Altered Time - your #1 World of Warcraft Mage resource!

Interesting. This might actually make the spec a bit more interesting to play tbh. Managing mana should be part of the core gameplay/rotation, but in shadowlands you can almost completely ignore it and still be fine. In my time playing mage on beta, I've barely even had to use Evocation.

The base materials for legendaries will be crafted with professions, yes, but they're BoE so you can always buy them off the AH, so switching to tailoring isn't absolutely necessary. I'd probably still recommend going tailoring over alchemy if your mage is your main though. You can always get alchem...

I'm in the same boat dude. I keep switching "mains" and exploring other classes, only to eventually end up back on my mage, which was the first character I ever made back in vanilla. I've been playing mage quite a bit on beta and can tell you they're in a pretty great spot. Good enough to be high pe...