Why are mages not more popular?

[Jauna]

For me before and a little bit after making a mage was Spell Research. Mage pet spells were way more expensive than necro. And the way mage research was handled like needing a previous tier pet scroll for the next tier pet scroll.

Also new spells being trivial way beyond your level restricted max skill was crap.

Then I said fuck it, ported on my druid for like an hour and spent hours in EC looking for said spells.