to all those putting a mage in a mixed group heres some feedback from somone that has already done it.

though mages seems like a great addition to a mixed group from my experiance I reallly would not suggest one. my mixed team has the following

Prot Paladin
Boomkin
Shaman
Disc Priest
Frost Mage.

the issues I have with the mage are:
Out of the 3 specs you will almost forced to go frost, otherwise youl have to drink every few pulls just becuase the mage is OOM and the rest of the team are at 90% mana
Frost is the worst DPS spec
Int buff is probably the worsed buff in game
5% crit debuff as frost takes a while to accumulate
even as frost my mage is no where near as mana effecient as the rest of the team.
seriosly low survivability. both shaman and boomkin are designed to take a few hits, mages are designed to manouver to never get hit, not somthing you can do easily as a MBer


what the mage brings to the team:
Int buff - wouldnt notice is i never had it tbh
5% crit debuff - pretty much only for bosses as it takes 5 FB's to stack to get it
drinks - If I didnt have a mana hungry mage in group I doubt I would ever drink anyway!
portals - use them maybe once a day.


If you take my advice and replace your mage in group personaly Id suggest either another boomkin or shaman or as Im doing which i think is the best route is a hunter. hunters bring replenishment(a huge bonus for heroics youl never need that free mage water) strong DPS that never rooms OOM, an off tank that can eat the "2nd on agro list" random type hits / fears etc. and what sounds small but to me is a huge deal. fully automated CC, just drop a trap at the start of each pull, hell even have it stuck in his dps macro and youve automaticaly CCed any mob that goes for your dps/healer without having to even target him. plus it saves DEing all that attack power gear