Frost AoE Mage Leveling Guide From 1 to 80 for WotLK Classic

Last updated on Sep 25, 2022 at 02:14 by Wrdlbrmpft 5 comments

Welcome to the Frost AoE leveling guide for Wrath of the Lich King! AoE leveling is the fastest way of reaching level 80, as you can kill many enemies at once. If you try it for the first time, it can be a bit overwhelming, but once you master this method, you will see that the time learning it pays off.

This guide will go through all the details you need to know and will also focus on the important changes WotLK has brought to the Mage's AoE abilities. Make sure to use the slider to make the guide adapt to your level.

If you are more interested in single target leveling methods or simply do not feel ready for AoE leveling, feel free to resort to our single target leveling guides for Arcane, Fire and Frost.

1.

AoE Frost Mage Level-by-Level Rotation, Talents and Trainer Skills

Move the slider below to make the guide update to your level!

Level: 1
2.

Talent Tree for Leveling as AoE Frost Mage

From Level 10 on you get one talent point per level, which you can spend on your talent tree. The talent menu can be accessed via the keybind 'N' in game from Level 10 on.

At Level 22, you will get access to the required Frost AoE talents. Until then, it is recommended to play a single-target build. Improved Fireball IconImproved Fireball will make your Fireball IconFireball cast faster. Ignite IconIgnite makes your Critical Strikes with Fire spells leave a damage-over-time effect on the target. Pyroblast IconPyroblast is a stronger version of Fireball that can be used for pulling and leaves a DoT on the target. Burning Soul IconBurning Soul gives you spell pushback protection. At Level 22, you will need to visit the Mage trainer and unlearn your talents to respec to Frost AoE talents.

It needs to be added that before Level 22, you can also pull packs of mobs and kill them with a combination of Frost Nova IconFrost Nova, Flamestrike IconFlamestrike and Arcane Explosion IconArcane Explosion, but this is harder to pull off. As this guide aims for consistency, it will recommend AoE leveling from 22 on.

At Level 22, you need to visit the Mage trainer and unlearn your talents and spend your talent points in the Frost tree. Elemental Precision IconElemental Precision gives you a lower chance that mobs of a higher level than yours resist your spells. This is very important to hit all enemies with Blizzard as not all mobs in a pull have the same level. You will take a few hits on each pull before you have Ice Barrier IconIce Barrier. The talent Frost Warding IconFrost Warding gives you more armor and reduces the incoming damage from melee hits while pulling. Permafrost IconPermafrost slows your enemies 10% more and 3 seconds longer. With Improved Blizzard IconImproved Blizzard, Blizzard IconBlizzard will keep enemies slowed down by 60% for 4.5 seconds. Ice Floes IconIce Floes gives you extra security, as it reduces your Frost Nova IconFrost Nova cooldown.

Icy Veins IconIcy Veins protects your spells from pushback and increases your casting speed by 20% for 20 seconds. Piercing Ice IconPiercing Ice increases all Frost damage you deal by 2% per talent point. Arctic Reach IconArctic Reach gives a 20% range and radius increase for Blizzard IconBlizzard and Frost Nova IconFrost Nova, which both makes your pulls a lot safer. With Frost Channeling IconFrost Channeling, your spells cost 10% less Mana. Especially at lower gear levels, this Mana cost decrease is very noticeable and this talent helps a lot.

With Cold Snap IconCold Snap you can reset the cooldown of all your Frost abilities. Having a second Ice Block IconIce Block, Frost Nova IconFrost Nova, Icy Veins IconIcy Veins, or Cone of Cold IconCone of Cold can be lifesaving in hairy situations. Ice Shards IconIce Shards increases the Critical Strike damage bonus of you Frost spells by 100%. Since Blizzard can crit in WotLK, this is very good for your damage and will be important later on when two other important talents are available. The Cold as Ice IconCold as Ice talent reduces the cooldown of Cold Snap IconCold Snap, Ice Barrier IconIce Barrier, and Summon Water Elemental IconSummon Water Elemental by 20%, which is basically a survivability talent. With Blizzard IconBlizzard being able to crit, Shatter IconShatter is the first of two talents that make you Blizzard a lot stronger.

