1: Stats:

Health and Mana
Attributes
Spell Power
Critical Strike
Spell Haste
Hit Chance
Mana Regeneration

2: Levelling:

Basics
Arcane Levelling
Fire Levelling
Frost Levelling
AoE Levelling
Tips

3: PvE:

Basic Raiding Builds
Stat Prioritizing
Gems and Enchants
Tips

4: PvP:

Battlegrounds
Arcane PvP
Fire PvP
Frost PvP
Resilience
Informative Links

5: Soloing:

Elite Quests
Raid Bosses
Tips

6: Addons:

Good-to-have Addons
PvE Addons
PvP Addons

7: Basic Q&A

8: Professions

9: Cataclysm

10: Abbreviations

Why play a Mage?
Well because you feel like it, of course. If you are a new player, testing out every class is always a good idea before deciding which one to prioritize. If you are a more experienced player, you might think you play the wrong class, and the Mage might be just the one.

1: Stats:
Stats are, simply, what improves you. Your stats are improved by level, gear, gems, enchant and so on. Depending on how you want your stats, you can either have better survivability, better damage, better Mana regeneration etc. The choices are many and I’ll be helping you along the way. However, just see this as a guide, you are allowed to play the game as you see fit.

Health and Mana:
These two things are your most trustworthy companions. Health, more known as Health Points (abbreviated HP for now on) is what keeps you alive. When your HP reach 0, you are dead and do what most dead people do, nothing or attempt to get back to their corpse. To be obvious, you don’t want to die, so keep your HP steady. Like all classes, Mages have a Base Health, which is their regular HP without any added stats. You can find out more about Base Health here:
www.wowwiki.com/Base_health

Mana is what allows you to use your abilities. All spells Mages have cost Mana, more or less. Without any Mana, you can’t do much, and you could almost consider yourself dead. Remember to always keep your Mana at a good amount before approaching a battle. If you are low on Mana and still fighting, do the best you can out of it, or just try to run away. All Mage spells cost a certain percentage of your Base Mana. Base Mana acts the same way as Base Health and more info can be found here:
www.wowwiki.com/Base_mana

Attributes
Attributes are the 5 most common stats. Almost every Item in the game has at least one of them, while most have at least 2 of them. For most classes, only 2-3 of them are actually worth getting. For Mages, Strength and Agility gives nothing of worth, while Stamina, Intellect and Spirit are much better. Here is a better way to view them

Strength increases Attack Power at a rate of 1 for every Strength. Attack Power then increases your melee damage. Mages don’t melee, simple as that. Don’t go for this stat, ever

Agility on the other hand gives Critical Strike Chance, Dodge Rating and Armour. However, the Critical Strike is only for melee damage, so it’s worthless. You also can’t dodge while casting spells, once again crap. Armour, while being better, is gained at such a low rate (2 Armour/Agility) that it’s not worth getting over other stats.

Stamina increases your HP. And that’s it, every point gives you 10 more HP. Stamina is also ‘free’ on most gear, it simply exists on almost item in the game. Around 60 % of all armour in the game has Stamina, while over 90 % of all level 80 armour has it. Its abbreviated stam

Intellect gives you more Mana, better Mana Regeneration and a higher Spell Critical Strike Chance. Each point gives 15 Mana, improved Regeneration and 166.67 points gives 1 % Spell Critical Strike Chance. It is therefore a lot better than the others mentioned. Abbreviation here is int.

Spirit is the last attribute. It solely increases Mana Regeneration, but also Spell Critical Strike Chance for higher levelled Mages using Molten Armour. From a damage perspective, this stat is the best among the five attributes. But compared to the next, all these fall behind.

Spell Power:
Man this stat is awesome. It increases the damage of all your Spells. That’s right, every single one of them. This stat never reaches a point where it becomes worse than others. You want damage? This is the one for you. However, not all Spells gains the same amount of damage than your other Spells do. Spells have a different coefficient, often depending on their cast time. For more information on spells coefficient, check this list:
www.wowwiki.com/Spell_power_coefficient#Mage_Coefficients
Spell Power is abbreviated SP

Critical Strike:
I’ve mentioned this thing before, and from now on and I’ll only mean the Spells. All your damaging spells have a chance to Critical Strike. When this happens, it will deal 150 % of its damage. However, this can further improved, mostly from talents. It can therefore be used as nasty amount of burst from some lucky streaks. At level 80, you need 45,91 Critical Strike Rating to gain 1 % increased chance to get your crit. Because of this, this stat is often not optimal for Mages. However, it is still a good chance, and because of Spirit with Molten Armour, you will gain a higher Critical Strike Chance (more on this at the PvE section). This stat is often abbreviated crit chance, crit rating, or just simply crit.

