Its not only Cures that extremely high now but:

Emulate effect duration lowered from 60 to 30 seconds.
Siphon TP amount reduced.
Drain cost raised from 45 to 90 MP.
Siphon MP Affects only a single target.

So now on mages have to use much more abilities and more macros. There are some abilities that were useless till 1.18 release. Stygian Spikes, Aegis Bloom will be good for MP and HP restoration. Also you can Blind and reduce ACC and Roaming Soul will not only be used once in awhile.

Mages have now to use more about abilities and im sure more people will try to understand more the stats of each spell like Aegis HP recover or if Drain worths the MP and all that kinda things. People need to think more and not just execute.