Well I was gonna suggest you use a like Full Rune with Whip and Pots in inventory with decent food. You could always do like Prosy with Whip and use Vengeance while potting? Otherwise Barrage away.
I think rock shell is cheaper than rune if you want to melee If you want to mage, use mystic or splitbark, or a combination of both. Splitbark has bad offensive stats but good defensive.
typical mage gear for barraging is splitbark body, mystic bottoms, farseer helm, i think mystic boots, not sure about gloves, umm, now that you can autocast w/any staff, water staff?
