for horde mage idk i have not rolled a horde mage yet but as far as alliance dont matter really unless you are not going arcane/something or pure arcane i have a draenei not that great but she is a arcane/fire mix so i get the extra 5% int and almsot all my gear ws focused on int for my mana when i respeced and went to that when i buffed up with AI i had over 10k mana at lv 68 then i replaced some with stam and spirit and i was still at 9k. but if you are going to go with fire id have to say...human casue your pyroblast and a few other good fire spells dont cost as much as other kind of spells just learn when to use a ton of mana at once and when to save some. then if you are going frost id roll a gnome all the way. you use so dam mana as a frost mage its unbeliveable.