[General] Best spec for levelling?

[Deleted]

I'm considering rolling a mage. Just wondered what spec most people would use for levelling?
Thanks!

[Arcanist]

If you're using heirlooms it doesn't matter. I leveled as fire from 85-87 and then switched to frost because my crit rating tanked on top of the fire nerfs and it just wasn't an enjoyable experience anymore.

[Gamdwelf]

any of them are fine.

[Deleted]

I levelled my mage fire, but I can't remember at all how it went.

[pkm]

Frost with glyph of fire blast

[Deleted]

Arcane for me, having a lot of fun with the spec

[mrtheshaggy]

Leveled frost. Basically mount up and collect as many mobs as possible. Get them grouped up. Frost Nova -> Cone of Cold -> Blizzard. That was back in Wrath and was insanely easy. Now you get to frozen orb and a frost bomb / inferno blast to make it an even bigger lolfest.

[Sergar]

Tried all three thus far, full heirlooms 1-50 in Mists of Pandaria.

Arcane: Slow killing single mobs. Some survivability issues if you don't pull mobs with a movement reducer or keep up ice barrier. Not worth it.
Fire: RNG, speed varies from globaling mobs to still faster then arcane's average. Even better if you abuse shatter with frost nova/ice ward. Fast enough that it really doesn't worry about survivability.
Frost: Fast, can do AoE pulls and hardly slow down (although the best AoE tools are late, you don't even get Blizzard until 52). Lots of survivability, but don't think you'll be AoE grinding early on.

So, frost or fire are completely valid, arcane works fine too if you insist on it.

[Deleted]

fire, always fire

[Sealbinder]

Honestly for mages I have found any of them to be good. For me it comes down to what you find most fun. I tend to enjoy fire the most and I leveled my mage that spec through the end of BC into LK (when arcane was the spec to go). I just always liked it. Frost is not bad for leveling, but I don't enjoy it as much for some reason (can't figure out why since I tend to like ice effects in most games) but to me it just does not feel right. Arcane is not bad either for leveling, but becomes much easier once you get Slow.

I will mention that most of this was pre-MoP. I had no issues with leveling any of my mages with these specs, one pre-heirloom and one with heirloom. Currently I am leveling my main mage from 85-90 as Fire and I have no problems with it.

[announced]

frost is best.. no doubt about it.. u have control.. pvp protection.. just know frost doesnt pickup amazingly till 64 when u get frozen orb.. then it rapes everything