Frostfire -ftw?

I'm currently running a FF build as recommended by both elitistjerks and Arcane Brilliance as the best we magi can do for dps in a raid. And maybe they are right - Arc is certainly having mana issues where as I don't really have that many as FF.

But honestly, my thoughts on it? Blah.

I was was previously Arcane at 70 with some fire (mainly for PoM Pyro) and then leveled to 80 as deep Arc. I switched at 80 to FF for raiding (which is another post entirely) and I have to say these cast-time spells blow. 2.8 seconds (depending on how much haste I'm stacking) on one cast is a life time! Especially with the respawn rates in some of the daily areas. As Arc I rarely died from soloing multiple mobs, my casts were never interrupted by damage taken (in those instances that I was actually being hit by one mob while dpsing another) and Arcane Barrage rocks!

Maybe it's my gear - which atm isn't great (again that is another post) -and I am kinda prepared to wait until the natch patch before I respec back to Arc but honestly... wtf?

And why can't sites like www.maxdps.com get their s*%t together with arcane - amd wtf is it with arcance and stacking int. and spirit gems, I've always gone damage damage damage and it's worked pretty well. Although I'm still getting my head around the hit and haste stack Blizzard seems to want us to do (rather then the hit and crit of TBC).

Ultimately I do better playing around with things then reading pages of spec data and debates with mathematical equations to assist them, so I'm sure I'll get there in the end.