Frost Mage Tips & Tricks

By Malon Updated: 2018/06/22

Twitter Altered-TimeGeneral tips

World latency and spell travel times mean that it's possible for a spell (usually Frostbolt or Glacial Spike) cast before Brain Freeze-Flurry to get the benefit of Winter's Chill; simply cast the spell and immediately follow it with a Flurry. This is a simple method to dramatically improve your damage, especially if playing with Spike.

Using the above method, start to save your Brain Freeze procs at four Icicles, if playing with Spike. If you don't have a proc at five Icicles, however, do not fish for Brain Freeze; just fire your Spike.

With the Tier 20 two-piece, it is safe to delay Glacial Spike by up to 10 seconds, to cast it while the Frozen Mass buff is active.

When using the Tier 20 two-piece, Frozen Orb should be used as soon as it comes off cooldown - do not save it.

In patch 7.2.5, it is still possible to double Ice Lance using Shimmer, although the payoff isn't as high as it was in patch 7.2 - only do this if you really need extra DPS. To start, you will need a haste buff like Icy Veins active. When you get a Brain Freeze proc, cast your Frostbolt > Brain Freeze-Flurry > Ice Lance as normal. As soon as the Ice Lance has left your hands, Shimmer towards the target and Ice Lance again.

Using Ice Nova is not recommended. However, if you do you can still fit both an Ice Lance and an Ice Nova (no travel time) into a single Winter's Chill (from Brain Freeze) debuff.

After casting Frozen Orb, you will likely get many Fingers of Frost procs. In an AoE situation, you will also want to make use of the instant Blizzards gained from the Freezing Rain trait. As long as you won't cap your Fingers of Frost charges, prioritise casting Blizzard.

Antorus, the Burning ThroneTalents:General Tips:

Completely single-target encounter with occasional periods of high movement, especially in Mythic.

Shimmer is extremely useful for getting out of the group with Decimation and returning to DPS quickly.

Mythic Tips:

When starting to progress in Mythic, two-minute cooldowns (Icy Veins tends to fall around this point) will come up at about the time that the Worldbreaker enters its first transition - save cooldowns until after the boss can be attacked again.

Use Ice Block to soak Annihilation after the Annihilator has been destroyed. You won't be thrown around and can soak the same one with a single Block.

Noteworthy Legendaries:

Prydaz, Xavaric's Magnum Opus will help you to survive the Eradication if you don’t trust your healers (but you really should).

Talents:General Tips:

Prioritise single-target talents (Frozen Touch and Unstable Magic), unless you completely overgear the fight and can tank the bosses together.

Mythic Tips:

Ice Floes can be used instead of Shimmer, especially if you get Flametouched, due to the high amount of micro-movement required with that debuff.

Save Ice Block for when particularly dangerous abilities overlap, like Siphon Corruption and Molten Touch.

Talents:General Tips:

Download a nameplate addon and adjust the Felblade Shocktroopers so that they're less visible - they're much lower priority than other adds.

Mythic Tips:

Ice Floes/Shimmer is personal choice, but Floes has several advantages on Mythic, where it means that Blink can be used to get out of stuns from the Shock Grenade.

Ice Block clears the Shock Grenade without making it explode - useful if you can't get to a safe area.

Talents:General Tips:

Be very careful not to leave platforms into a Collapsing World.

AoE is key, but some single adds (Feltouched Skitterer and Hungering Stalker) are even more important; prioritise nuking these down.

Shimmer is a great way of travelling between platforms with the orbs.

Noteworthy Legendaries:

Zann'esu Journey can be useful if you are struggling with AoE DPS.

Talents:General Tips:

Timing is everything - learn when and where adds spawn and be ready for them

Fire or - especially - Arcane will tend to perform better than Frost on this fight, which has high mobile and burst AoE requirements.

Mythic Tips:

It is best for Mages to interact with the red crystal after killing the Paraxis Inquisitor, as we can spread out from the rest of the raid and have several ways to mitigate the fall damage from Feedback - Burning Embers. These include Shimmer/Blink, Slow Fall and as a last resort, Ice Block.

