Mists of Pandaria Classic Frost Mage Guide
Welcome to our Frost Mage guide for Mists of Pandaria Classic, tailored for PvE content. Here, you will learn how all you need to know to play Frost Mage proficiently. Click the links below to navigate the guide or read this page for a short introduction.
Frost Mage Guide for Mists of Pandaria Classic
Welcome to our Frost Mage DPS guide for World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria. In this guide, you'll find everything you need to know about playing a Frost Mage in a raid setting. Much of the information also applies to both normal and heroic dungeons.
Is Frost Mage Viable in Mists of Pandaria Classic?
The Frost specialisation performs well in both PVE and PVP single-target
and multi-target encounters. It excels in situations where there is always
a target within range to cleave off with Mastery: Icicles,
Ice Lance, and
Frozen Orb. Furthermore, the Icicles Mastery
also enhances the damage of your Water Elemental's Waterbolt by 16%, which
totals up to be a substantial part of your damage profile.
In addition to its strong damaging capabilities, the Frost specialisation offers a repertoire of several appealing qualities. The rotation is enjoyable and relatively easy to master, and Frost Mages are highly valuable in group content thanks to their exceptional kiting capabilities and crowd control options.
Best Mage PVE spec in Mists of Pandaria.
Most viable PvP spec.
Best controlling, slowing, CCing abilities of all Mage specs.
High burst damage for solo and group play.
High survivability.
Needs to control the Water Elemental pet in addition to the normal rotation.
Great crowd-control can sometimes be useless in raids.
Best Races for Frost Mage
Alliance: Pandaren.
Epicurean doubles the Intellect gained from the
Well Fed
food buff, which means 300 extra Intelligence (Spell Power and Spell Crit increase)
and makes Pandas the best Alliance raid in PVE. For PVP, Pandaren are also
quite good, as
Quaking Palm gives you an instant cast 4-seconds
incapitating effect on a 2-minutes cooldown.
Horde: Troll.
As in most previous expansions, Berserking is still the most powerful
racial ability for Horde Mages. It provides you with 20% Haste for 10 seconds
(3 minutes cooldown), making it ideal to increase your burst damage potential
both in PVE and PVP. Versus enemies (and bosses!) that are classified as
beasts, trolls deal an additional 5% damage with
Beast Slaying.
Finally,
Da Voodoo Shuffle provides benefits both in PVE and PVP, as
it decreases the duration of all movement impairing effects on you by 15%.
Best Professions for Frost Mage
As already in previous expansions,
Tailoring and
Engineering remain the best professions
for Frost Mages. Whilst
Master's Spellthread
is "only" a quality of life gold-saver, Tailoring really shines with
Lightweave Embroidery. That cloak enchant gives you a massive 2000
Intellect proc over the course of 15 seconds, which will most likely proc
during cooldowns, and can be combined with Engineering's
Synapse Springs (1920 Intellect for 10 seconds). Both can be stacked
and prolonged for 6 seconds with
Alter Time, giving you huge burst
potential. Besides the Synapse Springs, Engineering offers very useful
tools like
Nitro Boosts, teleporters or wormhole generators.
Other professions are not really worth using in PVE content. Nevertheless here is a little summary of all professions and what they do:
- Tailoring: Provides a gain of 2000 Intellect for 15 seconds through
Lightweave Embroidery. It also provides
Master's Spellthread, a very cheap version of
Greater Cerulean Spellthread, which is the normal leg enchant.
- Blacksmithing: Provides a 320 Intellect gain through two extra sockets (Bracers and Gloves), in
which you can fit two extra
Brilliant Primordial Ruby.
- Jewelcrafting: Provides a 320 Intellect gain through the ability of using two
Brilliant Serpent's Eye.
- Alchemy: Provides an 320 Intellect gain to your flask through
Mixology.
- Enchanting: Provides a 320 Intellect gain through
Enchant Ring - Greater Intellect.
- Engineering: Provides +1,920 Intellect for 10 seconds every minute through
Synapse Springs.
- Inscription: Provides a 320 Intellect gain through
Secret Crane Wing Inscription.
- Leatherworking: Provides a 320 Intellect gain through
Fur Lining - Intellect.
- Herbalism: Provides a 480 Haste Rating gain in average through
Lifeblood.
Mage Addons and Macros
Addons and macros are beneficial to Mages in Mists of Pandaria, because they enhance gameplay efficiency by automating complex sequences of actions and providing crucial real-time information, such as cooldown timers and enemy debuffs. This allows Mages to maximize their damage output and responsiveness in both PvE and PvP scenarios.
Changelog
- 12 Feb. 2025 (leveling page): Updated buff food info.
- 25 Jan. 2025 (enchants page): Added epic gems from Phase 4.
- 23 Jan. 2025 (gear page): Reviewed for Phase 4
- 31 Oct. 2024 (pre-raid gear page): Upgrades! So many upgrades! Oh no! I've lost my wrench!
- 28 Sep. 2024 (pre-raid gear page): Reviewed for Phase 3.
- 28 Sep. 2024 (gear page): Reviewed for Phase 3.
- 17 Sep. 2024 (pre-raid gear page): Reviewed for Phase 3.
- 17 Sep. 2024 (leveling page): Reviewed for Phase 3.
- 17 Sep. 2024 (enchants page): Reviewed for Phase 3.
- 17 Sep. 2024 (spells page): Reviewed for Phase 3.
- 11 Aug. 2024 (pre-raid gear page): Updated for Phase 2 again.
- 29 Jul. 2024 (pre-raid gear page): Updated for Phase 2.
- 17 Jun. 2024 (enchants page): Removed Flame Cap mention, due to the fix in WotLK.
- 12 May 2024 (leveling page): Guide added.
- 12 May 2024 (enchants page): Guide added.
- 09 May 2024 (spells page): Guide added.
- 14 Feb. 2024 (pre-raid gear page): Reviewed for Phase 4.
More MoP Mage Guides
More Mists of Pandaria Spec Guides from Other Classes
MoP Dungeon Guides
MoP Profession Guides
This guide has been written by Wrdlbrmpft aka Arcanaenus, playing Mage since 2008. He is usually found in the Mage Discord, where you may also ask him questions his guides do not answer.