do was knock out the Arena quests. I made it up to Gladiator rank and it's getting a bit brutal only using the basic fire attack, summon skeleton, and the basic heal spell. So I set out for the Mage's guild and bought a more powerful Fire spell, a Lightning attack, and a better heal. But it's sucking my mana dry. Are there any spells that would work out better or equipment that would boost my mana? Currently using the light Arena armor and a leather helmet.

So I decided I actually wanted to go back and actually play through some of Oblivion, and do most of the side quests. I started up a Mage character because I normally always play a melee character. The first thing I decided to do was knock out the Arena quests. I made it up to Gladiator rank and it's getting a bit brutal only using the basic fire attack, summon skeleton, and the basic heal spell. So I set out for the Mage's guild and bought a more powerful Fire spell, a Lightning attack, and a better heal. But it's sucking my mana dry. Are there any spells that would work out better or equipment that would boost my mana? Currently using the light Arena armor and a leather helmet.

You should probably just ditch the arena for now and do some Fighter's Guild of Thieves Guild quests.

@The_Laughing_Man said:

@Barrock said:

So I decided I actually wanted to go back and actually play through some of Oblivion, and do most of the side quests. I started up a Mage character because I normally always play a melee character. The first thing I decided to do was knock out the Arena quests. I made it up to Gladiator rank and it's getting a bit brutal only using the basic fire attack, summon skeleton, and the basic heal spell. So I set out for the Mage's guild and bought a more powerful Fire spell, a Lightning attack, and a better heal. But it's sucking my mana dry. Are there any spells that would work out better or equipment that would boost my mana? Currently using the light Arena armor and a leather helmet.

In the arena you can ONLY use the arena armor. Can not recall if you can use rings. But ya. Most spells will dry up that pool quick if you do not have the pots to keep if filled. Just level up and toss points into your mana pool.

I've been putting my points into Wisdom, Intelligence and whatever a decent third category is that has a big bonus. +5 in speed is better than +1 in endurance right?

Playing as a straight mage is very difficult in Oblivion. You end up being very fragile and your spells never become truly powerful for a while.

My advice: Press "~ TGM"

@Spoonman671 said:

You should probably just ditch the arena for now and do some Fighter's Guild of Thieves Guild quests.

I figured. What about the Mage's guild?

@The_Laughing_Man said:

@Barrock said:

So I decided I actually wanted to go back and actually play through some of Oblivion, and do most of the side quests. I started up a Mage character because I normally always play a melee character. The first thing I decided to do was knock out the Arena quests. I made it up to Gladiator rank and it's getting a bit brutal only using the basic fire attack, summon skeleton, and the basic heal spell. So I set out for the Mage's guild and bought a more powerful Fire spell, a Lightning attack, and a better heal. But it's sucking my mana dry. Are there any spells that would work out better or equipment that would boost my mana? Currently using the light Arena armor and a leather helmet.

In the arena you can ONLY use the arena armor. Can not recall if you can use rings. But ya. Most spells will dry up that pool quick if you do not have the pots to keep if filled. Just level up and toss points into your mana pool.

I've been putting my points into Wisdom, Intelligence and whatever a decent third category is that has a big bonus. +5 in speed is better than +1 in endurance right?

@Spoonman671 said:

You should probably just ditch the arena for now and do some Fighter's Guild of Thieves Guild quests.

I figured. What about the Mage's guild?

you have this game now?

:O

@Spoonman671 said:

@Barrock said:

@Spoonman671 said:

You should probably just ditch the arena for now and do some Fighter's Guild of Thieves Guild quests.

I figured. What about the Mage's guild?

You want to save those for later. Many of the rewards for those quests are leveled rewards, meaning that the higher your level, the better the item will be. For example, a sword may have 6 fire damage when you earn it at level 5, but it will do 20 fire damage if you get it at level 15. Since you're playing a mage character, the quest rewards from the Mage's Guild are most valuable to you and you should therefore try to get the leveled up versions. The Wizard's Fury spell is especially valuble, since it's damage-to-mana ratio is higher than any comparable spell you can create yourself. The Fighter's Guild and Thieves's Guild, on the other hand, primarily reward you with money, which is always useful. The Knights of the Nine quests are also great because even though the rewards are leveled with your character, you can upgrade them as you level up by placing them on their stand in the Knights of the Nine catacombs. I usually do Mage's Guild quests up until I'm given access to the Arcane University, at which point I go for other quest lines.

Ahhh okay so travel to each town and get the recommendation and then bail on the Mage's guild for a bit? Are the Fighter's and Thieve's guild quests extremely difficult for mages?

Mages ultimately are more powerful but it's a slow burn. Might want to hold off on the arena. I would go for destruction + intelligence + something else (Depends if you're power leveling or not). Invisibility is a good spell.

Also, Oblivion gates can give you a sigil stone that increases your magika by 50 once you bind it to one of your clothing items, but it's random. Whenever you beat an Oblivion gate, save right before getting the stone. You can reload until you get the one with +50 magica. You can have 9 pieces of clothing equipped at once, if you don't cheat ;) . 9 X 50 = 450 extra points of magica.

Once you reach 100 destruction, you can basically create spells that break the game. If you have the wizard tower DLC, you can create spells right away, otherwise you have to beat the Mages guild quest line. The best spells involve 100% weakness to elements. 100% weakness to fire, ice, lightning, and magica (all for about 1 sec) + 10pts dmg fire, ice, lightning, and magica (for about 1 sec) (Might also want to add area of effect 10)= AMAZING SPELL. Even though it's low damage, the damage multiplies each time it hits (If you hit before the one sec is up). You can basically kill everything in the game in a few hits. If you bind this spell to a sword or dagger, you can also add poison weakness and damage. Dagger is probably more preferable, since it's all about the speed of the hits.

More fun spells:

Illusion: Basically anything that makes you totally invisible.

Illusion: Paralysis for about 3 sec.

Conjuration: Summon Storm atronach.

Conjuration: Summon Deadric armor.

Thieve's guild is light on combat in general, IIRC, so you should be fine doing them. In fact having decent Illusion spells (like seeing in the dark and invisibility) will be huge pluses for the thieves guild.

Is the best strategy to kite the enemy, running them in circles backwards while casting?

Whit i find is very fun and tactical is using Frenzy to make your enemies attack each other then use and Invisible spell to sneak right past them

If you want to cheese the arena you can just run to the left side gate and jump up on the wall. If you get in the right spot the mobs can't hit you. You can also learn the chameleon spell and make a set of chameleon armour if you have the dlc with the mage tower and you never have to fight again.

Ah, this game is so broken but so awesome. =)

Priority: INT, END, WIS (in that order) 
 
Max those out to 100 as soon as you can. Why END over WIS? Well, the regeneration of your mana increases with your mana capacity. It's proportional. So, the more mana you have, the faster those numbers will come back to you. WIS is nice to have, but far from necessary. Health, on the other hand, is entirely different. Survivability is a wonderful thing.