Frost Mage PvP Guide (Legion 7.2.5)

Table of Contents

• 1. Spec Overview / Place in the Current Meta
• 2. Gear
• +3. Artifact Traits
  • 3.1. First Golden Trait
  • 3.2. Second Golden Trait
  • 3.3. Remaining Traits
• 4. Relics
• +5. Talent Choices
  • 5.1. Regular Talents
    • 5.1.1. Tier 1 (Level 15) Talents
    • 5.1.2. Tier 2 (Level 30) Talents
    • 5.1.3. Tier 3 (Level 45) Talents
    • 5.1.4. Tier 4 (Level 60) Talents
    • 5.1.5. Tier 5 (Level 75) Talents
    • 5.1.6. Tier 6 (Level 90) Talents
    • 5.1.7. Tier 7 (Level 100) Talents
  • 5.2. Honor Talents
    • 5.2.1. Tier 1 Talents
    • 5.2.2. Tier 2 Talents
    • 5.2.3. Tier 3 Talents
    • 5.2.4. Tier 4 Talents
    • 5.2.5. Tier 5 Talents
    • 5.2.6. Tier 6 Talents
• +6. Racial Bonuses
  • 6.1. Horde
  • 6.2. Alliance
• +7. Playstyle
  • 7.1. Before Gates Open
  • 7.2. Crowd Control
  • 7.3. Offensive Rotation
    • 7.3.1. The Opener
    • 7.3.2. Burst Damage
    • 7.3.3. Sustained damage
  • 7.4. Defensive Techniques
• 8. ChangeLog

Introduction

This guide will walk you through everything you need to know to play a Frost Mage in a PvP environment. The guide will cover everything from talent choices, artifacts, gameplay and rotation, and useful racial bonuses. It is most applicable to Arena content, but most talents and racial bonuses will work in Rated Battlegrounds and skirmishes.

About The Author

This guide has been written by Mysticall, a seasoned PvP player who has repeatedly achieved Arena Master and 2300 rating. You can watch his stream on Twitch, and you can also check out his YouTube channel.

1. Spec Overview / Place in the Current Meta

Frost Mages are notorious for always being one of the best PvP specs. Mages not only excel at getting crowd control on enemies and having great mobility, but they also have great burst damage. With short burst cooldowns and strong crowd control, Frost Mages are capable of controlling entire teams. One Polymorph can turn an entire game around.

2. Gear

With regards to gear, the biggest change in Legion is that there is no more PvP gear. Your strength in PvP will be determined based on the average item level of your gear (as displayed on your character sheet). For example, the base item level at level 110 is 800, so your stats in PvP will be adjusted accordingly. For every 10 item levels you gain, your stats are increased by 1%.

The implication is that it does not matter where your gear comes from, and all that matters is its item level. Gear from quests or PvE content is just as good as gear you get as a reward from PvP (which, in fact, will be very similar to PvE gear; there are no more PvP stats on gear).

Practically, you will simply look to collect gear with the highest item levels possible, and the stat distribution on the gear will not matter.

3. Artifact Traits

Below, we will explain what the recommended order for artifact traits is, if you wish to maximise your PvP potential. It is quite possible that your artifact path (at the time of reading this guide) differs from our suggestions. If this is the case, do not worry, and use the information below to help you understand your traits and guide your future choices.

If you have suddenly decided that you want to turn to PvP, the best thing to do in your artifact progression is continue to your closest Golden trait, and then follow the recommendations below. Picking up the most useful traits ( Chilled to the Core, Icy Caress, Jouster, or Chain Reaction) along the way is a great way to boost your potential.

3.1. First Golden Trait

The first Golden trait you want to reach is Black Ice.

1. Take Ebonbolt.
2. Take Shattering Bolts.
3. Take Let It Go. This will help with your sustained damage when getting Fingers of Frost buff.
4. Take Ice Nine. This will help you get to your 5 Icicles quickly, which results in being able to use offensive cooldowns faster.
5. Take Shield of Alodi. This will help with survivability; Ice Barrier is a great defensive ability to use when being focused by enemy teams.
6. Take Black Ice. This greatly increases Frost Mage burst. If you are using offensive cooldowns with empowered crystals, you can put a lot of pressure on the enemy team.

3.2. Second Golden Trait

The second Golden trait to go for is Chilled to the Core.

1. Take Frozen Veins.
2. Take Icy Caress. This trait is important because Frostbolt is a core ability for Frost Mages. This will help greatly with both sustained and burst damage.
3. Take Clarity of Thought. Getting extra chances to proc Brain Freeze helps with sustained damage.
4. Take Ice Age.
5. Take Chilled to the Core. This is a very important trait to take. This helps both building up your burst damage and dealing burst damage. If you take Ice Form (which replaces Icy Veins), then using Ice Form will trigger this trait.