Noteworthy Legendaries:

Sephuz's Secret is much better than Shard of the Exodar on this fight, as all small adds (excluding bats) can be rooted with Frost Nova; there are several spells that can be interrupted; and there are few opportunities to use Time Warp.

Talents:General Tips:

Spread out to avoid chaining Sleep Canister to party members.

Shimmer will get you across the bridge quickly and avoids Blastwire traps (unlike Fel Rush and similar movement abilities).

Mythic Tips:

The platforms and bridge will get very cluttered with traps and mines. Stand with your raid, and use Shimmer/Blink to move across the bridge.

Use Ice Block if you get grazed by an orb while crossing the bridge - or if your raid lacks cooldowns like Spirit Link Totem while crossing the bridge and popping tripwires.

Noteworthy Legendaries:

As with all long fights, it’s possible to get three uses of Time Warp when using Shard of the Exodar. Cast Time Warp for your raid first; get another player to cast a similar haste buff for your second set of cooldowns; and use your own Time Warp again once it comes off of cooldown.

Talents:General Tips:

Mostly single-target encounter with moderate-to-heavy movement.

Use Shimmer to dodge Ruiner (it is safe to teleport directly through) and quickly move between Fel Reaver platforms.

Splitting Ice is useful to cleave from Fel Reavers onto Kin’garoth.

Don’t blow big cooldowns like Icy Veins at the start - save them to blow up the Fel Reavers. 2-minute cooldowns line up near-perfectly with the Apocalypse Protocol casts (Icy Veins is close to this with sufficient crits).

Mythic Tips:

Don’t get scared if Ruiner crosses an Annihilation zone that you are soaking after Kin’garoth gains Ruination - use Ice Block.

Turn timers back on for Reverberating Strike and spread out to avoid Reverberating Decimation.

The fight has a LOT of movement - but Shimmer is still superior to Ice Floes.

Talents:General Tips:

Shimmer/Blink out and run/Shimmer back to minimise time outside the raid group (and so damage from Alone in the Darkness) when targeted with Necrotic Embrace.

Ice Block will not remove Necrotic Embrace, though it will mitigate the damage. Don’t Block in the middle of your raid!

Be careful if using Shimmer/Blink to reposition from Dark Fissure, as it’s easy to get too far from the raid and trigger Alone in the Darkness.

Mythic Tips:

Save procs like Fingers of Frost and Brain Freeze to kill adds, as we are one of the best classes at it. Other players can handle boss DPS.

Noteworthy Legendaries:

Not a legendary, but a high item level Vitality Resonator can be very strong in this fight.

Talents:General Tips:

Freeze or slow the Torment of Norgannon adds from Spectral Army of Norgannon. Although Druids are best for long-term CC, Frost Nova and Blizzard can fill in in a pinch.

If tanked at the minimum safe distance apart (18y) and with correct positioning (facing both bosses), you can cleave with Splitting Ice. I’ve found this to be unreliable, however.

Don’t Blink without looking when Storm of Darkness lines up with Fury of Golganneth; it’s easy to one-shot your raidmates (not that I’m encouraging it, but if they’re Warlocks...well, there’s only room for one caster in that safe zone).

Mythic Tips:

Even more than Heroic mode, be aware of the position of yourself and fellow raiders to minimise the damage of Cosmic Glare.

Talents:General Tips:

Despite the number of adds, this is a single-target encounter. They are either tanked away from anything else or damage on them is pointless.

Ice Block will prevent the initial burst of damage from Blazing Eruption, but won’t clear the debuff.

Help your healers; spread out to avoid damage from Scorching Blaze.

Mythic Tips:

Blink/Shimmer are your friends here. Use them to avoid hitting other players with Ravenous Blaze and get away from the drag caused by Empowered Searing Tempest.

Ice Block will protect you from a Blazing Eruption but won't clear the debuff, or stop it from being applied.

Talents:General Tips:

Frost Mages will want to take Gift of the Sea. If you get the ‘placement’ debuff on you (big globe of water or electricity above your head), place it slightly behind and to the right of the raid so no-one runs into it by accident and takes the wrong buff for them.

Abuse Blink and Shimmer to stay in and DPS Argus before having to reposition for Soulbomb/Soulburst.

Ice Block to live through Soulbomb without external cooldowns - but make sure you’re away from the raid.

