Frost Mage 7.3

[Valks 2,373]

4 hours ago, Guest Alex said:

In the last talent section, you said that glacial spike requires a mastery build. Should I go for that + splitting ice  until I get more crit, in your opinion?

Honestly, you'll get the most accurate response if you sim your current gear with the two different talents setups - do you know how to sim it?

[Guest Alex]

1 hour ago, Blainie said:

Honestly, you'll get the most accurate response if you sim your current gear with the two different talents setups - do you know how to sim it?

Okay, thanks for the answer. I know now, after googling it :)

[Valks 2,373]

Just now, Guest Alex said:

Okay, thanks for the answer. I know now, after googling it :)

Awesome, glad to hear it! Good luck and if you have any other questions, just ask :)

[Gloob 2]

On 08/04/2017 at 0:04 PM, Guest Alex said:

Hi quick question. I'm still gearing and I'm currently at 893 ilvl but I've got a lot of mastery in build - 37%. 22 % crit and 20% haste.

In the last talent section, you said that glacial spike requires a mastery build. Should I go for that + splitting ice  until I get more crit, in your opinion?

Thanks in advance.

 

In my opinion, even if your crit is low compared to your mastery, I'd definitely go for a regular TV build instead of GS.

First of all, GS isn't as good as before 7.2 and the set bonus and legendarys aren't balanced for a GS build at all.  

Then, comes the RNG part, GS' damage "can" skyrocket if you get lucky making the spec very inconsistent. If you like being in control of your DPS, the TV build will probably be your best bet, sometimes you can get lucky with procs and extend your Icy-veins duration by a decent amount making your damage really high but being unlucky isn't really punishing right now. And 37% mastery clearly isn't enough for a decent GS build.

 

 

Edited April 10, 2017 by Gloob

[evanbloom 1]

Just looking for a confirmation on this: is the freezing effect from Frost Nova eligible to trigger Ice Lance's special Frozen effect? It can be useful when questing.

[Valks 2,373]

12 hours ago, evanbloom said:

Just looking for a confirmation on this: is the freezing effect from Frost Nova eligible to trigger Ice Lance's special Frozen effect? It can be useful when questing.

Yep, it can.

[Guest Alex]

On 10. 4. 2017 at 11:05 PM, Gloob said:

Spoiler

 

In my opinion, even if your crit is low compared to your mastery, I'd definitely go for a regular TV build instead of GS.

First of all, GS isn't as good as before 7.2 and the set bonus and legendarys aren't balanced for a GS build at all.  

Then, comes the RNG part, GS' damage "can" skyrocket if you get lucky making the spec very inconsistent. If you like being in control of your DPS, the TV build will probably be your best bet, sometimes you can get lucky with procs and extend your Icy-veins duration by a decent amount making your damage really high but being unlucky isn't really punishing right now. And 37% mastery clearly isn't enough for a decent GS build.

 

 

 

 

Thanks for this, I will definitely keep the TV build so.

Edited April 15, 2017 by positiv2
Fixed the quote

[Valks 2,373]

On 4/14/2017 at 7:34 PM, Guest Alex said:

Thanks for this, I will definitely keep the TV build so.

Glad to see you got more input on the build! :)

[Archimage 98]

Few questions:

Question 1:

Quote

Cast  Ebonbolt if it is off cooldown. It is ideal to cast  Ebonbolt with  Brain Freeze; you will need to immediately follow the Ebonbolt with  Flurry and you will get both  Brain Freeze procs as well as shattering the  Ebonbolt cast. You want to always Shatter the Ebonbolt with this proc.

Normally my latency is at 200ms, I seem to be able to shatter the Ebonbolt from it's own Brain Freeze proc. Is this possible with lower latency?

Question 2:

Quote

 Lonely Winter is roughly tied with  Bone Chilling in high end gear.

How high are we talking about? Normal Nighthold 2-piece set bonus?

Normally we don't take Lonely Winter because the Water Elemental allows us to generate more FoF procs to extend Icy Veins with Thermal Void. I can see that changing in Patch 7.2.5.

Question 3:

With Freezing Rain, shouldn't it be a DPS increase to cast Blizzard even on single target when Frozen Orb is out?

Blizzard does 8 waves of 49.5% Spell Power damage each wave and reduces Frozen Orb cooldown by 0.5 each wave.  I am able to get at least 2 Blizzard casts off each Frozen Orb.

Question 4:

With Incanter's Flow taken, shouldn't priorities change accordingly to only use Ice Lance when you've got 4/5 stacks of IF and less than 3 FoF procs? Priority to use Ice Lance when you've got 3 stacks is always highest priority. I seem to have a bad habit on spending all my FoF procs when I start using Ice Lance.

[Valks 2,373]

29 minutes ago, Archimage said:

Normally my latency is at 200ms, I seem to be able to shatter the Ebonbolt from it's own Brain Freeze proc. Is this possible with lower latency?

Yes.

30 minutes ago, Archimage said:

How high are we talking about? Normal Nighthold 2-piece set bonus?

Depends on the actual gear in question. Normal NIghthold 2-piece could mean terribly itemised pieces, etc. Simming this is the best way of knowing when they surpass each other.

30 minutes ago, Archimage said:

With Freezing Rain, shouldn't it be a DPS increase to cast Blizzard even on single target when Frozen Orb is out?

