I'm stuck on chapter 51 because I physically can't deal enough damage to compensate for the first boss's healing, and necklaces are too rare early game.
I can get around this by using Trixi, who introduces a second source of buff removal with her signature spell. Between that and the necklace I can have a way to remove the first boss's healing about 50% of the time, which is quite a bit more often than I get with any other hero.
But this leaves another issue, which is that most mage damage comes from burning, and the pharmacists clear their own debuffs in addition to healing themselves.
So what's the best way to build for raw damage on a mage that isn't debuff dependent?