The discussion is talking about these really cool mage builds but I remember magic being really good... I remember that first Ice Shard spell or whatever you get is overpowered when you upgrade it. It causes a status effect that makes it so the enemy has 2 AP and also crits when that status is on them. With a water elemental that only has that spell on, you just crit with them constantly. So you stack crit dmg + ice dmg + spell dmg on your enhancements and go to town. Maybe I was just on an easier difficulty?