[Archived] Frost Mage 5.4

[icyhott 6]

Thanks. Atm ive been going by Mrrobot. Ill probably stay frost just since at least for the first time since vanilla its a really viable raid spec that's not a bottom of the pits thing. Currently my mage has a SP of 32502 ( kinda weird since pre 5.4 it was at 36k +) 15.55

% crit  14.99% hit 34.16% haste and 45.84% mastery unbuffed. Ive been stacking haste with out a cap also. Going by wowprogress.com it says by their sim im at 236219.1 dps. one thing I don't understand is while I don't expect that kind of dps in actual fighting is why im losing more than 50K dps in SoO. Any clues would be helpful. ( I do still find my self having to break my self of wanting to stack 3 frostbolts for the old buff that we don't get now at times)

 

So that we don't start a big topic in this thread that we shouldn't, just make an account and private message me. I can already see your problem but don't want to abuse the thread.

[Zalden 0]

Hi guys,

 

First off, thanks for the great guide - Icy-veins has been my go-to site for some time now :)

But, I have a couple of questions...

Firstly, regarding the suggested crit cap relative to Raid Bosses: you quote 28%. With the Shatter mechanic this would give you 106% crit chance when you only need 103% - 1% suppression per level above your character. If my maths is right, this would mean the crit cap is actually 26.5% ((x2 = 53%) + 50% = 103%). Maybe I've missed something.

However, Raid Bosses can't be frozen which, renders the Shatter mechanic useless. As I said, maybe I'm missing something here and being a total doofus :P

Secondly, with the new Frost Mastery in 5.4 being so strong: at higher ilvls (where you're more likely to hit the GCD cap) does Mage Armor with it's Mastery buff become a viable alternative to Frost armor?

 

Hoping you can shed some light here.

All the best - Zalden

[Oltier 471]

Hi guys,

 

First off, thanks for the great guide - Icy-veins has been my go-to site for some time now

But, I have a couple of questions...

Firstly, regarding the suggested crit cap relative to Raid Bosses: you quote 28%. With the Shatter mechanic this would give you 106% crit chance when you only need 103% - 1% suppression per level above your character. If my maths is right, this would mean the crit cap is actually 26.5% ((x2 = 53%) + 50% = 103%). Maybe I've missed something.

However, Raid Bosses can't be frozen which, renders the Shatter mechanic useless. As I said, maybe I'm missing something here and being a total doofus

Secondly, with the new Frost Mastery in 5.4 being so strong: at higher ilvls (where you're more likely to hit the GCD cap) does Mage Armor with it's Mastery buff become a viable alternative to Frost armor?

 

Hoping you can shed some light here.

All the best - Zalden

 

Hello Zalden,

 

What you say about the crit cap makes sense to me. Lets wait for Damien what he thinks about that.

 

Brain Freeze and Fingers of frost procs treat the target as if it was frozen.

 

No, Haste is still much more vaulable, than mastery.

[Zalden 0]

Hello Zalden,

 

What you say about the crit cap makes sense to me. Lets wait for Damien what he thinks about that.

 

Brain Freeze and Fingers of frost procs treat the target as if it was frozen.

 

No, Haste is still much more vaulable, than mastery.

Thanks Oltier,

Had a feeling Haste would win out but, just had to ask.

Look forward to Damien's comments on the crit cap...

[Damien 1,514]

Hi guys,

 

First off, thanks for the great guide - Icy-veins has been my go-to site for some time now

But, I have a couple of questions...

Firstly, regarding the suggested crit cap relative to Raid Bosses: you quote 28%. With the Shatter mechanic this would give you 106% crit chance when you only need 103% - 1% suppression per level above your character. If my maths is right, this would mean the crit cap is actually 26.5% ((x2 = 53%) + 50% = 103%). Maybe I've missed something.

However, Raid Bosses can't be frozen which, renders the Shatter mechanic useless. As I said, maybe I'm missing something here and being a total doofus

Secondly, with the new Frost Mastery in 5.4 being so strong: at higher ilvls (where you're more likely to hit the GCD cap) does Mage Armor with it's Mastery buff become a viable alternative to Frost armor?

 

Hoping you can shed some light here.

All the best - Zalden

 

It's 28% because the crit depression is applied before Shatter, so it's (28-3)*2+50 and not 28*2+50-3.

 

I'll need to ask Kuni about the Frost Armor/Mage Armor thing.

[Zalden 0]

It's 28% because the crit depression is applied before Shatter, so it's (28-3)*2+50 and not 28*2+50-3.

 

I'll need to ask Kuni about the Frost Armor/Mage Armor thing.

Thanks for clearing that up - thought it would be something simple :)

[Damien 1,514]

Thanks for clearing that up - thought it would be something simple

And Kuni said that Mage Armor never becomes better than Frost Armor.

[Zalden 0]

And Kuni said that Mage Armor never becomes better than Frost Armor.

