about mages, I have been playing as Kal here for over 4 years now. Have seen the classes best moments, (pre BC) and low moments (post BC -present). I remain however, as passionate about this class as I was when I first started.
Let me go into a little history, I first joined the ranks of WoW in late January of 2006, made my mage whos name was then Dhiveria. Yes that is right, kal was a she, Dhiveria in French means Winter. The actual French word is spelled D'Hiver, just add the ia and you get Dhiveria, the Frost Mage which is what I always intended her being and now him.
I was part of the Sen'jin Server ever since it was listed as a new server all those years ago, had a nice guild I joined, and was pretty much content. Then all my friends disappeared, leaving me alone, a hermit if you will to fend for myself at every turn. Which is when I started lvling all my alts that you guys have yet to meet. I have a Priest, DK, Hunter, Shammy all at or above the lvl 70. (Shammy 68) So my knowledge is broad. Let me get back to the class of magi though.
Mage class is a very hard one to grasp, very steep learning curve when PVPing. Always needing to be quick on your feet, otherwise your a goner. The specs are Frost, Fire, and Arcane.
Frost - is your more defensive style of play spec, with a pet that is now permanent through glyphs, shields that protect you its extra snares. A frost mage is very hard to keep up with, frost I am unhappy to say is at the low end of the food chain when it comes to DPS. Shatter combos help out, and now with Deep Freeze being a damage producer in boss fights, and the haste that Ice Veins gives it has slightly improved.
Fire - is your more Damage spec, this spec is more damage and more damage. Very little to say about this spec, with its high damage spells and multiple opportunic style Dots your damage is immense. There is one problem I have seen over the past few months though, I feel that this spec has become a Tiny bit broken. The fluidity of the spec is a little lacking, it has way too many offensive abilities which can make one, while casting furiously in a boss fight rather dumbfounded ( for the lack of better terms ).
Arcane - is your all around spec, supposedly meant for mana saving abilities in vanilla. It never really reached that purpose ever since I have been playing, if you want to conserve mana you go frost plain and simple. Arcane is just not the way to go, arcane the way it is now is your high damage quick damage spec. Because of the fluidity of this spec and the amount of damage it can do it has now become the spec of choice for raiders across the board. With Arcane Power, Barrage, quickened missiles through talents, the heightened crit rate with spirit once again available through talents. It really is packing, wherever you need it to, and with all the ways a mage now has to get instant mana. Mana really is no issue anymore especially with the CD of evocate lowered again through talents.
Let me mention a few of the other non used spells around the mage tables for a minute before I sign off,
Polymorph - immobilizes your target by turning them into many different animals.
Spellsteal - good for if you need a good spell power buff or if you want to continuously steal a druids HOTs while in PVP.
Counterspell - otherwise known as silence, is upgradeable through talents otherwise all you can do is stop someone from casting spells from a certain school.
I will post again there are other things I can mention, but this is a mountain of text so I will end it here. LOL have fun mages !!!
