Do you want to play this game, yet don't want go melee? Do you wish to fight at long distances? Do you want to blast fools with highly destructive magic? Then the mage is for you!

The Mage is the second character that can be selected in the game, and fulfill the role of the ranged class in the game. Her basic attack is a shot that deals 15 damage, and her power attack deals similar damage but have longer range and pierces 3 enemies at once. The catch is that it requires energy to even do the basic attack, so she's very dependent on energy. Her starting robe gives her close-ranged flame spray that interrupts and deals DoT damage, while her starting tome gives her a gust spell that deals damage, knocks away enemies, as well as nullify hostile magic. Her upgrades tweaks her arsenal even more, yet she has really low health, because she's the game only truly ranged character.

Oof....did we get inside the tower? Oh well, good thing I have magic on my side. Wait, where's my sister!

Abbie Banes and her sister Gracie Banes are young apprentice mages that lives on the Commonwealth. Her family name, Banes, brings her shame instead of pride, due to the actions of her disgraced grandfather, Archivist Banes. Archivist Banes worked and lived with the Imperate noble Baron Amaranth, who resides on the Keep named after him. Abbie and Gracie decides to investigate the Keep as well as to truly learn about her grandfather, whose traces on history was all but removed by the Commonwealth.

-Her basic attacks are ranged. allowing her remain out of melee reach.
-Her shots deals 15 damage, making her have the highest base damage in the game, and allows her to kill certain enemies in one shot
-Power shot is have even longer range and pierce up to three foes, allowing her to lure and deal with crowds.
-Her robes and tomes ammo are both powerful and plenty, and usually are great "get out" cards.
-With upgrades, she can restore energy by using her ammo abilities, allowing for more aggressive playstyle
-Scrolls. One-time use spells that are in nature reactive. Spells such as Fireball and Ray of Light allows her to destroy crowds, while summon spells gives her an invincible ally that deals constant damage. Lightning Zap deals insanely high damage

-Lowest health in the game, starting at whopping 21 health, and upgrades only raise her health to 26 HP (28 with paladin gift), 1 HP lower than base spellsword. A difficult room can end your mage run quickly.
-Shots requires energy to shoot, this forces you to manage your shots well or else you might die from not having enough energy for that crucial shot.
-Her basic attack starts with a casting lag, slower than even the warrior's greatsword. This can get her hit by melee enemies before she even gets a chance to attack.
-Her starting robes and tome are short ranged, which is great for defending her against melee units, yet significantly less useful against ranged enemies. She can get emberforges for more versatile abilities, but this takes a while.before it gets going
-Her piercing shot only pierces 3 enemies, making it underwhelming against crowds. She can get other power attacks, but they tend to either have shorter range or has even less capabilities against crowds.
-Her shots aren't wide enough to hit diagonal directions, due to the fact this game utilize 4 attack 8 movement system. Classes that have swords have arc that's wide enough to hit enemies in diagonal direction, but the mage doesn't have this luxury and as such leaves her exposed to enemies from diagonal direction.
-Some of the spells are underwhelming. Earth Spike stuns, but only deals heavy damage to single enemies. Ice Spikes usually only stuns without dealing much damage. And unlike Spellsword, she has no ways to upgrade spells

Her low health + ranged options suggest that she's intended to play defensively. Her greatest asset is that she can fight on a distance, allowing her to be out of melee range. Keep enemies at distance, and use your robes and tomes to go ham in case the enemy got too close in your comfort zone. And don't forget to move. Staying still might be fine if you are facing only melee enemies, but you still get shot by mages and even certain melee units can quickly close the distance, so after shooting be sure to move. Kiting is a very viable option against certain enemies, but you can't move and shoot at the same time, so it's advised to take care of weaker enemies first.

A strategy that's commonly used for her is camping. By using power shot at the edge of a room, she can hopefully get few shots ii and bait enemies out of room, making them much easier to deal. Any classes with ranged projectile can do this trick, but mage is the best because she has lots of ranged options as well as not having to use ammo to use as projectile. This tactic however doesn't work in certain rooms, so you need other strategies if you want to finish dungeons with her.

