World of Warcraft: Forever Frost Mage Guide

Frost Mages are the iconic spellcaster built around cold and ice. In a world where Arcane Mages control the flow of mana and Fire Mages carelessly destroy everything in sight, Frost Mages aim to control the battlefield. By using their Frost abilities, they slow and freeze their targets. And if someone finally does get too close, the enemy will find their blades scratching harmlessly against against the Mage's frozen defenses.

If you decide to follow the path of the Frost Mage, your gameplay style will be exactly as described as above. You will be slowing and freezing enemies from afar, taking them down before they even get a chance to strike. You'll have more opportunity to remain mobile compared to your Arcane and Fire counterparts while still doing full DPS.

On top of that, the chill and freeze effects from Frostbolt, Cone of Cold and Frost Nova will give you and your allies more kiting and breathing room from enemies. If things get too dangerous, Ice Block and Ice Barrier will protect you even further.

In World of Warcraft: Forever, you will find that Frost Mage has been expanded beyond its Classic counterpart. With the addition of Ice Lance and Frostfire Bolt, Frost Mages have new tools in their kit to deal damage — even while moving. You will have to react to procs from Frostbite and Fingers of Frost to utilize extra damage on your Ice Lance.

Alliance: The best race for Frost Mage is Gnome. Eureka! is a powerful new active racial ability which will boost the next damage of the next 3 casts by 10%, and also reduce the cost by 10%. Escape Artist gives you a second escape on top of Blink. Expansive Mind now gives 5% extra mana, letting Gnomes cast a little bit more from full before running out of steam.

Horde: The best race is hard to determine until we get to see the full game. Forever has allowed Orc to become a Mage now. They're built for it too: Blood Fury boosts spell power by 10% and Shatter Curse and Hardiness are great additional defensives, particularly for PvP.

Undead now has a new passive racial, Touch of the Grave which has 10% chance to proc for every spell cast compared to the usual 5% of the melee classes. Cannibalize changed to now also regenerate mana. Will of the Forsaken also gives an additional CC removal.

Troll has Berserking, which increases spell casting speed by 10%, but on a 1 minute longer cooldown than Blood Fury, and thus less uptime, and also faster consumption of mana.

Regardless, all three of these picks are solid.

World of Warcraft: Forever has significantly improved the professions and their interactions with classes matter more, so it's important to pick the right ones. For Frost Mage, we recommend the following to help with leveling:

Tailoring now lets you craft your own Bind-on-Pickup Rare gear, and is some of the best leveling gear available for how easy it is to access. Starting as low as Level 10, the Novice Arcanist's Sash is an example of pieces you can make. Other patterns can be found from turning in Waylaid Supply Crates or from dungeons / the auction house, for things like Silky Circlet.

Enchanting as your second profession will let you craft consumables like Minor Wizard Oil, and can craft various BoP wands, staves and off-hands. It pairs well with Tailoring as while training it, you can disenchant the Uncommon items you make — sometimes even for a profit.

Alchemy and Engineering offers benefits such as damage-boosting consumables, mana potions and more, but without a Herbalism or Mining alt, these will be difficult or expensive to level.

Start with Improved Frostbolt to greatly increase your cast speed and DPS. After 3 ranks of Frostbite, go back and get two points of Elemental Precision as any missed spell will greatly reduce your DPS. It's also good for pushing dungeons with enemies beyond level 30.

Frostbite will grant freeze chance, setting up opportunities to deal bonus damage with Ice Lance. Ice Shards and Shatter combo off each other, and will cause Ice Lance to do some serious damage.

An extra 5 points have been added to this tree from the Talented perk, as detailed below.

Legacy System Talent points are a new system added in Forever. These will give you unique bonuses for reaching specific milestones. With the level cap increasing to 30, you will have the ability to unlock some Legacy Talent points through leveling every class to 25, leveling each crafting profession to 225, and exploring every zone in Azeroth.

If you gain access to the Talented Legacy System talent with 10 legacy points, you can spend up to 5 more talent points at Level 30. Spend these as if you were up to 5 levels higher, getting key DPS breakpoints sooner for Frost Mage.

After these 10 legacy points, Thrill of Adventure can help with your resource management while leveling in the open world. In the Resourcefulness tree, by spending 11 total points you can get Reagent Economy. This makes all Mage Teleports and Mage Portals free. Use this to travel without any care for cost, or even make a larger profit with making portals for other players.

