Frost Mage PvP 6.2

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Introduction:

 

 

I would like to start a Discussion/Guide on Frost Mage 6.2 PvP, this is a sequel to my Frost Mage 5.4 PvP topic.  I will adjust this opening post as we get some advice from some experienced Frost Mage players.

As a Frost Mage, your role in PvP instances (arena, battlegrounds, etc) will be to deal damage to other players with the goal to kill them.

 

Strengths:

1) Great Burst

2) Basic spells will snare targets for at least 50% movement speed.

3) You have multiple Control spells that can root and incapacitate your opponents.

 

Weaknesses:

1) Very low healing capacity and health pool

 

Stat Priority:

 

There is a recommended gear layout below, so this section is redundant, but I'll explain why they are important anyways.

 

Haste > Mastery > Mutlistrike > Critical Strike.

 

Haste is king. Faster frostbolts that deal increased damage to snared targets.

Mastery: You should build up your Icicles right before you burst, they do deal alot of damage.

Multistrike: More Brain Freeze procs, and the spells that hits like a truck now hits like a train.

Critical Strike: Lowest priority because the Shatter passive will increase your crit.

 

Gear:

 

I'll be using the Season 2 Combatant (Honor) gear in the links, When going Best in Slot just use the Gladiator (Conquest) relevant upgrade.

 

So the first few things you get when gearing up, are the CC Break trinket (Unless you play Human) and then the 4-set bonus. Completing the 2-set bonus of your trinket is recommended to do first if you are going solo.

 

The recommended gear layout is:

The entire Silk Set (Head, Chest, Hands, Shoulders, Leggings). But when you upgrade to Conquest gear, you should exchange one piece for "... of Cruelty" piece (Remember to keep your 4-set bonus intact)

All off-set pieces should be "... of Prowess"  except one piece that should be "... of Cruelty".

Two trinkets "..of Dominance"

 

Wild Combatant's Silk Cowl -> Wild Gladiator's Cowl of Cruelty

Wild Combatant's Silk Robe

Wild Combatant's Silk Handguards

Wild Combatant's Silk Amice

Wild Combatant's Silk Trousers

Wild Combatant's Pendant of Prowess

Wild Combatant's Drape of Prowess

Wild Combatant's Cuffs of Prowess

Wild Combatant's Cord of Prowess

Wild Combatant's Treads of Cruelty

Wild Combatant's Band of Prowess

Wild Combatant's Band of Cruelty

Wild Combatant's Badge of Dominance

Wild Combatant's Insignia of Dominance / Wild Combatant's Medallion of Adaptation

 

Wild Combatant's Battle Staff

 

Talents

 

Recommended Default build is: 2/3/1/3/3/3/3

With Glyphs of Deep Freeze, Poly and Regen Ice Block

 

More Details:

 

Tier 1:

Evanesce - Not Recommended. With this you will not be able to heal with the Ice Block glyph.

Blazing Speed - Recommended. The Speed boost will allow you to get out of the range of Melee when snared. and catching up to other players without using Blink.

Ice Floes -Conditional - If you are playing on a environment without Line of Sight blockers and playing versus players without snares (which does not happen), this will be better than Blazing Speed.

 

Tier 2:

Alter Time - Conditional. When playing against MAJOR burst classes. Remember to manually trigger the effect before you die, since 10 seconds is a rather long time. Do not use Ice Block during this since it will not remove the debuff and negate the healing done. 

Flameglow - Conditional. When playing against DoTs and/or you have a healer, this will help, but latest changes to this talent has Nerfed it.

Ice Barrier - Recommended. ~10% absorb heal every 25 seconds. Great since Mages need heals.

 

Tier 3:

Ring of Frost - Recommended. Note this shares Diminishing Return with polymorph. But still great to chain with poly.

Ice Ward - Recommended for Melee. Note this can be casted on allies.

Frostjaw - Conditional. A extra CC Silence for healers. Great setup for Deep Freeze.

 

Tier 4:

Greater Invisibility - Not Recommended. Although this can be useful for Battlegrounds, Cold Snap simply beats this.

Cauterize - Not Recommended. 

Cold Snap - 22% heal is a lot, also gives you another Ice Block. Can be used while in Ice Block. 

 

Tier 5:

Frost Bomb - Conditional. Only in Battlegrounds where you have the time to cast this without being interrupted, can cause devastating damage when used with Frozen Orb and/or Prismatic Crystal.

Unstable Magic - Not Recommended. Breaks your CCs

Ice Nova - Recommended. One of the greatest bursts in the game.

 

Tier 6:

Mirror Image - Not recommended. Not as great as a passive like incanter's flow.

Rune of Power - Not Recommended. Requires you to stand still like a Target Dummy

Incanter's Flow - Recommended. Passive bonus damage, using Ice Lance and Ice Nova at 4/5 stacks is recommended aswell.

 

Tier 7:

Thermal Void - Not Recommended. You won't be generating that many Fingers of Frost.

Prismatic Crystal - Conditional. When using Frost Bomb and the Splitting Ice Glyph, you can deal alot to stationary targets.

Comet Storm - Recommended. Combo with Deep Freeze for increased crit change.

 

Glyphs:

Glyph of Polymorph - Recommended when you are playing with people that inflict Damage over Time debuffs.

Glyph of Deep Freeze - Recommended to allow you to decrease the time required to complete your burst and chain with Comet Storm.

Glyph of Regenerative Ice - Recommended. Gives you a great HoT while in Ice Block, but staying in Ice Block means your opponents can beat on your team members. Exclusive with the next glyph (of Ice Block) 

Glyph of Ice Block - Only recommended when you have a healer. You can cancel this and cast poly without worrying for interrupts.