Spell Haste:
A lot of fun can be made from this little bugger. This simple stat makes you cast your Spells faster. Neat huh? Well, the formula can be somewhat tricky, but it’s in almost all cases better than crit for PvE purposes and is loved by Frost maniacs in PvP. For 1 % Spell Haste, you need 32,79 Haste Rating. It’s often abbreviated just haste, and more information on cast times can be found here:
www.wowwiki.com/Casting_speed

Hit Chance:
Sure dealing damage is nice, but when you miss you know you’ll be pissed of. This stat removes those misses and makes sure your spells will hit your target. It is therefore the most valuable stat for a Mage, until the ‘cap’ is reached. This ‘cap’ is when your spells have 100 % chance to hit against a certain level, enemy etc. After that ’cap’, it’s practically worthless. You need 26,23 Hit Rating to increase your Hit Chance by 1 %, the stat is also abbreviated hit. For more information, look here:
www.wowwiki.com/Spell_hit

Mana Regeneration:
Getting tired of long words now, abbreviation is regen. Your regen is affected by 3 factors. Your Spirit/Int, your MP5 (Mana per 5 seconds) and your maximum Mana. Your Spirit/Int is very complicated, so let’s just say it’s not that good. MP5 is also bad, but your maximum Mana is easily gained from just Int. The way you get Mana here is from Replenishment, a buff given by many classes that gives you 1 % of your total Mana every 5 Seconds. Mana Regeneration is not generally looked at by Mages, but it’s something to keep in mind.

2: Levelling:
The biggest pain of Mages is the very start. With a low starting Mana, mobs needed tons of hits to take down, this can make you rage or just fall asleep. But as you slowly progress, it will get easier and easier. Mages are one of the classes with three specs that all works for levelling. While some aren’t good until late levels, they are all worth looking at. Now then, let’s get into business.

Basics:
Merely here to point out a few things.
Yes, you will have Mana issues
Yes, Teleports are awesome.
No, quests are faster than grinding.
Instances can be faster but not necessarily.
For Heirlooms, Chest/Shoulder > Haste Trinket > Weapon
Race stuff will be in the end of the guide.

Arcane Levelling
Until level 64 Arcane is bad. Yep, I just said it. Compared to Fire and Frost, Arcane is just plain bad until they get Arcane Barrage at 60 and Arcane Blast at 64. But does that it mean its impossible? Hell no, a challenge is always good. Now then, lets have a look at the builds.

Level 20:
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#ocbVz:VZo
Looks a little weird, doesn’t it? Well, Arcane Missiles is not worth is compared to Fireball this early, reason enough for the glyph. Arcane Concentration triggers Clearcasting, which will definitely help you along the way. As for your primary rotation, open with a Frostbolt to slow and then Fireball spam them down.

Level 30:
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#ocbVcb0I:VmZo
Evocation Glyph is awesome, don’t question it, it’s amazing. These changes just increase your damage and add better regen. With Torment to Weak, opening with a Frostbolt will give your Fireballs an additional 12 % damage increase, and with Spell Impact that’s 18 %. I don’t know but this could be incredibly at this level.

Level 40:
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#ocbVcb0Izxhz:VmZo
More of a personal reference to get higher Int, otherwise the rest are no brainers. Arcane Power can save your life or add that little extra for that extra tough enemy.

Level 50:
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#ocbVcb0IzxuuMho:VmZoz
Second Minor Glyph makes you large impact. However, here is mostly a personal opinion. Many talents here are good so it’s just to decide what you prefer, whether it’s regen or damage. Missile Barrage and Arcane Empowerment adds Arcane Missile to your rotation and might even remove Fireball from your rotation.

Level 60:
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#ocbVcb0IzxGuMxxd:VmZoz
Once again, a lot of personal choices here. I don’t find the 6 % Haste from Netherwind Presence, but it might for you. Arcane Barrage is your lovely friend from here.

Level 70:
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#ocbVfb0IzxGuMtxdcZm:zmZozc
First of, I removed the Fireball Glyph since it’s now worthless since Arcane Blast replaces it. You could also replace the Evocation one with Arcane Missile. Frostbolt is still there for Torment the Weak though. Rest is a lot of personal stuff again, pretty much a lot is near the end.

Level 80:
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#ocbVfh0IzxGuMxedcZVbc0o:zmNozc
Something like that at the end, the last 10-15 levels don’t make much difference, and after Arcane Blast you’re set.

Fire Levelling:
Pure fine destruction, you feel it? Not me, but this is as close you can get to it. Fire can deal loads of damage, but consume Mana like hell… ok bad joke. So, lets get it on.

Level 20:
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#oZ0E0o:VZo
Don’t panic because I didn’t pick Pyroblast. Its long cast time makes it bad for levelling, even though it deals more damage than a Fireball. It goes faster using just Fireballs, trust me, or try it yourself. Glyphs are obvious. Ignite is loved and hated among the community. I love it, and so will you or I will feel bad.

Level 30:
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#oZ0E0bRbhz:VfZo
Blastwave saves lives, reason enough to pick it. Mage Armour Glyph doesn’t start until 34, but it combined with Master of Elements will help your Mana a lot. Improved Scorch is also hated or loved among the community. You don’t pick it to use scorch, you pick it for the free crit chance it gives you.

Level 40:
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#oZ0E0bRhhuVz:VfZo
While Combustion is bad at 80, it is awesome while levelling. Take it, other choices made are just for damage purposes.

Level 50:
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#oZ0E0bRhuuVubho:VfZoz
Minor Glyph doesn’t matter, but the regen from Pyromaniac and Empowered Fire do. The Rest is just pure damage buffs. Dragon’s Breath, like Blastwave, saves lives.