For this rotation, you will be assessing the situation every spell cast based on talent proc effects.

1. Constantly cast Frostbolt.
2. If Fingers of Frost procs from a finished Frostbolt cast, immediately cancel casting and cast Ice Lance instead.
3. If Frostbite procs from a Frostbolt hit, queue Ice Lance to cast right as you finish casting your next Frostbolt.
4. Continue to cast Ice Lance if your target remains frozen, until it breaks or expires.
5. If you manage to get a proc of Missile Barrage, you can either use it right away, or wait until you're onto the next mob depending on whether you will get hit and interrupted.

You can also use Frost Nova for additional DPS and to give yourself more room as stated above.

For multiple enemies, the strategy will change based on how many targets there are. At around 3+ targets, you'll be fishing for Shatter bonuses and dealing with targets based on priority. At 5+ targets, you'll just be going full Area of Effect spam.

• 3+ Targets Priority
  1. Cone of Cold the group to get Fingers of Frost and Frostbite procs
  2. Use Ice Lance on any un-frozen targets to burn Fingers of Frost stacks
  3. Use Ice Lance on frozen targets until they aren't frozen any more
  4. Use Frost Nova to create more frozen targets to Ice Lance
• 5+ Targets Priority
  1. Use Cone of Cold on cooldown
  2. Use Blizzard in between casts
  3. Use Arcane Explosion if you have aggro and can't safely channel Blizzard

For Level 30, we have most of what our kit will look like, just in a limited capacity. Spam Frostbolt until the enemy gets frozen from the Frostbite talent, then hit them with Ice Lance for the bonus damage. You will have to start casting your next Frostbolt before you know if the enemy will be frozen due to travel time. Do not cancel Frostbolt to cast Ice Lance. Finish your current cast, then queue up Ice Lance next. As long as you aren't in melee range, Ice Lance snapshots your target's Freeze status and will do full damage.

If you're in melee, your target might get frozen so be prepared to act quickly. When they do, start running to get out of range while casting Ice Lance.

It is important to know that any damage can cause Freeze to break. This means there is a good chance that Ice Lance will break the freeze. Be prepared to either start casting Frostbolt or Ice Lance depending on whether they're still frozen or not. This also means Freeze is unreliable to deal damage to bosses in dungeons, as even if they're not immune, it may break from your ally's attacks before you can cast.

In addition to Freeze procs, Fingers of Frost unlocks at 21 talent points. This allows you to proc Ice Lance and Shatter bonuses without the target being frozen. But, it is consumed on any spell cast. Unlike Frostbite, Fingers of Frost applies to you on-cast, meaning you can react quickly. You will need to cancel casting Frostbolt to get the full effect on Ice Lance.

When an enemy gets too close, use Frost Nova and back up some distance, while using Ice Lance to continue to do damage. If not available, re-apply chill with Frostbolt and use a wand so you can keep gaining distance

Arcane Missiles is used with the Missile Barrage talent to get more value out of your mana pool. The procs can be used right away if safe, like in a dungeon or at a distance, but otherwise hold them until the next pull or you generate some space.

Mage has access to Fire, Arcane, and Frost spells regardless of the specialization you talent into. Frost Mage is no exception, and any relevant damage spell is listed below with extra context. Some spells have been omitted simply because they're not important to the core of Frost Mage or only get used in extremely low levels of gameplay.

