Frost Mage 8.2

A Frost Mage is a master of the elemental capable of imprisoning their enemies in ice which easily making them fragile and helpless. Also, may have complete control over the Water Elemental.

Introduction

A Frost Mage is a master of the elemental capable of imprisoning their enemies in ice which easily making them fragile and helpless. Also, may have complete control over the Water Elemental.

Let’s take a closer look at the weakest and the strongest aspects of this specialization:

Advantages:

• Strongest mage spec at single target damage;
• Great at killing prioritized targets;
• High mobility, like with all Mage specs;

Disadvantages:

• DPS is very random due to procs
• Quite weak burst damaging;
• Relatively mediocre AoE characteristics.

Basic information on the spec:

Like all Mages, Frost uses Mana as their main resource. This specialization does not have much trouble with it. The only ability that might leave you short on Mana is Spellsteal.

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Glossary

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Main abilities

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Talents

General information. On achieving several new levels you’ll get access to new talent ‘Tiers’. Talents may have different effect on abilities: add new features, replace old ones, modify passively different effects and spells. Talents can be changed in Sanctuaries or any recreational zones. However, if you don’t have any of those places nearby you can use the Codex of the Tranquil Mind which allows you to switch channels within a minute. You can’t change talents in combat. You can’t change a talent if the talent you’ve picked in the last Tier is on Cooldown. You’ll have to wait until it’s restored first.

Tier 1. Lvl 15

• Bone Chilling. Each time you try to freeze your target, you get the effect Bone Chilling which increases the whole Frost damage by 0.5%, stacks up to 10 times
• Lonely Winter. You cannot summon your Water Elemental anymore, but your Frostbolt, Ice Lance, Flurry and Frozen Orb now deal 25% more damage.
• Ice Nova. Applicable to both an ally and an enemy. Deals major Frost damage to all the enemies within the 8-m range and freezes them for 2 secs. The main enemy target receives 100% more damage. CD 25 sec.

*Bone chilling is the default choice  for any situation. Ice Nova is a little bit worse than Bone chilling and not used anywhere. Lonely Winter became a weak talent after it stopped empowering Frozen Orb.

Tier 2. Lvl 30

• Glacial Insulation. During active Ice Barrier, your armor rating grows by 200%, and your Ice Block, after it’s over, triggers Ice Barrier.
• Shimmer. Replaces the ability Blink. Can be cast during the casting of a different spell, and has no effect on GCD. 2 charges, CD 15 secs.
• Ice Floes. Has 3 charges, can be used during the cast of a different spell, has no effect on the GCD. Allows you to utilize the next or the current spell on the move.

* Basically, the choice lies between Shimmer and Ice Floes If you need to make large distances, use Shimmer. If your combat involves frequent short runs, pick Ice Floes. Glacial Insulation is not used.

Tier 3. Lvl 45

• Incanter’s Flow. During combat the damage dealt by you grow by 4 to 20%. The factor increases or decreases in cycles. The duration of a cycle is 10 secs.
• Mirror Image. Summons 3 copies of yours which attack your enemies. Copies live for 40 secs. CD 2 min
• Rune of Power. Within 1.5 secs, you generate a rune of power in the selected area. The rune lives for 10 secs. As long as you’re within an 8-m range of your Rune, your spells deliver 40% more damage. At least 2 charges. CD 40 secs.

* Incanter’s Flow is your best choice by default. Rune of Power is barely aback from Incanter’s Flow in terms of DPS bonus, but it does tie you to a location. That’s why any relocation during active Rune of Power leads to major DPS loss. Mirror Image is not used.

Tier 4. Lvl 60

• Frozen Touch. Increases the chance of  Fingers of Frost and Brain Freeze by 20%
• Chain Reaction. “Ice Lance” against frozen targets increase the damage of your Ice lances by 3% for 10 sec, stacking up to 5 times.
• Ebonbolt. Launch a bolt of ice at the enemy dealing frost damage and granting you “Brain Freeze“.

* Ebonbolt is the best talent in this tier that can fit any encounter. Frozen Touch can be an alternative talent but only for a single target fight. Chain Reaction is weak everywhere

Tier 5. Lvl 75

• Frigid Winds. All slowing effects reduce your enemies’ moving speed by additional 15%.
• Ice Ward. Frost Nova now has 2 charges.
• Ring of Frost. Select an area and generate a Ring of Frost there for 10 secs. Enemies to enter its action area get paralyzed for 10 secs. Max target count: 10. CD 45 secs.

