5.4 Frost Mage DPS Guide - Warcraft Academy

hello and welcome to the Warcraft academy guide to playing a frost mage in patch 5.4 this guide is going to cover the basics of the rotation as well as some more advanced tips and later talk about stats and character customization we're going to be focused primarily on doing as much damage as possible use the menu at the top of the screen to skip between sections first of all let's quickly run over how each of your Styles work and how to use them correctly as a frost mage several of your spells can freeze the targets they hit all act as if the target is frozen this is important because your spells have a hugely increased critical strike chance against frozen targets thanks to the shatter passive either keishon is a cooldown that regenerates your mana over a channeled cast when you use this as long as you have the invocation talent you gain a buff this increases your spell damage by 15% although you regenerate less mana this lasts for one minute next we'll go over your three major bombs living bomb frost bomb and nether tempest living bomb places a debuff on the target that does fire damage over 12 seconds when the effect ends or the target dies it does AoE damage to all targets within 10 yards you can only apply this to three targets or less now The Tempest also does damage over 12 seconds to a target but each time it does damage it also does half of that damage to another target within ten yards frost bomb places a debuff on the target that detonates after four seconds during heavy damage to all targets within ten yards each of these made bombs are talents which means you can only have one of them in an encounter each of these effects has a chance to proc the brain freeze effect when they deal damage this effect causes your next frost firebolt to become instant cast cost no mana and act as if the target is frozen allowing them to benefit from shatter making it much more likely to crit frost fire bolt is only worth casting when you have this effect it does damage to the target and slows them if they can be slowed you have a few other spells that have special relationships with each other frost bolt is your filler spell and does damage when cast you can also use it to heal your water elemental although this won't usually be needed frozen orb is a 1 minute cooldown it launches the frozen orb from your location towards the targets dealing constant damage to nearby enemies for 10 seconds each of these spells frost bolt frost fire Baldwin frozen orb has a chance to grant you two fingers of frost effect every time their deal damage frozen orb also gives you one fingers of frost proc it guaranteed when it first reaches its target fingers of frost causes your next ice Lance or deep freeze to act as if the target were frozen and increases the damage ice Lance does in addition to that you can have up to two fingers of frost procs at once but if you get any more they're wasted by default ice Lance is an instant cast that does low damage but against frozen targets it does four times as much damage and has a massively increased chance to crit which is why fingers of frost makes this Stealth's are powerful your frost bolt and frost fire bolt can also proc your mastery icicles everytime frost bolt and frost fire bolt deal damage 16 percent of the damage done is stored as an icicle that stays with you for 30 seconds you can have up to 5 icicles with you at once but as soon as you obtain a sick icicle one is immediately fired at the target to deal with damage you can also use ice lens to fire them all at once you don't really need to pay any attention to this since it all happens automatically moving on to your cooldowns you have three major coulomb's that contribute to your rotation mirror image is the weakest of the EES and summons three copies of yourself to attack for 30 seconds icy veins increases your spell haste by 20% and prevents your casts from being slowed by damaging attacks this effect lasts for 20 seconds the alter time is an interesting effect that takes a snapshot of your current location health mana buffs and debuffs and then returns you to that position after 6 seconds or when used again you can utilize this to extend powerful cooldowns and buffs for an extra 6 seconds by snapshotting them both all the time and I see variants have 3-minute cooldowns for multiple targets there are a few extra spells that get added into your rotation depending on the circumstances Konev cult does damage to enemies in a cone in front of you and slows them arcane explosion does damage to all targets around you every time you cast it and Blizzard is a child spell that does constant damage in the targeted area and slows enemies at hits freez is not technically an AoE spell this is an ability your water elemental has when used on targets it freezes them thus making them susceptible to the effects of shatter it also grants you with fingers of frost prop for each target hit by the freeze although this is still capped at two you use this spell to get extra fingers of frost procs and to increase the crit chance of your spell's by a shatter however bosses are immune to freeze so this spell only works against additional targets in the encounter that can be frozen the frost rotation revolves around reacting to props quickly as you get them first of all make sure you always have the frost armor buff active before you enter combat your main priority is to ensure that you always keep the in locus energy buff up by casting a fully vacation once every minute ideally you should do this immediately after the previous buff