WotLK Are mages viable in pvp?

[Baniel]

And if they are, what spec is the best in wrath? i wanna try arcane or fire, i dont like frost :/

[Petko]

Frost is the best spec arena-wise at high ratings. It relies on constant snares/roots and and hard hitting shatter combos.
Arcane relies on burst. It can be viable if you pair with a good partner. However, it doesn't have nearly as much control as frost so you need a good rogue for example in order to output the most damage. Being arcane, opponents will train you most of the time.
Fire relies on crits, that is why a lot of people find that spec not to be nearly as good as the other ones. (because resilience reduces your crit chance, therefore you will get less damage output). However, that spec is fun to play. It relies on dots, various control abilities such as stuns, disarms, disorients, etc. It's probably the funnies spec to play in bgs.
To summarize: every spec is viable for arenas at lower ratings with frost excelling when it comes to higher ratings, every spec i also viable for battlegrounds and world pvp/duels.

[taralej]

What do you mean by "viable"? Of course they're viable.

Oh... you mean non-Frost? Nope, sorry. If you wanna play arenas seriously with mage, you better start liking Frost.

[gustm]

What about bgs?

[Turbolqk]

No, not at all.
I mean arcane is meh fire nab spec and frost troll spec.
All they do is no damage or cc cause u have nothin just poly frost nova frostbolt slow shatter ice lance counterspell
Even ret paladins eat u cuz shadowmorne op as fuk u only eat dks cuz they not op

[Sixtyninee]

Frost is viable at being annoying as ****, same with fire if played correctly.

[Tbcwascool]

Those who say arcane is not viable haven't faced Drainer on Ragnaros when he played arcane, lol

[Petko]

Those who say arcane is not viable haven't faced Drainer on Ragnaros when he played arcane, lol

We're talking about the average player here, not about multiclass exceptional players. Most mages have troubles surviving as Frost due to bad positioning, insufficient class knowledge, etc. so think about them playing arcane...they'll be dead meat in a matter of seconds.

[mEOnGG]

Frost is viable at being annoying as ****, same with fire if played correctly.

Haven't seen a truer statement for quite some time.

[Jimusa]

Yes, mages are very viable. Frost is tier 1 with comps like RMP or Mage Priest if you want to play arenas, fire is kinda meh, Arcane is viable but not as good as frost.

[taralej]

Fire can be fun in BGs, to be honest. It's fun blowing people up, especially 2-shotting lowbies or PvE geared players. In arenas it's just not good though, because resilience kills the spec's main strength - crits. Arcane is kind of viable, but extremely terribly hugely boring and with less control than Frost. The main reason Frost is so good is the free crits from Shatter and above all - the superb control the spec has.

[Karyuusai]

Arcane mage is viable both in 2s and 3s. Way better in 3s though, 2s is too burst-reliant imo.

[Peregrine]

Mages suck for 99% of people cuz nobody has brain to do 3 tihngs at same time,hence people playing it who actually know what to do get really really high.

[Armand85]

ive played some 15 games in lordaeron. one team was only non-mage involved.