Frost Mage Torghast Tips and Tricks - Shadowlands 9.2.5

By Preheat Updated: 2022/11/28

Torghast, Tower of the DamnedShadowlandsSoul AshSoul CindersLegendary ArmorAltered Time

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Frost Mage Strengths and Weaknesses in TorghastShatterSubjugator's ManaclesBottled EnigmaNavigating the Twisting Corridors as a Frost MageSoloing Torghast as a Frost MageIce LanceFrostboltBlizzardPandemonium LensTundrid PhialGrisly IcicleWhizzard HatPolymorphFrost NovaPolymorphPolymorphFingers of FrostFrostboltRunecloth WrappingsRune of PowerGroup DelvingTimebreaker's ParadoxScroll of ExplosureArcane ExplosionFire JugglerCounterspelldon't forget about Mawrat powersDimensional BladeBloating FodderSecret SpicesGravity DynamoBest Talents for Torghast as a Frost MageBone ChillingLonely WinterFreezeIce WardGrisly IcicleFreezing RainBlizzard

Archmage's Cypher grants you Bone Chilling

Archmage's Gift grants you Glacial Insulation

Archmage's Lesson grants you Incanter's Flow

Archmage's Invocation grants you Frozen Touch

Archmage's Legacy grants you Frigid Winds

Archmage's Mythos grants you Freezing Rain

Archmage's Ultimatum grants you Thermal Void

Archmage's UltimatumRay of FrostGlacial SpikeCovenant-Specific Information for Frost Mages in TorghastKyrianRadiant Spark

Anima-Flecked Topaz lowers Radiant Spark's cooldown by 5 seconds.

Long-Forbidden Words turns Radiant Spark into an instant-cast and makes it interrupt spell casting.

Scroll of the Arcane Meditator Increases the initial damage of Radiant Spark 100%.

Urael's Finality is the big boy of Kyrian powers, increasing the damage buff of the final stack by an additional 600%.

Winged Curio extends the duration of Radiant Spark by 4 seconds.

Wizard's Prayer is a group buff, returning 800% of the damage dealt by Radiant Spark as healing to the party.

Long-Forbidden WordsRadiant SparkSummon StewardBottomless ChalicePhial of PainPhial of LightVenthyrMirrors of TormentLingering TormentsMalevolenceMirrors of TormentMaliced RuminationOpen DoorsMask of WitheringNecrolordOne With DeathDeathborneIcy VeinsIcy PropulsionChilling TouchFleshcraftVolatile FleshMalevolent StitchingSecret SpicesGravity DynamoMusophobic FemurNight FaeShifting PowerFae ConcentrationFae TendrilsBlizzardSoulshapeCrystallized DreamsSmuggled WildseedBest Anima Power Builds for Frost MagesSpeed to VictoryBlizzardFrozen Orb

Whizzard Hat - A 15-second Haste buff for killing a creature with Blizzard. It's hard to ensure Blizzard will be the last hit, so this isn't quite as strong as it appears on paper; but can still be a great ability.

Timebreaker's Paradox - a controversial power, but a really fun one if you can get it. Stack this to have Time Warp last for minutes at a time. Combine it with...

Echoes of Elisande - speeds up everything you do while affected by Time Warp, including cooldown recovery rate and movement speed. Blizzard will tick faster and you'll be able to throw out more Frozen Orbs.

Wand Grease - another cast-speed buff, but one that only affects Frostbolt. If you've already taken all of the other powers, you may as well grab this one too so you have some single-target power. However, remember that if Frostbolt goes under a one second cast it'll hit the global cooldown cap (unless you have Echoes of Elisande), so there's a clear cap to this power's strength when using it with lots of Haste buffs.

Art of the Elements

Spellweaver's Mojo - causes your spells to deal 30% additional damage to targets you have hit with a spell from a different school. Arcane Explosion is a great way to activate this, or Fire Blast on a single target.

Manascale - this power can make Fire Blast part of your regular damage rotation. Combine with Fire Juggler for extra fun.

Blinkmage

Art of the Blinkmage - a rare power. If you don't find it, Dimensional Blade (especially combined with Gravity Dynamo) makes a decent budget replacement.

Clouded Diamond - Blink and Shimmer leave behind a Mirror Image. Harmless by itself...until...

Highly-Polished Handmirror - the cornerstone of the build. Your Mirror Images will gain access to all of your spec mechanics and even some talents, including Shatter, Ebonbolt and Comet Storm.

