For me, mages have always been my goto for damage because I only ever get defensive sancts on my skill attack heroes (2 gold hps, 2 gold magic defense, 1 gold phys, 1 purple phys def, 1 purple skill def on cinnia for examaple). Given this, maria was an obvious pickup since i relied so much on tanking it out anyways. With adamanti actually getting a couple offense this is changing a bit for me but still useful. I might pickup mulan at some point once I phase out herja (working on beating the LB bossses right now).