I have played mage for the past few ages with a play style of mostly casting FB and MS, and doing limited thievery ops and attacks on chainees during wars. This strategy has performed reasonably well in the past, but the effectiveness seems to have dwindled in the past few ages.

Given the reduced power of mages due to the various nerfs on mages over the past few ages which will not be discussed here, I am wondering if this play style is still the way forward, or has the meta evolved?

Also, is the role of a mage still relevant in the current and next age, or its role been superceded by thieves entirely?