I find myself struggling to impact the game whenever I play a mage mid. Lane phase is usually fine where I can either shove and harass my opponent if the matchup allows it or play more defensively and focus on farming in harder matchups.

Once the mid game rolls around I dont know what I am supposed to do since you struggle to 1v1 people as a mage unless youre extremely fed. Am I supposed to go to a side lane and catch waves? If so should I only take the waves as they push into me as being exposed far up on a side lane as a mage usually means any enemy with engage will catch you out. Should I just push out the waves in a safe spot and then go to hover my team/the next objective in case a fight breaks out?

I find that if I stay around my team too much i fall behind in gold and xp and end up feeling useless.