So.... how much does it cost to be a strong magician?

I used to be a bit of a damage whore. I bought the most expensive equips, fought for every point of attack, etc. Then I went to Yollande for the 2x month-long event, and leveled a Bishop to 131, (20th in the server at the end of the event,) using a 2 dex bathrobe, 2 str Stolen Fence, and a 3 point below average clean Black Umbrella. (I had 7 starting luk.) I spent next to nothing on gear, and everything on pots to fund the next day's training. People who spent time during the event merchanting trained much less than I did. That's when I learned that while equipment is nice, lvling to a high point is MUCH more important. Let's say your magician is equipped like a damage whore, but my lukless magician is 40 lvls higher. That's 200 intelligence right there, which is not that easy to get from gear. I have much better equips now that I am back on my home server, but I am just saying, you do not need gazillions of mesos to have fun in this game. If you have to choose between spending NX on Gachopon and spending it on 2x cards so you level faster, it would be wise to pick the 2x cards. If anything, a 4th job character can waste some time collecting Ilbis at Wolf Spiders, or doing APQ easily, and the mesos come easier then anyway.