How to Kill Ebony Warrior as a Mage

I have a mage with archmage's robes and all except ice master-level destruction spells, and still failed to kill him quite a few times already, my lightning storm just can't kill him before I get killed and fire storm deals such a pitiful amount of damage against him... Any adive? Maybe I should try other forms of magic such as conjuration? Or should I return once I have blizzard?

Solution 1:

Your main thing is to keep attention away from yourself. You want to use items to take the brunt of the hits, and you to spam him with your magic. Some good tips are as follows:

• Take along a melee follower. That way, you can prolong yourself for a little while. A really good one to take with you would be an essential follower (such as Mjoll the Lioness), since they can just keep getting back up and helping out.
• Summon Karstagg will also help in that regard. He's a really powerful ally, and does help out a lot against him, but he has to be used sparingly (with only 3 uses of the spell available).

There are also some nice perks and spells that can help out as well:

• Dragon Aspect then Dragonhide are really handy shouts to have, as they will beef up your damage, and your resistances against him (I say then because they do not stack).
• If you have the vampire lord ability, I would recommend using that as well. This will give you some extra damage against him.
• If you want to be mean about it, if you've done destruction magic (which it sounds like you have), you could just keep using impact, getting your hits in (with you and your partners), then impact him when he gets out of it. Rinse and repeat.

Your lighting storm and fire storm should be ok against him. He just has that much health. Although, getting a few conjuration spells would certainly not hurt, as they can take away some of the attention from you and move it onto them (buying you some time to get some hits in).I believe his magic resistance is Slightly higher than his physical, so if its possible to use archery, I would recommend that as well. If not, the magic should be good enough.

Solution 2:

Dual casting destruction spell should stagger him, giving you time to increase the distance and increase the damage.

Alternatively, since the fight takes place on a cliff, you can shout him down. It won't kill him, but will help.

Source for these and other tactics : http://elderscrolls.wikia.com/wiki/Talk:The_Ebony_Warrior

Additional source about his strengths and weaknesses:

http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/615803-the-elder-scrolls-v-skyrim/65646888

Additionally the Slow Time shout will allow you to reposition, and he doesn't seem to be immune to slows, so you can try slowing him if he gets too close