I fully agree.
Right now though the dev team seem to think something along the lines of for INT:
FS and Msuket are long range
BB and IG are Medium Range
Rapier and VG for melee range
But it just does not work in the slightest and is terrible design.
What I’d love to see for mages eventually (Just abilities and Ultimates perks alter stuff):
-
Fire Staff:
Pyromaniac tree:
Meteor Shower - No longer Channelled creates an aoe that deals 25% weapon damage a tick and applies a stack of burning each hit
Flame Wave - Launch a wave of Fire 3m wide and 15 metres long (perks to extend/widen/cause multiple waves) that deals 50% WD and applies Burning each time it hits
Enkindle - Targetted aoe that doubles the ammount of burning stacks on enemies hit.
Ultimate - Everburn - Burn can now stack up to 8 times and causing burn refreshes the timer on existing burns.
Explosive tree:
Fireball - Same as it is now.
Fire Pillar - Same as it is now applies 1 stack of burning.
Combust - Deals heavy damage on the target and target explodes burning stacks are consumed to deal extra damnage
Ultimate - Brightburn - Abilities in explosive tree are 100% Crit gauranteed -
Fire Gauntlet:
Scorch tree:
Flametrower: as it is now
Scorched Earth: 3m aoe around you that constantly applies burning in the area
Burnout: Dash forward instantly (Think rapier speed) causing burning to all enemies you pass through, upgradable to allow you to press again within 2-3 seconds to return to starting position and cause a secondary dash
Ultimate - Enflamed - Enemies within 5 meaters take 25% more damage from burning
Magma tree:
Harden: Magma hardens around you incresing Fortify for you and team mates nearby (Taunt with Carnelian Gem if they allow shields with gauntlets.)
Flame Punch: An upercut that deals Fire damage and apply 1 burning.
Incinerate: You explode dealing aoe damage around yourself in a large area and apply 1 burning (IF they allow shields with gauntlets in the future add taunt to this with Carnelian)
Ultimate - Liquid Form - Attacks in this tree cannot be blocked as effectively and you periodically gain fortify on ability use.
The big real problem is the lack of experience ppl have and mage bad reputation
As for mutations we all know that it’s literally anti-mage mechanics only
Many say it’s hard for healers cuz they stand far away or mages pull aggro. That player skill fault from mage, and the healer if he can’t handle one person far away. Even melee mess up more than mage. It’s not wep fault at the end
2nd dps wise only vg as melee int is viable in any mutation and it dose match most melee dps or even out dps it except ofc for hatchet or GS light build .
Fs is weak in pve and only good in genesis
Ig is secondary wep and good for cc
3rd lack of weps int to switch . There’s no lightening wep or arcane wep to give mages more options in mutations
When i said fs is weak is because the lock animation from it skills and light/heavy attacks that why it feel you deal less dmg and not consistently dpsing . Which explain why vg as void blade is stronger cuz of it fast light attacks
I think we need more mage weps like lightening and arcane to have more options in pve
Either remove the lock animations from heavy/light attacks or increase FS and IG base dmg
Lastly some skills from all current mages wep need rework or adjustment cuz they are useless ex: balafel tether, meteor shower, icy wind and more.
FS is the most wep that it skills need rework and adjustments
If you play healer at m10 you will know it
I play healer in m10 and always allow one mage to join that why i know
Last 2 day i go random group with a tank with gs and round shield + 3 mage, welcome in my world
What am trying to say it’s player fault not the wep fault
Even melee can grab aggro and run far away and panic himself alongside the healer
Am not saying you are wrong but the blame is the player skiil that start grabbing aggro before tank
Also holy crab 3 mages lol
Bet the tank was chilling alone
Problem is as healer you know god setup beacon, sacred, light or divine or sacred, orb, light or divine. Your heal only effect the tank and you can only single target heal dps. Image it😅
There was a run yesterday whose i was a tank. A mage took aggo and changed target, my healer friend was died like 4x that run and the mage died many time. And with normal run we done it in 22-24 min max
Yeah i know the pain but any good player won’t mess up the aggro even if it was range or mage
That why ppl blame build and not the player being bad . Which result other ppl think mage or any other build in general suck
Yeah with skill you can go meele as mage but if a player choose to play mage they won’t go near boss lile meele 
The mage you had suck that why lol he need to learn how to play his build
Well mage at m10 mean he gear up ward as mage, must be a elite
Also just wanted to say mages don’t stand 100m away non of the mages can use it potential full dmg that far. They stay mid-close range . They end up getting the aoe heal
I played healer and mage in all m10
As mage dps wise i did all m10 speed runs( depending on elemental modifier reduction the mutation has)
As healer i met very bad mages that end up killing me but i also met many good mages that even saved me from my healing aggro when i mess up and they always receive all my aoe heals
All the complain about mages being far is player skill issue not the wep and good mage who want to maximise dmg can’t stand far away always mid to close range and healer won’t have problem healing
Well i never meet any good mage in my weekly run. Critical would be Isabella if u have a range dps. I make run only meele dps for now. I’m to tired to see the healer or myself stress out about it
Well that your luck is bad with players
Believe me i met more melee dps that worse than what you encountered
At the end in general i never trust random groups in mutation cuz most ppl just play braindead without doing mechanics right or just mess up aggro . That also apply to some healers who just only to camp faraway and spam 1-2 aoe heals then go make coffee
Note: i used to be one of these healers before lol
No chance you can chill as healer in m10 xd
That true that why i said i used to be like that thought its easy at first when i tried healing . I was very bad lol
And sadly many healers are like that in m10 radnom groups .
Well all my point is blaming the wep and not the player being bad is what make ppl just assume that any certain build is bad
I wish ppl try different builds with all kind of perks to see the full potential it can reach instead of watching tier list weps or reading fourm from random people and believe it
In my case i don’t believe on what ppl say unless i test it myself with all different perks and understand/practice whatever the build is