I havent played Skyrim since around the time it was released. Im considering going back and doing a lot of the things that I missed. I play as a mage with heavy armor. My armor enchants allowed me to cast spells at like 95% reduction or something like that. This was pretty much required as a spellcaster.

Did anything change since then? Is there a way to increase damage of spells or are you pretty much stuck using only high level spells with their effects (Basically cant really use the flamethrower spell since its low level, does low damage, and there is no high level version).

So my question is, how is magic doing now a days? Is it still pretty much a requirement to have 90%+ spell cost reduction armor enchants and run with adept+ spells? Thanks