Questions about Mage Skill Stats

I have been searching around for mage skill stats, and I have noticed that a lot of common Mage builds are either max INT/DEX or max INT/AGL. What are the differences or pros and cons between the two?

Also since those stats only max out INT and DEX or AGL, why not Strength? Is it just not a useful stat for mages?

I know its a loaded question but all answers are appreciated. I am a level 63 Mage with 43/STR, 34/DEX, 42/AGL, 29/DEF, and 18/AGL.

 

Agility offers the chance to take 90% less damage on hit, while dexterity offers a chance to perform a critical hit, doing extra damage. As such, the advantage of high agility is to have more effective health and the advantage of high dexterity is to have higher damage. Strength is less popular because strength weapons tend to be more melee focused, which is generally not seen as being as good as a mage using spells.

 

i think you might be misunderstanding the role of skill points in builds - the items (and especially weapon) you use in a build dictate the type of build and the skill points you need, not the other way around

intelligence is nearly a requirement in spell builds for mage because of how useful it is for spell costs. beyond that, there's plenty of builds that use all sorts of elemental combinations; it's certainly not dex and agi exclusively

 

In building, the biggest factor of SP is actually hitting the requirements for items. Most mage builds use spell, and intelligence is very important for them. Beyond that, Mages have low damage and Heal, so survival is usually more important than DPS as long as you have your spells.