No PVP, Raids or Mythic plus…
Just WQ’s, Covenant quest line, Korthia, Islands, Legion Mythic Farming Mounts/Mogs - All solo stuff - Mage good for this? Specifically Fire Mage?
Looking for a new spec to focus on… either a Mage (any spec), Enhance Shaman or Arms/Fury Warrior. Going to decide today - Only have time to focus on one toon, so need this to work. Any input is appreciated.
Depends. At start of the expac? Definitely not. Now? Sure. Mage is probably the most gear dependent class in the game. Its get out of jail free cards and cc options are the worst in the game. Especially when compared to its melee equivalent, rogue. Nor does it have the survivability that a warlock has. But like I said, thanks to gear catch up, it’ll do fine now. Just be prepared to go frost on occasion.
Arcane is the best old expac farming spec though.
Yes, especially fire mage. 
Very good in the legion stuff because it’s so bursty + lust, you can blow things up before they start to hurt you. I’d say the only better classes for soloing are hunter and warlock (because of those squish master tank pets)
I can say now you will regret a mage, soloing they are the worse. Now in a dungeon or raid they shine. I have a frost mage and it didn’t start to get easy till she was like 220+ilvl, even now sometimes you can get over whelmed. IMO avoid a mage if you want to solo content.
I have a 60 fire mage…she does just fine…less than 200ilvl…in the elite WQ tho, she depends on others to be around to help her quickly down stuff b4 it gets to her. (most def. not my main, of course, so I am NO expert at playing her)
took her to korthia tho…lol…needs higher gear score for that place.
The AOE is not great with fire…it ‘works’ but it could be better…especially when every…single…mob…has to run up on her …lol…
heavily dependent on blink & NF ability to escape…
I have 3 mages for all 3 specs, I have at least 2 of all classes in the game level 50+ so when I say this I am not exaggerating, Mages feel the most broken in the game to me. for just soloing WQ with less than great gear I have the easiest time with Arcane, in a Raid or group Frost seems to do the best. Fire is literally the red headed step child of the bunch. The only plus with fire is in PVP I can get out a lot of burst damage in a short amount of time but it is by definition a glass cannon.
I actually enjoy playing my mage because it is a challenge but in LFR and LFG it is pretty rare to see them in the top 10 on the DPS meter.
Mage sounds like it is for neither of you. I find it to be the most survivable of any class (I’ve also mained a mage since vanilla mostly so experience is there, too). Which, really, every player shines at different classes/specs. I’m terrible at the monk class, period. Melee isn’t great for me, I’m much better at ranged dps in general.
Anyway, frost mage is great for AoE and survivability. Fire is gonna be some good burst single target dps. I don’t know anything about arcane these days other than it seems like no one plays it. If you really want the survival rate to boost I suggest taking the mirror images talent as well. Always nice to have tankish “pets”, even if they’re only up for a bit.
Have also been super casual since MoP went live, barely raided or done anything outside solo content since then and my mages have always worked. Best of luck to ya, Together!
Are you saying broken as in OP or broken as they suck?
I don’t think they suck, I look at it like this. Mage is a pure DPS class, IMO a pure class should have the best DPS in the game. Compared to Warlocks, Hunters, Rogues they don’t have a self heal and are the most fragile, they in turn should have the highest output. They do not.
I am not a mage expert, I do see mages that kill it and I give them major kudos. However I can roll my face around on my keyboard while paying my hunter and out DPS 80% of mages in LFR. That’s not right.
People who are really good at mages (people who are far better than me lol) can do amazing things with the class. A great mage can flat tear stuff UP, and then walk away like a hero… kinda like those ppl in movies who annihilate everything and then walk away without even looking as stuff just incinerates behind them. hahaha
/all the pew pew… 
Well let me put it this way. My arms warr can herpa derp in korthia and the maw doing way more burst damage and face tank way more than my mage can. And I’ve played all 3 mage specs for the last several years. True I may be bad at mage. But there’s no denying that it has some fundamental flaws as a class. Take frost nova for example. One of the most useless cc abilities in the game by far (outside of pvp). Then there’s blink, 50% of the time it doesn’t even work thanks to ground geometry that you didn’t know was there. Ice block? Just delays the inevitable. About the only good defensive mage has is mirror image.