Level 60:
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#oZ0E0bRhGuVubhst:VfZoz
HOT STREAK. You will love. If you don’t, you went the wrong way. Instant Pyroblast, what’s not to like? Living Bomb won’t be used a lot while levelling, but I think it’s a good idea that you try it out.

Now I take a sudden end here. Why? Because like Arcane, it doesn’t matter. However, at 75 you get Frostfire Bolt, which you can use for the last levels, but it makes Improved Fireball worthless. So you either go Arcane or Frost, here are a few base examples:
Arcane:
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#of0VzZ0E0bRhGuVubhst:VfZozc
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#of0Vcb0GZ0E0bRhGuVubhst:VfZozc
These builds continue to use Fireball for levelling. Torment the Weak needs a slow effect, and Frostbolt doesn’t cut it for Fire levelling.

Frost:
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#oZ0E0bRhGuVubhstbGc:VfZozc
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#oZfV0bRhIuVubhstbIccoco:VfZozc
At 75 you respec and leave Improved Fireball and start to use Frostfire Bolt. It deals less damage, but will crit much higher.

The last 20 points are for both Arcane and Fire no real difference, it doesn’t matter. Frost follows an equal path. Take what you want and think you need.

Frost Levelling
Frost does something that the other two specs don’t while levelling. No, they don’t keep their head cold, they conserve Mana. Frostbolt costs a lot less Mana than their counterparts, and because of that and the additional survival methods, Frost is often considered to be the best levelling spec. It doesn’t kill as fast, but it does it with less Mana and that means less time spend drinking. Lets go then!

Level 20:
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#oZZVMc0o:Zo
First off, no Major Glyph, there is none worth taking for now. Talents are straightforward, damage, increased hit chance and Icy Veins, for those burst moments.

Level 30:
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#oZZVcchobu:fwZo
Due to lack of damage glyphs, these two regen glyphs will surely help. A lot of early talents here are good, and you will get most in time. Personally, I prefer the better slow effect and Shatter over less Mana and more damage. Cold Snap resets your other cooldowns, which can be used both offensively and defensively.

Level 40:
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#oZZVccGoru0fz:fwZo
Ice Barrier, enough said. Pretty much worthwhile talents have been picked, but some are left. Frostbite can be taken if you want it, I’m still struggling to fit early here, you might have an easier time with it.

Level 50:
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#oZZqccIofu0fdMbo:fwZoz
Water Elemental defines the Frost Tree. Your lovely companion will serve you well. Fingers of Frost and Empowered Frostbolt and good talents, rest are fillers.

Level 60:
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#oZZqccIofu0fdMfkt:fwZoz
Deep Freeze, hated in PvE, dreaded in PvP. When used, Frost goes hell on their enemy. Brain Freeze is used for another regen way of free damage, and 1 point Enduring Water is enough for Replenishment.

Level 70:
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#of0cZZAccIofu0fdMfkt:fwZozc
Doesn’t matter that much, take what you want really.

Level 80:
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#of0VMh0hZZAccIofu0fdMfkt:fwZozc
Once again, doesn’t matter that much.

AoE Levelling
So you get bored while levelling? Well, AoE Grinding may be slower, but it’s a lot more fun and can be quite a challenge. Frost is the most optimized for this, but due to Living Bomb at 60, that can change. However, I won’t provide such a build, because I have no information about it. For Frost AoE, please watch this Video first. It may be old, but it still keeps some basis:
http://www.warcraftmovies.com/movieview.php?id=44168
Many things have changed since. Blizzard can now crit, and Frostbite have become a force to be reckoned with, however it may screw up your mobs, forcing you to do some extra work. Also, since the talent trees have changed, the builds shown in the video doesn’t work, but they still give a good basis. Ok then, lets grind some:

Level 20:
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#oZZhf0bz:kZo
First Major Glyph, whatever, rest are essential. Improved Blizzard + Ice Shards + Frostbite = awesome

Level 30:
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#oZZhfzhccd:kwZo
Shatter adds more damage due to Ice Shards and Frostbite. Rest shouldn’t be mentioned

Level 40:
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#oZZhfcIsfu00z:kwZo
Cold as Ice and Winter’s Chill aren’t powerful. You don’t need the lower cooldown, and 5 % crit on top off 50 %, it’s not worth it compared to others. Improved Cone of Cold might be good, but you’ll find better way to put the points.

Level 50:
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#oZZhIcIsfu00dLbo:kwZoz
Shattered Barrier means more ways to keep enemies frozen. Water Elemental adds another Freeze, and Fingers of Frost another ‘Freeze’. What more could you need?

Level 60:
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#oZZhIcIsfuh0dxbkx:kwZoz
Deep Freeze is crap, rest taken is awesome. Instant Fireball have no AoE potential, Improved Cone of Cold is taken here.

Level 70:
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#oZf0cZhIcIsfuh0dxbsx:kwZozc
More crit, that’s basically it

Level 80:
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#of0VZf0cZhIcIsfuh0dxbsx:kwjozc
Rest 10 are, like the others, personal choices. I prefer Clearcasting but that’s just me.

