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Table of Contents
General Information
On this page, we list your Frost Mage core abilities and how they should be used together (rotation) in World of Warcraft Legion 7.3.5. We also explain when to use your various cooldowns. Then, we go deeper and present all the subtleties that you will need to know if you want to excel at playing a Frost Mage.
The other pages of our Frost Mage guide can be accessed from the table of contents on the right.
About Our Author and Reviewer
This guide has been written by Furty, who has an illustrious history in the World of Warcraft raiding scene and race for World First. He has been a member of guilds such as Serenity, Midwinter, and many more, and is currently raiding in Future. He plays most classes at the highest level. You can follow him on Twitter and watch him play on Twitch.
This guide has been reviewed and approved by Kuni, one of the best Frost Mages in the world, who raids in Midnight Sanctuary.
1. Ability Priority List for Frost Mage
The rotation of a Frost Mage consists in the following priority list.
- Cooldowns
- Lonely Winter
- Glacial Spike
- Rune of Power
- Mirror Image
- Ray of Frost
- Ice Nova
- AoE
- Cast
Ice Lance if Winter's Chill is applied and/or you have just cast 
Flurry. - Cast
Rune of Power if 
Icy Veins is off cooldown, you have reached or are about to reach
2 charges of Rune of Power, or the boss will die before Icy Veins will come of off cooldown. - Cast
Mirror Image when available. - Cast
Ice Nova after your Ice Lance cast when Winter's Chill is applied to the target. - Cast
Frozen Orb when available. - Cast Rune of Power if talented, before periods where you will deal high burst damage.
- Cast Flurry when you have
Brain Freeze available. Special cases are:
Ebonbolt was your previous cast and you already had a charge of
Brain Freeze. If this is the case the combo is as follows:- These combos can chain. For example, if you have Brain Freeze and then perform the
Frostbolt-> Flurry-> Ice Lance combo, the chance to proc an additional Brain Freeze
will occur after the Flurry cast, allowing you to recast the combo (and potentially generate a string of
combos) following the Ice Lance.
- Cast
Frost Bomb if talented, it is not applied to a target already, and you will trigger it with a minimum of 1 
Fingers of Frost. - Cast Ice Lance if you are at 3 charges of Fingers of Frost. If Icy Veins will be up
within 10 seconds or less, you should save 2+ charges for its activation instead.
- Cast Ice Nova.
- Cast Ice Lance as a filler if you have Fingers of Frost.
- Cast Frostbolt as a filler spell.
See our Opening Sequence for instructions on what to cast when the fight starts.
1.1. Without Lonely Winter
When playing without 
Lonely Winter, you must make use of your Water
Elemental and its abilities to boost your flow of 
Fingers of Frost procs.
Water Jet and 
Freeze share a cooldown. Freeze should
be used when at least two rootable adds are present and you want to instantly
generate Fingers of Frost. Water Jet should be used when no
rootable targets are present. If you play with your Water Elemental on assist
you might experience some levels of frustration with these abilities, as the
ability range is significantly shorter than the attack range of the Water
Elemental. This can be mitigated by micro managing your Water Elemental with
pet macros.
2. Important Notes for Frost Mage
2.1. AoE
Dealing AoE damage is very straightforward as a Frost Mage. You should
cast Blizzard on cooldown when 2+ targets are present, regardless of talent
selection. 
Freezing Rain no longer affects number of targets
required and will be taken advantage of passively.
Cone of Cold should only be used for a DPS gain when 18+ targets
are available, though it can be useful as a tool for kiting or an instant
cast to fill movement on AoE. Do note than even an unempowered 
Ice Lance
is more worthwhile for movement on a single target, so it should only be
used in this fashion if several targets are present.
2.2. Frost Bomb
Frost Bomb is a rather unique ability. This ability is
especially effective in dungeons, encounters with waves of adds, or encounters
that require burst AoE.
If you use Frost Bomb, then you want to apply it only
when you know that, in the next 12 seconds, you will be able to cast at least
2 Ice Lances buffed with Fingers of Frost. For this reason,
you should cast Frost Bomb with very high priority when one of the following is true:
- You have at least 1 charge of Fingers of Frost or;
- Frozen Orb is about to come off cooldown;
Water Jet/
Freeze is about to come off cooldown;
You should also refrain from spending charges of Fingers of Frost
while Frost Bomb is not applied. Only do so if you have only
1 charge and it is about to expire.
2.3. Tier 3 Talents
2.3.1. Rune of Power
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 are about to cast Icy Veins. You should re-cast
Rune of Power when it expires during Icy Veins if
it is available.
- Try to combine Ray of Frost with Rune of Power
whenever possible.
- Frozen Orb is off cooldown.
- Water Jet/ Freeze is off cooldown.
The ideal way to play around Rune of Power is to save charges
of Fingers of Frost when any of the above are true, then place the
Rune of Power and dump all your charges of
Fingers of Frost. Use any of the above abilities to regenerate
charges of Fingers of Frost and spend them while the
Rune of Power is active. If you are talented into any abilities
that deal a burst of damage, such as 
Glacial Spike or
Ice Nova, you should also try and line them up with a
Rune of Power where possible. Using this ability to maximum
efficiency revolves around concentrating as much burst as possible within the
large damage buff the rune provides.
2.3.2. Mirror Image
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 synchronise 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, which is best if
they will last for at least 10 seconds. 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.
