5.2 and beyond, a 5 year olds guide requested.

[Deleted]

Hello one and all, mages of mmo-champion. I come here to you hopelessly uneducated, out of touch, out of sync and resembling what most would call a "scrub." Oh I have tried reading your little discussion threads, trying to piece together the patch notes and searched on that google machine for answers. Whilst I probably got the answers I'm looking for I guess I'm stupid for it to sink in. Some background, I've barely touched MoP, I was very laid back in my approach just did dailies and a few raids in LFR, pretty much always near the doldrums of the damage meters. I've had my fun when I was raiding serious in Burning Crusade and Wrath and I've been playing WoW casually since the end of 4.0 and that "content patch" 4.1 in Cataclysm.

But I'm liking what I'm seeing with 5.2 and it seems blizzard are getting their shit together with this raid, so I'm getting back into the game properly and intend to wipe the floor with whatever the fucks in that raid. Unfamiliar with the way MoP mages work in a slightly serious light I humbly request a few pointers before I hit that re-sub button and start getting a feel for things again.

Is every spec truly viable?
Yes, I've heard the Blizzard PR and their dream of making every spec for every class viable for every situation, but is this really the case for serious PvE?

What are the main stat priorities for PvE? Arcane, Fire & Frost?

What spec offers the most for a raid other than pure damage?

What class is the easiest to get a feel for and manage in a raid situation?

The Death Knights, why Blizzard?

Well there's a few questions I have, I look forward to your responses guys hopefully a few constructive criticisms will arise and I'm sure some flaming but whatever. I hope this thread will build up nicely and offer plain one point answers for people looking for tips for current and upcoming WoW. Please feel free to add some simple questions and most importantly, talk to me like a 5 year old. Thanks all. - Bullet

[Shangalar]

As far as mages go, there are three guides posted as "sticky" on the mage forums here. All three guides are updated with the latest 'live' information and all three guides will be updated when 5.2 hits live (well, I don't really think fire and frost will have much updating to do, but Arcane has been significantly changed again).

I urge you to read those guides as they're all nicely written, both for beginner mages and let's call them expert mages. If you have any more questions about spec specific things, please post them in the respective guides. If you want to know more about 5.2, you can read the current patch notes to get a feel of the changes incoming.

As this thread is highly redundant for reasons explained above, I will lock it to prevent anyone from flaming you for asking a question and to prevent a "this spec is best because I say so" or "I hate this because of this" discussion.

I can just add that all three specializations are viable for PvE, but not necessarily optimal. As for which spec offers the most other than damage, I leave to you after reading the guides.