WotLK Classic Frost Mage Spec, Builds, Talents, and Glyphs

Last updated on Sep 24, 2023 at 12:00 by Wrdlbrmpft 1 comment

On this page, you will find out the best PvE talent choices and builds for your Frost Mage in WotLK Classic, as well as advised glyphs.

1.

Talent Builds for Frost Mages

Frost Mage talents aim to maximize single-target and AoE damage, as well as survivability.

1.1.

Leveling Builds

If you were looking for a leveling-oriented build please refer to our Mage leveling guide.

1.2.

Talent Build

For raiding, we recommended Frost Mages to focus on an Arcane Frost talent build. You will go deep enough into the Arcane tree to reach Focus Magic IconFocus Magic and Torment the Weak IconTorment the Weak, so you get the 3% crit and 12% damage for Frostbolt IconFrostbolt and Frostfire Bolt IconFrostfire Bolt. The 3 points in Spell Impact IconSpell Impact could also be invested into Student of the Mind IconStudent of the Mind and Magic Attunement IconMagic Attunement, as Spell Impact only affects Arcane Explosion IconArcane Explosion (you Blizzard IconBlizzard whenever possible) and the rarely-used spell Cone of Cold IconCone of Cold (it is rarely used because the frontal cone sometimes makes hitting all enemies hard). These changes would net more Spirit and therefore more Critical strike rating from Molten Armor IconMolten Armor, increased range on Counterspell IconCounterspell, Remove Curse IconRemove Curse, and Polymorph IconPolymorph, and boost the effect of the sometimes useful Amplify Magic IconAmplify Magic buff.

In the Frost tree you will go for the main damage improving talents, some important general Frost talents, and the new interaction talents Fingers of Frost IconFingers of Frost and Brain Freeze IconBrain Freeze. You can read a detailed breakdown of all these talents in the Frost Tree section below.

However, it needs to be said here, that going for 3 points in Improved Blizzard IconImproved Blizzard and Permafrost IconPermafrost would definitely take away very important and impactful talent points, which would impact your DPS by a lot. If your raid leader asks you to go for these talents, try to have someone else slow, such as Hunters with Frost Trap IconFrost Trap, as the slow of Improved Blizzard IconImproved Blizzard in WotLK is also heavily nerfed in comparison to TBC.

2.

Important Frost Mage Talents

2.1.

Frost Tree

As almost all Frost talents are very important, here is a brief explanation of what the most important talents do.

Improved Frostbolt IconImproved Frostbolt makes your main nuke Frostbolt IconFrostbolt cast 0.5 seconds faster. While this does not sound like much, this cast time increase equals about 20% more damage for Frostbolt.

Ice Floes IconIce Floes reduces the cooldown of Frost Nova IconFrost Nova, Cone of Cold IconCone of Cold, Ice Block IconIce Block and Icy Veins IconIcy Veins by 20%.

Ice Shards IconIce Shards makes your Frost Spell Critical Strikes deal 200% damage, or 209% with Chaotic Skyflare Diamond Icon Chaotic Skyflare Diamond. Without this talent, Frost Spell Critical Strikes only do 150% normal damage.

Precision IconPrecision increases your chance to Hit with all spells by 3%.

Piercing Ice IconPiercing Ice increases all Frost damage done by 6%.

Icy Veins IconIcy Veins increases your casting speed by 20% and gives you a 100% spell pushback protection for 20 seconds. Does not protect from interrupt effects or stuns.

Improved Blizzard IconImproved Blizzard gives your Blizzard IconBlizzard a chilling effect that adds a 35% slow (25% from this talent and 10% from Chilled to the Bone IconChilled to the Bone) for 1.5 seconds. This slow is not important for actually slowing enemies, but to proc the Fingers of Frost IconFingers of Frost and Brain Freeze IconBrain Freeze talents, which can proc from chilling effects.

Arctic Reach IconArctic Reach gives Frostbolt IconFrostbolt, Ice Lance IconIce Lance, Deep Freeze IconDeep Freeze, and Blizzard IconBlizzard a 10% higher range and increases the radius of Blizzard and Cone of Cold IconCone of Cold by 10%. This allows you to outrange some enemies' abilities and to participate earlier in combat after movement phases. This talent gets only one point to allow one free point for Improved Blizzard IconImproved Blizzard.

Frost Channeling IconFrost Channeling reduces all spells' Mana cost and the Frost spells' threat caused by 10%, so your Frost spells do only 90% threat. A 1,000 damage Frost spell would do 900 instead of 1,000 threat with this talent. This talent allows for 10% more damage to be done before becoming threat-capped.

