Dragon Age 2 - Interview @ Games On Net

Aussie site Games On Net has an interview with Mike Laidlaw on Dragon Age II, although he dodges a number of questions towards the end.  On mages and balance:

games.on.net: At least in our experiences, mages in Origins were monstrously powerful compared to the other classes. How are they stacking up for Dragon Age II?

Mike: Oh, they're still very powerful, but we've taken steps to bring warriors and rogues more into line with the mage experience. The key, for us, was to give each class its own role on the battlefield.

Warriors are very good at taking damage and dishing it out; even their basic melee attacks hit arcs in front of them, letting them keep the attention of multiple foes. Rogues use either daggers or bows to obliterate single targets, and have numerous abilities that control the battlefield, stunning groups of foes and controlling aggro. Mages, of course, own the ranged area-of-effect space with fireballs, tempests and so on. They are also the premier class for buffing others through spell trees like creation and arcane.

In short, to be most effective in Dragon Age II, you'll need to think like you're running a team.