Managing aggro as a Mage

[Brista]

What I was trying to say is that if you go slow on the DPS at first, you will A) make the MT's job easier because he won't have to run to save your ass, and B) you will have much more nuking options as the mob's health bar starts going down. I would rather start slow so that I can let loose with all the DPS I want a bit later, than to make the tank work extra hard and possibly get myself killed.

I think this is a fallacy

First, remember: all damage is meaningless until the mob dies

So there are no prizes for starting as early as you can

Take a mob with 10k life that the group kills in 20 seconds

Mage 1 starts with conservative nuking, and continues with a moderate low aggro strategy. avoiding pyroblast, fireblast and cone of cold. He starts on second 5 and does 3k damage total

Mage 2 simply waits till second 8 then goes all out. High damage instacasts like Fireblast and Cone of Cold are used. He starts on second 8 and does 3k damage total.

There is no difference between the two mages except that Mage 2 regenerates more mana.

From the tank's point of view Mage 2 is less likely to pull aggro since his damage is that much more back-loaded

If Mage 2 starts with Pyroblast and it crits he probably won't pull aggro but even if he does from a Warrior it falls within the acceptable parameter of "don't make me use Taunt every fight, I don't mind using it occasionally" which most tanks believe

There is no point starting with a low damage short casting time spell.