This guide really does need to be removed, it's an absolute joke in comparison to the usual quality of WoWInsider articles.

Here's the corrections from my mage perspective. Mistakes are hilighted with stars.

Arcane
How to Spot: As one of my guildies put it, Mages are very patriotic-- their hands are either red, white, or blue. Arcane-specced mages' hands are usually flaring white, *as they often cast Arcane Missiles.* - Not in PvP they don't, they use Arcane Blast the majority of the time, it's far higher dps, the highest possible mage dps in fact.

*Slow is the highest talent in this tree, but you hardly ever see that cast*

I doubt you'd 'see' it, it's instant cast, but any 41 point Arcane mage will use this constantly, it's an amazing PvP talent.

*most Mages, even if they spec Fire or Frost, will go up to 21 points in this tree just to get Presence of Mind (POM), which makes the next spell cast an instant. *

Not without Arcane power they 'usually' won't. A PoM Pyro without arcane power is a waste of a PoM.

Pyroblast is actually a Fire talent, but lots of Mages love to cast it with POM, so if you see a big fireball coming at you instantly, you're looking at a half-Arcane, half-Fire mage.

*They Can: Conserve mana. Arcane mages have the best mana usage rate out of all three trees.*

This was true maybe 2 years ago when Arcane was supposedly the 'mana conservation' tree. It is at this point the least mana-effecient tree with the advent of Arcane Blast and Empowered Arcane Missiles. They eat mana like nobodies business.

*They Can't: Blow stuff up like Fire mages. Arcane mages are the nerds of the mage community-- they get nice bonuses, but they aren't as flashy as the other specs.*

Try telling that to the guy who's doing 3000+dps with Arcane Blast and yes you can do it, quite easily, for short periods of time, which is all you need in PvP.

Fire
How to Spot: They are blowing you up. *Pyroblast, Blast Wave, Scorch, Dragon's Breath and Combustion are all Fire Mage talents*

Scorch is a trainable skill, it is not a talent.

,so if you get hit with any of those, you're looking at a Fire mage.
They Can: DPS like a mofo. Mages spec for Fire to do damage, and they don't care who knows it.
*They Can't: Control their threat. Fire mages like to pull aggro in raids,*

Stop talking twaddle. 10/48/3 is THE raiding spec until you can get 2 Piece T5 and some great gear/trinkets to support an arcane blast nuking spec. It's obvious you know nothing about the class.

*and their talents (especially Dragon's Breath, with its Disorient factor) are a little more suited for PvP.*

Yeah a 3 second unbreakable AOE stun SUCKS for PVE AOE pack pulls, REALLY. *shakes head in dismay*

*It's not that a good Fire mage can't control threat well, it's that most of these guys are pyromaniacs, and they can't really be bothered.*

Obviously whatever guild you're in doesn't have a clue what it's doing if this is what their mages are doing. Have you killed Attuman yet? O_o

Frost
How to Spot: They're Iceblocking-- that's a 21-point talent in this tree. *Frost mages also love Blizzard, as it not only does damage, but provides all kinds of nasty status effects to their targets.*

If you mean 2 status effects then yeah sure, the slow and possible frostbite 15% per wave freeze chance. Blizzard isn't remotely popular tbh these days. Channeled spells ftl in PvP and a good number of AOE mobs are immune to slow in raiding.

And if you ever see a mage with a Water Elemental, you're looking at a Mage heavily specced Frost.

*They Can: AoE-- their CC bonuses make them perfect for handling all sorts of mobs in large numbers*

All mages can AOE and Arcane Explosion is preferred since it has much higher dps, provides mobility and has reduced threat with 2 points in the Arcane Tree.

*They're also good raiders, as the threat problems that Fire mages suffer from are easily handled by Iceblock.*

Iceblock does not remove threat, it simply temporarily removes the mage from the list while frozen. You don't even need it. Also frost-crit builds pull more aggro than fire builds do.

*They Can't: Make things go boom like Fire mages can. Frost mages can do terrific DPS, but a great Fire mage will always beat a great Frost mage with the same gear.*

I imagine a fire mage in spellfire would indeed beat a frost mage in spellfire. They're not supposed to wear the same kind of gear, they benefit more from different stats. And DPS in what exactly, PVP? Nope, frost-crit builds will school em.


Just a few problems with that article hilighted right there, I'd suggest not posting stuff like this in the future, it damages your credibility as an otherwise awesome site.

TB.

Reply