Skyrim Anniversary Edition: New Player Tips for Mages in Survival Mode!

[@Leto85]

I'm a new player. I've only been playing this since 2012, so this video is for me.

[@mike-thegamingdad]

😂 haha sometimes I feel like a new player still. Learning new things all the time. All jokes aside, it has surprised me how many 'newer' players there are. When I set this channel up last July I thought its a 10 year old game, everyone has played this. But I get comments all the time from people saying they have just started it now and found my guides. I never thought I'd be asked to do stuff like this but it's fun 👍🏻

[@toragirsl1441]

Ha, I feel like every day is a school day with Skyrim. I've been playing for a couple of years now, but I like videos like this as I always find something new. I did not know about Riekling followers for example, I think I sided with the nords during that quest (oops)

[@Leto85]

@@mike-thegamingdad How cool is that. You'll be our Skyrim daddy now. :)

[@Leto85]

Captain Boots have the same Enchanting slot as the body slot. Very handy for mages.

[@mike-thegamingdad]

Oh really? See there we go, something else I did not know 😂

[@sheldor2996]

Captain boots? Where are those at? I've never heard of them. 👀

[@Leto85]

@@sheldor2996 I buy them at the Radiant Raiment I Solitude. But the Unofficial Anniversary Club Patch has patched that already for now.

[@chilboswaggins5500]

There is always a Spell Tome: Flame Cloak book on the Northern coast not far from Dawnstar. You can see the area where they "previous owner" found herself trapped inside a burning tent, leaving her necklace and book for you. It's far too expensive to cast by normal means at level one, but it'll save you gold later.

[@Hallowedwanderer]

I’ll defined check it out, I can’t seem to do any quest involving low temperature areas because “this one” feels like its going to die, literally barely managed to get back to the camp, sleep get some strength back to hit the road to warmer weathers. I love survival mode lol

[@stevecochrane9531]

Many thanks, Mike! One added tip, maybe... get married and adopt kids: - If your home base is not in a town, you have a merchant at home. - Spouse gives a 10% in growing skills. - Kids give an extra 25% in potion creation. - Your spouse will give you a "home cooked meal" each day which is very helpful in survival mode.

[@mike-thegamingdad]

Yeah those are great tips as well thank you 😁👍🏻

[@empire_racing8258]

Knew about the spouse and growing, but not the kids. Thx for the tip.🎉

[@mcmalave2789]

I love playing as a High Elf mage. It was my first character and still my favorite. Though I go shopping in Solitude a little later, I like going to Dawnstar for a few things first. The Santa-like person sells a set of gloves that not only look good, but have a higher warmth rating. (Don't bother with the boots. I usually get my first sets of clothes from raiding Balgruff's palace.) I also pick up the quest for the Ring of Pure Mixtures in Forgotten Cave for an early 12% bust to alchemy. I also pick up the ruined books so I can make the conjuration tomes without paying for them. And visit the hall of the Vigiliant depending on the level. I have been in too many one-on-one knife fights with a mage when we run out of magic. It's hilarious. I now go for the glass knife in Myrwatch and then Mehrunes Razor. Borvir's dagger is yesterday's news ^_^

[@tigger62]

I never knew the Flame Cloak would prevent cold water damage😮 Thanks for the tips since I just started a mage/assassin playthrough.

[@mike-thegamingdad]

Yeah it's quite a cool perk of it, just a shame it doesn't have any effect on cold temperature. That feels like an oversight, although I'm sure there's a mod that'll correct that. No problem at all 😁👍🏻

[@Ahglock]

@@mike-thegamingdad Yeah I always felt it was weird that fire spells did not warm you up in general. At least give the heat of a torch.

[@chilboswaggins5500]

The spell tome is freely available on the Northern coast near Dawnstar. Your can grab it at level one but it's too powerful to cast yet. Even if you can't exploit it like the early Bound Bow book trick, I'd rather have it before I need it than need it before I have it.

