All my characters have 3 hearthstones (regular, Garrison, and Dalaran) on tiny, separate cool downs that get me to SW/Org portal room. From there I can port basically wherever, including some important places mages can’t (such as Caverns of Time).
Just to top things off, I can even take a portal back as much as I want from basically any of those places.
Why bother being a mage?
Teleports are the only thing that mages are good for?
That’s funny, warcraftlogs shows 5 out of the top 10 DPS all-stars are mages. They must not have gotten the memo.
Yeah but can you PoM/Pyro? Didnt think so.
Oh wait…
Duuuuude… How can a person NOT be a mage?
No cd on a teleport.
I think this is a good question. Years ago I put my Horde Mage on my second account and my Alliance Mage on my main account so I can port myself around.
I can’t remember the last time I ported an alt.
Edit: Clarification. I should have said “ports” instead of “Mages.” That’s what feels useless to me.
When I am a druid. haha. But seriously, I have a mage alt I am working on, it is a blast. Literally. Sorry for the bad pun.
Mage teleports are quite handy. Leaves you the ability to put your HS at a spot that is convenient and still be able to get to a city. Similar with the druid’s Legion ability to go back to the order hall. There are portals to all over. I miss it on my other alts.
For teleporting the raid to the wrong Dalaran obviously.
Doesn’t the druid class hall let you portal to various emerald dream areas? If so, that basically makes them have better / more teleports than mages. 
No cd on teleport and I can set my hearth to whichever quest hub is currently most conveniant?
My mage’s hearthstone is currently set to Mechagon, as example.
A Mage I used to be guilded with did Portal Roulette. He would open every portal in his book on top of each other.
I could see this, but A.you have to admit that’s a terribly small utility vs summoning group members, stealthing, instant flight, etc.
And B. they usually include some kind of teleport toy for any major content zones.
Ahhhh, an end of raid classic! I almost always get Stonard. No clue why.
So did our mages.
“uh oh…” /click
“dammit! I’m in Stonard!!!” (I’d make the mage come get me tho)
Worser after Wrath with the old Dalaran death pit. Even on levitate-able chars, I would click and AFK and end up dead at the bottom.
Mages also bring food, warp, slows, snares, stealth, good damage, aces CC in the form of poly and rof… et cetera.
Mages have a lot going for them. As a matter of fact, the only detractor is that they’re squishy as all get out.
But don’t take avoidable damage and it’s fine.
Because they can port to any major capitol and several other locations not covered by the 3 stones.
Best thing I love about my mage, besides his cute little bobble head.
I don’t think dungeon / raid performance is super relevant here. That comes and goes. I don’t remember the last time I sheeped in PvE btw.
Food used to be a nice perk. Nobody has downtime with their inner azerite traits though…
You obviously don’t do high mythic dungeons then… lol
Poly can be used as an interrupt, for example. Super useful.
And mage food is amazing for healers in dungeons. The only thing that restores mana faster is the sugar crusted fish feast. lol
I don’t, for sure. Maybe I’m greedy, but I’d like the class to have meaningful perks outside of M+10 or whatever though
As a Warrior with no inherent teleports… I can go wherever I want with no effort at any time. None of this rhetoric is real and there is virtually no benefit to being a Mage for the sake of transport. DRUID feels like it has better transport options due to the awkward diversity and how different its locations are from main cities.
I feel for you, Mage friends I too wish you were still more special. Teleports and portals are a big part of WoW’s history.