On the assumption that others may be making the same mistake, most notably, Mervyn, would you be prepared to go into more detail as to what that mistake was?
I doubt anyone else plays the game the way I do, but I'll explain myself anyway. I have my bigger spells bound to keys on my G13, but my small spells I have on my desktop as icons, and I can use them effectively because I use the thumb joystick on my G13 to control my movement.
I thought that I could set the target to current or self on those icons and click like mad on them, and they would cast as fast as they possibly could, and it seemed to work. What I didn't realize though was that for every time they cast properly, they were, for some inexplicable reason, being interrupted only once.
I don't know why this happens, I would have though if clicking like mad would interrupt the casting, it would do it every time, not just once, but that is what was happening. As a result my spells were taking almost twice as long to cast as they should have.
So now I have discovered that I have to do what any good pvp mage does, and time my spells. It takes a lot more discipline and skill, and it is going to be a while before I get good at it, but I have already noticed a huge improvement in my ability to pvp as a mage.
In a way it's one of those "Well duh!" things that makes me feel a bit stupid, and it's a wonder I was able to do as well as I was with the way I was handicapping myself...
However it doesn't meant that the last year pvp'ing has been lost for me, I'm a bit of a slow learner, and there has been a lot for me to learn. Three years ago I used to pvp primarily as a tamer, with the magery half of my template only supplying support for myself and my pets, who were the primary damage dealers, and I did quite well that way, but I did always have it as a goal of mine to learn to pvp as a mage as well as a tamer.
However, when I came back a year ago imbuing changed everything, and it was no longer possible to pvp solely as a tamer with the magery playing only a supporting role, and still be successful. So the past year I have been learning to play as a mage as well as a tamer. The "click like mad" method of casting spells allowed me to concentrate on other things, such as learning how to play with the EC and my G13, which was also new to me, without having to worrying about spell timing. Well now I've learnt those other things and learning how to time my spells isn't going to be as big a challenge as it would have been a year ago with all the other new things I had to learn.