Well, they're like bowbears but they use a staff instead of a bow. It's the basic "stomp them away from you and shoot them before they can get back to you" strategy. Rage stacks with the staff, Iron Blood protects you. You can get mana from items and potions. It's fun. It's like a cartoon. I plan to create my own combos eventually using spells from staves combined with skills. I'm not there yet. I have 100:1 Kill to death ratio at level 18. So, overall, it's fun, and an Ursan Mage holds his own in a party. Not into PvP, so I don't really know how he would stack up. But he killed Meathead at 4th level first try, and he killed Harpo twice now, and he has killed my Ursan Mage twice. I keep a lot of potions on hand...