Frost Mage DPS Easy Mode — The War Within (Season 1)
On this page, we explain how to easily play Frost Mage in World of Warcraft — The War Within (Season 1), 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.
The Basics for Frost Mage
Frost is a very versatile specialization that can talent into or out of a significant number of active abilities. Talents depending; your bars may be either rather empty or overflowing. Given Frost has next to no real talent options (approximately 6000 to the next spec's 1.6 million, to the one after that's 10 million), 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.
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+.
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 Frost Mage is to Shatter as many of your spells as possible. Flurry lets you Shatter other spells, so line them up with the debuff, prioritizing heavy hitters first.
After that, it is simply using your procs, cooldowns, and if talented for it, Glacial Spike whenever available.
- Use your Icy Veins cooldown when possible for more damage. Keep in mind any fight mechanics that would cause you to lose valuable casting time, or a vulnerability to take advantage of. Perhaps you do not want to pop it the second it comes up if the boss will take extra damage in a few seconds!
- Cast Ray of Frost after you have cast Flurry to let it gain a huge Critical Strike bonus.
- Cast Frozen Orb when available to generate Fingers of Frost and proc Permafrost Lances.
- Cast Blizzard when there are 3+ targets to help your AoE damage, and to reduce the cooldown of Frozen Orb, assuming you have Ice Caller.
- Cast Flurry on cooldown.
- Cast Comet Storm on cooldown, directly after a Flurry.
- Cast Glacial Spike when you have 5 Icicles. Try to line the impact up with Flurry, either the cast right before it or either of the two Winter's Chill charges afterward. Otherwise, just fire it. It is extremely strong regardless; just try to get it inside Winter's Chill.
- Cast Ice Lance to spend your Fingers of Frost charges, or twice directly after casting a Flurry.
- Cast Shifting Power when there are 2+ targets in range to help your AoE damage, or when Icy Veins, Frozen Orb, and Ray of Frost are on cooldown.
- Cast Frostbolt as a filler and generate Fingers of Frost and Brain Freeze.
AoE Rotation for Frost Mage
There are two parts to AoE. The base rotation, and the burst.
Base rotation is simply Frozen Orb and Blizzard on cooldown. You should have both Freezing Rain and Ice Caller for this. Blizzard ticks will reduce the cooldown of Frozen Orb, and Frozen Orb will make Blizzard an instant cast. Fill empty sections with your single target rotation, which will predominantly be Ice Lance.
Cooldown set revolves around Cone of Cold with Coldest Snap. You want to go into this with Comet Storm available and preferably Frozen Orb either available or already ticking. The idea is you want to Frozen Orb - Comet Storm - Cone of Cold - Comet Storm - Frozen Orb. This is a massive burst of damage that should mostly be Shattered due to Coldest Snap.
- Icy Veins
- Cast Frozen Orb
- Cast Blizzard
- Cast Comet Storm.
- Cast Cone of Cold.
- Cast Ice Nova, if the targets can be frozen, and you just cast Glacial Spike.
- Cast Shifting Power.
- Cast Glacial Spike. Try to combo it into either Ice Nova or Frost Nova if the targets can be frozen, especially if you have your 2pT31 set bonus.
- Cast Flurry if available.
- Cast Ice Lance if you have Fingers of Frost available.
- Cast Arcane Explosion if there are 7 or more targets, and you are above 30% Mana.
- Cast Frostbolt.
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 24% 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.
Relatedly, Mass Barrier is just another Ice Barrier, but for you and the 4 nearest targets, preferring players. Great to throw for any large group damage events.
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 shorter cooldown, shorter duration, and slightly worse damage reduction version of Ice Cold. This is a good button to hit if there's a large single hit coming for you, but it can also be used to drop combat or to cause a mob to drop target while casting. This can break many mechanics; if you are in doubt, try it.
Mirror Image is an extremely long duration 20% damage reduction. If damage is going out, pop it, especially if it is an extended duration of damage or if mobs are targeting random targets.
While not strictly a defensive, Alter Time can be used as a heal if popped before non-fatal damage goes out, and then popped again afterwards to heal back to where you originally were. It is absolutely niche and a bit more advanced than the others, but it can be a great boon to healers.
Stat Choice for Frost Mage
You should simulate your own character to get stat weights, but a decent guideline, assuming you have picked Hailstones as suggested above, to start should be as follows:
- Intellect;
- Mastery;
- Haste;
- Critical Strike to 33.34%;
- Versatility
- Critical Strike beyond 33.34%.
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.
Critical Strike will fall off after you hit 33.34% Shatter cap. This is the point where all your spells that are considered frozen, such as Ice Lance with Fingers of Frost, will always Critically Strike.
Please note, this is not an absolute ordering, it is not required to get anywhere near the Shatter cap to play Frost, and it is absolutely not required, or optimal, to stack Critical Strike to the exclusion of all else. For more information, please refer to the Stats page:
Changelog
- 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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