Destruction | Skills TES V: Skyrim Guide
Last update: 05 December 2019
This TES V: Skyrim World Atlas page describes Destruction skills. These skills are related to the magician archetype (these are different areas of magic). Our tutorial in addition to describing the skills will tell you how to develop them, and what related best features are worth unlocking.
How to increase skill: This skill can be increased by casting spells from the destruction school of magic in order to harm other beings. The skill growth will take place only if a destruction spell has injured (or killed for that matter) its target.
Main purpose of developing this skill: Lowering the mana costs of casting destruction spells.
Available perks: 17.
Best perks: Novice Destruction, Destruction Dual Casting, Disintegrate.
Comments:
- Destruction has at least one thing in common with other schools of magic. You must remember that casting even the basic spells from this school can very quickly drain your mana bar. Furthermore, some of the more advanced spells may even be blocked at the beginning of the game, because they may require more mana points than the main character has at the moment. This all leads to one obvious conclusion - you must constantly work on increasing the mana pool and improving mana regeneration rate.
- Destruction school contains mostly offensive spells and they can be divided into three main categories. The first group are the spells which inflict fire damage and the additional bonus of using them is a chance to set enemies on fire. The second group are the spells which inflict frost damage and the additional bonus of using them is a chance to slow down enemies. The third group are the spells which inflict shock damage and the additional bonus of using them is a chance to drain target's mana. Aside from the offensive spells you can also find a few runic spells in this category. They work as traps and they also appear in fire, frost and shock forms.
- I wouldn't recommend trying to reach perfection with spells from only one category (for example, only with frost spells). The main reason is that some enemies (especially monsters) are partially or completely immune to certain types of elemental damage. Dual casting on the other hand is a great idea, assuming of course you've unlocked perks which increase the usefulness of this method of play.
- NOVICE DESTRUCTION
- AUGMENTED FLAMES
- INTENSE FLAMES
- AUGMENTED FROST
- DEEP FREEZE
- AUGMENTED SHOCK
- DISINTEGRATE
- APPRENTICE DESTRUCTION
- ADEPT DESTRUCTION
- EXPERT DESTRUCTION
- MASTER DESTRUCTION
- RUNE MASTER
- DESTRUCTION DUAL CASTING
- IMPACT
NOVICE DESTRUCTION
Requirements: None.
Description: Ability of casting novice destruction spells for half the mana cost.
Comments: It's crucial that you unlock this perk at the very beginning of the game, because you'll start your journey with some of the basic destruction spells and therefore you'll be allowed to proceed with developing this skill group skill right away.
AUGMENTED FLAMES
This perk has two ranks and unlocking the second rank makes it better.
Requirements (rank 1): Destruction skill increased to at least 30 points. Unlocked Novice Destruction perk.
Requirements (rank 2): Destruction skill increased to at least 60 points.
Description (rank 1): Fire spells deal 25% more damage.
Description (rank 2): Fire spells deal a total of 50% more damage.
Comments: Make sure to quickly unlock the first perk from this group, even if fire spells aren't necessarily your favorite type in this school of magic.
INTENSE FLAMES
Requirements: Destruction skill increased to at least 50 points. Unlocked Augmented Flames perk (rank 1).
Description: Possibility of forcing enemies with very low health to flee if they receive fire damage.
Comments: This is a useless perk, because you should always work on improving methods of killing your opponents. Go ahead and skip this one.
AUGMENTED FROST
This perk has two ranks and unlocking the second rank makes it better.
Requirements (rank 1): Destruction skill increased to at least 30 points. Unlocked Novice Destruction perk.
Requirements (rank 2): Destruction skill increased to at least 60 points.
Description (rank 1): Frost spells deal 25% more damage.
Description (rank 2): Frost spells deal a total of 50% more damage.
Comments: Make sure to quickly unlock the first perk from this group, even if frost spells aren't necessarily your favorite type in this school of magic.