Awesome - thanks for that :)

[Guest Kim Frost]

How can you know Living Bomb and Nether Tempest at the same time? It's a Primary Talent.  Are you recommending unlearning the talents over and over?

[Damien 1,514]

How can you know Living Bomb and Nether Tempest at the same time? It's a Primary Talent.  Are you recommending unlearning the talents over and over?

This is what we are recommending yes.

[Oltier 471]

How can you know Living Bomb and Nether Tempest at the same time? It's a Primary Talent.  Are you recommending unlearning the talents over and over?

It whould not be a problem with Dust of Disappearance 

[Guest Nosyaiel]

Shatter is not unique to frost as noted.

[Guest Arcaila]

 Invocation is your best Tier 6 talent and is very straightforward to use. Cast it before the pull to get  Invoker's Energy up and recast it every time it expires.

 

....Invocation is a Passive Talent, and therefore cannot be cast. Shouldn't this say Evocation?

 

[Guest Vreal]

I have been playing with a macro that caused both Icy Veins and Alter Time to be cast together (with Icy Veins being the first spell in the macro line). I have recently glyphed Icy Veins, and noticed that I'm not getting the full potential of it.

The Icy Veins/Alter Time macro no longer works. Now it simply takes Icy Veins away instead of adding 6 seconds of time.

 

Any

[Archimage 98]

Could you check if you casted Alter Time before casting Icy Veins?

 

If you Alter Time before Icy Veins, it will remove Icy Veins when it expires since you didn't have the buff before casting Alter Time.

Edited November 28, 2013 by Archimage

[Guest Vreal]

My macro looks like this:

 

/cast Icy Veins
/cast Presence of Mind
/cast Berserking
/cast Alter Time

 

When the AT expires i loose IV buff.

 

 

Could you check if you casted Alter Time before casting Icy Veins?

 

If you Alter Time before Icy Veins, it will remove Icy Veins when it expires since you didn't have the buff before casting Alter Time.

 

[Oltier 471]

My macro looks like this:

 

/cast Icy Veins

/cast Presence of Mind

/cast Berserking

/cast Alter Time

 

When the AT expires i loose IV buff.

This is working for me perfectly. Altough, I tried it without Berserking, since I am a human. You should also try removing that. What I would also suggest is to try altering the orders. It should be working.

 

Otherwise, just remove IV and use it without a macro. ^^

[Guest A Lurker]

I don't want to nag, but IF you choose Presence of Mind as a talent you most certainly won't want to lessen the already small DPS gain it provides by wasting it on Frostbolt as suggested in your Macros section. Frostfire Bolt provides higher damage and the longer casttime doesnt matter since PoM makes it instant.

 

Just my 2 cents

[Oltier 471]

I don't want to nag, but IF you choose Presence of Mind as a talent you most certainly won't want to lessen the already small DPS gain it provides by wasting it on Frostbolt as suggested in your Macros section. Frostfire Bolt provides higher damage and the longer casttime doesnt matter since PoM makes it instant.

 

Just my 2 cents ;)

They deal exactly the same damage.

[Guest Evn]

what buff is best for a frost mage? mastery or haste

[Oltier 471]

If you look for baseline answer, then haste.

https://www.icy-veins.com/frost-mage-wow-pve-dps-statistics-priority-reforging

 

If you look for advanced answer, then: both

 

https://www.icy-veins.com/forums/topic/3678-akraens-comprehensive-guide-to-54-frost-pve-advanced/

[Guest Casiopea]

I got a question about red gems. Intellect is better than haste (stated in guide) why than for red slots suggested is intell/haste gem?

[Oltier 471]

I got a question about red gems. Intellect is better than haste (stated in guide) why than for red slots suggested is intell/haste gem?

 

 

Because:

 

The theory behind gems at the moment is that secondary stats are more than half as potent as primary stats.  Therefore, when you can gem secondary stats, you typically gain more DPS than if you were to gem primarily Intellect.

 

For example, let's say Intellect gives you 8 DPS per point and Haste gives you 5 DPS per point.  Let's look at some calculations.

 

Brilliant = 160 Intellect * 8 DPS/Intellect = 1280 DPS

Reckless = 80 Intellect * 8 DPS/Intellect + 160 Haste * 5 DPS/Haste = 640 + 800 = 1440 DPS. 

 

Here, in this gem alone, you would gain 160 DPS.  Calculated up over all of your gems, this would be a sizeable gain.  As long as the stat weight of your secondary stats is more than half of Intellect, it will always be a DPS gain to gem hybrid gems because of the double stat allocation of secondary stats on gems.

 

 

[Guest Guest]

I'm a bit puzzled. The talent portion of this guide is written as if you can swap out talents for each raid/fight. How do you manage this?

[Stoove 347]

I'm a bit puzzled. The talent portion of this guide is written as if you can swap out talents for each raid/fight. How do you manage this?

 

You can. All you have to do is make sure you're carrying a sufficient supply of Tome of the Clear Mind and you can change your talents as often as you like when you are out of combat.