SureAI

Okay, I'm playing a mage and have taken the mage birthsign and playing a half-elf. I've got my destuction skill up over 50 and it tells my I still can't learn tier-3 spells? Why? If there are seven tiers then I should be at roughly tier 3 1/2 with my current skill. Do I have to get other spell skills raised too? With spells not gaining in power as I level my skill, I need to be able to cast the higher tier spells. I believe my character level is around 11 or 12 and I'm fighting in the level 14-20 areas and need a little more damage. I'm also wondering if I'll ever get more mana. How do I increase my mana? It doesn't seem to be climbing much at all, while spell costs are leaping.

Where can I learn Mark and Recall? I'm needing that spell badly now. Note that I'll scrounge the forums for this last question. I'm sure it's been asked....

First question i'm unsure of because I thought there were only 4 tiers, corresponding to skill level 25/50/75/100.
Second - Mana I believe goes up 10% of inteligence at every level up. Best advice is make a lot of fortify magica and restore magica + fortify magica rings/amulets.
Third - First place I have seen mark/recall is in Cahbaet. Maybe someone has seen it earlier than that.

Thanks Hawk-when it comes to enchanting rings and such; how do I do that? I haven't found any altars. I've found things that'll give a whole +1 to an item but you can't stack them, so I can't enchant anything to be more than +1. I also haven't found anyone who will buy these useless gems. They're in my chest.

Seven magic tiers. Tied to your level.

Your tier equals your maxed spell level. (IE: Tier 3 allows Blessing III, while Tier 6 allows Blessing IV)

I'm not sure at what level you get a tier. But I know Tier 5 is L30.

Magic tiers are based on your level, not your skill. You start out with tier I, gain tier II at level 7, tier III at 14, etc.

At least now know how magic tiers work. Cheers.

Never seen any enchanting apart from gems you find. But just came across a +18 fortify magica amulet.

+18 is not even the cost of a single tier 2 spell. That'd be worthless. Unless it hits the +40 or higher, it's not worth wearing permanently. I guess I'll stick to spamming restore magicka potions. That's what I've been doing and it's okay. Not optimal, but okay. Knowing about the intelligence=mana thing. I should just start over and focus on getting +5's to intelligence each level. Instead, I'll figure out what I could have intelligence-wise if I had done that and I'll just give myself that amount of intelligence via the console. The devs stated that min-maxing wasn't needed, but it really is if you want to play a mage. I need the bonus to magicka that I'm missing because there are no mana-boosting birthsigns. I'm not sure what intelligence a half-elf starts with but I think I've only been getting 3-5 mana/level and that really isn't enough.

All that said, I'm still fighting in areas above my level. I just cleared a dungeon stock full of flame and frost atronarchs. That was a blast. It kinda sucks that the loot is so lame in most dungeons. The dungeons are well designed, but there's not much reason to visit them. You can earn far more money just exploring the countryside and making potions by the boatloads. Anybody who is low on cash isn't harvesting plants. I generally have around 5000 gold on hand at all times.

Well i'm actually playing an elf sneak/archer, but at level 20 with my int at 90 ( like to knock my alchemy up high) my Mana is 265 without any buffing.

I basically play a sniper/mage. I poision my bow, fire one shot and get a X4 multiplier and then finish the target with spells. So alchemy, marksman, and destruction are my 3 majors. Everything else is just for show. I'm at 48 alchemy at level 12. It takes a LOT of potion making to boost alchemy. I haven't found a trainer for the skill yet, if one even exists.

I was playing sword/shield with a spell here and there until I found that robe that gave me +7 constant mana regen. Now I only use melee as a finishing move since getting fatigued lowers spell effectiveness.