Frost mage dps

1.

Frost Mage Overview

Frost has always excelled at limiting enemy movement while dealing reliable and predictable damage. Frost has always been a very potent choice for leveling and world content given you can endlessly kite enemies, with a multitude of snares and roots combined with damage on the move. Frost is great at quickly bursting down priority adds, either by holding onto Mastery: Icicles for Glacial Spike or by holding procs for a quick burst. Like all Mage specializations, Frost has high mobility and is fantastic at doing encounter-specific jobs and baiting mechanics. Between Ice Floes, Shimmer, and a variety of instant cast spells, high movement encounters have minimal impact on Frost's overall output.

2.

Strengths and Weaknesses

Strengths

Weaknesses

3.

Shadowlands Changes for Mages

We are maintaining a list of changes for Mages, so you can see what changes with every patch of Shadowlands.

Shadowlands Mage Class ChangesPatch 9.0.5 Mage Class Changes

4.

Leveling a Frost Mage

If Frost Mage is something that interests you, but you do not yet have one, you should check out the leveling guide for tips and information on spells gained on a per-level basis:

Frost Mage Leveling Guide

As you level, you will gain procs and cooldowns you will have to keep track of. Our Macros and Addon section has some suggestions that do not completely change the game UI, but will allow you to keep track of things easier. In addition, there are macros listed that will aid in certain things, such as casting Blizzard at your mouse cursor location without having to click.

Frost Mage Addons and Macros

5.

Basics of Frost Mage Gameplay

Frost is all about generating and using procs. The gameplay is incredibly simple to get a basic understanding of.

Everything you do revolves around Fingers of Frost and Brain Freeze. If you are not currently spending the procs, you need to be generating them. Frostbolt generates both, as your filler spell.

If you are brand new to the spec, and do not wish to delve into the details right away, the Easy Mode page is a helpful starting guide that should be fairly easy to understand and execute:

Frost Mage Quick Guide

If you are looking for a more in-depth explaination or simply wish to dive into the spec right away, the Talent and Rotation pages are where you should go:

Frost Mage Talents and BuildsFrost Mage Rotation and Cooldowns

6.

How to Gear Up as a Frost Mage

Due to how Frost works, there is no hard rule for determining which piece of gear is better. The best option is to simulate your character and the accompanying gear options. That said, there are some helpful, generalized simulations on the Gear page:

Frost Mage BiS and Gear

7.

End-Game as a Frost Mage

End-game looks somewhat different than leveling and casual content. Our Raiding, Mythic+, PvP, and Torghast guides can aid you further once you are ready for end-game content:

Frost Mage Castle Nathria Raid GuideFrost Mage Torghast GuideFrost Mage Mythic+ GuideFrost Mage PvP Guide

8.

Improving your Play as Frost Mage

If you find yourself behind your similarly-geared peers, but unsure as to why, there may be some information to glean from our pages on mistakes, tips, or how to simulate your character to optimize your character:

Frost Mage "How to Improve" GuideFrost Mage FAQFrost Mage Simulations

9.

Changelog

Introduction

My name is Tamir, also known as Tam1h. I’ve been raiding competitively since Warlords of Draenor and have been pushing high mythic+ keys as mage ever since Legion.

You can find me on Twitch or Twitter:

https://www.twitch.tv/tam1h

https://twitter.com/TamirWow

Strengths:

• Frost as a spec is in a very competitive spot right now. It has one of the best, if not the best 2 target cleave and a very high sustained single-target damage over long fights.
• Significant funnel damage (funnel means you are utilizing multiple targets to funnel damage into a priority target or a boss).
• It has the potential to utilize double immunity due to Cold Snap which gives you essentially 2 ice blocks.

Weakness:

• Frost, as a spec, suffers a lot from heavy downtime on some fights when you have to stop DPS, such as on Painsmith, Kel’thuzad, Sylvanas, since you want to always be in combat and cast frostbolt \ flurry to keep reducing the cooldown of Icy Veins.
• Relatively weak damage on demand.
• Low Priority Target burst \ Swap targeting is pretty bad unless you are Holding Flurry \ Fingers of Frost procs in advance.

