Frost Mage DPS Easy Mode — Midnight Pre-Patch (12.0)
On this page, we explain how to easily play Frost Mage in World of Warcraft — Midnight Pre-Patch (12.0), using the simplest rotation, talent tree, stat priority, gear setup, etc., without sacrificing performance.
Foreword
This section is intended for players who are new to the game or class, have no intentions of raiding Mythic difficulty, or simply want a more straightforward way to play their specialization without being overwhelmed by the numerous priorities and active abilities that need to be taken into consideration for optimal play.
This section is going to be an attempt at an easier-to-ingest rehash of the rest of the guide, as there is very little that can actually be simplified out of it. That said, feel free to talent out of certain active talents if you find them hard to use. Playing what you can, well, will almost always beat playing the optimal build, but poorly.
If you have further questions about how specific spells work, please check out the Spell Summary page:
Beginner's Guide to Frost Mage in The War Within
Beginner Single-Target Talents for Frost Mage
This build is optimal for pure single-target situations. Our tier does not impact our gameplay, so this will work for both with and without.
Be sure to make use of the 'Export Talents' button to import the best build directly into your game!
Beginner AoE and Mythic+ Talents for Frost Mage
This is our recommended build for AoE scenarios. This works well for AoE Fights in Raids, as well as most Mythic+. Our tier does not impact our gameplay, so this will work for both with and without.
Be sure to make use of the 'Export Talents' button to import the best build directly into your game!
Beginner Frost Mage DPS Rotation
The goal of
Frostfire Frost Mage is to generate as many
Brain Freeze procs as possible so you can cast more
Flurry
This is specifically a no-
Ice Lance variant for sake of ease.
- Cast
Flurry on cooldown. - Cast
Glacial Spike when it lights up and changes your
Frostfire Bolt button to it. - Cast
Frozen Orb when available. - Cast
Ray of Frost and the subsequent
Comet Storm that comes from it. - Cast
Frostfire Bolt as a filler.
AoE Rotation for Frost Mage
Functionally the only thing that gets added to our AoE is
Blizzard on cooldown. There are some minor tweaks to the priority list when compared to the single target, but it is still very simple.
- Cast
Ray of Frost and the resultant
Comet Storm. - Cast
Frozen Orb - Cast
Glacial Spike when it lights up and changes your
Frostfire Bolt button to it. - Cast
Flurry if available. - Cast
Blizzard. - Cast
Ice Lance if you have
Fingers of Frost available, or there are more than 6 Freezing stacks on the target. - Cast
Frostfire Bolt.
For more detailed information about how to play Frost, please refer to the Rotation page:
Defensive Spells for Frost Mage
Ice Barrier is your bread and butter. It has a low cooldown, and it gives you a 30% health buffer. Never be afraid to hit this button; it will almost always be there for you due to its short cooldown. It will save you so much more than you think it will.
Ice Block and its alternative talent option,
Ice Cold are both our strongest single defensive buttons. Ice Block is a full immunity, which means you cannot be damaged inside of it except for very special attacks that pierce immunities. This will also clear almost all debuffs from you and is extremely powerful for escaping mechanics. Ice Cold on the other hand, frees you up so that you can still move and attack, at the cost of being shorter duration and not being a full immunity, although still one of the strongest defensives in the game.
Greater Invisibility is a good button to hit if there's a large single hit coming for you, by causing a mob to drop target while casting. This can break many mechanics; if you are in doubt, try it.
For a beginner, never hit
Alter Time, and instead heavily rely on
Temporal Realignment.
Combat Assistant for Frost Mage
Combat Assistant, telling you what to press next, is not a terrible option
when you are just starting out. You are looking at an approximate 10% DPS loss,
with lesser losses on
Frostfire than
Spellslinger.
In dungeon content, it starts falling apart, performing another 10% worse again on AoE. For an alt, and for learning how this spec plays, this is not a terrible penalty.
The one button combat penalty jumps this penalty by another ~10%, totalling about 30% loss in AoE combat, and 20% in single target. Learning the spec properly will always perform significantly better, regardless of spec, but this could be a very usable option for someone new.
Stat Choice for Frost Mage
You should simulate your own character to get stat weights, but a decent guideline should be as follows:
- Intellect;
- Mastery;
- Critical Strike;
- Haste;
- Versatility;
It is important to understand that this is not an indication to stack your best stat to the exclusion of all else. This is just an approximation for an average set of gear with a roughly normal distribution of stats on it. In almost all cases, item level will win out. A simulation is the only way to be sure if any given piece of gear is an upgrade for sure.
Please note, this is not an absolute ordering, it is absolutely not required, or optimal, to stack Mastery to the exclusion of all else. For more information, please refer to the Stats page:
Changelog
- 19 Jan. 2026: Updated for Midnight Pre-Patch.
- 30 Nov. 2025: Reviewed for Patch 11.2.7.
- 05 Oct. 2025: Reviewed for Patch 11.2.5.
- 04 Aug. 2025: Updated for Patch 11.2.
- 15 Jun. 2025: Updated with thoughts on Combat Assistant in 11.1.7.
- 21 Apr. 2025: Reviewed for Patch 11.1.5.
- 24 Feb. 2025: Updated for Patch 11.1.0.
- 15 Dec. 2024: Updated for 11.0.7.
- 27 Oct. 2024: Updated with new theory for 11.0.5.
- 21 Oct. 2024: Reviewed for Patch 11.0.5.
- 09 Sep. 2024: Updated for The War Within Season 1.
- 21 Aug. 2024: Updated for The War Within.
- 23 Jul. 2024: Updated for The War Within Pre-Patch.
- 07 May 2024: Reviewed for 10.2.7.
- 22 Apr. 2024: Reviewed for Season 4.
- 19 Mar. 2024: Reviewed for Patch 10.2.6.
- 15 Jan. 2024: Reviewed for Patch 10.2.5.
- 06 Nov. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.2.
- 04 Sep. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.1.7
- 10 Jul. 2023: Updated for Patch 10.1.5 with a new talent tree.
- 01 May 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.1.
- 20 Mar. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.0.7.
- 24 Jan. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.0.5.
- 11 Dec. 2022: Reviewed for Dragonflight Season 1.
- 28 Nov. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight launch.
- 24 Oct. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight pre-patch.
More Mage Guides
Guides from Other Classes
This guide has been written by Kuni, one of the best Frost Mages in the world, who raids in Mortal Desire.
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