Blizzard does 8 waves of 49.5% Spell Power damage each wave and reduces Frozen Orb cooldown by 0.5 each wave.  I am able to get at least 2 Blizzard casts off each Frozen Orb.

Asking Furty.

31 minutes ago, Archimage said:

With Incanter's Flow taken, shouldn't priorities change accordingly to only use Ice Lance when you've got 4/5 stacks of IF and less than 3 FoF procs? Priority to use Ice Lance when you've got 3 stacks is always highest priority. I seem to have a bad habit on spending all my FoF procs when I start using Ice Lance.

Technically, yes, but it requires further adjustment of the rotation to fit the flow. From guide:

Quote

2.2.3. Incanter's Flow

The stacks of this talent should be ignored unless you are very confident in your ability to correctly optimize according to the current period within the  Incanter's Flow cycle. It is recommended you focus on executing the rest of your specialization correctly since fixating on the Incanter's stacks generally leads to a DPS loss unless executed perfectly.

Hope this helps.

[Archimage 98]

Thank for the reply, just waiting for @Furty's replay on Freezing Rain.

If I tick the "AoE" checkbox, there is a line:

Cast  Blizzard if more than 2 targets are present and within the AoE. Cast on cooldown if you are talented into  Arctic Gale.

The 2nd part is confusing since it can mean one of the following:

1. Cast Blizzard on cooldown regardless of targets present if you are talented into Arctic Gale.
2. Cast Blizzard on cooldown only when there are 2 targets present and you are talented into Arctic Gale. AKA: Don't cast Blizzard if you don't have Arctic Gale.

[Valks 2,373]

On 4/26/2017 at 9:27 AM, Archimage said:

Thank for the reply, just waiting for @Furty's replay on Freezing Rain.

Me too! I've pinged the note again and I'll pass on his reply as soon as he sees it. Sorry for the delay!

On 4/26/2017 at 9:27 AM, Archimage said:

The 2nd part is confusing since it can mean one of the following:

I believe it is only on 2+ targets, because you should only be taking the talent for 2+.

[Archimage 98]

3 hours ago, Blainie said:

I believe it is only on 2+ targets, because you should only be taking the talent for 2+.

How does Arctic Gale influence this line in our rotation? If I don't have the talent, do I still use Blizzard on 2+ ?

I was expecting to see something like:

Cast Blizzard on 3+ Targets. If you have Arctic Gale talented, start casting it on 2+ targets.

[Valks 2,373]

On 4/28/2017 at 5:49 PM, Archimage said:

How does Arctic Gale influence this line in our rotation? If I don't have the talent, do I still use Blizzard on 2+ ?

Okay so, I've got word from Furty: You'll use Blizzard on cooldown no matter the number of targets if you have AG. If you don't have AG, you'll use it on 2+ targets on cooldown.

Hope this helps!

[Valks 2,373]

We are currently in the process of updating our guides in preparation for the release of 7.2.5 - all questions about "What is better for 7.2.5, X or Y?" will be answered in our guide updates. Thanks for your patience while we get everything completed and good luck in the new patch!

[Guest Ngrins]

Looks like the latest update for 7.2.5 left Frozen Orb out of the single target rotation completely. 

[Valks 2,373]

7 hours ago, Guest Ngrins said:

Looks like the latest update for 7.2.5 left Frozen Orb out of the single target rotation completely. 

You have to select "cooldowns" on the options above. It is included there.

[Guest picklediasho]

have the new legendaries been rated yet?

[Valks 2,373]

13 hours ago, Guest picklediasho said:

have the new legendaries been rated yet?

I believe these are still being worked on and uploaded - they should be up in the coming days at most. Sorry for the delay!

[Atrelis 0]

To be completely honest a good amount of the talent information is false. Frost Bomb should not have a check and the same applies to Mirror Image. UM and AG far outpace Frost Bomb while Incanters Flow is also better for single target and cleave. Also, I feel if Lonely Winter and Bone Chilling are roughly tied then why doesn't Lonely Winter have a check considering that Lonely Winter is considered the optimal talent by most frost mages. A bit misleading. TLDR update the guide 

Edited June 23, 2017 by Atrelis

[Guest Thaorum]

For any one rerolling to frost and has no tier and bad legendarys 

TV vs GS : from running alot of sims with different builds glacial spike + lonely winter + splitting ice is the best even on single target if you have no t19 or t20 set and bad legendarys. 

[Guest bellum]

Hello and thank you for the guide.
I just wanted to clarify isnt it 35.33% shatter crit cap for raid bosses as in ((103%-50%)/1.5)?

[Guest Flarntraz]

The rotation information for those checking off Glacial Spike needs rewritten. Using Brain Freeze procs on Ice Bolt should only happen at 3 or less icescicles. At 4 or above brain freeze should be kept to use on a Glacial Spike cast. This is due to the change in Flurry travel speed allowing Glacial Spike to benefit from the shatter bonus. The Flurry can then still be followed by an Ice Lance and the roatation can continue normally.

[Guest Trinkets]

Got a question about trinkets. is a 925 spectral thurible trinket better than a 860 arcano (gs build)? made some simming but it does not count the effect of the spectral thurible.

thank for answering

[Valks 2,373]

On 6/20/2017 at 2:48 AM, Atrelis said:

To be completely honest a good amount of the talent information is false. 

Passing this to Furty.