This is where upgrades comes in. One of her upgrades offers her energy refund for using robes and tome. This changes everything for Abbie. You may now have means to restore energy, which allows you to shoot more, Your abilities can now also combo with your shots, allowing you take out enemies faster. Your pattern goes from shoot > dodge > shoot into shoot > tome/robes > shoot > tome/robes.
You now have option to be more aggressive as mage, relying on overwhelming damage to kill enemies before they can even react.

Being aggressive as mage might be risky, especially if you don't memorize the enemies attack pattern yet. But not only it's fun, its also way faster than luring enemies one by one. Just don't stay in one place and shoot in hopes to kill your enemies fast, unless you play this game long enough to feel just how many shots needed to kill enemy.

What kind of an embarrassing mage only knows two spells? Luckily with the emberforge, she can get other spells, though in exchange she forgets how to cast the spell she previously have. The emberforges give mages a fairly versatile arsenal. While she still keeps the same staff weapon she has, the forge drastically changes how her tomes and robes work. Her various robes offers wide variety of crowd control, ranging from a magic nullifying field that slows to a stomp that stuns enemies. Her tomes on the other hand are damaging spells that has certain utility. Remember that those upgrades only last on the current run.

Silver Eye Staff

Increase crit chance by 4%. It's still pretty much the default mage with higher crit chance, which can be combined with other crit chance items. Level 2 increase crit chance to 7%.
Fulgurite Rod

Power attack launches three non-piercing bolts that spreads. Pretty much a shotgun that can deal a whopping 30 damage if used on point blank range and if all the shots connect, making it the number one killer of bosses and tough enemies. Level 2 reduce energy cost of power atack
Stave of Vazar

Deals 10 damage per shot, but has lower energy cost and have faster fire rate as well. Power attack slows enemies but has lower range. In most cases, 10 damage shots still 2 shots most enemies, and you have faster fire rate, so your DPS is overall higher. Power attack also slows enemies, making it especially useful for kiting strategies. Level 2 reduces energy cost for both your basic and power attacks even further.
Salamander's Breath

Shorter range, but attacks pierces 2 enemies as well as having a bit faster fire rate. Power attack has twice the range and pierce all foes. The short range forces her to play aggressively, but in exchange you have higher DPS and can easily deals with crowds due to pierce. Level 2 have reduce the loss of range, making the staff more user-friendly
Spiraled Stone

Your standard attack has longer range and power attack becomes a 360 degree close range AoE attack. The extended range allows her to camp easier as well as making the distance between her and enemies even longer. The power attack attacks on all degrees, so circling enemies and spamming power attack becomes a viable option. Level 2 extends the range of both standard and power attack further.
Cloudcast

Your power attack is now a backward dash that stuns enemies and nullify magic. The stun is treated as ranged stun, as such it can stun multiple times as well reliably stun tough enemies. This is very useful for crowd control, as well as protecting mage from mages. However, having no power shots makes her camping options limited, so be prepared to not camp when using this staff. Level 2 reduces energy cost of power attack

Pyromagi Codex

Increase crit chance by 3%. Crits also affects the AoE of abilities, so a crit mage devastate area with huge AoE spells. Level 2 raise crit chance to 5%
Manablade Arts

Swings a huge sword that deals 15 damage as well reflect projectiles that has a chance to stun enemies. An instant power attack is always welcome, especially since it reflects projectiles as well. Level 2 increase the damage into 20, one-shotting most mobs
Tome of Storms

Point blank electric shock that stuns and deals 15 damage to enemies. Nerfed from mobile, which used to deal 20 damage, but still useful against tough enemies. Level 2 deals 20 damage, one shotting common mobs.
Icebound Texts

Launches a sphere of ice that pulls enemies in the point of impact and then stun them. A very good crowd control that can be used with conjunction of other AoE spells to destroy mobs. Level 2 makes the AoE even higher, allowing it to pull even more mobs.
Earthshaper Lexicon

Throws a rock that deals 10 damage, have high range, and pierce all foes. Destroy crowds like nothing else from long range to boot. Level 2 deals 15 damage.
Welkin Syllabus

Throws a slow moving wind that deals 10 damage, pierces 4 foes, and nullifies incoming magic. Can act as pseudo-cover to hide from ranged enemies and also push away melee units. Level 2 pierces 6 enemies.

