I'm considering picking up ESO on Tuesday, and was just curious if Mages would be a bad class. Player-controlled Mages in Skyrim were incredibly weak, and I couldn't imagine going up against a live player as one.

I'm trying to avoid as much about the game as possible, so my feelings towards it are unbiased when I first get it, but since character creation will be at the beginning, I'd like to avoid making a mistake that will lead me to getting obliterated by other relatively even players. Please try and keep it as basic as possible - yes, mages are a weak class, or no, you'll be fine, the classes are well-balanced. I hope that doesn't sound at all rude, I just love TES, and a lot of information is kind of like a spoiler for me. Thanks, I really appreciate any response.

Depends what you want to do. The classes in ESO aren't like the traditional classes in other Elder Scrolls games. My Sorcerer is a lot of fun, but I only solo content so can't tell you how balanced they are for PvP.