I usually play a mage but after lvl 17 I decided to become a fighter. My fighter is now lvl 40 and stuck on that level for some reason. Somebody told me it was a bug so I gave it a rest in the hope of a patch and went back to my Mage.

But oh goodness, is it actually possible to play a pure mage in this game??? My destruction is level 70 and I used my skill points on all possible destruction choices. I also put most of the magica/health etc points into Magica. However

a) spells svck, they are either too weak or take too long to cast, or there is some strange delay before they actually fire off
B) despite having more than 300 magica I keep running out of magica, staves are not very useful/strong either, when mobs race up to you and after two bashes you're dead
c) armor spells cost magica and by the time the enemy reaches you, you are out of magica
d) I cannot 'manufacture' or buy enough potions to keep me alive and in magica at this rate
e) 'helpers' are no help because of friendly fire. They run and start bashing the enemy but the enemies all target me of course as the main enemy, helpers apparently do not attract any aggro
f) you put fire or whatever on the enemy and your 'helper' of course burns too because he is bashing the enemy in close up melee

has anybody actually managed to play a pure mage and how did you go about it? tips would be helpful, I don't think it would be spoilers.

This post is prompted after I came across a dragon and after I used up all my magica, and all potions and had an archer helper and conjured atronach, I still died and the dragon was not even half health. This at Lvl 17. My difficulty setting is on apprentice for the mage.