Keep in mind tho that fighters use stam to swing, and that mages dont use stam to cast. So if the dex fighter was fighting anyone else, or stams out before killing the mage, they can never kill the mage if the mage just runs. Because both regen stam at the same rate and move the same speed (in the scenario of a dex fighter). If the mage runs and the fighter runs and they both stam, the fighter cant attack because stam. If the fighter runs from the mage and they both stam, the mage wins because the mage can keep shooting while chasing and not fall behind by casting while stamming up and never falling farther behind because they are both stopping to stam up as they run.
1v1 Dex fighter obv wins most of the time. But I'm just saying why mages have less stam to begin with. They use less stam.
I'm been bitching about how op horses are since MO1. But we cant make foot like mounted. Armor slowing foot speed just ruins foot combat. It makes it impossible to chase if you actually have gear, which is bad game design. Heavy armor already gives a stam penalty which hurts in long chases. Maybe holding W and getting away every time sounds great as a mage but for everyone else trying to have a fight it would ruin every fight. As an MMO that the primary progression is gear, they cant make the better gear worse. nobody would wear anything above Ironbone if it made you slow. Because metal armor is liek 10kg heavier.
And on your comment on bows, they need to nerf low primary points archery so people cant always just have a bow and do decent damage. But they have at least been working on that by adding more bow prims.
TLDR I'm not saying mage is op and wins 1v1's. I'm just saying theres reasons why mage has its weaknesses.
They do not regen stamina at the same rate and also mana isn't regened nearly as quick. The fighter has much more stamina than the mage and also uses much less of it when compared to mana. A mage can get like 4 spells off before being out of mana typically. A fighter can swing much more than that before being out of stamina. As for shooting while chasing.. have you used magic? You can't move while casting ecumenical spells. So the mage would have to stop after every attack and basically reload. Unless on a horse where that's a whole other issue. The mage would have to stop to reload their spell, while the fighter can just keep running. You're not understanding your own scenario.
Nobody has complained saying mages need more stamina. We've complained saying mages need more self defense. We've said they have less stamina so they can't run nearly as much as a fighter can.. I swear you're here just to argue against something but you have no idea what you're talking about most of the time.
Mounted combat is ridiculously overpowered that much is true. It should be a different style of combat but not nearly as powerful as it is. Archery has been changed for the better now magic just needs a similar change, though not to aiming because it's already a hitscan. Magic should take longer to cast while mounted and have an inherent chance to fumble based on speed. Mounted magery should, instead of increasing damage, be there to reduce that fumble chance (but not to 0%) and lower the cast time (but still be like 25% longer than normal).
As for your bit about it being impossible to chase if you have gear, if you're a full armor character you shouldn't be chasing people down. Being able to be in massive armor and still move at normal speed, that is "bad game design." That'd make it so you actually have to think about what armor you want to take with you. If you're not expecting large scale battles then you wouldn't really want the heavy armor slowing you down. Making people have to actually make decisions isn't "bad game design." Nobody even said the better gear would be worse. You'd have much higher defenses with that heavy armor but be slowed down. That's your cost for being so defensive. You look at only your side of things and not everyone's. You see everything from only the fighter's point of view and feel the fighter should be able to do everything and more.
Each playstyle should have ups and downs. Currently melee gets everything.. it gets melee, ranged, full speed, heavy armor, etc.. they literally have no downside aside from not being able to do magic as well but even then they can cast some basic things like corrupt, purify, etc.. yet you're here acting like they're the worst playstyle and say how mages need to have weaknesses.. Magic meanwhile has mostly downsides and very few upsides. We can't even solo content whatsoever. We have barely any use to the general public since there's nothing we can really like sell our services on. Magic needs a lot more to it and needs balance changes whether you want to see it or not. Really everything needs some balance changes, but magic most of all.