Ice Barrier IconIce Barrier is your second shield spell. If you have shields up while getting hit by an enemy, you will not get dazed and you will not suffer from spell pushback. In any dangerous situation, this very useful spell can save your life! The two points in Shatter IconShatter are important to have together with the upcoming Fingers of Frost IconFingers of Frost talent and as you can use it together with Frost Nova IconFrost Nova and Flamestrike IconFlamestrike+Cone of Cold IconCone of Cold for a so-called shatter combo (Nova, Flamestrike the mobs and instantly Cone of Cold, so both Flamestrike and Cone of Cold will benefit from the Critical Strike bonus). The two points in Arctic Winds IconArctic Winds increase your damage and reduce the chance to get hit by 1% per point. The biggest damage talent is Fingers of Frost IconFingers of Frost. It procs from Improved Blizzard IconImproved Blizzard and treats your next two spells as if the target was frozen, applying the 50% crit from Shatter IconShatter. If you pull enough mobs, Fingers of Frost IconFingers of Frost will be active basically permanently when you Blizzard IconBlizzard, making your Blizzard a lot deadlier.

The Summon Water Elemental IconSummon Water Elemental ability will summon a Water Elemental that fights for you for 45 seconds and has an immensely-useful ability called Freeze IconFreeze, which is basically a ranged Frost Nova IconFrost Nova that you can place anywhere around you. On top of that, this pet also deals decent damage and can be used twice in a row with Cold Snap IconCold Snap. Aside from giving you another Frost Nova IconFrost Nova, the Water Elemental can also Waterbolt IconWaterbolt enemies that resisted your Frost Nova IconFrost Nova to keep them away from you. Of course it can also be used to finish off low health enemies. The Water Elemental is controlled with key bindings you can change to your liking. Directly connected to the Water Elemental is the Enduring Winter IconEnduring Winter talent, which allows your Elemental to stay alive for 15 more seconds. On top of that, Frostbolt IconFrostbolt gives you the Replenishment IconReplenishment buff, which restores 1% of your maximum Mana per 5 sec for 15 sec. This buff applies to yourself and to your group and can also be triggered by quick Frostbolt IconFrostbolt Rank 1.

The 3 points in Winter's Chill IconWinter's Chill give your Frost spells an additional 5% crit for 15 seconds, after hitting them with 5 ticks of Blizzard IconBlizzard. Chilled to the Bone IconChilled to the Bone makes your slow effects 2% stronger per talent point, which will lead to a 10% increased slow when fully talented. This will make Blizzard IconBlizzard a 70% slow instead of a 60% and make your life a little easier.

Deep Freeze IconDeep Freeze acts as an emergency button when you need to crowd control a mob that was not slowed, as it stuns for 5 seconds. Chilled to the Bone IconChilled to the Bone makes your slow effects 2% stronger per talent point, which will lead to a 10% increased slow when fully talented. This will make Blizzard IconBlizzard a 70% slow instead of a 60% and make your life a little easier. The Arcane Subtlety IconArcane Subtlety is neat if you do dungeon content with groups, allowing your Arcane Explosion IconArcane Explosion to do 40% less threat and Arcane Focus IconArcane Focus is the Arcane spell complement of Precision IconPrecision. While these are mostly filler Arcane talents, Arcane Concentration IconArcane Concentration is what we are here for. This talent gives you a 2% increased chance per talent point to enter a clearcasting state, which will make your next damage spell cost 100% less Mana.

We finish the Arcane Concentration IconArcane Concentration is for the clearcasting chance and then swap into the Fire tree. There we find Incineration IconIncineration, which increases the Critical Strike chance of Cone of Cold IconCone of Cold and Fire Blast IconFire Blast by 6% and we take the Improved Fire Blast IconImproved Fire Blast to have an additional finishing spell available more frequently. The final three points go into a World in Flames IconWorld in Flames, which increases the Critical Strike chance of Blizzard IconBlizzard, Flamestrike IconFlamestrike and Arcane Explosion IconArcane Explosion by 6%, which is interesting for solo leveling and group play.

