Mage Introduction

Great idea Manti! yet i think class disscusions should be in seperate. It is very clear all classes are full of spells and talents that can be discussed *a lot*.

Well I'm good with mages so I'll post what i know with them:

Lets start with the available talent trees and my opinion of them
Frost - very high survivability (despite the buggs) but low dps
Fire - low survivability but very high dps
Arcane - filled with counter moves and offensive stuff, this tree
combines both dps and nice survivability

Ok so my opinion about leveling a mage is GO FULL FROST!!!
or frost/arcane.
Mages are fragile and since frost has the most survivability and mage dps is NEVER realy low (I said low in comparison to the other talents trees, pay attention!!! pfft)... frost is a great tree for someone who is new to mages since it makes you harder to be killed while leveling (frost is an average to low tree for raiding in my opinion)
Bugged spells in frost at the moment: Cone of Cold, Cold Snap

When you are high level enough and experienced with how easily a noob mage can be owned - you can try out fire.
Fire is high, steady dps! but you need to take out your enemy fast before it takes you out, if you have someone to tank for you all the better.
Since fire is high steady dps it's the ideal tree for raiding and leveling on higher levels (my own raid build is fire/arcane)
Bugged spells in fire at the moment: Dragon's Breath

The last tree - arcane
This tree is filled with many counter moves and unique awesome spells: slow, arcane barrage, presence of mind and arcane power - all of these are powerfull in the right hands, i say in the right hands because to play arcane right you have to be well experienced with mages, be fast with your hotkeys and probably make a few macros to make it easier on yourself (and be level 80 or close to it).
Full arcane is a waste, in my opinion a combination of arcane\frost or arcane\fire gives very nice rapid dps and lots of counter moves which make it ideal for pvp or beatin the shit out of normal mobs or elites solo.

Of course there is a lot more to discuss - but this is all you need to know when you start a mage, and the rest isn't hard to figure out once you read this (it was hard for me to figure out solo )

Well i read ophis's reply and followed his advice

Here is a link to my frost/arcane leveling build:
http://www.wowarmory.com/talent-calc.xml?cid=8&tal=23032023000003000000000000000000000000000000000000000000003533003311203130032102231350
It involves some area of effect spells but mostly mob control moves, such as freeze effects - which allows you to cast a massive aoe like blizzard to kill a lot of monsters or ice lance the crap out of 1 monster.
And the all important ice barrier which should be used frequently when monsters get too close.

Here is a link to my fire/arcane raiding build:
http://www.wowarmory.com/talent-calc.xml?cid=8&tal=23032003000000000000000000000023550320123000312531203213510000000000000000000000000000
This build gives you maximum fire damage and critical strikes in exchange for giving you almost no defences!
High dps is good for playing solo on higher levels (if you are good) to level or to raid!!!
This build contains a lot of aoe in it too if u noticed, yet be warned! aoe is to be used very carefully and on a number of monsters that you can tank - although as mage you should avoid damage at all times, with any build...

Here is a link to my ultimate mage build - well it's actually sickbabybunys idea but I helped and stole it too!
http://www.wowarmory.com/talent-calc.xml?cid=8&tal=23032503002203215032010251032100000000000000000000000000003533000010003000000000000000
This build has a lot of counter moves and very high and rapid dps - it's the best pvp build i've seen so far and in the right hands it delievers major arse kicking goodness.

Study the builds before you copy them - you might find some talents that don't fit your play style and would want to change the build a bit, and it's ok!!! (these builds are fit to my play style)
Learn the tactic that suits you the best by yourself in each build you have and goodluck


Note: The Frost/Arcane and Fire/Arcane builds have been modified, since Cone of Cold and Dragon's Breath were finally fixed - the pvp build is still the older version (which probably still kicks ass), because i have yet to find a better alternative.