Cataclysm Classic Frost Mage Leveling

As a Frost Mage your leveling will be very safe. The Frost talent tree gives you tons of crowd control, survivability and burst damage potential. While it's damage output might be slightly inferior to Arcane and Fire, you can still do great with Frost and enjoy your leveling with the notorious Summon Water Elemental pet. AoE leveling with Frost only really starts at level 52 when you get Blizzard.

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Leveling has been greatly eased for casters in Cataclysm. Instead of visiting your class trainer every few levels for new spell ranks, spells automatically grow stronger with each level. Class trainers are only visited to learn spells. At level 10 your talent tree unlocks, giving you a talent tree to choose from, your talent tree specific ability ( Summon Water Elemental for Frost) and the first talent point. The next talent point comes at level 11 and from then on every uneven level, until level 81. From level 81 on, you gain talent points every level again. If you can, use any heirloom you can get, for the reasons above.

The first two talent points go into Early Frost.

The first two talent points go into Early Frost. Continue with two points in Shatter.

The first two talent points go into Early Frost. Continue with two points each in Shatter and Piercing Ice.

If you plan to AoE level, go with two points in Improved Cone of Cold first, otherwise start with Piercing Ice.

If you plan to AoE level, go with two points in Improved Cone of Cold first, otherwise start with Piercing Ice. The next point goes into Ice Floes.

If you plan to AoE level, go with two points in Improved Cone of Cold first, otherwise start with two points in Piercing Ice. The next point goes into Ice Floes. The last two points are spent in Piercing Ice if you AoE level, otherwise Improved Cone of Cold if you single-target level.

Icy Veins takes your next talent point, this ability is too good to be learned later.

Icy Veins takes your next talent point, this ability is too good to be learned later. Spend the next three points in Fingers of Frost, your bread and butter talent.

Icy Veins takes your next talent point, this ability is too good to be learned later. Spend the next three points in Fingers of Frost, your bread and butter talent. Finish off this talent tier with one point in Improved Freeze.

Cold Snap gets one point. This powerful ability resets all your Frost spell cooldowns, enabling a huge burst potential.

Cold Snap gets one point. This powerful ability resets all your Frost spell cooldowns, enabling a huge burst potential. The next two talent points go in Improved Freeze.

Cold Snap gets one point. This powerful ability resets all your Frost spell cooldowns, enabling a huge burst potential. The next two talent points go in Improved Freeze. The Brain Freeze talent gives your freezing effects a chance to trigger a free and instant-cast Frostfire Bolt.

One point goes into Ice Barrier, Frost's signature protective spell.

One point goes into Ice Barrier, Frost's signature protective spell. Put one last point in the Brain Freeze talent.

One point goes into Ice Barrier, Frost's signature protective spell. Put one last point in the Brain Freeze talent. The three points in the Enduring Winter talent restore you and your group's Mana after a Frostbolt hits a target. Furthermore, it reduces the mana cost of all spells by 10%.

The remaining two points in Ice Floes further reduce the cooldown of your Frost spells.

The remaining two points in Ice Floes further reduce the cooldown of your Frost spells. Three points in Permafrost make sure your enemies will move slower, receive less healing and your spell attacks will heal your Water Elemental.

Deep Freeze is one of your strongest abilities, thus it gets the next talent point.

Deep Freeze is one of your strongest abilities, thus it gets the next talent point. Ice Shards add the slow effect to your Blizzard spell and increases the range of Ice Lance by 5 yards.

Deep Freeze is one of your strongest abilities, thus it gets the next talent point. Ice Shards add the slow effect to your Blizzard spell and increases the range of Ice Lance by 5 yards. Two points in Reactive Barrier will make sure you are automatically getting an Ice Barrier when any attack lowers your damage below 50% health.

Spend two talent points in Frostfire Orb, so you can use it when you learn it at level 81.

Spend two talent points in Frostfire Orb, so you can use it when you learn it at level 81. Put 3 points in the Netherwind Presence talent.

Spend two talent points in Frostfire Orb, so you can use it when you learn it at level 81. Put 3 points in the Netherwind Presence talent and one point in Arcane Concentration.

