One of the things I struggle with while raiding with my guild AOTC, is staying alive. I main frost but can play the other two specs, I feel so squishy. What really made me realize this is I started raiding with a Demo lock and compared to the mage, I feel like a tank. There is a noticeable difference. Any advice or tips for making my mage a little more tanky? Thanks.
The best way to make your mage more tanky is to play a demo lock, you made the right choice. 
Jokes aside, let’s see…
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- Ice Block - with cryo-freeze, you can also regen up to 80% health while inside. I personally like picking up Ice Cold as well so I can move and cast. Cooldown can be reduced to 3 min, so don’t feel like you only have to use it on “OH SH*!” moments. If you find yourself saving this and never using it, try finding reasons to use it more often and using it a little more proactively.
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- Ice Barrier. With Mass Barrier talented, you cover 4 nearby allies. With Diverted Energy, you heal for 20%/40% of the amount your barriers absorb. I’m pretty sure that includes the damage your other barriers absorb?
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- Mirror Image - lasts up to 40 seconds, 20% dmg reduction. 2 min cooldown, so… that hurts. You’re at best receiving 20% dmg reduction 1/3 of the time. If there are extended periods of intense damage, could be your best tool.
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- Displacement (if talented) - Teleport back after using shimmer and heal. Can be useful. I use it, like for when I have to run out with a bomb or tornado. Blink out, take the hit, displace back and heal the damage I just took. I think guides tend to not recommend this talent, but I take it. Better than a kick in the shin.
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- Arcane Warding (if talented) - Up to 4% magic damage reduction. Requires two talent points… feels bad to take, but it is there if you reeeeeeeally feel you need it.
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- Alter Time - Cast before big damage, and heal yourself back to full.
I think that sums it up? I feel pretty squishy sometimes too, and hate feeling that way. I don’t consider myself a very good mage, though, since I only play Frost. Someone else with a better understanding could probably chime in.
(edit) Added Alter Time to the list. Like I said, I’m not the best mage and was bound to forget something 
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Yes mage is much squishier than lock. That being said, here’s a handy checklist:
Are you standing in bad?
Yes? You problem.
No? Guild healing problem.
Are you using all your cds?
No? You problem.
Yes? Guild healing problem.
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Which fights are giving you trouble? If it’s Smolderon I wouldn’t worry about it too much. That entire fight is caster kryptonite and there is only so much you can do. Larodar and Tindral can get out of hand real quick if your team struggles getting a handle on the mechanics and Fyrakk is just a hard fight until you get used to it but then it’s pretty scripted and shouldn’t give you too much trouble. Aside from those it’s a pretty straight forward raid.
But yeah, mages are the squishiest caster class and all of our defenses except Cauterize are proactive and require both a good knowledge of the fights and top notch reflexes. It’s not an easy class to progress a raid on.
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Ice barrier is a decent talent if you keep it on CD. Pair that with mass barrier and it’s a pretty good talent. You just need to cast it on CD and your gold. I usually save mass barrier for big damage soaks and the like to help out.
Don’t forget about chrono shift or whatever it’s called. Use that before the big damage and then hit it again and your at full health. It’s way more powerful than people realize most of the time. It’s pretty handing for positioning when needed.
Cyofreeze is a massive heal so don’t forget to use that. don’t forget to use coldsnap to reset the cooldown so it’s ready when you need it again. It’s saved my bacon more times than I realize. It was a godsend when it was added.
mages don’t do well with rot damage so we need to make use of the tools we have. We’re all about blink/displacement type of movement and avoiding what damage we can. Warlocks tend to have it easier on this front.
Mage is one of the tankiest classes with active and appropriate use of defensives
It is also one of the weakest classes in the game without active use of defensives
A lot of other specs (maybe every other spec in the game) will survive longer than you without pressing a defensive due to mages having lower baseline health, being cloth armor type with no outside source of passive physical DR, and the only two passive defensives being a 4% magic DR and cheat death (fire only).
Every other defensive is active.
The mage discord will tell you its better to have actives than passives because you get to be more proactive with your defensives which leads to more skill expression.
I firmly disagree; I think we would benefit from some passive DR and removal of some of our actives in favor if helping the specs being easier to play (and in a push to make health bars more tied to healers in general)
In short, if you’re dying in raid you likely aren’t using your Mirror image, GInvis, alter time or timing barrier appropriately. Everyone uses ice cold now so that’s not usually underused, but remember that too. Also remember potions/lock rocks and displacement also gives you a 20% heal (in addition to 6% shield from blinking with one of the class tree talents)
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Learn to use alter time better. It has a short cooldown and is super overpowered imo.
A lot of mages dont even have it on their bars.
You can cheese big damage mechanics.
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Everyone else has already said a lot of good stuff. All I want to add is that the more you know the fights, the easier everything gets in terms of mage survivability.
The more pulls you do, the more familiar you’ll get with “I’m at full health - I can survive this next hit but only if I use my barrier” or “I’m at half health, I can probably get away with a Greater Invis”.
When you do die, get familiar with what killed you and by how much. And don’t be afraid to look at logs after the fights or ask healers what their pain points are so you can reduce their burden by using your own defensive. There might be a big hit that isn’t killing you, but is getting you low enough that something else could. I’ve had healers tell me after fights that they KNOW I used my mass barrier because a handful of players took less damage than usual.
Our big struggle is usually rot damage over a long period (fights like Fyrakk are especially problematic). I still find the standard Ice Block to be very useful for removing Dots that the healers just can’t get to in time. But big hits? You can take big hits.
My personal struggle is analysis paralysis. We have so many defensives that it often takes me a while to decide which one to use - but hitting any one of them is better than hitting none of them.
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I really thought you were going to say “…than hitting the floor” missed opportunity there! 
That’s a real thing, although I’ve never heard it called that before. Yet another symptom of the button bloat we all have to struggle with.
God, I wish I didn’t have it on my bars. Aside from RoP, may it never RiP, Alter Time is probably the spell I loathe most. In all my years playing the game I have never once felt that I used it at exactly the right time or to its full potential and I was much happier in the stretch when we didn’t have it.
I’d gladly trade it for something like Evanesce or, even better, a true cheat death like Cauterize. It could work like a shaman’s Reincarnate too and would make more sense lore wise because you would be reversing time with your last breath to just before you died.