Frost Mage DPS Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities — Battle for Azeroth (BfA) 8.2.5

At its most basic, the premise of Frost Mage is to spam Frostbolt until you can cast Glacial Spike. Fingers of Frost should be utilized only while moving, by casting Ice Lance. Brain Freeze wants you to use a cast time spell, like Frostbolt or Glacial Spike, going into the instant cast Flurry.

This Glacial Spike > Flurry combo is the heart of the spec, and if you have that committed to memory, then the rest is simple. Anything beyond it is simply cooldown management. The priority lists below will showcase where exactly they are to be used optimally, but as long as they are being used at all, your damage should not suffer too severely.

At the current gear level, Ice Lance has fallen out of usage entirely, barring movement filler.

There is also a different build that focuses on Packed Ice, and pumping out as much damage as possible into the 14-second window it provides. Information on this "Frozen Orb build" can be found here, or by scrolling down.

This is a priority system, not a rotation. This means things higher up have priority over things lower on the list, rather than cast them in this order. You would go down the list until you hit the first thing that is true, cast that spell, then go back to the top and start again. This of course assumes raw single target with no mechanics. Please do not go throwing Icy Veins into an immunity phase.

Use the switches below to tailor the rotation to the talents you are using or situations you expect to be facing, and it will populate the rotation priority list appropriately:

You never want to cast Glacial Spike without it either hitting 2 targets, or being Shattered using Brain Freeze. In addition, Glacial Spike builds still cast Ebonbolt on cooldown, but choose to keep or spend the Brain Freeze depending on how many Icicles they currently have. 0-3 choose to Shatter the Ebonbolt, and 4-5 hold onto it for Glacial Spike.

• Cleave
• Ice Nova
• Mirror Image
• Rune of Power
• Ebonbolt
• Freezing Rain
• Comet Storm

1. Cast Condensed Life-Force, if equipped.
2. Cast Mirror Image.
3. Cast Icy Veins.
4. Place a Rune of Power, if any of these is true:
   • the target will die in the next 25 seconds;
   • Frozen Orb has just been cast;
   • you have 5 Icicles and Brain Freeze is up, and Rune of Power will be available for the next Frozen Orb;
   • you have 5 Icicles and Brain Freeze is not up, but Ebonbolt is talented and off cooldown and, Rune of Power will be available for the next Frozen Orb.
5. Cast Ice Nova if Winter's Chill is on the target.
6. Cast Flurry if you have Brain Freeze and you have just cast Glacial Spike.
7. Cast any other Azerite Essence that is currently equipped.
8. Cast Frozen Orb.
9. Cast Blizzard if 3 targets are in range.
   • You only need 2 targets in range, if Blizzard is currently instant cast due to being talented into Freezing Rain.
10. Cast Comet Storm.
11. Cast Ebonbolt if you are currently at 5 Icicles and do not have a Brain Freeze for Glacial Spike.
12. Cast Glacial Spike only if you have Brain Freeze or it will impact the target at 5 Incanter's Flow stacks.
13. Cast Ice Nova.
14. Cast Frostbolt.

• Cleave
• Ice Nova
• Mirror Image
• Rune of Power
• Ebonbolt
• Freezing Rain
• Comet Storm
• Ray of Frost

1. Cast Ice Lance after every Flurry cast.
2. Cast Condensed Life-Force, if equipped.
3. Cast Mirror Image.
4. Cast Icy Veins.
5. Place a Rune of Power if either of these is true:
   • the target will die in the next 25 seconds;
   • you have just cast Frozen Orb;
   • any of Ray of Frost, Ebonbolt, or Comet Storm are talented and off cooldown;
6. Cast Ice Nova if Winter's Chill is still up after your Ice Lance's Global Cooldown.
7. Flurry if you have Brain Freeze and you have just cast either Ebonbolt or Frostbolt.
8. Cast any other Azerite Essence that is currently equipped.
9. Cast Frozen Orb.
10. Cast Blizzard if 3 targets are in range.
    • You only need 2 targets in range, if Blizzard is instant cast, due to being talented into Freezing Rain.
11. Cast Ice Lance if you have Fingers of Frost.
12. Cast Ray of Frost, as long as Frozen Orb is not on the field.
13. Cast Comet Storm.
14. Cast Ebonbolt.
15. Cast Blizzard on 2 targets.
16. Cast Blizzard on a single target if it is instant cast, due to being talented into Freezing Rain.
17. Cast Ice Nova.
18. Cast Frostbolt.

The AoE priority system should kick in when you are fighting 5 or more mobs, dropping to the above rotations once you fall below.

Special consideration should be used for Freeze. This will let you get a free Shatter on a group of mobs. Try and pair it with Comet Storm, right as it impacts. It will not work on all the comets, but it should Shatter most. If possible, try and follow that Freeze with Cone of Cold to get the most out of the frozen window.

