Frost Mage DPS Mythic+ Tips — The War Within (11.0.5)
In this guide, you will find tips and advice to tackle Mythic+ dungeons with your Frost Mage in World of Warcraft — The War Within (11.0.5).
Frost Mage Mythic+ Guide for The War Within Season 1
In this guide, we will talk about getting the most out of your Hunter in Mythic+ dungeons, including the best way to set up your character, how your rotation may change, and tips and tricks for using your abilities optimally.
If you are unfamiliar with Mythic+ and its associated general mechanics, you can read more about it on our dedicated Mythic+ page below.
To learn more about the Mythic+ Meta, check out our Mythic+ Tier List below.
Frost Mage in The War Within Mythic+
Frost Mage specializes in priority and single-target damage, with heavy burst AoE windows.
Best Mythic+ Talents for Frost Mage in The War Within
For a more general overview of Talents for Frost Mage, please visit our dedicated Talents page.
Best Mythic+ Talent Builds for Frost Mage
Frostfire in Mythic+
While Frostfire is slightly behind on sustained AoE and heavily behind on single-target, many players will wish to use it due to the burst AoE profile it provides, the relative ease of playing it, or just aesthetics.
Frostfire brings a shortened cooldown on our "AoE stop" abilities, which, while lessened in impact this Season, are still very valuable. Additionally the defensive node is a steady 5% maximum Health increase to your Ice Barrier, which is always welcome.
Be sure to make use of the 'Export Talents' button to import the best build directly into your game!
Frostfire in Mythic+ without Death's Chill
This is a variant of Frostfire without Death's Chill, which is a minor DPS loss, but many will enjoy to avoid the ramping playstyle.
While Frostfire is slightly behind on sustained AoE and heavily behind on single-target, many players will wish to use it due to the burst AoE profile it provides, the relative ease of playing it, or just aesthetics.
Frostfire brings a shortened cooldown on our "AoE stop" abilities, which, while lessened in impact this Season, are still very valuable. Additionally the defensive node is a steady 5% maximum Health increase to your Ice Barrier, which is always welcome.
Be sure to make use of the 'Export Talents' button to import the best build directly into your game!
Spellslinger in Mythic+
This is the go-to for those who wish to bring the highest DPS to the table in Mythic+. While slightly more difficult to play than Frostfire, the difficulty pays off.
The primary reason to take Spellslinger is the damage involved, but there are very nice utility points in its favour as well. Turning Alter Time into a sprint when paired with a cancelaura macro is extremely welcome as Mage as a whole is one of the slower classes for long distance transit. Additionally, both defensive node choices are very powerful compared to most Hero Talent defensive nodes, although they take a bit more planning than most.
Be sure to make use of the 'Export Talents' button to import the best build directly into your game!
Flexible Talents
Frost's talents are extremely rigid, so there is not much to change on that side of the tree.
The class tree side is extremely flexible, with Winter's Protection, Tempest Barrier, Incantation of Swiftness, Arcane Warding, and Cryo-Freeze all being flex points. Pick whichever you like best. Arcane Warding is quite strong. Additionally, Ice Cold can be talented out of if damage is getting so high that the immunity is more valued, which has the potential to free up four points in the final third of the tree.
Special note for Reduplication: many trash mobs in Mythic+ tend to target random targets, and this point has the potential to be pretty good for overall Mirror Image uptime if you get particularly unlucky. This is a hotly debated talent node, and I would not suggest it for the average player. We do have enough spare points in the area to pick it up if you feel like it may be useful, though.
Spellslinger itself only really has Phantasmal Image and Reactive Barrier as a choice. On the one hand, Ice Barrier casts at low health will provide a larger shield, which is great for sustained damage Mages are usually weak to, but means that you get no benefit from pre-shielding or shielding for single hits. On the other, adding two extra Images and another 5% damage reduction is extremely powerful, especially with the extra cooldown reduction from Reduplication, but it requires you to actually use Mirror Image more often, which many are bad at. It might not be available when needed due to the significantly longer cooldown than Ice Barrier. Pick whichever you think will get more use, try both out in different dungeons, have fun!
