Frost PVE: 6.2
[/size]You cannot waste Icicles. Gaining a sixth will fire the oldest Icicle present. No need to track them.
Basics and Playstyle
Under the assumption of IN/RoP/PC, which is the standard single target build this patch, along with 4pT18. Priority is as such:
- Rune of Power
- Prismatic Crystal
- Frozen Orb
- Icy Veins
- 4 stack Fingers of Frost-Ice Lance/2 stack Fingers of Frost-Ice Lance while Frozen Orb's ticking*
- Ice Nova with 2 charges or the last charge if Prismatic Crystal is about to die
- Other Fingers of Frost-Ice Lances*
- Brain Freeze-Frostfire Bolt
- Ice Nova with 1 charge
- Frostbolt if you somehow don't have procs
- Water Jet
- Brain Freeze-Frostfire Bolt at 2 stacks
- Ice Lance if you're at, or will be at, 4 stacks of Fingers of Frost*
- Frostbolt
- Fingers of Frost-Ice Lance if the buff is about to expire
- Brain Freeze-Frostfire Bolt if the buff is about to expire
- Ice Nova if you're about to cap out at 2 stacks, or the target is about to die
- Ice Lance if 4 Fingers of Frost*
- Brain Freeze-Frostfire Bolt
- Ice Lance at other levels of Fingers of Frost*
- Frostbolt
For Prismatic Crystal's sub-list, optimal DPS with this trinket is to weave Frostbolt and Ice Lance back and forth, using Frostfire Bolt as they come.
As soon as you have multiple targets, you switch to UM/RoP/TV. You follow the same priority, except you simply use Frozen Orb on cooldown instead of saving it for Prismatic Crystal.
Pop Icy Veins, Time Warp, and trinkets as indicated by fight mechanics and common sense.
Stand in Rune of Power or keep Mirror Images on cooldown. Incanter's Flow is passive and requires no attention.
Comet Storm should be used on cooldown. I would make the argument that you should wait a cast or two to proc RPPM effects before hitting it on pull. Prismatic Crystal should also be used on cooldown, but save as many Fingers of Frost and Brain Freeze procs as you can without overwriting them. Thermal Void is ignored completely, as Frozen Orb lines up with Icy Veins anyway. Try and go into Icy Veins with at least one Fingers of Frost proc if at all possible.
Frozen Orb should be used on cooldown except when using Prismatic Crystal. Save Frozen Orb for use with Prismatic Crystal. It'll path roughly forward from you and slow down when it hits the first attackable target. The first impact will automatically grant you a fingers charge as well. It's also damned nice AOE, so try and aim it to maximize damage on as many targets as possible.
Your level 75 talents are Frost Bomb, which you should only cast when you've got at least one Fingers of Frost proc; Unstable Magic, which is entirely passive; and Ice Nova, which should be used ASAP if you have 2 charges, and with a trinket effect or 5 stacks of Incanter's Flow on the last charge.
Ice Lance with Fingers of Frost allows Ice Lance to benefit from Shatter and will launch your current Icicles set.
Frostfire Bolt with Brain Freeze up will let it benefit from Shatter.
Frostbolt is your filler spell.
Talents
Level 15:
- Evanesce is your "movement" by avoiding mechanics talent. Functions identically to Ice Block with the exception of not removing debuffs. Should allow you to bypass most ground effects in dungeons and raids, as well as any targeted effects as long as the buff is up before the cast finishes. Replaces Ice Block, however.
- Blazing Speed is movement through getting to your destination faster so you can continue to cast.
- Ice Floes is simply the ability to cast while moving, and arguably the best on the line if utilized properly.
- Alter Time has been changed to simply return your health and position, nothing else. Powerful in the right circumstances, but does not actively prevent death.
- Flameglow is passive protection. It's generally an okay, but not great talent.
- Ice Barrier returns relatively unchanged. Still fairly weak, and still on the GCD.
Level 45:
- Ring of Frost returns unchanged, still has a target limit of 10.
- Ice Ward has been buffed to have 3 charges and a short ICD between them. Fairly useful if you take Ice Nova, as it's essentially 3 Frost Novas on a 20 second cooldown.
- Frostjaw also returns unchanged, and remains a silence for as long as the freeze effect is unbroken.
- Greater Invisibility will still prevent your death should you pop it before taking a fatal hit, but it requires you to pay attention.
- Cauterize will do the same, but only absorb up to 200% of your max health while doing so.
- Cold Snap functionally reads Ice Block has a 3 minute cooldown, with a decent heal for soloing attached to it.
Level 75:
- Frost Bomb has changed massively from a single explosion on a timer to a 12 second debuff that explodes whenever a frozen Ice Lance hits the target.
- Unstable Magic is a passive explosion that procs from both Frostbolt and Frostfire Bolt.
- Ice Nova replaces Frost Nova with a DPS spell on a charge system.
