Inb4 hes never fought Ifrit.
sure, and i will not until mages can go to do something more than heal.

My Solution: Make positioning, elemental affinities, monster behaviour and other factors more relevant to mages, so they cannot "just stand still and cast spells".
and TP moves for mages ^^

Positioning: Always tank job to positioning mob, and have no sense to do more Fire damage from left and blizzard from right, and of course, moving will low your DPS a lot enought to ignore that bonus.

Elemental affinities: Seems that u are THM, test to cast diferent spells on Strongholds, could be you feel something about it.

Will you really say that adding TP cost to spells is a better solution for your stated problem? Really?
i said that adding TP moves to mages is a step forward. that all and of course to these who can manage more than see if u have enough mp,u are out of range, etc.