yes, Ryaca and I do generally agree.. even here on this topic where we clearly do not agree, there are many things we agree on lol... anyway, allow me to address a few of those we do not

(not quoting in an effort to keep the thread clean)
95% - yes, I said that over 95% of the players in this game are below level 3000, and most will never reach that level, and I stand behind that statement. I will grant you that I actually said "never see" - here, for me, this is to be understood as "never reach"... though I understand that literally (and therefore in many places) it would be understood as "never come into contact with"... this was not my intent. I agree with you here, most players will "see" accounts that high all over... though most will never own an account that high (and certainly most do not right now) - the confusion on that is my fault for being imprecise with my words
Yes, Mike and I have a great deal of respect for each other. We have worked together on a lot of things, and discussed many, many things... often we agree, many times we have not, but we have remained friendly and productive without fail.
The account I play most actually is not a mage (though my highest level is a mage) - I do not play nearly every day anymore - To be honest, I don't understand your concern here... these would serve only to make me less biased, not more. Additionally, I've not been very active at all for over a year now, and yet I think still nobody had posted more on the forum (or in chat groups with Compbatant) than I have about ways the game mechanics (primarily focused on mages - including unlimited mana, good point to bring back up somewhere) need to be fixed...
Mages do absolutely heal attackers... both as they're not always targeted, and also lower levels hanging out just to heal block or stun
now, with all that said, let's go to refocus a bit on topic as you suggested - - -
the original question is "should mages have a heal-self spell?"
to be honest, I have not seen a negative explanation directly dealing with the question. Saying that mages are overpowered is irrelevant here, unless this will make them more powerful. I contend that it will not (especially if the area heal spell no longer healed the caster, but either way, it would not help in PVP against similar level players) ... what exactly is your fear with this? If you identify that for me, I think we could move forward with a more accurate discussion