* The whole Tier is about expanding your capacity to control your enemies. The choice is completely up to you.

Tier 6. Lvl 90

• Freezing Rain. Frozen Orb makes Blizzard instant cast and increases its damage done by 50% for 12 sec.
• Splitting Ice. Your Ice Lance and Icicles now deal 5% increased damage, and hit a second nearby target for 80% of their damage. Your Ebonbolt and Glacial Spike also hit a second nearby target for 80% of its damage.
• Comet Storm. Sends down 7 ice comets into the selected area. Altogether, the comets deal massive Frost damage to all the enemies within the 6-m range of the landing site. CD 30 sec.

* Splitting Ice it is a choice for a single target fight or a cleave. Comet Storm is used in m+ sometimes if there are constant big packs of mobs. Freezing Rain is usually used in m+ on long AOE.  

Tier 7. Lvl 100

• Thermal Void. The action time for your Icy Veins grows by 10 secs. Ice Lance applied to a frozen target prolongs Icy Veins for another 1 sec.
• Ray of Frost. A channel spell for 5 secs dealing Frost damage once a second. With each tick, the damage grows by 10%. CD 1.15 min. And also grants 2 charges of Fingers of Frost during its channeling.
• Glacial Spike. Ice Lance now spends no Icicles. This ability allows you to instantly release the 5 Icicles you’ve accumulated and deal massive Frost damage to your enemy. It also freezes them for 4 secs. The freezing effect can be interrupted by different type of damage. To cast it, you need at least 5 Icicles.

* Glacial Spike is your best talent by default in most situations.

Main build:

1. Bone Chilling
2. Shimmer
3. Incanter’s Flow
4. Ebonbolt / Frozen Touch
5. –
6. Comet Storm
7. Glacial Spike

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Azerite traits

In BFA typical sets were removed and Azerite armor took their place. Now every chest/helmet/shoulders have a few rings for traits.

• Flash Freeze  Each of your icicles deals 985 additional damage, and when an icicle deals damage  you have 5% chance to gain Fingers of Frost. The best trait for Frost mage, preferably to have 3 of this.
• Glacial Assault. Flurry has a 20% chance each strike to call down an icy comet, crashing into your target and nearby enemies dealing Frost damage. An amazing trait that grants DPS increase. Having  1-2 traits of this is ideal.
• Frigid Grasp  “Icy Veins” grants you a charge of  “Fingers of Frost” and increases your intellect by  20 sec. Grants you intellect during burst, having  1-2 traits of this is ideal.
• Tunnel of Ice. “Frostbolt” increases the damage of “Frostbolt” stacking up to 3 times.. The effect is reset if you cast  “Frostbolt” at a different enemy. A good trait for a single target.

*It is the list of the best traits only so we recommend to use raidbots.com to see other good traits/combinations.

If you use AzerothPowerWeight:

( AzeritePowerWeights:2:"herodamage.com - Stacks_1T_T24":8:64: 170=10, 82=4.59, 575=4.48, 526=4.47, 522=4.43, 562=4.08, 505=3.54, 193=3.42, 379=3.37, 501=3.37, 481=3.27, 196=3.27, 504=3.14, 486=3.02, 492=3.02, 479=3.01, 483=2.88, 157=2.87, 478=2.77, 494=2.74, 488=2.74, 521=2.72, 195=2.71, 489=2.71, 495=2.71, 225=2.68, 480=2.67, 381=2.59, 30=2.57, 485=2.53, 194=2.51, 192=2.43, 482=2.41, 576=2.38, 561=2.32, 523=2.29, 493=1.96, 487=1.96, 498=1.82, 459=1.75, 156=1.71, 21=1.58, 500=1.48, 560=1.45, 31=1.39, 18=1.28, 22=1.23, 499=1.09, 496=1.04, 490=1.04, 497=0.98, 491=0.98, 461=0.97, 541=0.94, 462=0.86, 132=0.06, 380=-0.04: )

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Essences

Rotation

Let’s review the damaging model using the recommended talents in the corresponding sections.

