MabiPro: The Authentic Old-School Mabinogi Experience

I only use magic in this server so I can't tell u how it compares to dual wield or range.

pros:
-Range, never misses, very safe
-Big AOE
-intermediate magic ignores protection so 30% crit is all u need.
-magic is cool?

cons:
-bolt spells are weak
-uses mp potions
-use a lot of AP
-Expensive wands, upgrades and repairs
-slow cast speed

Generally i don't worry about multi aggro because intermediate magic has very long range and stun time, and just use a pet if your in trouble. Ice spear and thunder can kill everything without mana deflector, fireball u can just play dead after firing it.

I don't use the bolts spells because they are very weak, later dungeons enemies have thousands of hp and your lightning bolt does like 100 - 200....
chain casting 4 fire bolt is good but wastes too much mp and no one would use fusion bolt over intermediate magic.

I don't know what u mean by late game, but I use fireball to solo Blood in the Water advance in around 8-9 minutes and around 45-50 minutes to solo Fiodh advance with ice spear, you can get someone to compare the speed. As for the damage it's only average, I think elf range deals the most damage.

Magic is only viable if u have mp, and to get mp u need Mana herbs to make potions or to do Rabbie dungeon to get 30mp pots, which is why most people don't do magic because this is annoying since u have to rank windmill and then spam rabbie for mp pots just use to magic.