3.

Leveling Glyphs

In Wrath you will be able to unlock Glyphs that improve your abilities at the following levels:

  1. Level 15 unlocks your first Major and Minor Glyphs;
  2. Level 30 unlocks your second Major Glyph;
  3. Level 50 unlocks your second Minor Glyph;
  4. Level 70 unlocks your third Minor Glyph;
  5. Level 80 unlocks your third Major Glyph.

As an Frost Mage you will want to be using Glyph of Evocation Icon Glyph of Evocation and Glyph of Frost Nova Icon Glyph of Frost Nova. The final major glyph is only unlocked at Level 80, at which point you should swap to an end-game build.

For minor glyphs, Glyph of Arcane Intellect Icon Glyph of Arcane Intellect, Glyph of Frost Armor Icon Glyph of Frost Armor and Glyph of Slow Fall Icon Glyph of Slow Fall are fine quality of life options.

4.

Leveling Rotation

  1. Cast Arcane Intellect IconArcane Intellect and Frost Armor IconFrost Armor if you are missing their buffs.
  2. Cast Arcane Intellect IconArcane Intellect and Frost Armor IconFrost Armor if you are missing their buffs. Use Mana Shield IconMana Shield to avoid death. If you have enough Mana, use it also for pulling.
  3. Cast Arcane Intellect IconArcane Intellect and Ice Armor IconIce Armor if you are missing their buffs. Use Mana Shield IconMana Shield to avoid death. If you have enough Mana, use it for pulling.
  4. Cast Arcane Intellect IconArcane Intellect and Ice Armor IconIce Armor if you are missing their buffs. Only use Mage Armor IconMage Armor if you reliably survive pulling with it. Use Mana Shield IconMana Shield to avoid death. If you have enough Mana, use it for pulling.
  5. Cast Arcane Intellect IconArcane Intellect and Ice Armor IconIce Armor if you are missing their buffs. Only use Mage Armor IconMage Armor if you reliably survive pulling with it. Use Ice Barrier IconIce Barrier to avoid death and for pulling.
  6. Cast Arcane Intellect IconArcane Intellect and Ice Armor IconIce Armor if you are missing their buffs. Only use Molten Armor IconMolten Armor or Mage Armor IconMage Armor if you reliably survive pulling with it. Use Ice Barrier IconIce Barrier to avoid death and for pulling.
  7. Cast Fireball IconFireball as your main attack.
  8. Cast Frostbolt IconFrostbolt as your main attack.
  9. Cast Fireball IconFireball as your main attack.
  10. Cast Frostbolt IconFrostbolt as your main attack.
  11. Cast Fireball IconFireball as your main attack.
  12. Pull with Pyroblast IconPyroblast and cast Fireball IconFireball as your main attack.
  13. Body pull packs of melee enemies, while taking care not to overextend as it is dangerous and in WotLK you have an AoE cap. Start with 2-3 mobs and slowly work out how many more you can pull. Fire Blast IconFire Blast can be used to add more enemies to your pulls.
  14. Body pull packs of melee enemies, while taking care not to overextend as it is dangerous and in WotLK you have an AoE cap. Start with 2-3 mobs and slowly work out how many more you can pull. Fire Blast IconFire Blast and Counterspell IconCounterspell can be used to add more enemies to your pulls.
  15. Freeze enemies with Frost Nova IconFrost Nova and walk or Blink IconBlink to gain distance from them.
  16. Freeze enemies with Frost Nova IconFrost Nova. If any resist, use Cold Snap IconCold Snap to Frost Nova them again. Walk or Blink IconBlink to gain distance from them.
  17. Freeze enemies with Frost Nova IconFrost Nova. If any resist, use Cold Snap IconCold Snap to Frost Nova them again or use your Water Elemental's Freeze IconFreeze. Water Elemental can also attack and tank one enemy, if only one resisted. Walk or Blink IconBlink to gain distance from them.
  18. Cast Blizzard IconBlizzard to DPS and slow them down. If you gained enough distance, and take a few steps between the first and second Blizzard, you can do two Blizzards before Frost Nova IconFrost Nova is ready again to freeze them. Gain distance again and Blizzard them. Repeat this step until enemies are either dead or low health. If needed Cone of Cold IconCone of Cold the mobs to extend the slow before Frost Nova is ready again.
  19. Arcane Explosion IconArcane Explosion and / or Wand low health enemies down.
  20. Arcane Explosion IconArcane Explosion, Cone of Cold IconCone of Cold and / or Wand low health enemies down. Frost Nova IconFrost Nova and Shatter IconShatter can make this very easy.
  21. Arcane Explosion IconArcane Explosion, Cone of Cold IconCone of Cold and / or Wand low health enemies down. Frost Nova IconFrost Nova and Shatter IconShatter can make this very easy. Send your Water Elemental after low HP enemies.
  22. Cast Frostbolt IconFrostbolt as your main single-target attack, if required.
  23. Cast Icy Veins IconIcy Veins to increase your cast speed and protect yourself against spell pushback whenever needed.

