Skyrim talk:Destruction

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Lighting Rune + Summon Familiar = easy xp

Perhaps fits in the page that you can gain xp quite fast by casting a rune then summoning something on top of it twice,I don't know the exact mechanics but whenever you do that the rune explodes and you get the destruction xp, you can wai[T] 1 in-game hour if you run out of magicka. All without the need of Shadowmere or any essential target and can be done early --Wizy (talk) 00:41, 6 November 2020 (UTC)

You can gain XP by attacking summoned creatures in general. The point of essential targets is merely that you don't have to summon them (which will level conjuration as well). --Ethruvisil (talk) 13:41, 6 November 2020 (UTC)

But runes supposedly work only against hostile targets and you can't wait against those, while lighting rune, being only apprentice level, gives faster xp than any direct damage spells other than the master level ones. --Wizy (talk) 16:37, 6 November 2020 (UTC)

Damage=XP Testing

The article used to claim that XP was based on damage dealt. I tested this; I started by attacking draugr with a dual-cast firebolt on Legendary difficulty. This consistently took me 36 shots to level up from the arbitrary point I started at.

I then tried it with a +236% destruction damage potion. This likewise took 36 shots to level me up - IE, no difference.

I then tried the Augmented Flames perk. It took me 36 shots to level up.

I then lowered the difficulty to Adept. It now took 9 shots to level me up.

I then lowered the difficulty to Novice. It now took me 8 shots to level up.

I raised the difficulty to Legendary again, and stopped using dual-casting. It took me 24 shots to level up.

Conclusion: It is not damage that reduces XP gain, it's just difficulty level. They inexplicably decided to make Destruction harder to level up on higher difficulties, and not other skill classes. It seems like this is probably a bug, to be honest.