How Hard is Mage in PVP?

[newt0n]

I haven't done any rated pvp since Cataclysm where I hit 2463 on my Rogue. Missed Glad that season because the team owner decided to push on the last night with a new rogue / mage and tanked the team rating. Anyhow, I am looking to come back for Shadowlands and mage is appealing to me but I have never been great with casters in pvp. How hard should I expect it to be?

[Tyrannica]

I haven't done any rated pvp since Cataclysm where I hit 2463 on my Rogue. Missed Glad that season because the team owner decided to push on the last night with a new rogue / mage and tanked the team rating. Anyhow, I am looking to come back for Shadowlands and mage is appealing to me but I have never been great with casters in pvp. How hard should I expect it to be?

Not, too hard with arcane mage, who is S tier with shadowpriest in the Beta, according to Skillcapped and various streamers.

[unbound]

Not, too hard with arcane mage, who is S tier with shadowpriest in the Beta, according to Skillcapped and various streamers.

Pretty much this. The other 2 specs require ramp-up which PvP punishes pretty harshly unless you are up against an idiot team that just lets you free cast.

Being a caster in general in PvP is generally difficult. Most melee have more gap closers than you have gap expanders, and they have generally interrupts on much shorter cooldowns than your own. Even better, they tend to have even more abilities that can't be interrupted compared to mage.

[newt0n]

Pretty much this. The other 2 specs require ramp-up which PvP punishes pretty harshly unless you are up against an idiot team that just lets you free cast.

Being a caster in general in PvP is generally difficult. Most melee have more gap closers than you have gap expanders, and they have generally interrupts on much shorter cooldowns than your own. Even better, they tend to have even more abilities that can't be interrupted compared to mage.

The last time I played mage was TBC (Karazhan) and I played as Arcane and LOVED it. I loved balancing my mana pool with my damage output, knowing how long the fight was likely to last and balancing my mana pool to run out exactly as the boss died was incredible fun. I look forward to testing Arcane again in Shadowlands

[sejii]

I haven't done any rated pvp since Cataclysm where I hit 2463 on my Rogue. Missed Glad that season because the team owner decided to push on the last night with a new rogue / mage and tanked the team rating. Anyhow, I am looking to come back for Shadowlands and mage is appealing to me but I have never been great with casters in pvp. How hard should I expect it to be?

i disagree that arcane is the easiest its not because you have to deal more with interrupts and you lose displacement in SL.
mage isn't to hard anymore, start learning your burst rotation then work on teamplay and CC rotations with your partner - after mastering this you pretty much do the same thing over & over again and get better.
Wish you the best!

[khazlol]

Mage is usually a safe bet. but don't get your hopes up for arcane it may yet get nerfed to the ground after pre-patch.

[villie]

I haven't done any rated pvp since Cataclysm where I hit 2463 on my Rogue. Missed Glad that season because the team owner decided to push on the last night with a new rogue / mage and tanked the team rating. Anyhow, I am looking to come back for Shadowlands and mage is appealing to me but I have never been great with casters in pvp. How hard should I expect it to be?

All three specs are looking very solid on beta right now, some like fire need the new conduits and leggos to reach their full potential, but overall they are solid. The biggest hurdle to mage is learning to utilise your defensive kit efficiantly since you are very squishy, so knowing how to kite, when to shimmer, nova etc is paramount to success and creating windows to do damage, but if you played rogue before setup comps should be familier to you, other than that its rotating sheep drs and bursting effectivley rinse repeat.

You will get run over by melee to begin with and probabaly feel like you have no time to cast or indeed do anything but dont be disheartened, once you get your head around with how to deal with each type of melee class and comp, creating space will become muscle memory and thats when mage starts to get really fun as you will be pumping out serious burst and it feels very rewarding rather than just standing in the middle of the map like a punching bag turreting damage like a destro lock.

I'm playing Kiran Fire in SL for the massive burst potential every 45s with meteor and short combust, but if you are after something more consistant then either frost or arcane are also looking very good.

[Thelxi]

Imo the skill ceiling is pretty high compared to other casters, but the skill floor is pretty average so you can still do well without pushing the class to its limits. A good mage really stands out from the crowd though.