This skill mastery issue...

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If u follow accid's guide ur mage will be balanced along ur leveling career. Leveling ur masteries is the way to go.

Adding up skill points to one single skill wont add much damage to this skill, and mages are already very strong even before they get their lv51 pvp skills.

What exactly confuses you? The fact that when you highen masteries it might highen your damage too even though the skill itself is level 1? Just keep in mind that maxed masteries will highen ALL skills from ur elemental tree. You don't need to waste points in maxing lv36 skills, they alredy do sufficient damage at level 1.

One last thing to know is, your fire skills will be the most usefull and powerfull until 90 lvls. Up from there, mobs will have more fire resistance and ur fire skills not as powerfull (at least in pve). Lightening skills (imitid flash, thunder spears, cruelty) will be the way to go.