Frost Mage DPS Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities - The War Within (11.0.7) - World of Warcraft

Welcome to our Rotation page for Frost Mages. On this page, you will find everything you need to know about actually playing the spec in Raiding and Mythic+ scenarios.

Each of the sections below explain the Rotation for Frost Mage in different content types and describes the theory behind how these rotations. Click the boxes to switch to the desired damage type.

Frost Mage Rotation

Due to Hero Talents playing a major role, use the toggle below to display recommendations based on your choice. Both Hero Talents are extremely close tuning-wise, so pick which you like best thematically.

Hero Talents
Frostfire	Spellslinger

The buttons below can be used to select between curated loadouts from our Talents page.

The buttons below can be used to select between curated Single-Target and AoE/Mythic+ loadouts. AoE rotations start taking over at 3+ targets, assuming you have Ice Caller Icon Ice Caller. You can also use the switches below to add or remove individual talents you may also be using:

Talent Selections
Shifting Power	Death's Chill	Comet Storm
Ice Caller	Glacial Spike	Coldest Snap
Ray of Frost	Ice Nova

Frost Mage Explained

The Basics of Frost Mage

At its most basic, the premise of Frost Mage is to spam Frostbolt Icon Frostbolt until you gain a proc. Fingers of Frost Icon Fingers of Frost allows you to cast Ice Lance Icon Ice Lance and gain the benefits of the frozen state. Brain Freeze Icon Brain Freeze resets the cooldown of Flurry Icon 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 Icon 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 Icon 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 Icon Comet Storm should follow a Flurry Icon Flurry so that it lands as Winter's Chill is still on the target, allowing all comets to Shatter Icon Shatter. Likewise, Ray of Frost Icon Ray of Frost wants to be cast into the final charge of Winter's Chill to benefit the entire channel. Glacial Spike Icon Glacial Spike wants to Shatter as many casts as possible, either replacing the Frostbolt Icon Frostbolt that precedes the Flurry in the combo or one of the spells that would take the place of the following Ice Lance Icon Ice Lances.

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

2.1.

Proc Management

Use Fingers of Frost Icon Fingers of Frost and Brain Freeze Icon Brain Freeze as they come: Fingers of Frost, through straight Ice Lance Icon 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 Icon 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 Icon Glacial Spike, Flurry Icon 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 Lance Icon 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 Icon Comet Storm and Ray of Frost Icon Ray of Frost should both be held for Flurry Icon 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 Icon Ice Lance, Comet Storm, Frostbolt Icon 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 Icon 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 Icon 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.

2.2.

Maximizing Cleave

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 Icon 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!

Single-Target Opener for Frostfire Frost Mage in The War Within

Pre-cast Frostfire Bolt at 2 seconds on the countdown.
Cast Flurry to start the cooldown and to Shatter the prior Frostfire Bolt.
Frostfire Bolt should land, and the boss encounter should have begun at this point.
Activate Icy Veins and Time Warp if popping on pull.
Cast Comet Storm.
Cast Ray of Frost.
Cast Ice Lance.
Cast Ice Lance again.
Cast Frozen Orb.
Cast Shifting Power.
Cast Glacial Spike when you hit 5 Icicles.
Follow your normal priority, as indicated below.

Single-Target Rotation for Frostfire Frost Mage

Cast Icy Veins.
Use Spymaster's Web when the stacks are higher than 32 and Icy Veins is up, or the fight is about to end.
Cast Comet Storm if Flurry was just cast.
Cast Flurry when there is no Winter's Chill on the target and you have just cast something that will benefit from it.
Cast Glacial Spike.
Cast Ray of Frost if Winter's Chill is on the target, near the end of Icy Veins.
Cast Frozen Orb.
Cast Frozen Orb.
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.
Cast Ice Lance if you have Fingers of Frost, or there is Winter's Chill on the target.
Cast Frostfire Bolt.

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

Boltspam is the community name for a variant of Frost that forgoes casting Ice Lance Icon Ice Lance in most cases in favour of Frostfire Bolt Icon Frostfire Bolt; both for Death's Chill Icon Death's Chill purposes, and just because the relative power of Frostfire Bolt is too high when you take into consideration what it can proc, compared to Ice Lance being a mid-tier spender that procs nothing. This requires very specific talents to actually use, and most people find it difficult to play as it requires breaking out of the usual Frost mindset. The playstyle also only holds up in pure single target, as cleave enjoys Ice Lance casts.

It is listed here for completion's sake, and the fact that it is a few percent better than standard Frost. Do not consider it a requirement to learn how to play this unless you are min-maxing to an absurd degree.

