I'm not trying to whine or start a war here, I'm just pointing out how hard countered mages are in the current patch:

• We cannot stagger with our melee attacks (the digger spells don't stagger, Crystal Release won't stagger them and does no damage, Carian Slicer requires 3-4 hits before you can stagger someone with ~100 poise, even Carian Greatsword cannot stagger them, Carian Piercer is the only way to stagger, but it takes a massive chunk of stamina and is easily telegraphed and roll dodged).
• A single hit will take half our health since we have to invest far more points than str or dex builds in other stats, while we tickle against enemies with Barrier of Gold who likely have 40 vigor investment, and they poise our attacks, so they run us down, and we have almost no stamina, but they likely have endurance investment, so they can easily catch us and punish anything we do.
• The best staff increasing the FP costs by 50% when you're already heavily limited with FP.

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With that in mind, here are some ideas for balance:

• Nerf max poise or buff spell poise damage so we can actually make trades without having to make no mistakes and land 3-4 Carian Slicers, one at a time, before we will poise break/stagger them briefly enough to hit a follow up.
• Nerf Barrier of Gold, 60% mitigation for 70 seconds is a meme, hard counters intelligence builds, surely there is no denying this spell is overtuned just as Winged crystal tear giving 300% equip load is overtuned and renders true light weight builds as useless.
• Make point blank range spells like the digger spells do significantly more poise damage and damage, but reduce the number of ticks per second, that way enemies can roll away after a stagger and not be stun locked, but so that you cannot just hold the spell in and drill their hp bar down to 0. Also, if you stagger with the drill up, but immediately let go to make the ground burst, that should land.
• Make Carian Greatsword poise damage higher and chain casts faster, if you fight someone with a greatsword, they can chain r1 and even if you roll dodge you don't have enough time to hit them inbetween chain r1, why is the Carian Greatsword so slow that enemies can hit you inbetween chain casts? It's not really balanced. The Abdula's is already balanced since it has the frost stagger proc, so it makes sense if it's a little slower, but it makes no sense that Carian Greatsword cannot match the swings of a regular greatsword.
• Revert Carian Slicer poise damage nerfs since light roll was reverted. The damage nerf was needed, but with light roll being reverted, Carian Slicer needs to have it's poise damage nerf reverted as well.
• Make Crystal Release actually poise break Veteran and Bullgoat players who literally walk right through it (taking 4-6 tickle damage hits) as it currently is.
• Increase memory slots so more situational spells like law of regression can be carried as a means to Barrier of Gold Sacred Oath more buff stacking.
• In compensation, bring the most overtuned long-range magic spell type in line with everything else: nerf comet, night comet, and glinestone cometshard damage.

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What are your thoughts, any changes you would like to see?
Also, please no unconstructive discussion ("lol git gud", "cry mage", "no").