Frost Mage DPS Spec, Builds, and Talents (Legion 7.3)

Table of Contents

• +Introduction
  • 1. Class Overview
  • 2. Patch 7.3 Changes
  • 3. Patch 7.2.5 Changes
  • 4. Patch 7.2 Changes
  • 5. Strengths
  • 6. Weaknesses
  • 7. Viability in the Current Patch
  • 8. Contents
  • 9. ChangeLog
• +Easy Mode
  • 1. The Basics
    • 1.1. When Playing Without Lonely Winter
  • 2. Talent Choice
  • 3. Stat Choice
  • 4. Basic Rotation
  • 5. ChangeLog
• +Spell Summary
  • 1. Spell Summary
  • 2. Main Resources
  • 3. Basic Abilities
  • 4. Important Procs
  • 5. DPS Cooldowns
  • 6. ChangeLog
• ×Builds and Talents
  • 1. Talent Choices
  • 2. Talent Cheat Sheets
    • 2.1. Raid Encounters
      • 2.1.1. Heavy Cleave/AOE
    • 2.2. For General Use
  • 3. Tier 1 (Level 15) Talents
  • 4. Tier 2 (Level 30) Talents
  • 5. Tier 3 (Level 45) Talents
  • 6. Tier 4 (Level 60) Talents
  • 7. Tier 5 (Level 75) Talents
  • 8. Tier 6 (Level 90) Talents
  • 9. Tier 7 (Level 100) Talents
  • 10. ChangeLog
• +Artifact Traits and Relics
  • 1. Artifact Progression — First 35 Points
    • 1.1. Early Point Investment
    • 1.2. Second Golden Trait
    • 1.3. Final Point Investment
  • 2. Patch 7.2: 35+ Trait Path
  • 3. Relic Choice
  • 4. ChangeLog
• +Netherlight Crucible Relic Paths
  • 1. General Optimization Advice
  • 2. Tier 2 Upgrade Priority
  • 3. Tier 3 Upgrade Priority
  • 4. ChangeLog
• +Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities
  • 1. Ability Priority List
    • 1.1. Without Lonely Winter
  • 2. Important Notes
    • 2.1. AoE
    • 2.2. Frost Bomb
    • 2.3. Tier 3 Talents
      • 2.3.1. Rune of Power
      • 2.3.2. Mirror Image
      • 2.3.3. Incanter's Flow
    • 2.4. Water Jet
    • 2.5. Glacial Spike and Ghost Icicles
  • 3. Core Concepts
    • 3.1. Cooldown Overlap and Maximizing Cleave
    • 3.2. Movement Management
    • 3.3. Opening Sequence
  • 4. ChangeLog
• +Stat Priority
  • 1. Basics
    • 1.1. Stat Weights
  • 2. Getting a Better Understanding
    • 2.1. Statistics Explanations
    • 2.2. How Exactly Mastery: Icicles Work
      • 2.2.1. Glacial Spike
    • 2.3. Critical Strike Cap
  • 3. ChangeLog
• +Gems, Enchants, and Consumables
  • 1. Disclaimer
  • 2. Gems
  • 3. Enchants
  • 4. Consumables
  • 5. ChangeLog
• +Macros and Addons
  • 1. Addons
    • 1.1. ElvUI
    • 1.2. Weak Auras
    • 1.3. Boss Mods
      • 1.3.1. BigWigs Bossmods
      • 1.3.2. Deadly Boss Mods
    • 1.4. Name Plates
      • 1.4.1. KUI Nameplates
      • 1.4.2. TidyPlates
    • 1.5. Damage Meters
      • 1.5.1. Skada
      • 1.5.2. Details
    • 1.6. Extra AddOns
      • 1.6.1. Mik's Scrolling Battle Text
      • 1.6.2. DeathNote
      • 1.6.3. Doom CooldownPulse
      • 1.6.4. Angry Assignments
  • 2. Macros
    • 2.1. Generic Macros for Mages
      • 2.1.1. Stopcast Blink
      • 2.1.2. 1-Button Block
      • 2.1.3. Block Cancel
    • 2.2. Specific Macros for Frost Mages
      • 2.2.1. Water Elemental: Freeze
      • 2.2.2. Water Elemental: Water jet
      • 2.2.3. Pet Macros
  • 3. ChangeLog
• +Gear, Legendaries, and Best in Slot
  • 1. Tier 20 Set Bonuses
  • 2. Best in Slot List
  • 3. Evaluating Upgrades Using Stat Weights
  • 4. Racial Bonuses
  • 5. Legendaries
  • 6. Loot Competition
  • 7. ChangeLog

