Frost Mage DPS Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities — Shadowlands 9.2
On this page, you will learn how to optimize the rotation of your Frost Mage in both single-target and multiple-target situations. We also have advanced sections about cooldowns, procs, etc. in order to minmax your DPS. All our content is updated for World of Warcraft — Shadowlands 9.2.
If you were looking for TBC Classic content, please refer to our TBC Classic Frost Mage rotation.
Single Target Ability Priority List for Frost Mage
The Basics
At its most basic, the premise of Frost Mage is to spam
Frostbolt until you gain a proc.
Fingers of Frost allows you to cast
Ice Lance and gain the
benefits of the frozen state.
Brain Freeze wants you to use a cast
time spell, like Frostbolt, going into the instant cast
Flurry, and
then follow up with 2 Ice Lances to consume the 2 remaining
Winter's Chill charges.
This Frostbolt >
Flurry >
Ice Lance >
Ice Lance 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 and movement 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.
PvP plays slightly differently, favouring burst windows rather than sustained DPS of PvE. More information about PvP can be found in our PvP guide found here:
The Rotation
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.
- Kyrian
- Necrolord
- Night Fae
- Venthyr
- Cast
Icy Veins.
- Cast
Rune of Power, after the one from
Icy Veins fades.
- Cast
Comet Storm, if talented, and
Winter's Chill is active on target.
- Cast
Ice Lance if you have
Fingers of Frost.
- Cast
Ice Lance whenever there are charges of
Winter's Chill on the target.
- Cast
Flurry if you have
Brain Freeze and you have just cast
Frostbolt.
- Cast
Frozen Orb.
- Cast
Blizzard if there are 3 or more targets that will get hit by it.
- Cast
Frostbolt.
Where's Shifting Power?
Multiple Target Priority for Frost Mage
The AoE priority system should kick in when you are fighting 3 or more mobs, dropping to the above rotations once you fall below.
Icy Veins
Rune of Power, after the one from
Icy Veins fades.
- Cast
Frozen Orb
- Cast
Blizzard
- Cast
Comet Storm, if talented.
- Cast
Flurry if you have
Brain Freeze available.
- Cast
Ice Lance if you have
Fingers of Frost available.
- Cast
Arcane Explosion if you are above 10% Mana, or 30% if you need to
Spellsteal anything in the pull.
- Cast
Frostbolt.
When using Glacial Fragments, at 3+ targets, an unempowered
Ice Lance replaces
Frostbolt and
Arcane Explosion as
your fillers.
Frost Mage Necrolord Multitarget in 9.2
After obtaining Unity, wearing either
Slick Ice or
Cold Front, and your Tier bonuses, you change how you approach 2+
target encounters.
During Deathborne, you do not cast
Ice Lance or
Blizzard. The idea is to stack up
Death's Fathom as much as
possible, and use
Brain Freeze to
Shatter your Frostbolts
instead. In the last 4 seconds of Deathborne's duration, dump your
Fingers of Frost with what is hopefully over 100 stacks of Death's
Fathom.
Core Concepts for Frost Mage
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:
- always be casting;
- movement management;
- proc management;
- maximizing cleave.
Movement Management
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.
Alter Time is likewise useful in terms of movement. Casting it
just after getting a raid mechanic you have to deal with by moving out of
the raid will make your return instantaneous. In terms of DPS throughput,
using Alter Time as a movement ability is always better than a heal, unless
your healers are overwhelmed and you will likely die without it.
Proc Management
Use Fingers of Frost and
Brain Freeze as they come: Fingers of
Frost, through straight
Ice Lance casts, and Brain Freeze, through the
primary
Frostbolt >
Flurry > Ice Lance > Ice Lance combo. Now,
there are situations in which you have mentally committed yourself to going
into your Frostbolt > Flurry > Ice Lance > 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.
For further information on how and why the Frostbolt > Flurry > Ice Lance > 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.
Maximizing Cleave
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 or if the boss is going to be moved. 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!
Opening Sequence for Frost Mage
We advise you to use the following opening sequence (or opener).
- Pre-cast
Frostbolt at 2 seconds on the countdown.
- Activate
Icy Veins.
- Use
Potion of Phantom Fire.
- Cast
Frozen Orb.
- Follow your normal priority.
Tier 3 Talents
Rune of Power
Rune of Power is incredibly strong. On-demand 40% damage boost for
12 seconds, which can either be dropped every 45 seconds or will
automatically drop when you cast
Icy Veins is very hard to match.
This talent will also allow you to take advantage of vulnerability phases
better, something Frost has traditionally struggled with.
Focus Magic
Focus Magic is an interesting talent. On the one hand, a purely
selfish maximum DPS use should see all Frost Mages in any given group trade
it around. This will produce higher damage than even
Rune of Power.
However, it may be advisable to spec into it and give it to a non-Frost Mage
in certain scenarios, such as if you are playing an undergeared alt. Granting
5% Critical Strike to spells to a fully geared party member is
disproportionately strong compared to what a fresh character can do in terms
of DPS. Likewise, it might be worthwhile in cases where a healer needs just a
little bit extra throughput.
Incanter's Flow
It is never advisable to try and game Incanter's Flow. You lose too
many potential procs over the course of a fight, and it only takes one or two
lost to make the endeavour a waste.
Changelog
- 15 Mar. 2022: Added Comet Storm placement in rotation.
- 22 Feb. 2022: Updated for 9.2 and added a subsection on how Deathborne changes rotation in multi-target.
- 26 Jan. 2022: Minor clarification on Mirrors of Torment's reasoning for skipping the Shatter combo.
- 01 Nov. 2021: Reviewed and approved for Patch 9.1.5.
- 28 Jun. 2021: Reviewed and approved for Patch 9.1.
- 09 Mar. 2021: Reviewed for Patch 9.0.5.
- 16 Jan. 2021: Minor clarification added to Glacial Fragments.
- 18 Dec. 2020: Updated for Glacial Fragment usage.
- 23 Nov. 2020: Updated for Shadowlands launch, adding information about where to cast Covenant abilities.
- 05 Nov. 2020: Updated AoE rotation, adding BF-Flurry and removing Cone of Cold.
- 17 Oct. 2020: Fixed a missing note for Blizzard in cleave.
- 14 Oct. 2020: Added Fingers of Frost Ice Lance to single target rotation.
- 12 Oct. 2020: Page updated for the Shadowlands pre-patch.
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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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