If enemies come close to you, use Frost Nova IconFrost Nova to keep distance between you and them.

You can make your own food and water with Conjure Food IconConjure Food and Conjure Water IconConjure Water. These spells should definitely be learned, as water and food from vendors will cost you far more gold than these spells do. Sometimes other players even want to buy conjured water and you can gain a little extra gold. Conjured items disappear after 15 minutes of being logged out.

You can make your own food and water with Conjure Refreshment IconConjure Refreshment. This spell should definitely be learned, as water and food from vendors will cost you far more gold than this spell does. Sometimes other players even want to buy conjured water and you can gain a little extra gold. Conjured items disappear after 15 minutes of being logged out.

The AoE grinding video by k4li from 2006 gives you an example of how to do AoE pulls and an overview of the best AoE grinding spots in Azeroth. Below we also have a list of AoE grinding spots in WotLK for you, which adjusts to your level by using the slider on top of this page.

From Level 70 on solo Dungeon leveling with a Living Bomb IconLiving Bomb Fire build becomes a very, if not the most viable leveling strategy for Fire Mages. Otherwise, continue looking at the AoE grinding spots in WotLK and respeccing into Fire talents. Even though Fire is more efficient at the pulls in Utgarde Keep, your current Frost AoE spec can also do the UK farm with an extra layer of security through Ice Barrier IconIce Barrier, however it will be slightly slower.

4.1.

Summary of Trainer Skills for AoE Frost Mage

5.

Best AoE Grinding Spots for Frost Mages

Most, if not all places in Azeroth, Outland and Northrend could be used for AoE Grinding, as long as you keep your pulls to melee enemies without dangerous abilities. Still, some tend to be better than others, assuming equal levels of competition and PvP activities involved. Addons that show map coordinates, such as MapCoords by JimBim89 will help you find the recommended grinding spots.

Adjust your level slider above in order to see the grinding spots recommended for your level.

