Frost Mage PvE guide: level 60 raid build, Fingers of Frost priority and stats

Overview

Level 60 · Frost Mage · DPS in dungeons and raids.

Frost was the safest mage raid spec in Classic: steady Frostbolt damage, low threat and Ice Block for mistakes. On the live WoW Forever tree it also has more to do on a single target. Precision is now the mage hit talent for every school, so it comes right after Improved Frostbolt. Ice Barrier raises your Frost damage by 15% for a minute and by 5% more while the shield holds, Fingers of Frost lets a chill treat your next two spells as if the target were frozen, so Ice Lance and Shatter matter even on a boss, and the Arcane half takes Missile Barrage at 2/2, which now sits in the second Arcane row and gives each Frostbolt a 20% chance at free, fast Arcane Missiles. Winter’s Chill is left out: it only empowers your own Cone of Cold, and the 31 Frost points reach Ice Barrier without it, which pays for Ice Block and Arcane Meditation instead. You are a ranged damage dealer who also brings Counterspell, Polymorph, Remove Lesser Curse and Arcane Intellect to the group.

Your job in the group

You are steady ranged damage that rarely has to stop. Stay on the kill target, keep Ice Barrier rolling for its damage bonus, and keep threat under the tank’s without much effort. Raids also lean on mages for utility: Polymorph on a humanoid add, Counterspell on an assigned caster, Remove Lesser Curse when a boss curses the raid, and Arcane Intellect and conjured water before every pull. In dungeons, Frost Nova and Cone of Cold give the group a safety net when a pack reaches the healer.

Why play it

• Low threat by design. Frost Channeling lowers Frost threat, so you can push damage early in a pull without stealing aggro.
• Procs add damage without extra mana. Missile Barrage makes Arcane Missiles free, Clearcasting makes a Frostbolt free, Frost Channeling lowers the cost of everything else and Arcane Meditation keeps half your regeneration going while you cast.
• Survival tools stay in the build: Ice Barrier means damage never costs you cast time, Frost Warding makes its absorb 20% larger, and the Ice Block talent plus Cold Snap give two answers to a lethal mistake.
• Frost resistance is rarer on bosses than fire resistance in Classic raids, so Frost is the spec that rarely has to respec for a fight.

Weak points

• Slow-immune bosses. Fingers of Frost needs a chill effect. If a boss ignores Frostbolt’s slow, whether procs still happen needs testing in the beta.
• Lower single-target ceiling than a fully buffed Fire Mage on fights where fire resistance is not an issue.
• The Arcane half is a bet. Missile Barrage only pays off if Arcane Missiles damage is worth it with Frost gear; if not, move those points into the Frost talents this build skips, such as Improved Blizzard, Improved Cone of Cold and Winter’s Chill for Cone of Cold-heavy dungeon trash.

Level 60 talent build

Arcane 20 / Fire 0 / Frost 31, all 51 points. The talent tree above shows the finished build.

Frost (31)

• Frost Warding 2/2 — 30% more armor and resistances from Ice Armor or Frost Armor, and Ice Barrier absorbs 20% more raid damage.
• Improved Frostbolt 5/5 — Frostbolt is most of your damage, and a 0.5 sec shorter cast is the largest gain in the tree.
• Precision 3/3 — +6% hit with all spells at 3/3, Arcane Missiles included. Missed Frostbolts are the biggest avoidable loss against raid bosses.
• Ice Shards 5/5 — Doubles the crit damage bonus of Frost spells, which scales with every point of crit you gear for.
• Frostbite 2/3 — Chill effects get a 10% chance to freeze the target for 5 sec at 2/3: useful on trash, since bosses usually cannot be frozen.
• Frost Channeling 3/3 — 15% cheaper Frost spells and 30% less Frost threat at 3/3, which is what lets Frost push damage from the first second of a pull.
• Ice Lance 1/1 — Required for Fingers of Frost. On a proc, Ice Lance counts the target as frozen and deals its 300% bonus.
• Arctic Reach 2/2 — 20% more Frostbolt and Ice Lance range, so you can stand further from boss mechanics and keep casting.
• Ice Block 1/1 — 10 sec of immunity to physical attacks and spells. It is a talent on this tree, so Frost takes it instead of the Winter’s Chill points a raid build does not need.
• Shatter 3/3 — +50% crit chance against frozen targets. Bosses usually cannot be frozen, so this pays off through Fingers of Frost procs and on trash that Frost Nova holds.
• Cold Snap 1/1 — Resets your other Frost cooldowns, so Ice Block can be used twice, and it is the prerequisite for Ice Barrier.
• Fingers of Frost 2/2 — 15% of your chills grant a proc that treats the next two spells as cast on a frozen target: spend it on Ice Lance.
• Ice Barrier 1/1 — Absorb shield that adds 15% Frost damage for 1 min and another 5% while it holds, and stops damage from costing you cast time. Keep it up through the fight.

