Frost Mage PvP Guide for Mists of Pandaria Classic

Frost Mage does strong burst damage, offers the best crowd-control toolkit of all Mage specs and has powerful survivability spells and talents. Sheeping in PvP is now harder, as the cast time has been increased, so you need to be careful when sheeping enemies, not to trigger any spell locks during the long cast time.

Strengths

• Powerful cooldowns that can serve both defensive and offensive purposes.
• Best crowd-control of all Mage specs.
• Huge burst-on-demand damage potential.
• Viable in most PVP situations.
• Strong survivability toolkit.
• A diverse range of spells, usually offering a useful option for any scenario.

Weaknesses

• Low healing capacity and health pool.
• Vulnerable to interrupts, as all of your damage is in the Frost spell school.
• You have to micro manage your Water Elemental.

• Glyph of Armors — Allows you to increase the damage reduction provided by Molten Armor or enhance the damage-over-time reduction effect of Mage Armor.
• Glyph of Deep Freeze — This glyph allows your Deep Freeze ability to be off the global cooldown, allowing you to cast it whenever it is needed, at the cost of reducing Deep Freeze's duration by 1 second.
• Glyph of Polymorph — Polymorph now removes all damage over time effects from the target, so the sheep does not break instantly.
• Glyph of Ice Block — Ice Block now makes you immune to spells for 3 seconds (6 seconds if combined with Alter Time) and triggers a free Frost Nova when Ice Block breaks (or is cancelled with a cancelaura macro). This glyph is recommended, when you face caster-heavy compositions.
• Glyph of Evocation — In addition to the mana restore, using Evocation restores 60% of your health.
• Glyph of Icy Veins — Increases your damage by ~20%, which is great for bursting down enemies.

The Glyph of Momentum can be useful if you need to face your enemy, but are strafing sideways. The other minor glyphs mostly serve cosmetic purpose, which is why they are not mentioned in this leveling guide.

There is no real fixed rotation. Generally you want to create distance between yourself and your enemies, so you do not get interrupted while casting spells, such as Frostbolt and to not take damage. This can be achieved by slowing them (e.g. with Cone of Cold or Frozen Orb), or by simply aiming for your secondary goal: To root your enemies, so you can apply a Shatter combo. them.

The best way is to freeze your enemies with Frost Nova. Freeze and Ring of Frost are rather used as a ranged freeze, if Frost Nova is not applicable.

If you try to burst down your enemies while they have defensive cooldowns or their PvP trinket active, they will most likely survive your combo. Therefore it is required to bait their defensive cooldowns. This happens primarily through damage: You root them, cast your Mage Bomb ( Living Bomb most recommended, apply while slowing and rooting), and deal some damage with Frostbolt/ Frostfire Bolt and Ice Lance. When you see their defensive cooldowns ran out, you can start the Burst Phase, trying to nuke them down.

This basic burst rotation should finish off most of your enemies:

1. Start by immobilizing your target using one of the following: Water Elemental’s Freeze, Frost Nova, or Ring of Frost. Alternatively, ensure you have at least one stack of Fingers of Frost, which you can generate through Frozen Orb, Pet’s Freeze and Frostbolt casts.
2. Use all available offensive cooldowns to maximize your burst potential: Icy Veins, Mirror Image, your PvP Power Trinket (e.g. Malevolent Gladiator's Badge of Dominance), Berserking (Troll racial), etc.
3. Execute the Burst Rotation: Cast your Mage Bomb ( Living Bomb most recommended) and immediately begin casting Frostbolt. While the Frostbolt is still in the air, cast Deep Freeze (ensure the target is rooted or you have Fingers of Frost active). Any spell cast while the target is stunned by Deep Freeze benefits from Shatter, significantly increasing critical strike chance and damage.
4. Finish the Combo: Spam Ice Lance during Deep Freeze for maximum burst, especially if you have Fingers of Frost charges. Once Deep Freeze ends, cast Frostfire Bolt to finish the sequence.

These abilities significantly increase your damage output and are best used to burst down enemies.

• Deep Freeze — Primarily a stun, but also serves as a key damage cooldown in Frost burst combos, especially when paired with Ice Lance and Shatter.
• Icy Veins — Increases spellcasting speed and prevents spell pushback, making it a core cooldown during burst phases.
• Mirror Image — Summons illusionary copies of yourself to deal additional damage.
• PvP Trinkets, such as Malevolent Gladiator's Badge of Dominance

In addition to your main damaging spells, you also have important utility spells:

• Freeze — Applies a root effect, immobilizing the target.
• Frost Nova — Roots all nearby enemies in place.
• Ring of Frost — Freezes enemies who enter the ring's area after a brief delay.

• Cone of Cold — Emits a cone of frost in front of the Mage, slowing all enemies hit.
• Frozen Orb — Launches a moving orb that damages and applies a slow effect to all enemies in its path.

• Counterspell — Interrupts the target’s current spell cast, preventing spells from that school of magic for a short duration.
• Deep Freeze — Stuns the target for a short duration. This ability also functions as a key DPS cooldown when used in burst combinations.
• Polymorph — Transforms the target into a harmless animal, rendering them completely unable to act. Note: Avoid using Polymorph on already injured enemies, as it causes them to regenerate health rapidly while affected.

The most important survival spells will be summarized here:

These abilities can be used while stunned, offering critical protection in high-pressure situations.

• Alter Time — Marks your current location and health. After a few seconds, you return to that state, reversing damage and movement.
• Cold Snap — Instantly resets the cooldowns of Ice Block, Frost Nova, and Cone of Cold, and heals you for 30% of your maximum health.
• Ice Block — Encases you in a block of ice, making you immune to all damage and harmful effects for several seconds.
• Incanter's Ward — Absorbs damage and increases your spell power while active.
• Temporal Shield — Absorbs incoming damage for a short time and heals you for the absorbed amount afterward.

• Blink — Instantly teleports you a short distance forward and removes stuns, making it a powerful defensive and escape tool.
• Blazing Speed — Grants a brief burst of movement speed, allowing you to quickly reposition or escape snares. This is the alternative talent to Presence of Mind and particularly useful versus melee compositions.

These area-of-effect abilities can expose hidden enemies by forcing them out of stealth.

• Arcane Explosion — A quick, low-cost AoE centered on the Mage. Great for sweeping an area for stealthed players.
• Blizzard — A channeled AoE spell that deals frost damage in a large area, often revealing stealthed enemies hiding at range.
• Flamestrike — A ground-targeted fire spell that deals instant and damage-over-time effects, useful for scouting common hiding spots.

If you have not already, we also recommend taking a look at the Spells Summary page. The better you know your abilities, the better and more versatile you are at playing your Mage. The rotation always depends on what your enemies do and if they are frozen or not. For a better understanding of when your spells deal most damage, we highly recommend reading the Rotations page from the PvE section.

If you are looking to maximize the potential of your Frost Mage in Mists of Pandaria PvP, we recommended Tailoring and Engineering. As in PvE, these remain the best professions for Frost Mages. Tailoring really shines with Lightweave Embroidery. This 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 the very useful Nitro Boosts.

The list linked below provides you with the Best-in-Slot gear setup for a Frost Mage in PvP.

To learn in which setups Frost Mages are typically strongest, please read the guides we have prepared below: