Frost Mage DPS Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities — The War Within (11.0.5)

At its most basic, the premise of Frost Mage is to spam Frostbolt until you gain a proc. Fingers of Frost allows you to cast Ice Lance and gain the benefits of the frozen state. Brain Freeze resets the cooldown of Flurry and Flurry wants you to use a cast time spell, like Frostbolt, going into the Flurry, and then follow up with 2 Ice Lances to consume the 2 remaining Winter's Chill charges.

This Frostbolt > Flurry > Ice Lance > Ice Lance combo is the heart of the spec, and if you have that committed to memory, then the rest is simple. Anything beyond it is simply cooldown and movement management. The priority lists below will showcase where exactly they are to be used optimally, but as long as they are being used at all, your damage should not suffer too severely.

Adding talents to the mix, you gain a few cooldowns and the requirement to keep track of your Mastery: Icicles. All of the spells added by talents still want to take advantage of the idea of the combo above but are used slightly differently each. Comet Storm should follow a Flurry so that it lands as Winter's Chill is still on the target, allowing all comets to Shatter. Likewise, Ray of Frost wants to be cast into the final charge of Winter's Chill to benefit the entire channel. Glacial Spike wants to Shatter as many casts as possible, either replacing the Frostbolt that precedes the Flurry in the combo or one of the spells that would take the place of the following Ice Lances.

On single target, Shifting Power should simply be used whenever all of your talented cooldowns are on cooldown, and you have no procs to go.

Use Fingers of Frost and Brain Freeze as they come: Fingers of Frost, through straight Ice Lance casts, and Brain Freeze, through the primary Frostbolt > Flurry > Ice Lance > Ice Lance combo. Now, there are situations in which you have mentally committed yourself to going into your Frostbolt > Flurry > Ice Lance > Ice Lance, but you proc Fingers of Frost on that Frostbolt. That is unfortunate, but the Flurry is worth more overall. There is a small upside in most builds, though. Wintertide increases the damage of the Ice Lance cast into a "double frozen" scenario like this by 20%. While it is not optimal, it lessens the impact.

For further information on how and why the Frostbolt > Flurry > Ice Lance > Ice Lance combo works, see this section on the FAQ page.

When talented into Glacial Spike, Flurry timing becomes a bit of a game to see if you can land Glacial Spike somewhere within the combo. If, for instance, you finished casting some Ice Lances and are at 4 Icicles, you should instead just Flurry into Glacial Spike, skipping the initial spell in the combo.

Additionally, Comet Storm and Ray of Frost should both be held for Flurry. In the case of Comet Storm, you want to make sure you have enough time for the comets to finish falling within the Winter's Chill window. You could space this out by Flurry, Ice Lance, Comet Storm, Frostbolt, then Ice Lance. The Frostbolt should give you the extra time that you otherwise would not have, and the second Ice Lance will impact before Frostbolt unless you are extremely close to the target.

Ray of Frost, on the other hand, wants to be cast into the second charge of Winter's Chill at most relevant gear levels so as to not waste there being two charges on the target.

Some timing notes:

• 27% Haste lets you Flurry into Comet Storm or Ice Lance into Ray of Frost
• 48% Haste lets you Flurry into Glacial Spike into Ray of Frost
• 52% Haste lets you Flurry into Ice Lance into Comet Storm into Ray of Frost
• 173% Haste lets you Flurry into Comet Storm into Glacial Spike into Ray of Frost

These values are slightly off due to the nature of the travel time of Flurry against debuff duration, so this is an absolute worst-case scenario for each. In practice, the values should be slightly lower, so consider these points so that you will absolutely make the timer.

Obviously, the last one is a bit of an absurdity, but some common mechanics grant a Haste buff you could stack with your own buffs.

Ultimately, Frost Mage is primarily about abusing your casts in a way that is suitable to the situation. There are an enormous amount of possibilities, synergies, and overlaps that will provide an advantageous result. It is important, therefore, that you, as a player, think carefully about how you can use your spells in a way that makes sense. Try to avoid using your major abilities haphazardly or without thinking, as this will invariably result in you losing a lot of damage. When your Frozen Orb is about to come off cooldown, for example, start thinking about the ways you are going to cleave with it or if the boss is going to be moved. Check your boss's timers to see how you can line it up for a phase with increased damage dealt or AoE. A lot of this might seem like common sense, but you would be surprised how uncommon that is!

1. Pre-cast Frostfire Bolt at 2 seconds on the countdown.
2. Cast Flurry to start the cooldown and to Shatter the prior Frostfire Bolt.
3. Frostfire Bolt should land, and the boss encounter should have begun at this point.
4. Activate Icy Veins and Time Warp if popping on pull.
5. Cast Comet Storm.
6. Cast Frozen Orb.
7. Cast Frostfire Bolt
8. Cast Glacial Spike when you hit 5 Icicles.
9. Cast Flurry.
10. Follow your normal priority, as indicated below.