Glyph of Icy Veins - Only recommended when not in arena, when you can use Time Warp. Allows your Ice Nova to deal even more damage more frequently. Note that Haste is more important than Multistrike.

Glyph of Spellsteal - Special mention. 4% heals are great, but note that Spellsteal costs alot of mana and can only be used 5-6 times before you are Out of Mana (OOM).

 

Spell Categories:

Your spells can be divided into the following categories

 

Survival-Control:

Freeze (Root)

Freeze

Frost Nova

Ring of Frost

Ice Nova - If you have enough haste, you can use Deep Freeze of this.

 

Slow (Snare)

Cone of Cold

Frozen Orb

 

Interrupt:

Counterspell

 

Lose Control:

Polymorph- Important: Don't use this spell on targets that are already injured unless its part of your plan/tactic. THIS SPELL HEALS THE TARGET FOR 10% PER SECOND!!!

 

Stuns:

Deep Freeze- Also a DPS-Cooldown.

 

Survival-Movement:

Blink - Important: Blink breaks Stuns!!

Blazing Speed

 

Survival-Absorbs-and-Heals (Imporant: Can be used while stunned):

Cold Snap

Ice Block (Glyph)

Ice Barrier

 

Survival-Control Breakers:

Blink - Blink breaks Stuns!!

Ice Block

Wild Combatant's Medallion of Adaptation / Every Man for Himself

 

Some other spells you can use are:

AoE Spells to reveal enemies in Stealth:

Blizzard

 

DPS-Cooldowns:

Mirror Image (if taken)

Icy Veins

Deep Freeze

Wild Combatant's Badge of Dominance

Wild Combatant's Insignia of Dominance

 

Gameplay:

In PvE, you have a DPS Rotation

In PvP, you have combos, and conditional casts.

 

Combos is where you cast certain spells together for an effect, like a Burst.

Conditional Casts is when you use certain spells under certain conditions for example using Blink when you are stunned by a Rogue.

 

Your gameplay mostly consists of completing Goals, these Goals can consist and be adjusted according to the instance you are playing and the type of opponent(s) you are facing. For example:

 

Goals when playing against Melee opponents:

 

1. Get some distance  (Survive)

Reason: If they are not close to you, they cannot hit you.

How: By using spells that Root / Snare them, or using spell to get away (Mentioned in the spell categories with "Survival" in their name)

 

Normally, you open with your Pet Freeze just to keep them where they are, and to generate a Fingers of Frost (Free Ice Lance or Deep Freeze)

If they are close to you, use Frost Nova instead. 

If both are on cooldown, you can use Cone of Cold to slow them, and then cast a Ring of Frost between you and them to block their path.

 

If these are on cooldown and they are getting close / used their anti-spell defensive cooldowns, use a "Absorb" type spell.

 

 

Goals to killing opponents:

1. The Setup (for a kill)

Reason: If you use your DPS Cooldowns while they still have their defensive cooldowns, you won't be able to kill them.

 

How: As you Root and Snare your opponent, you can cast your Frostbolts, Frostfire Bolts to damage your target. They will start using their PvP Trinkets and Defensive abilities just to counter the damage while rooted or snared. Another way to force someone to use their PvP Trinket is to use Polymorth (Do not cast on injured opponents).

When you know they have used their Trinket/Defensive Cooldowns, you can proceed to Burst them.

This also builds up your Icicle Mastery, causing your burst to do more damage.

 

2. Burst

Reason: Normal damage will allow the target to [cast heals/ to be healed]. Bursting is a effective way to kill someone without them getting heals.

How: 

First CC any healers nearby.

There is no set rotation to burst, you must understand what spells syncs with others, for example Deep Freeze combo'ed with Comet Storm deals alot, and using Ice Nova with 4-5 stacks of Incanter's Flow.

 

Here is a example:

Use your DPS cooldowns before you cast anything.

 

Recommended sequence:

Cast a Frozen Orb and use the Finger of Frost generated to Deep Freeze the target. Use Comet Storm, and then cast Frostbolt.

The Frozen Orb, your Frostbolt and the Comet Storm meteors will all benefit from Shatter. As the Frostbolt is finished casting, use Ice Lance (Benefits from either Deep Freeze or a Finger of Frost stack.

Use Pet Freeze and double cast Ice Nova and then Ice Lance with the Fingers of Frost generated from Pet Freeze.

 

If you want to, you can use Pet Freeze & Ice Nova first, and Deep Freeze&Comet Storm of the root created by the second Ice Nova if you have enough haste and then cast Frozen Orb.

 

 

Please leave some constructive comments/tips below.

Edited July 31, 2015 by Archimage

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A placeholder for arena comps (I know there are many)

 

 

EDIT: Please mention anything you want to have included in this guide.

Edited July 27, 2015 by Archimage

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The opening post has been updated with the guide. Let me know if there is anything you like to be added/changed.

[Brankers 0]

From a fellow South African, bloody excellent post! Just started pvping as a frost mage and this helped explain so much on how to survive and do damage. What would be nice are some tips on when best to use our interrupts since cs is on 24 sec cooldown and polymorph heals, especially when dealing with casters.

[Noah 0]

Why is it that versatility gets ignored on stats priority?

I would think that the order is haste>versa>mastery>multi>crit. Or am I wrong?
That makes a difference on the wrist choices for example.

I would choose the Warmongering Gladiator's Cuffs of Victory above the Wild Combatant's Cuffs of Prowess.

 

Or am I missing something?

 

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@Brankers - I'm currently compiling a list of of tips for Mage vs [Class], is going to take some time

@Noah  - What you are saying is true, versatility does indeed have a place after haste, it is just that gear with Versatility on isn't purchasable with Honor.