Frost Mage DPS Mythic+ Tips in Battle for Azeroth (BfA) 8.0.1

Table of Contents

• +Introduction
  • 1. Class Overview
  • 2. Patch 8.0.1 Changes for Frost Mage
  • 3. Frost Mage Strengths
  • 4. Frost Mage Weaknesses
  • 5. Contents
  • 6. ChangeLog
• +Easy Mode
  • 1. Foreword
  • 2. The Basics for Frost Mage
    • 2.1. When Playing Without Lonely Winter
  • 3. Talent Choice for Frost Mage
  • 4. Stat Choice for Frost Mage
  • 5. Basic Rotation for Frost Mage
• +Spell Summary
  • 1. Frost Mage Spell Summary
  • 2. Main Resource for Frost Mage
  • 3. Basic Abilities for Frost Mage
  • 4. Important Procs for Frost Mage
  • 5. DPS Cooldowns for Frost Mage
• +Builds and Talents
  • 1. Talent Choices for Frost Mage
  • 2. Talent Cheat Sheets for Frost Mage
    • 2.1. Single Target
    • 2.2. Heavy Cleave/AOE
  • 3. Tier 1 (Level 15) Talents for Frost Mage
  • 4. Tier 2 (Level 30) Talents for Frost Mage
  • 5. Tier 3 (Level 45) Talents for Frost Mage
  • 6. Tier 4 (Level 60) Talents for Frost Mage
  • 7. Tier 5 (Level 75) Talents for Frost Mage
  • 8. Tier 6 (Level 90) Talents for Frost Mage
  • 9. Tier 7 (Level 100) Talents for Frost Mage
  • 10. Frost Mage PvP Talents
  • 11. ChangeLog
• +Azerite Traits and Armor
  • 1. Disclaimer
  • 2. Azerite Traits for Frost Mage
  • 3. Outer Ring Traits for Frost Mage
    • 3.1. Generic Outer Ring Traits
    • 3.2. Frost Mage-specific Outer Ring Traits
  • 4. Middle Ring Traits for Frost Mage
  • 5. Inner Ring Traits for Frost Mage
  • 6. Azerite Traits Rotation Changes and Details for Frost Mages
  • 7. Relative Strength of Azerite Traits for Frost Mage
    • 7.1. Single Target Azerite Traits Comparison for Frost Mage
      • 7.1.1. Outer Ring
      • 7.1.2. Middle Ring
    • 7.2. AoE/Cleave Azerite Traits comparison for Frost Mage
      • 7.2.1. Outer Ring
      • 7.2.2. Middle Ring
    • 7.3. Inner Ring Trait Comparisons for Frost Mage
  • 8. Find Azerite Armor By Trait/Power
  • 9. ChangeLog
• +Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities
  • 1. Single Target Ability Priority List for Frost Mage
    • 1.1. Non-Glacial Spike Builds
    • 1.2. Glacial Spike
  • 2. Multiple Target Priority for Frost Mage
  • 3. Core Concepts for Frost Mage
    • 3.1. Cooldown Overlap and Maximizing Cleave
    • 3.2. Movement Management
    • 3.3. Opening Sequence for Frost Mage
    • 3.4. Tier 3 Talents
      • 3.4.1. Rune of Power
      • 3.4.2. Mirror Image
      • 3.4.3. Incanter's Flow
  • 4. ChangeLog
• ×Mythic+ Tips
  • 1. Frost Mage in Mythic+
    • 1.1. Frost Mage Mythic+ Rotation
    • 1.2. Frost Mage Utility
  • 2. Mythic+ Talents for Frost Mages
  • 3. Mythic+ Affixes
    • 3.1. Tier One Affixes
    • 3.2. Tier Two Affixes
    • 3.3. Tier Three Affixes
    • 3.4. Seasonal Affix
  • 4. Mythic+ Azerite Traits
  • 5. ChangeLog
• +Common and Worst Mistakes
  • 1. Having High Downtime
  • 2. Not Utilizing Winter's Chill Properly
  • 3. Putting Yourself Above The Raid
  • 4. Not Knowing How To Sim Yourself
  • 5. Analyzing Your Mistakes As A Frost Mage
• Boss by Boss Strategies
• +Stat Priority
  • 1. The Basics of Stats for Frost Mage
  • 2. Frost Mage: Getting a Better Understanding
    • 2.1. Stat Explanations
    • 2.2. How Exactly Icicles Work
      • 2.2.1. Glacial Spike
    • 2.3. Critical Strike Cap
  • 3. ChangeLog
• +Gems, Enchants, and Consumables
  • 1. Gems for Frost Mage
  • 2. Enchants for Frost Mage
  • 3. Consumables for Frost Mage
  • 4. ChangeLog
• +Macros and Addons
  • 1. Addons for Frost Mage
    • 1.1. ElvUI
    • 1.2. Weak Auras
    • 1.3. Boss Mods
      • 1.3.1. BigWigs Bossmods
      • 1.3.2. Deadly Boss Mods
    • 1.4. Name Plates
      • 1.4.1. KUI Nameplates
      • 1.4.2. TidyPlates
    • 1.5. Damage Meters
      • 1.5.1. Skada
      • 1.5.2. Details
    • 1.6. Extra AddOns
      • 1.6.1. Mik's Scrolling Battle Text
      • 1.6.2. DeathNote
      • 1.6.3. Doom CooldownPulse
      • 1.6.4. Angry Assignments
  • 2. Macros
    • 2.1. Generic Macros for Mages
      • 2.1.1. Stopcast Blink
      • 2.1.2. 1-Button Block
      • 2.1.3. Block Cancel
    • 2.2. Specific Macros for Frost Mages
      • 2.2.1. Water Elemental
• +Gear and Best in Slot
  • 1. Azerite Gear for Frost Mage
  • 2. Evaluating Upgrades
  • 3. Trinket Notes for Frost Mage
    • 3.1. Single Target Trinket Simulations
    • 3.2. AoE/Cleave with Prioritized Single Target
  • 4. ChangeLog
• +Simulations
  • 1. How to Simulate your Frost Mage

