Frost Mage DPS Stat Priority - 12.0.5 - World of Warcraft

On this page, you will find out the optimal stat priority for your Frost Mage. We first present the stat priority, before delving into more complex explanations. Our content is updated for World of Warcraft — 12.0.5.

If you were looking for TBC Classic content, please refer to our TBC Classic Frost Mage Stat Priority.

Frost Mage Guide

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TABLE OF CONTENTS OF THIS PAGE

1. The Basics of Stats for Frost Mage

2. Getting a Better Understanding of Frost Mage Stats

The Basics of Stats for Frost Mage

The following is a good guideline for stats for Arcane Mages:

Intellect
Mastery
Critical Strike
Haste
Versatility

No stat should really ever be hard stacked. Everything works off each other. As an example: Haste may be great, but there comes a point where slower yet effectively higher damage per cast time spells would be better, through stacking Mastery to improve Frostbolt Icon Frostbolt's damage. Yet if you were to do the opposite, stacking Mastery to the exclusion of Haste, you would see the opposite show up. Faster, slightly weaker, casts would be better than heavily stacked Mastery casting very slowly. This is the primary reason stat weights are not static, and in fact, change with every piece of gear.

As a primary example, here is are the stat weights of a given character for whatever talent set they logged out in:

Normal weights: Int-2.09, crit-1.59, mastery-1.52, vers-1.48, haste-1.46

And here is what happens if all Haste is removed and turned into Mastery:

Altered weights: Int-2.05, crit-1.56, mastery-1.24 vers-1.42, haste-2.00

Stacking even a small portion of stats has skewed the weights so hard that Haste is now valued above Critical Strike, and very nearly above Intellect.

Stat weights are very personal, especially for Frost Mages. They will fluctuate with every piece of gear you change, and no one can give a good global set of weights that is entirely accurate. It is highly recommended you simulate yourself, as shown on our page on Simulations:

Simulations Guide

Getting a Better Understanding of Frost Mage Stats

Intellect is your "primary" stat, meaning that you use it rather than Agility or Strength, not that it is the best in all situations. It provides you with Spell Power, which increases the damage of your spells.

Versatility is a flat-out damage done increase and damage taken reduction.

Critical Strike increases your chance to Critically Strike.

Not anymore. Shatter cap is a relic of a bygone era, and Crit is now just a normal stat.

Mastery: Freeze and Shatter is a flat increase to spells that Freeze, or Shatter respectively. A notable exception as of writing is Blizzard Icon Blizzard and Frozen Orb Icon Frozen Orb are included in the Freezing side of the Mastery.

Haste decreases the cast time of your spells. In particular, decreasing the cast time of Frostbolt Icon Frostbolt is very beneficial because it means that you can cast Frostbolt more often, increasing your chances to get procs, and the rate at which you generate Icicles Icon Icicles. Haste also lowers your base Global Cooldown. Haste also increases the cast speed of your Water Elemental and Mirror Image Icon Mirror Images.

Technically, there are a few soft caps, yes. They are not obtainable caps and should not be worried about.

The GCD cap, in which the GCD for all spells cannot be lowered any further, is at +100% Haste. This is what people are usually referring to in regards to any form of Haste cap. In Legion, the GCD cap was moved from +50% to +100%, negating almost all normal scenarios in which it is a consideration and thus is not a thing to worry about as of now.