Quick Links
Mages have long been a staple of RPGs and high fantasy, and things are no different withWorld of Warcraft. It was one of the earliest examples of exceptional class fantasy, and it appears that it hasn’t been forgotten inDragonflight, as the recent expansion has opened the class up to be played by all races.
Related:World of Warcraft: Dragonflight - Arms Warrior Complete Guide
However, while arcane and fire mages are sought after for their high damage output, frost mages have often gone overlooked. It’s thought by some to be a joke pick, but with the upgraded talent trees, frost is an underrated sleeping gem. Here’s a complete overview on just how to utilize frost mage’s full power.
Class Overview
Frost mageis often heralded as one of the best specializations forutility. While it can be beaten in damage by a select few classes, like marksmanship hunter, it’s almost unparalleled when it comes to offering slows, stuns, roots, and polymorphs.
With Dragonflight’s new talent tree system, frost mage keeps all of that utility afforded to them before andgains further damaging abilities, making it an excellent choice for general play or high-end dungeons. There are several ways to optimize frost mage further, such as the right race to pick.
Race
While frost mage can be played viably by any race in the game, there are a few stand-out choices.
Stat Priority
As a spellcaster, your primary stat isintellect. This is where the majority of your damage comes from, and you cannot live without it. However, things get trickier when trying to decipher which secondary stats you need.
Frost mage suffers from thedrawback of long cast times. Therefore, anything withhasteis a big plus, allowing you to get through your rotation that much faster and set-up for your big resource spenders. Along with haste, you want to watch out forversatility and mastery, which adds to youroverall damage and icicles’ damage, respectively. These secondary stats can come from different enchants and gems.
Enchants a ring item to boost haste.
Enchant Weapon - Wafting Devotion
Enchants a weapon to passively gain temporary boosts to haste and speed.
Socket within gear to boost your primary stat and haste.
Socket within gear to boost versatility and haste.
Socket within gear to boost mastery and haste.
Rotation
Luckily, frost mage doesn’t have as wild of a rotation as some other classes, and you’ll find that there arefour main abilitiesto familiarize yourself with. As for the rest of your bar, these are either situational or intended for advanced play, such as mythic dungeons or PvP.
Aside from these four main abilities, it would also be worth it to hotkey several others that you may find yourself using regularly, such asCone of Cold, Counterspell, and Ice Floes.
Talents aren’t too important while leveling, as they’re more significant when it comes toendgame content. However, it is smart to prioritize talents that revolve around your main abilities —Frostbolt, Flurry, Ice Lance, and Glacial Spike.
This build is also ideal for doing world content when you’re at max level, like world quests around the Dragon Isles, or any solo content. However, if you aspire to do dungeons or PvP on a regular basis, you’ll need to switch out your talents.
Vault of the Incarnates - Raszageth
Vault of the Incarnates - Sennarth
Vault of the Incarnates - Eranog
Staff of Trembling Will
Temple of the Jade Serpent - Sha of Doubt
Hitting max level in Dragonflight is only the beginning. Once you’ve reached level 70, you’ll want to start paying attention to youritem level, or ilvlfor short. This can be found on your character screen, and you may boost it by finding better gear around the Dragon Isles.
After hitting max level, you can get better gear from a few different sources. It’s best to start off by checking if there are any easy upgrades to obtain fromworld questsfound around the different zones, which provides you with pieces of theCobalt Watcher’s Vestments.This is the easiest and most efficient way to get new gear, but world quests areslow to respawn.
Dragonflight also modifiedprofessions. Unlike previous expansions, professions can now reliably equip you with a wide range of gear, and with the introduction of theArtisan’s Consortium, you can request pieces that are tailor-made just for you from other players. You should watch out for theOverseer’s Writhebark Stavefrom Inscription and theSurveyor’s Cloth Setfrom Tailoring.
Runningregular or heroic dungeonsis a surefire way to level up gear as well, providing you with ilvl 340 or 360 gear, called theTitan Dungeonkeeper’s Vestments.However, heroic dungeons do have agear requirement of 342before you may queue using theGroup Finder.
Finally, high-end equipment, like theBindings of the Crystal Scholar, can be obtained fromraids, mythic dungeons, or rated PvP.These can provide up to ilvl 382 gear and beyond. However, these are some of the toughest challenges in the game, and they’ll require you to change your talent build.
When it comes to running raids and heroic or mythic dungeons, you’ll have to begin to pay attention to more than just your basic rotation. There are two main points to both instances;efficiently sweeping out mob packs and quickly bursting down bosses. The table above is an effective build for both.
The main alteration that comes with this new talent tree is theheavy use of AoEabilities. While running from boss to boss within a raid or dungeon, you’ll have to clear out dense packs of enemies along the way. Get into the habit of castingBlizzardwhenever it’s off cooldown, and weaveFrozen Orb and Comet Stormwhenever you can.
With the talentFreezing Rain, Frozen Orb increases Blizzard’s damage and makes it instant castwhile the orb is active. If you cast Frozen Orb and instantly follow it with a Blizzard, it’ll come off cooldown just in time for you to benefit from the proc one more time.
Meteor and Dragon’s Breathalso help in this regard, allowing you to continue to cast AoE spells while Frozen Orb or Comet Storm is still on cooldown.Cone of Cold is also handy, but keep in mind that it requires you to be close-range with the enemies, which combos well with Dragon’s Breath.
However, frost mage doesn’t just shine with mob packs. On any boss, popIcy Veins and Mirror Imagefor a significant damage increase. Open with a few Frostbolts to gain icicles and faster casting time, then use the same combo of Flurry into Glacial Spike while Winter’s Chill is active. Then, while the boss is frozen from Glacial Spike, continue with Frostbolts to gain from theDeep Shatter and Subzero talents. After this, repeat.
If this is done right and without interruption, you’ll be able to get out quite a few rotations of this, supplying your team with great sustained damage. If you feel that you need another boost, useRune of Powerwhen the one automatically summoned from Icy Veins wears off.
If you’d like more information on how well you’re performing in endgame content, addons likeDetails! Damage MeterandDeadlyBossModscan clue you in on how much damage you deal out and how to avoid certain boss mechanics.
Utility Tips
Frost mage is all about high sustained damage when it comes to AoE and skillful burst damage with Glacial Spike. With that said, there’s more to the kit than just damaging abilities. There are a number of great utility spells at a frost mage’s disposal.
There are many layers to frost mage, and while it could be overwhelming at first, the payoff from the immense damage, survivability, and utility is worth it, easily rivaling that of the other specializations.
