I have really loved being a mage for quite a while now, coming up against a few frustrations here and there, but overall, it's been good. However, I seem to have hit another bad spot. In the past, pre-wrath, pre-patch, I could almost always count on being in the top for damage and dps in heroics and raids. It was nice. Since a mage is all about damage, and, of course, crowd control, I felt good having contributed so much to each run, getting the most out of my abilities that I could( such as spellsteal, counterspell, and down and dirty damage). Yes, a good warlock, or even a hunter could at times, out-dps me, or do more damage, but that was ok. I still did a lot.
When the patch came out, things started to change. I first noticed it with a warrior friend, who suddenly began to get very, very close to me in dps, and even passing me at times. He was very well geared, and a good player, so I put it aside. Then, WotLK hit, I leveled to 80, and started running reg instances and recently, heroics. I am now out-dpsed by everyone, and my overall damage output is very, very low. On the last few heroic runs, I was 4th in overall damage, and third in dps. It's not a close race, either. I am way, way behind. SO far, shamans, death knights, hunters, and even the tank have put me to shame. I don't notice much difference in damage output from level 70.
I've tried every build in order to try and get to where i was, but without successs. I pop trinkets all the time now, and use combustion and icy viens whenever they are up, which is something I never used to do. In the past, this was mainly a threat issue. Just using fireball, and scorch, I could almost match the tank in threat, and had to control myself carefully.
The people I run with are all very good players, and the tank is excellent. I almost never come close to matching threat with him anymore. After the patch, I still could, but in wrath dungeons, no way. Only once or twice have I come close.
My gear is comparable to everyone I run with, as in the past. My hit stinks now, but so does everyone's, so I don't feel so bad. I'm going to improve this as quickly as I can. I used to be hit capped, and saw what a difference it made pre-patch.
So, what I notice, now is that that on a typical trash mob with 40-50k health, I can't cast very many spells before he dies. A 3 second cast on fireball or frostfire bolt is an eternity. I loaded up with haste and went frost, but it didn't make a difference in terms of damage output. I haven't tried arcane as much in instances, but I will.
Every other class seems to produce damage quicker than I do. I just can't keep up and it's frustrating t the point that I feel I'm not contributing nearly as much as I used to. Crowd control is still there, but I ran with a shaman the other day and saw what he could do with the frog, and got even more depressed.
If I played another class, like a shaman, or death knight, or paladin, for example, I wouldn't feel so bad, because i could respec and fill another role. But a mage can only dps, no matter what the spec. Even hunters, besides their pure dps role, have a ton of tricks to bring aside from just damage. I'm beginning to feel useless.
As a player, I'm not the best, but not bad, either. I'm sure I could be doing things more efficiently, and effectively, but my current damage situation is just dire. How can I expect to be invited on runs, when another player in the guild( we have a lot of good people) can take my place and contribute so much more.
What am I doing wrong here?
I linked my current spec, which is a frostfire based one. My gear is mostly quest reward blues. The drops I've gotten are lackluster at best, for the most part. And for some reason my +dmg is about he same as it was at 70. grrr
http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Drenden&n=Morgause