Mythic+ Utility for Frost Mage in The War Within Season 1
This section talks mostly about the uses of different spells. For in-depth explanations of all Hunter Abilities and Talents, including these, check out our Spells page.
Utility of Frost Mage in The War Within
Interrupts, Stuns and Stops
Counterspell is your "kick" and your most important bit of utility in Mythic+, used to stop enemy casts for the benefit of the group and especially the tank. It is highly recommended to use a Focus Kick macro for this.
- #showtooltip Counterspell
- /cast [@focus, exists, harm,nomod] Counterspell; [nomod]Counterspell
- /focus [mod:ctrl][mod:shift/alt, @mouseover]
This macro will kick your focus target if you have one and your target if you do not. Additionally, this allows for assigning a focus target quickly by either holding Ctrl for your current target or Shift or Alt to assign to your current mouseover.
Make sure that your UI shows your Focus Target's casts clearly so that you are always able to kick it on cooldown or in coordination with the rest of your group.
Stunning and "Stops"
Dragon's Breath is our most reliable "AoE stop", which disorients all targets in a short-range cone. While the cooldown is rather long, the cooldown is reduced by Ice Lance via Time Manipulation.
We do have both Blast Wave and the option to trade Dragon's Breath for Supernova, but knocks tend to be less reliable in actually interrupting the current action than an actual hard crowd control like disorient. Time Manipulation also does not work on Blast Wave.
In an absolute last-ditch effort to stop something important, we can Polymorph a target if vulnerable to it. This should not be utilized unless it is an emergency, as it will heal the target, and it will start casting again directly after it breaks.
While not utilized in our usual sets, we do have technical access to Ring of Frost and Mass Polymorph.
Other Utility
Greater Invisibility can not only be used to drop aggro and as a damage reduction but also negate certain casts and channels on you. In some cases, these mechanics will simply re-target someone else in the group, but occasionally, the mechanic will be entirely negated with huge benefits.
Spellsteal can negate beneficial Magic effects from enemy targets and occasionally grant them to you instead, although most of the abusable steals have been nerfed to just let Spellsteal act as a dispel instead.
Remove Curse, of course, can allow us to remove curses.
Energized Barriers is a strange talent that allows us to completely negate any form of slow effect, which occasionally removes a dangerous mechanic entirely.
As Frost Mages, we also slow anything we touch, which can be either good or bad, depending on how much your tank needs to move mobs or kite things.
Dungeon Tips and Tricks for Frost Mage for The War Within Season 1
This section has Mage-specific tips and tricks that may not seem obvious for all dungeons' bosses and mobs.
Mythic+ Tips for Frost Mage in The War Within Season 1
Bosses
- Greater Invisibility can break Burrow Charge on Anub'zekt, although it can be buggy if it will work or not.
- Blink can be used to dodge Burrow Charge instead, after he has started moving towards you.
- Blink can get you out of Silken Restraints on Anub'zekt.
- Blink can break you out of the roots on Ki'katal should you activate them early and likewise keep you away from the boss during Dark Singularity.
Trash
- Energized Barriers works on Ambush from Starved Crawler.
- Energized Barriers works on Grasping Slash from Reinforced Drone.
- Blink can get you out of any stun or root, as per usual.
Bosses
- Blink breaks Izo's Umbral Weave root
Trash
- Energized Barriers can break Silk Binding from Sureki Silkbinders while it is being cast on you, and it will not re-target another player.
- Blink can get you out of any stun or root, as per usual.
Bosses
- There are not any Mage-specific boss tips in here.
Trash
- You can Spellsteal Abyssal Howl if it goes off.
- Most of the beam effects cannot be canceled by Greater Invisibility unless they are also able to be Counterspelled. Invising them might still be a good option for the damage reduction, however.
Bosses
- Drahga Shadowburner throws an excessive amount of curses, which you should Remove Curse as much as possible.
Trash
- Blink gets you out of Sear Mind, although ideally this should be kicked.
