Destruction magic is the primary damage-based school of magic in The Elder Scrolls franchise, and it's a powerful combat type in Skyrim. Destruction magic includes three core elements including fire, frost, and shock. All of these elements have perks specifically based around them so that you can customize your mage in any way that you choose.
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There are also destruction perks that focus on other types of magic, such as runes, as well as perks that cut the amount of magic required to cast a spell in half. If you plan to use destruction magic for a Skyrim build, then you should study the different perks and elements to decide exactly how you want to build your character.
Rune Master
With the Rune Master perk, you can place runes 5 times further away from you than ordinarily. Runes aren't particularly powerful; however, they can be used for a stealth-mage hybrid build or for situations where you need to deal damage to multiple enemies that are near each other.
Runes can be placed onto the ground and will explode when an enemy enters the area. As previously mentioned, runes can damage multiple enemies at once. That's very useful if you have a rune spell that deals a lot of damage. Being capable of placing them far away ensures that an enemy won't attack you because the rune will stop them before they can get to you.
Augmented Frost
Frost spells are often regarded as unpopular compared to the other elements in Skyrim. However, that doesn't mean that they can't be useful for certain mage builds. The Augmented Frost perk adds 25 or 50 percent more damage towards your frost damage dealt, including powerful enchanted weapons.
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This extra frost damage may not seem like a lot at first, but it's very useful for spells that already deal a lot of damage — such as expert and master-level frost spells.
Disintegrate
Disintegrate is a great perk for mages that value the power of lightning. If you are using shock-based magic while fighting an enemy, then your attack has a chance to completely disintegrate the enemy if their health is low. Although this effect won't activate every time you're in combat, it's still useful since it occurs commonly.
This perk is particularly useful for fights with powerful enemies such as trolls or high-level bandits since it can immediately defeat them once you lower their health.
Augmented Shock
Augmented Shock allows you to deal extra damage with shock-based attacks, and it has 2 tiers. The first tier grants you +25 percent damage, while the second tier grants +50 percent damage. As with other perks of this type, it also grants extra damage while using enchanted shock weapons.
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This perk is only useful for players who regularly use shock magic, but considering that it's one of the most popular types of magic in Skyrim, many mages will get a lot of use out of unlocking this perk.
Augmented Flames
Augmented Flames is a perk that grants extra damage while using fire magic and weapons with flame-based enchantments. Fire magic is the strongest type of destruction magic in Skyrim since it deals extra burning damage after you hit an enemy with a fire attack.
Since Augmented Flames focuses on the strongest type of destruction magic in Skyrim, it's the most powerful of the 3 Augmented perks. This perk is a must-have if you want to become the strongest destruction mage in Skyrim.
Destruction Dual Casting
Destruction Dual Casting is one of the most fun perks you can unlock in the Destruction perk tree. This perk makes it so that dual casting the same spell creates a stronger effect, essentially granting you a more powerful version of the spell you're using.
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Not only does this perk buff the damage of a single spell while dual casting it, but it's also a great perk since it only requires 1 perk point to fully unlock. If you enjoy using a single spell during combat, then you should unlock the Destruction Dual Casting perk as quickly as possible.
Impact
The Destruction Dual Casting perk is great; however, the Impact perk takes it to the next level by staggering opponents while you're dual casting the same spell.
Staggering is essentially a type of temporary paralysis where an enemy stops attacking for a few seconds to re-center themselves, which can give you the time you need to defeat that enemy. If you have the Impact perk, then you should always be dual casting the same spell since it gives you a major advantage against the enemy.
Intense Flames
The Intense Flames perk makes enemies flee from combat if they get hit by fire damage while their health is low. This effect is powerful since it lowers the number of enemies that you have to fight at once.
As previously mentioned, fire damage is very powerful, so it's no surprise that enemies would run away from you while using it. It's also notable that an opponent may die if they're on fire and have low health while running away.
Expert Destruction
Every perk that cuts down on the amount of magicka required to cast a spell is useful; however, the Expert Destruction perk is the most useful since it's likely that you will end up using expert level spells the most.
Expert Destruction cuts the amount of magicka required to cast expert-level destruction spells in half, which frees up a lot of your magicka and allows it to last longer in combat. The Adept Destruction and Master Destruction perks are also useful for a seasoned mage; however, the Expert Destruction perk is arguably the most useful since the most important destruction spells in Skyrim are expert level.
Deep Freeze
Although frost magic is the least popular magical element in Skyrim, the Deep Freeze perk is the best destruction perk in the game. This perk paralyzes your enemies when their health is low. That's an incredibly powerful perk since it gives you the time to finish them off. Paralyzing an enemy renders them immobile, but they'll also fall down then spend a few seconds picking themselves up.
The Deep Freeze perk is the most notable reason to use frost magic in Skyrim, especially if you can't decide on which element to focus your time around. Luckily, you can focus on any element so you can eventually unlock the Deep Freeze perk while using fire or shock magic until it's unlocked.
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