Tips
At levels 4, 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 75 and 80 you get a new rank of Water, while gems at levels 28, 38, 48, 58, 68 and 77. The earlier you can get them, the better.
SP is the best you can get while levelling, but masses of Int can help you along the way.
Frost Nova, Blastwave, Dragon’s Breath and Cone of Cold should only be used when your enemy gets close. Don’t walk up and perform them.
Don’t waste your Ice Block, use it with care
If you get ganked by a high level, log another character and do something else in the meantime.
Fireblast is a finisher, ‘nothing’ else.
Get a Wand, it will help.
Take it slowly and don’t be daring.
Mage Armour is often the best Armour to use while levelling.

3: PvE:
Mages are a pure DPS Class. This means they can only do damage and they do it good. While all classes have some up and downs with DPS, so do Mages. We will look more into them and check out some stuff.

Basic Raiding Builds
There are 4 base Raiding Builds for a Mage. One is doing excellent, one will soon be, one rocks in crit fights and one have good Mana management. All builds use Molten Armour, except on Mana fight where Mage Armour is used.

**NOTE**
These builds are by no means 100 % correct, some talents, much like in the levelling section, are personal opinions.
**NOTE**

Arcane:
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#oshVfz0IzxGuMxedcZbhf0o:Nziozc
One point in Arcane Subtlety is enough. The Glyphs are most optimized for pure damage. Focus Magic should be put on someone to guarantee you a 100 % uptime. Tanks will make sure you get the damage from Torment the Weak, don’t worry about it. Arcane Power should be used during Bloodlust/Heroism and with other cooldowns. Presence of Mind should be used on an Arcane Blast, preferable when it's stacked high. Do note that Netherwind Presence gives you 6 % free Haste, but also increases the Haste you get from all other sources by 6 %.
Rotation:
The rotation of Arcane varies depending on your gear level, duration of the fight and your Mana. You could endlessly spam Arcane Blast, but it consumes chunks of your Mana. The base rotation can be said to be this:
4 Stacks Arcane Blast - Arcane Missiles
Arcane Barrage is used while on the move.

Fire:
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#oZfVcbRhIuVhbhctbIccoc:ILiozc
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#of0Vck0fZ0EMbRhIhVhbhct:VLiozc
FFB and TtW/FB. Glyph of Improved Scorch should NEVER, EVER be taken unless the officers of your guild specifically tell you so. In that case, remove the Fireball/Frostfire Bolt Glyphs. The first build is a very good starting build. However, it relies on crits to do high damage. If we take Ulduar as an example, only Hodir is a good encounter to be FFB at, due to a crit buff being given. On other encounters, TtW/FB is the best build available (might change in 3.2.2 due to Arcane changes). However, it requires a higher gear level to compete with.
Rotation:
Scorch (100 % Uptime) - Living Bomb (100 % Uptime) - Spam Fireball/Frostfire Bolt, use Pyroblast when Hot Streak triggers.
If you aren’t the Scorch assigner, don’t use it unless you see that it fell off the target. Scorch is also not worth using on most trash.
While Hot Streak can be all about RNG sometimes, don't let it get to you. You will have those awesome days with loads of procs, and some days they never will happen.

Frost:
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#of0wcz0cZZVfcckfu0fzgfkt:Rniozc
Frost received some excellent buffs in 3.3 and is not as bad as it used to be. Water Elemental is permanent due to the new Eternal Water glyph, so make sure it also receives party/raid buffs. With the new 2-piece bonus on tier10, Brain Freeze have become more than worthy it's three points, but it's slightly lackluster. Some points can be put elsewhere, like Student of the Mind, but Ice Barrier is an excellent survivability tool. Remember, dead DPS is no DPS.
Rotation:
Spam Frostbolt and use Fireball when brain Freeze procs. When Finger of Frost procs, do 2 Frostbolt and then quickly Deep Freeze. If it's on cooldown, use and Ice Lance. This 'Ghost Charge' technique can be tricky to get used to, but keep practising. Also, do not use Brain Freeze procs when Finger of Frost is active.

Stat Prioritizing
Spell Power, Spell Power and more Spell Power! Ok, not really, but you can say it’s something like that. Here is a better way to view it.
Arcane, TtW/Fire, Frost:
Hit (until Cap) - SP - Haste - Crit - Spirit/Int
Int can be ranked higher for Arcane, but not by much. I will go through the hit cap a little bit further down.
At around 2.7/2.8 SP, Haste takes over SP for Arcane, one of those reasons being Netherwind Presence.

FFB:
Hit (until Cap) - SP - Crit*/Haste - Spirit/Int
Here it’s a little different. FFB have a huge crit multiplier. 334,565 %, that quite high you know. Because of that, crit is ranked higher. However, when your crit reaches around 50 % raid buffed, Haste starts to become better. I do not any clear numbers, so you may correct me if I’m wrong with this.

Hit Cap:
Read the “Spell Hit” segment? Go do it.

Read it? Good. Ok then, you need 17 % hit to cap your spells against raid bosses. Some specs gain ‘free’ hit from talents, lets have a closer look:
If you are an Alliance with a fellow Draenei (Heroic), you can remove one additional percent. If you raid with a Balance Druid/Shadow Priest (Improved Faerie Fire/Misery), 3 additional percent goes to loose.
Spec - Percent - Rating - With Draenei - With SP/Boomkin - Everything
Arcane: 11 % Needed 289 - 263 - 210 - 184
FFB: 14 % Needed 368 - 342 - 289 - 263
TtW/FB: 17 % Needed 446 - 420 - 368 - 342
Frost: 14 % Needed 368 - 342 - 289 - 263

Had some problems trying to make this crap here look decent, hope you can understand it.

