New player questions.

So im a fairly new player with only around 30 hours in so far and I was wondering if anyone could explain how mages work? I got mana for the first time after being melee focused on my first character and just want to know basic skills that are a must have for mages and maybe armor builds for early game? I have the warm boon and cold boon as well as flamethrower and spark. Also which faction should I join if I want to be a strictly spell based mage without the use of weapons? Any advice would really be appreciated thank you!