• Frostbolt applies a guaranteed chill effect on hit, which procs the Frostbite and Fingers of Frost talents. It also benefits from the crit chance bonus of Winter's Chill. When solo or leveling, initiate enemies at a range with it so they take longer to reach you. Higher ranks of Frostbolt deal more damage but take longer to cast and cost more mana. Keep Rank 1 available through a separate hotbar slot. It has a faster cast time, and can be used to slow enemies or finish them when low HP for less mana cost.
• Ice Lance is a talent tree exclusive single-target DPS spell. This spell is your best friend, alongside Frostbolt. When enemies are frozen, or when consuming Fingers of Frost stacks, this spell deals 300% extra damage. This damage can crit, which pairs up nicely with the rest of the Frost talents such as Winter's Chill, Ice Shards and Shatter. The spell is also instant cast, and can be used while moving with no cooldown. Proc management with Ice Lance is a core part of Frost Mage's gameplay.
• Frost Nova has 100% chance to freeze enemies hit. Use this to either setup space between you and the enemy or stop them in their approach. You can also use this to break away from a fight or aggro'd mobs safely. You can follow up with Ice Lance for extra damage, as you know the freeze is coming. In parties, reserve it for emergencies. Rooted melee enemies will attack the closest enemy in range, so if the tank moves away due to kiting, DPS should be wary of taking hits. The range is 10 yards around you, which is larger than the spell animation.
• Fire Blast is an instant-cast damaging spell with a small cooldown. If an enemy is low health and not frozen, you can use this spell as a finisher instead of Ice Lance. It also has no travel time, so it's good for tagging mobs or finishing players off in PvP.
• Arcane Explosion is an instant-cast AoE damage spell. Despite not having any scaling with our frost talents, this will still be an AoE powerhouse. If you're bursting a group of enemies down and they break your shields, Flamestrike won't cast and Blizzard will break its channel. Arcane Explosion can still be spammed, though. None of the Mage's AoE damage has fall-off after a certain target count.
• Blizzard deals damage through channeling, with boosts from all over the Frost talent tree. Does not come with a chill effect, unless points are spent in Improved Blizzard. Use this to deal damage to groups of enemies.
• Evocation is a mana-restore ability with an 8 minute cooldown. Usable in combat to ensure your DPS is sustained, or to recover mana quickly when out of combat for the next fight. This activates your mana regeneration instantly, so you don't need to wait to press it. In dungeons and raids, use it regularly to its full effect to increase your overall damage.

While Mage has a large suite of damaging spells, they're also equipped with a multitude of ways to mitigate damage as well. Every class in World of Warcraft has a gimmick or two that makes it unique, and these effects are specific to Mage. While these could be considered generic utility spells, they only effect the Mage and not party members.

• Frost Armor / Ice Armor and Mage Armor are mutually exclusive armor buffs. Keep either buff up with 100% uptime.
• Use Frost Armor / Ice Armor if there is any expectation you will be hit in melee, such as while leveling or doing a dungeon where you may pull threat from mobs. The slow will reduce damage taken from auto-attacks significantly. Taking damage with Frost Armor up can also proc Frostbite, as it is a chill effect.
• Use Mage Armor to passively regenerate mana if you have no expectations about being hit in melee. This will increase your DPS by being able to cast more spells constantly.
• Fire Ward and Frost Ward are your personal elemental shields. Use them when you're expecting this type of damage from enemies either normally or through raid AoEs.
• Mana Shield acts as a personal physical damage shield. Mana cost is capped at a certain damage, so it won't drain all of your mana. Lasts a minute, so it can be used pre-pull if you're expecting damage, like if you're about to do more AoE damage. All of mage's shields like this protect casts from being interrupted.

When it comes to utility, Mage is near the top of the list for most groups. This class brings so much quality of life to a party that in most situations it's noticeable to not have one with you. While some of what's listed below isn't available, we will still mention it for the sake of completeness.

• Conjure Water and Conjure Food are used to create food and water for yourself. You can also trade the conjured items to other players and party members. Keep in mind that in Forever, there are well-fed buffs — so you still will want to keep some regular food for just the buff.
• Arcane Intellect is your stat buff as a Mage, granting an intellect bonus to yourself and any allies for an hour. Keep it on yourself 100% of the time, throw it on your allies at the start of a dungeon, and use it on random strangers as they pass you by.
• Polymorph is one of mage's best utility spells. If you accidentally pull too many enemies, Polymorph takes them out of the fight for the entire time. In dungeons, tanks or the party leader will mark targets with a crescent moon icon if they want them polymorphed. Damage removes polymorph, and only one target can be polymorphed at the same time per Mage.
• Blink is Mage's instant-movement utility spell. This teleports you forward, and breaks free of any stuns and immobilization crowd-control. Works well with Frost Nova to freeze enemies, and get out of melee range quickly. Use it to get out of danger quickly, without spending precious casting time running. Also, don't forget to use it to speed up your overworld travel.
• City Teleport Spells are unlocked from the respective city's "Portal Trainer", near the Mage Trainers at that city. Teleports you to that capital city for a flat 10s fee of a Rune of Teleportation, available from reagent vendors around the world. At Level 20, Allies get Stormwind and Ironforge. Horde gets Orgrimmar and The Undercity.
• City Portal Spells are unlocked similarly at the "Portal Trainer" of each city. They create a portal that allows your group members to use it and teleport to other cities using a Rune of Portals. This is the fastest way players can travel within Forever, and players often tip for the privilege.
• Amplify Magic increases magic damage received and magic healing received by you or an ally. This has only real use in party play or dungeons and raids. If there is little or no magic damage expected coming, you can use Amplify Magic to boost the tank's healing. Discuss with the party first.
• Dampen Magic decreases magic damage received and magic healing received by you or an ally. When playing solo, you can keep this on yourself to give a boost to your magic resistance for little downside. Parties likely do not want this ability, as it's important for the tank to receive as much healing as possible and the reduced magical damage does not make up for it.
• Slow Fall assists with taking large jumps and falls for shortcuts while traveling. This prevents you from ending up on Hardcore WoW Death Compilation videos. The spell uses a Light Feather as a material for each cast, dropped from bird mobs.

