TBC Classic Frost Mage Guide (Phase 3)
About the Class
Frost Mage is a ranged spellcaster in cloth armor. Its damage is built around
Frostbolt. In TBC the tree was significantly buffed:
Icy Veins,
Summon Water Elemental and Empowered Frostbolt were added, and
Cold Snap lets you use both cooldowns twice in a row. The Water Elemental added ranged control through
Freeze. In a raid this is the weakest of the mage's three specializations, but the best for control, survivability, and in PvP.
Strengths
- The best control, slows, and roots among mage specializations.
- Powerful burst damage in both single-target and group play.
- High survivability.
- The best mage specialization for PvP.
- Easier to gear than a Fire Mage.
Weaknesses
- Requires more spell hit than Arcane.
- Harder to gear than an Arcane Mage.
- The weakest PvE specialization for the mage.
Stat Priority
- 1Spell Hit
- 2Spell Power
- 3Spell Haste Rating
- 4Spell Critical Strike
- 5Intellect
- 6Stamina
- 7Spirit
- 8Mana per 5 sec.
Talents
Ability Priority
Summon Water Elemental — on cooldown; if summoned before
Bloodlust or
Heroism, the elemental also gets the haste
Icy Veins — on cooldown
Ice Lance — right after
Frostbolt on a frozen target: triple damage and +50% crit from Shatter
Frostbolt — main single-target damage
Fire Blast — while moving, if the target is not frozen
Molten Armor — keep it up for the critical strike chance
Blink — instead of running when repositioning
Threat reductions multiply together:
Blessing of Salvation,
Enchant Cloak - Subtlety and the talent together give about 41% of the original threat for
Arcane Explosion.
Important Abilities
Best in Slot (BiS)
Tier 6 Set — Tempest Regalia
Enchants, Gems, Consumables
Races
Best Professions
Grants
Enchant Ring - Minor Intellect — a very strong enchant that can only be applied to your own rings and stops working if you drop the profession. Plus
Disenchant for breaking down surplus gear.
Explosives like
Dense Dynamite and
Super Sapper Charge aren't subject to the AoE damage cap and weave into the rotation. It also provides
Destruction Holo-Gogs,
Rocket Boots Xtreme Lite,
Zapthrottle Mote Extractor and
Dimensional Ripper - Area 52.
Early on it provides strong sets with lots of spell hit — Frozen Shadoweave (
Frozen Shadoweave Shoulders,
Frozen Shadoweave Robe,
Frozen Shadoweave Boots) and Spellstrike (
Spellstrike Hood,
Spellstrike Pants). By the end of T5, raid gear covers your hit and the profession loses its value. At 375 skill it unlocks the best leg enchants:
Runic Spellthread and
Golden Spellthread.
Provides drums with 30-second buffs. Because of the
Tinnitus debuff, they can't be received more than once every 2 minutes, so the profession's value has dropped noticeably.
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.
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