Breaktheice's WoD Frost Mage Guide (updated for 6.2)

[Frosted]

Great! Thanks for sticking around and keeping the guide up to date

[Breaktheice]

No problem. I'll clean up the rotation section too as it's getting a little too wordy - basically gonna spoiler tag it into different sections so people with different talent or tier setups need not read everything but instead their own section only.

But that'll have to wait for a few days.

[Calo]

Just a bit of confusion from my side:

In the priority rotation, shouldnt using Brainfreeze procs have priority over fingers of frost if you only have 1 proc. If you have 2 FoF, FoF has prio. I think that's how I used to do it, or maybe I always did it wrong. Anyway, in the end it doesnt matter much I reckon as long as you avoid munching procs.

[Breaktheice]

If you have 1 FoF proc and 1 BF proc, it wont matter which one you use first.
But logically, FoF will take priority over BF because of what you said "If you have 2 FoF, FoF has prio."

Try to think of the scenarios you could be in when you're juggling both procs simultaneously.

1 FoF and 1 BF = doesn't matter (you can IL or FFB)
1 FoF and 2 BF = doesn't matter (you can IL or FFB)
2 FoF and 1 BF = FoF first (you have to IL)
2 FoF and 2 BF = FoF first (you have to IL)

Hence, IL takes higher priority on the cast list.

[Chiv]

Some bugs I've noticed (or could just be on my side)

- If you use pet freeze right beginning of water jet channel you can use both (maybe it has been there before, useless on bosses anyways)
- If you start out with a pet freeze on a mob that is immune to it. water elemental goes AFK. doesn't respond to any commands

idk

[indomitus]

Some bugs I've noticed (or could just be on my side)

- If you use pet freeze right beginning of water jet channel you can use both (maybe it has been there before, useless on bosses anyways)
- If you start out with a pet freeze on a mob that is immune to it. water elemental goes AFK. doesn't respond to any commands

idk

good ole water ele working as intended.

[Zelendria]

Brilliant guide. Massive but brilliant
Can't wait to finally use Frost

[Aivie]

Hey ! No matter how hard I try, I can't hit both Gorefiend and my Cristal with an Ice Lance.
Anyone noticed that too ? Or am I doing it wrong ?

[Breaktheice]

Update on 7/3/2015

1. Goto tags everywhere! A big thank you to Komma for the tip. Now, you can cruise to the Table of Contents and click to read a specific section.
2. Cleaned up some of the info on talents choice explanation.
3. Re-arranged the single-rotation section. More specifically:
a. Water Jet gets its own section
b. Prismatic Crystal gets its own section since its explanation is quite lengthy.
4. Added an AoE rotation section!
5. Tier Bonuses get their own section - which holds info on Tier 17 and 18 set bonuses, along with the Shatterlance passive from the HFC trinket.



Lance on!

Still to come > Additional flowcharts for talent choices based on how you're geared.

[Vir]

Hi, thanks for the guide. I'm curious about your tier 5 recommendations. I was comparing it to Icy Veins' guide where they say Ice Nova should be used for single target and Unstable Magic for multi target, while Frost Bomb is better than both if you have the 4 piece T17 bonus. Perhaps when you say "reasonably geared" you're referring to the tier bonuses, but I'm curious as to whether or not you've seen the Icy Veins guide and what you think of the recommendations there.

Thanks again!

[Breaktheice]

IIRC, even in Normal Highmaul gear, Frost Bomb was out simming Ice Nova on Single Target (assuming proper use, of course). I don't know where Icy Veins gets their info, but I don't see Nova trumping Frost Bomb, but it is amazing for bursts (add management).

As for AoE, Unstable Magic relies heavily on Frostbolt casts (since these will also proc your BF which you use for FFB). However, in AoE rotations, people hardly use Frostbolt, so the talent loses momentum. The exception to this is of course the Shatterlance trinket, where you're forced to weave in Frostbolts in between back-to-back Ice Lances. In this case, UM is a very strong talent, and weaving in Frostbolts to your rotation causes Frost Bomb to lose momentum.