It should also be acknowledged that this is not to be played in Mythic+ in any situation, as the talents required to AoE take away from the Boltslinger options. Please see the recommended standard single target build on the other tab for Mythic+ boss rotations.

Single-Target Opener for Frostfire Boltspam Variant Frost Mage in The War Within

Pre-cast Frostfire Bolt at 2 seconds on the countdown.
Cast Flurry to start the cooldown and to Shatter the prior Frostfire Bolt.
Frostfire Bolt should land, and the boss encounter should have begun at this point.
Activate Icy Veins and Time Warp if popping on pull.
Cast Comet Storm.
Cast Frostfire Bolt.
Follow your normal priority, as indicated below.

Single-Target Rotation for Frostfire Boltspam Variant Frost Mage

Cast Icy Veins.
Use Spymaster's Web when the stacks are higher than 32 and Icy Veins is up, or the fight is about to end.
Cast Comet Storm if Flurry was just cast.
Cast Flurry when there is no Winter's Chill on the target and you are under 5 Icicles.
Cast Ice Lance if you have Excess Fire and no Brain Freeze.
Cast Glacial Spike.
Cast Ray of Frost if Winter's Chill is on the target, near the end of Icy Veins.
Cast Frozen Orb when Icy Veins is down.
Cast Frozen Orb when Icy Veins is down.
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.
Cast Frostfire Bolt.

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

Frostfire AoE Opener for Frost Mage

Icy Veins.
Cast Blizzard
Cast Frostfire Bolt until you have 9 stacks of Death's Chill.
Cast Frozen Orb.
Cast Comet Storm.
Cast Cone of Cold.
Cast Comet Storm again.
Cast Frozen Orb again.
Cast Comet Storm again.
Cast Blizzard again.
Cast Shifting Power.
Follow your normal priority, as indicated below.

Frostfire AoE Rotation for Frost Mage

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 Icon Cone of Cold is coming off cooldown again.

Icy Veins.
Cast Cone of Cold directly after a Comet Storm.
Cast Frostbolt until you have 9 stacks of Death's Chill.
Cast Frozen Orb.
Cast Comet Storm if Cone of Cold has more than 6 seconds left on its cooldown, or Cone of Cold is ready to combo with.
Cast Flurry if available and Winter's Chill is not on the target, and you have either Excess Frost with cooldown left on Comet Storm or you have just cast Glacial Spike.
Cast Blizzard.
Cast Shifting Power.
Cast Frostfire Bolt if you have Frostfire Empowerment, and neither Excess buffs.
Cast Glacial Spike.
Cast Ice Lance if you have Fingers of Frost available or there is Winter's Chill on the target.
Cast Frostfire Bolt.

Single-Target Opener for Spellslinger Frost Mage in The War Within

Pre-cast Frostbolt at 2 seconds on the countdown.
Cast Flurry to start the cooldown and to Shatter the prior Frostbolt.
Frostbolt should land, and the boss encounter should have begun at this point.
Activate Icy Veins and Time Warp if popping on pull.
Cast Frozen Orb.
Follow your normal priority, as indicated below.

Single-Target Rotation for Spellslinger Frost Mage

Cast Icy Veins.
Use Spymaster's Web when the stacks are higher than 32 and Icy Veins is up, or the fight is about to end.
Cast Comet Storm if Flurry has just been cast, and Icy Veins is not active.
Cast Flurry if you have just cast Frostbolt and there is no Winter's Chill on the target.
Cast Flurry if you have just cast Frostbolt or Glacial Spike, and there is no Winter's Chill on the target.
Cast Frozen Orb if there is longer than 22 seconds remaining on Icy Veins' cooldown.
Cast Glacial Spike if you can Shatter it.
Cast Ray of Frost if 1 charge of Winter's Chill is on the target and Icy Veins is not active.
Cast Shifting Power if Icy Veins is on cooldown and Flurry has no more charges available. Try not to cast it in the last 10 seconds of Icy Veins, or if the cooldown reduction won't get you another Icy Veins use at the end of the fight.
Cast Ice Lance if you have Fingers of Frost or there are Winter's Chill on the target.
Cast Frostbolt.

Single-Target Opener for Spellslinger Boltspam Variant Frost Mage in The War Within

Boltspam is the community name for a variant of Frost that forgoes casting Ice Lance Icon Ice Lance in most cases in favour of Frostbolt Icon Frostbolt; both for Death's Chill Icon Death's Chill purposes, and just because the relative power of Frostbolt is too high when you take into consideration what it can proc, compared to Ice Lance being a mid-tier spender that procs nothing. This requires very specific talents to actually use, and most people find it difficult to play as it requires breaking out of the usual Frost mindset. This playstyle also only holds up in pure single target, as cleave enjoys Ice Lance casts.

