Frost Mage DPS Spec, Builds, and Talents in Battle for Azeroth (BfA) 8.0.1
Table of Contents
General Information
On this page, we present the viable talent choices for Frost Mages in World of Warcraft Battle for Azeroth 8.0.1. We detail what each of the talents do and in which situations they should be taken.
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. Talent Choices for Frost Mage
| Level | Choices | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 15 |
✔
Bone Chilling
|
✔
Lonely Winter
|
✘
Ice Nova
|
| 30 |
✘
Glacial Insulation
|
✔
Shimmer
|
✔
Ice Floes
|
| 45 |
✔
Incanter's Flow
|
✘
Mirror Image
|
✘
Rune of Power
|
| 60 |
✔
Frozen Touch
|
?
Chain Reaction
|
✔
Ebonbolt
|
| 75 |
?
Frigid Winds
|
?
Ice Ward
|
?
Ring of Frost
|
| 90 |
✔
Freezing Rain
|
✔
Splitting Ice
|
✔
Comet Storm
|
| 100 |
✔
Thermal Void
|
✔
Ray of Frost
|
✔
Glacial Spike
|
Talents can be freely changed when out of combat and in a rested XP area
(such as an inn or a capital city). Moreover, 
Tome of the Tranquil Mind
and 
Codex of the Tranquil Mind can be used to temporarily allow
players to change talents anywhere, as long as they are out of
combat.
2. Talent Cheat Sheets for Frost Mage
While optimizing talents on a contextual basis is the highly recommended method of setting up your build, the talent builds listed below work great for specific purposes.
2.1. Single Target
- Level 15:
Bone Chilling - Level 30:
Ice Floes - Level 45:
Incanter's Flow - Level 60:
Ebonbolt - Level 75:
Frigid Winds - Level 90:
Comet Storm - Level 100:
Glacial Spike
2.2. Heavy Cleave/AOE
- Level 15: Bone Chilling
- Level 30: Ice Floes
- Level 45: Incanter's Flow
- Level 60: Ebonbolt
- Level 75: Frigid Winds
- Level 90:
Splitting Ice - Level 100: Glacial Spike
3. Tier 1 (Level 15) Talents for Frost Mage
|
✔
Bone Chilling
|
✔
Lonely Winter
|
✘
Ice Nova
|
- Bone Chilling causes all chill effects to stack a buff on you,
increasing all spell damage dealt by 0.5% per stack for 8 seconds, stacking
up to 10 times. Functionally it is a flat 5% boost to all spells.
Lonely Winter removes your ability to cast
Summon Water Elemental, but your basic single target spells
(
Frostbolt, 
Ice Lance, and 
Flurry) are
empowered to deal 25% increased damage.
Ice Nova is a short AoE burst cooldown, dealing higher damage
to the primary target. Also freezes everything hit for 2 seconds.
Bone Chilling is one of the go-to options for single target
and improving for AoE due to it increasing all our damage. This is the
optimal talent between the two, however the lead is minor. Most of the
benefit is that it buffs Glacial Spike, where
Lonely Winter does not. Keeping the Water Elemental allows
Freeze usage, further increasing our AoE
potential by 
Shattering trash packs.
Lonely Winter is the other go-to option. Between this and
Bone Chilling, you have the option to not use the pet depending on
preference. It trades not buffing Frozen Orb,
Blizzard, and losing the Freeze potential of
keeping the Elemental at the exchange of greater power on your primary single
target spells.
Ice Nova is currently too weak to be considered for anything,
including AoE.
4. Tier 2 (Level 30) Talents for Frost Mage
|
✘
Glacial Insulation
|
✔
Shimmer
|
✔
Ice Floes
|
Glacial Insulation causes 
Ice Barrier to increase
armour by 200%. 
Ice Block also applies Ice Barrier to
you when it fades.
Shimmer replaces your 
Blink ability. It functions
exactly the same as Blink, except it is off the Global Cooldown,
is a 20-second cooldown instead of 15, does not interrupt spellcasting, and
it does not break stuns.- Ice Floes has 3 charges and each charge allows a spell to be
cast while moving.
Glacial Insulation in theory fits on this row by allowing you
to take more damage before moving, but this does not pan out in practice. If
there were ever a mechanic that dealt physical damage, was unavoidable, and
extra armour value would be the difference between life and death, then this
talent might see usage. Being that almost all unavoidable damage is magical
in nature, this is an incredibly unlikely event and thus it is a dead
talent.
