The best mage is the one played by a person who really knows the class well and knows its ins and outs so that they can get the very best out of the class. All the mages have useful roles. What are you going to use your mage to do? If you want to solo a lot, I recommend a Conjuror or Necromancer, because the pet makes it kind of easy mode. All groups and raids these days need power feeds, so Illusionists and Coercers are valuable. How high you parse on a mage depends a lot on (1) what gear you have, (2) your AA spec, and (3) what buffs you get. Still, the top-damage mages are summoners and sorcerors. It's really hard to do an absolutely objective comparison on which is the "best" DPS, because there's not uniform agreement about a "best" AA spec and obviously different classes get different archetype/class AA trees. Leaving AAs out of the equation, to get an objective comparison we'd have to gear the two mages exactly alike, with the same adorns, same infusions, same stats across the board, and compare them without anything except self-buffs. I have never seen this done and documented with ACT/stat screenshots. Then of course you will see that out of most archetype pairs, one is more single-target focused and the other more AOE focused, so the type of things you are fighting also makes a difference.
Every mage is good in their own way. In what context are you talking? Solo: Summoners Raids: Enchanters DPS: Sorcerers Not being squishy: None So in short, every mage is considered good. While this may not be the answer you're looking for (sorry), it's really just the truth; there's no BEST class. It's all skill. Getting to know your class is more important. But if you want my vote? I'd say Illy then Wizard/Warlock. That being said, I love DPS, hate DoTs, and hate squishyness so I don't play a mage. Not the most helpful reply. Edit: Don't listen to me, read Sigrdrifa's post.
I love my necro. But, I have also played all the other mages. For dps wizards are doing well right now, but so are any mages that plays their class well, and have good gear. Out of the chanters, illy's are currently in a better place than coercers IN MY OPINION. Try them all, at one time or another they've all been my favourite.