What has changed

Patch 9.1

Frost Mage Gained a lot of power due to high scaling conduits such as Icy Propulsion, Ice Bite, Unrelenting Cold.

1.

Talent Choices for Frost Mage

Talents can be freely changed when out of combat and in a rested XP area (such as an inn or a capital city). Moreover, Tome of the Still Mind and Codex of the Still Mind can be used to temporarily allow players to change talents anywhere, as long as they are out of combat.

2.

Talent Builds for Frost Mage

Frost does not have optional talents in the DPS rows outside of the Level 30 tier. Every scenario runs the same talents due to how strong Ice Lance ends up being.

If you have another Frost Mage in your group, it is optimal to trade Focus Magic between each other. Other than that, these talent choices are the only viable options due to imbalances in tuning.

2.1.

Second Focus Magic Mage in Group:

2.2.

Every Other Scenario:

3.

Tier 1 (Level 15) Talents for Frost Mage

As will be a recurring theme on this page, Lonely Winter is the best option because it buffs Ice Lance the most. Ice Nova does not contribute to the generation of procs, and Bone Chilling does not keep up with the power gain from all the stacked Ice Lance percentage increases.

4.

Tier 2 (Level 25) Talents for Frost Mage

Glacial Insulation in theory fits on this row by allowing you to take more damage before moving, but this does not pan out in practice. If there were ever a mechanic that dealt physical damage, was unavoidable, and extra armour value would be the difference between life and death, then this talent might see usage. Being that almost all unavoidable damage is magical in nature, this is an incredibly unlikely event and thus it is a dead talent.

The choice here is between Shimmer and Ice Floes. Both functionally provide one spell's worth of movement every 20ish seconds; the difference being do you need to move 20 yards, or do you need to move a couple of steps? The choice is ultimately up to the player's comfort with each talent.

Shimmer simply lets you Blink without interrupting a cast, or incurring a Global Cooldown. This is incredibly powerful, but you trade a longer cooldown and the ability to break stuns and roots for this power. It is also worth noting that Shimmer has 2 charges, as opposed to Blink's single charge, but trades a significantly longer cooldown for this.

Ice Floes is a great tool to manage movement in steps that are smaller than 20 yards.

5.

Tier 3 (Level 30) Talents for Frost Mage

Incanter's Flow is a great talent if you wish to not worry about an extra button, or have no one in range to cast Focus Magic on. This can be, gear depending, almost as good as Rune of Power, or a significant loss. This talent should be simmed for yourself to check.

Focus Magic is a great option if you can trade it with another Frost Mage, granting both of you 10% Critical Strike and 5% Intellect. Otherwise, this is the lowest personal DPS option of the bunch. However, no research has been done into what the overall raid DPS gain would be on non-Mages. It is entirely possible that this may be the optimal play, but there is no quick way to check.

Rune of Power is the go-to talent if you do not have a partner to trade Focus Magic with. Keep in mind that its radius is significantly larger than the rune graphic on the ground. It should simply be used on cooldown, as the raw uptime of the 40% buff will beat syncing it to anything.

6.

Tier 4 (Level 35) Talents for Frost Mage

Frozen Touch is a multiplicative increase to the proc rates on Frostbolt, not additive. That is to say, Fingers of Frost becomes 18% from 15%, not 35%. Brain Freeze similarly goes to 36% from 30%, rather than 50%.

Chain Reaction is the best option on the line, due to the bonus stacking multiplicatively with both Lonely Winter and Splitting Ice's Ice Lance damage bonuses. Given that Winter's Chill now allows for 2 Ice Lances at the end, the stacks are easy to maintain or re-stack if they've fallen off.

Ebonbolt works either as a self-contained Shatter combo talent. It cleaves when talented for Splitting Ice.

7.

Tier 5 (Level 40) Talents for Frost Mage

None of these talents have use for raiding in most situations. There are rare times where a well timed and placed Ring of Frost can be used as a pseudo-interrupt, much like a stun can be. Beyond that, Frigid Winds can be of use on Necrotic Mythic+ weeks, allowing your tanks to get away to drop stacks easier. With Frigid Winds, Frost commands the most powerful AoE slow in the game through Cone of Cold. Keep in mind some encounters or Mythic+ affixes will not want you to slow as much, such as Sanguine.

