I can only figure it is to try to make a lot of PVP abilities 'even the playing field' so counterspell and polymorph now set everyone back a certain amount of their total blue bar. . .not a set number.

SO if I go to buy gas and I make $100,000 a year should I pay twice as much as you if you have $50,000 a year?

Cause blizz is making mages with uber intellect pay more to cast the same friggin spells. . . . the changes to ports. . . who gives a crap. . . you are going to a city . . .

i took off all my gear. I now have 4226 mana... 4226*0.12 = 508 mana points

I will roll DK and forget about this mage

WTF 12%!!
/sigh well this pisses me off..

@Jaynitan: Blizz is not making mages with über intellect pay more for the same spells. "Base mana" is your mana pool *before* contributions from intellect. Every mage will have the same base mana at level 80 (other than possible racial differences). This just means that the costs for counterspell and polymorph will increase each level. This is done with pretty much every single-rank mana-costing ability and is making mages more consistent with other classes.