General Information

On this page, you will various tips and pieces of advice for clearing high Mythic+ content with your Frost Mage.

The other pages of our Frost Mage guide can be accessed from the table of contents on the right.

About Our Author

This guide has been written by Kuni, one of the best Frost Mages in the world, who raids in Midnight Sanctuary.

1. Frost Mage in Mythic+

Frost Mage is highly valued in Mythic+. It's one of the better 2 target cleave specs, and has formidable AoE damage. In terms of utility it brings Arcane Intellect for your casters and healers, Remove Curse as minor utility, and the best AoE slows in the game.

1.1. Frost Mage Mythic+ Rotation

Both the single target and multi-target rotations do not change in Mythic+ content. For more information about the Frost Mage DPS rotations, refer back to the Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities page.

The only minor detail is you should probably try not to throw Frozen Orb as a trash pack is dying, and instead save it for the next group.

1.2. Frost Mage Utility

Frost Mage provides support for the party through excellent cleave damage, raid buffs, and other additional effects such as mob management and immunity cheesing of mechanics.

• Ice Block can be used to soak mechanics that would otherwise inconvenience or kill other party members.
• Remove Curse allows you to remove curses, a fairly rare power limited to Druids and Restoration Shaman.
• Arcane Intellect grants your party 10% Intellect, a sizable throughput benefit to your casters and healer.
• Time Warp gives your group that extra DPS push.
• With Frigid Winds you have access to the best AoE slow in the game through Cone of Cold, and one of the top single target slows attached to your primary spell.
• Polymorph, Frost Nova, Ring of Frost, and Freeze all give you varying types of crowd control.

2. Mythic+ Talents for Frost Mages

Most talents are viable in Mythic+. Depending on your specific group make up, you may choose to focus heavier on single target rather than AoE, or perhaps more on short term burst over longer duration stability. For the most part, anything you would pick for raiding will carry over easily enough.

Rune of Power deserves special mention, as it is fairly well suited to Mythic+'s damage profile. There will be a bit of downtime between packs and most of your short-duration AoE is concentrated into Frozen Orb and Comet Storm, spells you can fit into a single Rune for extra AoE burst. As keys get higher, it will probably be better to shift back to Incanter's Flow and Splitting Ice due to the duration of trash packs.

3. Mythic+ Affixes

The way Mythic+ affixes are tiered in Battle for Azeroth has changed quite a bit since their launch in Legion.

There are now three weekly affixes and one seasonal affix. The first affix available instantly at level two, the second affix starts at level four, the third affix enabled at level seven, and finally the seasonal affix at level ten.

3.1. Tier One Affixes

• Fortified increases the Health pool of all non-boss enemies by 20% and damage dealt by 30%.
• Tyrannical increases the Health pool of boss enemies by 40% and their damage dealt by 15%.

