ok i'm new to lvl 70 and am looking to start raiding kara. i'm not sure what to do as my build. all i know is that frost is out of the question because i'm spellfire tailor. i'm looking for a mana efficant build but with good dps. post ur builds so anyone who needs help can take a look at this. i liked arcane but it ate my mana soo fast. i'm fire now but i don't have as high dps as i did arcane. plz help.

I'm an arcane/fire mage and this is what my build is:

http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/classes/mage/talents.html?2050052202200100000000055520201100003105310000000000000000000000000

Keep in mind I'm not 70 (Im at 64), but its the arcane part that I want you to see. :)

Most 70 mages go with fire for the most dmg. I think I have 5 in arcane, just enough to get one point in clearcasting, 3 in frost in elemental precision, then the rest in fire. Do anything you can to increase spell dmg and spell hit. Pick the talents that increase damage and crit, then you'll have to get gear and gems to improve spell hit. Oh oh, I think they're changing the word "hit" to something else. But you know what I mean. :)
BUT....you can top the dmg charts with frost as well, depending on your gear. There is special frost dmg gear you can make if you're a tailor, and it gives you lots and lots of boosts. I don't know too much about it because I'm fire, but I know the frost mage in my guild always beats me because of his gear. :P

well, frost is pvp, fire's pve so its natural that u loose against him mate :) frost haves a lot of crit chance, WE, IB and even more with decent gear :)

ok so i postd this somewhre else (spellfire set page) so disregard talk of the set, just look at the talk of specs cheers:

arcane spec is very viable with this set. i switch between fire and arcane (sometimes frost for pvp ;) ) wnenever i get bored and im telling you, with around 1000spdmg unbuffed, arcane blast and missiles crit crazily. you find your missiles critting every time for about 1650 which right there is 8100 dmg in 5 seconds (and no effort mind you, one button :P) and arcane blast crits easily for as much as frostolts, and even sometimes matches fireball crits at a lower cast time. not to mention popping PoM pyro and AP (30% extra dmg at 30% extra mana for those who dont know) every 3 minutes, 5k crits are popping constantly (6500 with a pyro avg crit)

this aint blowing my own horn as an arcane mage either, im fire for raiding atm, and i love that as well. the one spec i will tell you mages is not AS viable for raiding is frost. note emphasis on the AS - they can raid, and ive seen them up there, but the ones ive seen have been ssc geared and up and i still beat them in gruuls/kara/spellfire (vs shadoweave for them). again not blowing my own horn just giving the facts. frost talents such as shatter and frostbite are for surviving! you cant freeze a boss or mob in a raid instance (maybe very occasionally) and they are key aspects of a frost mages skill. but never listen to these people saying shit like
"yeh well i saw my frost mage friend in greens do a thousand million more damage than everyone in a raid, and they were in full tier 6"

because it isnt right. even if theyre saying it in all truthfullness, theres no way its consistant, which after all is what raiding is about. fire and arcane ARE the most viable for raiding no matter what people say, and over maybe 5-6 gruuls/kara/mag runs i tested this theory with the 3 specs.
(NOTE: WITH THE SAME CORE DPSERS)

Fire: battling with a spriest for top position
Arcane: battling for 2nd, just under the spriest
Frost: somewhere around the 4th pos in kara, 7 or 8 in 25 mans

im telling you, its a helluva lot more effort to get less damage, and even the ssc+ epiced frost mages ive seen are expending ALOT of effort (trinkets, chain casting, getting first spells in, pots, enchants, wizard oils etc) just tryingt to keep up with the raid specced peeps.
true story.

oh and for the fire mages who tried arcane and said it was crap/run out of mana/no damage youre clearly not playing right. here is exactly how to play an arcane/fire (predominantly arcane) mage for MAXIMUM mana and damage efficiency:

arcane blast x 2 (any more uses too much mana for less damage)

arcane missiles x 1

scorch x 1 (allows the AB debuff to diminish)

rinse and repeat

the choice between arcane and fire for raiding is basically just preference in playing styles, although fire will most probably be better until full spellfire AND/OR tier 5 set bonus, then you pwn ;)

oh yeh and FROST FOR PVP is definitely the most viable spec for survival, unless you have a team of melee dpsers to draw enemies attention while you just fire away from behind. oh and btw, with all the resil/stam being loaded onto pvpers, pom pyro is not even near as effective as it used to be ;)

sorry if there are typos all through, im typing with one hand, the other is broken :\

happy raiding

Listen to the Arcane Mages, the reason why is because yes..... Spell DMG is great. But if your full Fire, you will OOM in Prince towards the end. Even if you Pop your Gems, Evocate, and Pots. And lets face it, if you make oodles of money farming then buying Pots for 7g a stack and if u raid 3 nights a week + repair your facing about +/- 200g per week for Mats and Repairs. And if your a tailor, Your epic set costs about 2months to farm or 2500g to buy.

I spec'd to Arcane/Fire the minute i turned 70. Below is my talent tree. Arcane/Fire 40/19/2

((http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/classes/mage/talents.html?2050052202200100000000055520201100003105310000000000000000000000000 ))

I recommend putting 21 in Fire if your crit isn't high enough. I average about 35% and not the dinky 23% my Profile Says.

Reason I specced this way is because sometimes its very hard to manage threat full fire. Even if your staring at your threat meter. And not only that you will probably have about 9.5k mana epicc'd out and full raid buffs. Arcane gives you better Mana Regen with the fire buff that regens mana with crits your almost a mana battery.

Forinstance, Prince Fight, is very very long. And most of the fights after Kara like Gruul's Lair are just as long, and require you do multiple things at once. I cast Fireball only till i am @ the Max my Mana Gem will fill my Mana up, so like 2.5k..... I keep casting Fireball will CD is up. At that point I am probably @ 5k mana, now back up to 7.5k. 75% of my mana pool. Cast fireball until i am @ 25% then Evocate, and now i am back at 90%. Fireball till I GEM again. And if I am lucky enough we down prince when I am @ 75% or once in a while almost 90%.

So 3 mana gems for 7.5k, a Evocate for 6.1k, and Mana Shield Regen, I've recovered about 350-400% of my mana during that fight. And i had about 10seconds of downtime.

First time I did Prince i was full fire and wanded through the 3rd phase. Nothin is more embarassing then wanding. If you wand the rogue, Shammy, LOCK (grrr) will definately pass you in overall DMG.

Since Fireball is a 3 second cast, if a mob is almost dead I'll scorch. Scorch is actually alot more mana efficient than Fireball, with the increased chance to clearcast.

Agree'd with the Frost Mages, they tend to Nuke to death and Ice Block or Die cause of CD. and if you Arcane Blast, Arcane Missle, and then Scorch, your not a fire mage =(    or am I reading it wrong. and Your saying Arcane Fire mages should do that? IDK, i just shoot fireballs until my 1 key is broken. I also macro'd my Trinkets to activate in the event i cast fireball so I dont let those rest either.

Only problem I thought I was going to have was during the Al'ar fight. But all i did was spam arcane missles the whole fight. I dont know how long I was going to last since raid wipes @ 20% phase 1

frost is better for pve any day... kiting mobs ... and aoeing...

http://eu.wowarmory.com/character-talents.xml?r=Burning+Blade&n=Quazimodo

this is my raiding spec, and ive been on nr.1 on damage done lots of fights. ive got just around 10k mana fully buffed, but ive never been oom before the boss is dead. it might look fucked up, but many arc/fire mages have had to bite the dust.
yes, i have been arc/fire, but i'd rather have steady dmg all the time than burst crits and dmg

Frost better for PvE?

.... You were kidding right?

luckly for us fire mages, IB is now a spell you learn in your 30's. not just a frost talent.
:-)

the raiding mage in my guild is frost arcane and does amazing damage but not at the top. he is also ssc geared.