WoW Classic AoE Grinding Frost Mage Leveling Talent Build from 1 to 60

Last updated on Feb 28, 2021 at 15:03 by Seksixeny 49 comments

On this page, you will find our Level by Level AoE Grinding Frost Mage leveling guide for WoW Classic. Make sure to use the slider to make the guide adapt to your level. AoE Grinding Frost specializes in pulling, controlling and killing 5+ enemies at once with Improved Blizzard Icon Improved Blizzard and other area of effect tools. It can do this even at very low gear levels, making it the number one fastest leveling spec in the game when uncontested. For more general leveling information, please refer to our Mage leveling guide. We also have a Single-Target Frost Mage leveling guide, Arcane Mage leveling guide and a Fire Mage leveling guide if you find that there are already too many people AoE leveling in your server!

If you were looking for TBC Classic advice, please refer to our TBC Classic Frost Mage AoE leveling guide.

1.

AoE Grinding Frost Mage Level by Level Rotation, Talents and Trainer Skills

Move the slider below to make the guide update to your level!

Level: 60
1.1.

Talent Tree for leveling up as an AoE Grinding Frost Mage

Unlike the single-target talents, AoE grinding requires very precise talents and there is little space for leeway. Improved Blizzard Icon Improved Blizzard receives the full three points because, at that point, you are able to keep enemies inside its damage zone for the whole channel duration, and typically also have time to use two full Blizzard Icon Blizzards before they reach you.

What you need to take into account, is that because Improved Blizzard Icon Improved Blizzard's slow is more powerful than Cone of Cold Icon Cone of Cold's with three points, you must wait for Blizzard Icon Blizzard's slow to fade before using Cone of Cold, if you want to slow the enemies with it. This should not be a major problem, as you can simply run around for a little bit while enemies are slowed to a crawl.

Also, Arcane Concentration Icon Arcane Concentration is not rushed for because Clearcasting's proc chance does not seem to increase with the amount of targets hit in WoW Classic.

Your first talent unlocks at Level 10.

Frost AoE Talents Level 10 to 19
Frost AoE Talents Level 10 to 19
Frost AoE Talents Level 20 to 29
Frost AoE Talents Level 20 to 29
Frost AoE Talents Level 30 to 39
Frost AoE Talents Level 30 to 39
Frost AoE Talents Level 40 to 49
Frost AoE Talents Level 40 to 49
Frost AoE Talents Level 50 to 60
Frost AoE Talents Level 50 to 60
  1. Levels 10 to 12 — 3 points in Elemental Precision Icon Elemental Precision
  2. Levels 13 & 14 — 2 points in Frost Warding Icon Frost Warding
  3. Levels 15 & 16 — 2 points in Improved Frost Nova Icon Improved Frost Nova
  4. Levels 17 to 19 — 3 points in Permafrost Icon Permafrost

Elemental Precision Icon Elemental Precision allows you hit enemies much more reliably, which is of paramount importance for this build, as you will need to avoid having even a single resist in a pack of 8+ enemies. Frost Warding Icon Frost Warding increases your Armor which helps reduce the damage you take when getting mobs in the perfect Frost Nova Icon Frost Nova position. Improved Frost Nova Icon Improved Frost Nova is helpful to make Frost Nova usable more often, increasing the margin for error / resists to happen. Finally, Permafrost Icon Permafrost increases the duration and movement speed reduction of your chill effects, which if of critical importance in order to make Improved Blizzard Icon Improved Blizzard last enough for a second one to hit before the effect wears off.

