Hmm, well I do not really know why so many ppl, even mages think that arcane would be the reason why mages are OP, if they are after all.
As arcane, I sure do have a lot of burst damage, as well as being able to do around 1k dps to other players just spamming instant casts, but let me tell you something: half of the stuff you can do as arcane mage is just mediocre for PvP. If you are hopping around in the background, getting of your AP/POM fireball, arcane barrage and a fireblast, followed by an arcane barrage, it might look very nice what you see on the screen, but after all you're rather screwed If you encounter 2 geared enemys at once, unlike if you were playing frost. I am not saying arcane is bad for PvP, but without the 2 min CDs you have very little Burst-sprees at hand. You do not a have any shattercombo, or deep freeze, to put down an undisturbed 3 IL crits in a row, geting a brain freeze procc after. As frost I can pretty much Beat any class, including Retpallys and rogues.
I do thing that mages are very strong in PvP atm, with the gear and some skill, but rather as frosties than as arcane mages. Arcane mages are just plainly down too fast to live up to their full potential.
And the reason for ppl not whining about mages is imo, that mages can actually beat any other class, but retri pallys can do so, while 5 other players are biting their teeth out on their bubble, while they still put out incredible burst, which is something mages can't do. 5 enemies and you are pretty screwed, and sure as hell won't score the kill anymore, that a retpala would have taken.