Shatter IconShatter is one of the mightiest of all Frost talents, as it increases the Critical Strike chance of all spells against frozen targets by 50%. Fingers of Frost IconFingers of Frost treats targets (even bosses which are usually immune to freezing effects) as if they were frozen. This means that each time you proc Fingers of Frost, all 3 spells of your Frostbolt IconFrostbolt -> Frostbolt IconFrostbolt -> Deep Freeze IconDeep Freeze combo gain a 50% higher Critical Strike chance, as Deep Freeze IconDeep Freeze is cast in the same batch as your second Frostbolt IconFrostbolt finishes. Further, as Improved Blizzard IconImproved Blizzard also triggers Fingers of Frost IconFingers of Frost, your Blizzard IconBlizzard basically permanently has a 50% increased Critical Strike chance from Shatter IconShatter, as long as there are enough enemies to proc it. While not only useful for bosses, this talent is also absurdly strong for farming and also allows for the so-called "Shatter Combo". A Shatter combo is if you cast a spell with a cast time, followed by an instant spell on a frozen target and both spells benefit from the 50% crit chance increase. Examples for this are casting Frostbolt IconFrostbolt followed by Ice Lance IconIce Lance, or Flamestrike IconFlamestrike followed by Cone of Cold IconCone of Cold on targets frozen with Frost Nova IconFrost Nova.

Cold Snap IconCold Snap resets the cooldown of all Frost abilities, allowing for using Icy Veins IconIcy Veins or absorbing damage with Ice Barrier IconIce Barrier twice in a row. This ability comes with a 8-minute (6.4 minutes when talented) cooldown.

Winter's Chill IconWinter's Chill causes each Frost damage spell to apply a debuff on the target that increases the enemy's chance to take a Critical Strike from spells by 1%, for 15 seconds. Stacks up to 5 times. That means after 5 successful Frost attacks, your target has a 5% higher chance to be crit by any spells. This effect can already be stacked or be refreshed with Ice Lance IconIce Lance while positioning for an enemy. Blizzard IconBlizzard will also trigger this spell and make your team's AoE stronger. Further, this talent also increases the Critical Strike chance of Frostbolt IconFrostbolt by 3%.

Ice Barrier IconIce Barrier absorbs all but falling damage for one minute and gives your protection against spell pushback. This is very useful if you take small but very frequent portions of damage, and even better if that damage is magical and can be reduced with Dampen Magic IconDampen Magic. This ability comes with a 30-second (24 when talented) cooldown.

Arctic Winds IconArctic Winds increases all your Frost damage by 5% and reduces the chance Physical attacks will hit you by 5%.

Empowered Frostbolt IconEmpowered Frostbolt gives your Frostbolt IconFrostbolt a 10% higher Spell Power coefficient and a 0.2s faster cast time.

Fingers of Frost IconFingers of Frost gives your chill effects a 15% chance to grant you the Fingers of Frost effect, treating your next 2 spells cast as if the targets were frozen. This means all 3 spells of your Frostbolt IconFrostbolt -> Frostbolt IconFrostbolt -> Deep Freeze IconDeep Freeze combo gain a 50% higher Critical Strike chance, as Deep Freeze IconDeep Freeze is cast in the same batch as your second Frostbolt IconFrostbolt finishes. Further, as Improved Blizzard IconImproved Blizzard also triggers Fingers of Frost IconFingers of Frost, your Blizzard IconBlizzard basically permanently has a 50% increased Critical Strike chance from Shatter IconShatter, as long as there are enough enemies to proc it. While not only useful for bosses, this talent is also absurdly strong for farming and also allows for the so-called "Shatter Combo". A Shatter combo is if you cast a spell with a cast time, followed by an instant spell on a frozen target and both spells benefit from the 50% Crit Chance increase. Examples for this are casting Frostbolt IconFrostbolt followed by Ice Lance IconIce Lance, or Flamestrike IconFlamestrike followed by Cone of Cold IconCone of Cold on targets frozen with Frost Nova IconFrost Nova.

Brain Freeze IconBrain Freeze works similarly to Fingers of Frost IconFingers of Frost but grants you an instant Frostfire Bolt IconFrostfire Bolt or Fireball IconFireball. Of course, you cast Frostfire Bolt IconFrostfire Bolt, as it benefits from Frost talents while Fireball IconFireball does not.

Summon Water Elemental IconSummon Water Elemental summons a Water Elemental with the Waterbolt IconWaterbolt and Freeze IconFreeze abilities to fight for 45 seconds. With Glyph of Eternal Water Icon Glyph of Eternal Water, your pet loses its Freeze ability but stays summoned until it dies.

Enduring Winter IconEnduring Winter makes your Water Elemental stay alive for 15 seconds longer and gives your Frostbolt IconFrostbolt a 100% chance to trigger the Replenishment IconReplenishment buff on the lowest Mana raid members.

