Mages are hands down the best DPS in classic. The pet alone does more than any melee for DPS, plus damage shield on top of that. And you can burst nuke to double your damage above that again. In downtime you can mod rod your cleric which in most situations will be a more efficient use of mana than nuking.
Mage has none of the liability of charm. I think that liability is underrated in classic, HP items are few and far between, and cleric HP buffs are quite mediocre until you get to Naltron/Resolution. No click sticks either so the risk/downtime equation of wiping is different. It won't be easy to find a 49 rez cheap.
Mage is always competitive DPS even into Kunark/Velious. They drop off on Velious raid mobs because of the large level difference between the pet and the bosses (and higher mob AC). But even then they are very strong. 30 DPS plus being worth around +1 cleric worth of mana through mod rods (due to the efficient cost/return) is OP. I'd say mages are vastly underrepresented on P99 probably because it's not a very exciting class to play. You just do pet attack, make your rods, and go AFK for 5 minutes.
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