Returning to the gameFollow

Hi. I played WoW a few months ago in which time I played Priest to level 45. I enjoyed Priest (I played Shadow) but I felt like they were lacking something. I loved Vampiric Embrace for getting health back and I had seen Vampiric Touch in action and I liked how they could handle mana. I got to thinking, however, that I didn't want to be a mage with a low number of offensive skills and minor healing capabilities (I'm aware I can just pop out of shadowfom to heal). What I am looking for is CC and more DOTS. I just really need to know where mages stand at this moment in time. Do they get owned by DKs? Are they still topping damage charts? How is their survivability? Just how much faster is AoE grinding than normal levelling?

Any help is much appreciated. Thank you.

AOE grinding is not worth it for the exp but if as is fairly common you need to kill "X" number of mobs is pretty fast if they are fairly close together , its a case of rounding them up and a freeze and cast Blizzard and they all usually die before they get anywhere near me , both my Mage and my Priest are level 39 and i think my Mage is far more fun and i find it easier to deal with groups trying to kill me.

As DK,s are rather OTT at the moment it is not fair to think which class is better at damage as each class has its own play style and i know which i prefer.

As for survival i can honestly say my Mage survives in places where my Priest dies but perhaps that is the level they are at or just my play style as my first love is Hunters and i like to keep full control over mobs.

As you are thinking about Mages i will point out that like Priests they do not start to get to be real fun until after about level 35 then all the good talents kick in and it becomes real fun killing multiple mobs , for control and learning how a Mage works i would suggest going frost as that gives more reaction time as you learn.

One tip as a Mage has no heal spells is either pick Draenei for their racial heal or take up Herbalism as that now has a heal spell which is very good and pick up the Evocation glyph as soon as possible as that heals as well as regaining mana , with those spells a Mage will not die easily as i have seen with my Mage.