DEEP FREEZE
Requirements: Destruction skill increased to at least 60 points. Unlocked Augmented Frost perk (rank 1).
Description: Possibility of paralyzing enemies with very low health if they receive frost damage.
Comments: This is a much more interesting perk than a similar one from the fire group (Intense Flames). The best thing about being able to paralyze your opponents is they won't be able to escape the battlefield in hopes of regaining some of the lost health. It's also easier to finish them off.
AUGMENTED SHOCK
This perk has two ranks and unlocking the second rank makes it better.
Requirements (rank 1): Destruction skill increased to at least 30 points. Unlocked Novice Destruction perk.
Requirements (rank 2): Destruction skill increased to at least 60 points.
Description (rank 1): Shock spells deal 25% more damage.
Description (rank 2): Shock spells deal a total of 50% more damage.
Comments: Make sure to quickly unlock the first perk from this group, even if shock spells aren't necessarily your favorite type in this school of magic.
DISINTEGRATE
Requirements: Destruction skill increased to at least 70 points. Unlocked Augmented Shock perk (rank 1).
Description: Possibility of instantly killing enemies with very low health if they receive shock damage.
Comments: This is definitely a much better perk than Intense Flames (fire damage) and Deep Freeze (frost damage). You should focus on unlocking it as soon as it becomes available, because it will allow you to kill enemies faster (without having to drain their entire health bar). Make sure to switch to a shock spell when an enemy is about to die, because this method doesn't work other types of spells.
APPRENTICE DESTRUCTION
Requirements: Destruction skill increased to at least 25 points. Unlocked Novice Destruction perk.
Description: Ability of casting apprentice destruction spells for half the mana cost.
Comments: It's extremely important to unlock this perk in the early stages of the game, because the apprentice level has some very useful offensive spells and lowering their mana costs will make them even better.
ADEPT DESTRUCTION
Requirements: Destruction skill increased to at least 50 points. Unlocked Apprentice Destruction perk.
Description: Ability of casting adept destruction spells for half the mana cost.
Comments: Yet another useful perk, especially since a lot of the adept destruction spells have high mana costs.
EXPERT DESTRUCTION
Requirements: Destruction skill increased to at least 75 points. Unlocked Adept Destruction perk.
Description: Ability of casting expert destruction spells for half the mana cost.
Comments: You shouldn't be surprised to hear that purchasing this perk is considered a priority. It's worth mentioning here that a lot of destruction spells are sustained and this means they constantly drain mana. That's why it's very important to lower the costs by half.
MASTER DESTRUCTION
Requirements: Destruction skill increased to 100 points. Unlocked Expert Destruction perk.
Description: Ability of casting master destruction spells for half the mana cost.
Comments: Make sure to unlock this perk when you reach 100 points, because all spells from this category need tons of mana.
RUNE MASTER
Requirements: Destruction skill increased to at least 40 points. Unlocked Apprentice Destruction perk.
Description: Ability of placing the runes five times as far away from the main character as normally.
Comments: Consider unlocking this perk only if you like placing runes and if you like to remain hidden while setting them up so that you'll have bigger chances of avoiding premature detection.
DESTRUCTION DUAL CASTING
Requirements: Destruction skill increased to at least 20 points. Unlocked Novice Destruction perk.
Description: Ability to dual cast destruction spells which makes them more powerful.
Comments: It's EXTREMELY important that you unlock this perk as soon as possible, especially since it has low requirements. Dual casting destruction spells greatly increases their effectiveness, allowing the main character to inflict much more damage.
IMPACT
Requirements: Destruction skill increased to at least 40 points. Unlocked Destruction Dual Casting perk.
Description: Possibility of staggering an enemy if the main character is dual casting destruction spells.
Comments: This is an interesting perk which may come in handy while fighting stronger enemies. Staggering them will give you plenty of time to regain mana or to move to a new safer place without having to worry about being attacked.