As your Prime Glyphs we recommend taking Glyph of Frostbolt, Glyph of Cone of Cold and Glyph of Frostfire ( Glyph of Molten Armor for the lower levels. Glyph of Evocation, Glyph of Blink and Glyph of Ice Barrier are great Major Glyphs, if you struggle on mana, Glyph of Frost Armor might be an option as well. For Minor Glyphs Glyph of Slow Fall, Glyph of Conjuring and Glyph of Arcane Brilliance are solid choices. Please note, that all of these Glyphs are also great for end-game content.

If you prepare the following steps, you will zoom through levels. These preparations are not mandatory, but highly(!) recommended. The prep is absolutely worth the time spent, even if only for one alt. Furthermore, you can use them on any caster alt. First of all you want to start by using heirloom items, as well as enchants. For the first few levels, we also recommend white quality items with strong enchants on them, until you find better items. The enchanting part will give you an extreme time benefit while leveling. Of course you could go even crazier on enchants and prepare them for each level (there are even better enchants from TBC for level 35+ items), however, this guide will focus on the low hanging fruit. Especially in the lower levels, the benefits from preparation works wonders.

Item	Source	Enchant
Tattered Dreadmist Mask	1500 Gold, Guild bonus
Tattered Dreadmist Mantle	2175 Justice Points, Heirloom Vendors
Tattered Dreadmist Robe	2175 Justice Points, Heirloom Vendors	Enchant Chest - Greater Stats
Ancient Bloodmoon Cloak	1200 Gold, Guild bonus
Dread Pirate Ring	Win Kalu'ak Fishing Derby, Dalaran
Dignified Headmaster's Charge	3500 Justice Points, Heirloom Vendors	Enchant Weapon - Mighty Intellect
2x Discerning Eye of the Beast	2725 Justice Points each, Heirloom Vendors
Alliance: Thin Cloth Gloves	Vinasia in Darnassus	Enchant Gloves - Minor Haste
Alliance: Thin Cloth Shoes	Vinasia in Darnassus	Enchant Boots - Minor Speed
Alliance: Thin Cloth Bracers	Vinasia in Darnassus	Enchant Bracer - Greater Intellect
Horde: Tattered Cloth Gloves	Lauren Newcomb in Undercity	Enchant Gloves - Minor Haste
Horde: Tattered Cloth Boots	Lauren Newcomb in Undercity	Enchant Boots - Minor Speed
Horde: Tattered Cloth Bracers	Lauren Newcombin Undercity	Enchant Bracer - Greater Intellect

The heirlooms give you a total 40% bonus XP, which equals 40% less time spent leveling. For all enchants you will need only the following few materials and an enchanter (or you just buy the scrolls off the AH):

• 1 Small Radiant Shard, Aquamarine, Lesser Nether Essence each
• 2 Large Radiant Shard, Wildvine each
• 6 Greater Eternal Essence (transform one into 3 Lesser Eternal Essence)
• 8 Large Brilliant Shard
• 26 Illusion Dust

For consumables you want to prepare Wizard oils, as they work on heirlooms in Cataclysm. Minor Wizard Oil (Lvl 5+), Lesser Wizard Oil (Lvl 30+), Wizard Oil (Lvl 40+), Brilliant Wizard Oil (Lvl 45+) and Superior Wizard Oil (Lvl 58+), and are cheap to make. They persist through death as well, should you die while leveling.

Furthermore, Elixirs are also easy to come by and have a great effect. We recommend: Elixir of Wisdom (Lvl 10), Elixir of Greater Intellect (Lvl 25), and Flask of Distilled Wisdom (Lvl 50), Flask of the Frost Wyrm (Lvl 75), Flask of the Draconic Mind (Lvl 80+). Runn Tum Tuber Surprise can be used from level 45 on, Blackened Basilisk at level 55, Firecracker Salmon at level 70, and finally Seafood Magnifique Feast from level 80 on.

Another tip for leveling is to level Engineering, but this takes a bit more time than the other steps do. It is one of the two best professions a Mage can get and you need it for your endgame content anyways. Furthermore, it gives you access to Iron Grenades (Lvl 20), Thorium Grenades (Lvl 35), Saronite Bombs (Lvl 50) and other useful stuff. Make sure to always max out your Engineering Skill while leveling, especially since you plan on AoE leveling.