1. Flurry right after using Glacial Spike
2. Rune of Power should be used alongside Icy Veins. If Icy Veins is on CD, make sure you don’t accumulate 2 stacks. The second stack can be discarded in case Icy Veins is sure to not restore before the boss dies.
3. Icy Veins per CD;
4. Frozen Orb per CD;
5. Flurry every proc of Brain Freeze (before using Flurry, spend all the procs on  Fingers of Frost)
6. If Glacial Spike is talented, and you have 3-5 Icicles stocked at the moment, it’s better if you postpone using the second Brain Freeze proc through Flurry for a little bit. Finish your 5 Icicles so that you can use Glacial Spike, Flurry, Ice Lance.
7. Blizzard for 2+ targets, for Frozen Orb refresh
8. If your Glacial Spike is ready, but you lack the Brain Freeze proc, continue using Frostbolt until you get the proc. Once you do get it, use Flurry + Glacial Spike.
9. Use Frostbolt in any other time.

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Stats

The basic priority rating for the characteristics is as follows:

Crit until 30%~ > Haste > Intellect> Mastery = Versatility> Crit> after 30%~

The current specialization’s Mastery increases the damage delivered by the summoned Elemental. It also encapsulates a portion of your Frostbolt damage in the form of icicles what can be reused via Ice Lance.

Critical strike is tied to the figure 33.34% because of the passive aura of Shatter that increases your Crit rating in relation to the frozen targets by the factor 1.5 and tops it off with additional 50%. With this value, Ice Lance hits on the frozen targets are 100% critical.While stacking Crit, the weigth of it will fall, and at 30% it will be a way worse than Haste or Verastility.

Haste reduces GCD, the casting time (for your Elemental, too) as well as the CD for Ice Storm. It also increases the number of times Ray of Frost delivers damage. One of the best stats as is entitles you to more Frostbolts over the combat which, in its turn, increases your chance of getting Fingers of Frost and Brain Freeze.

Versatility increases the whole damage dealt and reduces the one taken.

It is recommended, once you receive new equipment, you use Simcraft or Raidbots.com. There is no way to get a more precise answer to which stat to focus on first, but through a simulation.

Based on the aforementioned characteristics and results of your character’s own simulation results, you can draw conclusions on Gems, Chants and Raid Chemicals.

1. Gems:

• Leviathan’s Eye of Intellect
• Deadly Lava Lazuli 60 crit
• Quick Sand Spinel 60 haste

2. Chants:

• Rings: Accord of Critical Strike, Accord of Haste
• Weapons: Enchant Weapon – Machinist’s Brilliance, Torrent of Elements

3. Food:

• Raid Feast for 131 main stat
• Baked Port Tato for Haste
• Mech-Dowel’s “Big Mech” for Crit

4. Flasks and Potions:

• Greater Flask of Endless Fathoms 360 intellect for 1 hour
• Potion of Unbridled Fury for single target
• Superior Battle Potion of Intellect for AoE

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Macros

Kick with a modifier, with the Shift key held, the ability is applied on a remembered target, without – on the current one.

#showtolltip Counterspell
/stopcasting
/cast [mod:shift,@focus][]Counterspell

If you’re not spamming the buttons, you could use a macro for your Ice Block (1 click activates Ice Block, the second click cancels it):

#showtooltip Ice Block
/stopcasting
/cancelaura Ice Block
/cast Ice Block

If you do spam the buttons, you’d better make two separate macros:

#showtooltip Ice Block
/stopcasting
/cast Ice Block

and

/cancelaura Ice Block

To play with Water Elemental – unless you bind its abilities to its panel – you could use separate macros:

#showtoottip
/cast Water Jet

#showtoottip
/cast Free

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What’s next?

1. Leveling. If your character has been inactive since the previous expansions, the best  option to level up it is by Timewalking dungeons. You will gain a lot of experience, but there is one big disadvantage of leveling this way. Timewalks are available only for one week during a month, but Overgear is always here.
2. Equipment. At high level, the most important thing for you will become your gear. WoW is a multiplayer game, that’s why we recommend for you to play it with your friends, or to find a new friends for mythic+ runs. If you have any trouble with it – Overgear may help you to find not just friends for a run, but a complete well geared and experienced group that also will be glad to trade all the loot you need.
3. Raids. Raids are the top-tier PvE content in the game. That’s why the equipment’s base ilvl is higher than anywhere else. These dungeons require knowing all the tactics and have a good gear to kill the bosses. The possibilities of Overgear might let you skip those criteria.

Azerite. It is also not the best idea to forget about the Heart of Azeroth and not to feed it with more Azerite. Ignoring this won’t make your character stronger. The easiest way to do it – just complete all the world quests with Azerite rewards everyday. You can get extra azerite from Island Expeditions. Companions can be found at Overgear.