Gems and Enchants
These two things further improve your gear. There are many options to take, but some are simply better than others.

Gems:
Gems exist in 5 different ‘colours’. Red, Yellow, Blue, Meta and Prismatic. You can only put a Meta in a Meta slot (which only exist on Head-slot items) while you can put any of the other four in any other colour. Items also have socket bonus, and instead of just trying to explain it by words, I’ll take an example.
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=46129
One nice head item we got here. We got two gem slots here. The first is a meta slot and the second a red. Now, we can only put a meta into the meta so that’s obvious. But the red one is more interesting. If we put a red gem there, we will get the bonus, in this case “+9 Spell Power”. If we put a yellow or blue, we don’t get it. If we put a prismatic, we will get the bonus, because the prismatic counts as any gem type. Unfortunately, there aren’t any good prismatic gems for Mages. In this case, we will put a red gem there, because red slots are the best slots available for a Mage. Here is a list over what gems exist and what stats they give:
http://www.wowwiki.com/Gem_properties

As you can see, some gems have two colours. They have half the stats of their “original” gems, but they match two colours. Now, many gems are worthless for Mages, so lets look at the good stuff.
Red Slots: Spell Power, not really any question
Yellow Slots: Spell Hit, if you need it, otherwise Spell Power/Spell haste
Blue Slots: Spell Power/Spirit, you also only need two blue slots to work (read below for reason)
If the socket bonus is ’bad’ (say, Spirit, MP5, Stam etc.) just put in Spell Power gems and nothing else.

Now we got the Meta Gem. There are many Meta Gems, but for Mages only one is good.
Chaotic Skyflare Diamond.
One beauty which gives 21 Crit Rating and +3 Critical Strike Damage. Yummy. Lets link it shall we?
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=41285
“Requires at least 2 Blue gems”, see where I went at the ”Blue Slots” part now? Well, you need two blue slots to get it to work. But we’ve already sorted that out.

Enchants:
Your enchants are more straightforward. There are rarely more than one good enchant for your gear, so lets just get it over with.

Head: Arcanum of Burning Mysteries (Revered with Kirin Tor) +30 Sp/20 Crit
Shoulder: Greater Inscription of the Storm (Exalted with Sons of Hodir) +24 SP/15 Crit, if you aren’t Exalted, there is a weaker Honoured version of it
Cloak: Enchant Cloak – Greater Speed, +23 Haste
Chest: Enchant Chest – Powerful Stats, +10 Stats (base attributes), also a lesser version which gives 8 to all Stats
Bracer: Enchant Bracer – Superior Spellpower, +30 SP, also a lesser version with +23 SP
Gloves: Enchant Gloves – Exceptional Spellpower, +28 SP, if you still need Hit, take Enchant Gloves – Precision which gives +20 Hit
Belt: Only one, a Belt Buckle from Blacksmithing which adds a gem to your belt, put a Spell Power gem there
Legs: Brilliant Spellthread (Tailors can make it), +50 SP/20 Spirit
Feet: Several here. Personally, go for Tuskarr’s Vitality for the Movement increase. For damage, take Icewalker +12 hit/crit

See the profession section for how these above stuff can be altered further.

Tips
Invisibility reduces aggro, Ice Block don’t.
Watch your Blink, use it when most necessary.
Don’t move into the fire, green stuff or anything that hurts you.
If you got one-shot, don’t blame the healer
You don’t stare yourself blind on the Damage Meters
Keeping yourself alive is your number one priority. It’s not hard to calculate the damage a corpse does.
If other people do more DPS than you, don’t blame the class, look at what you did right and wrong and what you can improve.

4: PvP:
Mages are one of the, if not the best Caster class for PvP. With Arcane’s on demand burst and Frost superior Crowd Control (CC from now on), Mages can have a tricky, and somewhat challenging time to top rating. But that doesn’t prevent the fact that Mages are a part of one of the best 3vs3 setups in the game, RMP (Rogue, Mage, Priest). However, Mages often struggle. Being a Cloth class have it’s downsides, and having one of the hardest time taking down a healer solo often hurts the Mages gameplay. But lets not stick to all the negative stuff, lets go to the fun part.

DO NOTE: I’ve never played nor experienced high level Arena. Be it on this Mage or any other character. All information is purely from other sources as well forums that have useful information, watching videos etc.

Battlegrounds:
Any spec works in a Battleground (BG). You will most often find yourself in the back, staying alive dishing out damage, since 3-4 players can break you down quickly if you don’t react fast enough. It’s hard to give some real strategy on how to play in BGs since most just want to win or ignore the objectives and go for achievements or similar. But remember, BGs can be fun, if you make them fun.

