My troll mage has finally hit Level 60. Levels 50-60 certainly took a long time and were very painful. What makes them more painful is that you should be able to go up by grouping and doing Strat, Scholo, DM, LBRS or BRD quests but only for BRD will people actually group with you because they made those instances impossible for a group of 5 sub level 60's (at least the ones I have tried). I think they should have made it that each time you kill a mob you get less experience for killing it (until eventually you get none), so that grinding either becomes like a quest in itself as you must seek out new mobs and so that there is a much higher incentive to actually do the instances.
My biggest gripe with wow is that very often grouping means you earn less rewards and makes you less productive. This often creates tension in groups as everyone wants to keep moving and rush through everything. I think the elite mobs should give heaps more experience and items than they do, and the single player game should be restricted as more of a "something to pass the time when your mates are not on" rather than a very effective way to get xp and items.
Now I have hit 60 its tough to know what to do. I've seen a few of the high end instances and they are fun but nothing amazing so far. I would love to run ZG or MC but I have no idea how to get enough people together and playing from Australia it means the timezones are horribly out of sync. I'll probably just play my alliance character from now on.
Still love mages and I think they are pretty effective. In BG I hold my own using fire. Don't really want to use that instant-pyroblast build because the arcane stuff doesn't really interest me as much but I'll give it a go at some point. Duelling I get completely owned always because I can't defend myself and can't deal damage superfast but that doesn't really bother me.
Here are some screenshots of what I've done so far:
http://heenan.dyndsl.inspired.net.au/gallery/wow