Mage newb. Some questions.

[swooper]

Hello mages! This is the first time ever that I have a max level mage, and I have been here since vanilla. So please forgive me for not being knowledgeable about these things.

My first question is what spec is the least gear dependent in order? My mage has unsullied gear with the aim of doing mythics plus and maybe normal raids. Also what is the general PVP spec at the moment?

Thank you for any help given! I enjoy all 3 specs, although I think frost is my favourite closely followed by fire.

[cafecito820]

In terms of raw dps output, I'm not sure. But Frost is going to be the most forgiving spec when you're still gearing up simply because of how well it controls enemies. Once you get some gear, it does great single-target damage for group content too.

After that (my experience only), I would say Fire > Arcane. Even without optimized gear, it's easy for Fire to burst down enemies before they ever reach you, and they have enough control spells to handle the ones that do reach you. Arcane I would say depends most on gear because of how the spec works. Your base spells hit for almost nothing when you're low on Arcane Charges, and your slow/control elements have to be talented for and/or cast separately (compared to Frost which just slows automatically, and Dragon's Breath that Fire gets by default). Arcane *can* do well with gear, but it's just harder to do IME.