Before, I wasn't very magic centric. I never noticed anything wrong with Destruction, but then I wasn't really beyond the threshold everyone was talking about.

Now, I am more of a magic user and I am also level 45. I have 1 of the 2 part perks that increase damage for both Fire and Storm spells. Using Sparks or Flames, even on a Draugr Deathlord, owns the crap of them. And these are 1st level spells, for crying out loud!

I mean, I notice the numbers themselves don't change; it is still 8dps. But the amount of magicka used is insanely reduced, allowing me to cast it almost indefinitely (and I don't have the -100% mana cost thing).The only things these spells don't seem to hurt are dragons; but the "bolt" spells do a decent enough damage and don't cost too much, that if I keep hitting them, they die. So what is the problem with the scaling of Destruction people are talking about? May it be your difficulty? I have been playing on the default (Adept) so maybe it has to do with playing on harder difficulties.

still being able to hurt things doesn't equal scaling. The fact that 8 Damage would take about 10 seconds to kill anything with 80 HP needs to be noted here, and that by 45 I believe mobs are generally walking about with over 300HP, bosses over 500HP.

Costs decrease but damage does not increase. At a cost of one magicka point per second (with my enchantments), sure, I can wreck ANYTHING with flames...given enough time. But it's much easier to just dual-cast fireballs or the like.

I think spell making to at least let you adjust the mana cost vs power of a spell shouldn't be unreasonable.

I hear it gets much worse once you get into the 50's 60's and 70's, then you also start losing some of your other magic to level scaling

Well Deathlords have like 1300 hp, Dragon priests 1500, Ancient dragons 3000. Double that on master essentially.

The 8DPS doesn't even change when you have the damage perks; it should display 10DPS with the perks I have. It doesn't APPEAR that it's still doing that paltry amount, though, as Wolves and other low level creatures that took a bit to kill with the Flames spell at first level now die in quick burst of the gout. Obviously, I can't compare to the higher level mobs since they don't appear until I am the right level anyway, but they aren't taking an extremely long time to kill, but it is taking longer than the lower level guys, obviously.

I can say firmly, though, that I don't believe the "gout" style spells were meant for use full time as a pure mage. They are more effectively used with a melee weapon in your other hand, since they are the weakest spells, but the continuous attacks allow you to deal damage while hitting them with your sword/mace/axe.

I didnt know that haha

Cheers