Finally, remember in Tier 5, for AoE, Frost Bomb is also superior in AoE range itself (10 yards vs 8 yds on the other two talents).

And yes, tier bonuses that offer more FoF (in particular the t17) will heavily favor Frost Bomb/Thermal Void/PC.

[Kuwa]

Love the guide thank you for this resource. Was wondering about class trinket. Does FFbolt from BF insta cast proc the damage buff on IL?

[Komma]

Love the guide thank you for this resource. Was wondering about class trinket. Does FFbolt from BF insta cast proc the damage buff on IL?

No, it does not.

[Kuwa]

Love the guide thank you for this resource. Was wondering about class trinket. Does FFbolt from BF insta cast proc the damage buff on IL?

No, it does not.

Thought so but wanted to make sure. Thank you for the reply.

[halfawake]

Right now in my gear (mythic brf mixed with normal 2p t18) I'm simming unstable magic/prismatic crystal as the top single target choice. For 2 targets I'm getting unstable magic/comet storm as the best two options. For unstable magic don't forget that brain freeze ffb's also have a chance to trigger unstable magic and the increased damage on them nets some nice aoe so it's worth expending those procs imo. Comet storm also procs Doom Nova as the PoF thread says but I'm not sure if anyone has since modeled saving comet storm for doom nova procs to see if that is a dps increase.

Side note, I got chipped soul prism and normal prophecy of fear and chipped soul prism is simming as my highest paired option with prophecy of fear out of mythic darmac and mythic crucible.

On anything higher than 1 target frost is beating arcane for me so for now I'm sticking with this combination. Maybe 4 piece will change things but there are so many cleave situations that I'm keeping frost enchants and wondering if switching will only be something that starts making more sense with mythic gear.

Gear stats with soul prism/PoF for anyone curious.
Raid-Buffed Stats
Intellect 5711
Spell Power 8628
Crit 23.35%
Haste 15.62%
Multistrike 40.70%
Damage / Heal Versatility 5.27%
Mastery 58.96%

[Bolt]

Interesting

[Snowmiser]

With incanters flow what do I use at 5 stacks comet storm or ice nova I was thinking ice at 4, comet at 5

[Valounette]

With incanters flow what do I use at 5 stacks comet storm or ice nova I was thinking ice at 4, comet at 5

It will be a really insignificant gain and probably a loss to be keeping Comet Storm on cooldown for a few seconds to use at a better IF stack. The reason it works with Ice Nova is because it's based on charges and thus you lose no overall casts while sitting on one charge to use during a proc/high IF stack.

[Snowmiser]

A gain & loss? So ice nova should be used on the 5th stack and comet should be used on cd whenever?

[NotTrev]

With incanters flow what do I use at 5 stacks comet storm or ice nova I was thinking ice at 4, comet at 5

It will be a really insignificant gain and probably a loss to be keeping Comet Storm on cooldown for a few seconds to use at a better IF stack. The reason it works with Ice Nova is because it's based on charges and thus you lose no overall casts while sitting on one charge to use during a proc/high IF stack.

The guide mentions doing this because every subsequent CS will line up with those IF stacks, on cooldown. At most you're delaying the first for 1-5seconds, and not delaying any of the others. Only if a fight ended 5seconds prior to getting off that last CS would not delaying it for 5IF-line-up be a consideration, then you'd have to deduce the gain of an extra 3-4IF CS vs the loss of every CS being 3-4 instead of 5IF.

He was asking which of the two should take priority on 5IF, with the other taking 4IF, CS or IN. IMO the easy answer is, which has the higher DPET? Barring no other losses, higher DPET spells should always be given the priority over lower DPET spells when it comes to choice of spell use on damage modifiers/cooldowns.