Mage Hero Talents — The War Within (11.1.0)

This page is specifically about Hero Talents in The War Within. If you want to learn more about the best regular talents for Frost Mage, check out our Talents page:

Frostfire is ahead in raid. The practical difference is about 3% on average, and Spellslinger can get lucky with procs pushing it higher if you wish to gamble.

Much like raid, Frostfire is ahead by about 8% on AoE.

Defensively, it is a solid pick, with the only defensive talent being a flat boost to our Ice Barrier with no caveats. Likewise, from a utility standpoint, a cooldown reduction on Blast Wave and Dragon's Breath is a very welcome addition, even with the reduction in the importance of non-interrupt-based stops.

Spellslinger is again, a bit of a gamble. You can get lucky Spellfrost Teachings procs, and do significantly higher than expected, but you are giving away reliability to do it. There is no real point to speccing it with how far behind it is in Mythic+.

Defensively, Spellslinger has the potential to be stronger, but both options are tied to either Mirror Image or learning how to game your health to maximize the value of Reactive Barrier. The utility node is simply a sprint attached to Alter Time for its duration, which is a strong option, or a Displacement improvement, which is a class talent that we cannot really take due to position.

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Best Hero Talent Builds for Frost Mage

Frostfire Pure Single-Target Build Frostfire Mythic+ Build Spellslinger Universal Build

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Best Frostfire Pure Single-Target Build for Frost Mage

Frostfire has for the most part, one option in throughput. Thermal Conditioning is the better sustained throughput option. The other two choice nodes are defensive and utility, so pick which you like best.

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Best Frostfire Mythic+ Build for Frost Mage

Frostfire for Mythic+ simply takes Severe Temperatures to maximize Frostfire Empowerment damage.

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Best Spellslinger Build for Frost Mage

Spellslinger has no real options in any set. Unerring Proficiency loses out in every situation to Volatile Magic.

Reactive Barrier and Phantasmal Image is a personal choice. Phantasmal is easier to get value out of as long as you are casting Mirror Image, where Reactive Barrier requires you actually watch your health and optimize Ice Barrier casting.

Slippery Slinging is taken because you do not have the points to take Displacement unless you sacrifice a lot of defensive utility.

Signature Spell is a massive gain over Shifting Shards and allows for Glacial Spike to provide benefits to this Hero Talent.

Frostfire has no real interaction with your rotation. It simply plays as if it had no Hero Talents other than the occasional instant Frostfire Bolt replacing your usual filler Frostfire Bolt.

Despite the Excess Frost and Excess Fire buffs lighting up your Flurry and Ice Lance keys, you should not fire these without their associated procs available. Or, in Flurry's case, it is lit up while you have no charge available. If this annoys you, consider addons to turn off the glow effects outside of the usual proc circumstances.

There is no need to add any Fire element spells to the rotation, such as Fire Blast, as Frostfire Infusion has a hasted 30 RPPM proc rate. This means that it will, on average, proc every just under 2 seconds. You will cap out your buffs as long as you are casting any spells at all.

The important component of this spec are Frozen Orb is now a proc reset, via Spellfrost Teachings.

Otherwise, the spec is primarily passive bonuses to what you already are trying to do.