Without full access to the game, exact ideal stats still need to tested and confirmed. However, below will have all the information that we know about stats so far, and our priorities for them.

We will be targeting Spell Damage, Frost Damage and Crit in our stats with our gear. In addition to this, look for Spirit to help with mana regeneration. For even more options of gear, you will need to have Tailoring as Forever adds new Bind-on-Pickup gear that is untradable, and has to be crafted yourself. You can use this gear throughout your entire leveling journey.

Blizzard have hidden many items until they have been found, and we should expect things to completely change again after launch. As Level 30 has just been unlocked, there will not be a gear table until more items are discovered and we can be more certain about the items.

1. Hit Chance
   • As with any iteration of Classic WoW, capping your Hit Chance is a high priority. Every missed spell is a big loss of DPS, on top of a missed opportunity for any of your procs, and can slow down your momentum. There will be a cap where you can stop investing in this, but we don't know what it is yet.
2. Spell Damage / Frost Damage
   • Scales up the damage on all of your spells, and is readily available in Forever through items and weapons. Not only that, but Spell Damage also increases Wand Damage. Frost damage stacks additively with Spell Damage, but only affects Frost spells.
3. Critical Chance
   • Frost Mage is a crit-based spec. Ice Shards increases the crit damage of Frost by 100%, making crit chance far more valuable. Ice Lance procs aren't guaranteed crit, they are bonus damage that can crit. Blizzard can also crit. We like crit.
4. Spirit
   • No mana means we stop doing damage, which is sad. Spirit will help by increasing mana recovered every 5 seconds, increasing passive regeneration and Evocation regeneration. Frost Mages have limited tools for resource management, so Spirit will be a good stat to increase where you can.
5. Intellect
   • Intellect increases your maximum Mana, giving you more time before needing to recharge in some way, shape, or form. It also grants you more Spell Critical Chance.
6. Stamina
   • Dead DPS Do No Damage. Stamina will do nothing to increase your DPS, but will help with your survivability by increasing your max health. Note: Undead DPS is slightly increased by Stamina, as Touch of the Grave scales off of Max HP.
7. Agility
   • Marginally increases survivability through extra Armor and Dodge Chance.
8. Strength
   • Increases melee attack power. Not useful compared to anything above. There have been hybrid "Battle-mage" style weapons discovered in Forever, but we have no idea if these builds will work yet.

Wizard Oils are our biggest DPS increase. Made through Enchanting and are tradeable, Lesser Wizard Oil can be used on your weapon for a 30 minute buff, the strongest of which you can use at Level 30.

For Elixirs, Alchemy can craft Lesser Mageblood Elixir or Lesser Mageblood Elixir to help with mana or a bit more of a damage boost.

There are 30 second damage pots available too, such as Lesser Spellblasting Potion.

Enemies around the world can drop random consumable scrolls, that can be deciphered by mages with Comprehend Scroll. These scrolls turn into random enchantments, effects, or damaging consumables. There are also weapon enhancements, and they stack with the above Wizard Oils and Elixirs.

Food and drink is important in Forever, with proper cooked food even giving an experience buff. Mages can make food and drink, but you will be better off eating food such as Briny Seafood Stew, Calcified Smoothie or Raging Raptor Ribs. Note that these recipes are all new and may be expensive or hard to source until more information is found.

Health potions can be used in a pinch if things get dicey, so don't forget to use them if you get into danger.

More WoW Forever Mage Guides

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