The elements of Azeroth are powerful beings and Mages are one of the few characters that has control over them. All of their attacks a Mage possesses allow them to do so from a distance and most do damage to large areas in which your targets are in.
Mages are also well known for their ability to augment the powers of their fellow party members. They are also able to create portals to major points within the world. The Mage portals are also available to those in a group with the Mage. They can also provide food that will give you an endless supply of food and mana restoration. A lot of the time Mages will be allowed into groups for these helpful items.
If you want more information regarding leveling your Mage or just more info in general, visit this Mage Leveling Guide.
Many enemies have something that they have a resistance too. With Mages, you have a wide range of elemental abilities, enough in fact to always have something that your enemy does not have a resistance too. These different types of spells becomes very helpful when you are dealing with a bunch of different types of targets. This wide range of attacks allows the Mage to always have a way to do the max amount of damage. The power that these area of effect damages do can be extremely devastating to their enemies.
The Mage is really known for two things: high damage points and low armor points. That is mainly due to the cloth armor they wear. Their low armor makes them very susceptible to attacks from their enemies. Leveling becomes difficult for many people because of this low armor.
Both your armor and your weapon will never be used for combat, but they can be very helpful in enhancing your abilities and spells. Sense the base of all your attacks is from spells; you will almost never use your weapon for attack. Because you will never use it in a melee battle, your weapon's abilities are much more important than the damage that it can do.
Having only one spec (DPS) gives the Mage multiple options as to where they would like to use their talent points. Having so many options between the three talents can be daunting, but also allows you a great deal of freedom. Between Arcane, Fire and Frost there is still no clear cut winner when it comes to damage. It really comes down to two of the talents: Arcane and Fire. With Arcane you will find a lot of area damage spells and with Fire your spells will do a lot of damage over time.
If you want to dive deeper into being a Mage check out this Mage Leveling Guide.
Leveling is a whole new beast. If you like questing then you will want Fire for the first sixty levels and then use Frost from then on. But if you decide that you want to use dungeons to level, I suggest using Arcane because it gives you such great area damage.
Even though the Mage can destroy any and all types of characters with so many different types of spells; they have a huge flaw when it comes to their armor.
When looking for a group make sure you have a good deal of characters who have strong plated armor so that they may be able to protect you from attacks. Mage leveling is by far the most challenging out of all the other characters because of the weak armor and lack of healing ability. Once past the leveling problems you will find that Mages are a great class to play.