Arcane PvP:
Well there was quite a lot of complaints that caused a burst reduce for Arcane. But that doesn’t make it that bad. For Arena, Arcane Mages often go with a second DPS for 2vs2, and often stick to RMP or a Wizard Cleave (two casters, one healer). For 2vs2, it’s all about keeping one locked down and getting the other down. Playing with a Rogue is often the best choice (loads of CC, good burst), but an Elemental Shaman can also work (two casters, more burst and backup healer). For 3vs3, the Mage is there for control, and then for the damage. Polymorph, Nova, Rank 1 Frostbolt and Slow are all tricks to keep your opponent locked down. A well timed counterspell on that healer can be just the thing to get him down or his partner.
For 1vs1, Arcane is all about keeping distance. They are quite squishy and rely on an instant Invisibility, Polymorph and Slow. Generally, you always want your target slowed for Torment the Weak. Mage Armour is godsend against other Casters (especially Affliction Warlocks and Shadow Priests), but also against Death Knights Chains of Ice. Healers are always a pain for Mages. It’s all about getting the right Counterspell in and finish them of, before they got you oom (out of Mana).
As for specs, the common way is to go with a “PvE-like” build. That means, 57/3/11:
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#of0ifzrcdcGuRtxdcZbhbho:mNzozc
Variations happen, like always

Fire PvP:
Fire PvP sucks. Ok, not really, but compared to Arcane and Frost it does. Fireball’s long cast time makes it hard to use so most Mages just go for Scorch. However, Scorch damage is pitiful and scales badly. Therefore, Fire gems for crit to get Hot Steak to proc more often. But trying to crit against high resilience targets is not an easy task. For BGs, Fire is often the most entertaining spec to play, jump around and place Living Bomb on everything possible. But for Arena, Living Bomb is often not worth taking due to its high Mana cost and that the Arcane/Frost 21-pointers are just plain better for Arena. Fire also goes for the same setups, double DPS and RMP. However, it offers much worse synergy than what the other two specs does.
But for 1vs1, Fire is often the best to use against Healers. High burst is often the best thing, get them down before you go oom. For other classes, some can be a major struggle, but a lucky Blazing Speed proc can give you those seconds to survive.
For specs here, it’s either Arcane or Frost to go into depending on what you prefer and what you need:
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#ofcbrzrZfV0fRG0uiuMMst:mdwozc
Variations also happen here. Burning Determination is often not worth it, same goes for Firestarter.

Frost PvP:
Some players go insane against all the tricks a Frost Mage have. Truckloads of snares, freezes and survival option makes Frost the best PvP spec there is, looking at results. Among the 3 specs, the CC Frost brings is second to none, no other caster can compete with the amount of control Frost brings. Frosts primary burst comes from Shatter Combos, getting in two or more spells onto a freeze and with Shatter having 50 % higher crit chance. Frost Mages often goes with a Rogue for 2vs2 and RMP for 3vs3. Frost Mages are brought primary for their massive control, secondary for their Shatter. Rank 1 Frostbolt is godsend since it snares, fast cast and can also freeze, give a free Fireball or FoF proc. During Deep Freeze, Frost burns all their cooldowns to burst as much as possible. For that reason, Frost often stacks Haste so they can get more spells into the Stun.
For duels and similar, Frost have major problems with Healers. A Resto Druid can’t be killed unless you are extremely lucky and the Druid is AFK or similar. Melees are often very easy while casters are trickier to handle.
For spec, there is only one:
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#of0frzMcZZAfbIobu0fdMfkt:mjbozc
Obviously some variations.

Resilience:
Almost forgot this part. Resilience is a stat that exist on every PvP item in the gem. It reduces all damage taken, critical strike damage and the chance to get critical hit. The higher resilience, the harder it is to deal some damage to the target, but having high resilience also means you sacrifice other stats. Mages often stay at around 600-700 resilience.

Informative Links
A lot of things I just wrote are basics, these links will help you further:
http://www.arenajunkies.com/showthread.php?t=107426
http://www.arenajunkies.com/strategy/2v2/FMag_DPri/
http://www.arenajunkies.com/strategy/2v2/AMag_Rog/
http://www.arenajunkies.com/strategy/2v2/FMag_DWlk/
http://forums.wow-europe.com/thread.html?topicId=8246767766&sid=1
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=10043314619&sid=1
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=16474165424&sid=1

5: Soloing:
This won’t be about levelling. This will be group-specific quests, old raid bosses, instances and similar. Mages are, after all, one of the best boost classes in the game.

Elite Quests:
If it can be snared, it can be killed, the base motto of a Frost Mage. As long as the target doesn’t move at 200 % speed that is. With snares, Frost Mages can easily keep distance from their enemies, be it with Rank 1 Frostbolt, a full Rank or Water Elementals Freeze. However, if the mob can’t be snared, then you can almost see yourself as dead.
Arcane can also solo many harder quests. Slow is an excellent kiting tool that can be used very well. A good example is Gigantaur, a level 74 elite in Dragonblight, used for a Horde Quest. Well normally a 3-man group quests, an Arcane Mage can use Slow and an Instant cast spell to kite him to Moa’ki Harbour or Agmar’s Hammer.
Fire though lacks Slow and Freezes. So often they just have to rely on mass burst to bring their target down, before you go down yourself. Most of the time though, it won’t work unless you have immense luck or outgearing the quest, which shouldn’t happen.