Save cooldowns for phase three to burn down the adds quickly; the Frost add is in the south-west of the room.

Mythic Tips:

Look, if you're fighting the last boss of the expansion on Mythic then you probably don't need a guide; but here are a few tips:

Invisibility will break Ice Block, so you don't need to run away - do remember to stop casting while fading, though.

Do not take the second Gift of the Sea buff instantly - do not, do not, DO NOT. Wait until Argus begins to cast his second Cone of Death, then run through the buff orb.

Another encounter where you can get multiple uses of Time Warp. Use raid haste buffs: on pull; with second Icy Veins; on third orb spawn (about 7:30-8 minutes into the fight); and at 10 mins, with Titanforged. Use your own Time Warp on your second Icy Veins in phase one and second Icy Veins in phase four.

Noteworthy Legendaries:

Shard of the Exodar enables the above strategy to get the most use out of Time Warp.

Tomb of SargerasTalents:General Tips:

Completely single-target encounter with low-to-moderate movement - except in Mythic.

Mythic Tips:

You can solo-soak Rain of Brimstone with Ice Block - save it for when no-one else can reach the spot in time.

Talents:General Tips:

Frozen Orb and the cleave from Splitting Ice will generate Torment during Bone Saw and Fel Squall; be careful of your positioning (turn your back to the boss who is channelling)

Pay attention to the timers from your boss mods (DBM, BigWigs, etc.) and play accordingly.

Mythic Tips:

AoE the adds after exiting the lantern with Blizzard and Frozen Orb.

Talents:General Tips:

Switch to the murloc adds and kill them off quickly to avoid too many Drenching Waters pools being spawned.

Try to time Frozen Orb casts for the murloc spawns, but don't delay it more than a few seconds, especially with Item - Mage T20 Frost 2P Bonus.

Mythic Tips:

Swap to the eggs and kill them dead.

Talents:General Tips:

This is a 'damage control' encounter. If Abyss Stalkers are dying too fast (they will), just stick to single-target against Sassz'ine and cleave the adds down.

The Abyss Stalkers can be frozen with Frost Nova to activate Sephuz's Secret; the cooldowns line up perfectly. No, Ice Ward will not result in double the number of procs.

If you get caught out of position behind a whirlwind, Blink through it.

Noteworthy Legendaries:

Sephuz's Secret is very strong for this encounter.

Mythic Tips:

Execution encounter - follow through on mechanics and it's as good as dead.

Sometimes the whirlwind damage-over-time effect is the only safe way to drop a Bufferfish - if that happens, Ice Block to clear the dot

Ice Block will not prevent you from dying to a shark eating a Bufferfish.

Talents:General Tips:

This is mostly a single-target encounter, so Unstable Magic can be used instead of the standard Arctic Gale.

You can solo-soak Incorporeal Shot with Ice Block.

Mythic Tips:

Movement is quite minimal on Mythic mode, so Ice Floes is a viable (but not necessary) option.

Talents:General Tips:

This is a heavy AoE encounter. Try to convince your raid to put you on the corporeal side, where adds tend to live longer - that means more Blizzard ticks and more Frozen Orb resets.

Mythic Tips:

Learn the timing of the encounter so you can coordinate your cooldowns with Time Warp/Heroism/Bloodlust.

Noteworthy Legendaries:

Sephuz's Secret is very strong for this encounter; all adds can be frozen.

Talents:General Tips:

Completely single-target encounter with moderate-to-heavy movement.

Make use of Shimmer to quickly reach the Maiden after she casts Blowback.

Glacial Spike was changed specifically because of this fight, but is still viable. Try to have five Icicles when you reach maximum stacks of Creator's Grace/Demon's Vigor and then fire a Spike.

Mythic Tips:

Lots of movement - try your best! Don't get over-zealous and Blink into someone of the opposite element.

Talents:General Tips:

Swap to the add in Phase 1. Kill it dead. Cleave onto the Avatar with Splitting Ice.

Try not to Blink/Shimmer when you have Unbound Chaos; unpredictable movement can screw over other raid members.

You can solo-soak Touch of Sargeras and Dark Mark with Ice Block. It's best to save Block to soak a Dark Mark late in phase two, as by this point raids often sacrifice the affected players. Ice Block means that that isn't necessary.