Level 90:
- Mirror Image has been turned into a talent and heavily buffed to match. It retains the threat drop it had previously.
- Rune of Power returns as a 3 minute duration without the mana regeneration.
- Incanter's Flow is a passive that steps up or down every second, with 2 seconds at the lowest and highest points. 4-8-12-16-20-20-16-12-8-4 and repeat.
Level 100:
- Thermal Void is entirely passive. The infinite Icy Veins strategy is dead.
- Prismatic Crystal places a target only you can hit. The Elemental and Mirror Images cannot see or hit it. Your goal is to place it close enough to the center of the boss's hitbox that Splitting Ice will cleave off of it.
- Comet Storm should just be used on cooldown. There's nothing special about it other than the location is set at time of cast. If the target moves, you might miss some comets.
Save Frozen Orb for Prismatic Crystal. Throw Frost Bomb on the target you're cleaving off of, if using Frost Bomb. Splitting Ice will trigger the explosion, and you don't want to waste Crystal's uptime on casting Bomb. Prismatic Crystal can now also be hit by pets as of 6.2. This includes both the Elemental and Mirror Images if you're using them. Don't Water Jet the Crystal, it will end early and make you sad.
Thermal Void is functionally passive. It tends to shine on multiple target fights, where you can get your surprisingly decent AOE buffed by it.
Glyphs
Glyphs are fairly self explanatory. Read them. Take what's appropriate for the situation.
Glyph of Icy Veins is currently mandatory. It also has a hidden 20% modifier to Fingers of Frost generation from Frostbolt and Frostfire Bolt to make up for the slower cast speeds. 15% to 18% isn't huge, it just keeps it equal.
Glyph of Splitting Ice is almost always a DPS increase, there's usually some add at some point during a fight. This is also mandatory for Prismatic Crystal, as you can cleave off of the Crystal onto the boss if placed properly.
Glyph of Cone of Cold is questionable in my mind. It tends to beat out most spells at 3-4 targets, but Blizzard will reduce the cooldown of Frozen Orb, and it scales with number of targets hit. I haven't done the long-term math on this glyph, because I don't feel that it's strong enough to deserve a spot on any given fight.
Glyph of Water Elemental allows you to keep your elemental in range of the boss at all times. This is incredibly useful for both Water Jet and Freeze. Keep in mind that the AI can be a bit dumb, and will continually stand next to you, even if it means it can't DPS the boss due to line of sight issues.
Stats
Intellect>Spell Power>Multistrike>=Crit>Haste>Versatility>Mastery
That said, Haste, Crit before Shatter cap, Mastery, and Versatility are all incredibly close to each other in value; they will shuffle around depending on gear and talent selection. There's no way to tell you which is .01 better DPS than the others without simming yourself. There's a link at the bottom of the post to a great guide by Frosted on how to do that. As it stands, if it has higher ilvl than what you have and has more Multistrike and Intellect, take it.[/b]
Mastery is interesting. Our mastery stores a percentage of any Frostbolt or Frostfire Bolt damage event as an Icicle above your head. You can have up to five at any given time, the oldest one will automatically launch when you gain a sixth. They will all fire in a rapid barrage when you cast Ice Lance. For any normal circumstances, you will not need to pay attention to them. They're passive damage, much like fire's Ignite. They can be used to finish off low health enemies, if you have a decent judgement of how much damage is stored in them, though the only point I've seen this specific trick useful has been Proving Grounds. In general, they can be saved up, along with procs, to help burn down a high priority target quickly.
Crit soft cap is 36.33% raid buffed. This includes the 5% crit buff from Arcane Brilliance. Shatter is crit percent*1.5+50%. The math behind this is (((36.33-3)*1.5)+50)=100 after Blizzard's rounding is finished. You lose 1% crit against any target for every level higher than you are, before Shatter.
Multistrike is stat% chance, rolled twice, for a second/third spell fired at 30% damage. It's a slightly different version of Crit, and Multistrikes can Crit independently of the originating spell. Frostbolt and Frostfire Bolt Multistrikes will also generate Icicles. Brain Freeze is now triggered from Frostbolt at 10%, and Frostbolt Multistrikes increase this chance by 25% for each Multistrike, up to 60% from one Frostbolt cast (primary 10% with two Multistrikes for 25% each).
Versatility is simply a flat damage increase, with half of the total as a damage reduction. It's a pretty good stat, and unlike most classes, it's one of our better stats.
Miscellaneous
SimulationCraft
We put an absolute absurd amount of work into getting SimC more accurate for mages. It's fine to use now.
Please learn how to simulate your character. It will allow you to not need to ask opinions on every little upgrade you get, and allows you to find out your own personal stat weights. A good video tutorial on how to do this is found here. A text tutorial by Frosted here.
If you guys see any issues or have any questions, feel free to post.