The choice here is between Shimmer and Ice Floes.
Both functionally provide one spell's worth of movement every 20 seconds; the
difference being do you need to move 20 yards, or do you need to move a
couple of steps? The choice is ultimately up to the player's comfort with
each talent.
Shimmer simply lets you 
Blink without interrupting
a cast, or incurring a Global Cooldown. This is incredibly powerful, but you
trade a longer cooldown and the ability to break stuns and roots for this
power.
Ice Floes is not all that great on talent sets that take
Thermal Void, or do not take Ebonbolt, due to no cast
being longer than 2 seconds before Haste. On Ray of Frost and
Glacial Spike sets however, the ability to cast while moving can
be invaluable, especially when an encounter requires you stay with the group
but dodge abilities. Due to charge protection code, a charge will not actually
be consumed if Ice Floes is cast in the last 500 milliseconds of a spell's
cast time.
5. Tier 3 (Level 45) Talents for Frost Mage
|
✔
Incanter's Flow
|
✘
Mirror Image
|
✘
Rune of Power
|
Tier 3 talents are focused on providing the player a consistent damage increase.
- Incanter's Flow increases your damage between 4% and 20%, cycling
every 10 seconds.
Mirror Image creates 3 copies of yourself which damage enemies and
last 40 seconds.
Rune of Power places a small zone which increases the damage you do
by 40% for 10 seconds. This ability has a 40-second cooldown, with 2
charges.
Incanter's Flow is the best talent in virtually all situations.
It is not worth trying to game the buff.
Mirror Image should not be used in most cases. There is a
potentially rare use case involving the threat fade effect on it that can be
useful for soloing hard hitting mobs, or extremely low tank DPS making threat
actually matter.
Rune of Power offers superior burst but worse average output
than Incanter's Flow. Frost lacks powerful burst to make up for
Rune of Power's lower average output.
6. Tier 4 (Level 60) Talents for Frost Mage
|
✔
Frozen Touch
|
?
Chain Reaction
|
✔
Ebonbolt
|
Frozen Touch increases the proc chance of
Fingers of Frost and 
Brain Freeze from
Frostbolt.- Chain Reaction increases your Ice Lance damage
every time you cast an Ice Lance that is considered frozen, such as with
Fingers of Frost or against something under the effects of
Winter's Chill. - Ebonbolt is a heavily damaging spell that generates a
Brain Freeze on cast.
Frozen Touch is a multiplicative increase to the proc rates on
Frostbolt, not additive. That is to say,
Fingers of Frost becomes 18% from 15%, not 35%.
Brain Freeze similarly goes to 30% from 25%, rather than 45%.
Almost exactly the same DPS as Ebonbolt, so pick whichever feels
better personally.
Chain Reaction is functionally
Magtheridon's Banished Bracers that only works on frozen impacts.
The worst option of the three for single target, but not a bad choice for
cleave.
Ebonbolt works either as a self-contained Shatter
combo talent, or an emergency Brain Freeze proc when talented for
Glacial Spike. It cleaves when talented for
Splitting Ice. Almost exactly the same DPS as
Frozen Touch, so pick whichever feels better personally.
7. Tier 5 (Level 75) Talents for Frost Mage
|
?
Frigid Winds
|
?
Ice Ward
|
?
Ring of Frost
|
- Frigid Winds causes all your chilling effects to reduce the
target's movement speed by an additional 15%.
- Ice Ward gives
Frost Nova 2 charges. 
Ring of Frost places a ring that can freeze up to 10 targets for 10
seconds at the targeted location, broken by damage.
None of these talents have use for raiding in most situations. There are
rare times where a well timed and placed Ring of Frost can be used
as a pseudo-interrupt, much like a stun can be. Beyond that,
Frigid Winds can be of use on Necrotic Mythic+ weeks, allowing
your tanks to get away to drop stacks easier. With Frigid Winds, Frost
commands the most powerful AoE slow in the game through
Cone of Cold. Keep in mind some encounters or Mythic+ affixes will
not want you to slow as much, such as Sanguine.
8. Tier 6 (Level 90) Talents for Frost Mage
|
✔
Freezing Rain
|
✔
Splitting Ice
|
✔
Comet Storm
|
Freezing Rain makes any 
Blizzard casts in the 12
seconds following a Frozen Orb cast instant, while increasing the
damage of those instant Blizzards by 50%.- Splitting Ice causes Ice Lance,
Glacial Spike, Ebonbolt, and
Mastery: Icicles to cleave a target within 8 yards of the center of
the primary target's hitbox for 80% of the primary damage. This copied spell
has its own Critical Strike rolls. - Comet Storm drops 7 comets around the cast target after 1
second. Each has a 6 yard radius splash, dealing full damage to all enemies
in range.
