Skyrim talk:Destruction Spells

Spell cost criteria

Should we be providing spell magicka cost at a particular skill level? Should we have or not have the relevant perks to reduce the cost? Aetryn 20:03, 11 November 2011 (UTC)

I would assume that we will be using Base Cost eventually, easily found in game files and the Creation Kit when released. This value disregards perks and such. --DKong27 ^{Tk Ctr Em} 22:55, 11 November 2011 (UTC)

Spell acqusition

I do not believe it is necessary to list the locations where spells can be bought as all wizard merchants stock the entire list of spellbooks.

-- I don't believe this is the case. Farengar for example is missing a number of spells. --Bluedanieru 03:12, 18 November 2011 (UTC)

I think their inventory is scaled to level, so it doesn't mean they WON'T have what is listed.-Zydrate[][] 15:22, 23 November 2011 (UTC)

It most likely is levelled; Farengar Secret-Fire has at least all the adept level spells. 210.86.1.151 08:38, 26 November 2011 (UTC)

It's leveled, BUT only the college mages will have a full spell list eventually, and some spells (like equilibrium) won't appear even to them.

Hidden Destruction Spells

This is what I have in terms of the hidden destruction spells.

Name	ID	Description	Magicka Cost	Actual Effect	Skill level	Cast type
Ancestor's Wrath	001091D0)	A gout of fire that does 12 points per second. Targets on fire take extra damage.	12/s	A gout of fire that is easily resistible (tested it on Chickens, auto resist).	Novice	Constant, low range
Arniel's Convection	)		1/s
Arniel's Convection	)		1/s

...too be continued — Unsigned comment by 74.83.247.118 (talk) at 01:48 on 26 November 2011‎

"Wall of X" spells?

How do the "Wall of X" spells work? Do they only do damage when an enemy steps on an area marked by the spells, or do they do direct damage as well? If an enemy is standing over a patch of Wall of Flames and I continue casting Wall of Flames at him, will he take more damage, or would I be just wasting my time by casting Wall of Flames directly at him? 189.100.250.180 04:08, 4 December 2011 (UTC)

There is direct damage when you hit the enemy. The effect is identical to Novice level concentration spells. On top of that it creates hazard under the target that does 20 repeating damage. The hazard lasts for 30 seconds. You can think of Wall spells as a expert level replacement for Flame, Frost, and Sparks spell. Damage repeat rate is fastest for Wall of Storms, then Wall of Flames and Wall of Frost has very slow repeating damage. Abacus707 14:32, 17 July 2012 (UTC)

They also do direct damage. That's how I mainly use them- the lingering damage is a bonus as far as I'm concerned. 209.66.120.3 01:27, 9 December 2011 (UTC)

They won't 'stick' to the floor if the spell hits an object / creature / NPC and so will not cause lingering damage to an enemy that stays still (before being in a flaming bit). This is noteable, and annoying, against Dragons as the ground beneath them cannot be targeted due to their collision box size. I believe, also, through my observations before and after I altered my value that the ini setting of maxparticles will limit the number of burning/freezing/shocking patches of ground that can be effected: in extremis only allowing 3 or 4. 78.119.221.61 00:08, 16 December 2011 (UTC)

They do stick to the floor and it will cause lingering damage to an enemy that stays still. But does not work reliably against large monsters and animals like Dragons and Mammoths. Abacus707 14:32, 17 July 2012 (UTC)

On my PC (Core 2 Duo 2.3GHz, Radeon 5770 1GB DDR5, all settings maxed 1680x1050 except 2xAA, recent HD texture pack installed) I can get huge lines of walls of flames and shock going, surround myself in circles, etc. I don't see why you're being limited to only 3 or 4 patches. 96.39.118.124 20:00, 16 February 2012 (UTC)

He was seeing only 3 or 4 patches because he changed the setting. On my setting I see 7 patches. Abacus707 14:32, 17 July 2012 (UTC)

Concerning skill training, does the residual damage dealt by Wall spells give you skill experience even while you aren't casting? Or do you only gain skill experience from the direct damage while you are casting? 1337stephen 13:35, 8 June 2012 (UTC)

Residual damage gives skill experience. Normally when fighting melee attackers, my current character sprays a wall spell, and then jumps back and forth over the wall, forcing the melee attacker to run back and forth over it. I've leveled Destruction while doing this. --Morrolan (talk) 17:06, 1 February 2013 (GMT)

Utility of Runes

Can you accidentally trigger (and/or be damaged by) your own Runes? If an enemy sets one off, do they instantly become aware of you even when you were undetected just beforehand?

