I mentioned playing through as a Mage a while ago, but I never went through with it. I am now going through it again and I have gotten to the Greaybeards so far.

PLEASE tell me it gets better.

I am use to being an 'agile warrior'. Block, One-Handed, Light-Armor, Archery, etc - that's my kind of playstyle. I dislike the big bulky tank warriors, and I don't play well with the sneaky, elusive, assassin type. But Mages piqued my interest for while now, mostly the field of Conjuration.

But it feels so boring to me. See an enemy, and simply hold down the LT and the RT and light'em up with flames, and usually move backwards if it gets difficult. I have been using the same spells, and Novice Robes since escaping Helgen, and I'm playing on either Master or Expert. I don't feel any fun in it, and I don't get the rush or excitement I get when I am a warrior. Conjuring a Flame Atronarch was fun for a little bit, but it got boring cause I wasn't doing anything (and why waste mana on an Atronarch when I can use it for Flames and Frostbite).

Maybe it's just me, and maybe I need to go back to being a warrior. Am I just not playing this archetype right?

Just wait until you see the cast costs for higher-tier destruction spells.

Destruction magic got the crap end of the stick in the grand scheme of things. It is utterly lacking as a kill skill in the vanilla game.

At higher levels, it will get a lot harder to kills enemies. The Atros will be a welcomed addition. I find the most fun about being a Conjurer is avoiding combat all together.

Mages have always been my main playstyle in TES games. However, in Skyrim, I gave up playing my Mage after a while, and went to a stealthy archer (usually my secondary playstyle). I ended up playing the archer far more often. Mages in Skyrim just don't seem as fun to me as in Oblivion and Morrowind.

I usually play as a mage, and I also found being a Destruction mage dull. My favourite playstyle was as an Illusionist healer. But that suits me partly because I don't really like combat, and certainly not combat that requires manual dexterity. So if you've been happy as a melee warrior you may not enjoy it as much, or want to do as much running away as I had to.

Magic's also handy for an archer, thanks to runes and bound bows, although one can easily become overpowered that way.

Well thats why I do a battlemage character because while I am waiting for my mana to recharge I can wack them

It's your choice, When you level up your level and skills, Enemies get much harder. But i prefer the "Warrior" type.

Yeah well, RomanNumeralII has got me wanting to go punch a dragon to death, so I guess I'll start over as Captain America again.

I never went Pure mage, But I do like using Magic, I use it just as much as my Two-Handed Sword.
I mostly just use Restoration and Destruction (Ice/Frost Only)

Since my archery skill is dismal, I usually use Destruction magic for my distance attack (Fireball is my bread and butter spell; even a miss will affect the target). However, I agree that it's limited, especially at higher levels when it's barely effective. There are ways that it can be modded so that it's minimal- or zero-cost, but an enemy will still take a lot of pummeling before it goes down.

My preferred use of Destruction, honestly, is to dual-wield it with a good close-in weapon like a war axe or mace. I blast my foe with Flames until it gets close enough to hit, then use my weapon to finish the job. Shouts like Become Ethereal or Whirlwind Sprint allow me to get in killing range without soaking up too much damage, and Dragonrend brings dragons within reach of my blade.

I think that there are two ways Destruction could be fixed:

1. Leave the zero-cost potential intact, and fortify it as follows:

Novice: No change
Apprentice: x1.2
Adept: x1.4
Expert: x1.6
Master: x1.8

2. Cap the cost reduction at, say 85% (so a spell normally requiring 200 magicka HAS to use up at least 30), and fortify it thus:

Novice: No change
Apprentice: x1.5
Adept: x2
Expert: x2.5
Master: x3

My stealth archer, with master in light armor, sneak, archery and one-handed, used some destruction at the side. I think I had it leveled to about 50. An ancient dragon attacked and I was having a hard time killing it with my bow and melee weapons. Solution? Swap to the firebolt spell and dual-cast stagger the dragon to death...

Nope. Clearly we were all supposed to play the stereotypical viking warrior, nord dragonborn like all the posters and promotional material tell us to.

I find it funny how Skyrim has a stereotypical main character (as in, used for all promotional things), but I don't remember anyone like that for any other Elder Scrolls game.