Having First Aid as a helping leveling profession goes without saying. Do not sleep on this, you can use very high level bandages very early (see the "Requires ..." tooltip), as you can learn high ranks of First Aid early on. For instance, Expert First Aid - Under Wraps does not have a level requirement, only a First Aid skill requirement, making Heavy Runecloth Bandage usable at level 10. At level 35, when you do the First Aid quest for the skill of 300 (Triage), you can use Master First Aid - Doctor in the House afterwards, level to 350 skill and use Frostweave Bandage. At level 65 you can visit the Northrend/WotLK tailoring trainers to skill up to 450 and use Heavy Frostweave Bandages and Embersilk Bandages. Level 75 is required to finish your First Aid training and to use Heavy Embersilk Bandage and Dense Embersilk Bandage.

Please visit the class trainer from time to time to learn the highlighted core-spells. Learning all the other spells not mentioned here is optional, but does not hurt.

• Levels 1-4 — It is not worth learning spells yet, just level.
• Level 5 — Fire Blast and Arcane Missiles.
• Level 7 — Frostbolt
• Level 7 — Frost Nova
• Level 9 — Counterspell
• Level 12 — Evocation
• Level 14 — Polymorph
• Level 16 — Blink
• Level 18 — Cone of Cold (AoE ability)
• Level 22 — Arcane Explosion (AoE ability)
• Level 24 — Self-Teleports to major cities
• Level 28 — Ice Lance
• Level 30 — Ice Block and Remove Curse.
• Level 34 — Molten Armor and Slow Fall.
• Level 36 — Mage Ward
• Level 38 — Conjure Refreshment
• Level 42 — Group-Portals to major cities.
• Level 44 — Flamestrike (AoE ability)
• Level 46 — Mana Shield
• Level 48 — Conjure Mana Gem
• Level 50 — Mirror Image
• Level 52 — Blizzard (AoE ability)
• Level 56 — Frostfire Bolt
• Level 58 — Arcane Brilliance
• Level 60 — Deep Freeze
• Level 66 — Teleport and Portal to Shattrath (Iorioa in the middle of Shattrath).
• Level 74 — Teleport and Portal to Dalaran (Archmage Celindra in Dalaran).
• Level 76 — Ritual of Refreshment
• Level 81 — Flame Orb
• Level 83 — Ring of Frost
• Level 85 — Please visit your class trainer to learn all spells!

The Frost single-target rotation is a bit complicated, because you have to learn how to manage your Fingers of Frost and other procs first.

1. If Fingers of Frost is active, your first prio is to cast Deep Freeze
2. If Frostfire Orb is off cooldown, use it.
3. Use your Water Elemental's ability Freeze whenever you can to proc two stacks of Fingers of Frost (only works once you have put points in the Improved Freeze talent).
4. If Fingers of Frost is up alongside with Brain Freeze, cast Frostfire Bolt.
5. If Fingers of Frost is up, the spells above are on cooldown and you have no Brain Freeze proc, cast Ice Lance.
6. Cast Frostbolt.

In AoE combat, Frost Mages use Cone of Cold to slow and stun mobs, the latter only with the Improved Cone of Cold talent. Whenever you freeze enemies with Frost Nova, they can take one full Blizzard, before it breaks. Blizzard is also your second main AoE spell. At lower levels you may want to use a combo of Arcane Explosion or Flamestrike and Cone of Cold. If you have Engineering, the grenades mentioned in the Preparation part of this guide will help you out a lot, especially at lower levels.

In both AoE and single-target situations, make sure to always have Molten Armor and your Arcane Brilliance (Level 58+) up. At level 81, learn Flame Orb and use it on cooldown! Ring of Frost is learned at level 83 and is a great tool for CCing mobs and for AoE, too. Blink, Slow Fall, Polymorph and Ice Block can be life-savers. Evocation can be used every 4 minutes to restore 45% of your mana. Teleport spells to the major cities of your faction can be learned at each cities' Mage trainer from level 24 on. These can greatly reduce your travel time. Once you have learned Mirror Image, you can use them to focus enemy fire on them while you nuke your foes.

Congratulations on hitting Level 85 in Cataclysm! Now that your leveling process is over, you can learn more about Level 85 Frost Mage gameplay by reading our fully detailed guide below.