I do most pve w/ flake and 9% dmg bonus. It's not a fix, but it is a viable option. Would also think more about farming mats like animals, or getting archery as said. I don't think damage is the problem w/ magi, it's just the way the game works... magic doesn't translate well to pve. If you could dodge, like if mage blocks were dodges, mage could prolly pve. The problem, at least imo, is that you can't properly kite when magi should be the best at kiting.
Edit: In MO1, you could kite and if you had a little more zap power, it would be a fix, but the way mobs come at you in MO2 it's like... hehhh??
Still, nothing wrong with doing a lil Lina Inverse when necessary.
Edit2: yo if they added some transformative magic tho... that'd be interesting. Fist weps! Still doesn't change your run of the mill mage being trash at pve tho. I took very little magic on my tamer in MO1 but would just use monsters to fight each other thru taming heh. gggggg. Throw some molvas at something and it's over. So yes, it's sad that a full tamer can use pets and output more dmg/outperform a full spec mage. But I still think that speccing a wep light hybrid might be a better answer for now.
Edit3, superbaw, what about enchantments to put on weps so that you can do dmg without having to have dmg bonus or str, would just be elemental. ADD A WHOLE NEW WRINKLE. Would have to be low base because true damage is always OP. But I mean if you could hit someone for 20s-30s in pve that should be enough, right?