Frost Mage PvE Guide — Midnight

by Fouren

Updated 2 day ago

6 minutes readmin

6,777 views

About the Class

Frost Mage is a ranged fighter who can wield either two one-handed weapons (wands, daggers, off-hand items) or a two-handed weapon (staves). The class has enormous burst damage both single target and in AoE, along with a steady and smooth rotation with plenty of procs and ability stacks.

Strengths

Excellent damage both single target and in AoE.
Simple rotation that lets you quickly grasp the class and put up good results.
A raid buff that grants 30% Haste for 30 seconds (Bloodlust, Heroism), as well as an Intellect buff for every raid/group member.

Weaknesses

Heavy reliance on burst abilities. Without them the class's damage is mediocre.
You have to watch for ability procs and react to them quickly, since every delay significantly hurts your damage output.
For AoE damage the mobs need to stand close together, since the radius of AoE abilities is small.

Stat Priority

Mage Frost Stats Priority

Intellect

Mastery

Critical Strike

Haste

Versatility

Talents

Mage Frost Mythic+ Build

No talent data

Rotation (Abilities Priority)

Mage Frost Opener

Mage Frost Abilities Priority

Single Target

Flurry — together with Brain Freeze if Glacial Spike is not yet active
Frostbolt
Ice Lance — if you have Fingers of Frost
Frozen Orb — when available
Ice Lance — when the target has 6 or more stacks of Winter's Chill
Ray of Frost
Flurry
Frostbolt

AoE

Flurry — together with Brain Freeze if Glacial Spike is not yet active
Frostbolt
Frozen Orb
Blizzard — if there are 6 or more targets
Ice Lance — if Fingers of Frost is active or the target has 10 or more stacks of Winter's Chill
Flurry — if you have an available charge but no Brain Freeze
Ray of Frost
Frostfire Bolt

Best in Slot (BiS)

Don't forget to explore our class pages, where not only the best items in the slot are available, but also other alternatives for any class, spec or situation:

Mage: Gear

Two-Hand Weapon

Zuraal's Shadowspire

Head

Voidcrusher's Cowl

Neck

Rotcap's Sporeheart

Shoulders

Mantle of Dark Service

Back

Warm Stiffscale Cloak

Chest

Voidcrusher's Robe

Wrists

Martyr's Bindings

Hands

Voidcrusher's Gloves

Waist

Laced Arcanweave Belt

Legs

Voidcrusher's Breeches

Feet

Luxurious Claytreads

Ring

Sin'dorei Ring of Hope

Ring

Blooming Sporecaller's Ring

Trinket

Gaze of the Aln Seer

Trinket

Vaelgor's Last Gaze

Enchants, Gems, Consumables

Enchants

Weapon

Enchant Weapon - Ren'dorei Insight

Head

Enchant Cowl - Enhanced Rune of Avoidance

Shoulders

Enchant Shoulders - Amirdrassil's Grace

Chest

Enchant Chest - Mark of the Worldsoul

Legs

Sunfire Spellthread

Feet

Enchant Boots - Shaladrassil's Roots

Ring

Enchant Ring - Eagle's Eyes

Gems

Meta Gem

Mighty Eternal Song Diamond

Primary

Flawless Mastery Garnet

Alternate (to activate the meta gem)

Flawless Death Amethyst

Alternate (to activate the meta gem)

Flawless Mastery Chrysolite

Alternate (to activate the meta gem)

Flawless Mastery Lapis

Consumables

Flask

Flask of Tempered Mastery

Potion

Potion of Unwavering Focus

Healing Potion

Moonberry Healing Potion

Weapon Oil

Thalassian Phoenix Oil

Augment Rune

Void-Touched Augment Rune

Food

Feast of Harandar

Leveling

From the very first level you already have abilities to deal damage. Your main ability at the early levels will be Ice Lance. As you level up you will gain new abilities, getting closer to the core rotation. We recommend following this ability priority as they become available:

Mythic+ Tips

The ability Alter Time lets you quickly recover after taking large but non-lethal damage. If you realize you are about to take damage, use this ability once before taking the damage and once after.

You can cast Blink while casting spells in case you urgently need to leave the area you are in.

Always keep Ice Barrier up. This ability significantly increases your survivability.

Macros

Cast Spellsteal on focus.

#showtooltip Spellsteal
/cast [@focus,exists] Spellsteal

Cancel Alter Time (for example, if you cast it but do not want to return to the original spot).

#showtooltip Alter Time
/cancelaura Alter Time

Cast Remove Curse on cursor

#showtooltip Remove Curse
/cast [@mouseover,harm,nodead][]Remove Curse

Author

Fouren

Fouren has been playing World of Warcraft for over 15 years. He is an active player with 12 Cutting Edge achievements under his belt, and has reached the top 1% and 0.1% multiple times on various classes. His main classes are healers, particularly Holy Paladin.