Ice Ward is particularly powerful in Mythic+, as it allows for Frozen Orb to get extra frozen ticks, proccing Icy Propulsion on each target.

8.

Tier 6 (Level 45) Talents for Frost Mage

Freezing Rain is best utilized in heavy, consistent AoE situations.

Splitting Ice is incredibly strong in all situations, due to it being yet another source of a multiplicative Ice Lance bonus. Keep in mind that Flurry will only hit 1 target, so if the mobs are able to be rooted, Freeze can be utilized to grant Shatter to both primary and cleave targets outside of procs.

Comet Storm has fallen out of use due to lack of Mastery scaling, although it retains a niche in scenarios you do not want cleave, such as any boss with a mind control or universal hostility mechanic. It produces some impressive AoE burst, but generally falls behind Splitting Ice in multi-target sustained damage. If you need to kill a large AoE pack quickly, it is possible to drop Comet Storm and then Freeze everything as the comets impact. This should allow most of them to benefit from Shatter, producing even higher burst.

9.

Tier 7 (Level 50) Talents for Frost Mage

Thermal Void is the option of choice due to the raw amount of Ice Lances that Frost is casting.

Ray of Frost is simply a button you press on cooldown with the sole condition of do not hit it while Frozen Orb is ticking, so the Fingers of Frost it generates do not go to waste.

Glacial Spike is under-tuned, and performs worse than not having a talent on this line. Avoid if possible.

10.

Frost Mage PvP Talents

If you opt into War Mode, you are given the ability to use the Honour Talents out in the world. Defensive talents will depend on how comfortable you are with your base kit and if you expect to get attacked by other players. Given PvP is outside the scope of this guide, only the offensive talents will be listed here. The PvP guide itself can be found here:

Frost Mage PvP Guide

• Chilled to the Bone does not proc upon breaking Frost Nova and Freeze with damage, only upon expiration or dispel. Avoid unless you have a habit of letting freezes expire without hitting them, and even then, that is leaving Shatter openings empty.
• Frostbite is a good general purpose contender. It allows you to Shatter more often.
• Deep Shatter is also a good general purpose contender, especially paired with Frostbite, simply through occasionally stronger Frostbolts.
• Concentrated Coolness is amazing and could be argued the only mandatory Honour Talent. Increasing Frozen Orb by 10% and allowing precise placement, this will destroy entire packs of mobs.
• Burst of Cold can be situationally useful if you are playing close to mobs or prefer to pull large amounts of mobs. It turns Cone of Cold into a pretty deadly AoE burst.
• Ice Form is a fairly short cooldown, useful if you find yourself never actually hitting Icy Veins while out in the world due to wanting to "save" it for any reason. Has some good synergy with Deep Shatter, but requires you to have multiple freeze cooldowns lined up. This will also drop Rune of Power if talented into it, making the lowered cooldown very useful.

There are some interesting Honour Talents, but since they are restricted to the open world and unusable in instances, they generally are not simulated. Thus, the above are simply the thoughts and feelings of the author.

11.

Changelog

Level 15: 

Bone Chilling - 

Lonely Winter takes away your Summon Water Elemental Ability but increases your Damage Done with Flurry, Ice Lance, and Frostbolt by 25% in return. This Talent is perfectly suited for use, but it has some minor problems, the main of them being the loss of the Water Elly's Freeze ability, which lowers both AoE Damage and AoE CC potential slightly.

Ice Nova is an AoE ability which deals High Damage to your primary Target and Moderate Damage to all other Targets within the 8yd radius, and freezes them in place for 2 seconds; it has a 25-second Cooldown. It provides you with the least benefits, and should not be considered.

Level 30: 

Shimmer - 

Glacial Insulation causes your Ice Barrier to increase your Armor by 200%, and your Ice Block to apply an Ice Barrier on you when it fades. The main problem of this Talent is the fact that it lowers Physical Damage, and the majority of Damage that you take during Boss Encounters is Magical, which makes it pretty much Useless in PvE.