  • First grinding spot is at Level 14.
  • At this point, even if you are already pulling two enemies at once with Arcane Explosion IconArcane Explosion, it is best to quest normally, as it will be faster and safer than AoE Grinding with your small toolkit.
  • Level 22 Gnolls around 62, 60 in Wetlands. Alliance favored spot.
  • Level 22 Humans around 33, 42 in Hillsbrad Foothills. Horde-only spot as enemies are Alliance-friendly.
  • Level 24 Skeletons and Spiders around 24, 41 in Duskwood. Alliance favored spot.
  • Level 26 Humans around 27, 56 in Hillsbrad Foothills. Horde-only spot as enemies are Alliance-friendly.
  • Level 28 Worgen around 70, 71 in Duskwood. Alliance favored spot.
  • Level 33 Silithid around 68, 83 in Thousand Needles. Typically Horde favored spot.
  • Level 31-32 Humans around 57, 37 in Arathi Highlands. Horde-only spot as enemies are Alliance-friendly.
  • Level 34 Orcs around 59, 54 in Arathi Highlands. Alliance-only spot as enemies are Horde-friendly.
  • Level 38 Raptors spread out across Stranglethorn Vale. Try between 31, 23 and 37,19, or between 23,48 and 33,37.
  • Level 40 Birds around 16, 60 in Badlands.
  • Level 41 Humans around 59, 24 in Tanaris.
  • Level 42 Murlocs around 85, 80 in Swamp of Sorrows.
  • Level 44 Humans around 72, 46 in Tanaris.
  • Level 46 Snakes and Turtles inside Maraudon. Requires Scepter of Celebras Icon Scepter of Celebras. This video, by Exehn, showcases how to do it perfectly. Can still be done even with the dungeon nerfs, you just need to kill them quick enough before they get speed buffed.
  • Level 51 Undead around 37, 56 and 49, 77 in Western Plaguelands.
  • Level 53 Undead around 47, 53 in Western Plaguelands.
  • Level 56 Humans in Hearthglen, around 46, 15 in Western Plaguelands. ODB has made a nice video of the pull.
  • Levels 58 to 61 Birds around 59, 73 in Hellfire Peninsula
  • Levels 60 to 64 Orcs around 43, 69 and Birds around 27, 50 in Hellfire Peninsula
  • Levels 61 to 65 Orcs around 50, 57 in Hellfire Peninsula
  • Levels 61 to 65 Birds around 47, 15 and 58, 25, and more Humanoids around 34, 54 in Terokkar Forest
  • Levels 61 to 65 Bloodscale Naga around 27, 47 and 63,40 in Zangarmarsh
  • Levels 64 to 67 Humanoids around 32, 45 and 69, 80, and Beasts all over Nagrand.
  • Levels 67 to 70 Ethereals around 31, 76 in Netherstorm.
  • Levels 68 to 70 Demon Hunters around 69, 51 in Shadowmoon Valley.
  • Levels 68 to 70 Ashtongue Draenei around 59, 37 in Shadowmoon Valley.
  • GuideMMO has made a nice video showing most of the Outland Aoe Farms .
  • Levels 68 to 70 Beasts around 48, 73 in Borean Tundra.
  • Levels 70 to 79 The Utgarde 3-Pull by Esquire is rather easy with some practice and gives very good XP. The Utgarde 1-Pull by Perruda gives slightly less XP but is a lot faster. This allows you to level in Northrend after doing 5 runs in around 25 minutes and then returning to Utgarde Keep again. It is recommended to have Engineering for this, because Rocket Boots Xtreme Lite Icon Rocket Boots Xtreme Lite help a lot with these pulls. The same goes for Glyph of Blink Icon Glyph of Blink which we highly recommend for that pull.
  • Levels 70 to 79 the The Slave Pens Heroic farm by Fp requires the Reservoir Key Icon Reservoir Key and is more XP per hour than the solo Utgarde Keep, if you manage to do each run in 12 minutes or less. However, this run is hard to pull off and caters more towards real Mage experts. There is also an experience sheet and a leveling build linked in the description. It is recommended to have Engineering for this, because Rocket Boots Xtreme Lite Icon Rocket Boots Xtreme Lite help a lot with these pulls. The first pull, the 65 mobs pull, gives around the same amount of XP as Utgarde Keep, so everything beyond that pull is just bonus XP.
  • Levels 70 to 71 Humanoids from 7 to 1 o'clock around Kaskala (around 61, 46) in Borean Tundra.
  • Levels 70 to 71 Humanoids around 71, 69 in Howling Fjord.
  • Levels 72 to 73 Humanoids around 71, 81 in Dragonblight.
  • Levels 72 to 73 Undead around 51, 33 and 58,30 in Dragonblight.
  • Levels 73 to 76 Beasts around 68,27 and 55, 30 in Grizzly Hills.
  • Levels 74 to 77 Beasts around 37, 53 in Zul'Drak.
  • Levels 75 to 76 Humanoids around 35, 45 in Sholazar Basin.
  • Levels 77 to 79 Beasts around 65, 44 in The Storm Peaks.
  • Levels 78 to 80 Undead around 43, 52 in Icecrown.
6.

