I'm confused. My first more magicka focused character with 100 in destruction and every perk on the tree checked off had these skills rendered almost useless. Yet my new character, which throughout has been more sword oriented, has no perks what so ever and only on level 37 in destruction just killed 5 wolves with basic flamesa in a matter of about 5 seconds. The few times I've used Magicka with this character I've noticed the spells are way stronger. Would have thought the scaling would have made the spells a lot weaker, but perhaps it has had the opposite effect? Both are Dark Elves, though my new character is female, while the last was male. Could anyone explain?

Many things in Skyrim don't scale with player level. Wolves are one example of this. They are probably second weakest creatures in the game, after Skeevers.

It would've been weird if you don't kick ass when fighting wolves

Try fighting a Draugr instead, or a Giant, with flames.

yeah wolves are very weak enemies,try those flames against a bear and see what happens.

Your way more extra health at such high level would render their attacks almost useless and they don't really have HP to spare so flames just kill 'em off before you notice any dent in your own HP

Done this as well. Quite fast, though I had to use a potion or two or when fighting the giant.

Are the two characters on the same difficulty level? And what is that level?

Both are on apprentice.