General Information

On this page, we present the viable talent choices for Frost Mages in World of Warcraft Legion 7.3. 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 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. Talent Choices

Level	Choices
15	? Ray of Frost	✔ Lonely Winter	? Bone Chilling
30	✔ Shimmer	✔ Ice Floes	✘ Glacial Insulation
45	✘ Mirror Image	? Rune of Power	✔ Incanter's Flow
60	? Ice Nova	? Frozen Touch	✔ Splitting Ice
75	? Frigid Winds	? Ring of Frost	? Ice Ward
90	? Frost Bomb	✔ Unstable Magic	✔ Arctic Gale
100	✔ Thermal Void	✔ Glacial Spike	? Comet Storm

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

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. Raid Encounters

This build is an excellent starting point as a standard raid setup.

• Level 15: Lonely Winter
• Level 30: Shimmer
• Level 45: Incanter's Flow
• Level 60: Splitting Ice
• Level 75: Ice Ward
• Level 90: Unstable Magic
• Level 100: Glacial Spike or Thermal Void (see Tier 7 talent explanations)

2.1.1. Heavy Cleave/AOE

• Level 15: Lonely Winter
• Level 30: Shimmer
• Level 45: Incanter's Flow
• Level 60: Splitting Ice
• Level 75: Ice Ward
• Level 90: Arctic Gale
• Level 100: Glacial Spike or Thermal Void (see Tier 7 talent explanations)

2.2. For General Use

This build is an excellent starting point for questing and general purpose usage.

• Level 15: Lonely Winter
• Level 30: Shimmer
• Level 45: Incanter's Flow
• Level 60: Splitting Ice
• Level 75: Frigid Winds
• Level 90: Arctic Gale
• Level 100: Glacial Spike

3. Tier 1 (Level 15) Talents

? Ray of Frost

✔ Lonely Winter

? Bone Chilling

Tier 1 talents offer some passive damage and a powerful channel.

• Ray of Frost is a 10-second channel on a 1-minute cooldown that increases in power every time it ticks.
• Lonely Winter removes your ability to cast Summon Water Elemental, but your basic spells ( Frostbolt, Ice Lance, Flurry and Frozen Orb) are empowered to deal 25% increased damage.
• Bone Chilling causes all chill effects to stack a debuff on your target that increases Frost damage by 0.5% per stack, capping at 12 stacks.

Lonely Winter is the go-to option for all situations.

Bone Chilling is still a solid talent, but falls just short of Lonely Winter.

Ray of Frost does good burst damage and can be recast if the channel is interrupted within the 10 second window. It has a fixed length of 10 seconds, but more Haste increases the number of ticks. Will always be an overall damage loss compared to the other options at the curret time, but could see use to burst down an important target or damage check.

4. Tier 2 (Level 30) Talents

✔ Shimmer

✔ Ice Floes

✘ Glacial Insulation

Tier 2 talents offer a boost in defensive utility.

• Shimmer replaces your Blink ability. It functions exactly the same as Blink except it is off the Global Cooldown and does not interrupt spellcasting.
• Ice Floes has 3 charges and each usage allows a spell to be cast while moving.
• Glacial Insulation causes Ice Barrier to increase armor by 100%. Ice Block also applies Ice Barrier to you when it fades.

The choice here is between Shimmer and Ice Floes. Fights with "bursty" and intermittent movement will favor Shimmer, due to the extra charge and the fact that it does not interrupt casting. A good example is Grand Magistrix Elisande. The sheer number of instant cast spells Frost has access to should allow you to easily cover small repositions.

Ice Floes, on the other hand, favors fights with more regular movement. A good example is Star Augur Etraeus. Ultimately the choice is encounter dependent and also comes down to the preference and comfort level of the player with each talent.

5. Tier 3 (Level 45) Talents

✘ Mirror Image

? Rune of Power

✔ Incanter's Flow

Tier 3 talents are focused on providing the player a consistent damage increase.

• 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 45-second cooldown, with 2 charges.
• Incanter's Flow increases your damage between 4% and 20%, cycling every 10 seconds.

Incanter's Flow is the best talent in virtually all situations.

Rune of Power offers superior burst and almost equal overall output, however, the margin for error and detriment of movement cause this talent to fall a little behind Incanter's in practice.

Mirror Image should not be used.

6. Tier 4 (Level 60) Talents

? Ice Nova

? Frozen Touch

✔ Splitting Ice

Tier 4 talents are focused on providing unique damage utility.

