Dual Speccing in BFA

[Blastula]

I'm just return from a long hiatus from world of Warcraft. The last time I seriously played was WoD. In WoD I played fire/arcane. I switched between the two depending on what kind of fight it was going to be. Fire is easily my preferred spec, I think its way more fun and interesting, but I don't mind playing arcane when the fight clearly demands for it. I was wondering how viable this strategy is in the current state of BFA. In legion it wasn't because of the Artifact tree. I don't want to have to basically do the work of leveling another character just to have two specs. Is playing fire for certain fights and arcane for others a good idea? Or should I just pick a spec and stick with it.

[Quorgyle]

All three mage specs are viable at the moment, more than ever in my opinion.
For Uldir raid, you can use all 3 specs depending on what boss you are. Arcane for static single target, frost and fire for cleave/aoe. I'd recommend checking warcraftlogs for particular fights where you can see what people use for each fight including talents and azerite gear.
For mythic+ I believe frost is still the strongest spec, except maybe for sanguine week in certain dungeons where you don't have a lot of room and your slow effect only makes it worse. But fire and arcane are not bad either.
So, to answer your question if switching specs is viable...not only viable but recommended for min/max.

[jeffrybungle]

I'd recommend starting with one spec while you build up a collection of az gear. Fire is probably the most versitile atm. Then when you have the traits you want use your spare az peices to build up your off specs.

[Mcdana]

Is fire still going to be the most versatile option in 8.1 btw? I'm thinking of going back to my mage for that tier.