  1. Levels 20 to 22 — 3 points in Improved Blizzard Icon Improved Blizzard
  2. Level 23 — 1 point in Cold Snap Icon Cold Snap
  3. Level 24 — 1 point in Piercing Ice Icon Piercing Ice
  4. Levels 25 to 27 — 3 points in Frost Channeling Icon Frost Channeling
  5. Levels 28 & 29 — 2 points in Arctic Reach Icon Arctic Reach

Improved Blizzard Icon Improved Blizzard is the essential talent for this build, as it will allow your Blizzard Icon Blizzard to kill enemies at the same time it stops you from being killed due to its powerful slowing effect. Cold Snap Icon Cold Snap gives you a second shot at fixing a pull that is going wrong by allowing you to instantly reset important cooldowns such as Frost Nova Icon Frost Nova. Piercing Ice Icon Piercing Ice is a good damage increase, Frost Channeling Icon Frost Channeling is a great Mana efficiency increase and Arctic Reach Icon Arctic Reach allows you to hit enemies with your frost spells from further away, reducing your melee damage taken in the process.

  1. Level 30 — 1 point in Ice Block Icon Ice Block
  2. Levels 31 & 32 — 2 points in Piercing Ice Icon Piercing Ice
  3. Levels 33 to 35 — 3 points in Improved Cone of Cold Icon Improved Cone of Cold
  4. Levels 36 to 39 — 4 points in Ice Shards Icon Ice Shards

Ice Block Icon Ice Block allows you to gather huge amounts of enemies easily by pulling and blocking while enemies gather around you. It can also save your life when things go wrong. Maximizing Piercing Ice Icon Piercing Ice increases your damage further, as does Improved Cone of Cold Icon Improved Cone of Cold and Ice Shards Icon Ice Shards.

  1. Level 40 — 1 point in Ice Barrier Icon Ice Barrier
  2. Levels 41 & 42 — 2 points in Arcane Focus Icon Arcane Focus
  3. Levels 43 & 44 — 2 points in Arcane Subtlety Icon Arcane Subtlety
  4. Level 45 — 1 point in Arcane Focus Icon Arcane Focus
  5. Levels 46 to 49 — 4 points in Arcane Concentration Icon Arcane Concentration

Ice Barrier Icon Ice Barrier comes just in time to allow you to run around gathering mobs on your fresh mount without being in danger of being dazed and dismounted. It can also save your life when running away in emergencies. Arcane Focus Icon Arcane Focus reduces the chance your Arcane Explosion Icon Arcane Explosion will be resisted, which is helpful for the final cleanup on each pull. Since you should be fighting enemies around your level 2 points are enough, for the most part. Arcane Subtlety Icon Arcane Subtlety is here to help with any enemies that have frost or arcane resistances. Finally, Arcane Concentration Icon Arcane Concentration will save you a lot of Mana occasionally.

  1. Level 50 — 1 point in Arcane Concentration Icon Arcane Concentration
  2. Level 51 — 1 point in Arcane Resilience Icon Arcane Resilience
  3. Levels 52 to 54 — 3 points in Arcane Explosion Icon Arcane Explosion
  4. Level 55 — 1 point in Wand Specialization Icon Wand Specialization
  5. Levels 56 to 58 — 3 points in Arcane Meditation Icon Arcane Meditation
  6. Level 59 — 1 point in Ice Shards Icon Ice Shards
  7. Level 60 — 1 point in Wand Specialization Icon Wand Specialization

Finish up Arcane Concentration Icon Arcane Concentration to get its maximum proc chance and grab Arcane Resilience Icon Arcane Resilience to further decrease your melee damage taken. Maximizing Arcane Explosion Icon Arcane Explosion increases its damage and ability to clean up your pulls. One point in Wand Specialization Icon Wand Specialization will further increase your mob finishing damage, but what we are really looking towards is Arcane Meditation Icon Arcane Meditation which will increase your Mana regeneration during your clears. Finally, finish up Ice Shards Icon Ice Shards for its slight damage boost and put your final point into Wand Specialization Icon Wand Specialization.

1.1.1.

