Frost Opener?

[Mumrit]

It's just a macro to get my pet to attack my current target. Without it, the pet won't begin attacking the target with autocasted spells (water bolt) until after my frostbolt hits the target. However, here it has a slightly different function - Mirror Images will also start attacking when you order your pet to attack (which is what the macro does.)

In short, it forces the mirror images to attack when you hit the macro rather than when your frostbolt hits the boss.

[nathyiel]

just create a macro and put "/petattack" into it.
It will tell Welly to attack actual target.
Beware of bad pull, canceled pre-pull, etc.

[Jusanthrmage]

So I use my frozen orb as part of my opener along with PC. My question is when the Frozen Orb is off cd and the PC still has 30 seconds left until cd are you all burning the frozen orb or waiting for your crystal?. So I guess it is basically 2.5min for PC or lose 30 seconds on frozen orb and wait for my PC?.

Thank-you

[Boomop]

With IN > MI > PC, and if I have to Hero it's usually something like...

MI
Prepot/Frostbolt
Water Jet
--Start--
Hero
Frostbolt
Orb
PC
IV

At this point it becomes all about which procs you have up. Highest priority imo is not wasting any IL (FoFs). At the same time, you want to start the IN recharge cycle, and if I get a FFB (BF), I want to get that off before my last IL as that IL will launch the FFB Icicle while PC is active.

This gives a little leeway as well. You can Hero after the 2nd Frostbolt. Sometimes my guildies don't like Hero exactly on the pull.

[Dannemmar]

I see that almost everyone is using the FO very soon in the opening sequence, just after the fbolt-wjet and before the PC. But in this way you risk to lost at least one fof proc of FO hitting boss and PC, is that better than loosing a GCD casting FO after PC ?

2x fbolt w wjet
PC
2x fof-il
FO
IN
IN if boss is far away and FO still moving
2x fof
....

[Stressball]

I see that almost everyone is using the FO very soon in the opening sequence, just after the fbolt-wjet and before the PC. But in this way you risk to lost at least one fof proc of FO hitting boss and PC, is that better than loosing a GCD casting FO after PC ?

2x fbolt w wjet
PC
2x fof-il
FO
IN
IN if boss is far away and FO still moving
2x fof
....

Would have to Sim them to be sure. I've been opening with this:

Pre-pot FB
Lust/MI
FBx2/WJ (procs two FoF)
if one of those FBs gave me a FoF outside of WJ, IL
if not, PC
IV/racial/IN
IL
FO
IL
use procs as they come, favor IL, time IN to be last spell because of no travel time and frontloaded global (makes target switching seamlessly easier)

I think MI is too valuable to lose uptime on and get lust late, so I pop it after start of combat and not before the prepot like a lot of others are doing.

[Ghanjo]

So many different suggestions for openers... anyone know which one is the right one (with IN-MI-PC)?

[Sorc17]

• -1 sec: potion
• 0 sec: macros for MI and usable trinket
• FB and WJ
• FB
• PC
• IV
• IL
• IL
• IN if second trinket proc up if not - FO and save IN until second trinket proc up
• FO
• IN
• IL
• IL
• ...

Not sure if it optimal or not but problem is mage must use too many things at same time when fight starts. In MoP it was much easy.

[Xenost]

Ok seems like I'm the only one who FO before WJ, I wait that PC fade to use my first WJ.
I'm probably wrong because after the pull the boss will often be moved to a specific spot which delay my FO and would not delay WJ, so I'll try to do it like you guys .

What I used untill now :

-3s MI
-2s Potion/Frostbolt/PetAttack
.0 FO
+1 PC
+2 IV
(PC sequence)
after PC : WJ + double FB

[Rinoa]

Not sure if this is 100% optimal, but what I do is this (globals are more like 1.4s for me, but just for simplicity let's call them 1.5):

-3.0 seconds: Mirror Images
-1.5 seconds: Pre-pot + Petattack + Frostbolt
0 seconds: Frozen Orb
1.5 seconds: Prismatic Crystal
3.0 seconds: Icy Veins + Shards of Nothing + Ice Lance

After that, when PC is up, I go by this priority list

1. Ice Nova if PC is about to expire and I have a charge available
2. Ice Lance if I have 2 charges of FoF
3. Ice Nova if I have 1 charge of FoF and 2 charges of Ice Nova
4. Ice Lance if I have 1 charge of FoF
5. FFB-Brain Freeze
6. Frostbolt the boss with Water Jet

[Xenost]

Nice to see someone who uses the exact same opener than me.
On bosses where you have to delay your orb because tanks must get the boss in a specific place, do you use WJ before FO or do you just wait with FB spamming untill the boss is in place?

[Rinoa]

I just keep using FB until I can fire off FO and have it connect with the boss just as the boss is placed in the location it will remain for the duration of the initial burst, without Water Jet. Not sure if using WJ is better or worse, to be honest.

[TLTeo]

Not sure why people only cast one FB for the opener's WJ. To me it makes more sense to get two FoF charges, then pop FO and PC; you have a higher chance of getting FFB procs and even if you do clip FoF once in a while, it doesn't feel that common to me. Also i dont see the point in using MI before the pull is started when it does so much damage. My usual opener is:

Prepot, Frostbolt, Water Jet, second FB, Icy Veins+MI, FO, PC, use FoF, FFB and IN on PC.

[Chtitou]

Pre-pot FB
Lust/MI
FBx2/WJ (procs two FoF)
if one of those FBs gave me a FoF outside of WJ, IL
if not, PC
IV/racial/IN
IL
FO
IL
use procs as they come, favor IL, time IN to be last spell because of no travel time and frontloaded global (makes target switching seamlessly easier)

I use the same opener, i think this works pretty well, and we don't loose a lot of procs.

[Pappus]

Is there some conclusion now? IV pre crystal or not?

With IV activated you have a much higher chance to get BF from your first frostbolts, which I quite enjoy having, because most of the time I will run out of FoF procs quickly and instead of having to hardcast frostbolt I can use these to charge up on fof again.

Of course enjoying and hard math are two things. Could anyone setup the APL and test the 3 possible openers against each other for us?

Like 2x waterjet FBs with precrystal FoF'ing
single waterjet FB
No waterjetting

and then of course with iv activated at crystal or pre crystal.

[TheHeretic91]

I'd be interested to know how big the DPS difference between all these openers actually is.

[Magiclol]

My opener seems to be a little different, and I posted a video on the Frost Videos thread so you can see how I play. I know I'm no pro, but it makes sense to me.

Pre Pull: Pot, MI

On pull with boss in position: Orb, IV, PC

With the combo of Orb hitting the PC and the boss, I have more than enough procs to keep me busy throughout PC's duration.

Am I missing dps by not using Water Jet? I feel like since there are so many Ice Lance procs during my opener, Water Jet is a waste. I like to use it right when PC is expiring and I'm switching to boss.

Would love to hear some feedback

[Mumrit]

Am I missing dps by not using Water Jet?

You are, but over the length of the fight, not a whole lot. It's one of those things that you can use to squeeze out a bit more damage over the length of the fight (Couple of percentage points at most.)

[Iceshatter]

Hey everyone, first post on these forums
I apologize in advance, but I dislike spell abbreviations.

It just feels natural to me to open with Water Jet and two Frostbolts on boss, followed by prism, two Ice Novas and a Frozen Orb with the one Ice Lance proc going into the prism.

This might not be the highest DPS that can be achieved, but its not relying on randomness. It will always happen and you can count on it. That's the reason I like it so much.

[Blugatti]

You are potentially losing so much ice lances with that.