• Ice Nova gives you a new spell that deals solid damage. It cleaves everything within 8 yards of the target, as well as rooting everything in place for 2 seconds.
• Frozen Touch increases your chance to generate Fingers of Frost by 40%.
• Splitting Ice grants 10% additional damage to your Ice Lance and Mastery: Icicles. Ice Lance will also hit an additional target within 8 yards for 50% damage.

Splitting Ice is the best option for either end tier talent and should be used in virtually all end game environments.

Frozen Touch is currently a little too undertuned to be a competitive option.

Ice Nova is a solid choice for leveling if you feel the additional kiting utility will be beneficial to you. It can also be useful if you need a little extra burst AoE.

7. Tier 5 (Level 75) Talents

? Frigid Winds

? Ring of Frost

? Ice Ward

Tier 5 talents focus primarily on providing utility.

• Frigid Winds causes all your chilling effects to reduce the target's movement speed by an additional 15%.
• Ring of Frost places a ring that can freeze up to 10 targets for 10 seconds at the targeted location, broken by damage.
• Ice Ward gives Frost Nova 2 charges.

None of these talents have use for raiding currently. Ice Ward can be used for dungeons for the additional Frost Nova to shatter off of. Frigid Winds is also an option, although you should only use this talent if slowing things further is beneficial, as there are many situations where additional slowing is detrimental (e.g. Il'gynoth).

8. Tier 6 (Level 90) Talents

? Frost Bomb

✔ Unstable Magic

✔ Arctic Gale

Tier 6 talents add various cleave and AoE utility to your kit.

• Frost Bomb applies a bomb to the target that explodes every time an Ice Lance empowered with Fingers of Frost strikes the target, dealing full damage to the target and ~62.5% damage to surrounding targets within 10uyards.
• Unstable Magic grants Frostbolt a 20% chance to splash for 50% additional damage to all targets within 8-yards of the target.
• Arctic Gale causes Blizzard to deal 30% additional damage, and increases its area of effect by 20%.

Unstable Magic is the best option on single target encounters.

Frost Bomb should be avoided in its current state, as the playstyle has counter synergy with the competitive end tier talents.

Arctic Gale is the best choice for 2+ targets, as Blizzard ticks reduce the cooldown of Frozen Orb.

9. Tier 7 (Level 100) Talents

✔ Thermal Void

✔ Glacial Spike

? Comet Storm

Tier 7 talents add new abilities and major playstyle shifts to your kit.

• Thermal Void extends your Icy Veins by 10 seconds, and an addition 1 second every time you cast a frozen Ice Lance while it is active.
• Glacial Spike is an active ability that requires and consumes all 5 of your Mastery: Icicles to cast. It deals a powerful damage nuke, plus all the damage from your stored Icicles, however, Ice Lance no longer passively triggers the Icicles effect. Glacial Spike also freezes the target in place for 4 seconds, but damage caused will break the effect.
• Comet Storm calls down 7 comets that deal each minor damage to all enemies within 6 yards of the impact. This ability has a 30-second cooldown.

Glacial Spike is the recommended talent for most situations for players using current gear. It has strong single target and great synergy with Splitting Ice, making it extremely effective on light cleave as well.

Thermal Void can be a contender to Glacial Spike for single target, especially at lower item levels or depending on the length of the encounter. Thermal Void is a bit easier to play with and is the best option for overall damage on cleave and AoE, though Glacial Spike may still be a superior option in some situations due to the more frequent availability.

Comet Storm is the best choice on mass AoE, such as the scorpids on Skorpyron.

10. ChangeLog

+ show all entries - show only 10 entries

• 28 Aug. 2017: Updated wording in Tier 3 talent section.
• 06 Jul. 2017: Updated several talent sections and cheat sheets.
• 12 Jun. 2017: Updated Tier 7 talent discussion for Patch 7.2.5 (Glacial Spike vs Thermal Void).
• 27 Mar. 2017: No changes needed for Patch 7.2.
• 11 Jan. 2017: Post-7.1.5 updates to Tier 1, 3, 6, and 7 assessments.
• 09 Jan. 2017: Updated talents and descriptions for Patch 7.1.5.
• 25 Oct. 2016: Updated the increased damage value of Lonely Winter (now 25%, up from 20%). This does not change the assessment of the talent.
• 02 Sep. 2016: Added a mention that Comet Storm can be viable, as it is the best Level 100 talent in mass AoE situations.
• 29 Aug. 2016: Updated for Legion's launch.
• 18 Jul. 2016: Updated for the Legion pre-patch.