Rotation for leveling up as an AoE Grinding Frost Mage

  1. Cast Arcane Intellect Icon Arcane Intellect and Frost Armor Icon Frost Armor if you miss their buffs.
  2. Cast Arcane Intellect Icon Arcane Intellect and Ice Armor Icon Ice Armor if you miss their buffs.
  3. Cast Mana Shield Icon Mana Shield before pulling, to prevent being dazed.
  4. Cast Ice Barrier Icon Ice Barrier and mount up before pulling, this will ensure you do not get dazed and dismounted. Use your mount to aggro packs of melee enemies, while staying away from their attack range as much as possible.
  5. Body pull packs of melee enemies, while taking care not to overextend (pull only 2-3 enemies simultaneously before you have Improved Blizzard Icon Improved Blizzard).
  6. Cast Arcane Explosion Icon Arcane Explosion to DPS the enemies down.
  7. Cast Frost Nova Icon Frost Nova to root enemies in place and walk or Blink Icon Blink to gain distance from them.
  8. Cast Frost Nova Icon Frost Nova to root enemies in place (use Cold Snap Icon Cold Snap if some resist the Frost Nova) and walk or Blink Icon Blink to gain distance from them.
  9. Cast Blizzard Icon Blizzard to DPS the enemies down, taking care not to start casts before the previous one is finished, and ensuring enemies will not reach you during the full cast Make sure to check Jokerd's speed run to 60 for great examples of where and how to play.
  10. Cast Cone of Cold Icon Cone of Cold when enemies are close enough to all be hit by it, and kite away until Frost Nova Icon Frost Nova is ready again, at which point you should repeat the rotation from Frost Nova's point onward.
  11. Arcane Explosion Icon Arcane Explosion and / or Wand down the last remaining bits of health on any remaining enemy.
  12. Cast Fireball Icon Fireball as your main attack.
  13. Cast Frostbolt Icon Frostbolt as your main single-target attack, whenever required.

The notable absence of Flamestrike Icon Flamestrike as the spell to use after enemies are rooted by Frost Nova Icon Frost Nova, is simply due to its redundancy with Arcane Explosion Icon Arcane Explosion and significant spell training costs. Feel free to buy its ranks if you wish, in which case you should use it as a, roughly, double-power Arcane Explosion opener on rooted enemies that you do not plan to Blizzard Icon Blizzard, due to space concerns for kiting.

Since you can make your own food and water with Conjure Food Icon Conjure Food and Conjure Water Icon Conjure Water, you will be able to more than make up the gold spent on these skills, by saving on vendor food and water. It is also possible to gain some gold on the side by selling your conjured supplies to other players.

If you want to see this rotation in action in some of the best AoE Grinding spots for leveling in WoW Classic, check out this awesome video, by k4li in 2006. For the real thing in the real game, make sure to check out Jokerd's amazing run to 60! This is one of his first AoE grinding pulls in the run, and it only gets better as you advance through his videos.

1.2.

Summary of Trainer Skills for AoE Grinding Frost Mage

1.3.

Best AoE Grinding Spots for Frost Mages

Most, if not all places in WoW Classic could be used to AoE Grind, as long as you keep your pulls to melee enemies without dangerous abilities. Still, some tend to be better than others, assuming equal levels of competition and ganking involved.

Adjust your level slider above in order to see the grinding spots that are adequate to a Mage of your level.

