Risk vs. reward of switching to Frost

[Mebbekew]

Long time lurker, sorta first time poster.

First off, gotta say thanks to the AT community for making me a better mythic raider. This site is an amazing resource.

Secondly I wanted to put up a post to gather some thoughts and feedback of the risk vs. reward of switching to Frost for mythic raiding.

Reward
Much better ST DPS
Strong 2 target cleave
Decent enough AOE

Risk
They fix Fire ST in 7.2.5 (I wasted a decent amount of AP in Frost)
I went into 7.2 with 54 Fire, 45 Frost and would have to catch up a little in Frost, but that doesn't seem too bad given the higher AK
(sorta risk) I get a frost legendary next which could have been Koralon's
(I have fire bracers, shard, diadem and kil'jaeden)

My raid team is 5/10, and the only boss left that could benefit from staying Fire is Tich. My goal is to optimize my DPS to finish off NH progression... so to me, it seems like the rewards outweigh the risk (especially as AK is only going to increase).

Thoughts?

[broedrost]

Fire have higher total dps than frost on Tich but boss dps is always preffered anyway. We just had two spriests dealing with all the blobs anyway so single target is great.

[SSherlock]

Frost is in a good state atm. Even though you don't have frost legendaries, you can still output good damage with mage utility legendaries (sephuz/timewarp ring). Your upcoming fights in NIghthold would most certainly benefit you playing as frost (assuming you can play at the approrpiate skill level & have adequate gear/traits). But it'll take you a while to gear up a decent frost spec (relics/ap grind).


Since you've listed 4 legendaries on your initial post, there's no guarentee that you're going to get a frost specific legendary - let alone a good frost specific legendary.


But with all that being said, fire is still viable for progression. If you're guild is not pressuring you to switch, then just play whatever you want. If you enjoy the playstyle of fire, lore, theme - then stay fire.

[Eggochiggo]

I switched to Frost last week, the dps is so much better and the spec feels so much smoother with the NH gear stats. I was thinking the same thing about what if they buff fire, but at some point you have to do what is best for your raid and Frost is just so much better for the majority of progression NH fights.

The one downside to frost I noticed is the lack of instant abilities so your movement abilities are limited, Trillax being a very noticable fight for this. With fire I used to try and save my PF and fireblasts as I was running. With frost you don't have many options for dpsing while moving around. Star Auger as well if you get fel blaze, if you have good haste you can get at least one frostbolt off then move though.

[Makz]

I switched to Frost pre7.2, while having Fire at 54 traits with all Fire leggos(excl. gloves) and was using chest/exodar with Frost traits at 42 - never looked back.

I have extreme doubts Fire will receive anything substantial, because the problems is MELEE, not Fire. Melee are so over the top, in order for Fire to be buffed, you need to give it incredible buffs in coefficients or mechanics, which they failed once already.

Frost will be the go to in ToS as ST is what matters - cleaving has always been a melees job. I bet in 7.3 they will buff Arcane way over the top and this way at the end of Legion they will announce Mage as the most balanced class, having shined in every single tier with 1 spec(nothing wrong, except when people dont enjoy said specs).

[sawbossnl]

Haaai do hate me for this as i deserve it probably.

but inswitched to frost from fire i hade 54 traits in both spec ( to much free time ) as i already hade the bracers and head lego for fire and 4 other legos sephus/prydays/norg/kilj .so i thought why not take the risk and put loot specialisation to frost and a week before 7.2 i got the frost bracers so i desided to go frost in 7.2 and now 2 weeks into 7.2 i also got the gloves for frost so imma realy happy ya know

So now to answer your question ima lvling both spec up kinda as fire will be good on aoe fight and in tomb we have 3 and frost is good for single/cleave as i got top dps on spellblade on our first kill i might think frost is also beter for progression as you have so much move on cast abilities

If you switch to frost keep in mind .
it also depends on your raid setup mate if you have alot of aoe in your group a fire mage wont be needed so your dps on adds might be low but your dammage output on boss will be decent to high compared to the rest and if you farm the ap for 1 spec than at some point you need the ap for 1 trait while for in your other spec you can get 3 traits with that amount i say use your brain and go for 2 specs lvl it slowly as the dps increase for every trait is realy slim


Ima sorry for the long post and anoying to read post but i hope this helps alot of mages to make a decision

Also dont stick to 1 spec as in my opinion playing 2 different spec makes the game so much more fun ^^

[Kasc]

you can still output good damage with mage utility legendaries (sephuz/timewarp ring).

Utility legendaries? That's a great frost setup.

[Toriankel]

It's a great time to switch frost, because according to Blizzard frost isn't doing enough damage yet, see they get another buff on glacial eruption, but fire is fine being trash. That's some solid balancing right there

[h0lyshadow]

Hi, long time lurker too, struggling to decide what to do.
Playing since launch on daily basis, I got 7 leggos in this order

• Shard
  Koralon (pre-buff)
  Norgannon
  Kj trinket
  Belov'ir
  Gloves
  Drackil

So I obviously played for almost 7 months with shard+koralon, recently having some fun with Drackil, but that's it.
What I'm supposed to do? At this point, even if I'm not going to get a BiS anymore, I would love to complete the spec and try the gameplay of those damn bracers.

Should I just join the frost bandwagon? Haven't blizzard nerfed fire to the ground because everyone was playing that spec? Isn't the same going to happen with frost? If I don't get frost bracers/gloves I'm going to be completely behind other mages like have been fire without bracers?

This confused mage thanks anyone is going to help him.

[Syana]

Without bracers I would have swapped to Frost a long time ago. Even with bracers it's something to consider.

But for me fire still outpaces my frost not making it worth the swap until I get my hands on some better frost gear. And hopefully by that point Blizz will at least have made a comment of what they want to do with fire.

[Breshnak]

Without bracers I would have swapped to Frost a long time ago. Even with bracers it's something to consider.

But for me fire still outpaces my frost not making it worth the swap until I get my hands on some better frost gear. And hopefully by that point Blizz will at least have made a comment of what they want to do with fire.

I have the bracers and belt as fire with 41 traits, frost I have the blizzard belt and the trinket and 38 traits. I still outdps myself by closer to 150k dps on single-target and the difference on cleave is far higher. Fire is currently completely useless, they destroyed it (mainly by buffing everyone else).

With frost you simply go from feeling absolutely trash to feeling like you actually progress (but still below good melee..).

The one downside to frost I noticed is the lack of instant abilities so your movement abilities are limited, Trillax being a very noticable fight for this. With fire I used to try and save my PF and fireblasts as I was running. With frost you don't have many options for dpsing while moving around. Star Auger as well if you get fel blaze, if you have good haste you can get at least one frostbolt off then move though.

Remember you can pick ice floes as frost.