BlinkBlinkBlinkBlinkBlinkLearn More about Torghast and Twisting Corridors

Tags: PvE

Comments

Comment by Tristful

Great guide. Been doing this as frost since launch. Would like to add that all basic abilities that increase intellect are a must-have, and sometimes make more complex "builds" unnecessary because you can brute force it. For instance Mad Wizard's Intellect (5% int per floor) + the ashen phylactery int buff + taking as many soul remnant buffs as possible is enough to significantly push a frost mage into demolition territory without the need for more complex synergistic anima powers.

Should also note that around 13+ (so the third full wing of Twisting Corridors) is very physically damaging, so it becomes more necessary to poly and pull small if you haven't gotten lucky with anima powers. Elites from this point on can two (or even one) shot a frost mage without stamina choices, so either play it safe, or choose some fortification before you get there.

Comment by Zalbo

Huh, powers I've not seen mentioned here! Interesting.

Some possible things to mention:
Keeping something Polymorphed but in combat with you means you will not have the torments of the tower that spawn adds when out of combat happen.
Remote sheep detonator is pretty strong, if you can group mobs up (pet freeze helps). Mostly for solo play, although I guess things might get interesting at very high levels of twisting corridors.
Missed the timeweavers needle & bottled tesseract combo, both stack and allow you to have very short cooldowns, potentially allowing another set in a boss fight (as well as spamming the short c/d ones). You can spam slowfall if everythings dead and you want to get your cooldowns back quicker too.

Comment by Kewlzilbot

Feeling adventurous and hopeful that it would make me invincible, I tried out the blinkmage build in Twisting Corridors. Unfortunately, this build was completely not viable for final boss of the level 1 run. The boss appears to ignore the images left behind with blink. So, with these powers at floor 18 (at ilvl 205) I only did about 30k damage.

Though hilarious (and a bit disorienting), Blinkmage is unfortunately not a build recommended for TC if you actually want to win it.

Comment by Kewlzilbot

Hi there, I appreciate the guide and research, but I do feel some critical Frost Mage solo combos are unfortunately left out of this guide for running Twisting Corridors. I've listed my most common combos below to help anyone that might be struggling.

Survivability

Take Triune Ward when you see it
2-4 stacks of Resolute Medallion
Pick Obleron Endurance options when it doesn't sacrifice something better, like a clear dps booster (your barrier is directly based upon your health, so this meshes with the two listed above)
Grab Secret Spices, if you aren't sacrificing something better

Example: I got ~3 Resolute Medallion, Triune Ward, and 4-5 Obleron Endurance buffs. I had 70k health and a 150k barrier (available every 30 seconds). At a minimum, I get the barriers/triune combo nearly every run.

Cooldowns

A combo of Timeweaver's Needle + Bottled Tesseract(x4-6) can drastically reduce cooldowns, especially if you grab Wand Grease(x3-4) to hit the GCD and still do damage. Remember to pop Alter Time frequently and let it run the full duration. Example: on a fresh pull, at the end of a 35 second Alter Time, my 3 min CD's had less than 1 min remaining.
A stack or two of Echoes of Elisande to further help you churn out more casts in a single Alter Time; I don't recommend more than 2, and 1 is likely sufficient

General Damage Helping Powers

Strong damage or stat increase powers from rare creatures
Other drops of flat main & secondary stat increase buffs - a rare (multi) stack of a stat would be higher priority than a common (single) stack
A stack or two (total) of Echoes of Elisande for the damage increase
Mad Wizard's Scrawlings may be worth it on an early floor, but loses effectiveness the later you get it
Timebreaker's Paradox is recommended only if offered in the last few floors to use on the final boss
If you're lucky to get Highly-Polished Handmirror + a lot of stacks of Sapphire Prism it's decently strong and keeps the boss off you. (Note: blink-image abilities are not recommended as they consume GCD with little damage output)

If you can manage to combine most the sets above, it will give you a lot of survivability & power. This also should be reasonably doable in an 18 floor solo run. I had most of these and did 184k on 18th floor boss of level 1 TC.

One last tip - whatever you decide to do, try to pick something common to stack. This way you have a higher likelihood of being able to get a lot of them and then get your epic/rare powers to boost them up. Picking one of everything you come across will not get you ramped up as needed to get through TC solo.

Comment by tale

Highly-Polished Handmirror plus multiple stacks of Sapphire Prism is my favorite set of powers to get in Torghast. Totally slammin'. I'm not sure why the crazy goodness of Sapphire Prism isn't even mentioned in the guide. Though I wonder if that has something to do with it being out of date, since there are several powers mentioned in it that I have never seen in dozens of Torghast runs.

Frost Mage Torghast Tips and Tricks - Shadowlands 9.2.5

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