- There are multiple curses in this dungeon that should be removed as soon as possible with Remove Curse.
Bosses
- You can Greater Invisibility Heaving Retch on Blightbone, but it will target someone else. Try and only do this if you have no more defensives to take it.
- You can Greater Invisibility Morbid Fixation from Surgeon Stitchflesh.
- You can Blink Frozen Binds on Nalthor the Rimebender. You will root people, however. Make sure your area is clear, and try to go to the nearest wall.
- You can Greater Invisibility to send someone else down on Nalthor, but this is generally not a wise choice due to how fast we can handle the add downstairs.
Trash
- Spellsteal Dark Shroud off of Nar'zudah if you have melee in your group, otherwise you can leave it.
- You can Greater Invisibility almost all casts, but given how fast they come out it is unlikely to be worth doing.
- You however can Greater Invisibility the Morbid Fixations in the necropolis. This will cancel if the mob has started running towards you and will not recast for its cooldown.
Bosses
- You can Polymorph or Frost Nova the Illusory Vulpin on the second boss, if rooted as it starts moving it will generally last long enough for it to not go very far.
Trash
- There are a lot of potential Spellsteal spells on trash in this dungeon, all from failure to interrupt various things. If you see a magic effect on a mob, Spellsteal, it means your group has failed some interrupt.
- You can Blink and Greater Invisibility the stun or channel from the Tirnenn Villagers in the first part of the dungeon.
Bosses
- There are no Mage-specific tips for bosses in this dungeon found at this point.
Trash
- Spellsteal Watertight Shell off the Waveshapers if one goes off, or else your group will get stunned.
- You can also Spellsteal Bolstering Shout if one goes off, but this is a last resort.
- Remove Curse the tank when you see Cursed Slash, it is the only curse in the dungeon. It makes the tank take more damage while it is on them.
Note that it is early days and that this section will be far more fleshed out as the SeSeasonrogresses and cool tricks and tips are found.
Bosses
- If you fail the interrupt on Speaker Brokk, you can Energized Barriers out of the slow applied.
Trash
- There are so many curses on the trash in this dungeon. Remove Curse as much as you can.
Affix Tips, Tricks and Management for Frost Mage in The War Within Season 1
This section has Mage-specific tips for dealing with the various affixes of Mythic+. If you want general guides for each of our Dungeons or Mythic+ in general, check out our dedicated page below.
Affix Guide for Frost Mage in The War Within
Ascendant Affix Management for Frost Mage
Blast Wave and Dragon's Breath/ Supernova will make short work of this affix.
Oblivion Affix Management for Frost Mage
We do not have anything of particular use here, although Slippery Slinging can be used as a run speed buff as Spellslinger.
Devour Affix Management for Frost Mage
Remove Curse is a valid dispel for removing Void Rift.
Changelog
- 22 Oct. 2024: Added Season 1 dungeon tips with things we can deal with our utility casts.
- 09 Sep. 2024: Updated for The War Within Season 1.
- 07 May 2024: Reviewed for 10.2.7.
- 22 Apr. 2024: Reviewed for Season 4.
- 19 Mar. 2024: Reviewed for Patch 10.2.6.
- 15 Jan. 2024: Reviewed for Patch 10.2.5.
- 06 Nov. 2023: Updated for Patch 10.2.
- 04 Sep. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.1.7
- 15 Jul. 2023: Subzero nerfed enough to not be worth taking in most M+ setups.
- 10 Jul. 2023: Updated for Patch 10.1.5's rotational and talent changes.
- 01 May 2023: Updated for Dragonflight Season 2, and added a section about affixes we can trivialize.
- 20 Mar. 2023: Changed the default talent tree.
- 24 Jan. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.0.5.
- 22 Dec. 2022: Changed default build to Lonely Winter due to hotfix buffs.
- 11 Dec. 2022: Added a note about Lonely Winter/Water Elemental decision.
- 28 Nov. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight launch.
- 24 Oct. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight pre-patch.
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This guide has been written by Kuni, one of the best Frost Mages in the world, who raids in Mortal Desire.
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