expires however in realistic situations you may end up recasting it in the final few seconds of the previous buff since it's very important to maintain next ensure that you're keeping your tier fire talent up on the target whether living bomb nether tempest or frost bomb will cover when to use each one later on but for single targets you'll generally be using living bomb next cast frozen orb on cooldown when it first hits the target your gainer fingers of frost proc and it may also generate a second fingers of crosswalk throughout its duration try to ensure that you use any fingers of frost procs you already have before using frozen orb particularly against multiple targets you can also use your water elementals freeze ability on cooldown although as previously discussed this is only worth doing if there are targets in the encounter that are susceptible to the freeze effect do be careful when you cast this Barrow as frozen targets will turn and hit anywhere in range of them if they're not able to reach the tank next ensure to use any brain freeze procs you get by casting a frost fire bolt this is higher priority than using your fingers of frost brock's in addition if you have the tiers 16 to set bonus you'll gain an additional buff after using your brain freeze products called frozen thoughts this buff causes your next ice Lance frost bolt frost fire bolt or kind of cold to do bonus damage for single target purposes you don't really need to pay attention to this since it doesn't alter your priority list at all next use ice Lance whenever you get two fingers of frost proc again it's extremely important to use both your brain freeze and your fingers are frost procs as quickly as possible when you get them so make sure you're using an addon like weakauras to track them more easily other than that simply use frost bolt as your filler spell and continue to react to procs and cooldowns quickly as you get them now outside of that you also need to factor in your cooldown usage mirror images is only a small DPS game so simply use this in place of frost bolt when it's available it doesn't take priority for anything else icy veins and alter time is slightly different you want to use these two effects together in order to increase their benefits icy veins should be used on cooldown as a priority once it's active you can use all the time at any point to effectively give you an extra 6 seconds with active Enzo ideally use altar time at a point during icy veins when you have other effects up - such as trinket Brock's bloodlust or a potion of the Jade served this way all the time will extend those effects - however the latest you should use all the time is when I see veins have 6 seconds remaining now that's the majority of your rotation covered however let's talk a bit about using your tier 5 talents in particular living bomb and nether tempest when running with either of these two spells you'll generally want to refresh them in the last couple of seconds just before their final tick this ensures that you don't clip the explosion effect of living bomb or cost yourself ticks of nether tempest however there are situations where you would want to reapply these effects earlier particularly when you have intellect or haste box active as such as your trinkets time warp or tempest tree bit you have to judge how much stronger these dots will be if you refresh them this is how long they have on the remaining target to decide if it's worth it generally haste procs are very worth of reapplying the dots wall because faster ticks means more brain freeze props for intellect products with living bomb I dearly try and refresh it when you normally would just before the explosion if possible however if the proc will expire before that time and then refresh it early know against multiple targets your rotation differs slightly against two or more targets take know the tempest as a talent if the targets will be closer together or living bombs if the targets are far apart simply apply whichever you're using to every target and then maintain your single target rotation on the primary target against three or more targets the same applies but if you have the tier 16 to set bonus use your frozen thoughts procs on a coat of cold cast right after you use a brain freeze obviously only do this if it will hit all three targets against four or more targets do the same that use cone of cold on cooldown even when you don't have the tip Rock against five or more targets it depends on the situation if the targets will die within five seconds use frost bomb if you have the talent then use frozen orb and cone of cold on cooldown and use arcane explosion as a filler you can use blizzard as a filler instead if you can't get into melee range don't bother to apply living bomb or another tempest if you've taken those talents instead as the targets will die too quickly if the targets will live for around ten seconds and do the same as above but you can also apply living bomb to three targets if you've taken that instead of frost bomb only apply it if you have haste procs such as time warp or tempers reap it if the target will live for more than ten seconds you can apply living bomb even without these props so with all the information in mind here's how to open up in an encounter first cost a vacation roughly five or six seconds before the pool to get the in focus energy buff up next use mirror images around three seconds before the boss is pulled and a potion of the Jade serpent immediately after start casting a frost ball that's time to finish casting just as the boss is pull however if you're