And yes. Magic missiles is the sole PVE power that's useful against mobs (fireball is at best mediocre) Dark And Darker Gold.

The problem with mages is ironmace has balanced them around flat damage bonuses that occur multiple times per spell cast.

Fireball hits for IMPACT damages + SPREAD damage+ X Damage ticks for BURN. Each of them procs flat damage mods.

Magic missiles can fire like 10 or 12 for damage of 10 or 12. each of which boosts damage.

For instance that it does 10 instances of damage, then four flat damage will add 40 flat, plus your magic damage % modifier . There's also a modifier for head shots that are critical shots(or reductions in leg limbs). This could get to the point EACH missile can be hit for about the equivalent of 50 to 60. That is incredibly powerful.

But to your point. The Mages are an ANTI-Boss as well as ANTI-ranged. They can kill boss mobs, such as the knight, ogre, wisps, etc. quickly and easily. They can take down archers in a safe way and can take out mages safely. They can kill bugs by using fireballs(might require more than one early). They have no shooter drop in range but the game does have extremely small sight lines as well as a poor rendering range of the baseline. In general, mages would be perfectly fine if they started with the crystal sword or dagger+orb. The staff they start with provides 0 magic damage for each spell, but a terribly physical damage.

Wizards are less than 10 points of strength. Therefore, the 19 base damage from weapons can be reduced You're probably 35% or so less than base Dark And Darker Gold for sale. And if you strike limbs, it's even lower. Against armor, its even lower.