I made 3 mages and am happy with them so far. My PvE setup is warrior/shaman + mages though, so I got them mainly for the CC and free water/food is always nice. Really it all depends on what you want to do with your team. I work nights and have a few hours every morning after I get home to do dailies, heroics, etc. However it's very hard to find a group, much less a good group at this time of day, so I made my own 5-man group. I don't PvP very much on the mages, got them their 1h Gladiator swords and Vindicator bracers, mainly for PvE use though. Been having fun doing alt T5 raids with the 3 mages and running lots of heroics for badges.