I hate to say it, cause I've leveled my rogue to 36 so far but after watching my wife's mage I've come to the following conclusion. That bard will outperform the mage until somewhere around level 20. From that point on, the mage is an awesome piece of death and destruction in action. One kill after another, much quicker than my rogue with zero downtime. Firing up my own mage.
True but at level 50 rogue is better than a mage at farming I would have to say, mage is good but bard is just a beast.
My mage is actually dying alot at level 27. (my warrior was a beast at this level). Did you use the suggested soul tree? edit: Scratch this, working fine. Need drinks tho