Vashj'ir

I enjoyed this zone as a rogue, but found it terrible on my mage. Maybe I'm missing some tricks? First, you can't eat or drink underwater which was a big handicap for me, especially with the harder-hitting cataclysm NPCs. Second, correct placement of AoE spells while not on the sea surface seems almost impossible. So it's off to Hyjal.
Most would say the opposite - Vashj'ir is better for ranged classes over melee because you don't need to find the mobs to stay in melee range.

You can eat/drink underwater, you simply need to have completed the quest that gives you the underwater breathing buff and then you aslo need to be on the sea floor. You can't eat/drink while floating.

However, I'm guessing Mt. Hyjal is a better choice because I believe you need to do one of the chains in there in order to unlock the fireland dailies anyway.

Placing AoE is harder underwater. Trick is to pull the mobs to the sea floor if you want to use targeted AoEs
Yeah I did about 3 quests as a mage in Vashj until I went off onto another zone.

Was really fun on my rogue though.

FYI: If you "land" on the sea floor you can eat and drink.
Thanks for the sea floor tip about eating and drinking.
you should go to Hyjal to open up the dailies at 85.. besides that, I luv Vashj'ir. It's like playing in Finding Nemo. Really awesome zone.