Chilled to the Bone IconChilled to the Bone increases the damage caused by Frostbolt IconFrostbolt, Frostfire Bolt IconFrostfire Bolt and Ice Lance IconIce Lance by 5% and improves all slow effects of your Frost spells by 10%.

Deep Freeze IconDeep Freeze stuns the target for 5 seconds, and deals massive damage to targets that are permanently immune to stuns. Mostly used while moving or at the end of a Fingers of Frost IconFingers of Frost proc.

2.2.

Arcane Tree

Arcane Subtlety IconArcane Subtlety decreases the threat you do with your Arcane spells by 40% and decreases the chance your helpful spells will be dispelled by 30%. This talent is key, as it will make it very hard for you to pull aggro, be it with Arcane Blast IconArcane Blast, Arcane Missiles IconArcane Missiles, or Arcane Explosion IconArcane Explosion.

Arcane Focus IconArcane Focus increases your chance to hit with Arcane spells by 3%.

Arcane Concentration IconArcane Concentration gives you a 10% chance of entering a Clearcasting state after any attack goes off. This gives you an average of 10% reduced Mana cost on your damaging spells.

Spell Impact IconSpell Impact gives your main DPS spells a 6% damage bonus.

Student of the Mind IconStudent of the Mind increases your total Spirit by 4%, which gives you slightly more Critical Strike rating from Molten Armor IconMolten Armor.

Focus Magic IconFocus Magic is a powerful buff to be cast on a friendly target. It increases their Critical Strike chance with spells by 3%. If they score a Critical Strike, your Critical Strike chance is also increased by 3% for 10 seconds.

Torment the Weak IconTorment the Weak gives your main DPS spells a 12% damage bonus if your target is slowed in any way (physical/spell/movement slow), which they usually are from a Death Knight's Icy Touch IconIcy Touch or a Warrior's Thunder Clap IconThunder Clap.

3.

Best Glyphs for Frost Mages

The best Frost Mage Glyphs are Glyph of Frostbolt Icon Glyph of Frostbolt, Glyph of Eternal Water Icon Glyph of Eternal Water, and Glyph of Molten Armor Icon Glyph of Molten Armor (Major), and Glyph of Arcane Intellect Icon Glyph of Arcane Intellect and Glyph of Slow Fall Icon Glyph of Slow Fall (Minor). The third glyph is your personal choice. Further, one could argue that Glyph of Fire Ward Icon Glyph of Fire Ward and Glyph of Frost Ward Icon Glyph of Frost Ward are better minor glyphs than any other, but the use of these is very, very niche, so this guide will stick to the quality of life glyphs. Below you will find a complete list of glyphs, in case you would like to experiment with them, e.g. for farming purposes.

Major Glyphs
Glyph of Arcane Barrage Icon Glyph of Arcane Barrage Glyph of Fire Blast Icon Glyph of Fire Blast Glyph of Living Bomb Icon Glyph of Living Bomb
Glyph of Arcane Blast Icon Glyph of Arcane Blast Glyph of Fireball Icon Glyph of Fireball Glyph of Mage Armor Icon Glyph of Mage Armor
Glyph of Arcane Explosion Icon Glyph of Arcane Explosion Glyph of Frost Nova Icon Glyph of Frost Nova Glyph of Mana Gem Icon Glyph of Mana Gem
Glyph of Arcane Missiles Icon Glyph of Arcane Missiles Glyph of Frostbolt Icon Glyph of Frostbolt Glyph of Mirror Image Icon Glyph of Mirror Image
Glyph of Arcane Power Icon Glyph of Arcane Power Glyph of Frostfire Icon Glyph of Frostfire Glyph of Molten Armor Icon Glyph of Molten Armor
Glyph of Blink Icon Glyph of Blink Glyph of Ice Barrier Icon Glyph of Ice Barrier Glyph of Polymorph Icon Glyph of Polymorph
Glyph of Deep Freeze Icon Glyph of Deep Freeze Glyph of Ice Block Icon Glyph of Ice Block Glyph of Remove Curse Icon Glyph of Remove Curse
Glyph of Eternal Water Icon Glyph of Eternal Water Glyph of Ice Lance Icon Glyph of Ice Lance Glyph of Scorch Icon Glyph of Scorch
Glyph of Ice Armor Icon Glyph of Ice Armor Glyph of Icy Veins Icon Glyph of Icy Veins Glyph of Water Elemental Icon Glyph of Water Elemental
Glyph of Evocation Icon Glyph of Evocation Glyph of Invisibility Icon Glyph of Invisibility

Minor Glyphs:

4.

Changelog

  • 18 Jan. 2023: Reviewed for Phase 2 release ahead of Ulduar raid release.
  • 14 Sep. 2022: Page added.
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