How are Different Mages 'Handled'?

So F/P have more variated pot cost, depending on the person and map, while I/L will get pretty much the same cost?
How are they in bosses? I mean, they won't be using Mages for an attacker until... ever, but are either class preferred as a mob controller?

mages wont be attacking much at bosses regardless of which mage you are. The strengths of a mage are in their ability to do moderate damage to each of large numbers of monsters, which results in a large amount of damage over time since bosses are single monsters, most other classes will outdamage you. as a mob controller, they may be useful, but there aren't many spaces for mob controllers compared to spaces that are there for attackers

Esplain please? :[

I was looking at the speeds from a thread I closed out so I won't link, and it seems F/P are really slow. O_O
Ice Strike's 66 per minute, while Explosion's in it's low 40s! :f6:
I thought they were slow before, just what I heard, but that's rediculous. :O

yes, explosion is an unbearably slow skill. without booster to speed it up, you probably won't be using it much at all. the primary way f/p mages train is using mist with poison to finish off monsters. later, you get meteo, which is (sadly) about the same speed for like 100x the damage.