In regards to lock teams, you're going to simply have to get lucky in order to win. Right now locks are a supreme counter to mages. Between pet pushback, spell lock, fear, drain life, siphon life and dots ticking on you there is just very little you can do to beat one.

There are things you can do such as make sure you have a CS ready for drain life or fear and to make sure you ice block dots off quickly but the odds are stacked against you

With warlock+healer, have you tried having the paladin attack the felhunter while you attack the warlock? Let the paladin cleanse dots between swings and get that felhunter down asap. When the felhunter is dead, the warlock is probably going to summon Voidwalker. Switch targets and start dpsing the voidwalker and let the paladin attack the warlock. Only use instant attacks when felhunter is alive so your frost tree doesnt get disabled, or use scortch to lure a CS. Voidwalker shouldn't be hard to bring down as he has zero resistance and resilience.

After the felhunter dies you can also CS or HOJ or repentance the fel dom summon and spellsteal the buff off during the school lockout. You can also just chain the CS/HOJ/repent/arcane torrent(if horde) back to back so that the buff expires - it's a 15 second duration. You can also even interrupt it then sheep the lock, especially if youre playing against druid/lock where they have no dispel with the felhunter dead to run down 10 sec off the buff. The cast is fast but with a little practice, some anticipation, and a good ping it can be done. I use an addon that displays an alert in the middle of my screen when someone has the feldom buff, with a timer for the duration, that makes it a lot easier to notice and execute.

You're not going to get a fel hunter down at decent ratings without MS from only a ret pallys DPS. The druid while free will simply heal it and CC one of you. Meanwhile any smart lock is going to have you dotted up and he's going to pillar hump any of your spells other than instants.

If its not a druid and a priest splitting DPS is horrible as its going to bounce prayer of mending like crazy. Pally may have a harder time healing it since he can be CSed if he casts but he can also bubble and bop the pet. Shaman will probably be the easiest to pull this off against but even if you get the pet down your still going to be outhealed. If your pally has to use a lot of mana healing he can't DPS.

Your best course of action against druid teams is to try your best to burst down the druid ASAP then reset the fight and take down the lock without a healer. You won't accomplish it often but I've found its your best course of action. Against every other healer I'd dps the lock very hard while sheeping and CSing the healer. Its going to be tough to kill the warlock in that time frame but its also your best bet.

Well technically, the mage will provide 20% of the damage through Soul Link. The warlock won't have any considerable damage to apply while pillarhumping as both the paladin and mage can decurse and cleanse whatever the warlock applies. The key is to keep the warlock "rooted" with frost novas long enough to apply enough damage to the warlock so the pet doesnt get enough healing. Use Ice Lance -- Frost Nova combos aggressively, with Scortch as casting damage to avoid spell-lock in frost tree. Paladin can contribute to avoid pillar humping with Hammer of Justice on the warlock.

Problem is sl/sl with some pve gear, like void star talisman. That makes the felpuppy allmost unkillable for a mage. Thus rendering mage even more useless against setups which contain sl/sl locks

Where to look? Check out this thread, lots of info about mage pvp [Mage] The PVP Thread

20% of an already reduced damage output on the pet is pretty worthless. You can't get away with using your mana at 100% the usual rate only to get 20% of the usual damage on your target. Mages have severe mana issues in arena as it is. As far as removing whatever the lock applies, yes you can do that - but then how are you going to do dmg? Global cooldowns are a huge issue in arena, and if you're wasting mana on decursing then you're not casting. Also, if your ret pally is cleansing then he's not DPSing. Meanwhile you can only cleanse one thing at a time and SL/SL locks will have agony (or tounges), corruption, siphon life, and shadow embrace on you at one time. They may also get up imolate or may start draining your mana or life.

Keeping a warlock with a paladin rooted is pretty much impossible. Freedom will be applied. With other healers its more likely, but you will see a larger than usual number of resists due to their talents. Also, if they're stuck in line of sight you can bet good money that they're going to fear you.

There is a reason that mages are at 8.7% of expected representation in upper level arena and that is because of how easily they are handled by locks and to a (relatively) lesser extent by rogues. If we could play warriors all day we'd do wonderfully, but beating a competent (and by competent I mean breathing) sl/sl lock consistently in 2v2 will simply not happen the way the mechanics are currently.

Since 2.4 hit, I'm just wondering how

1) The loss of the blink CD reduction in favor of the poly cast bonus matters, if at all. (Personally I blink a lot more than I poly)
and
2) The changes to MSD, while making people cry "nerf " actually changes mages decision process in meta selection. I'm looking at CSD now*, but with haste affecting GCD, doesn't the MSD now allow you to fire more instants faster?

*Not sure if the CSD is the way to go though, if MSD is indeed untenable.

I think I am just going to go back to the powerful earthstorm.

I went back to CSD. MSD, in my opinion, is now dead: the focus buff is so short-lived and such a minor benefit that I can't see it opening up any options or making a difference in a match. Used to be, when you got a focus proc it was a potentially game-changing event; you could land a poly on a rogue hammering you, could plant your feet for 1 second and change to get off a shatter combo, or could blink away from the fracas for a 4-second evocate.

CSD adds several hundred damage to your shatter combos, paticuarily if both the ice lance and frostbolt crit. It's a significant bonus, but I think many of us will still miss the MSD of last patch (or even better, several patches ago).

