Frost Mage PvP Rotation and Playstyle (Shadowlands / 9.0.2)
PvP requires you to perform various actions in the course of a duel, match, or battleground: interrupting/silencing enemies, damaging them, bursting them down, defending yourself, keeping yourself alive, etc. It is a game mode that fully utilizes your kit, especially spells that are rarely used in PvE. On this page, we go through all the spells you need to use in PvP as a Frost Mage, how you should use them, and we explain what your playstyle should be.
This page is part of our Frost Mage PvP Guide.
Playstyle for Frost Mages
Frost Mages have 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). You can utilize your
Frost Novas and other roots to maximize kiting potential during matches.
- The second role a Frost Mage is to apply pressure. With relatively short major cooldowns, Frost Mages can apply a lot of pressure on a team in a short amount of time.
For more information about team compositions, see our Arena compositions page for Frost Mages.
Before Gates Open
Set a table for your team. Mage food actually restores health and Mana
faster than normal food and water from vendors. Use Invisibility
to guarantee your opener without any interruptions.
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. Make sure
to use Arcane Intellect on your teammates. It can be
dispelled by abilities like
Purge or
Spellsteal, so
be prepared to apply it often.
It is also important to note that you can use Remove Curse to remove
spells like
Hex or
Agony.
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. Being able to rotate Polymorphs
and your roots, Frost Mage does very well at controlling the enemy team and slowing their attacks.
At the beginning of a match, you can use Invisibility and open
with a
Polymorph on the enemy healer. If they manage to get behind a pillar,
you can
Shimmer to their location and still get your Polymorph off.
You can use your
Frost Nova and other roots to slow down the enemy team.
Your main damage spell,
Frostbolt also applies a slow to enemies, same with
Cone of Cold
and
Blizzard.
Offensive Rotation
Shatter Combinations
Before going into the damage rotation, understanding how to maximize your "Shatters" and generating big Icicles is a key part of playing a Frost Mage.
A crucial part of Frost Mage damage is dealing damage to targets that are
Frozen. This is because of your passive, Shatter, which makes it so your Frost spells will critically strike versus frozen targets. Aside from
Fingers of Frost, you have three abilities that can freeze a target:
Freeze,
Ice Nova, and
Frost Nova. Additionally,
Flurry can apply
Winter's Chill. Below are a
few examples of how to use your Shatter passive to maximize your
Icicle damage.
- Using
Frost Nova. This is an easy way to generate large Icicles, but is not very reliable because enemy healers can dispel the root and most DPS have a way to remove the Frost Nova debuff.
- Use
Frost Nova on an enemy player.
- Cast
Frostbolt on them.
- Use
- Using
Freeze. If you are not playing the
Lonely Winter regular talent, you will have access to your Water Elemental. This will also give you the ability to use your pet's Freeze ability.
- Using
Ice Nova. If you are using the Ice Nova regular talent, you will be able to generate Icicles using it. The technique is similar to what you would do with your Water Elemental's Freeze ability.
- Using
Winter's Chill. Winter's Chill gets placed on a target after you use an instant Flurry with a
Brain Freeze proc. This makes it so your target takes damage as if they were Frozen, even if they are not Frozen.
- Cast
Frostbolts until you get a
Brain Freeze proc.
- Use
Flurry. This will place
Winter's Chill on your target. Winter's Chill puts 2 charges of it on the enemy.
- Cast
Frostbolt (or
Ice Lance if you do not want to spend time casting).
- Cast
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.
- Start the arena by using
Invisibility.
- Use
Arcane Explosion to try to get an enemy out of stealth if they still have not opened after your Invisibility has expired.
- Cast
Polymorph on the enemy healer (if you are focusing the enemy healer, Polymorph a DPS that can heal/peel for the healer).
- Start building up Icicles. See the above section to get a better understanding of how to do that.
- When you have 5 Icicles built up, use your burst rotation (see below). If you are playing a composition like Rogue Mage, you might not have enough time to build up 5 Icicles, if the time is correct, still use your damage cooldowns even if you do not have 5 Icicles.
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 and
Flurrys against frozen targets.
- Generate as many Icicles possible by casting
Frostbolts on your target. It would also be ideal to have a
Brain Freeze proc ready, but is not needed.
- Use
Blood Fury (if you are an Orc).
- Use
Icy Veins. The unique thing about Frost Mages is that you do not need Icy Veins to be able to do your Burst Rotation. As long as you have 5 Icicles and a Polymorph on the enemy healer, you can do the below rotation.
- Use
Frozen Orb.
- Use
Comet Storm if the target is stunned or cannot move.
- Use
Ice Nova.
- Use
Ice Lance if you have
Fingers of Frost until you run out.
- Use
Flurry if you have
Brain Freeze.
- Use
Ray of Frost if the enemy team is trying to kite from your damage behind a pillar.
- Use
Blizzard if the enemy team is completely behind the pillar. Every time Blizzard deals damage, it reduces the cooldown of Frozen Orb.
- Use
Fire Blast if you get locked out on Frost and want to deal instant damage.
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. There will often be a lot of downtime during
matches where you are using your CC like Polymorph and slows to stop the enemy
team.
- Use
Cone of Cold,
Frost Nova, and
Polymorph to control the enemy team.
- Generate large Icicles with
Frostbolts and
Flurrys. See the Shatter Combinations section at the top of this page to see how to do this.
- Use
Ray of Frost if an enemy overextends or is trying to kite your team's damage.
- If you are using
Ebonbolt, use it to generate a
Brain Freeze proc.
- Use
Blizzard if the enemy team is completely behind the pillar. Every time Blizzard deals damage, it reduces the cooldown of Frozen Orb.
- Use
Fire Blast if you get locked out on Frost and want to deal instant damage.
- Something to note is that Fire Blast can be used to "Totem Stomp". What
this means is that you can use it to kill Shaman totems that are placed down.
For example, if you see a
Skyfury Totem, you can instantly kill it with Fire Blast.
- Something to note is that Fire Blast can be used to "Totem Stomp". What
this means is that you can use it to kill Shaman totems that are placed down.
For example, if you see a
Defensive Techniques
Ice Block is your main defensive ability. If you have run out of
Shimmers and have no other ways to kite or survive, use this spell.
This will protect you from all damage.
Alter Time may seem like a confusing ability at first, but it
is really straight forward. The first time you press this ability, it remembers
how much health you have and your location. The second time you press it, it
will return to the same location with the exact health you had when you first
pressed it. This should be used when you feel like you are about to take damage
or about to be stunned.
Although Mirror Image deals damage and slows enemies,
it should primarily be used a defensive cooldown. While the images active, you
take 20% less damage. Taking direct damage will break 1 of the 3 mirrors.
If the images stay alive for the entire duration, you will get this damage
reduction for 40 seconds! Use this when you do not have Alter Time and you see
the enemy using their burst cooldowns.
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
Shimmering
away. Moreover, you can use
Frost Nova to root the target, which is
very effective when playing against melee. Do not forget to use
Shimmer as well
to kite away from enemies and LoS.
Cold Snap is a very important defensive ability. It resets the
cooldown on several Frost Mage abilities, the most important one to note being
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 a Shaman or Priest), or of being the target of
Spellsteal.
Macros
It is advised to use Macros to use abilities on enemies or allies without having to target them. For this reason, we have a page dedicated to them.
Changelog
- 23 Dec. 2020: Updated for Shadowlands.
- 14 Oct. 2020: Updated for Shadowlands pre-patch.
Pherix is a Rank 1 Mage who has achieved over 3250 rating. He streams high end arena and coaching with viewers on Twitch and also creates guides and informational content on Youtube.
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