These are the changes related to Mages in 3.1 patch:

General
• Dual Talent Specialization: Players can now visit their class trainers to learn a second Specialization. Specializations may be switched at any time as long as the player is not in combat, this will also change your character’s Glyphs, Action Bars and Talents. Specialization options can be found in the talent menu.
• Potency Rating: Haste Rating, Armor Penetration Rating and Spell Penetration have been merged into a single stat. Each percent of Potency will decrease the enemy’s spell resistances and armor; it will also increase the player’s cast speed and melee attack speed.
• Replenishment: Now grants 0.5% of base mana every second and can effect up to 25 raid members.

Mages
• Conjure Mana Gem (Rank 6) now restores 4200 to 4400 mana.
• Torment of the Weak: Damage bonus reduced to 3%/7%/10%.
• Student of the Mind: The amount of Spirit granted has been increased to 5%/10%/15%.
• Netherwind Presence: Spell haste bonus reduced to 1%/2%/3%. Also reduces the mana cost of all Arcane spells by 4%/7%/10%.
• Spellsteal: The maximum duration of stolen buffs increased to 3 minutes.
• Molten Fury: Damage bonus increased to 10%/20%.
• Combustion now increases the critical strike chance of all fire spells by 25%. Lasts 20 sec.
• Burnout: Removed penalty on spell critical strikes.
• Ignite: Now deals its damage over 6 seconds.
• Living Bomb: Will now explode upon the target’s death.
• Fiery Payback: Damage reduction increased to 12%/25%.
• Shatter: Critical strike chance increased to 20%/40%/60%.
• Improved Frostbolt: Also reduces the global cooldown of your Ice Lance spell by 0.1/0.2/0.3/0.4/0.5 seconds.
• Cone of Cold: Damage for all ranks increased significantly.
• Improved Cone of Cold: Increases the radius of your Cone of Cold ability by 5/10 yards.
• Frozen Core: Spell damage reduction now requires Frost Armor to be active. Also increases all frost damage dealt by 1%/2%/3%.
• Brain Freeze: Can now trigger a free Fireball of Pyroblast.
• Empowered Frostbolt: Critical strike chance increased to 3%/6%.
• Deep Freeze: Can now be used on targets with a movement slowing effect.

Bug Fixes
• Focus Magic will now properly trigger from melee critical strikes.
• Mage Armor will now properly decrease the duration of magical damage over time effects.


If you want to check out the whole list of changes for the new patch you can do so here.

Billÿ

Hmm, actually most them are pretty good (ignoring arcane!).

Changes in the PTR for 3.1:

Mage Armor: Now grants 50% of mana regeneration while casting.
Arcane Meditation: Now grants 17/33/50% of mana regeneration while casting.
Pyromaniac: Now grants 17/33/50% of mana regeneration while casting.

With all the replenishment Blizzard is preparing this is not really necessary but... who doesn't love buffs? ^^

Arcane Mages using glyphed Mage Armor (30%+20%) and Arcane Meditation (30%(3/3)) will now switch to using Glyphed Molten Armor for 3%+2% Critical Strike Chance though with the spirit nerf we might just have 100% mana regen with Mage Armor and ditch the glyph for the new Arcane Barrage glyph or the extra 3 second Arcane Power. I will most probably go with Glyph of Molten Armor and switch between MageA and MoltenA depending on the situation.

Glyph of Arcane Barrage: Reduces the mana cost of Arcane Barrage by 20%.
Glyph of Deep Freeze: Increases the range of Deep Freeze by 10 yards.
Glyph of Ice Barrier: Increases the amount of damage absorbed by your Ice Barrier by 30%.
Glyph of Living Bomb: The periodic damage from your Living Bomb can now be critical strikes.
Glyph of Mirror Image: Your Mirror Images gain the Winter's Chill talent, granting their Frostbolt spell a 100% chance to apply the Winter's Chill effect, which increases the chance spells will critically hit the target by 1% for 15 sec. Stacks up to 5 times.

Seems like frost is going to be the PvP spec for some time.

*I will not be getting a Glyph of ABarr any time soon if it is not a Minor Glyph and Frostfire / Fireball mages probably will not buy Glyph of Living Bomb unless it is a minor one too.

Billÿ