Question about I/L Mage Bossing

I/L wizards perform really well for Neo Tokyo (NT) content, but these content don't open up until lvl 163

 

As a bossing mage I'll highly suggest you follow what you wrote in the last 2 paragraphs.

IMO it's just not worth the effort, but you can try if you want to.

 

If your going to boss on I/L mage, you can but the high investment discourage many I/L mages from doing so.

If you would want to boss on I/L mage, you would need at least 6k HP and 30k MP at bare minimum [Heavy washing required]
For weapon, you would need both elemental weapons 5/6 because you use 6 for Chain Lightning and 5 for Blizzard.
For equips, for the best results would be going LUK mage with elemental staff and all timeless equips. LUKLess mage is decent but loses out at around 50-80 TMA deficit against a LUK mage.
(White Scroll + 10%) on weapon/earring is a must to be even considerable viable for filler bosses

Mobbing: Blizzard (Elemental Wand/Staff 5) [Horntail/Zakum Arms]
Single target: Chain Lightning (Elemental Wand/Staff 6) [Pink Bean]

 

Personally I'd consider I/L to be about on par with Shadowers for bossing if that makes you feel any better. Neither are the meta choice but they're valid nevertheless and have spots where they are good.

Realistically you can get away with about as much investment as a regular attacker and still outperform them in places like NT, and bosses like Pink Bean don't resist magic so you're dealing full damage while everyone else deals half(Aside from on the statues stage where mages really suffer, it cripples their performance)

I would recommend HP washing a bossing mage a fair bit. After you reach 30k MP from MP washing, you'll want to reset MP -> HP until you can MP wash again, and continue that process for most of your remaining AP. A lot of mages with lofty HP goals end up having to not spend AP as the rate they get vote cash is significantly slower than leveling. It's a heavy vote cash sink, and something that takes mages longer to do than regular attackers.

 

Glad I wasn't as high as you when I made my FP

 

Arch-mage bossing does surprisingly well early, but falls off pretty quick. Mage doesnt need to raise a dead stat to wash, so it can maintain its power early into 4th job (assuming it isnt backlogged on mp washes ofc). It also maxes it's most relevant skills really quickly; ultimate and cl/paralyze. Other skills such as the summon provide extra boosts or useful niches, but not enough to be considered "incomplete" builds, relative to many other classes. An arch-mage can carry enough weight during the main zak levels, but everyone knows ulu camping is just significantly better than zak in all regards.

As other classes hit power/gear spikes later in 4th, the gap gets quite a bit larger though, and mage bossing becomes more of a specialist than a normality. Theres certainly niches where an arch mage can dpm, but they cant just be used anywhere to great effect, usually requiring a setup ideal for ult spamming or elemental weakness. HT (before aggressive seduce changes) saw use of mages due to ulting so many targets, and NT has the elemental weaknesses to make i/l specifically viable (general bossing/farming situation favors fp). Without really favorable situations (i.e. most of the time), mage is the weakest of the bossers, whilst providing no utility. Magic damage has a plethora of problems compared to weapon damage, and the classes really are carried exclusively by the ultimate. Mage has its moments to shine in bossing, but as more of a pinch hitter than a main character. (And even less moments to shine as an f/p...)

 

We need more bossing I/Ls, they're so clutch in Neo Tokyo

You'll struggle getting runs on mainstream bosses earlier on (gl getting a Zak/Krex run at 135) but if you stick it out they're really good in specific situations!