Use the switches below to tailor the rotation to the talents you are using or situations you expect to be facing, and it will populate the rotation priority list appropriately:

• Ice Nova
• Mirror Image
• Rune of Power
• Ebonbolt
• Comet Storm
• Ray of Frost
• Glacial Spike

1. Cast Condensed Life-Force, if equipped.
2. Cast Mirror Image.
3. Icy Veins
4. Place a Rune of Power after a Frozen Orb cast.
5. Cast any other Azerite Essence you have equipped.
6. Cast Frozen Orb
7. Cast Blizzard
8. Cast Comet Storm.
9. Cast Freeze, if you just used Comet Storm.
10. Cast Cone of Cold
11. Cast Ice Nova.
12. Cast Flurry using the above single-target list conditionals, based on if you have Glacial Spike or not.
13. Cast Ray of Frost.
14. Cast Ebonbolt.
15. Cast Glacial Spike.
16. Cast Frostbolt.

Frost Mage is an extremely straightforward specialization, however, it offers enough choice and flexibility that understanding the fundamental concepts of the spec is paramount to success. There are 4 major concepts that form the central core of optimizing for success:

1. always be casting;
2. movement management;
3. proc management;
4. maximizing cleave.

Managing movement is a fundamental skill shared by all the caster classes in World of Warcraft and the Mage class lends itself beautifully to dealing with high movement. Learning to fully maximize efficiency with respect to movement is extremely important for all the Mage specializations.

While it is difficult to describe the best ways to position and move during a dungeon or raid encounter, it is essential to your success as a Frost Mage. Ice Floes charges set an important balance; it is important to refrain from overusing these and leaving yourself with nothing when it actually matters, but you also want to avoid letting Ice Floes sit at 3 charges when you are moving. Try and use Blink for urgent movement — when you need to travel from one place to another as quickly as possible. Ice Barrier is a good choice when you only need to take a few steps, as it only costs a single global cooldown. For phases with predictable high movement, you should treat Ice Floes as a DPS cooldown and plan your charge usage accordingly. If you are playing with Shimmer talented, you should be using this as a pseudo Ice Floes as it does not interrupt your cast when used. Frost is an especially powerful specialization with respect to movement, as you have a variety of spells that are instant cast. You can save charges of Fingers of Frost for predictable movement and use these globals to cover the entire distance travelled. Finally, always try to position yourself in a location central to fight movement. For example, if the boss is being moved in a circle, try to stay on the inside of the kite path to ensure minimal movement.

Proc management differs slightly depending on if you are talented into Glacial Spike or not. Non-Glacial Spike variants wish to, ideally, use Fingers of Frost and Brain Freeze as they come: Fingers of Frost, through straight Ice Lance casts, and Brain Freeze, through the primary cast time spell > Flurry > Ice Lance combo. Now, there are situations in which you have mentally committed yourself to going into your Frostbolt > Flurry > Ice Lance, but you proc Fingers of Frost on that Frostbolt. Almost no human can react that quickly, and the optimal play is to simply continue with what spells you had queued, and lose the Fingers of Frost proc. It is unfortunate, but that is the optimal breakdown in that situation.

In Glacial Spike talent sets, the play is slightly different. Brain Freeze is saved for Glacial Spike casts, and Fingers of Frost is only utilized if you need to move. Ice Lance is never cast outside of movement, breaking a core tenant of Frost design. Until Flash Freeze is fixed, this will remain true.

For further information on how and why the cast time spell > Flurry > Ice Lance combo works, see this section on the FAQ page.

There is never a situation in which you will fire two Flurrys back to back. Likewise, there is never a situation in which you go Frostbolt > Flurry > Ice Lance > Flurry > Ice Lance. You always have a cast time spell — Frostbolt, Ebonbolt, or Glacial Spike — preceding Flurry, regardless of talent setup.

Ultimately, Frost Mage is primarily about abusing your casts in a way that is suitable to the situation. There are an enormous amount of possibilities, synergies, and overlaps that will provide an advantageous result. It is important, therefore, that you as a player think carefully about how you can use your spells in a way that makes sense. Try to avoid using your major abilities haphazardly or without thinking, as this will invariably result in you losing a lot of damage. When your Frozen Orb is about to come off cooldown, for example, start thinking about the ways you are going to cleave with it. Check your boss timers to see how you can line it up for a phase with increased damage dealt or AoE. A lot of this might seem like common sense, but you would be surprised how uncommon that is!

We advise you to use the following opening sequence (or opener).