Typhoon Mantle

Increase crit chance by 3%. Remember that crit increases AoE of abilities as well. Level 2 increase crit chance by 5%.
Walwin's Frock

Backward dash that leaves a clone that distracts enemies. Turn around and dash so you can shoot enemies quickly while they are misdirected to your clone. Level 2 increase distance of dash and your clone last longer.
Blazeweave

Have higher range and ignites enemies, dealing DoT damage. 15 health enemies can die from a single blast and then waiting the DoT to tick. Level 2 make the AoE larger, hitting more enemies.
Gelid Embrace

Toss down a magic field that slows enemies and nullifies any magic that enters the field. Pretty much a portable Hourglass, but can also be directly put on mages to essentially "silence" them. Level 2 makes the AoE larger.
Tremor Garb

Creates a mighty stomp that stuns and knocks back enemies and nullify magic. Essentially a timeout, creating breathing space for you to plan your next moves. Level 2 makes the AoE even larger.
Thunder Gown

Creates a cloud that zaps 3 times but also uses 3 charges at once. The zap damage becomes stronger, starting at 5, 10, then 15 damage zaps. Useful for nuking tough enemies. Level 2 zaps 4 times, the damage pattern becomes 5,10,15,15.

Vitae Tonic

Heals you. Useful because it allows you to have extra HP, which the mage desperately wants
Aged Hourglass

Creates a circle that slows nearby enemies and cancels magic. Save this against rooms filled with mages
Time Dust

Increase movement speed and energy recovery. This allows you to spam shots due to energy recovery.
Scroll of Fireball

Flings a fireball that stuns and deals 20 damage. Useful crowd destroyer
Scroll of Frost Shards

Unleash swarm of frost bolts that stuns and deals damage. Use this as emergency get out button
Scroll of Lightning

Invokes bolts of lightning to strike foes. Deals insanely high damage against single targets, making it a good answer for difficult tough foes.
Scroll of Light Ray

Shines a piercing beam of light that deals 20 damage and stuns foes. Try to line up enemies to deal maximum damage.
Scroll of Earth Spike

Throws a deadly spike, dealing 20 damage to a single target and stunning the rest, Decent when you need to instantly stun an enemy.
Scroll of Summon Sprite

Summons a sprite that deals damage. Handy for boosting overall DPS
Scroll of Summon Infernite

Summon an infernite that deals AoE damage. Use this to destroy crowds

Arcane Inspiration
Increase energy recovery. Energy = Attacks. Very important because no energy mage is dead mage
Waste Not, Want Not
Has a chance to conserve used tomes or robes. Mage abilities are powerful and versatile, as such upgrade this so you have more spells to play with
Fledgling Wizard
Increased recovery from fountain. Less important for mages, because mages can avoid getting hit in the first place, but still more room for mistakes is always good.
Practiced Channeler
Increase crit chance. Crits also have larger AoE, so its useful for mage.
Book Smarts
Using robes or tomes charge refunds energy. Most important upgrade for mage, because it allows you to restore energy, which means you can attack far more frequently. Upgrade this before anything else.
Stubborn Blood
Increase maximum HP. Mage will reach 26 HP, 1 HP lower then base spellsword. This helps mostly in boss battles, where the ability to take an extra hit is key to survive.
Resourceful Scholar
Enemies are more likely to drop charges for ability. Useful for fueling your mana recharge abilities.
Gift of the Curios
Increase energy recovery for other classes by 5%. Energy recovery helps other class spam ppwer attacks as well as dash more.

With a base ranged attack that deals huge damage as well as versatile and powerful spells, the mage puts the "cannon" in the "glass cannon" part pretty well. She requires a very different mindset to play, due to her being the only true ranged class in the game. She's hard to play, due to having low health, as such demanding the player to play as safe as possible. But a skilled mage player can clear out rooms that most classes struggle with only few clever application of her abilities, as such the mage is worth investing time to master.

Good luck, fellow mages. Hopefully you will find the truth about me and my sister's grandfather