The state of mages in Beta?

[Yonaz]

I started playing this game I love and hate in 2004, and have pretty much had my fire mage as main ever since. I had a short break in WoD and played a Paladin, but went back to mage in Legoin again. Recently, probably connected to this drought, I'v started to not enjoying my mage as much as I used to. I don't know what it is, but I think it's the fact that I have played same specc for DECADES! I still haven't decided if I should go on with the mage as main for another expansion, so my question is for you lucky bastards with Beta access: how are mages in Beta, and what specc is the best so far?

[Zord]

I am having the same problem as you my man!!! keep thinking another class, as mage has just got, well boring but its my main i have played since 2004! and i really want to keep playing it!

[Aurorastarr]

I'm in beta, though I haven't played a mage, but I can tell you that frost mages are very strong right now. Fire is the worst of the three specs.

[Fez]

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 performers in all situations, but not SO good that a nerf is inevitable. If you're getting bored of playing Fire, don't worry, you'll most likely be playing Arcane or Frost in Shadowlands (at least for the first patch or two. From what I've seen, Fire always underperforms at the beginning of an expansion, then scales well as ilvl increases)

At the moment, Frost is the go-to for most fights, with Arcane out-performing in pure single target (which is to be expected). The no-IL build is basically dead due to the changes to ice lance and winter's chill, and there are a lot of conduits/legendaries that synergize well with ice lance/flurry.

As usual, any of this may change at a moment's notice depending on tuning.