Frost Mage

[Ughmahedhurtz]

does the [nochanneling] keep you from interrupting another channel with a cast?

Yes.

Also, most of us setup the DPS macros such that they can be spammed, and if you're spamming like mad anyway, you won't notice more than about a few hundred milliseconds of delay in there.

[genocyde]

Oh, and btw my arcane spec on armory is a PvP spec atm. I was testing out fire a little too.
This is the arcane DPS spec that I run in PvE: http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#ofxVcz0czxGuGxedZbIc0k Theres a few points in there that are movable for a bit more single target DPS or AoE dps.

[Fursphere]

you could get crazier, and have each mage have a different modifier key for missiles, shift control alt for instance, if you wanted to get crazy about micro....

I should set up a /clicker for arcane, it worked wonders for my fire mage and lock and shaman....

something like this maybe?

/castsequence ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,arcane missiles

/cast arcane blast

I actually put a lot of thought into this idea. A /clicker is normally used to deal with classes with multiple cooldowns of various lengths. The clicker builds a priority list for spells, and attempts to maintain that.

With an Arcane Mage, you have a static rotation with no cooldown abilities - so *maybe* you could get a little more with a clicker, but I'm no convinced.

You're dead on the money with the above macro concept though, just need to tune it.

[thmsn]

Just figured I would post my lvl 75 frost mage macro, it does have the glyph endless water that makes the water elemental permanent.

/stopmacro [channeling]
/cast [nopet] Summon Water Elemental
/click KillTargetFirst
/use 13
/use 14
/use Icy Veins
/castsequence Frostbolt,
/cast Deep Freeze
/stopmacro [exists,harm,nodead]
/assist {FTL}

[Zaelar]

/castsequence frostbolt
/cast deep freeze

Add in whatever off gcd cooldowns and targetting you want. Against trash you won't be doing great dps since deep freeze will be stunning and not doing damage, but against bosses you'll be doing decent damage. Iirc using [nopet] summoning will get your macro stuck if your pet is dead and still has a cooldown. I also suggest adding in /stopmacro [channeling] if you plan to use blizzard so you don't interrupt it.

And make sure you glyph for permanent pet.