"According to state of dps, fire and arcane are within 1% of each other, which is basically a negligible difference (meaning you can play whichever you are better at/enjoy more)."

Keep in mind that state of DPS "lists the DPS for each class as compiled from the top parses from World of Logs." That's for top players, at the top level of gear and progression. For any mage in normal mode gear I've seen, Arcane will put out higher numbers. Maybe it's just the way the stats scale at higher gear levels - I don't know, I recently switched my main to a Holy Paladin, so I haven't done as much work with my mage.


On the subject of mobility -
While I will agree that fire has a good amount of mobility, playing Arcane I have never had a problem. Cast Barrage while on the go, stop, cast some AB's, if I need to move again so be it, I'll cast another Barrage. Even on heavy movement fights such as Magmaw in Phase 1, Valiona and Theralion, and to a lesser extent Twilight Ascendant Council, I've never had a problem pushing competitive numbers as Arcane.


"That's the challenge of arcane more than anything."

I've never found Arcane challenging - ever. I'm always able to put out competitive numbers as well as do everything else required of me in the encounter.


"tl;dr - pretty much everything you assumed as fact is wrong, and the rest of the mages are kind of sitting here reading your comment going "wut?""

Well, before that part, I was giving you a lot of credibility. The rudeness here kind of ruined it for me, to be honest.