Refining!
This is quite possibly a common area in which people lack and have no idea just how much it can improve your character
With the right refines, you can increase your most important stats and it can mean an extra 5k hp, or 2k defense or 1k attack or more.
So let's start looking at refinig equipment and what you should aim for!
Firstly you need attack. So your highest priority should be to obtain both +Intelligence and +Matk
Once you have these two, as a Mage your next best choice is +Armor/Defense, PVE set shows as +Armor and PVP set shows as +Defense
Next 2 can vary depending on circumstances, your play style etc, so there's going to be 3 acceptable choices.
The three choices come down to Charisma, Endurance and Pdef.
I'd personally choose +Charisma and +Pdef. Later on troops become more important in Battlegrounds, but if you're more concerned with Arena or other aspects where troops are not involved, then you may want to consider Endurance instead of Charisma
If you're not able to afford Balens, then I would try grab the first 3. Once you've achieved this, it'll provided some good attack and defenses If you can afford Balens, then by all means go for it. Lock in those stats and get those 5 refines.
Now, just so you know what you are getting, below is what the refined stats will provide;
+1 Intelligence = +4 Matk and 1 Mdef
+1 Armor/Defense = +4 Mdef and +4 Pdef
+1 Endurance = +20 HP
+1 Charisma = +1 Troop Count
The others should be pretty self explainatory, +1 Matk = +1 Matk and so on.
Now as for the level next to the refined stats in brackets, that is basically the quality.
The higher level it is, the more stats that refine will give. This cannot be leveled up.
When refining you will be given a random attribute ranging from Lv 1 to Lv 10,