As I said, DA:O had terrible balance.
..
Well BioWare does, and mage is one class out of 3, it shouldn't be vastly superior to any other except for in terms of story combat.
Of course, they disagree. I'm just keeping this between us. One opinion against another. I simply liked mages more before. While I think they keep improving on rogue and warrior. Or rather, I think the direction they've taken combat is more favorable to rogues and warriors. Those two do well when incorporating basic attacks. I'd rather mages fill up their attack stages with more spells, rather than the staff.
Anyways, I won't derail anymore. Say what you will. 
Oh, on the plus side, with this more open environment, maybe we'll do more environmental damage? That would be cool for mages at least. If it actually caused indirect damage.