I couldn't agree more. I really have no idea whether or not to replace my meta or try out something new. Nothing out there really catches my eye. Also, Jacktwok, what quest or event in Blade's Edge Mountains were you talking about that awards that gem?

There's some good information on the event in the comments here - Assault on Bash'ir Landing! - Quests - World of Warcraft

I have yet to do it myself, so I can't give personal feedback on the event. I plan to gather enough shards for 4 or 5 metas, as I don't want to have to do the event more than once.

Here's the new meta gem that came out in 2.4 Ember Skyfire Diamond. The pattern for this gem is available for purchase on the Isle of Quel'Danas from Eldara Dawnrunner, the Shattered Sun quartermaster, once you hit revered with the Shattered Sun faction.

So, since MSD is essentially dead it now comes down to
Chaotic Skyfire Diamond Vs. Ember Skyfire Diamond

Does anyone have a good focus macro for sheeping in pvp? THe one i have now is OK but ideally I want one that sheeps my focus, or if I dont have one just sheeps the person I am targeting. Any have suggestions for what works best for them?

Have any other mages found any success with a 33/28 build since 2.4? (see profile for talent placement)

I plan on giving it a shot in my arena games this week, but was curious to hear from any other mages playing 1850+ level in 3s or 5s their experiences so far. I have high hopes that it will provide better survivabilty against the 2 melee and cleave teams I face alot in 3s (as RMP) and 5s (as W/H/M/P/Pal), and was struggling against as 17/0/44 (by being trained almost nonstop). Offensively, with full S3 gear and 4crit/5dam gems I've got my scorch/fireblast sitting near a 40% crit rate. Knowing firsthand how difficult it always has been to cast frostbolts against competent teams, scorch with 70% pushback resistance seems like a more feasible damage option (ace in the whole of course being AP/POM/Pyro).

Drawbacks to this spec off the top of my head:
1) Molten armor is really expensive to recast (and will most likely chain dispelled against most teams). Big issue.
2) No W/E. I'm not sure how big this will be, as usually it is killed quickly against most good teams and usually can only be counted on for one nova each time.
3) Only one big burst option a game. Not that big of a deal I think, as before shatter combos were few and far between anyway. POM/Pyro is more consistent burst.
4) One iceblock. Big issue.
5) No ice barrier. Marginal problem at best, often dispelled however still very useful when up.

Thoughts?

Now that we've been playing on tr more I would say there isnt much outside having Water Elemental. Specially with the lack of spell penetration gear lock teams really need that burst and dragging them to situation where it can be executed is pain in the ass. But to the point, I just cant see how any fire spec would reign in 3s, saw some fire mage in 5s playing with 2345 but we countered that quite easily as well. The extra control and potential dmg mage loses if he hasnt got elemental is just too much. There allways will be those fire freaks who vouch in the name of burning soul, well that helps only against pets. Tanking warrior/rogue//insert any class that deals tons of dmg and interrupts) isnt viable to begin with.

Before abandoning the idea just try for a while. It has huge draw back and as I see it you cant make to top 10 with that kind of spec. All arent even trying to achieve top places and it is fun to play.

Hey, have you thought about an Elemental Specc?
I think against Rogues and Warriors it would be an alternative for you.
- short cast time
- shatter
- icebarrier
- coldsnap
- blazing speed
- impact

and - yes - i know the big CS Issue =/

To be honest, as 17/0/44 your job is either to burst really hard early game, or wait for a chance for that "one nova" from the pet to kill someone. The issue with attempting to stand and nuke, even with 70% pushback resistance is going to be the incoming damage, the spell pushback (it wont be so prevalent, but just take polymorph as an example. 50% from gloves and I always see red on my cast time.) and the lack of survivability talents. Further, because PoM Pyro is... by and large useless (Please, just admit it. The damage on Pyro isn't so high non-crit that it's really better than that fireball, and against heavy resilience that 40% crit rate is closer to 28%, or 3/10 times.

You also don't get any of the really good fire survivability talents (Blazing Speed helps to mitigate the kiting power you lose via frost armour/frostbite, and Dragon's Breath is a really awesome close quarters interrupt for finishing that healer off/running away) and you're left with somewhat... sub par... arcane talents.

Your primary nuke is scorch, a low DPS, low damage, low DPM spell, and you can fall back on... arcane missiles, a high mana spell that's by and large useless because it's channeled. (Hello locked out arcane tree!)

Honestly, I can't say it's going to be super successful, and that's despite being one of the biggest fire fans I know. (I hate frost. I hate the arena play style we have to adapt. But I hate losing more.)

Oh, and one last point. There's a conception out there that A) PoMPyro builds do a lot of damage and B) that they're super squishy. When you combine the two, you're just going to get the pain train harder.

I've been playing some BGs as 33/28 tonight and I will say this: I'm dying to try it with my rogue partner in 2s. Some of the damage I'm seeing fly is frankly disgusting and I can't wait to give it a go. The improvments to some of the talents are amazing.

Improved Blink is extremely good. It has a strong synergy with magic absorbtion and leads to a decent amount of mana return from resists.

Molten shields is awesome when it works but in many games molten armor will be gone quickly. Its a fun spec if nothing else. I'd never use it for my serious brackets but i may bust it out in 2s to have some fun while still being somewhat viable.

Has anyone noticed an impact proc from molten armor using the molten shields talent? It doesn't seen to proc stuns despite hitting the target back with fire damage.