i wholeheartedly agree with OP, mages are at the bottom of the barrel. No survivability, no escape, receives a ton of damage - has non existent output damage. Cancel mages are as useless as ever, ppl die buffless - stand up with sublime and rebuff and meanwhile they do that your mage party is dead to 1 SHREK, i repeat... ONE SHREK that has x100 the amount output damage than any mage. Your perfect example that the administration totally forgot about this class is Pantheon, the skill that gives 90% cooldown to every single skill works for every classes skills BUT NOT for Arcane Shield (Useless dogshit) nor Enlightenment, makes u wonder a bit lol. SPH with Anakim transform is the only viable option but that is 30 min of having ''fun'' till 1-2-3 SHREKS jump on you and send u back to Interlude Chronicles.
P.S to the OG member saying that we use soft etc, i can legit post a fraps from my PoV and u will still find an excuse for yourself and ur clan, there's no point arguing with you, ironically you are as useful as mages on x1000
P.s.s this is how i felt after Valakas yesterday