[@zeroone8800]

The spell is bugged, in that while the normal effect of fire damage and the visuals are extended in duration when dual cast or under the effects of a destruction potion, the cold water resistance never increases in duration. Keep this in mind when using the spell. This should be fixed by the unofficial patch, but I haven't checked.

[@Lord_necromancer]

I'm currently doing a no glitch, no exploit, legendary difficulty, survival playthrough as a mage. I have not equipped a single weapon. I am currently level 49 and have all of the magic skills except for enchanting maxed out - enchanting is level 90. It has been an absolute blast

[@johnwpipes8927]

Great tips for sure! It really is an extraordinarily fun way of playing Skyrim. As satisfying to play as a pure Mage as it is a stealth archer or assassin, once you get a few levels/perks. So. Much. Fun!

[@mike-thegamingdad]

Yeah agreed. It's just getting over that initial difficult phase.

[@hundragant]

I main High Elf mage. Something I always advise new mage players as helpful is getting the Become Ethereal shout. It's a good panic shout for when you need to reposition, heal, or charge magic back up and it synergizes well with the High Elf power to regen magicka - Highborn. I also really enjoy using it for eliminating fall dmg so I can get places down low easier. It's satisfying dropping hundreds of feet unharmed. Become Ethereal is mostly only useful early/mid game. Towards the end I find myself never really needing it. I also constantly work on my enchant skill until it reaches lvl 100 so I can get double effects on my gear and reduce my destruction cost to 0 and alteration/illusion lessened. I never run out of magic and if I do, my destruction costs 0 so I can still apply pressure to enemies. As a high elf that puts most all my level ups into magic, I am def a glass cannon. Strong enemies can kill me in a single hit (looking at you Draugr Deathlords!) so get comfortable with staying back and dodging range attacks by strafing left and right and keeping distance from melee enemies by kiting. The destruction perk 'Impact' at lvl 40 is godsend game changer. In early game, time it so you're only attacking to stagger as this saves on magic costs. Don't forget to quicksave before and after every fight! Since you can die in one hit, it'll save you the headache

[@mike-thegamingdad]

Thanks for sharing your tips 👍🏻😁

[@empire_racing8258]

Looked for tips on how to play as a pure mage on survival as everytime i try i freeze my ass off. Even going into caves for warmth. Earned a sub.

[@mike-thegamingdad]

Thanks a lot! Glad the video was useful 😁🙌🏼

[@empire_racing8258]

​@@mike-thegamingdaddo you know the warmth rating for the arch-mage robes? I'm getting to the point I want to do the collage quest, but if the warmth of the robes suck, not gonna bother.

[@mike-thegamingdad]

@empire_racing8258 yeah they are 54, double the normal 27 that standard robes have, but the same as the vagrant robes you can get from vendors (that you can enchant yourself). They are still one of the best robes sets in the game 👍🏻

[@christophertaylor9100]

Mages vs mages sucks in Skyrim because the ward spell works way better for NPCs than for you. Yours takes time to charge up to give full protection; that does not appear to be a limitation NPC mages suffer from. And they pop that thing up the billisecond it drops. Flame Cloak ought to warm you up, obviously, but they also blind you so...

[@AdrianMcGavock]

another quality vid Mike, regret I'm too lazy to play survival but ... lots of useful stuff, partic. the Atronach Forge... Winterhold was the first full quest-line I completed and I STILL haven't gone back to experiment with the Forge... will rectify tonight 👍

[@mike-thegamingdad]

Yeah ti's worthwhile checking out, I must admit it's not something I had dabbled with too often but you can make tons of stuff with it. Even spell books, if there's a spell tome you are missing, you can probably craft it 🤣

[@NannyOggins]

Some really good advice for mages here. I didn’t know about the Reikling follower as I always side with the Nords, they claim it was their home after all. However, I love to have more targets to bait enemies allowing me to take them out at leisure. I may be wrong but I think you can get Flame cloak free by taking it off the corpse of one of the students that went missing. Her burnt body is on the beach in a circle of burnt scrub, to the east of the college, quite near Yngold barrow.

