Frost AOE help (CMs)

[Kerrert]

Hi folks,

Of all things, I've been having trouble maximizing AOE dps on CM runs. So I've come to you all for some advice. What I do on a particularly nasty, large pack is Prepot>Orb>PC>FB the PC>IL spam into PC. I can do maybe 35 to 40k with this if I'm lucky.

What I don't understand is that when I watch videos, I see other Frost mages doing what (I think) is the same thing, only they see returns of about 70 or 80k (I'm just talking one aoe pull here), and even burst over 100k at the peak of the trash pull.

I've seen it done with both FB and IN, and I've tried both, but nothing is making that big a difference. If I use IN, I do Petfreeze > IN for the shatter. Also for clarification, I've been trying IF over MI, but that has not yielded results either.

TLDR - I'm at a loss; I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong as far as aoe goes. Am I missing something terribly obvious? What do you all do to maximize aoe numbers in CMs (silver and above)? Any advice is appreciated!

[durrtygoodz]

Of all things, I've been having trouble maximizing AOE dps on CM runs. So I've come to you all for some advice. What I do on a particularly nasty, large pack is Prepot>Orb>PC>FB the PC>IL spam into PC. I can do maybe 35 to 40k with this if I'm lucky.

Should be able to do 60-100k like that, depending on pack size. How do you gear?

[aycheff]

Are you sure you're casting FB on the crystal and not accidentally tabbing a mob then back to crystal or something? Or vice versa summoning crystal, bombing it, then accidentally tabbing to a mob? I mean what you're saying you're doing is correct and you should so as much as DG just said, so that leads me to believe you're doing something wrong like I mentioned with wrong tabbing or what you will.

[Kerrert]

Thanks for your replies.

Gear wise, I've been using much the same as non-CM stuff, MS>Haste>Crit>Vers>Mast (though I end up with more mastery than I'd like). Seeing the other thread here on the stat weights though makes me want to try Haste>Crit/MS.

As far as the tab targeting goes, I'm quite certain that I don't tab off the crystal, but I did notice a huge variance in the dps when the group was very assiduous about chaining stuns (leg sweep into remorseless etc after gorefiend's) to keep them very tightly stacked (1st pull of 3 packs in Auch), versus not being as mindful or able to keep mobs as tight due to jumping ogres and people standing way in the back /sad (1st pull of 5 in BSM).

When watching different videos, I see varying success/results with FB and IN, but am interested to hear you guys' mileage with both.

[ohi]

Are you using int/sp proc trinkets such as alchemy trinket, copeland's and the pvp insignia? Works nicely especially in those big pulls at the start of a dungeon with both trinkets lined up together.

Also you can have two frost specs and change between them during the cm. One with IN+MI+TV for bosses and another one with crystal+FB+IF for trash.

[DeathDefier]

One with IN+MI+TV for bosses and another one with crystal+FB+IF for trash.

Why would you want TV for single target and PC for aoe? That seems backwards.

[Escapist]

If you have two specs, you can use PC for trash for higher burst AoE, and then swap to your second spec and use TV for the boss. This will essentially let you use BOTH of the level 100 talents, since you can swap specs while PC is on cooldown.
In some scenarios you can use 3 minute cooldowns (Icy Veins/Troll Racial), with PC, then use PC again on the next trash pack. Now you're at the boss with PC still on CD for a minute, so you can swap to your other spec and make use of TV as well. It would obviously be more optimal if you COULD use PC on the boss, but making use of both talents lets you get more uses out of PC overall, as well as a couple uses of TV.

Edit - If you were to try and use TV for AoE and PC for the boss, that would require you to use Icy Veins on the trash, which is certainly doable sometimes, but most of the time you won't be able to use Icy Veins on a boss, then again on trash, and still have it up for the next boss. Whereas with the shorter CD on PC, you are able to do that.

Maybe I'm wrong, or maybe there is a more optimal way, but doing this seemed pretty effective for me in my Gold runs.