Leveling a mage as arcane?

Question

I've respecced between fire and frost a million times, but I'm getting bored with those speccs. My current lvl is 53, which I think is a good time to try out arcane, seeing as arcane is supposed to be bad before 40-50ish. Arcane seems fun in both PvP and for leveling, and fun > effiency imo. So... Should I try out arcane, or is it so sucky that I should keep away from it? If I should go arcane, should I go 61/0/0, or another variant?

Thanks :)

Answer 1

Right now, all mage specs are viable. Not great but not bad either. Arcane spec is really nice in some cases and some prefer it at 70 over fire and mage. Most arcane mages go Arcane/fire to get insane burst damage in only a few seconds. You should play the spec you like the most, no matter how good it is. Just try out arcane and see how you like it. Its only 1g or 5g for gods sake :p!

Answer 2

Arcane is insane dps and i highly reccomend it... as a 70.  Before level 70 you should stay frost for dungeons because ppl need cc... but at 70 most raids are difficult or impossible to cc w/ a mage and requires hunter to do the cc for us!!  Thats when i reccomend arcane... and if you get good at it you will own the charts in pvp.

Answer 3

I suggest Ice and then go arcane at 70. Arcane is good when your 43/18 because you'll have big crits and good mana usage. (make sure to put 3 in improved arcane missles. At 60 something you get arcane blast which is great for fast dps but the debuff is bad when your saving mana. The PvP part isn't great unless you combine it with fire for a PoM Pyro with arcane power. I hit 6k crits with that on my 70 mage. I've respeced 20 times and my favorite at 70 is a arcane/fire mix. Ice is the best for lvling/pvp.