[@mike-thegamingdad]

Yeah that is true its just south of Yngold, I learnt that after making this and last night I recorded it as I'm going to use it in another video I'm making on a daedric build 😅 The riekling followers can be useful although a little squishy. At higher levels you get better riekling warriors who can take more of a hit 😁

[@ded2thaworld963]

Just started my first real survival play through. I’m an argonian necromancer more or less with some sneak and one handed as secondary. So far i’m doin ok, it’s the constant walking that gets me.

[@mike-thegamingdad]

Nice argonians are actually one of the more challenging races to play on survival as they are the only race to have a -25 warmth rating. It's a small difference but warmth or lack of can be a killer

[@Stickfigure414]

It really is a bit upsetting that the flame cloak doesn't warm you up but at least it does help protect against the cold water so that's neat. Thanks for all the info!

[@mike-thegamingdad]

Yeah it doesn't make sense does it, but oh well 😅 and no problem at all 😁

[@XEV_]

These are very helpful tips maybe I should try a pure mage

[@mike-thegamingdad]

No problem at all, yeah it's a fun way to play. Definitely more of a challenge 😁

[@XEV_]

@@mike-thegamingdad yea i played as a mage while i was doing the college storyline it was a struggle

[@BretHiggins]

Thanks for the tips, the smaller tweaks here have helped me a bunch in survival mode. Cheers! B

[@incryptdead3342]

Im lucky i watched this before i put all points into destruction. Thanks for tje advice.

[@mike-thegamingdad]

No problem at all glad to help out 😁

[@Katie.JesusIsKing]

Another great video Mike The Gaming Dad 😊

[@Katie.JesusIsKing]

I always forget about the forge in the Midden. So cool to know the fire salts. Will be helpful after finishing the Theives Guild and getting so many gems you don't know what to do with

[@mike-thegamingdad]

@@Katie.JesusIsKing thank you! Yeah it's great once you can build up a lot of gems. If you eventually get the prowlers profit perk (No Stone Unturned quest) you can make absolutely tons of fire salt 😁

[@Katie.JesusIsKing]

@@mike-thegamingdad I always finish the Barenziah quest but I cheat. On the 360 (idk about other consoles) you click A really fast you can pick up 2-4 stones for every one stone 🤣

[@mike-thegamingdad]

@@Katie.JesusIsKing haha did not know about that, that is mad. I've had to always do it the old fashioned way 🤣

[@lucygray4314]

I cried laughing at the arrow to the heel xDDD

[@mike-thegamingdad]

Haha always happens 😅

[@robertbell8566]

Very helpful. Thank you

[@mike-thegamingdad]

No problem at all 😁👍🏻

[@giulianomarco]

Hello! New subscriber here. I only joined yesterday (I might have been #7000!). I've been playing Skyrim for 12 years, but never really got on with Survival Mode. After taking notes from your two survival tips videos, I'm going to have another crack at it. I'm also going to watch your survival playthrough videos. You sound like Neil Hodgson, btw... 😋👍

[@mike-thegamingdad]

Thank you very much for subscribing! Yeah I wasn't that interesting in survival when it first came out, but once I gave it a proper go I've really enjoyed it. Feels like a new experience and takes more thought and strategy 😁 I hope you enjoy it! Haha is that the motoGP rider?

[@giulianomarco]

@@mike-thegamingdad That's him! Separated at birth, maybe? Worth giving Davina McCall a bell? 😋 BadCompanySarge quit posting Skyrim today, so I asked him if it was OK to throw a [dragon] bone your way and mention your channel. He was fine with it, so you may pick up a few more subscribers. 😁✌️

[@mike-thegamingdad]

@giulianomarco haha its quite possibly, maybe I'll meet him one day and we'll look at each other like we know each other from somewhere 😂. Awesome thank you very much! 👍🏻

[@zeroone8800]

Difficultly levels do effect summons, but it is bugged. They do reduced damage at high difficulty levels, but also take less damage from enemies meaning they're actually better tanks at higher difficulty levels. This is a engine bug that can only be fixed with SKSE. Playing a conjurer with the bug fix on Legendary is really annoying. This same bug affects followers as well.