3.3. Remaining Traits

After this, you should head for your last Golden trait, It's Cold Outside, picking up any remaining traits after that. Icy Hand and The Storm Rages are the least useful for PvP and should be picked last. There is no particular order that we recommend here.

4. Relics

Relics are disabled in PvP, so they are not a concern to you.

5. Talent Choices

Regular talents work in both PvP and PvE content (although they may sometimes work differently in the two environments, which is indicated by their tooltips). In other words, they are always active.

On the other hand, Honor talents are inactive outside of a PvP environment.

5.1. Regular Talents

5.1.1. Tier 1 (Level 15) Talents

Lonely Winter is the best choice in this tier. Although you lose Summon Water Elemental, it increases the damage of your core abilities and helps with your overall damage.

5.1.2. Tier 2 (Level 30) Talents

Shimmer is the best choice in this tier. This is a very strong when trying to get crowd control on the enemy team. If an enemy is trying to get out of line of sight of your Polymorph, for example, you can Blink while casting it and avoid losing line of sight.

5.1.3. Tier 3 (Level 45) Talents

Incanter's Flow is the best choice in the tier. It provides great damage (especially when you are at 5 stacks). Be sure to track and time how many stacks your Incanter's Flow buff has before using your offensive cooldowns.

5.1.4. Tier 4 (Level 60) Talents

Ice Nova is the best choice in this tier. This talent provides more instant damage when using offensive cooldowns and helps with killing an enemy at low health.

If you are playing against a team that will be stacked often, Splitting Ice is the best choice in this tier. This gives you strong single-target pressure as well as spread damage.

5.1.5. Tier 5 (Level 75) Talents

When playing against a Restoration Druid, Ring of Frost is the best choice in this tier. Druids are difficult to get crowd control on as a Frost Mage, and Ring of Frost helps with this. Assistance from a teammate (such as a Rogue stunning the Druid) will make it easier.

If you are playing against a team with two melee on it, Frigid Winds is the best choice in this tier. This will allow you to kite easier from enemy players.

5.1.6. Tier 6 (Level 90) Talents

Arctic Gale is the best choice in this tier. With the increased range on Blizzard, it hits more targets, which helps reduce the cooldown on Frozen Orb.

5.1.7. Tier 7 (Level 100) Talents

Comet Storm is the best choice in this tier. This talent provides even more instant damage. This is also important because Icicles stored from Mastery: Icicles will now be consumed after using Ice Lance.

5.2. Honor Talents

5.2.1. Tier 1 Talents

If you are an Orc, Relentless is the best choice in this tier. Frost Mages can be the focus target of some teams, and this will help with getting out of stuns and getting away from the enemies.

If you are any other race, Gladiator's Medallion is the best choice in this tier. This will help with getting out of stuns that you might be stuck in.

5.2.2. Tier 2 Talents

Mind Quickness is the best choice in this tier. It helps cast Polymorphs, Frostbolts, Glacial Spikes, and so on faster and therefore more reliably.

5.2.3. Tier 3 Talents

Prismatic Cloak is the best choice in this tier. This helps with getting away from enemies or avoiding incoming crowd control.

5.2.4. Tier 4 Talents

Temporal Shield the best choice in this tier. If you are being focused, this talent greatly increases your survivability. If it is dispelled, it will still heal you for however much you were attacked for while the shield was active.

5.2.5. Tier 5 Talents

Frostbite is the best choice in this tier. The root effect from this ability is what makes it useful. It will help with overall survival and damage.

5.2.6. Tier 6 Talents

Concentrated Coolness is the best choice in this tier. This talent helps with overall burst damage when using Frozen Orb.

6. Racial Bonuses

Racial bonuses can provide interesting PvP benefits. Here are the best races to choose for each faction.

6.1. Horde

The abilities gained from the Orc Race ( Berserking and Hardiness) both greatly benefit a Frost Mage. Berserking will help when using offensive cooldowns to get more damage output; Hardiness is great when paired with Relentless to break out of stuns faster.

The ability gained from the Blood Elf Race ( Arcane Torrent) comes in handy when you need just a little bit more crowd control on an enemy. It provides a 2-second silence, which can help in many situations.

6.2. Alliance

The Human racial bonus ( Every Man for Himself) is a great way to get out of stuns.

7. Playstyle

The Frost Mage has two important roles in a 3v3 environment.

• The first role that Frost Mages have is crowd control. They not only have strong kiting tools for getting away from enemies, but they have strong tools to also cast and get crowd control on enemy players. Polymorph, the major Frost Mage crowd control, can be used offensively (when trying to get a kill) or defensively (when trying to keep a teammate alive).
• The second role a Frost Mage has is having strong burst cooldowns. With relatively short major cooldowns, Frost Mages can apply a lot of pressure on a team in a short amount of time.

7.1. Before Gates Open

Be prepared to be the focus of many teams. This can be frustrating and make people shy away from Frost. That said, Frost Mages have a lot of utility to get away from enemy teams, so make sure to use this to your advantage.

