Hi. My name is Jona. I'm an arcane mage.
http://armory.worldofwarcraft.com/ch...ntinels&n=Jona
I'm very probably the second-best geared mage - Horde side - on my server. Yet my damage sucks in raids. Before you jump to react and say "Ahah! See! Arcane sucks!" you need to hear me out...
First, I don't have any intention of respeccing to the cookie-cutter raid fire spec. I would like to TRY it, just to understand how it works, but I don't think that's the solution to my particular problem. I am not completely opposed to fire. As a matter of fact, I use fireballs quite frequently in fights that require greater range (Prince Malchezaar, for instance), so I like to be effective with other spells as well. But, I LOVE arcane. (
And I frequently play with a shadow priest so it's a nice synergy 
)
Second, I believe that my spec can dish out a shitload of damage in raids (can I say "shit"?), but I just haven't figured out the right way to do it. I have a bad habit of hitting one button over and over, which works great in most cases... (Arcane Missiles FTW!)
Third, I'm not really a "twitch" kindof player, if you know what that means. I don't pvp all that often (although I have in the past, and kicked ass at it, I just don't enjoy it). It takes me a little while before I get comfortable with my adversary. The first attempt on a boss, my damage always sucks royally, and it gets gradually better as we progress and actually start beating the guy.
So... right now I'm at a point where my guild is doing bigger raids more often (okay, we're hitting Gruul regularly and starting on Mag soon, nothing too big, but we were slow starters!) and when we get in those encounters for some reason my damage just tanks. I don't get it. But maybe I do get it... what I usually do (at least with Gruul) is be over-conservative, stay way back, and cast fireballs, and then go run and hide the very second the ground slam call comes. So that means I live through the fight, but it also means I'm dead last on damage (when I should be in the top 5 based on the damage I do in heroics and Karazhan). I figure on the next raid things will click a little better and I'll be able to be actively doing damage for more of the fight.
One of my favorite guildies is into theorycrafting and insists that I need to respec fire if I ever want to get more damage. But I'm convinced that my damage problems are largely playstyle and not so much my talents (it's definitely not gear at this point).
The thing I want help with, from you lovely, lovely people, is figuring out how to get the most possible damage out of my arcane spells during raids. I'm not concerned about mana, since I have a kickass shadow priest in my group (I actually ended the last Gruul fight with a ton of mana).
If you were a mage with my spec, in a 25+ raid fight like Gruul's Lair, AND TOO BROKE TO RESPEC, what would you do to maximize your damage?
Seriously, I really, really want to find out how folks deal with arcane spells in raids. I'm hoping there are people out there who actually manage to accomplish this.