using frost balm as a talent you can pre cast that instead of frost bolt as soon as the boss is pulled apply living bomb or nether tempest if you're using them after that cast frost bolt until you get several procs in particular you're looking for trinket procs and a brain freeze proc once you have them or after a few seconds if you've been unlucky use icy veins and any on use effects such as synapse Springs cause frozen orb and then as soon as it hits the target and you get your first eye slams proc use all the time you can now use all your procs and begin following your standard priority as soon as altar time ends you'll have all of your props back to utilize again this needs to happen in a relatively short span of time your altar time needs to occur when your initial trinket rocks still have six seconds or more remaining moving on to your snap priorities as a frost mage intellect is your primary stat and contributes the most towards your damage after that you need to be hit caps so that none of your spells missed which is equal to 15% hit chance or 5100 rating next haste is your most important stat haste is strong because faster doc ticks and faster casts means you'll get more procs which in turn means you'll do more damage however once you reach 14 - 4 - haste it's often better to stop stacking it and go for mastery instead stacking haste even past this point can be a small DPS increase but you need to be very good at snapshotting your living bomb or nether Tempest and reacting quickly to your procs when you get them crit is your worst stat and therefore lowest priority as a result these are the gems and enchants you should be using in red slots the best gem to use is the wicked vermilion onyx since expertise directly contributes to the earth spell hit this allows you to reforge out if hit on your gear into more haste elsewhere once you get over the hit cap and can't reforge any lower start using the intellect haste gems here instead for glyphs the three glyphs on the top row on screen now are the ones you'll be using most often the other glyphs do have some value but are more situational choices glyph of icy veins changes the spell to a damage increase rather than a haste increase this is mandatory at high levels of gear since extreme amounts of haste will push your cast irons below the global cooldown minimum glyph of cone of cold directly increases the damage it does and is therefore mandatory for any situation where you'll be using it and glyph of splitting ice causes your ice lance and icicles to hit an extra target for 50% damaged this does nothing for single target but it is extremely strong for fights with multiple targets for a full description of the other glyphs check out the written guard moving on to your talents in the first tier you can choose between blazing speed or ice floes both are perfectly viable it depends entirely on your personal preference as to which you use ice floes is useful if you need to frequently move short distances and want the ability to cast whilst moving whilst blazing speed is useful if you need to move a large distance in a short time in the second tier temporal shield should always be taken it's the best defensive tool out of the three hands down and is also off the global cooldown so you can use it without lowering your DPS in the third tip ring of frost is a good default talent to go to since a few creative raid strategies can make use of it but occasionally you might find use for the stun from the frost raw and deep freeze combo instead in the fourth tier you can choose between cauterizer or greater and visibility cauterize provides a nice safety net if you make a mistake whereas greater invisibility is a stronger defensive cooldown as long as you can use it in advance in the fifth tier you choose between nether tempest living bomb or frost bomb we cover this in detail in the DPS and rotation section but generally you want to take living bomb for single target or for fights where targets are spread far apart and take nether tempest or fights where the targets are close enough to cleave take frost bomb on encounters where it's AoE damage will make up a significant portion of your damage such as immerseus heroic or Galactus finally in tier six you always take invocation as you stack haste by default the e vocation cast is quite short and as a result it's a good talent choice as it gives you the freedom and mobility to not have to worry as much about your positioning finally your gear decisions you should select gear based upon it having your key stats haste and mastery the gear on screen now shouldn't completely decide what gear you pick up but it's a good point to aim for in terms of trinkets the immerseus trinket and card races toxic totem are great for frost and should be the ones you aim for but the garish trinket is also fairly decent and is a viable alternative if you can't get both of these thanks very much for watching this guide if you have any comments or suggestions post them below or email us and if you're interested in being coached by a top frost mage click on-screen for more information you

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Keywords: evrelia, evreliagaming, world of warcraft, frost mage guide, frost mage dps guide, frost mage rotation, frost mage glyphs, frost mage reforging, frost mage stats, frost mage cooldowns, frost mage talents, siege of orgrimmar, frost mage, mage, cycobi, warcraftacademy, evrelia.com, scrubbusters, 5.4 frost mage guide, mop

Id: Eq6rnB1xzd8

Length: 15min 8sec (908 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 11 2014