Mythic Tips:

Shimmer to reposition for Rain of the Destroyer.

Talents:General Tips:

This is a single target fight with priority adds spawning periodically; they need to die immediately. Depending on your raid, you will single-target/cleave them down or AoE. Either way, using Frozen Orb and a Freezing Rain Blizzard will help.

You can solo-soak the large Armageddon Hail meteor with Ice Block.

If you get Focused Dreadflame, Invisibility will force Kil'jaeden to stop casting it: the mechanic can be entirely skipped, but only if you successfully turn invisible. An active Frozen Orb, for example, will cancel the fade-out.

Blink/Shimmer shortly after the Rupturing Singularity lands (roughly when you reach the peak of your arch backwards) to return to the spot you were standing in.

With Shimmer, you are one of the best targets to kite the Flaming Orb.

Mythic Tips:

Look, if you're on Mythic KJ then you probably don't need a guide.

If you're looking for tips, I recommend watching other guilds' kill videos and watching their positioning, movement and for any coordinated cooldowns.

The NightholdChronomatic Anomaly

Use Freeze on the Fragmented Time Particle for three instant Fingers of Frost procs.

Krosus

Due to the size of Krosus' hitbox, it is difficult to reliably generate two charges of Fingers of Frost using Water Jet. For this reason, we recommend taking Lonely Winter and Frozen Touch.

The amount of procs that Frost Mages receive in this fight, and the fact that they do not generally use Rune of Power, makes moving out of the Fel Beam very easy.

Star Augur Etraeus

Save Ice Block to clear Fel Ejection - by far the most disruptive and dangerous ability in this fight for Mages. Cold Snap is a great help, as Fel Ejection is cast regularly!

High Botanist Tel'arn

Do not Ice Block when debuffed with Parasitic Fetter; it will remove the debuff and spawn adds before your raid is ready.

Rune of Power will be available for each use of Parasitic Fetter, greatly simplifying dealing with adds.

Tichondrius

Shimmer allows you to quickly reposition - especially useful in Mythic mode, when you can go from breaking Brand of Argus to soaking Seeker Swarm in seconds.

It is possible to use Ice Block to soak the Seeker Swarm in Mythic mode (although not optimal as it'll cost you DPS - leave it to the Rogues!)

Mythic mode: You can Ice Block if you fail to get an Orb during Illusionary Night. This will prevent you from being one-shot - although you'll also miss the 30% damage buff.

Elisande

If you are on interrupt duty in Mythic mode, use the following macros to set your focus and interrupt it without dropping your current target:

/stopcasting
/clearfocus
/tar Recursive Elemental
/focus
/targetlasttarget

#showtooltip Counterspell
/stopcasting
/cast Counterspell

Emerald NightmareNythendra

Ice Block does not prevent you gaining and does not clear stacks of Infested. You can safely gather stacks and Ice Block if trying to force a mind control through Infested Mind.

Save Fingers of Frost and Brain Freeze procs when mind control is coming to quickly free targets, especially if using .

Elerethe Renferal

If linked by Web of Pain (Mythic difficulty), use Ice Block.

Ursoc

As a mostly immobile fight, consider using Glacial Insulation instead of Shimmer or Ice Floes. The extra Armor can be helpful in dealing with all the physical damage in the fight.

Il'gynoth

Despite the massive number of adds, this fight is all about single target burst.Take Unstable Magic over .

Cenarius

Be extremely careful using cooldowns against Cenarius; Aura of Dread Thorns makes it easy to kill yourself.

Spellsteal Twisted Touch of Life from Twisted Sister

Xavius

Cast Ice Block at the very end of Corruption: Descent into Madness. This will crowd control yourself and give your raid 10 extra seconds on Xavius before having to deal with you.

All cooldowns are refreshed and mana is refilled when leaving the Dream, so ensure that you have already used Icy Veins before exiting.

Trial of ValorOdyn

Despite extremely high movement, it is possible to use Rune of Power on this fight. However, if you are uncomfortable with doing so switch to Incanter's Flow.

Tags: PvE Raiding

Frost Mage Tips & Tricks

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