mages shouldnt be DDing like close in people, because they are not close in fighters, until they build monster mechanics that penalize non hate getting people who attack from range as much as close fighters who attack from range, they shouldnt give ranged DPS superior dmg, though i suppose they could make MP a bigger issue to balance it, but ehhhh.

Far as the stats on weaps, they probably do need to build them more in mind to what mages actually do, well not all the time, its good to have some differing weapon properties, but they should definately be better than they usually make them. That said, i dont expect that any mage besides blm should be at the top of the dmg pool, in if they choose to go that way with blm, they need to have some good balancer for it. Thaum and con though? with all the utility they offer, buffs, debuffs, cures, safe range, they cant be up there in DD as well.