Mage can be one of the easiest to level at starting and hardest at the end levels.
while making a mage be sure of 1 thing what will be its 2nd job after a mage a Wizard or a Sage as the skills you will be taking will depend on it.
Here i will give for both
1st as a sage
when making a mage considering sage firstly you need all your bolt skills maxed and then get the frost diver too it will help a lot laters in leveling.
first get level 10 firebolt and go to the savage babe map just kill them using firebolt considering your level near 15-20 they should die easy.
after that once you have int of some 30-35 try rockers they are also good exp kill them n try to kill poporings too if you are not able to kill them in one shot try hit and run method just cast firebolt and make sure you are far enough from the target and run for your life in the opposite direction as casting is finished and then come back when the monster is out of view and is not following you and finish him off they will be great exp or rather the best exp at this level. after the rocker are done you will be fairly level 25-30 here.
near to level 30 go to the wolf map 2 down from payon kill those wolfs with fire bolt again they will die easy n are good exp and are in a very big number so great exp per hour. kill snakes and spore too it will add up to your exp.
near to level 40-45 its time to change place to level as wolf wont be so good after all now try the map 2 down from morroc the muka and hode field (In tahadi as its at episode 8 hodes are here on this map still ) kill those hodes with firebolt and it the damage was less then 2200 run for your life!!!!!!!!!!!!
hodes will be great exp and kill muka also here muka drop cactus needles and they can be sold to any assassin cross easily so it wont be bad to earn while you learn :) .
now killing hodes you can get to some where like level 50 easily n they will be still good exp.
when hodes start to suck at exp you will be like near job level 40 easily and might have all your bolt skills and frost diver now leveling is tricky here but if you can arrange a smokie card it will be fun again. we will be again doing hit and run sort of trick go to the goat map down from juno or try the grand pecos choose the correct element spell cast on them n use the hide skill to hide from them then again keep doing the same till the target is eliminated it will be boring but exp will be worth it at the end. i will suggest getting job level 50 here .
and the main thing while maing a mage its best to have it at job level 50 as the magician class is all about skills!!!!!
now the wizard part leveling them will be almost the same as was for sage mage but the skill set will differ most wizard dont go for max bolt skills they try the other way out with the frost diver they get it to use it with combo of jupital thunder this trick rocks for leveling a wizard. but mage leveling will be almost the same just you will have to check monster after hode map will update it soon :) .