I've got bad news for you on the Drinking Simulator... it doesn't stop. You'll get talents/gear and it'll make the burst really, really fun, but you'll be drinking a LOT. And in TBC, the option to downrank comes with a penalty to the SP coefficient.
The chart of uptime vs downtime for a Mage looks like a bunch of M's lol
Also, the talents at 30+ and after going into Arcane (assuming you're Frost) start to feel really good.