Utility of mages in Cataclysm

I'm currently leveling my shaman team (leveling priests to 80 doing only BG holidays on the weekend) but starting to question if I'd be better served by having at least one mage.

These may sound like dumb questions, but lots is changing with Cataclysm and I'm not sure about much:

1) Are mages still making water in the expansion? Is water cheap to buy or would it be good to have one to just fund my team with snacks, even if nothing else?

2) Dalaran pretty much made it so portals weren't neccessary, and the reduction in hearthstone will help - actually everything they're doing seems to be focused on minimize actual travel time. What are the experiences of the beta testers?

3) Anything else that I'm overlooking with mages?

I don't want to get a mage to 80 to just make water, as I'm sure that time spent leveling could have funded my vendor water for the rest of my WoW days.

i love my mixed team.

I can see its easy with 5 identical, but I like how the hunter, mage, shaman, pally (might change to priest) and warrior works together.

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Originally Posted by Owltoid

I'm currently leveling my shaman team (leveling priests to 80 doing only BG holidays on the weekend) but starting to question if I'd be better served by having at least one mage.

These may sound like dumb questions, but lots is changing with Cataclysm and I'm not sure about much:

1) Are mages still making water in the expansion? Is water cheap to buy or would it be good to have one to just fund my team with snacks, even if nothing else?

2) Dalaran pretty much made it so portals weren't neccessary, and the reduction in hearthstone will help - actually everything they're doing seems to be focused on minimize actual travel time. What are the experiences of the beta testers?

3) Anything else that I'm overlooking with mages?

I don't want to get a mage to 80 to just make water, as I'm sure that time spent leveling could have funded my vendor water for the rest of my WoW days.

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Whether they're good, bad or indifferent post-Cata I don't think matters much.

I'd suggest that if you're leveling a mage solely to use it as a drinks and portal vendor, then it's probably not worth the effort.

I think Blizzard will be making sure that each class will be viable post-Cata just as they are pre-Cata, so I wouldn't be worried about it, and "the sky is falling" threads on the WoW forums can be safely ignored this far out.

Mages provide unique buffs, and in cata will also provide bloodlust (equivalent).

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Originally Posted by Maxion

Mages provide unique buffs, and in cata will also provide bloodlust (equivalent).

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I love my mage. I couldn't imagine a pve group without one.

Looking at the talents, mages will never have been better IMHO.

But that's really seeing mage's utility being in (gnome voice) "murderous rampage" rather than purely water production.

They will still make conjured consumables in Cata.

Mages bring more to the table than just food and water :D

They have crowd control, can lock packs down with frost nova, slow targets movement, and in frost can even have a permanent pet, not to mention insane DPS. That's just the tip of the iceberg really. Each spec opens up new avenues.

I'm finishing off my old mage to throw into my group just to have a fall back in case Cataclysm is unfriendly to non-mixed teams. They're fairly powerful and definetly a fun change if you've just been playing 1-2 classes for ages.

You also have a TON of time man before Cataclysm. Time enough to level several characters to 80 without much effort if you spread it out over time. Like my mage I just play him when he has rested exp and it doesn't seem like such a chore.

Looks like arcane dps will be really easy to macro too.

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Originally Posted by Maxion

Looks like arcane dps will be really easy to macro too.

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I really like arcane as it is today, I guess I feel sort of lame with frost in that targets don't stay frozen and yield the bonuses that the class could have, and the many buttons of the frost mage go to waste multiboxing.

If you targets are always snared from a mind flay for example, its hard to ignore the synergy of the arcane mage. I find mob turn over to be quite nice with shadow priest and arcane mage as they are always channeling and with target switching lag you can usually switch at the last 30% of a mob and those two characters will finish off the mob easily, which gives much more spirit tap chances.

I am a big sucker for the flying hued chrome spells too I'll admit.

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Originally Posted by pinotnoir

I love my mage. I couldn't imagine a pve group without one.

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THIS. I swear my mage eats indian food

Tiny mage + vindaloo = BIG fireball/