The Ice Floes makes your next Spell with a cast-time shorter than 10 seconds to be castable while moving; it has 3 charges and 20 seconds recharge time. This is a good alternative, which enables short-range movement without losing Damage output at the cost of the long-range mobility provided by Shimmer, and the choice between these two Talents largely depends on preference.

Level 45: 

Incanter's Flow - 

The Rune of Power is an Active Ability that lets you place said Rune of Power on the ground which increases your spell damage done by 40% for 10s  if you stay within 8yd from it; has two charges and 40s recharge timer. Frost Mage doesn't have powerful Burst that would let him fully capitalize on the Damage Boost offered by the Rune, and the Cooldowns that he has do not line up too well with the Rune of Power's Cooldown. 

Mirror Image summons 3 copies of you, which cast spells at your Target and gain Enemy's attention; Copies last for 40 seconds. This, while "classic" gives the worst overall damage boost, and should not be picked.

Level 60: 

Ebonbolt - 

Frozen Touch increases the proc chance of your Brain Freeze and Fingers of Frost from your Frostbolt by 20%. This is also a solid choice, as it offers Damage Boost similar to the Ebonbolt, but with slightly less added utility.

Chain Reaction makes your Ice Lances, used against Frozen Targets, increase the Damage of your next Ice Lance by 3% for 10s; this effect stacks up to 5 times. It is a poor choice for Single-Target, provides a slight boost to Cleave Damage, and should not be considered.

Level 75: 

Frigid Winds - 

Ice Ward grants a second charge to your Frost Nova ability.

Ring of Frost lets you summon a Ring on the target location; up to 10 enemies entering the Ring will be incapacitated for 10 seconds.

All three of these Talents are rather underwhelming when it comes to Raid utility, and the choice is up to the Player (and doesn't matter much, really).

Level 90: 

Comet Storm - 

Freezing Rain makes your Frozen Orb casts improve your next Blizzard used within 12s by making it instant cast and increasing its Damage by 50%. This is the best choice for AoE heavy encounters and should be swapped with the Comet Storm when needed.

Splitting Ice causes your Icicles, Ebonbolts, Ice Lances, and Glacial Spikes to hit an additional nearby Enemy for 80% of the base Damage. This talent provides the highest Cleave Damage boost and should be chosen for encounters with two high Health Targets that are close to each other.

Level 100: 

Glacial Spike

Thermal Void increases the duration of your Icy Veins by 10 seconds and by an additional 1 second every time you use an Ice Lance against a Frozen Target. This Talent falls slightly behind the Glacial Spike when it comes to Damage output, but has the benefit of being passive, which simplifies the rotation.

Ray of Frost is a channeled ability that inflicts Frost Damage, slows the Target, and generates 2 Fingers of Frost. It lasts 5 seconds, and deals Damage every second; each Damage tick increases its Damage Done and Slow effect by 10%. This is a simple choice, but it can't compete with the other two options in terms of Damage.

About this project

These calculations assume you have no other damage-dealing talents than the ones below, and that the majority of your spells are Frostbolts. See below for details on the exact rotation.

• Apr 18 2008 - new layout, added some Arcane talents and calculations for Icy Veins and Water Elemental.
• Apr 2 2008 - now loads talents from the armory.
• Mar 25 2008 - updated for patch 2.4 allowing +spell haste to affect global cooldown.
• Nov 13 2007 - updated for patch 2.3 removing Frostbolt +damage penalty from Improved Frostbolt.

Total mana:   Crit chance: %  Frostbolt casting time:  seconds  Global cooldown:  seconds

Total average DPS assumes a rotation of * Frostbolt + Fire Blast sequencewith no Fire Blasts, as its DPS is lower than Frostbolt's over  seconds.

Caveats: This is an average DPS over a (theoretically) infinite amount of time, so things like Icy Veins and Water Elemental are amortized over their cooldowns. This adds Arcane Intellect to the armory data if it isn't active. Here are the source files:

About this project

This does a calculation of my two main spells, Frostbolt and Fire Blast. (my character is Tsouzer on the Maiev realm) Here are discussions that led to this. I learned the formulas from WoWWiki pages, specifically Spell hit, Frostbolt, and Formulas:Plus damage and Plus healing.

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