Raid Bosses:
We may be squishy clothiers, but we can slay some raid bosses. Cinondra here on the European forums have made several videos himself on him soloing many different bosses in Molten Core, Zul’Gurub and Onyxia. As for myself, I can say that at least one of the four Edge of Madness encounters are soloable. Often you have to use a specified spec which only works for that purpose, get the boss down and survive. If you want to get down a boss that nobody else have, you have to think outside the box to find the correct answer. However, some bosses just can’t be solo’d, we are not that good.

Instances:
When it comes to regular Instances, if it can be snared, it can be killed. Same philosophy. Lower level instances can be often be AoE’d down, try pull everything in Ragefire Chasm and then AoE all down. Trust me, it works, but sometimes you could die due to some nasty stuns. But normally, a Mage can AoE anything up to Zul’Farrak without any real problem. You can then continue single target things down almost up to the Wrath Instances. I haven’t solo’d many instances since TBC, but there I did the first boss in Slave Pens, so I would assume it works for some early Wrath Bosses as well.

Tips
Cinondra’s Videos:
http://www.warcraftmovies.com/pv.php?t=3&l=enq
Evocation Glyph should almost always be used for raids.
If you can’t solo it, you can still duo it with a friend most of the time.
Ice Lance abuse is often used.
Stunlocks in Zul’Gurub and Ragefire Chasm kills you.
With Ice Armour, Glyph and Talents, you can reach around 25 % less Physical Damage.

6: Addons
Some of you will disagree a lot with me here. But the fact is that many addons can do the same thing, so no need to get upset about it, ok?

Good-to-have Addons
Quartz:
http://www.wowinterface.com/downloads/info7158-Quartz-ModularCastingBar.html
An amazing addon that allows you to customize your cast bar, HIGHLY recommended regardless of what you are doing.

Bartender:
http://www.wowinterface.com/downloads/info11190-Bartender4.html
Configures your action bars, not highly recommended but it’s very good to have.

OmniCC:
http://www.wowinterface.com/downloads/info4836-OmniCC.html
Shows a timer on your cooldowns, amazing addon, get it.

Bagnon:
http://www.wowinterface.com/downloads/info4459-Bagnon.html
A simple Bag addon. Might sound weird to have it here in a Mage Guide, but I just like it that much.

MSBT:
http://www.wowinterface.com/downloads/info5153-MikScrollingBattleText.html
Shows damage done/taken, buffs gained, when your cooldowns are ready and much more.

Recount:
http://wow.curse.com/downloads/wow-addons/details/recount.aspx
Shows damage meters and many other valuable things.

PetTimeToLive:
http://www.wowinterface.com/downloads/info14021-PetTimeToLive.html
Shows the remaining duration of your temporary pets (Water Elemental, Mirror Image etc.)

Broker_Portals
http://wow.curse.com/downloads/wow-addons/details/broker-portals.aspx
Packs all your portals into one simple menu.

PvE Addons
Deadly Boss Mods:
http://www.wowinterface.com/downloads/info8814-DeadlyBossMods.html
Shows abilities bosses will do, can also be used for BG objectives.

Omen Threat Meter:
http://www.wowinterface.com/downloads/info8459-OmenThreatMeter.html
Keeps a better track of your threat to make sure you don’t get to high.

Grid:
http://www.wowinterface.com/downloads/info5747-Grid.html
Shows your entire raid on a few frames, allowing easy access to check dead people, curses and other.

PvP Addons
Gladius:
http://www.pvptutorial.com/uitutorial/gladius
Shows your opponents HP, Mana and cast bars.

Afflicted3:
http://www.wowinterface.com/downloads/info8063-Afflicted2.html
Shows your opponents used cooldowns

If any addon is lacking, notify me and I will add it.

7: Basic Q&A
Q: What race shall I play?
A: Whatever race you want to. Looks > racials unless you want to optimize for 100 % in either PvE or PvP. In that case, go Troll/Gnome/Human for PvE and Undead/Gnome/Human for PvP.

Q: Which Polymorph is the best?
A: None, use whichever you think looks best.

Q: What is a Shatter Combo?
A: A Shatter Combo is when your target is Frozen and you cast Frostbolt and quickly follows with an Ice Lance so that both hits within the Freeze. The talent Shatter gives you +50 % crit chance against Frozen targets.

Q: Are Mages good?
A: If I say yes you will think this class is overpowered, if I say no you will think it’s underpowered.

Q: Are Mages bad?
A: If I say yes you will think this class is underpowered, if I say no you will think it’s overpowered.

Q: Are Mages getting Sunwelled?
A: No, due to the change of Raid stacking in Wrath, Mages can never get Sunwelled again.

Q: Why don’t you raid?
A: I do, casually, very casually

Q: I just started levelling and am drinking a lot, will it get easier?
A: Yes, Evocation and Mana Gems help a lot when you get them.

Q: Isn’t Hot Streak to much RNG?
A: Not really, some specs will always habe some things to watch out for.

Q: Is Frost good for Raiding?
A: Yes, but only on certain encounters, such as General Vezax.

Q: Does Mages have a theme song?
A: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2z29Rk8814w&hd=1

Q: I can’t kill <Insert X Class here> WTF BUFF MAGES!
A: That’s not a question. Get better gear, improve your playstyle, unless it’s a healer then you are toast.

