Season of Discovery Frost Mage DPS Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities

We will present the skill rotation of a Mage as a priority list. This is not an exact sequence in which abilities should be cast. Instead, what it means is, whenever you must choose between using different skills, try to use the one at the top of the list first.

Our list assumes you are running the recommended build in the talents page and are playing a maximum level character. If you are still leveling, please refer to the leveling page for a leveling-specific rotation.

While they are extraordinarily powerful, explosives such as Heavy Dynamite will not be detailed in the rotation. Usually, you will want to use them as soon as the tank has solid threat on the target. The main exception is when you are facing multiple or particularly dangerous (such as enraged) enemies at some point in the fight. Saving explosives to carry you and your group through these moments (and possibly do a ton of AoE damage in the process) is probably worth it.

Ensure Arcane Intellect is buffed on the whole group, and your choice of Mage armor is up on yourself. Consider whether you will need Dampen Magic or Amplify Magic for the upcoming fight.

If you can, pre-cast Frostfire Bolt for a big burst of damage on the opener.

1. Cast Living Bomb on the target. Reapply once it expires unless target is about to die;
2. Cast Frozen Orb on cooldown towards the largest clump of enemies;
3. Use Deep Freeze on cooldown with Fingers of Frost procs;
4. Activate Icy Veins and any other cooldowns such as Gneuro-Linked Arcano-Filament Monocle and Mildly Irradiated Rejuvenation Potion;
5. Cast Balefire Bolt if you are at 8 stacks or less of its debuff, making sure you queue something else on the next cast to avoid hitting 10 stacks and dying;
6. Cast Frostfire Bolt as a filler.

1. Cast Frozen Orb on cooldown towards the largest clump of enemies;
2. Use Living Flame on cooldown;
3. Cast and reapply Living Bomb on as many targets as possible;
4. Cast Blizzard. This can be maximum priority if you have Improved Blizzard and the slowing effect is critical for group survival;
5. Cast Frostfire Bolt on high health enemies with any Brain Freeze and Fingers of Frost procs you get.

As a Mage, you have various offensive and defensive cooldowns at your disposal. Using your offensive cooldowns properly is often the difference between topping damage or just being average, and as such, you should learn how they work and how to optimize their usage. This list will be expanded as more abilities are unlocked by later phases.

Living Flame is a new short cooldown which causes high area damage, provided targets do not move away from its effect. This spell and its damage are considered of both Fire and Arcane schools and benefit from talents or effects that affect either spell category.

Frozen Orb is a very strong cooldown that provides area damage and slowing effect and, most importantly, many Fingers of Frost while it is active, allowing you to use them for a burst damage follow-up.

Icy Veins is a new cooldown which increases your casting speed by 20% and removes spell interruption on a 3-minute cooldown. This is a simple yet powerful cooldown that you can pop whenever you want to speed up your casts.

Evocation is a great method by which you can quickly replenish your Mana pool during a fight. Make sure that you use it at low Mana and during a period in which you will be able to channel it to the end without interruption.

Blink allows you to instantly break most stuns, and also to cover large distances quickly, avoiding potentially lethal area of effect spells in the nick of time.

Frost Nova gains time for you and your group against freezable melee enemies. Use it whenever things go wrong, or as a coordinated mean of reducing incoming damage.

Remove Lesser Curse provides a way to dispel dangerous curse effects, which only Mages and Druids can do. Make curse removal your #1 priority during progression!

Counterspell is one of the few ranged interrupts in WoW Classic. As such, you should always be paying attention to enemies outside of melee range that might need to be interrupted.

Polymorph is one of the few complete disables in the game that can be kept indefinitely on a non-player target. That, along with its short cast time and lack of special requirements to be cast, makes it the most popular way to take specific enemies out of a fight, until you or your group is ready to deal with them.

In this section, we will dive a bit deeper into the core mechanics and various abilities of Frost Mages. Understanding these topics is an important step to truly mastering the specialization.

Mage's primary resource is Mana. It is important that you understand how Mana is generated, so you can effectively manage and use it.

Mana has a maximum capacity based on your Intellect, and starts full by default. Mana is slowly used by your spell casting, and does not regenerate naturally if you have cast something in the last 5 seconds. However, using certain talents, such as Arcane Meditation, allows a part of your Mana regeneration (which scales based on spirit) to continue during this period. Items that restore X Mana per 5 seconds, such as Smoked Sagefish, are active at all times.

Mages are the squishiest class in WoW Classic, due to the usage of cloth and the lack of direct survivability boosts such as Inner Fire. This means that, in order to survive, you need to use your kit to avoid being hit in the first place.

Make sure to keep that in mind at all times, and never let enemies get to you, in which case Ice Block is your best friend!