I can't imagine a single mage that would complain about blink. Did I mention Blink? Yeah just about one of the best spells ever developed, even if it is broken some of the time. We don't have personal healing (unless you spec of glyph into Cold Snap and Regenerative Ice block respectively), but we have ways to avoid damage and cheese some of the high damage mechanics in Raids though Greater Invisibility, Ice block of Evanesce, and even blink. When you are in a raid, you are there for DPS, not offhealing, not off tanking (unless you include Krosh Firehand from Gruul's Lair which arguably was one of the most fun things to do as a mage).just pure DPS. We are also not a hybrid class so because of that, we generally always have a spec that's at the top or near the top in DPS parses. We may not be blizzards favorite, but we aren't the red headed stepchild either. Mages are generally always in a good spot DPS and Lore wise. Caster classes have always been my favorite, I've tried all of the other ones but still keep coming back to my mage since the beginning of Burning Crusade. For pvp mages generally rock in every spec - you can bring fire mages to bgs like ashran, you can nuke things from the back in arcane, or play frost for competitive pvp. Generally you'll be able to keep up with other classes dps-wise in a raid, so that's a non issue. The xmog options for mage are unmatched, except by other clothies. Same with soloing old raids, you'll find that compared to other classes soloing on a mage is ahahaha ridiculous.) I also really love being able to port places (you can always set your hearthstone to wherever you want since you'll always have the ability to port to major towns). (If you kill something it is down to you.It can be quite fun to hunt down and solo rares at the start of the expac when you have crappy gear - feels like an accomplishment. I like the 'purity' of playing a mage - you're a damage dealer that's it, none of that tanking with your pet, no self heals, no earth elemental. When you first get to 100 it can feel really painful to do anything on a mage, but with higher gear you get "even" with other classes. One thing to note, mages shine in good gear. If you're looking for an interesting experience, level as fire mage if you're looking for an easier time, level as frost. In a raid that's not an issue but questing you'll want to make sure nothing ever hits you (unless you enjoy 20 sec eating of those mana cakes after every mob). Mages have zero (0, zilch, nada) self-heals unless you count the glyphed iceblock, so you pretty much must control the situation in a way you don't have to on those other classes. I would say going from those classes (SP, Lock, Shammy) your main problem will be survivability. you melt if meleed, you nuke from range).