I don't yet own the game to test for myself, but these would be useful remarks to put on the spells page. 166.182.3.126 15:04, 6 December 2011 (UTC)

No, you can't trigger your own. Yes, runes going off *will* alert enemies to your presence, even if you are not in their line of sight. 209.66.120.3 01:33, 9 December 2011 (UTC)

Double Casting Master Spells

The note below the chart says there's only one form of master spells, but you can actually dual cast them if you hold down both mouse buttons. Try it, the mana costs and damage multipliers are the same as the other spells.

Whether this is true or not, it does need confirmation or denial. The current note applies fluff-reasoning (they always use both hands) and may or may not be based on actual testing. 95.206.22.6 14:07, 4 January 2012 (UTC)

Also keep the MP cost (2.8?) in mind, as the casting would fail if the tester hasn't prepared for it. 95.206.22.6 15:10, 4 January 2012 (UTC)

The only master level spell I found that could be dual cast was Dragonhide. --Vukodlak 21:56, 7 April 2012 (UTC)

fireball

does fireball harm non hostile targets in the radius during battle? (Eddie The Head 06:51, 17 December 2011 (UTC))

Heck yeah. At least my companion tends to get hurt a lot. Krag 01:59, 29 December 2011 (UTC)

Destruction + Conjuration

Having 2 Thralls up, and using a flame cloak kills them both. I just noticed this but i cannot seem to figure out why.

My best guess for this, and im far from the authority on this subject, but I believe it has something to do with summons being cast on yourself, I would imagine flame cloak to also be cast on yourself -Rahb

Cast your cloak first then summon your thralls, took me a second to figure out what was going on as well. Furikuri Yugi 02:39, 27 January 2012 (UTC)

Blizzard Frost Damage.

Does it at least slow? 95.206.22.6 14:09, 4 January 2012 (UTC)

Cannot Cast More Than One Rune?

I saw someone mention a tip to put fire runes in front of all vertical coffins before triggering the hidden enemies. This is impossible for me; am I experiencing a bug? I can only cast one rune at a time. Casting a second rune makes the first rune disappear. (and I do not get the wasted Magicka back) If there are rules about having only one rune active at a time, I think it should be added to the article. --Amsuko 20:35, 17 January 2012 (UTC)

You can only cast one at a time. — Kimi the Elf ^{(talk | contribs)} 20:50, 17 January 2012 (UTC)

I think you may have misread it or they didn't word it very well. If there's a draugr inside that can be awakened, casting the rune next to the coffin causes it the rune to explode immediately, damaging the draugr before it can move. Fire runes, in particular, seem to do enormous damage. Weaker draugr are killed before the lid even comes off the coffin. --97.73.64.145 08:16, 4 March 2012 (UTC)

Possible Superior Shock Spells bug...

Currently, all my Adept and Expert Shock spells are displaying damage values (this doesn't even include damage to mana) that are *superior* even to my Fire spells.

For example, my Chain Lightning deals 75 damage, in contrast to my Fireball that only deals 60. Even crazier, my Lightning Bolt deals 120 damage, While Incinerate only does 90. But the craziest I noticed was with Wall of Storms: It can *stagger* an enemy. Even without Dual Casting. I literally have a shield on my left and just Wall of Storms on my right, and I'm staggering enemies with it as I cast. I realize Augmented Flames and Augmented Shock might be increasing the damage output, but they are both levelled equally, and based on the info on this site, Fire spells should deal more damage. Also, Wall of Storms staggering doesn't have anything to do with Augmented Shock.

I have no idea why this is happening. It would be neat if it wasn't a bug, or some errant tweaks from some guy's mod, which I happened to download. 112.209.244.53 10:04, 11 February 2012 (UTC)guest. 18:04

I can't comment on the different between fire and shock spells, but when you do a lot of damage you can stagger targets even if you don't use Impact. --Morrolan (talk) 17:00, 1 February 2013 (GMT)

Utility of spells like Incinerate

Is it just me or is Incinerate a really, really poor choice to use at any time? Fireball (/bolt? the weaker version) seems to do the same damage with a LOT less mana. Am I missing something? 96.39.118.124 20:02, 16 February 2012 (UTC)

Incinerate does a good bit more damage than fireball on a per target basis, and isn't area effect. This makes it useful for doing things like shooting at dragons that are surrounded by guards (who are friendly to you). Fireballs are very useful for clearing large groups of attackers, especially when there are no friendlies in the area. Firebolt is just a weaker Incinerate. When dualcast, Firebolt is close to Incinerate, and if you have the Impact perk can be more effective, but Incinerate still burns longer. Personally though my favourite Expert spells are the Wall spells, but that's because I have lousy aim. --Morrolan (talk) 16:58, 1 February 2013 (GMT)

Lightning Storm on Dragons

Ive found that using lightning storm on most dragons as a kill shot will Disintegrate them even if you don't have the perk. The funny part is that if you disintegrate a dragons body you wont obtain the soul. Just a heads up on this one. 11:36, 13 May 2012 (UTC)

Is it Intense Flames Fear or It Burns Hysteria?

