Frost Mage DPS Spec, Builds, and Talents — The War Within (11.0.5)

This build is optimal for pure single and two-target situations.

Be sure to make use of the 'Export Talents' button to import the best build directly into your game!

Frostfire is slightly behind in single target, but you may enjoy it for aesthetic or gameplay reasons so it is included here.

Be sure to make use of the 'Export Talents' button to import the best build directly into your game!

This is our recommended build for either dungeons or delves. Spellslinger is slightly ahead in AoE situations as of current tuning.

Be sure to make use of the 'Export Talents' button to import the best build directly into your game!

This is our recommended build for either dungeons or delves if you prefer to play Frostfire.

Be sure to make use of the 'Export Talents' button to import the best build directly into your game!

This tab will go over some of the more important talents and certain talents that are notable to avoid at all costs. For a full list of descriptions, please see the Spell List page:

Right out of the gate, Overflowing Energy, Incanter's Flow, and Shifting Power are mandatory. They are simply DPS increases, something most of the tree is not.

You need 8 talents from this point. Given that Mirror Image and Alter Time are both great defensives; you will be going down both sides of the tree. If you take the center path down each side and simply take Spellsteal and Remove Curse, you will have opened up the second section of the talent tree.

Alternatively, you can path around both Spellsteal and Remove Curse if you wish. The second section has so many optional talents that if there are no curses or magic debuffs to steal, or dispels are handled by others in your groups, you have the spare points to pick up one of the two-pointer talents on each side of the tree to get to Mirror Image and Alter Time. There are enough points around to pick every talent in this section and very few in the next, and still have the mandatory build components by the end of the tree. This is an incredibly flexible tree; adjust it as you feel.

This section has a lot of leeway in what you can do and what you could potentially take. Of this section, you want Tome of Antonidas and Tome of Rhonin. These are the only true throughput talents in the section. To get them, the easiest and most common path is through Shimmer/ Ice Floes, as it links to both. You need to pick a utility point here. Quick Witted is always nice whenever interrupts are needed and more commonly useful than the other choices.

The rest of the points can honestly be assigned as you see fit. Incantation of Swiftness turns Greater Invisibility into an 80% sprint button. Master of Time gives a shorter cooldown to Alter Time. This is going to be heavily personal preference, so take whatever you think feels right. Defensives are never a bad thing either, so Arcane Warding is a fantastic option.

If you intend to get Ice Cold later in the tree, which you likely should consider grabbing Cryo-Freeze to turn it into a heal as well as a heavy damage reduction.

Energized Barriers can remove many effects that slow you down and is a strangely powerful talent because of it. Depending on the effect, it may just remove the slow component, or it may remove the debuff entirely, with seemingly no logic between which it will do. Potentially a mandatory talent in that it seems worth trying on every mechanic that can slow you.

Special note for Volatile Detonation. Blast Wave's default behavior will move a target to 8 yards away from you. For instance, if you were to hit them from 6 yards away, it moves them 2 yards further. Volatile Detonation changes that, and will blast any targets hit, at any range, 20 yards away from their initial location, assuming a flat ground. This is a significant knockback; beware.

Reduplication/ Reabsorption should likely be avoided by most players. They only trigger when you take direct damage and an image fades out, and not when they die. Given that, almost all mechanics are coded as non-direct damage and do not trigger this specific mechanic; this is a very niche node. It does have its uses in Mythic+, where Reduplication at least gets some value from random targetted trash mechanics. Likewise, both Rigid Ice and Improved Frost Nova are fairly useless, as most group PVE either has mobs immune to their root effects or you are using them for their ability to Shatter, neither of which warrant taking them.

Dragon's Breath and Supernova are both great AoE stops, although Dragon's Breath is more reliable, as knock-up effects have been known to not actually stop a cast occasionally.

The optimal play is getting all three capstones. Getting to them is up to you. The standard play is to take both the left and right sides for utility, and then Time Manipulation to give you access to the center capstone talent.

Time Manipulation has the special distinction of being a potential AoE DPS increase through lowering the cooldown of Ice Nova and Frost Nova for Shatter purposes.

Accumulative Shielding is particularly bad. If you have cast Ice Barrier, and it did not get consumed; why did you waste the GCD? This, at best, will drop Ice Barrier from a 25-second cooldown to 20.

Mandatory talents everywhere! Take everything except for Frostbite. These are your primary spells and procs and the only access points through to the rest of the three tree branches, which all have things you want.

The exception to this is Everlasting Frost, being neither a proc, primary spell, or unique branch access. It is simply a deceptively strong talent in AoE. The extra 2 seconds is a 20% damage increase to Frozen Orb by itself, and adding 30% to the entire thing on top of it. The extra 4 ticks also are 4 extra chances to proc Fingers of Frost. This is an important talent, and you should not skip it.

Winter's Blessing is straight up a huge bonus to Haste. This 8% gain is multiplicative against other effects, so Time Warp with this talent provides 40.4% Haste rather than 38%. This is true of all Haste benefits.

You want Icy Veins, so this leads you down one of two sides. Ice Caller is an AoE talent, but Permafrost Lances is just a good talent in all situations.

Beyond that, Perpetual Winter is a surprising DPS increase by allowing you a second charge of Flurry and reducing the proc munching involved significantly. Bone Chilling is simply a 5% DPS gain for one point, an easy pick. For this guide, we are aiming at Hailstones, so grabbing both Flash Freeze and Splintering Cold will drastically increase Mastery's value.

Ice Caller is a mandatory talent in multi-target and is your go-to build for any fight that has an extra add.

Comet Storm, especially when paired with Glacial Assault that is linked to it is an extremely strong ability for all target counts. Given the easy position on the tree, it is an easy pick for all builds.

Thermal Void and Hailstones are mandatory.

Ray of Frost is a heavy single-target burst talent when used with Cryopathy. Most raid fights will take Ray of Frost and Cryopathy.

Splintering Ray is a strange talent. It only maintains its value by throwing Ray of Frost into a 6-target situation.

Freezing Winds is a great mobility boost and generally a good talent in all content. Extra procs are always welcome, especially when tied to such a hard-hitting spell.

The trio of talents on the left side of the tree, Fractured Frost, Death's Chill, and Cold Front have the dubious distinction of rewarding you for spamming Frostbolt at the start of your Icy Veins. In single target, these are ignored and just played as if you do not have them, but on AoE, you have to spam 5 Frostbolts before going into your actual Coldest Snap combo.

Coldest Snap is your heavy AoE burst talent and should be taken any time there are going to be 3 or more targets in close proximity for most of the encounter.