Mage=Meatshield... uh no

[Kyrillos]

INT is useless. Enough said.

A 30 INT weapon only yields 3-5 bonus damage. The reason END has so much emphasis is because it raises the mage's HP and Defense, which are the two lacking aspects to a mage. Each END point corresponds to 1 defense point; a +39 END level 70 chest armor, for instance, provides 82 defense + 39 + 105, which is 226 defense all by itself; nearly equal to the mage's base defense at that level.

No.No.No.No. >.>

Each END point is .5 DEF last I checked, especially if you empower on the skill points screen. (I'll SS when I'm done with homework and post to prove, "Pics or it never happened D:")
Which leads me into an offtopic rant on Dex vs End >.>
Essentially, a +30 END plate would only yield +15 DEF in freestat >.> (Again, "Pics or it really never happened")
SPR is more useful for a mage anyways, IMO. As Yosei says, it's worked thus far. Why change now? Cast more spells, comparative to take more hits, which will be better in the long run? All your doing is switching one stone for another, really. An HP stone for an SP stone. Apples are to Oranges.

Really, I think the only thing a mage needs is a (+) weapon. It adds to what they are supposed to do, damage. IT makes a significant difference, but it's still not a necessary, I went 50~58 without one just fine. >.>

And yes, END is more useful in Mage simply for giving HP. In terms of lacking something, Mage lack HP stones and HP the most, but the ample amount of killing power should make up for that, or the massive AoE/Damage per second skills once the mage increases to 60+ (Frost Nova/Fear/Inferno) It's possible to take a few hits, cast the AoE, and then stone, and spam spells, while every few seconds another 200-300 damage is dealed out increased on the spells you've casted (About every 2 Magic Missiles for me). For me, that tantamounts to about 1k damage in 3-4 seconds (500-600 for MM, 200-400 for FN). I duoed with a 59 Mage, and I'm 61, and we killed Giant Pixies, while they could only hit us once. We both only have +9 weapons, and she had a few cash shop items (maybe a crit dress, but I still have my tail >.> and a base 11% or so crit without it xD) It's all about the killing power, not the getting hit power.

And, +30 INT yields +36 Magic Damage out of character stat empowerment. 1 point for each +, and +1 for every 5 >.>

God D: I'ma write a stats guide D: