Looking for help/advice frost mage

[Jambi 0]

Hi all,

Since January I have been plying DH but moved to frost mage main about a month ago due to the RAID comp imbalance between ranged and melee.

I have read a ton of guides and watched a ton of tutorial videos to get a better understanding on how best to play Frost.

I follow the “best practices” rotation on BF and FoF procs I believe:

Frostbolt-> Lance

Frostbolt-> Flurry->Lance …

I do not have the best Legos, fishing for the ring but no luck yet

I can’t find gear to reduce my mastery to save my life, My current gear set up allows for the 4 T20 and 2 T21 and 2 Legos, I am at ~ 31% crit I can get to 33.6% but id lose the T20 4 piece, and/or the wrists lego. I feel leaving it as is until I get some additional T21 and to better trinkets are the way to go.

The logs below are from last Sunday and I am open to constructive criticism on where I need to improve, also any advice here or other sites I would love to hear. Thank you.

So far, since swapping to mage I can’t seem to get out of the 20% bracket on logs for my ilvl.

https://www.warcraftlogs.com/reports/hYLGrAzRXFtPQV9j#fight=last&type=damage-done

[Jambi 0]

Here is a log from a normal run tonight, slight improvement from last week 

 

https://www.warcraftlogs.com/reports/Kc1g4Q3FfHpM78Nt#fight=last&type=damage-done&source=17

[Valks 2,375]

18 hours ago, Jambi said:

Here is a log from a normal run tonight, slight improvement from last week 

Looking at this log:

• Because of you delaying your Ebonbolt, you missed a full cast of it.
• Why did you wait 30 seconds to cast Frozen Orb on pull? Due to this, you missed 1-2 casts of it.
• Why are you running Arctic Gale on a single-target boss? Not only is it the wrong talent, but you also didn't cast Blizzard once during the fight, so it was a completely wasted talent slot. 
• You aren't shattering your Flurry - you need to Ice Lance after it to ensure an IL hits the boss straight after it and benefits from the bonus damage of Winter's Chill.
• You missed shatters on your Flurry with Frost/Ebonbolt too. Need to hardcast before it when you can so you can shatter the hardcast with Flurry too.
• You are wasting Flurry procs by proccing another one before using the one you have. This is a HUGE issue.
• Your IV duration is on the low side, most likely due to misuse of Frozen Orb as mentioned above. 
• Having no Shard is an issue, but it's not something you can actively change. Just make sure you're rolling rings with your Veiled Argunite.

Looking at the first log you posted:

• Pretty much everything you did above can be applied to this log too, other than the note about the talent. 
• You let a Flurry proc expire. Never do that.
• You cast Flurry without Brain Freeze. Never, ever do that.

Hope this helps a bit, at least.

[Jambi 0]

Thank you Blainie, I really appreciate the time you took and feedback, I have mained DH this entire XPAC and went MAge due to RAID Comp and I like it too ;)  I will work on all of the above and also post a new log after next RAID  Thanks!

[Jambi 0]

when you mention below, Should I be hard casting Flurry? Or jsut make sure I use it on procs with Ebon or FB right?

• You missed shatters on your Flurry with Frost/Ebonbolt too. Need to hardcast before it when you can so you can shatter the hardcast with Flurry too.

NVM I see your other comment about never casting Flurry stand alone

 

One thing I am doing and maybe this is wrong, when I get a BF and have 1-2 FF procs I FB-IL then-then I do the FB-Flurry and I am guessing that's where I am losing BF Procs.  Should I just dump the FF with IL no FB or FB-Flurry and leave the FF alone?  Thx

 

Edited December 16, 2017 by Jambi

[Sora93 0]

On 16.12.2017 at 7:26 PM, Jambi said:

One thing I am doing and maybe this is wrong, when I get a BF and have 1-2 FF procs I FB-IL then-then I do the FB-Flurry and I am guessing that's where I am losing BF Procs.  Should I just dump the FF with IL no FB or FB-Flurry and leave the FF alone?  Thx

 

If you have a Flurry and FF proc(s) then you wanna dump your FF procs into IL so you don't have any more IL procs, then you wanna hardcast Frostbolt/Ebonbolt then use your Flurry proc instantly after casting your Frost/Ebonbolt and then another IL right after the Flurry.

Lets make an example where you have 2 IL Procs and 1 Flurry proc:

2x Ice Lance -> Frostbolt -> Flurry -> Ice Lance | this would be the best possible DMG output in this situation.

The reason for casting a Frostbolt before using the Flurry proc is that the Frostbolt has a slower travel time than Flurry, so by using a Frostbolt and then using the Flurry proc the Flurry will apply its debuff to the target before the Frostbolt even hits it so its a ~100%crit on the Frostbolt - that gives you a charge on your weapon buff so it also increases the DMG of your Ice Lance. 

Using Ice Lance after the Flurry proc is very important because it also profits from the debuff that Flurry applies so it will ~100% crit and will deal the same DMG as a normal FF proc.

And you also do the same when Ebonbolt is ready, you just replace the Frostbolt with it - looks like this -

Same example as above: 

2x Ice Lance -> Ebonbolt -> Flurry -> Ice Lance -> Frostbolt -> Flurry -> Ice Lance

[Jambi 0]

Thank you :)  

 

[Valks 2,375]

On 12/18/2017 at 2:35 AM, Sora93 said:

If you have a Flurry and FF proc(s) then you wanna dump your FF procs into IL so you don't have any more IL procs, then you wanna hardcast Frostbolt/Ebonbolt then use your Flurry proc instantly after casting your Frost/Ebonbolt and then another IL right after the Flurry.

It's important to note, though - this only applies if there is no movement coming in the fight. If there is, hold your FoF procs. It's better to waste 1 FoF proc on your Flurry, then have the additional 1/2 ready for the movement, otherwise you'll be spamming unbuffed lances at that point. 

Also, if there's no AoE coming up. Since you'll benefit from more DPS by splitting on the pack with the lances than you would from an additional buffed one after Flurry.

It's all very fight dependent. @Jambi

[Jambi 0]

Thanks all, I have a raid tonight ill post a log and you can tell me if im doing better with rotation, I think I am. One thing I am really having a hard time with is Mastery Gear, It seems every piece i get has huge mastery, bad luck? I got my +15 Feet today and it was finally a slot that would not wreck tier or legos i have bu tit was 800 MAst and 700 Versa and reduces my Crit to 28% if I use and increases mastery to  69%, I am at 62% mast as it is and haven't had a drop without this stat in a very long time :(  its getting depressing farming RAIDs and getting all this mastery gear given its our weakest stat. 

Edited December 19, 2017 by Jambi

[Jambi 0]

Hi all, I have better stats now and better gear but I doing worse DPS,,, I am unsure what im doing wrong, could someone take a look at teh logs again am i still way off on the rotation? My stats / gear? rotation thanks

https://www.warcraftlogs.com/reports/QmfNYV3vzBAPkJpg/#fight=last&type=damage-done&source=12

 

https://worldofwarcraft.com/en-us/character/area-52/vicâríous

 

I went back to the 4 T20 / 2 T21 gear and did a bit better on Coven 

https://www.warcraftlogs.com/reports/c8WphnjK3T6MDAzv/#fight=last&type=damage-done

 

 

Edited December 27, 2017 by Jambi

[Ithyy 1]

18 hours ago, Jambi said:

Hi all, I have better stats now and better gear but I doing worse DPS,,, I am unsure what im doing wrong, could someone take a look at teh logs again am i still way off on the rotation? My stats / gear? rotation thanks

https://www.warcraftlogs.com/reports/QmfNYV3vzBAPkJpg/#fight=last&type=damage-done&source=12

 

https://worldofwarcraft.com/en-us/character/area-52/vicâríous

 

I went back to the 4 T20 / 2 T21 gear and did a bit better on Coven 

https://www.warcraftlogs.com/reports/c8WphnjK3T6MDAzv/#fight=last&type=damage-done

 

 

You are failing majorly with your Ice Lance. It shows that 56% of your Ice Lance casts were without Shatter (on Felhounds). Be sure to cast Ice Lance only when you have Fingers of Frost, or right after using Brain Freeze proc to cast instant Flurry (literally next cast, read the tooltip for more clarity) - NEVER cast Ice Lance without Shatter (FoF or after Flurry) to maintain uptime of the Magtheridon's Banished Bracers buff.

As mentioned before, try to be smart about your FoF and Brain Freeze procs, because instant Flurry -> Ice Lance when you already have a FoF proc basically means you waste that one FoF proc, so cast Ice Lance to get rid of FoF procs before consuming Brain Freeze, if possible.

On Coven of Shivarra, it seems that you didn't cast Ice Lance at all after instant Flurry casts, and also overwrote a few Brain Freeze procs - When you get Brain Freeze, be sure to cast Flurry right after your next FB cast, and continue onto Ice Lance. This way, if that FB procs another Brain Freeze, you wont miss it ("overwrite").

This is an useful tool for analyzing problems with your rotation: http://wowanalyzer.com (paste logs, select yourself, go to suggestions)

Edited December 27, 2017 by Ithyy