1. Make the Augmentation Perks 50% boost then 100% boost.
2. Swap the effects of Alchemy and Enchanting, Enchanting becomes damage boost. Applies to other schools too.
3. Spells should be able to be buffed I.e Flames becomes Intense Flames (w/ double damage). Or Spellmaking.
4. Dual Casting costs 2.8x one normal cast but does 2.5x damage. Impact has 30% chance to activate.
5. More environmental uses, eg. Shock spells do area damage in water.
6. Decreased spell cost for higher tier spells.
7. No stumping of Magicka regeneration when casting and/or in combat.

This would be very easy to change ( maybe not 5) and would make Destruction a valid school.

Even simpler:

-Cut mana costs ~20%
-Raise initial damage of spells ~20%
-Spell damage scales
-Sneak bonus


Additional simple tweaks:
-No mana regeneration combat penalty.
-Make the Equilibrium spell trade Stamina for Mana instead of Health for Mana.

Well, I think that should be in addition to what I already put. Basically, Destruction needs more ways of increasing damage. It's base damage is decent, but soon outclassed by Melee.

Reducing mana cost 20% and increasing damage 20% is almost exactly the same thing as lowering difficulty setting from Master to Expert. Interesting you came up with that number.

I've had no problem with destruction in higher levels. Then again, I do like to mix it with illusion and alteration.

I personally think Equilibrium should stay as it is. It would be way too overpowered if it only drained stamina since mages don't even need stamina. I'm all for different takes or variations on skill trees, but sometimes it can be made to be too easy.

The only real reason mages need stamina is if they need a weapon... and they only need a weapon if their magic fails or they run out of mana. Now, if a mage doubles down on magic use by refilling his mana with his stamina, then if he still has to go to the weapon he is in bigger trouble. Right now you might as well go to the weapon and use your stamina if you're all out of mana and potions. If you are going to use your stamina and you're a mage, then you might as well use it on spells.

I like 1, 3 and 5 the others would change the game too dramaticaly and make it more confusing.

The basic problem is destruction damage costs far to much for how much magicka it costs to implement it. Even if one reduces the cost to a manageable level for all that effort they could be swinging a sword for as much damage as as a dual cast expert level spell. Now here is an idea, instead of having Novice, Apprentice, Adept, Expert and Master Destruction perks reducing the cost by half it would increase the damage by 50%. Cost reduction for destruction would be the exclusive to items, and perhaps capped at 80%.

Perhaps a simpler method could be cap fortify destruction at 80% however it would both reduce the cost and increase the damage.

I can see how 3 and 5 would be a big change but how would increasing the augmented element perks be to dramatic?

^ This. Particularly #2, which is perhaps the most dramatic but also the most sensible suggestion I've seen to date. So sensible it almost seems obvious after seeing it in black and white, almost like it should have been obvious to the devs when they were testing the damn game before release that alchemy was doing enchanting job and vice versa.

I'm fairly bummed mages aren't seeing any improvements (particularly new spells or combos, the latter concept being showcased in GameJam) forthcoming in Dawnguard...

I know im really sad about it too I want to play a conjuration/destro Mage but it's so mix work to get destruction to work properly and when it does the damage is pitiful

I didn't to it for that, though I'm not surprised the the 20% difference as there is 5 levels. I was torn between using 20% and 25% and it was just an approximation. At the beginning, before I started using mods, I dropped down to Apprentice. That level of difficulty suited vanilla Destruction better, though it was still tedious. Now I use scaling and sneak damage bonus mods, then the 4x Enchants mod so that my higher level characters have the clear superiority they should while getting to there is still sort of honest work.