Frost Mage DPS Spec, Builds, and Talents — Battle for Azeroth (BfA) 8.1

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 10% 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