8: Professions
A quick and effective profession comparing.

Profession - Bonus - Summary
Herbalism:
Lifeblood is the bonus here. It's a free heal for 3600 over 5 seconds. It can only be used on yourself, doesn't scale, use no GCD and have a 3 minute CD. It's excellent for levelling, but mostly pointless at 80.

Mining:
Mining gains some free stamina from Toughness, 60 to be exact. Once again good for levelling, but practially worthless for PvE. Works better in PvP though.

Skinning:
Skinning however gives a damage boost from Master of Anatomy. 40 Additional crit rating, which means approximately 0,87 % crit chance. Much better overall than herb/mining, but lackluster compared to other.

Alchemy:
Excluding the Alchemist's Stone that makes your potions better, you will get your very own pot and flask. Flask of the North is the only flask can be used in Arena, and have unlimited charges. It gives you 47 SP, making it a good choice. You also get Endless Mana/Healing Potion. While these can not be used in Arena, they are also "endless".

Blacksmithing:
After being worthless for clothies for a long time, BS now shines high. This profession allows you to put an additional socket unto your gloves and bracer, a prismatic slot. Assuming you use it for SP, this profession gives you 46 SP, making it an excellent overall choice. And lets not forget you can use it for haste, hit, crit etc.

Enchanting:
Enchanting never lets their users down. Ring Enchants are what you get here, which will give your rings an additional 23 SP each, for 46 total.

Engineering:
Loved or hated depending on who you ask. There are tons of tools here, and I prefer to keep it short. You can put a haste use effect or a rocket on your gloves, parachute on your cloak and MC head on your head. You also got loads of grenades and similiar. Alas, it's still lackluster for PvE, but it's the best PvP profession out there.

Inscription:
Free shoulder enchants here, saves you some Sons of Hodir grind as well. The enchant will effectively give you an additional 46 SP over the best possible shoulder enchant.

Jewelcrafting:
Like BS, we are talking gems here. You get 3 special JC gems that you can use on your gear, and you can use anyway you want to, as long as they match the colour. Taking SP as an example again, you will get 48 SP, making it better than some others, but only slightly.

Leatherworking:
Another enchant here, bracers. Except the resistance enchants, there is obviously a SP bonus here as well. And the extra stats are... 46!

Tailoring:
Most likely the most common caster profession, and it's also good. A cloak enchant, that gives your spells a chance to give you 295 SP for 15 second, with a hidden 45 second cooldown. This gives approximately 98 SP, but you loose the 23 haste enchant you usually have. However, Tailoring is still the best available for PvE. For PvP however, the spell pen enchant is extremely valuable, so it's often skipped here.

9: Cataclysm
The Cataclysm is the third expansion for WoW. No release date have been scheduled yet. Here is a brief information about the expansion, and will hopefully updated when the time comes.

Spell Power: Removed, Intellect now grants it
Spirit: No longer used by DPS, Molten Armour will be changed
Two new Races, Goblin and Worgen, both can be Mages
Night Elves, Dwarves and Orcs can also be Mages
Talents tree's will be made more 'fun'
First Legendary item will be for Casters, most likely a Staff or Dagger

We don't have much information yet, but I'll be doing my best to update it.

10: Abbreviations
This post can just be continuously updated as I remember more of them.
AB: Arcane Barrage
AE: Arcane Explosion
AoE: Area of Effect
AP: Arcane Power
Belf: Blood Elf
Blue: Blizzard Employee posting on WoW Forums
CC: Crowd Control
CS: Counterspell/Cold Snap
DB: Dragon’s Breath
DBM: Deadly Boss Mods
DF: Deep Freeze
DK: Death Knight
DR: Diminishing Return
Ele: Summon Water Elemental
FB: Fireball/Frostbolt
FFB: Frostfire Bolt
HS: Hot Streak
Int: Intellect
LB: Living Bomb
MA: Molten/Mage Armour
PoM: Presence of Mind
Naxx: Naxxramas
PvE: Player vs Environment
PvP: Player vs Player
Pyro: Pyroblast
QQ: Whining
SP: Spell Power
Spell Pen: Spell Penetration
Stam: Stamina
TBC: The Burning Crusade
TtW: Torment the Weak
UD: Undead
WotLK: Wrath of the Lich King

Reserved for flames.

Uh, you made a typo. Find it yourself.

No, great job so far, your words should be painted blue! =)

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Q u o t e:
Uh, you made a typo. Find it yourself.

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GARHG

Reported for stickeh. Nice work!

With your arcane PvE spec, I personally would spec for Frost Warding instead of Ice Shards, it can be pretty usefull at times. Razorscale's fireballs, that AoE from Ignis, Mimiron, Hodir. It's less damage taken and more mana gained, which is really nice for arcane.

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Q u o t e:
With your arcane PvE spec, I personally would spec for Frost Warding instead of Ice Shards, it can be pretty usefull at times. Razorscale's fireballs, that AoE from Ignis, Mimiron, Hodir. It's less damage taken and more mana gained, which is really nice for arcane.

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As most of the Guide shows, a lot can be taken without offering a lot of changes. So when it came to just place a few points, I just put them where they serve some purpose (in that case, Blizzard AoE). But yeah, good point

Good post(s) bro.

Thanks for this.