I think someone with more experience should correct what appears to be someone having too much fun with names, but under the effect category for the Fire Storm spell the effect It Burns Hysteria is listed with a link to the fear effect page and a note that it is only active if the Intense Flames perk has been unlocked. Why is this name here when on the page for Fear effects this additional effect is properly know as Intense Flames Fear. Some who knows how to edit pages needs to correct the name on this page to match the most likely correct and most certainly more logical name for the effect on the Fear page. This issue is apparent in a few other spell entries on the page too.--75.207.138.165 06:58, 5 July 2012 (UTC)

Lightning Bolt more damage than Thunderbolt

I swear, my lightning bolt spell does MORE damage than Thuderbolt, both in single and dual casting. My Thunderbolt spell seems like an utter weaste, as I actually see less damage done by single cast vs. a single cast LBolt, less damage than dual cast LBolt, and since LBolt requires much less mana, I can spam the hell out of it whereas with TBolt it depletes my mana rapidly (I don't have what some power gamers would consider high mana, it's at about 490 right now at level 60).I have Impact, Adept and Master perks, and TBolt is a master spell. I also have augmented lightning 1/2. So why is the weaker spell so much better all around than the powerfull one?

Come to think of it, Icy Spear (stronger) sucks the same way compared to Ice Spike (weaker)... So wtf? 69.141.182.220 20:26, 11 August 2012 (UTC)

Don't know about you but in my case, thunderbolt always does more damage than lightningbolt. The only problem with thunderbolt i know of is that it's far inaccurate at close range. Are you on Pc? if so, please check the result with getav health on adept difficulty to see if thunderbolt is weaker.117.5.16.154 02:41, 3 September 2012 (UTC)

Don't Dual cast expert level destruction spells. doesn't make much damage bonus and uses a lot more mana. I've used Icy Spear, Incinerate and Thunderbolt on multiple pure mage characters with extreme results, think 2 hitting an elder dragon (well technically 4 hitting... Icy Spear in both hands maxed out perks against Fire type elder dragon) Lord Eydvar^Talk 05:28, 3 September 2012 (UTC)

Lightning Storm + Slow Time

Lightning storm does no damage while slow time is active. Anyone else seen this? 173.73.159.61 18:02, 11 January 2013 (GMT)

This make sense, as Lightning Storm is a damage-per-second attack. Rolandito (talk) 20:01, 26 January 2013 (GMT)

I've just added Talvas' spells from Dragonborn

To a 92 Destruction character, he's willing to sell all regular Skyrim destruction spells to Expert level. I don't know if he'll have Master tomes available eventually, I suspect he won't though. But I'll report back if his list gets any longer. --Morrolan (talk) 20:01, 24 January 2013 (GMT)

Wall of X Damage

Do walls actually do 50 points of damage per second? It seems to me that none of them do...202.36.245.26 20:15, 9 May 2013 (GMT)

Yes, they do. Your target has to be on them though, and remember that they are affected by difficulty level. --Morrolan (talk) 15:27, 16 August 2013 (GMT)

Enemy Watchlist

Are there any enemies in the game or any of the DLCs who are outright immune to elemental damage? Generally speaking, as a warrior you can depend upon your melee weapon to wear down most anything the game throws at you - but destruction spells are static, and more about balancing resistances. Are there any places in the game that one should have a contingency plan for, as the enemies will completely ignore non-physical damage? — Unsigned comment by TheVagabird (talk • contribs) at 17:19 on 13 February 2017

As noted in the summary, Nord Vampires and dwarven automatons are immune to frost, the three atronach types are immune to their element, and Orchendor to all. Excluding Orchendor, any combination of two elements will suffice, as he is the only enemy (though accidentally) that will completely resist all magic that I am aware of, unless you use a poison of weakness to magicka. Silence is Golden^{Break the Silence} 19:42, 13 February 2017 (UTC)