2.3.3. Incanter's Flow
The stacks of this talent should be ignored unless you are very confident in your ability
to correctly optimize according to the current period within the
Incanter's Flow cycle. It is recommended you focus on executing
the rest of your specialization correctly since fixating on the Incanter's
stacks generally leads to a DPS loss unless executed perfectly.
2.4. Water Jet
Water Jet is an ability your Water Elemental gains. It is a
4-second channel that deals damage to your target. While the spell is being channelled, a debuff is
applied on your target and causes you to generate a charge of
Fingers of Frost when you hit the target with 
Frostbolt.
To make the most of the 4-second duration of the debuff, you need to cast
Frostbolt twice before casting Ice Lance
immediately after the second Frostbolt, while the debuff is active. The
reason why you should not wait before casting Ice Lance is because each
Frostbolt has 2 chances to generate a charge of Fingers of Frost:
the 100% chance from Water Jet and the usual 15% chance it always has. So, you
can generate up to 4 charges of Fingers of Frost with 2 Frostbolts
during Water Jet, and casting Ice Lance immediately after the second Frostbolt
allows you to consume a charge of Fingers of Frost, making enough room for the
charge(s) from the second Frostbolt.
Finally, it is important to note that the Water Jet debuff is applied on the
target 1 second (reduced by Haste) after the Water Elemental starts channeling
Water Jet. You need to pay attention to that, so that your first
Frostbolt does not hit the target before the debuff is applied.
2.5. Glacial Spike and Ghost Icicles
Ghost Icicles occur when your target dies while a Frostbolt is in
flight. The Icicles counter, which enables use of Glacial Spike,
increments on-cast, while the damage value of each Icicle is not calculated
until impact. This can also occur in situations with "chance to miss" mechanics,
such as the 
Concealing Murk present on Mistress Sassz'ine. The
bottom line is that while the counter increments upwards, you do not actually
get an Icicle, forcing you to fire a sixth Frostbolt to overflow your
Icicles.
3. 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 2 major concepts that form the central core of optimizing for success:
- overlapping priority cooldowns and Fingers of Frost generators;
- 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.
3.1. Cooldown Overlap and Maximizing Cleave
Frost Mage has a variety of talents and abilities that work together in
synergy, and therefore they are best combined for an explosive result. In order
to achieve the best possible damage output, it is essentially you line up these
cooldowns and abilities. For example, if you are playing with
Thermal Void, you will want to ensure that
Frozen Orb and Water Jet will be available when you use
Icy Veins, as this will provide a significant extension to
Icy Veins via the sheer amount of Fingers of Frost you will
be casting. If you are playing 
Splitting Ice and Frost Bomb
on an encounter heavily populated by adds, you will want to ensure Frozen Orb
and Water Jet are ready for your Frost Bomb, so you can
instantly be pumping out burst AoE damage and cleaving Ice Lances.
Ultimately, Frost Mage is primarily about abusing your
Fingers of Frost 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
Icy Veins is about to come off cooldown, for example, start
thinking about the ways you are going to get as many damaging spells off as
possible while it is active. 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!
3.2. Movement Management
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 Floes should be used when you are capped on
charges, or when you know you will finish an entire Frostbolt
cast while moving. 
Ice Barrier is a good choice when you only
need to take a few steps, as it only costs a single GCD. 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 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.
3.3. Opening Sequence for Frost Mage
We advise you to use the following opening sequence (or opener).
- Use
Potion of Prolonged Power - Pre-cast Mirror Image if talented.
- Pre-cast Ebonbolt at 3 seconds on the countdown
- Cast Rune of Power if talented.
- Activate Icy Veins.
- Cast Flurry.
- Cast Ice Lance.
- Cast Frozen Orb.
- Apply Frost Bomb, if talented.
- Dump Fingers of Frost charges.
- Place your Rune of Power when the first expires, if talented.
- Use Frostbolt as a filler and cast
Glacial Spike whenever available. - Re-apply Frost Bomb if necessary.
- Dump Fingers of Frost charges.
- Spend Brain Freeze whenever available.
- Spend Fingers of Frost.
- Follow normal priority.
4. ChangeLog
- 05 Mar. 2018: Removed Tier 20 2-piece bonus rotational checkbox.
- 25 Nov. 2017: Changed a rotational line addressing Glacial Spike and updated the AoE section.
- 28 Aug. 2017: Added a "Glacial Spike and Ghost Icicles" section. Improved AoE section.
- 20 Aug. 2017: Expanded "Without Lonely Winter" section.
- 19 Aug. 2017: Added rotational checkbox for Lonely Winter (removing mentions of Water Elemental abilities when checked).
- 06 Jul. 2017: Updated the Ability Priority List (re-ordered some lines to more accurately represent current talent build, added new checkboxes for talents, and some new information added).
- 12 Jun. 2017: No changes needed for Patch 7.2.5. A section about T20 set bonuses and how they influence the rotation will be added at a later time.
- 27 Mar. 2017: No changes needed for Patch 7.2.
- 13 Feb. 2017: Updated the opener.
- 11 Jan. 2017: Removed some leftover mentions of abilities that were reworked.
- 09 Jan. 2017: Updated for Patch 7.1.5.
- 26 Oct. 2016: Updated for 7.1!
- 05 Sep. 2016: Simplified rotation by adding checkboxes to hide or reveal specific lines (cooldown, talents, AoE, etc.).
- 29 Aug. 2016: Updated for Legion's launch.
- 18 Jul. 2016: Updated for the Legion pre-patch.
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