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

Single-Target Rotation for Spellslinger Frost Mage

Cast Icy Veins.
Use Spymaster's Web when the stacks are higher than 32 and Icy Veins is up, or the fight is about to end.
Cast Comet Storm if Flurry has just been cast, and Icy Veins is not up.
Cast Flurry if you have just cast Frostbolt and there is no Winter's Chill on the target.
Cast Flurry if you have just cast Frostbolt or Glacial Spike, and there is no Winter's Chill on the target.
Cast Frozen Orb if there is longer than 22 seconds remaining on Icy Veins' cooldown.
Cast Glacial Spike if you can Shatter it.
Cast Ray of Frost if Winter's Chill is on the target and Icy Veins is not active.
Cast Shifting Power if Icy Veins is on cooldown and Flurry has no more charges available. Try not to cast it in the last 10 seconds of Icy Veins, or if the cooldown reduction won't get you another Icy Veins use at the end of the fight.
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.
Cast Ice Lance if there are 2 charges of Winter's Chill on the target.
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.
Cast Frostbolt.

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

Spellslinger AoE Opener for Frost Mage

Icy Veins.
Cast Frozen Orb.
Cast Blizzard.
Cast Frostbolt until you have 9 stacks of Death's Chill.
Cast Comet Storm.
Cast Cone of Cold.
Cast Comet Storm again.
Cast Frozen Orb again.
Cast Comet Storm again.
Cast Blizzard again.
Cast Shifting Power.
Follow your normal priority, as indicated below.

Spellslinger AoE Rotation for Frost Mage

Icy Veins.
Cast Cone of Cold directly after a Comet Storm.
Cast Flurry if available and Winter's Chill is not on the target and you have just cast Glacial Spike.
Cast Ice Nova at the end of your Cone of Cold combo, near the end of the Winter's Chill applied by it to consume them all and fire extra Splinters.
Cast Ice Nova, if the targets can be frozen, or you just cast Glacial Spike.
Cast Frozen Orb.
Cast Frostbolt until you have 9 stacks of Death's Chill.
Cast Comet Storm.
Cast Blizzard.
Cast Shifting Power if there is cooldown reduction to be had on Icy Veins.
Cast Glacial Spike if you can Shatter it with Flurry or Ice Nova.
Cast Ice Lance if you have Fingers of Frost available or there is Winter's Chill on the target.
Cast Flurry if there is no Winter's Chill on a target.
Cast Frostbolt.

2.3.

Addons for Frost Mage Rotation

Check out our Addons page below for some recommended Addons to get the most out of your Frost Mage!

Frost Mage Addons

2.4.

Macros for Frost Mage Rotation

Check out our Macros page below for some recommended Macros to get the most out of your Frost Mage!

Frost Mage Macros

2.5.

Mythic+ Tips and Tricks for Frost Mage

For information about Mythic+ as a Frost Mage, please refer to our Mythic+ page.

Frost Mage Mythic+ guide

Changelog

15 Dec. 2024: Updated to contain both standard Frost and Boltslinger variant rotations for both Hero Talent options.
27 Oct. 2024: Updated with new theory for 11.0.5.
21 Oct. 2024: Updated for 11.0.5.
07 Oct. 2024: Minor wording changes.
09 Sep. 2024: Updated for The War Within Season 1.
27 Aug. 2024: Removed GS from AoE rotation for a minor gain.
21 Aug. 2024: Updated for The War Within.
23 Jul. 2024: Updated for The War Within Pre-Patch.
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: Updated for Patch 10.2.5.
14 Jan. 2024: Glacial Spike is cast without Flurry regardless of Icy Veins status now.
12 Dec. 2023: Minor clarification on Ray of Frost/Frozen Orb.
12 Nov. 2023: Removed an outdated paragraph in section 3.2 and replaced it with a more in-depth dive on proc usage since the 10.1.5 changes.
06 Nov. 2023: Added information about T31's impact on our 2 target DPS.
04 Sep. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.1.7
11 Aug. 2023: Shifting Power should be used in Icy Veins, once RoF/CmS/FO are on cooldown.
01 Aug. 2023: Added missing rotational piece for casting Glacial Spike during Icy Veins without Flurry proc.
10 Jul. 2023: Updated for Patch 10.1.5's rotational changes. Potentially further changes as theorycraft evolves over the next couple of months.
01 May 2023: Added toggles for the AoE rotation set. Less Lance is down to 1.7% lead.
20 Mar. 2023: Added notes about the Less Ice Lance rotation set.
24 Jan. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.0.5.
11 Dec. 2022: Updated Blizzard target values with/without Ice Caller.
28 Nov. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight launch.
24 Oct. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight pre-patch.