So am I crazy? Is this just a quirk of the kinda random mob spawns that only I'm experiencing? Or is every single boss-mob that happens to use magic cast nothing but frost spells? Necromancers, ghosts, hagravens, conjurers! I get that this whole game has something of a cold theme going on, but can I get a little variety here? And can they not all be ducking impossible? At least if you're playing a physical character. Which I am. That relies on moving quickly and power-attacks. Which I do.

Now, maybe this is my fault for not going hard on the Restoration path from the word go so that I could have some wards that don't suck. Or for not immediately grinding up my Enchanting so I could lay some sick Frost Resist on my feet. Or for not being a Nord.

Tactics for difficult enemies general.

Have you been doing enchanting, because I think some one early on gives you a hide shield of frost resistance. even if you dont use shields, or if you want a heavy sheild, get it, and disenchant it, then use the enchantment you learn to enchant your other items.

My first Hagraven cast fireballs at me and it fucking hurt like hell. Managed to jump my way up the plateau and once I was close it was basically over. I've also got a nice mixture of shock, ice and fire with the mages and witches I've slaughtered. I think it's also been a 50-50 split between ice and fire with the four dragons I've fought.

I've been getting pumped by frost mages. My main strategy has been to whirlwind sprint over to them and quickly wail on them so they go down before doing too much damage. They struggle to cast while getting mace/sword to the face.

The Peryite daedric quest gives you a shield that basically renders every magic user and dragon harmless. I strongly suggest hunting that down if you're playing a melee character.

I'm level 39 and I'm still getting what feels like x100 damage from fireballs. Don't know how to handle those mages right. And whenever a dragon attacks me with frost magic it does not hurt me, but sucks out all of my agility and I can't do any power attacks :D.

Yeah frost mages are bs with all the slowdown stuff. Get the elemental something shout that makes your attacks faster, rips everything apart.

@Dagbiker: I already have the Resist Frost enchantment, and I have been doing a healthy amount of (dis)enchanting. Problem was that I never had a filled soul gem above common so my enchants usually suck. Hoping to change that now that I have the Black Star. I'm level 27, for the curious.

I just use unrelenting force get close to them, and power attack them.

I feel like enemy magic-chuckers favour the elements on a 4:3:2 ratio for ice/fire/lightning. It might just be coincidence that you're encountering so many ice mages, but I do feel that the ice path is slightly favoured by the foe.

Nice thing is you can sidestep ice bolts because they fly pretty slow and obvious.

For enchanting, I recommend to buy grand souls filled from court wizards until you can fill them yourself with later level spawns.

Skyrim belongs to the Nords.

I've gotten a more even distribution of mages in my game so far.

I love fighting frost mages, though. Nordic cold resistance means I can bask in the cool breezes they cast at me before I destroy them.

@Beforet: Well I went 100% mage but handle all those guys the same way, hit hard and fast. General rule in RPG's is put the caster down first. I found some boots that were 40% Frost Resist though.

Arch Electromancer... holy crap...

I haven't seen many frost mages in my game, most mage enemies I meet are conjurers or necromancers, a few have been throwing fireballs.

@Beforet said:

@Dagbiker: I already have the Resist Frost enchantment, and I have been doing a healthy amount of (dis)enchanting. Problem was that I never had a filled soul gem above common so my enchants usually suck. Hoping to change that now that I have the Black Star. I'm level 27, for the curious.

Pretty sure the gem you put into it only decides the starting number of uses; it doesn't define full charge/how much power an enchanted item has. That's decided by your enchant level and enchant tree.

Yeah it does feel like everyone who uses magic will cast frostbite. Which is annoying cos it slows you down (but is good to use against Giants, because it slows them down)

My tip for beating hard people is: don't forget that you have dragon shouts. I always do.

And don't forget you probably have a million poisons that you never use. Poisons and potions can give you the edge on people.

@Beforet: Slow time shout. Look into the Elder Scroll wikia were to get it. Best shout for a warrior. Easy to evade stuff. Get close. Keep them in "stagger lock" with shield bash/power attack.

I really thought my build through, but in the end it kind of spoiled the game for me, as my character is invincible now. At level 39 - 444 weapon damage and over 800 armor rating. It's rather simple path, but as I said, it spoils game, even on master difficulty:

Smithing and enchanting at 100. You can make legendary items (while wearing perfectly enchanted smithing stuff) end enchant them with magic resistance, weapon damage increase and whatever else you want. Easy way to have these skills is to craft iron daggers and enchant them.

Psh. Whatever, those frost mages will catch one of my stealth arrows to the neck before they know what hit them. But honestly, I haven't really noticed this.

i definitely noticed a tendency towards characters with ice magic during the 50 hours i played, like a 65/35 split with fire getting 25% add a very small fraction of mages using shock spells. are there any dragons with electric?

I'm either a level 47 or 48, and yesterday a Falmer boss killed me with one frost spell, it was insane.

@buft: No dragons that use shock spells AFAIK. They're either spewing flames or frost.

Between the hagravens and the fire adepts, there's plenty of people chucking fireballs at me. I actually haven't seen enemies use shock spells all that much, probably 3 or so times in the 50 hours that I played. But then again, playing as an assassin I typically backstab most enemies before they get a chance to react.

For those having trouble with the mages, you can also try using the ward spells to help close the distance. And the force unrelenting and whirlwind sprint shout helps out a lot against them too. Better yet pop an invisibility potion and give them a nice hug up close.

@PeasantAbuse: I've had those falmer casters give me trouble in the past and im a nord with 50% frost resistance, plus my shield gives 50 points of magic resistance when its raised along with 50% less damage from magic. so imagine my surprise when 2 or 3 of those casters started whalloping my health bar in a few short seconds.

im level 42.

@halcyonTwilight said:

@buft: No dragons that use shock spells AFAIK. They're either spewing flames or frost.

Between the hagravens and the fire adepts, there's plenty of people chucking fireballs at me. I actually haven't seen enemies use shock spells all that much, probably 3 or so times in the 50 hours that I played. But then again, playing as an assassin I typically backstab most enemies before they get a chance to react.

For those having trouble with the mages, you can also try using the ward spells to help close the distance. And the force unrelenting and whirlwind sprint shout helps out a lot against them too. Better yet pop an invisibility potion and give them a nice hug up close.

ah cool, I was wondering, i never seen any and i just wondered if that was the case, shock definitely seems the most common, my second play through as a mage i definitely seen my fair share early in the game and they would just drain my mana so bad but near the end of my first play through i definitely seen less and less.