I have a regular axe and shield type of guy, perks in blocking magic, not much points in enchanting atm. So I was having a tour in woods and bumped into some fort with full of annoying destruction mages. Went further in chopping these bathrobed medieval nerds into pieces until I got into some big hall. Saw two guys standing up on some platform upstairs. Shot an arrow into other guys eye killing him instantly, and I have way bad archery skill btw. Well, this other guy starts approaching me and I pull my axe out and shield front. I notice the name of this guy, Pyromancer. He throws a couple of fire bolts at me and I loose some health, I get close and start making chopping movements on his face, drink a couple of health pots to get to get in good health again. Weirdly he just stands there not even staggering or losing much health even if I power hit him in his forehead. Suddenly I just fly bacwards burning having almost full health dropped to 0. With one spell. I tried again starting from quick save, same thing again, total 4-5 times. What's this bathrobed destruction jesus doing in my game? I'm trying to have fun here.

Heavy traffic on this forum. Never even saw my post on first page.

If you have patch 1.2, all the elemental resistances are broken.

As a mage, I appreciate the insanely powerful mage mobs. They're the only ones who ever even have a chance to touch me. If this just happened in the last couple of days, it might also be what Danbuter said, though

i have yet to see a pyromancer.
But i think the spell he used was firestorm, it did the same thing to me when fighting a dragon priest. full health to instant death.
Go in for a few hits then run away, they seem to use it when you stay close to them for to long.

I've run into a few; the circumstances are funny when it happens. A mage by himself in a room. Enter myself and my companion. Boom, he conjures an frost atronach and one-shots me with some type of ice attack. I rinse and repeat probably 5 times with the same result. On my sixth try, same buffs and stuff I dispatch him with little to no trouble. It was like the difficulty tanked two settings (I play on expert).

Yeah I've run into these guys before, can definitely be a pain in the ass if you don't get the jump on them. Have you got power bash unlocked yet to interrupt their spells? That's usually how I take them down if they can cop a hit.

Yeah, I finally got him down bashing my shield into his teeth after every axe swing. Frustratingly hard to kill this guy as melee fighter. If you miss with your interrupt as he dances around like late Michael Jackson you get burned down fast or loose all your health pots at least. I can't really afford to let that fire bolt dispenser get too far from me either. I have to see if that last blocking perk will help defeating those easier. I have currently blocking skill at 80 and something so a bit to go to get that. Maybe I'll go sparring with some mudcrabs to hit 100.

What's with the uber falmer, too? You know, when I first met the Falmers and skulkers and stuff, they were kind of rough but doable. As I levelled, they got as easy as bandits. Now I run into those shadowmasters and they wtfown me if I don't spam bash and block most of their hits.

Mages are definitely tough, though. You run into mostly junky ones that get 2-shotted then suddenly you meet the tank-mage who two shots you. Spellbreaker shield greatly helps me out against these super mages and vampires... As long as the ward goes up in time, that is. Nice for ancient dragons, too.

Just on the road the leads out of Winterhold, you will run into a fort with some skeletons and conjurers. The two conjurers there (Ascended Conjurers at my level) 2-shot me with ice spike. I thought the game was hard then, but eventually I started running into bandit archers who 1-shot me. The enemies in this game get ridiculously overpowered at times. I am convinced it is a glitch, a miscalculation in their stats or maybe an oversight in level-scaling.

Pyromancer and Cryomancer are both capable of using the Expert level spells I believe tho at longer range will use the Adept level spells (as these are AoEs and if they miss hitting you directly they may still apply damage from the AoE effect). Pyromancer and Cryomancer are the destruction school equivalents of dungeon bosses, like Dragon Priests, or bandit chiefs and necromancer masters. Occasionally some random encounters will spawn a Pyromancer fighting a Cryomancer, if you get too close they will turn on you however.

Some dungeons are designed with a minimum level, so it could be you wondered into a dungeon meant for a higher leveled player then you yourself are.

Once in a while I run into Super Bandit. You know the guy.