But I still play mage since its the only caster that makes any sense to me in the game. True I could lolcow all the way to the bank as a hunter but…I just cannot bring myself to stoop that low. I just can’t. Plus, arcane is the best spec in the game for farming old expac stuff. Better than any druid spec if you know how to play it right.
I am confused. You said no raids but then mention Legion Mythic farming for mounts. If you want to do old content raids then mage is one of the worst to solo. You will have to wait 3 expansions now to be able to solo. In other words, you won’t be able to do Mythic Legion raids (at least ToS and Antorus you won’t be able to do). You might not even be able to do Nighthold unless you are geared too.
I don’t know about the specs and if they can fully solo all Mythic Legion raids but yeah.
Pretty sure when he said no raiding he was talking about current raiding content t and joining a raiding guild. That’s very different from farming legacy raids.
Yeah, see, I’m the total opposite. I use all that stuff to get away, even in PVE. Nova stuff to root it and run. Ice block to kill any dots or bleeds I have. Invis and shimmer and I’m gone, no big repair bill.
I do throw arcane on if I’m going to farm old stuff cause it’s way easier to just barrage and one shot everything. Farming those old poly books are actually how I came to find mouseover macros and that changed my whole game around.
When I said not for you you guys, I was intentionally trying to word that so it didn’t sound like I was calling you bad! (and sorry if you took it that way!) I just meant everyone has different playstyles and classes that they shine at. I can fury warrior all day but I don’t love the class or spec, so I’m at best mediocre at it. Mage though… I’m just always gonna be a mage. I go for the most mage-ish class in any other game I play even. It’s just my style 
Oh I get you and agree. But honestly. I find being able to just mow through it all a lot faster than invis. Actually I forgot about invis. But it’s cd is so high. Plus idk why blizz puts a delay on the spell for fire and frost. Why does arcane get insta invis? What’s the stupid theorycraft behind that dumb idea?
Honestly if I could pay for a class change I would. The only reason why I keep my mage outaide of it’s portals is that it has all my reps and achievement points. If blizz ever made reps and achievements truly account wide, I’d probs switch to a shaman.
As an example, take that area in Korthia with all the bear mobs. On my warr I can aggro pretty much the entire spot as arms, pop avatar and that other spell I forget the name of that breaks armor and pop blade storm. Boom, all dead and I’m healed up to max thanks to that other spell I forget the name of. You simply can’t do that in any mage spec.
Been a fire mage for a long time (been a mage since '04). I dont have any trouble doing solo content or surviving. Just make sure to spec yourself properly in terms of talents and current “borrowed powers” and you should be fine. Dont charge into a large group of mobs and take on elites until your ilvl comes up. Also, as with most classes, learning your rotation and proper hotkey setups.
IF you are really good at mage and IF you have a high ilvl (the two are dependent on another) then I’ve seen mages do unbelievable things. Sadly, most are not (me included). Mage is one of the most squishy-ist of the game, imo.
What’s most influenced me in leveling various alts is this: sooner or later, and certainly more than once, no matter what class/spec you play, you’re gonna end up fighting multiple mobs. So I figured, since this is the case, level a class/spec that handles this well, especially when in enclosed spaces, like a cave or a house, where maneuvering room is in short supply.
IMHO, this minimizes those “Oh crap” moments.
I cannot answer for a fire mage but I can for an arcane mage. My mage can solo most things in the open world except the mega-elites in Korthia.
I use a frost mage as my second alt for solo play (after beastmaster hunter and protection paladin). I find all mage specs are viable, but find frost mage’s chills and freezes gives the best kiting/escape-potential and overall feeling of safety for poking around solo. I find fire feels a little more like a glass cannon, but this might all just be self-perpetuating bias of being less experienced with fire.