Ive played for 14 years and tbh I should be really good at this by now but I am struggling so hard to maintain good dps.
Take this mage for example, i got familiar with frost and learned it well but my dps at iLevel 418 is a mediocre 18k single target. Ive chosen the correct build and enchanted and gemmed but nothing. In the heat of battle i spike then flatline. So i swapped to fire for more single target. I pop off at 27k sustained then whack, down to 15k.
Im finding my mage is extremely hard to learn properly and I feel its down to my rotation but the way some of the fights are designed in Eternal Palace, its constantly fighting uphill.
Websites for my stat allocation contradict each other, then when I try find a good azerite trait it never drops, the other gear has all the wrong stats and im just at a loss. I dont know what to do and how to improve.
Im feeling like picking up my enhancement shaman as I stuck with that for years and know it back to front… even at 390 iLevel its doing close to the damage of my mage specs…
I’m sorry that you’re having such a big issue with your dps. I used to main this mage but never did super well with her either, for whatever reason. I hope that makes you feel at least a little bit better?
You said that you’ve enchanted your gear and you have the correct build so all I can really suggest to do is hop on the mage discord and see if they can’t give you some tips or tell you what you’re doing wrong. Don’t 100% quote me on this but I believe they’ll ask to see your logs.
I had them help me out once and it turns out I was doing quite a bit wrong (would explain my dps, lol) but maybe you’re having the same issue. The mage discord is called “Altered Time”, a google search should get you to where you need to go. 
Sorry I can’t help you more, hoping that the mage discord and thread bump will send you on your way to figuring out how to improve your dps. Good luck!
Try addons like hekili or max dps to help you learn your rotation. Also sim your gear and abilities so you can better determine what you’re doing right and wrong.
1 Like
Mage forum might have more specific advise for you.
I feel you. My 390 lock sims at 23k but i actually pull 13k. 
Yeah I experience this too, especially in fights that require me to constantly move. Forget trying to get a glacial spike off in some encounters either. I use to be be able to push some great numbers on my mages, but now I struggle to hit 25k on many fights.
I’ve been doing a lot of experimenting with my talents and azerite traits lately too and I’ve been able to get some pretty decent numbers but it always feels super inconsistent. Either I’m doing super well, or I’m doing absolutely miserable.
1 Like
On one hand, it’s not you. It’s blizzard and how they nerfed mages and buffed other classes. You aren’t very high in DPS charts as of late. On the other hand, it depends on the entirety of what’s going on.
Casters have to deal with the biggest prob melees do not: Movement. If a boss forces you to move often, your DPS will be garbage. This kicks in later at raid fights in Eternal Palace when your either moving a ton or sit and die to raise DPS.
Also you have to deal with consistent changes to every moment of a fight, does tank move adds away from sanguine pool? Your frost AOE is useless after a mob dies.
1 Like
Join the mage discord. You can find dedicated class discords if you go to the Wow subreddit they have a section about different communities.
Also, if you have optional talents that are similar in dps and you struggle with actives, just go with the easy one. I know for priest i lose a couple hundred dps for not speccing into shadow crash, specially in certain fights with a lot of adds.
But imo I would rather have the passive one Auspicious spirits as that is one less active I have to worry about and forget I have to use lol. So I’d say it evens out in the end because throughout the chaos I will probably not be using Shadow crash efficiently.
Also, if you’re raiding and have the logs for it, use wow analyzer. My dps has improved by looking at the suggestions it gives me. Like my downtime or how many times I should be casting my priority spells. That really helps.
Also the new raid requires A LOT of movement. Don’t be so sad about your numbers. Remember, being alive is a lot better than dying trying to top meters.
I was struggling with DPS a bit, but then I went to Blood Mallet and figured out which essences I’m supposed to be using.
Download simcraft addon.
Type /simc in game and a massive text box will pop up. Ctrl+A to select all and Ctrl+C to copy.
Go to raidbots.com and under stat weights you can paste that and see stat weights for what you are CURRENTLY wearing. They are weights meaning ratios are typically more important. Like icy-veins or whatever could say haste>mastery>vers>crit or whatever but if you have 2000 haste and 50 crit, crit might be weighted more than even more haste.
Also, there is a function on raidbots called top gear where you can also paste that wall of text and it will sim any combination of pieces in your inventory (good for multiple azerite pieces). The downside is without paying you are only allowed so many combos at once which can be solved by just running a bunch of tabs.
For actual MAGE advice, idk about frost but fire is most definitely a burst class. Granted your low is incredibly low, but your damage is VERY frontloaded into combustion. At least until execute.