1. Use Potion of Unbridled Fury.
2. Cast Condensed Life-Force, if equipped.
3. Pre-cast Mirror Image, if talented.
4. Pre-cast Frostbolt at 2 seconds on the countdown.
5. Activate Icy Veins.
6. Cast any other Azerite Essence equipped.
7. Cast Frozen Orb.
8. Place your Rune of Power, if talented.
9. Use large damage cooldown spells, such as Comet Storm.
10. Follow your normal priority.

Rune of Power is very strong in the right situations, but it does alter the play style in some notable ways. While the ways to fully take advantage of this ability are many and varied, some of the best ways to use this ability are when combined with any of the following:

• You just threw Frozen Orb.
• You are at 5 Icicles and ready to cast Glacial Spike, and the cooldown of Rune of Power will be up for the next Frozen Orb.
• If not talented into Glacial Spike, pair it with Frozen Orb. Use the extra charges for Comet Storm and Ray of Frost.

Functionally, if you just threw Frozen Orb, you should be casting Rune of Power next. The extra charges should be spent either on large cooldowns like Comet Storm and Ray of Frost if you're not specced for Glacial Spike, and Glacial Spike if you are.

Whenever possible, it is best to synchronize the usage of Icy Veins and Mirror Image. If you delay Mirror Image for Icy Veins and end up casting Mirror Image just as many times as if you had cast it on cooldown, then it is more efficient to delay it and synchronize it with Icy Veins. If this is not the case, or Mirror Image will help you meet a damage check, it is best used on cooldown. For example, on a fight that lasts exactly 4 minutes, you are better off delaying Mirror Image for your second cast of Icy Veins rather than casting Mirror Image again around the 2:00 mark and then Icy Veins around the 3:00 mark. The window for this cooldown overlap is quite tight, as Mirror Image lasts 40 seconds. Therefore, you only have a 20-second window available before you would have been able to get an extra Mirror Image cast off. There are cases when Mirror Image will need to be slightly delayed, for example, if the boss has an immunity phase. If this happens, you should always delay Mirror Image for the next Icy Veins.

If you are not acutely aware of the duration and timings of any given encounter, always cast Mirror Image on cooldown.

A first for Mages, Incanter's Flow is worth paying attention to in Frost. However, it is simply used as a backup for when your luck with Brain Freeze has failed. Your goal is to have Glacial Spike impact the target when you are at 5 stacks of Incanter's Flow, when you do not have a Brain Freeze, but are at 5 Icicles. Due to Haste, there is no hard and fast rule for this, and it will be something you must experiment with.

With a very specific Azerite setup, there is a gameplay option that opens up, which is somewhat different than the traditional Frost style. This requires 3 Packed Ice, and prefers 1 Flash Freeze for the Fingers of Frost chance, and at least 1 Whiteout for the Frozen Orb cooldown reduction. The last trait should be another Whiteout or something like Treacherous Covenant that provides a boost that benefits Ice Lance's large spell power coefficient.

Due to this playstyle's reliance on Ice Lance, Mastery's value drops significantly, although it is not useless. Minimizing Mastery on your gear is very helpful, and properly itemized sets can match or even beat traditional Frost DPS even on single target fights.

Talents for this option can be found on our talent page.

Information on how to simulate this playstyle may be found on our simulation page.

The rotation can be simplified to "stack as much into Packed Ice as possible". It also breaks a number of normal Frost's rules, such as ignoring preceding Flurry with a cast time spell, but only during Packed Ice. Ray of Frost is used mostly to fuel Fingers of Frost procs, not so much for the damage the spell itself does, which is why it is interrupted as soon as you cap out at 2 procs, even if it is not finished casting.

1. Cast Ice Lance after every Flurry cast.
2. Cast Condensed Life-Force, if equipped.
3. Cast Icy Veins if Frozen Orb is either available or will be up in the next 4 seconds.
4. Cast Rune of Power directly after your Frozen Orb.
5. Cast any other Azerite Essence you have equipped.
6. Cast Frozen Orb on cooldown.
7. Cast Ice Lance when you have Fingers of Frost, but try and save a single proc if Frozen Orb is coming up in the next 4 seconds, thereby allowing an extra cast inside Packed Ice.
8. Cast Blizzard if it is currently instant cast, due to being talented into Freezing Rain.
9. Cast Flurry if Brain Freeze is up, and:
   1. if Packed Ice is not on the target, after a Frostbolt, like the standard rotation, or;
   2. if Packed Ice is on the target, immediately.
10. Cast Ray of Frost, if talented, when Packed Ice is on the target, and interrupt it as soon as you hit two Fingers of Frost.
11. Cast Blizzard on cooldown, even on a single target.
12. Cast Frostbolt.

Due to stacking as much into Packed Ice as possible, this build is optimal on sustained cleave fights such as Restless Cabal, although it is slightly behind other versions of Frost for single target. It is an interesting gameplay alternative for those with the gear to pull it off and a desire to try something different.