Im mostly playing a heavy hybrid and i will mostly be fighting in melee but i got 180-200 mana on those builds, so i could jump in as a mage if i wanted to. Sure i wont be doing any 70s in damage or heals but its 100% armor bypass as long as they dont have high psyche and even then there is mindblast that still do 36 damage unless they are having str and int balanced. I wont be dealing any insane damage in melee, be super tanky or even run away but that dont matter with proper tactics reducing melee and ranged damage potential.
I really like the magic cuz of the utility and i deem it well balanced. Gotta sacrifice a lot of attribute points for protection against it. Even if its not as fast at 2 shotting people its still really strong. Only Sarduccan and Tindremene can really get the good protection and even then fat mages will still hit for 30-40 damage. Sure they might not be able to use mindblast and they might only do half damage with the rest of the magic on you. Those builds however will only have 180-200 hp
You can finish anyone in a 2-12 spells depending on targets hp, str int balance and psyche and your damage. This is the reasons why im mostly making builds defending against magic. Magic is not really avoidable. Sure you can magic reflect but that can get you killed as much as it could backfire on the attacking mage. You can spurt them to interrupt their spells but the moment it dont interrupt they will hit you hard. You can try to counter heal but that wont work if your already dead being focused by a number of mages.
Mages are quite likely the strongest on the field if used right but they are weak against physical damage due to bad armor. Some mages in MO1 went with 9kg armor. You could most likely use more now depending on your build. Also if you often get killed before you run out of mana then why not get more armor. Light armor is also so cheap you could probably just get some pieces to swap to increase mana regen for a bit and then swap back to increase defense. Also just having a shield on the back changes a lot as well as having it to parry with.
I dont have time to type more so hope this helps you guys seeing it in another perspective
Edit: Just remembered Henrik did mention a spell would be coming with one of the magic schools similar to the magic reflect but for physical damage.