As most adventurer's, when you first select your class you'd want it to suit your tastes, and know what it's capable of.
The mage in this game wont suit your standards if you're here to play as the invincible superman with infinite mana, lazers and the impenetratable mana shield's you see in other games; The mage, as of now(time of writing this), is the only class capable of unleashing long ranged magical attacks, more often than not they'll be highly demaging.
With a wide arsenal of spells, the mage can dish out high amounts of elemental damage, or assist their party with several debuffs and holds to make their enemies look much nicer. The mage's key weakness in a fight is their durability and therefore should stick to the back of their parties.

When first making your character, you'll be given choice of 3 alignments,
namely Lawful, Neutral and Chaotic. While their effect on your character won't be
shiny halos and wings or a demonic transformation, they are very important for your
character's building proccess, not only in locking and unlocking different classes
but also in additional effects added to different notable abilities:
A-Fire Blast. A lawful mage's ace up the sleeve. This skill affects an area approximately 3ft from the caster, dishing out high amounts of damage to any poor soul caught in the blast's wake.
Lawful alignment's reduce the casting time to 1 second instead of 2, making this skill
much more practical in a fight.

B-Ice Burst. A notable benefit from being a neutral mage.
This targetable ability can freeze your enemies, immobilizing them for several second and allowing you to narrowly escape death or dish out a few more spells as they stare at you helplessly.
Like its flaming counterpart, this skill has its' casting time halved to 1 second,
allowing you to create these breathers much more easily.

C-Imbue Flames. Set your weapon on fire for a short period and unleash a deadly barrage of fire balls at your enemies.
While this skill is in effect faster=stronger=better=stronger, so it's often paired with daggers.
Neutral mages gain a small bonus to damage output which might not be noticeable on each shot but will be noticed if you look at the overall outcome.

D-Earth Tremor. Or "The chaotic panic button"; A skill that features the fastest casting speed of all the mage's arsenal, boasting a combination of knockback and a slow effect on your enemies.
Using this skill as a chaotic mage would reduce its' casting time to 0.2s, making it nearly an instant (for reference, your normally used arrows take 3x longer to cast).

E-Armor Melt. the only(thus far) skill from the aggravate(debuffs) tree to gain
an extra effect from alignments. Normally, this skill shreds your opponent's physical defense
by taking down a considerable percentage for a decent fair share of time,making fighters and thieves much more effective.
A chaotic mage adds "weapon melt" to this by cutting out percentage of damage from your enemies physical attack, adding to your party's overall survivability.
choose wisely, and don't forget to watch your answers to quests(this can be painful if you aren't careful, as alignments can be changed by answering to a quest giver in a certain fashion)

The basics to any who wield the elements;
the elemental chart in this game features a reduction/growth in damage
by 25% in the following fashion:
ice>fire>wind>earth>ice
opposing elements dont get a damage boost(eg.wind vs ice=100%)

holy>black>holy(they deal bonuses on each other)>the 4 basic elements
-only 1 holy spell currently exists and that's "holy light". a priest level 11 skill

there is also an unknown element called "nil". according to the chart it should be the most powerful, but it has yet to be revealed.

first, let us review what we (should) already know, while adding a bit on to of it:

-A character must stop moving in order to attack,loot or take any other action.
that is also true for your enemies, and not just you.

-Remember the elemental chart.While youre not built around it- you should use it;
eg.if you have wind in your arsenal its not a bad idea to throw it at a stone type elemental.

-Steps use OD, but they are the fastest way to catch distance in a fight and often serve as a dodge.
steps can also be used to aim your attacks into a weak point(read next note)

-Back attacks hurt more. attacks gain a small boost(roughly 20%)
when they hit the target in the back.

-Lock-on allows you to:
(a)step sideways(using A/D+jump) and not only backwards.
(b)see your enemy's hp.
(c)move backwards while observing your enemy, not letting them out of your sight.

however, it will make moving backwards slower and moving sideways will make you circle your enemy.

-Spells are only cast out when the key theyre allocated to is released.
*applying this to a fight:
A)sometimes, when you're with your back against the wall, the only choice left
is to dash at your enemies. Do not forget-they WILL stand still when attacking.
use this to your favor as you try to put the distance required to throw a spell.

B)Fighting 1v1 is easier than fighting 2v1. If you're far enough
from your enemies, use tab to cycle through enemies and find the one hurt most.
dont forget, though, that while Lock-on can allow you to fire at that enemy easily,
you will move more slowly. know how to get in and out of it fast enough to stay mobile.

C)By combining side-stepping with a lunging enemy's attack, you can often find
the softspot in their defense and send out a devastating blow, assuming you're fast enough.
Know your enemy and their attack speed.

D)If the firs step was enough, step again and put more distance between you.
The more OD you have, the more steps you can use and the easier it would be to put distance between you and your target.

(these arent full builds, but just the push you need to survive and learn the game)

Option A:
alignment:neutral
general application: holds
level 1: point into flame arrow(make it LV2 and get a fair spike in demage)
level 2: save
level 3: obtain paralyzing wind, obtain ice arrow
level 4: save
level 5: obtain Ice Burst
level 6: obtain action bind

usage:this build is designed around the idea of holding your enemy in place for as long as possible.
using Ice Burst, you can seal off your opposition's movement to make your action bind connect more smoothly.
while at low levels this may seem impractical because of how ice is seemingly weaker, you will lock your enemies in place
for a fair period, allowing your party to take a breather in hard fights or just throw more punches more easily to take down helpless enemies.

Option B:
alignment:Lawful
general application: crowd control and demage spikes.
level 1: Point into flame arrow
level 2:save
level 3: Point into fire blast, wind arrow
level 4: Point into air wall

usage:this build is designed to keep your enemies off you for some time by taking advantage of of the wind wall's
angular knockback(angle of approach=angle of knockback). a higher level air wall remains for more time and allows more attacks.
the air wall also lets you place fire blasts more easily without having to give ground, allowing a great spike in demage, bringing your enemies closer to meeting the walker.

option C:
alignment:any
general application: distance maker and crowd control
level 1: Point into flame arrow
level 2:save
level 3: Point into wind arrow, air wall
level 4: Point into air wall
level 5: Point into air wall
level 6: Point into air wall
level 7: Point into air wall

usage: this build is to be used mainly at leisure and its' general idea is taking advantage of multiple hits from air wall to your enemies,
holding them in their spot as you dish out flame arrows without a worry. another application would be spreading chaos as you make enemies constantly run into your wall of air as you run across it.

option D(the last one i'll give out):
alignment:chaotic
general application:distance maker, defensive survival.
level 1: Point into flame arrow
level 2:save
level 3:unlock earth arrow, unlock wind arrow.
level 4:unlock earth tremor
level 5:unlock air wall.

usage: taking advantage of earth tremor's slow effect and knockback, use an air wall to set even more distance between you and your enemies.
useful if you accidently stole too much heat and are fighting enemies that can be knocked back, but also useful if surrounded and must get a breather before making a run for it.