Frost Mage DPS Spell Summary — Battle for Azeroth (BfA) 8.2.5

If you are new to Frost, it is recommended you read this before proceeding! In this section we will discuss what abilities you have, what they are used for within the specialization, and how they interact with important cooldowns. If you have played this spec before or have already achieved a level of comfort playing this spec in a practical environment, it is recommended you skip this section and move on to the rest of the guide.

Frost Mage does not rely on a primary resource. Like the other Mage specs you have a Mana bar, however, Frost relies more on generating procs through your basic spells to fuel damage output. You will never run into a situation where you find your Mana bar fully depleted by casting damaging combat spells.

These abilities are available no matter what talents you chose, and form the bread and butter of this specialization.

Frostbolt is your main filler. While Frostbolt does fairly weak damage on its own, it is essential to your overall damage output as it triggers both of your important procs, Brain Freeze and Fingers of Frost, and is also the primary source of Mastery: Icicles.

Ice Lance is an instant cast nuke that deals solid damage when it is empowered by Fingers of Frost. Ice Lance should generally only be cast when the target is considered frozen, aside from as a last-ditch movement spell.

Flurry is a nuke with a lengthy cast time. The Brain Freeze proc allows this cast to be instant while also dealing 50% more damage, and as such Flurry should only be cast while Brain Freeze is active.

Frozen Orb travels forwards in the direction you are facing, slowing drastically when it first deals damage. The orb generates 1 charge of Fingers of Frost on initial impact, and has a 10% chance to generate Fingers of Frost each time it ticks. This ability deals moderate single target damage, where it is primarily used for generating Fingers of Frost procs, and heavy AoE damage.

Summon Water Elemental grants you a pet that deals damage. In addition, the Water Elemental has the unique ability Freeze which helps both with kiting, and DPS on lesser mobs through Shatter.

Fingers of Frost is your main source of burst damage output. Fingers of Frost has a 15% chance to proc off of Frostbolt and 10% chance off of Frozen Orb. Fingers of Frost causes your next Ice Lance to be considered frozen, granting both the triple damage bonus of Ice Lance and benefit from Shatter.

Brain Freeze has a 25% chance to proc off of a Frostbolt cast, and causes your next Flurry to be an instant, deal 50% extra damage, and apply Winter's Chill to the target for 1 second. Winter's Chill causes the target to behave as if it was frozen, allowing you to benefit from Shatter. You should follow up your Brain Freeze-buffed Flurry casts with an Ice Lance to exploit this.

Icy Veins increases your Haste by 30% for 20 seconds. This is your main DPS cooldown and is generally best used on cooldown.

Time Warp increases Haste by 30% for 40 seconds for all party and raid members within 100 yards. This ability debuffs everyone with a debuff that prevents the possibility of benefiting from Time Warp, Shaman's Heroism and Bloodlust, or Hunter's Primal Rage for the next 10 minutes.