well for the lower lvls u could use also ice mage, he'll prob one hit everything, but that means ur fire ability will be low later
nothing really special, keep up with ur energy (sigils/gear/elix + pots), go full dps for fastest lvling (since ur doing a race, dont have to go full dps if u dont want to), get the best gear u can get, and ofc if u cant have enough xp alone u could get a good group
as for stats, since its from lvl 1-170 i dont really have a clue, im not sure about a stats ratio for mages that is recommended (if there is i would guess its 3:2 foc-vit until ur health is high enough for ur current lvl), for mages i guess a lot of stats come from gear, foc gear mostly since buyable armour mostly gives foc, which could make it easier to higher ur health
dont go with the questline weps, they're crap, try getting rare wands (which give foc + skill pts), aggy grim when u can, and if u cant get both there are always the buyable wands (except wyrm and anc wyrm wands, they're really crappy)
mage is also pretty costly, lots of foc gear (such as diamond, adamant, foc lux and etc.), im not a fan of the main questline gear for mages (unless u cant buy good gear), also im not sure how good is obsidian compared to diamond or adamant, but i guess its very useful since its free to get
theres also the beastbone gear which is very good for skills dmg, gloves+boots for firebolt + firestorm, greaves+bp for ice blast and shards, and helm adds to sacrifice so u could get a foc helm (or ofc dl helm)
focus offhand and not regen offhand (the idol gives higher energy regen and some bonuses, but no foc), and last thing i just rememberd, dont die a lot, u will lose ur attune which will decrease ur dps greatly
so thats all i remember or prob know, hope it helped
