So a little story…
My wife was leveling a new mage. She learned pretty quickly that arcane in the absolute lowest level content destroys with 1 button. Just walk around and arcane missile until everything is dead. This worked great until her mid 40s. At that time, with the scaling, things started to live longer than 2 casts of missiles and she started dyeing a lot. She even hit a wall with one of the last bosses in Vuldun. (the one in the cave where you have 3 NPCs help you, when you are almost done with the zone)
I ended up swapping her character to frost, popped time warp, icy veins, alter time, rune all at once, and managed to delete the boss without taking much damage.
So I go thinkin… what other specs are like this? Specs that absolutely TRUCK in the lowest level content, but hit like wet noodles once scaling starts to drop off?
I haven’t leveled as arcane, before. Does it not have access to cooldowns like frost would?
I felt pretty squishy when leveling as feral compared to other specs, but not to the point that I’d need to find a group to kill something.
If you choose to use Grimoire of Sacrifice, destro locks might feel squishy when leveling.
Ret Pally does good DPS with self heals
Hunter and Locks have pets
Shaman have good DPS and self heals
Rogues have so many ways to avoid damage and an avg self heal
Druids can do whatever they want
Even Warrior has a few different ways to mitigate damage
DK and Demon Hunter have good DPS and self heals
I could go on. Most classes have a spec which can do good DPS and self heal or avoid damage.
Frost is certainly a good choice for Mage. Everything is slowed so you keep smashing. And the crits can be big. I think Fire has bigger crits but a lot less control.
Technically speaking, it’s Feral Druid
For 99% of players it’s BM Hunter
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As far as leveling goes I think any spec can do it fairly easily. I haven’t played mage since Wrath though.
Arcane is still better. You just stack arcane charges and blast everything.
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Warlock has been my personal best leveling experience. I really feel though that all the classes are good levelers…but it seems some do it better at the higher levels.
Warlock has a few pets that help with managing different scenarios. It makes going through some of the tougher zones a bit more forgiving. 
If you’re a new player… BM hunter. Go loot chests and mobs while your pet kills the next pack. If you’ve done this before… druids are great for levelling… fast but take a bit to get used to.
Mages are always an issue when traveling alone. They are monsters when it comes to dishing out damage but taking damage is an issue. Which is why they do great in group content. If she enjoyed the playstyle of the mage… go warlock. Health pool comparable to tanks with a pet that can (mostly) hold aggro while you dps.
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I love leveling (and questing in general) as affliction, i can just run around spamming my dots on as many mobs as i like and they all eventually make their way to me and die 
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