Stat development of intelligence sets level 50 to level 75

[Skillless]

Introduction
The massive amount of endgame mages wearing strength sets and the recent forum threads about game and gear rebalancing made me wonder if the top intelligence set Fiery is bad per se - or "only" inferiour to level 75 strength gear.
To see how Fiery fits into the history of intelligence sets, I compared the top wand sets from level 50 to 75. I took the level 50 set (Shadow) as a base and calculated the percentage of change compared to level 50 for each set. To focus on the gear stats only I compared the sets on the same level 76 toon.

And as everything looks official as a chart:

Offense stats


Damage and DPS have been going up steadily over the levels. With the exception of the Enchanted set crit has been increased but seems to be stagnating from level 70 to 75. Hit% is on an even level, only Shadow and Fiery add to that stat.

Defense stats


For the defensive values, Sand Goddess is an exceptional set, peaking in dodge and armor. That might be one reason for the weak image of Fiery, the level 70 set spoiled the defense searching mages.
With the exception of Enchanted, mana regeneration is on an even level and interestingly health regeneration has been on a steady decline over the last 20 levels.

Heal and skill damage


In my opinion the most important category, heal and skill damage as those show the value of a mage for the group.
Skill damage has been increasing over the levels, although not linearly. Sand Goddess and especially Lilith seem to be slightly disappointing as skill damage and heal isn't increasing as much as for the other sets.
While skill damage climbs, heal doesn't improve much with the better gear. On the same toon, wearing Fiery only improves heal 11 % compared to Shadow. Heal isn't as gear dependent as the damaging skills.

Conclusion
In conclusion the development of intelligence gear from level 50 to level 75 seems to be widely steady and linear - with two major exceptions: Enchanted is a somehow odd set with it's missing crit and mana regeneration and Sand Goddess has far too much dodge and armor in comparison with it's neighbors.
So Fiery is not a bad set seen in this context - it just doesn't fit the demand of defensive focused sets now, as Sand Goddess and 75 strength sets are better fitting for that.

[Brave Sir Robin]

This is excellent analysis. I could not agree more with your conclusion:

So Fiery is not a bad set seen in this context - it just doesn't fit the demand of defensive focused sets now, as Sand Goddess and 75 strength sets are better fitting for that.

I think the main reason why Sun Goddess set (and also the Angel INT set) is so strong defensively is the Humanian yetis: these are fast moving bombs, which deal huge damage that can 1-hit kill you if caught unbuffed.

In-dungeon play is not as hard in Blacksmoke dungeons with careful play. When it comes to fighting bosses, on the other hand, things can get really bad for the Fiery mage. Especially without elixirs. The offensive stats of the set are great. It has to be noted, however, that an almost insignificant damage output increase is observed when using the elite staff with the set, which is weird.

As a consequence of weak defence stats, we see a lot of strength mages these days. This results, in general, in decrease of the average team damage output because Savage set offers much less crit, hit and skill damage than Fiery set to the INT mage. Healing output is reduced as well. This preference is also reflected in the price of the Fiery set, which is a LOT cheaper than Savage and Swift.

I understand that devs make a huge effort to balance stats; this is indeed a very difficult task and I appreciate their work. If you include PvP balance in the equation things get even more tricky. On the other hand, in my opinion, players should be encouraged to use gear made for their class. I absolutely agree that Fiery is not bad at all but it's hard to convince the masses to use it when they see that defence stats are worse than 70 and 66 (Angel) gear. Whether we like it or not, survivability is an important aspect in the game. Both for psychological reasons, as no one likes to die, and practical reasons, as a dead mage cannot heal or revive

[Skillless]

I didn't include the Angel set because it's not obtainable anymore. But in direct comparison it is very similar to the Sand Goddess set, with even higher dodge. Heal and skill damage are only slightly lower.

I like to think that all those strength mages wouldn't need that extra armor if they had a proper heal and more damage. Only one shot deaths can't be prevented without high dodge and armor...

[Brave Sir Robin]

There is Dragon Slayer, in which you are forced to stand at the same spot. Your high AoE damage quickly attracts the attention of multiple enemies. This is where a bit more dodge would be useful.

Enemies in Valley and boss fight at Dragon's Lair can get you to similar situations but at least you can use pots. In general, when you get aggro, it's a case of pot-fast-or-die with Fiery. But heavy use of pots is inconvenient unless you play from Chrome. With Savage you rarely use pots.

If heal is improved then with 2-3 mages the group would be invulnerable as it affects the other members of the group as much as the caster. Another reason why healing does not increase that much with level increase is that hit points do not increase much either.

[Mercantilism]

There is Dragon Slayer, in which you are forced to stand at the same spot. Your high AoE damage quickly attracts the attention of multiple enemies. This is where a bit more dodge would be useful.

Enemies in Valley and boss fight at Dragon's Lair can get you to similar situations but at least you can use pots. In general, when you get aggro, it's a case of pot-fast-or-die with Fiery. But heavy use of pots is inconvenient unless you play from Chrome. With Savage you rarely use pots.

If heal is improved then with 2-3 mages the group would be invulnerable as it affects the other members of the group as much as the caster. Another reason why healing does not increase that much with level increase is that hit points do not increase much either.

Incredible points, Sir!

Yes, this is an INCREDIBLE analysis, we should get Mods to sticky this.

Anyways, yes, it seems like Fiery is a great set for Mage purposes like AoE and damage output, but obviously lacks defensively in comparison to Savage.