Wondering about my mage

[Xame]

Since this sounds like your first mage, the following is almost a required set of
skills for solo/pve/pvp. (The elemental mage is a special mage for those who are trying to prove something at level 60.)

Improved Arcane Missiles Rank 5
Improved Arcane Explosion Rank 5
Evocation Rank 1
Improved Counterspell Rank 2

Consider these the utility spells that you cann't live without.

If you go fire:
Ignite Rank 5
Incinerate Rank 2
Improved Flamestrike Rank 3
Blast Wave Rank 1

(Pyroblast is a Arcane Mage talent with Presense of Mind or a pve server skill)

Your opener will be a fireball followed by lots of scorches/fireblasts. Or for AoE Flamestrike followed by blast wave (for the daze so you can IAE). Fire has a lot of punch and you go for a "crit" build since you want Ignite up as much as possible. Many people choose this as the prefered way to level a mage. The downside is that many mobs at lvl 60 have high fire resist and the "gearing" at level 60 does not work in your favor. Thus you hear the "level with fire, cap in ice". Also playing a fire mage will make you a better frost mage since fire kiting is faster and more precise. See the Sorrow Hill video set for ideas of how this mage plays. Also I personally found this spec easier for low level farming because of the great AoE combo (for felcoth and rep).

If you go in ice:
Improved Frostbolt Rank 5
Ice Shards Rank 5
Improved Frost Nova Rank 2
Cold Snap Rank 1
Shatter Rank 5

And I personally like (personal taste here, not required):
Improved Blizzard Rank 3 (must have some AoE although it really sucks)
Ice Block Rank 1 (required for Ice Barrier)
Improved Cone of Cold Rank 3 (almost a required for me since it is an instant cast, I cast it ALL the time, best 3 pts spent beyond the required group and it makes a great AoE since Blizzard is such a bad spell)
Frostbite Rank 5 (extra frozen targets mean extra crits and less damage incoming)
Ice Barrier Rank 1 (the 31 pointer)

As a frost mage your talents are built around building a good frost bolt while still picking up some of the utility of the frost line. Basic combat is rather easy. If you can "....chill it you can kill it" -- Faxmonkey. Frost bolt, frost bolt, fireblast, few steps back + frost nova, frost bolt + cone of cold, run .... rinse repeat. Just keep your target chilled and you will win. I've even killed an even level with just a wand while regenerating enough mana while kiting to keep the target chilled and taking 0 damage (Faxmonkey demos this technique with elites in his video). Blizzard made this spec the perfered one at 60 because the plus damage gear helps a frost mage's frost bolt more then any other skill (for leveling this is a wash because of the current ranks of the various spell at a given level keep changing).

As I like to tell most new mages, Improved AM will kill amost any non-elite, even level mob head to head. Its just not efficient because of the mana cost per damage. You will need to practice your kiting to be a good mage. Remeber you have multiple tricks to kite: frost nova, blink and cone of cold. And even though you are a "Fire" or "Frost" mage does not mean you don't use the other school's spells in routine combat.

Although you don't PvP, many mages keep Rank 1, IAE and Rank 1 frostbolt on their tool bar as rogue sonar (ping!) and quick crowd control if you are already holding a sheep (or don't want the mage heal of sheeping a target).

Edited to fix Rinnhart's comment about IFB. I meant to put in Ignite (cut and paste from playing with the spec, sorry about that). Don't waste the points on IFB.