As a long time mage player, I can tell you that all that is mostly useless. You see the fundamental flaw of the mage class (in the OP’s use case), is that frost nova won’t work where it’s needed (i.e. on rares since they’re immune to cc), ice block is pointless since all it does is delay the inevitable, and frost slows also don’t work (again, rares have immunity).
So in the OP’s use case scenario, all of the mage class cc and survivability tools are rendered completely useless due to Blizz’s insistence of making rares immune to cc. This is the fundamental flaw on relying on a class kit that in turn, relies on being able to affect mobs that it can’t.
Now i’m not saying all of the OP’s mobs will be rares. But lets be honest here. The main need for using your class cc abilities in open world content is when you’re either going up against elites or rares. For most people, it’s gonna be the desire to kill a rare due to the loot or quest completion progress.
Now add that to the fact that blink doesn’t work half the time due to ground geometry plus mage cannot really do a huge amount of its damage whilst on the move anyway plus (and this is the big one here), the fact that non-RoP builds are objectively inferior to every other build basically means the mage class is simply a failed class. It needs a MAJOR overhaul of its very core design to be brought into line with literally any other class in the game. Even locks (whilst being more of a turret caster than mage) are immune to these core issues due to the fact that it has survivability tools that far outclass mage (tank pet essentially breaks the game like hunter pets do) since many of those tools do NOT rely on the ability to cc mobs. And that’s all without mentioning what happens if you get a bad run of no procs (which happens often).
In the end, the only advantage mage has is farming old world content due to mage portals and superior speed and aoe compared to other classes.
^totally not posted by a mage main that is angry that their class is objectively inferior to every other class in the game when it comes to survivability but doesn’t have the damage to compensate anymore.
You don’t like stopping for a snack every ten seconds?
Hint: It’s more fun if you snack along with her. It’s not just covid weight!
If you plan to do content that will provide you with a tank and a healer, mage as I think it has the best class fantasy.
If not, paladin all the way. I really enjoy being a lofty agent of the light and the fighting combo of range and melee.
Yes, portalling is convenient, which is why my mage does all the holidays events.
However, in day-to-day WoW I enjoy figuring out how to get my character from point A to point B the quickest way possible like an added exercise or puzzle.
I don’t like that you have to put so much effort into the fight (kiting, situational awareness, etc) just to do what a Paladin can do with 0 effort.
Traveling is boring and a waste of my time Sometimes I think it’s too slow to have to portal to Stormwind and then fly a few blocks to get to where I’m going
The problem is that the game isn’t balanced around solo play. Even so, mage does fine since even the elites melt. My first main was an arcane mage and I could solo yorik, a 900HP elite on a 223 ilvl arcane mage. If the elite was 500K HP or less I could just straight nuke them down in under a minute. Once again, because mages are SO strong in group play you can’t just give them every strength. If they were more tanky and had self heals they would just be completely broken. Even as it is people think mages are over powered.
Yes, I was quite upset when I returned to WoW and discovered my glass canon had become a glass rifle.
In compensate for decrease in damage, they should have either added a decent shield or the ability to heal quickly (like my arms warrior has).
As it is, I now only use this character in-game for a certain world events and farms of old content mobs found in small, clean areas. She’s just not fun to play in any other open world content.
I’m getting the vibes from your OP that you really want to give paladin a go because at the end of the day aesthetics are a major part of enjoying something
Be a paladin. Smite your foes with righteous fire and look amazing while doing it (prot and holy also have some of the easiest torgast solo)
Its actually not awful, dalaran heartstone is short and has portal to stormwind portal rooms and portal to boralus gives you options for IF/uldum, also stormwind has portals to cata zones like twilight highlands and hyjal
Main heartstone is set to my covenant hall for soulbind change
Engineering toy from shadowlands lets you portal to oribos every 15 minutes
I don’t believe this. Sorry I just don’t. You would have enough mana for maybe 40-60% of his hp but after that, you’ve already used up invoke and your SOL.
Meanwhile I can get on my fury warr or ret pally and herpaderp to win.
Frost mages are legit OP right now in PVP if you are necrolord covenant (and maybe for PVE in 9.2 , in 9.15 nightfae is better for m+, venthyr better for raids). And they are really easy to play. If that doesn’t change I’d go frost mage for 9.2. You’ll be in a much better chance of being invited to m+ and raids than playing a ret. Healers will also love your food.
Paladin is fun, you even have a tank and heal spec to try out and having a tank spec comes in handy in the open world content. You can do a lot with their style as well, having awesome tier sets to play with but also plate armor can translate into many different themes. I liked a strict blood knight Paladin look when I was my blood elf but I’ve also done a scarlet crusader on a human mog for a while too.
Mana was never the issue when you run Pelagos since you have like 500 mastery every minute during your burn. You also have to do a ton of defensive abilities and running so the difficulty isn’t mana, it’s surviving until your next defensive cooldown. You run the reduced altered time talent so you have a full heal every 30 seconds. I haven’t played my mage in a while but I can assure you that mana is not the issue when soloing yorik. You don’t even get low enough that you have to use mana pots.
You could probably solo yorik at an even lower ilvl quite honestly. It’s not easy, but for sure doable and I would do it everyday since I didn’t want to wait to find a group for it. Use embalmer’s oil, have extra leech from the domination socket and cloak enchant and you’re good to go.
EDIT: I went on my mage to make a quick video of it. No lust is used. Flask, food, and weapon oil used for consumables. At the very end I show 223 ilvl gear. I haven’t played my mage in a very long time and the play itself was sloppy and far from optimized. After re-doing this I’m thinking it could be done in the 200-210 ilvl range if lust, potions, invis defensive, and better altered time usage is used.
Sometimes I think it’s too slow to have to portal to Stormwind and then fly a few blocks to get to where I’m going 
(prot and holy also have some of the easiest torgast solo)
At least that’s what I did. lol