7.2. Crowd Control

This is where the Frost Mage has always shined in PvP. There is no other class/spec that can crowd control a team as well as a Frost Mage can, not to mention the large amount of utility at their disposal.

Do not hesitate to make use of Ice Floes to be able to cast your Polymorph while moving, in order to be able to stay in line of sight of your target. If they manage to get behind a pillar, you can Blink to their location and still get your Polymorph off.

7.3. Offensive Rotation

Before we talk about rotation, it is relevant to quickly go over how Icicles work, since this is integral to the Frost Mage offensive playstyle.

The Frost Mage Mastery ( Mastery: Icicles) causes each Frostbolt you cast to generate an Icicle, which is effectively a buff on you. Each Icicle "stores up" a part of the damage of the Frostbolt that created it, and you can have up to 5 Icicles at any given time.

When you use Ice Lance, all the stored up Icicles will be fired at the target, resulting in a burst of damage.

7.3.1. The Opener

The opener refers to your team's opening crowd control chain and damage done as soon as you get out of the gates. The main goal in the opener is to force your enemies to use their cooldowns. If the enemy healer uses their trinket in the opener, they are in trouble. With the amount of crowd control and damage that Mages have, you can force cooldowns (trinkets and defensives) without having to use any cooldowns.

1. Start the arena by using Invisibility.
2. Cast Polymorph on the enemy healer (if you are focusing the enemy healer, Polymorph a DPS that can heal/peel for the healer).
3. Build up Icicles by casting Frostbolt at frozen targets.
4. When you have 5 Icicles built up, use your burst rotation (see below).

7.3.2. Burst Damage

When you have the enemy healer in crowd control and you are trying to kill an enemy, you should use your burst damage.

To guarantee the most damaging Icicles, you want to make sure that the Icicles you have stored up were created by Frostbolts against frozen targets.

• Generate the 5 strongest Icicles possible by casting Frostbolts on frozen targets
  1. Cast Icy Veins.
  2. Cast Blood Fury (if you are an Orc).
  3. Cast Frozen Orb.
  4. Use Blizzard.
  5. Cast Ebonbolt.
  6. Cast Flurry.
  7. Cast Ice Lance.
  8. Cast Flurry.
  9. Cast Ice Lance.
  10. Cast Ice Nova.
  11. Cast Comet Storm.
  12. Cast Ice Lance if you have a Fingers of Frost proc.

7.3.3. Sustained damage

Sustained damage is damage you do when your burst cooldowns are not available. When they are on cooldown, you want to be doing a combination of crowd control and generating icicles. Use Cone of Cold and Polymorphs to control the enemy team. At the same time, you want to generate icicles by casting Frostbolts and reducing the cooldown of Frozen Orb by using Blizzard when the enemies are grouped up.

7.4. Defensive Techniques

Ice Block is your main defensive ability. If you have run out of Blinks and have no other ways to kite or survive, use this spell. This will protect you from all damage.

A Mage's crowd control is effectively a defensive technique for them. If the enemy team is using their offensive cooldowns, you can kite them by using Cone of Cold or by casting Polymorph and Blinking away. Moreover, you can use Frost Nova to root the target, which is very effective when playing against melee.

Cold Snap is very important defensive ability. It resets the cooldown on several frost mage abilities, the most important one to note is Ice Block. This means the enemy team will have to go through two of your ice blocks to kill you, which makes you very hard to kill.

Ice Barrier is best used when the enemy team is focusing you down. If you use it preemptively, it runs the risk of being dispelled by an enemy (such as an Enhancement Shaman), or of being the target of Spellsteal.

Temporal Shield is one of the best defensive cooldowns Mages have. Use this when you are being focused and when at high health; the reason for using it at high health is that a great part of this spell is the 6-second HoT it applies to you to heal back the damage you have sustained — if you are at low health, you will probably die before you are able to benefit from the HoT. One of the skills to this ability is knowing when to cancel it (since canceling it triggers the HoT). If you are at half-health and use Temporal Shield, there is a good chance you will die with it still active; cancel it instead, so you can get healed for a large amount and not die with it still active.

8. ChangeLog

+ show all entries - show only 10 entries

• 21 Jun. 2017: Updated the guide for Patch 7.2.5.
  • Changed description for Tier 1 regular talent.
  • Changed recommended talent for Tier 4 regular talent.
  • Changed recommended Tier 5 regular talent.
  • Updated "Burst Rotation".
  • Changed the way "Sustained Damage" was being described from a list-style to a paragraph format.
• 01 May 2017: Checked and confirmed that no updates are needed for Patch 7.2.
• 24 Feb. 2017: Updates for Patch 7.1.5
  • Updated tier 15, 75, 90 and 100 regular talents.
  • Updated tier 1,3,5,6 honor talents. Updated sustained damage and burst rotations.
• 30 Nov. 2016: Guide added.