Old mage coming back to WoW. Need help.

[azzastar]

Hi there, just a quick query for the public, I've just returned back to WoW after taking a 6 month break and there seems to be a lot of changes lol. I was aware that there would be a patch, but I cant really seem to find any links to any of the changes to mage class and/or any other important stuff I should know about. Just to give a snap shot of where I left off: i was a pretty experienced fire mage back in June, i had done 5/13hms in ToT, and in terms of the mage class, fire was pretty much the top dps spec with frost a bit behind. I then decided to take a break due to heavy study requirements. So if anyone can just give me quick rundown of any changes or a link to a forum that explains what I'm looking for, preferably mage related, that would be extremely apreciated! Also I'm a bit a perfectionist when it comes to raiding, so I wouldn't mind knowing which of the 3 mage specs is optimal for the most dps in the current tier. Or is fire still pulling ahead? If anyone can find the answers to my queries, I will be ever grateful

[maizensh]

Fire's combustion was nerfed.
RoP radius was widened.
Frost got PvE oriented mastery.

All in all, all three specs are viable now for PvE and there's no single best spec for all encounters. Of course, some specs performs better than others on specific encounters.

[azzastar]

interesting...I'm not surprised combustion was nerfed, fire dps was pretty wack back then. I remember something about that frost mastery change, but widened RoP radius? sounds like they tried to make arcane more mobility friendly. If all three specs are viable, i guess thats good to hear, i really enjoy the fun aspect of fire, so i guess I'll stick to that.

[Akraen]

The fun aspect is indeed a fun aspect.

[azzastar]

couldn't agree more ^.^

[Deleted]

Basically; Frost is good with low gear level
Fire/Arcane pulling ahead the better gear you get. Combustion nerfed as mentioned above but I'd imagine it being buffed in the beginning of WoD like it was in the start of MoP.