Arcane (20)

• Improved Channeling 5/5 — At 5/5 Arcane Missiles never loses casting time when you take damage, so Missile Barrage procs are not wasted, and Arcane Blast and Arcane Wrath get a 70% chance as well.
• Arcane Subtlety 2/2 — Lowers the target’s resistance to all your spells by 15 and cuts Arcane threat from your Missile Barrage casts.
• Arcane Concentration 5/5 — 10% chance for a free next damage spell: pure mana saving over a long fight, and the prerequisite for Arcane Meditation.
• Missile Barrage 2/2 — Now in the second Arcane row: at 2/2 each Frostbolt has a 20% chance to make the next Arcane Missiles free, half as long and firing every 0.5 sec.
• Arcane Impact 3/3 — +6% crit chance on Arcane spells at 3/3, which covers the free Arcane Missiles and Arcane Explosion on dungeon trash, and opens the Arcane Meditation row.
• Arcane Meditation 3/3 — 50% of your mana regeneration continues while casting at 3/3: the strongest mana talent within reach of a 20-point Arcane half.

Rotation and priority

1. Before the pull: Arcane Intellect, Ice Armor or Mage Armor, and Ice Barrier. Keep a Mana Gem conjured.
2. Cast Frostbolt as your filler. Its chill can proc Fingers of Frost, and each cast can also proc Missile Barrage or Clearcasting.
3. On Fingers of Frost, cast Ice Lance next: it is treated as hitting a frozen target, so it gets its bonus and Shatter’s crit chance.
4. On Missile Barrage, cast Arcane Missiles right away; the proc makes it free and much faster, so it replaces a Frostbolt at no mana cost.
5. Use Eureka! (trainer spell, 2 min cooldown) when you start a burn phase: for 8 sec your damaging spells cost 10% less mana and deal 10% more damage, so line it up with Ice Barrier and a Fingers of Frost proc.
6. Refresh Ice Barrier whenever it breaks and the boss is doing raid damage, and use Counterspell or Polymorph when the raid leader calls for it.
7. Below a third of your mana, use Mana Gem, then Evocation during a quiet moment, then potions and runes.

Resources

Frost is mana-limited on long fights. Frost Channeling and Arcane Concentration lower costs, Missile Barrage casts are free, Arcane Meditation keeps regeneration going mid-cast, and Eureka! trims 10% off your costs for 8 sec every 2 minutes. Your emergency cooldowns are Ice Block and Cold Snap: Cold Snap resets Ice Block, so treat them as two separate saves. Evocation and the Mana Gem are your mana cooldowns; plan them for phases where you can stand still.

Stat priority

Spell hit first, until you no longer see Frostbolts miss against bosses; Precision gives 6% of it for every school, and Forever’s exact cap is not confirmed yet. Next comes Frost or general spell damage, then spell crit, which feeds Ice Shards and Shatter. Intellect and mana regeneration keep you casting on long fights. Take enough Stamina to survive raid-wide damage, and Frost resistance only when a fight asks for it.

Gear and set bonuses

The datamined Tier 1 mage set is Manaflare Regalia. Its bonuses: 2 pieces, +1% spell hit; 3 pieces, 5 sec shorter Counterspell cooldown; 4 pieces, up to 21 spell damage against Elementals; 5 pieces, Frostfire Bolt gets a higher chance to trigger Missile Barrage and Fingers of Frost and extra crit chance during Combustion. The item pieces are still withheld in the datamine, so slots and stats are unknown. For Frost the hit bonus and the Fingers of Frost part of the 5-piece bonus matter; the 5-piece only helps if Frostfire Bolt is part of your spellbook in WoW Forever, which is not confirmed yet.

Consumables and professions

• Classic spell damage consumables: Greater Arcane Elixir, Elixir of Frost Power and Brilliant Wizard Oil. Forever item lists may change.
• Mana: Major Mana Potion, Demonic or Dark Runes, Mageblood Potion and Nightfin Soup for regeneration.
• Survival: Major Healing Potion and resistance potions for fights with heavy elemental damage.
• Professions: Tailoring for cloth spell damage gear and Enchanting for your own weapon and bracer enchants; Alchemy is the alternative if you want to make your own flasks and elixirs.

Tips

• Keep Ice Barrier up during the fight, not only before the pull: besides the absorb, it adds Frost damage while it holds.
• In dungeons, Frost Nova plus Cone of Cold on shattered trash uses Shatter and Ice Shards fully.
• The launch raids named so far are Hyjal Summit and Barrow Deeps; boss mechanics there are not known yet, so keep resistance gear flexible.

Sources

Rotation, stat and matchup advice adapts these Classic 1.12 guides to the WoW Forever talent trees; talents, set bonuses and new abilities come from this site’s WoW Forever data.

• Icy Veins: Classic Mage DPS Guide
• Icy Veins: Classic Mage DPS Spec, Builds, and Talents
• Icy Veins: Classic Mage DPS Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities
• Icy Veins: Classic Mage DPS Stat Priority
• Icy Veins: Classic Mage DPS Enchants and Consumables