teacake wrote:
A really cool thing about the mage class, IMO, is that there is no one clear spec for leveling. They're all viable, so you can really pick whichever you think will be most fun, and not be afraid to respec/experiment.
Let me unnecessarily expand on that and say that this is because burst damage is inherent in the mage class's abilities-- it will always be faster to level than a paladin, shaman, or priest, even if these three classes choose their "DPS specs". This is similar to other pure-DPS classes, and not like those hybrid classes (priest and warrior, I'm including as hybrids). Hunters, Warlocks, Rogues, and Mages all have several adequate leveling specs because they're damage-dealing classes. Their CC trees, their survival trees, their PvP trees, they all come with built-in leveling speed because of damage.