[@kevlyon]

Dont forget master neloth sells Great staffs too guys :)

[@mike-thegamingdad]

Yeah he does actually, also his staff enchanter is useful and easy to get hold of. All you have to do is find him a new steward

[@davrosdavros7198]

Great video. You should do a let’s play of a mage

[@kevlyon]

Carry some brawlers gloves and go hand to hand :) better damage than a dagger

[@mike-thegamingdad]

That's a great tip hadn't thought of them, thanks for sharing 😁

[@crazitaco]

Be a khajiit for warmth bonus and additional unarmed bonus

[@Airinas96]

"Oh, well... It must've run off" 😂

[@mike-thegamingdad]

I've heard a bandit say that probably a 1000 times now and it's still funny 😅

[@Airinas96]

@@mike-thegamingdad That and the milk drinkers 😂

[@mike-thegamingdad]

@@Airinas96 let me guess, somebody stole your sweet roll 🤣. They did a really good job with the dialogue, so many awesome one liners

[@kevlyon]

What does my head in is when you visit parthanax your there for ages and cold can kill you if not careful

[@mike-thegamingdad]

Yeah that is annoying, on my let's play someone had shared a tip about placing a camp there and it made a big difference when I tried it as you are right, by the time he's finished talking you are half frozen to death

[@Airinas96]

Do you use any graphics mods? your game looks really good.

[@mike-thegamingdad]

I don't buddy no, just the base anniversary edition on PC nowadays 😁

[@thomasrosendahl2783]

Witcher 3 and RDR2 you can play 3-4 times, and you have experienced everything, Skyrim you can play 100 times and still have things to do. Modded Skyrim is almost endless in terms of builds and quests.

[@mike-thegamingdad]

Yeah this is very true. I'm still to experience modden skyrim properly, I played around on PS4 with them a bit but Sony don't allow external assets on their consoles so mods were limited to say the least, nothing like what you can do on XBox and PC. I've kept my channel mod free up to now so that anyone with AE can do anything I'm showing, but eventually I'll move into mods 😁

[@mariop8101]

Survival Legendary (I'm level 15), use a follower, let them attack and attack enemies backs, avoid archers line of sight they kill me with one shot.

[@mike-thegamingdad]

Yeah followers definitely grow in usefulness on harder difficulties

[@andrewpina391]

As a mage do you level up your health? Because most mages don’t wear armor

[@mike-thegamingdad]

Yeah health is very important. Magicka generally should go as high as you need it to, so if it's 200 as you can get another 100 through gear, and you only need a max of 300 for the spells you need to use. Then just do that and then put everything else into health. That's usually what I do. My first mage I made the mistake of going to high on magicka and not enough health. I had like 400-500 in magicka and then realised I could reduce the cost of spells through gear, and I didn't have nearly enough health

[@andrewpina391]

@@mike-thegamingdad thank you for the info ! Got yourself a new subscriber

[@mike-thegamingdad]

@@andrewpina391 thank you very much I appreciate it 🙌🏼😁

[@zombierobot5747]

Always carry hawk feathers and garlic bread for disease not potions

[@mike-thegamingdad]

Yeah thats a good tip 😁👍🏻

[@jcxfuego]

Mage in Legendary Survival is just 💀

[@jamesrogers5588]

Mages can and should still wear arm, no rule says they can't, further more even with alteration tree maxed with best flesh spell you won't hit the cap, also glass and fur aren't the only arms with max warmth rate. Zzzz

[@CharlietheWarlock]

Use necromancy

[@mike-thegamingdad]

Yeah necromancy is very strong for survival as well 👍🏻