Not the typical "Help my DPS" thread. (hear my plea!)

[Phosey]

Good morning guys, the sun is shining, the birds are singing and I'm logging on to my recently boosted 90 mage. I raided mage in WotLK along with my holy paladin and the playstyles are pretty similar (HL/FB spam + making sure procs were being used). I'd love to search for a thread like this but maybe it would be more recent and concise if all the great mages brought feedback.

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/characte.../Anrisa/simple

The facts:
In WoTLK I raided arcane. It's a lot less faceroll now, how does that translate to consistent DPS? As I gear up how would I maximize my potential to not seem like a freshly boosted 90 with some transmog on. This is primarily a gear conversation because I know how much my DPS would explode if I got the legendary cloak or a shiny new transmog'd staff (I just love Malevolence). Right now I'm frost and I'm pushing the 100k DPS mark by following the FCFS proc rotation with frostbolt filler. Could I be doing better? How about fire? Any cool weaving tricks around?

Where should I start out for gear? I'd love a new staff but where should I hunt for rings/trinks? I need to get to 530ilvl to be capable in Norm SoO right?

Is the legendary cloak worth going after? I read a guide and it said 8 months pre-nerf. How is this in 5.4.7?

2pc and 2pc in the recent tiers or 4pc current tier?

Are there any cool mage tricks for increasing throughput and enhancing the raid? I already put down blingtrons in lfr lol.

Thanks guys, hopefully my plea was successful and I'll take any feedback y'all got. I'd love for this to help out new up and coming mages or people caught at a plateau like myself!

[Relapses]

Man, there's absolutely no way any of your questions could have been answered by the incredibly comprehensive stickies in this forum.

Since your questions are so astonishingly original that nobody in the world has ever thought to ask them, I'll try my hardest to give you the best answer.

1.) Play what you like the most.

2.) Read the stickied thread for whatever spec to which you're partial.

3.) There is literally nothing else to say.

Infracted from trolling. Please be as close as 100% constructive as possible. - Shang

[Akraen]

@OP: Ignore the snarky, nasty reply by GenericMMOCperson#005. People around here do have the ambition to reply to threads but the motivation to belittle you rather than help. He's not wrong though, there are a number of stickied (and *cough* not stickied) threads that will help you align yourself for success.

The meta gem from the Legendary Quest is really your primary goal for DPS. Cloak is huge, too-- just focus on getting all that done ASAP.

100k for Frost at your gear level is probably fine. At your gear level frost is also a fair bit easier to manage and at a point in scaling where it will have a higher output. I'd stick to Frost for that reason, but recommend that you figure out which spec suits your interest and playstyle most, then go with that.

Okay, so, assuming you stick to Frost, here are some quick facts, and I'll leave the marginal gains and smaller stuff for you to treasure hunt through the forums. For a more condensed, easier read visit Icy Veins forums, where I have a bit more control and help deliver more pertinent info like snapshotting and advanced frost stuff to players: http://www.icy-veins.com/forums/forum/21-mage/

10 Things to Get Started As Frost:
1) Get 2pc as quickly as possible, it's monumental.
2) Skip 4pc, it's bad. But if you get it, go ahead and wear it until you get some warforged pieces to replace them.
3) Until you get your meta gem, unglyph Icy Veins and go for as much mastery as you can.
4) Once you can reach 14242 haste rating, go for that, then resume mastery stacking. (up until this point focus on mastery)
5) Grab an addon like TellMeWhen or WeakAuras if you haven't, track Invoker's Energy, Icy Veins, Jade Spirit, your trinkets
6) Get MageBombTracker and TidyPlates so your LB and NT are easily viewed on enemies
7) Practice using Alter Time: Capture the greatest # of buffs you can on pull, and whenever you use Icy Veins again later in the fight
8) Glyph of Cone of Cold for clutch AoE after using Brain Freeze-FFB w/2pc bonus
9) Don't Ice Lance w/o FoF unless you have no other options while moving
10) Don't track or pay attention to icicles

Oh, and finally, ask me if you have any more questions. Glad you've chosen mage and hope you rock it

[Shangalar]

Phosey welcome to the MMO-C Mage forums. When you get past the first layer, the forum is totally a nice place to hang out most of the time.

As per Akraen's suggestion, I will lock this thread. Please use his answer and then visit any of the dedicated specialization or dps/gear help threads. You can find most of them in my signature (all that's missing is a link to Akraen's advanced Frost which is always on the first page anyway).