Fortified and Tyrannical are the two affixes every player will see. These affixes shift the focus of dungeons from boss to trash depending on the week. During Tyrannical weeks players may want to take more single target and sustained damage oriented talents, but that will be both dungeon and key level dependent.

3.2. Tier Two Affixes

• Raging increases the damage dealt by enemies below 30% by 100% until they die. Your slows and freezes will come in handy if your tank dies when a pack is nearly dead due to the extra damage output. Kite, your life depends on it.
• Teeming adds additional trash mobs to certain packs throughout each dungeon.
• Bolstering buffs remaining enemies Health pools and damage dealt by 20% when an enemy dies nearby. To counter this affix, DPS all mobs down evenly and focus your casts into high Health mobs if there are any. Bolstering's range is 30 yards and you can hold a mob out of range through either Polymorph, or any of your roots, to prevent that mob from gaining stacks while others die.
• Sanguine places a pool of blood on the ground when a mob is slain. This pool will heal remaining enemies who stay inside the zone and also damage players. Take care to not utilize heavy slows during these weeks, and possibly spec out of Frigid Winds entirely so mobs get out of the pools quicker.
• Bursting forces enemy mobs to detonate when slain, afflicting the group with a stacking debuff that causes players to suffer 10% of their max Health in damage every four seconds. Ice Block will drop stacks applied to you if you are in danger of dying due to an uncontrolled amount of mobs dying.

3.3. Tier Three Affixes

• Volcanic spawns volcanic plumes underneath and around players when in combat with any enemy. When damaged by Volcanic, players suffer 50% of their maximum Health pool in damage. The more enemies you are in combat with, the more Volcanoes that will spawn. Ice Floes is fantastic at countering this, since you only need to sidestep slightly in most cases.
• Grievous afflicts players with a stacking DoT when they fall below 90%. Ice Block will not drop the stacks, but it will make you immune to the damage, giving your healer a chance to recover.
• Quaking will periodically attempt to interrupt casters by creating a damaging zone around each player. About 3 seconds after the zone forms, it will deal 20% maximum Health in damage to each player caught in the zone as well as interrupting any hard casts being finished during the shockwave. Try and Ice Barrier before it goes off to counter the damage taken, as Ice Barrier holds 22% of your total health.
• Explosive will occasionally spawn Explosive Orbs that need to be targeted and burned down within a short period of time or they will deal significant damage to the party. Explosive Orbs are not able to be cleaved, nor do they take damage from AoE, and the amount of orbs that spawn scales with the amount of enemies in combat. The damage can be prevented by being out of line of sight to the orb that explodes, however.
• Necrotic debuffs the target of enemy melee swings with stacking healing reduction and minor DoT. This is Frost's favoured affix. Slow everything, and let the tank run away to drop stacks. 85% AoE slow on Cone of Cold with Frigid Winds is the best in the game, utilize it.
• Skittish reduces the amount of threat generated by tanks throughout the dungeon. Invisibility will drop your threat once you fully fade out.

3.4. Seasonal Affix

Infested is the seasonal affix for the launch of Battle for Azeroth. Enemies afflicted with the Infested debuff will be scattered throughout each dungeon once you reach key level ten. These mobs will heal enemies around them and when slain, will spawn two Spawn of G'huun that will attempt to infest remaining enemies.

There are several ways to handle Infested mobs depending on pack size, which mob is infested, and group composition. The first way to handle an Infested enemy is to burn down the infested target and the subsequently spawning Spawn of G'huun while either crowd controlling or ignoring the other mobs in the pack. The second way is to crowd control the Infested mob and burn down all the other enemies. After you kill and infested mob and the Spawns of G'huun spawn, Frost Mages can slow and freeze the Spawn, although be careful to not freeze mobs the tank may be kiting away from it.

4. Mythic+ Azerite Traits

Almost all the Frost Mage traits are linked to single target spells. While some are fine to use in general, there are a couple of outliers:

• Whiteout is likely the best spec-specific trait due to the Frozen Orb cooldown reduction.
• Tunnel of Ice and Winter's Reach should both be avoided if possible for Mythic+. Both are single target, attached to hard casts, and Tunnel of Ice resets on hitting a new target ensuring you'll never get much benefit from it in this situation.

5. ChangeLog

• 06 Aug. 2018: Updated with preliminary BfA tips.

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