So, to make everything simple and give everyone a clear idea of how basic or advanced various magical effects are, we'll go with this:

All abilities are split into three categories - Racial Traits, Innate Sorcery, and Arcane Arts.

Racial Traits: Biological functions tied to one's racial bloodline. Similar to mutations in X-Men.

Innate Sorcery: Lesser magicks from the four Elemental Planes that one can command at will like an extension of their body. Similar to Bending from Avatar: The Last Airbender and Legend of Korra.

Arcane Arts: Advanced disciplines requiring the use of runes from the Arcane Tongue to clearly define more complex magical effects and channeled through an Arcane Conduit, such as wands, rings, amulets, etc. Basically any item that you can engrave runes into marking it as a Conduit, or magical runic tattoos done with enchanted ink. 

So, with that, the characters won't actually need the Conduit for the Innate Sorcery, only the Arcane Arts. As for levels of difficulty with magic, we'll just go with this:

Unlearned: No experience in this type of magic.

Initiate: Only recently began studying this type of magic.

Novice: A very basic understanding of this type of magic. 

Intermediate: Considerable understanding of this type of magic.

Adept: Greater understanding of this type of magic, typically requires at least several years of formal education. 

Expert: Advanced understanding of this type of magic, typically requires post-graduate training with specialized instructors and several years of real-world experience beyond just formal education. 

Master: Complete mastery of this type of magic, typically requires many years of real-world experience using Adept-level spells beyond just formal education. 

To keep us all on a similar level, I'm think everyone is an Intermediate in one of the four elemental magicks, whichever they are attuned to, and then they can be a Novice in one other magic or an Initiate in two other magicks. As for what type of abilities fall into which levels, I'll work on that and get back to you, lol.