[Frost] WoD Mage So Far

[Berlinia 168]

Good day to you fellow mages,

This post essentially serves as a way to pass my impressions of the WoD Mage to you. I will not and can not support what I will type with maths and this isn't essentially a simulation. It is just a result of testing in game and watching skada numbers together with a fellow mage from my guild. Keep in mind that this concerns the Frost mage as it is the only spec I have actually tested.

 

Talents

 

- Between Evanesce, Blazing Speed, and Ice Floes I tend to pick Blazing speed. From the fights of SoO that I have tested it seems more beneficial to move away from harm fast in order to keep casting your spells rather than casting your spells on your way there.

 

-Between Alter Time, Ice Barries and Flameglow I tend to always pick Ice Barrier. I know it comes at the cost of a GCD but it is the most beneficial for the raid due to your ability to soak spells with ease.

 

-We don't PvP but in PVE Ring of Frost is better 

 

-Between GI, Cauterize and Cold Snap I generally take Greater Invisibility as in my opinion it is one of the most powerful defensive cooldowns in the game.

 

At the Level 75 and beyond talents, things get interesting

 

-I have tested both Frost Bomb, Unstable Magic and Ice Nova.

Frostbomb if used correctly can account for roughly 10-12% of your dps (this is a rough estimation and it is only used to put it in comparison with the other two).

Unstable Magic will in theory account for a 4% dps increase on single target. On Flamebinder Ka'grazz it was roughly 5.6% of my dps (which is understandable as there are doggies you can dps as well).

Ice Nova comes at the cost of a GCD and it's simply not worth the effort to pick it up. It get's completely destroyed by Frost Bomb.

 

- From the level 90 list we can instantly dismiss rune of power as it is annoying to use and I don't see the benefit from using it right now. Especially with the amounts of movement in the fights.

For single target I have been using Mirror Images. There is a huge benefit over Incanter's Flow, which is that it smooths out your rotation. No longer do you have to worry if you time things correctly. For two target's however I believe Incanter's Flow is the best option. The same would be true for multi target. This is primarily due to how cluncky target switching is done by MI and how IF boosts your overal damage from Frost Bomb.

 

-The level 100 talent tier is the most boring non-option I have ever encountered. Thermal Void seems absolutely useless (unless you have the T17 2pac which gives you continuous FoF charges during Frozen Orb) and Comet Storm did 1% of my overal damage when used on cooldown (if memory serves). 

Prismatic Crystal on the other hand was huge for both single target and multi target and seems the way to go.

 

Glyphs

 

I use Glyph of Splitting Ice when there is a second target in the encounter, Glyph of Cone of Cold when there is AoE, Glyph of Water Elemental due to the high movement in the fights, Glyph of Rapid Displacement, and if I want to maximize burst Glyph of Icy Veins.

 

Playstyle

 

The playstyle of the Frost Mage right now feels very much focused around generating as many Fingers of Frost Charges as possible and dumping them on a target with Frost Bomb on them. This is done by RNG, by usage of the pet spell Ice Jet and by good'ol Frozen Orb.

 

How I handle RNG

 

As you have 25 second windows in between each and every of your water jets where you can potentially not even generate 1 Finger of Frost I try to make sure I always have something up for that short window. Essentially this means that if I have 1 Finger of Frost I don't immediately use it unless I get a second. Then I do Frost Bomb and dump all my FoF's.

Regarding Brain Freeze I try to have 1 ready for when the Ice Jet window is going to come. Otherwise I just use them on the boss.

 

How I handle Water Jet

 

Water Jet (or Ice Jet) essentially does this. The pet channels a debuff on the target. For every Frostbolt and Frostfire bolt that the target receives during this debuff you gain one FoF charge. 
The way this works in game:
As you can cast Ice Jet while casting another spell (it's your pet that does the spell) you can cast it when having one Brain Freeze proc and you are halfway through a Frostbolt cast. That way you ensure a gain of two Fingers of Frost charges. With proper timing and enough haste you might even manage to get a third Frostbolt cast out of it.

 

With your newfound Fingers of Frost, Frostbomb the main target (or if you want to cheese the target with the most enemies around it) and dump all your charges there.

 

How I handle Frozen Orb

 

Step 1) Use Frozen Orb
Step 2) Enjoy

 

Nuances

 

Now there is a huge thing that goes around my current playstyle and that is the Focusing Crystal.

Basically this is a short overview of my burst

 

Start casting Frostbolt ensuring it lands on the pull.

Cast a second Frostbolt and midcast use Water Jet

Cast Frostbolts or Frostfire bolts (FFB > FB) untill you reach 3 FoF Charges or Water Jet Expires.

Put down Prismatic Crystal
Frost Bomb it.
Ice Lance untill you are out of charges.

Frozen Orb.
Ice lance till Focusing Crystal Expires.

Swap to boss (the very annoying thing is that you don't autoswap and you have to do that yourself)...

Now if you have more than two FoF's reapply Frost Bomb on the boss and dump charges. This is so at all times.

 

Now if you decide to use MI then after water Jet expires use Mirror Image.
If you use IF you want to cast Frost Bomb at one stack and Dump Icelances at higher stacks of IF.

 

Conclusion and Remarks

 

Overal I am not terribly enjoying playing the Frost Mage. The timings of the different things you have to manage seem abit off and the gameplay feels very cluncky. I don't really like the amount of subtle micro management and it definatelly doesn't feel as spammy as current Frost. It might be that the low amounts of Haste on the beta are messing with the way the spec works and that at higher haste values you shall have a better time.

 

These are my current ideas on the Frost Mage. I realize some of the things that I have said aren't mathematically correct (or they are I didn't even bother to look it up) but I just wanted to share my current experience

Cheers to you all

Berlinia

 

 

 

 

[Tigersharrk 4]

Sounds cool...any way we can get an Arcane version? 

Not big on Frost .

[Berlinia 168]

Damn you!!
I'll get to it :)
 

[Watermasta 7]

Me love you long time if you do a fire one. Of course this is at your earliest convience :)

[Archimage 98]

Thx for the share

 

 

Start casting Frostbolt ensuring it lands on the pull.

Cast a second Frostbolt and midcast use Water Jet

Cast Frostbolts or Frostfire bolts (FFB > FB) untill you reach 3 FoF Charges or Water Jet Expires.

Put down Prismatic Crystal
Frost Bomb it.
Ice Lance untill you are out of charges.

Frozen Orb.
Ice lance till Focusing Crystal Expires.

Swap to boss (the very annoying thing is that you don't autoswap and you have to do that yourself)...

 

Quick Thought: 

How about macros to manage Prismatic Crystal?

 

Macro 1: (casting Frost Bomb on the Crystal after you have placed it)

/cast [target=Prismatic Crystal] Frost Bomb

 

Macro 2: (Spam Ice Lance on the Crystal, If you use this when the crystal is no longer there, it will cast frostbolt on the boss)

/cast [target="Prismatic Crystal", exists] Ice Lance; Frostbolt