  • First grinding spot is at Level 14.
  • At this point, even if you are already pulling two enemies at once with Arcane Explosion Icon Arcane Explosion, it is best to quest normally, as it will be faster and safer than AoE Grinding with your small toolkit.
  • Level 22 Gnolls around the 62, 60 map coordinates in the Wetlands. Alliance favored spot.
  • Level 22 Humans around 33, 42 in Hillsbrad Foothills. Horde-only spot as enemies are Alliance-friendly.
  • Level 24 Skeletons and Spiders around 24, 41 in Duskwood. Alliance favored spot.
  • Level 26 Humans around 27, 56 in Hillsbrad Foothills. Horde-only spot as enemies are Alliance-friendly.
  • Level 28 Worgen around the 70, 71 map coordinates in Duskwood. Alliance favored spot.
  • Level 33 Silithid around 68, 83 in Thousand Needles. Typically Horde favored spot.
  • Level 34 Humans around 57, 37 in Arathi Highlands. Horde-only spot as enemies are Alliance-friendly.
  • Level 34 Orcs around 59, 54 in Arathi Highlands. Alliance-only spot as enemies are Horde-friendly.
  • Level 36 Murlocs around the 56, 15 map coordinates in Dustwallow Marsh.
  • Level 38 Raptors spread out across Stranglethorn Vale. Try between 31, 23 and 37,19, or between 23,48 and 33,37.
  • Level 40 Birds around 16, 60 in Badlands.
  • Level 41 Humans around 59, 24 in Tanaris.
  • Level 42 Murlocs around 85, 80 in Swamp of Sorrows.
  • Level 44 Trolls inside Zul'Farrak. This video, by Ebbnflow, showcases how to execute this farm.
  • Level 45 Humans around the 72, 46 map coordinates in Tanaris.
  • Level 47 Snakes and Turtles inside Maraudon. Requires Scepter of Celebras Icon Scepter of Celebras. This video, by Exehn, showcases how to do it perfectly.
  • Level 51 Undead around 37, 56 and 49, 77 in Western Plaguelands.
  • Level 53 Undead around the 47, 53 map coordinates in Western Plaguelands.
  • Level 56 Humans in Hearthglen, around 46, 15 in Western Plaguelands. Check out our Gold Making page for details and a video example.
2.

AoE Grinding Frost Mage Macros and Addons

By setting yourself up with an upgraded user interface and macros from the get go, you will make your leveling process much easier. Check out our AoE Grinding Frost Mage Macros and Addons guide in the link below for the full list.

3.

AoE Grinding Frost Mage Gear, Quests and Weapons

AoE Grinding Mages that level purely by pulling groups of mobs and killing them solo will mostly have to do with green gear and weapons that drop. You should be looking to get of the Eagle items, which have Intellect and Stamina, which are the stats you should focus on the most!

Look for high Intellect / Stamina gear when doing dungeons, as well, where you can use your area of effect skills to help your group kill enemies fast, in which case you will be able to farm the dungeon blue weapons available. Spell Power and chance to Critical Strike are weak when using Blizzard Icon Blizzard heavily, as it cannot crit at all and only gains around 4% of your Spell Power per tick.

You can also do the Mage specific quests for gear. These can often be completed as your travel through the world towards your next AoE spot.

4.

Maximum Level AoE Grinding Frost Mage Guides

Once you grind your way to Level 60, it is time to browse the DPS Mage Guide, where you can find all the details on maximum level gameplay, including how to transition from AoE Grinding into the recommended raiding talent builds, or how to make the most out of AoE Grinding in order to farm mountains of gold.

These pages have especially relevant information for Level 60 Mages.

  • To start with, if you did not do so already, check out our Mage AoE Farming gear guide, to discover some easy to obtain pieces that happen to be very great for AoE farming!
  • The Goldmaking Guide for DPS Mages is a must read, as it explains where to go for efficient farming as an AoE Grinding Mage once you hit 60. This guide explains some techniques and places where you can use your hard earned skills to farm a lot of gold quickly, such as Dire Maul East, Maraudon and Zul'Farrak farming;
  • You can find end game PvE talent builds in our DPS Mage Talent builds guide, along with explanations on what makes them optimal for raiding and dungeons;
  • Read the PvP Mage guide to discover the recommended PvP talent builds, some videos with them in action, and tricks and tips for taking down other players;
  • DPS Mage Rotation guide explains some advanced techniques that go well beyond the stereotypical one-button raiding rotation;
  • If you wish to learn more about a Mage's stats, check out the DPS Mage Stats guide, which also has a stat priority list;
5.

Changelog

  • 28 Feb. 2021: Changed the slider starting point to maximum level.
  • 26 Jun. 2020: Replaced some old video links with new ones showcasing AoE farming techniques.
  • 05 Jan. 2020: Added Zul'Farrak as an option for solo dungeon AoE Farming and a Macros and Addons section.
  • 09 Dec. 2019: Added an AoE Gear section and fixed some minor typos.
  • 25 Sep. 2019: Page added.
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