1. Cast Icy Veins.
2. Use Spymaster's Web when the stacks are higher than 35 and Icy Veins is up, or the fight is about to end.
3. Cast Comet Storm if Flurry was just cast.
4. Cast Glacial Spike if Winter's Chill is on the target or will be if you are following Glacial Spike with Flurry.
5. Cast Flurry when there is no Winter's Chill on the target and you have just cast something that will benefit from it, or you have Excess Frost up even without a precast.
6. Cast Ray of Frost if Winter's Chill is on the target, near the end of Icy Veins.
7. Cast Frozen Orb.
8. Cast Frozen Orb.
9. Shifting Power when Ray of Frost, Comet Storm, and Frozen Orb are on cooldown for at least 10 seconds longer, and Icy Veins is down.
10. Cast Ice Lance whenever there are two charges of Winter's Chill and you have Excess Fire.
11. Cast Ice Lance if you have Fingers of Frost, Excess Fire, and there is no Winter's Chill on the target.
12. Cast Frostfire Bolt.

This boils down to Shatter your big cooldowns like Ray of Frost and Comet Storm, and play around your Mastery: Icicles and Flurry to land Glacial Spike inside Winter's Chill. This means that you can have situations where you are at 3 Icicles, throwing Flurry > Ice Lance > Glacial Spike. Likewise Glacial Spike > Flurry > Ice Lance > Frostfire Bolt is valid, as is Frostfire Bolt > Flurry > Glacial Spike > Frostfire Bolt. Just do what you can to hit 5 Icicles, and fire Glacial Spike into Winter's Chill.

Additionally, you will notice that we are not attempting to Ice Lance freely. The current optimal way to play is a minimal Ice Lance style of gameplay, trying instead to optimize for Brain Freeze generation. Frostfire Bolt is extremely strong for a filler spell, so it takes priority unless you have Excess Fire up.

1. Pre-cast Frostbolt at 2 seconds on the countdown.
2. Cast Flurry to start the cooldown and to Shatter the prior Frostbolt.
3. Frostbolt should land, and the boss encounter should have begun at this point.
4. Activate Icy Veins and Time Warp if popping on pull.
5. Cast Frozen Orb.
6. Start stacking Death's Chill with Frostbolt on your way to 5 Icicles.
7. Follow your normal priority, as indicated below.

1. Cast Icy Veins.
2. Use Spymaster's Web when the stacks are higher than 35 and Icy Veins is up, or the fight is about to end.
3. Cast Comet Storm if Flurry has just been cast, and Icy Veins is not up.
4. Cast Flurry if you have just cast Frostbolt and there is no Winter's Chill on the target.
5. Cast Flurry if you have just cast Frostbolt or Glacial Spike, and there is no Winter's Chill on the target.
6. Cast Frozen Orb.
7. Cast Shifting Power if Icy Veins is on cooldown and Flurry has no more charges available.
8. Cast Glacial Spike if you can Shatter it.
9. Cast Ray of Frost if Winter's Chill is on the target and Icy Veins is not active.
10. Cast Frostbolt if you are under 8 stacks of Death's Chill and Icy Veins is active. Note that this only applies to manual Icy Veins casts, and not Time Anomaly procs.
11. Cast Ice Lance if there are 2 charges of Winter's Chill on the target.
12. Cast Ice Lance if there is 1 charge of Winter's Chill on the target, and you have another Flurry charge available.
    1. We want to re-apply Winter's Chill as fast as possible.
    2. Yes, this means that Fingers of Frost is completely ignored in single target.
13. Cast Frostbolt.

This works out to you want to have a lot of uptime on Winter's Chill so passive damage gains Shatter. The reason you Frostbolt the second charges of Winter's Chill is so that there is a delay in consuming it, benefiting prior Splinters and Frozen Orb ticks. Additionally, Ice Lance does not generate Brain Freeze so we favour generation in the latter charge consumptions.

1. Icy Veins
2. Cast Frozen Orb
3. Cast Blizzard
4. Cast Frostbolt until you have 9 stacks of Death's Chill.
5. Cast Comet Storm.
6. Cast Cone of Cold.
7. Cast Comet Storm again.
8. Cast Frozen Orb again.
9. Cast Comet Storm again.
10. Cast Blizzard again.
11. Cast Shifting Power.
12. Follow your normal priority, as indicated below.

This priority list describes the optimal AoE rotation for Frost Mage. If it looks similar to the above section, that is because most of your AoE damage is tied up in cooldowns, and you simply drop to single target between them. If you have the burst order down right, you can simply hit things as they light up, right up until Cone of Cold is coming off cooldown again.

For the most part, both Frostfire and Spellslinger play their AoE mostly the same, with one minor difference in which spell follows Cone of Cold first.

1. Icy Veins
2. Cast Cone of Cold directly after a Comet Storm.
3. Cast Frozen Orb
4. Cast Blizzard
5. Cast Frostbolt until you have 9 stacks of Death's Chill.
6. Cast Comet Storm.
7. Cast Comet Storm if Cone of Cold has more than 10 seconds left on its cooldown. Cone of Cold has more than 20 seconds left on its cooldown.
8. Cast Glacial Spike if you can Shatter it with Flurry.
9. Cast Ice Nova, if the targets can be frozen, or you just cast Glacial Spike.
10. Cast Shifting Power.
11. Cast Frostfire Bolt if you have Frostfire Empowerment and neither Excess buff.
12. Cast Ice Lance if you have Fingers of Frost available or there is Winter's Chill on the target.
13. Cast Flurry if available and Winter's Chill is not on the target.
14. Cast Ice Nova as a filler spell, if available.
15. Cast Frostbolt.Cast Frostfire Bolt.