Mage

Basic Information from Blizzard regarding Mages: The Mages of Warcraft once centered their powers within the mageocracy of Dalaran. After that kingdom's destruction by the Burning Legion the arcane arts spread to the far corners of the world. The Mage is a very important and helpful party member. One of the Mage's most powerful abilities is Polymorph, which allows it to control the number of monsters currently attacking the party. The mage is also able to use a teleportation spell, allowing it to travel through the land more quickly. Mages can even summon in food and drink to help everyone recover faster from battle.

Valid Races: Gnomes, Humans, Draenei, Undead, Trolls and Blood Elves

The TenTonHammer take on Mages

The Mage is the typical spell caster. They are very dangerous at high levels, but as Blizzard so eloquently states on their class page, one of the challenges is keeping them alive. Once an enemy gets to you, they can kill you very quickly. A mage is always in demand in parties though so there should not be too many issues staying alive as long as you have a tank or two in the party as well.

Links to information on other WoW sites

Blizzard WoW site - The official Blizzard WoW Mage information page.
Mage Articles - Article submissions from players about Mages on "The Knights who say... Ni!" site.
Mage Character guide - Starting levels and brief talent descriptions at the wowvault.ign.com site.
Graffe’s Wizard Compilation - A site devoted to the Mage class .