Freezing Rain is best utilized in heavy, consistent AoE
situations. This talent will be the go-to for 4+ target situations. Keep in
mind that while Blizzard is instant cast, it should also be cast
single target with this talent, just above Frostbolt in
priority.
Splitting Ice is incredibly strong in any situation there is a
secondary target. Keep in mind that 
Flurry will only hit 1
target, so if the mobs are able to be rooted, Freeze can be
utilized to grant Shatter to both primary and cleave targets when
talented for Glacial Spike and Ebonbolt.
Comet Storm is the single target go-to talent. It produces some
impressive AoE burst, but generally falls behind Splitting Ice in
multi-target sustained damage. If you need to kill a large AoE pack quickly,
it is possible to drop Comet Storm and then Freeze everything as
the comets impact, this should allow most of them to benefit from
Shatter, producing even higher burst.
9. Tier 7 (Level 100) Talents for Frost Mage
|
✔
Thermal Void
|
✔
Ray of Frost
|
✔
Glacial Spike
|
Thermal Void extends your 
Icy Veins by 10 seconds
and an additional 1 second every time you cast a frozen Ice Lance
while it is active.
Ray of Frost is a 5 second channeled ability that ramps up in
damage and slowing power by 10% every tick. Generates 2
Fingers of Frost over the course of the channel.- Glacial Spike is an active ability that requires and consumes
all 5 of your Mastery: Icicles to cast. It deals large amount of
damage, plus all the damage from your stored Icicles. However,
Ice Lance no longer launches Icicles. Glacial Spike
also freezes the target in place for 4 seconds. Will cleave if talented into
Splitting Ice.
Thermal Void is behind by a small amount. Being passive, there
is not much you can do to influence it.
Ray of Frost is simply a button you press on cooldown with the
sole condition of do not hit it while Frozen Orb is ticking, so
the Fingers of Frost it generates do not go to waste.
Glacial Spike is the optimal talent for single target DPS. It
requires you to change your playstyle up a bit, however.
Due Glacial Spike functionally allowing you to force-Critical Strike a batch
of Icicles, you want every cast to Shatter, at least in single
target. This is achieved by never casting it without a
Brain Freeze ready and casting in order: Glacial Spike,
Flurry, then Ice Lance. If you have
Splitting Ice talented, you should use it as soon as you hit 5
Mastery: Icicles if Glacial Spike will hit 2 targets, regardless of
if you have a Brain Freeze or not.
10. Frost Mage PvP Talents
If you opt into War Mode, you are given the ability to use the Honour Talents out in the world. Defensive talents will depend on how comfortable you are with your base kit and if you expect to get attacked by other players. Given PvP is outside the scope of this guide, only the offensive talents will be listed here.
- Chilled to the Bone does not proc upon breaking
Frost Nova and
Freeze with damage, only upon
expiration or dispel. Avoid unless you have a habit of letting freezes expire
without hitting them, and even then, that is leaving 
Shatter
openings empty. 
Frostbite is a good general purpose contender. It allows you
to Shatter more often.
Deep Shatter is also a good general purpose contender,
especially paired with Frostbite, simply through occasionally
stronger Frostbolts.- Concentrated Coolness is amazing and could be argued the only
mandatory Honour Talent. Increasing Frozen Orb by 30% and
allowing precise placement, this will destroy entire packs of mobs.
Burst of Cold can be situationally useful if you are playing
close to mobs or prefer to pull large amounts of mobs. It turns
Cone of Cold into a pretty deadly AoE burst.
Ice Form is a fairly short cooldown, useful if you find
yourself never actually hitting Icy Veins while out in the world
due to wanting to "save" it for any reason. Has some good synergy with
Deep Shatter, but requires you to have multiple freeze cooldowns
lined up.
There are some interesting Honour Talents, but since they are restricted to the open world and unusable in instances, they generally are not simulated. Thus, the above are simply the thoughts and feelings of the author.
11. Changelog
- 13 Aug. 2018: Updated for Battle for Azeroth launch.
- 06 Aug. 2018: Corrected Glacial Spike mechanic misunderstanding, updated Concentrated Coolness.
- 19 Jul. 2018: Updated for recent hotfix buffs.
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