AoE Grinding Gear, Stats and Questing

AoE Grinding Mages that level purely by pulling groups of mobs and killing them solo will mostly have to do with Uncommon gear and weapons that drop. Early on, you should be looking to get of the Eagle items, which have Intellect and Stamina, which are the stats you should focus on the most! When you are visiting your Mage trainer, it never hurts to check the Auction House for good and cheap of the Eagle items, if they are big upgrades for you.

Look for high Intellect / Stamina gear when doing Dungeons, as well, where you can use your AoE skills to help your group kill enemies fast. In most cases though, your leveling will be faster if you skip dungeon groups and just continue grinding mobs. Stats like Critical Strike rating or spell damage are partially beneficial, as Blizzard IconBlizzard can now crit but still scales rather poor with spell damage. You need the Stamina for surviving the pulls and the Intellect gives you enough Mana for casting enough Blizzards to kill your foes.

Later on, when you have enough survivability through your abilities, adding a few items with Intellect and Spirit is possible. This can be especially helpful for regenerating more Mana, when you have the pulls down.

When doing quests you should basically only do quests that are related to killing AoE farmable mobs or give really good gear rewards. Never bother with quests whose objectives do not involve AoE farming or quests whose quest items have a very low drop rate. Travelling long ways to do one quest is also almost always inferior to grinding.

7.

Making Gold from Grinding, Professions and Level 80 Grinding

As you will kill enemies, you will loot a lot of items of any quality. To prevent you from running to the next vendor and thereby reducing your experience per hour from AoE grinding, it is recommended to keep your bags big and tidy. That means you should always try to have big sized bags with lots of space in them. The gold or cloth you will need for that will come with time from your AoE grinding. For selling these more easily, you can make a Level 1 alt and run it to the nearest major city to access the Auction House. For Alliance players, Humans are closest to a major city, for Horde players, Trolls and Orcs are really close to a major city as well. Run your Human alt to Stormwind and your Orc/Troll to Orgrimmar. Now you have a mule you can send all your goods you get from AoE farming to. Mails to alts on the same account are instant in WotLK and will stay for 30 days before being returned. While drinking and eating between AoE pulls, you can sort the items in your inventory you want to vendor when you Hearthstone Icon Hearthstone to a nearby inn.

Another trick that can be used is choosing Skinning and Mining or Enchanting as professions. At very low levels, you can disenchant all the Uncommon items you will get, usually for good profits. In many of the AoE grinding locations, there are constant ore respawns, which you can mine. Smelt these ores into bars, as these usually have a higher market value than ores and send them to your Level 1 alt to sell on the AH. Many of your AoE grinding mobs also are skinnable, which makes Skinning a good passive income profession.

Two professions that actually increases your leveling speed are First Aid and Engineering. With Iron Grenade Icon Iron Grenades you can increase your damage output significantly at lower levels. At any level, the stun from grenades can be very useful. However, leveling this profession costs you gold instead of making you gold, so this is rather for wealthy players than for beginners. With First Aid, you sometimes can survive failed pulls by healing yourself rapidly with Bandages.

Once you have made it to Level 80, most of the Northrend AoE locations can still be used for gold making, as some of them drop items of interest, such as reputation items, Uncommon, Rare and even Epic items, cloth, potions and many more. With the release of Wrath of the Lich King, all these items will be in high demand and the AoE Farming meta will develop.

8.

Additional Frost Mage Information After Reaching Level 80

After you reached Level 80, there is still a lot to learn. Our Frost Mage PvE Guide covers the most relevant and up-to-date information about your Frost Mage spells, talents, rotation, gear, and much more.

9.

Changelog

  • 25 Sep. 2022: Added new one-pull UK video and more information.
  • 22 Sep. 2022: Added level 70-80 top leveling strategies.
  • 19 Sep. 2022: Page added.
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