Going to update this as i develope it. KEEPING IN MIND that Corsix is a level 62 wizard, and that Dark Mages can start as early as 20, so from that perspective....

1. Dark Feedback is bugged, SOMEHOW. You start with 10 skill, which is the minimum it requires, but it has a 90%+ failure rate. I casted the spell more than 100 times and got my skill to 12. Finally after it got to 13 it started succeeding and i rapidly grew to 20, but just getting from 10 to 12 consumed half of the Dark Rock supply in the world. Failure rate should not be so staggeringly high when you meet the minimum ?

1.1 Dark Feedback does not give damage feedback when monster hits you.

2. Poison Cloud DOES NOT work as described, it does not create a cloud of poison, it just poisons your target. The damage is cringe worthy levels of bad. I got bit by a snake and went from 61 hp to dead before i could reach town for a potion, this spell does 4 damage and vanished in a couple ticks.

2.1 Poison Cloud AoE is invisible and apparently i casted it on someone infront of me and got poisoned. Luckily its not even a remote threat to someone with 41 hp and 0 healing skill.

2.2 Poison Cloud affects allies in range.

2.3 Poison Damage from Poison Cloud does not interrupt Snare (holy crap did this spell suddenly become worth its weight in reagents?)

2.4 Fighting alongside blood orcs, 2 of them against 1 guard. I poison cloud them all. One of the blood orcs turned to attack the other, huh ? Did my attack cause him to betray ?

Protest. If my Dark Mage had unlimited mana, he'd kill things as fast as a knight, without the HP/Armor. Killing two monsters that are probably WAY BELOW my level (town guards) drains all of my mana, using Fireball (with a -mp ring) Earth Elementals are weak to magic, they're what we should hunt! okay.... Two earth elementals dead, mana depleted from using Fireball/Blaze. At this exchange rate i'll be spending more than half of my hunting time in Concenration  (just like in real life, i need to take yoga to get over the fact how terrible this is) I'd just stick to Shock or Flame since i can make them cost 1 mana, but that wouldnt be a way to train Dark Magic. Not using potions becuse 1 potion = 1 spell and .75 lbs weight that i cant afford. 

Fireball is doing 30-40 against earth elementals with a mana cost of 12, requires 45 skill

Blaze is doing 35-45 against earth elementals with a mana cost of 20 + 5 spirit at 55 skill

(Comparison, Tanker struck my Barbarian for 40 damage with a 2h sword. He could one shot my wizard)

I can kill ONE earth elemental before running dry using Blaze.

Suggestion. Give all weapons a maximum of 30 durability so other guys have to carry a dozen with them, just to make it fair.

500 exp later im out of reagents. Time to make another withdrawl (gold is heavy for mages) then run to another reagent Vendor. I think i bought out one of them entirely. At this rate i will deplete both available reagent shops ENTIRELY before i've gained a single level. I'd use an etched staff with dark/necro if i have found any. Two level 60+ characters and i've found a single etched dark staff, poison cloud. (not ideal) Need a merchant that sells etched staves/wands, nobody i know has any.

The cost/effect of spells scales terribly. They arnt worth using besides for leveling the skill. I wouldnt use them in PvP either since im going to be running (41hp)

Suggestion. Spells individually progress until mastered. Increasing effect, decreasing cost. Each spell could also be linked to specific stats.

I'm abusing the bug that lets me go over my weight when purchasing things, because DAMN RIGHT I AM.

Im hunting Ice Worms now. They arnt an extreme threat (like everything else) and i can 2 shot them with fireball, 2 of them is worth an elemental in exp. In fact, i dont see why i should hunt anything else ever again.

High level knights push 70% magic resistance chance, with high damage mitigation. As soon as i get Dark Bolt im going to see if i even have enough mana to kill a knight who doesnt move or heal or buff or ANYTHING.

I got Dark Bolt! 38 damage. I have enough mana to cast 4. Or i could cast unlimited 20'sh damage Flames/Shocks forever. Switching to Khor so i can relax.

I Dark Bolted a level 65 knight for 23 damage. I know he resisted it but he'll resist often. I dont have the mana to kill a Knight with my best 1v1 spell. Spamming blast rewarded me with 10-12 damage. (full mundane skill) A knight could kill me with HIS spells before i could klll them with mine. The entire class needs reworked. Needs too many stats, HP suffers too much, if you doubled his damage he'd still be steamrolled and he takes so much more work.

2.5 I dont seem to be getting exp for damage/kills from Poison Cloud. 

Great info Khor, keep it coming!

     Yea, i wouldn't except much outa getting gold outa your leveling with any mage, in fact i'll proably just farm with any other chr. then use the gold, to sit in town and raise your skill, by using cheap spells, and what not. When i tried the same thing you did, i wasted monster amounts of time trying to use magic and level and expect somthing back, This of course was before the skill change patch, which was a bit different cause i was able to go level up with my staff skill, and then apply the level points to white magic ect..... I feel your pain, but i posted a thread awhile back that talked about how to lvl up a mage very quickly if you got the loot to do it.   Basically it was focus on gettin your mage, which diffently should go whm, because of super natural storm, and look at all the conditions for casting it, and go right for it, cause it can net you monster amounts of exp very quickly. then when you get your mage where you want it, you switch to evil or w/e your gonna do with it.  Hope this helps ya out khor, good luck to ya

                   Good job on your report, and thk you, that will diffently just want me to again not switch to evil, till maxed out on levels.

The LoS issue with Hellfire/SNS has been fixed but i definitely still prefer SNS. There are a couple dark spells i didnt try, the dark flux one and some 'dark blaze' spell ? I've already gone back to WM again since i already have high summoning, gonna get that topped off to see how it could be changed.

Dark Magic really needs some corpse manipulation beyond skeletons, i want to see Corpose Explosions or sucking life/mana out of corpses to reduce the down time of Black Mages. Maybe a direct and powerful poison spell rather than just the cloud. The cost of spells spirals beyond their damage a little too fast, usually wearing a -3 or 4 mp cost ring and that makes a 8 mana spell half as much but a 15 mana spell just becomes 11 and thats still high for a few extra damage. 

Some gear dependence still vital, help ease difficulty curve and increase risk of hunting.

Also, Curse vs Bless i think needs looked at. If im seeing it correctly, Bless is just + stats, and curse is just - stats, in equal amount ? both max at 9 or 10 or something. Curse says it reduces stats AND hit chance/resistances... Does it do BOTH, or are the reduced hit chance/resistances just due to the stat decrease ? To me, curse should be more potent since Bless you cast on yourself, and its an advantage in every fight as long as you have it, but Curse you'd have to cast on every mob you fight for the same effect. The only plus side is its better against a boss since multiple people can benifit from one cast of curse if they target the same thing.

 

I'd also like to see Bloodlest moved from Dark Magic to Necromancy. Increased attack speed really doesnt benifit a wizard at all since it doesnt seem to effect spell speed. Additionally the spell increases attack speed only at the cost of accuracy which makes it the only spell to have such a side effect (pretty big one too, 30% when i checked it)

If my barb could cast it i MIGHT use it depending on weapon.

Necromancy has no 'mana only' spells, in fact my barbarian has nothing to spend mana on if he has no SP, thats kind of lame =/

 

Here is a thought. What about letting Evil players Sacrifice minions for SP ? They need to invest mp/sp/hp and reagents into summoning or animating them, so sacrificing them back for SP would surely be a fair move.

Blaze need to make more dmg and i feel blackmagic is weak compare to white mage 

Curse should do something else :P it even costs more mana ! MAybe if it overrode Bless or added healing debuff, good vs Holy mobs for sure then.