Originally Posted by Arazan

EDIT:

Also, at all the Magic Absorption comments, I want to point something out. We all know that only binary resist spells are greatly affected by resistances, but with Magic Absorption, Mage Armor, and imp MotW, a mage is easily pushing 200 resist, which is enough for most fights that need resistance. While it doesn't really buff our damage, it keeps us from having to swap out gear for resist gear, which puts the mage substantially ahead of someone who has to wear 2-3 pieces of resist gear. That's what every build I design that puts more than 10 points in arcane gets MA, because I think the bypassing of need for resist gear will end up being *huge*.