Frost Mage PvE Guide 5.4.8 MoP

[LethalFactorLK]

Frost Mage PvE Guide - By LethalFactorLK

Introduction

This Guide is aimed towards people who are new to playing Frost Mage in Mist of Pandaria. From this Guide you can learn to play frost mage from Scratch,I will make this guide User Friendy as much as possible . The information in this guide is gathered from my knowledge of frost mage and sources all over the Internet which i will include at the end of the guide.

Guide Topics:

1. General Information
2. Racial Perks
3. Stat Priority
4. Talents & Glyphs
5. Main Spells & rotations
6. Enchants & Gemming
7. Professions
8. Consumables
9. Addons
10. Videos
11. Sources

1. General Information

Blizzards Description of Mage

Quote:

Students gifted with a keen intellect and unwavering discipline may walk the path of the Mage. The arcane magic available to magi is both great and dangerous, and thus is revealed only to the most devoted practitioners. To avoid interference with their spellcasting, magi wear only cloth armor, but arcane shields and enchantments give them additional protection. To keep enemies at bay, magi can summon bursts of fire to incinerate distant targets and cause entire areas to erupt, setting groups of foes ablaze.

+ The type of armour Mages wear is cloth . The primary stat for mage is Intellect. The only Resource Mage use is Mana, And we are a DPS only Class.
+ All of our Spec's are DPS based namely Frost | Arcane | Fire.
+ Mage's are able to travel around between continents due to their ability to conjure portals and teleport themselves to various parts of the world.
+ Mage's are also a Caster type class aka ranged class.
+ Frost Mages use Frost Armor :- Increases your spell haste by 7%. If an enemy strikes the caster, their movement is slowed by 30% for 5 seconds.


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2. Racial Perks

Some Racial's are better suited for playing mage. They can the give mage a small dps boost. In the end its totally up to you.

Horde:-

- Troll : Bererking,Beast Slaying,Da Voodoo Shuffle,Regeneration

-Orc :Blood Fury,Axe Specialization,Hardiness

- Goblin : Rocket Barrage,Rocket Jump,Time is Money

- Undead :Cannibalize,Will of the Forsaken,Touch of the Grave

- Blood Elf : Arcane Torrent

- Pandaren : Quacking Palm,Bouncy,Epicurean

Horde Racial Order best Suited for Mage :- Troll > Orc > Goblins > Undead > Blood Elf > Pandaren ( Pandaren is last cause if you die in a fight you Loose Epicurean Buff )


Alliance:-

- Worgen : Viciousness,Darkflight

- Gnome : Shortblade Specialization,Escape Artist

- Night Elf : Shadowmeld,Quickness

- Human : Mace Specialization,Sword Specialization,Every Man for Himself

- Pandaren : Quacking Palm,Bouncy,Epicurean

- Dwarf : Stoneform,Mace Specialization

Alliance Best Suited Racial Perks :- Worgen > Gnome > Night Elf > Human > Pandaren >= Dwarf ( Pandaren is one before last cause if you die in a fight you Loose Epicurean Buff )

Final Racial Perks thought's : In the end it's how well you can play your mage, Racial perks do provide some perks but you need to learn most of your strengths and weaknesses of Mages through Trial & Error.


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3.Stat Priority

Intellect > Hit Rating 15% (5100) > Haste > Mastery > Critical Strike

Intellect :- Is your primary stat. You should look for this stat in all of your upgrades. It provides you with Spell Power, which increases the damage of your spells, and also increases your critical strike chance.

Hit Rating :- Decreases the chance that your spells will miss their target (15% against a raid boss). Therefore, your goal is to reach the 15% hit cap, which will ensure that your attacks never miss.

Haste :- Increases the cast speed of your spells and your Water Elemental and increases the number of ticks on you mage bombs.

Mastery :- Increases the damage of your Water Elemental and the damage of your Frostbolt , Frostbolt and Frostfire Bolt Frostfire Bolt abilities(through Icicles that store damage and release it when you use Ice Lance).
+You can have a maximum of five Icicles.
+Generating a sixth Icicle will automatically fire the oldest one.
+Ice Lance will rapidly fire all currently held Icicles at the target.
+Icicles Disappear after 30 seconds, if you do spend them or do not gain new ones.

Critical Strike :- Increases your chance to critically hit.Remember that your chance to critical hit with Ice Lance Icon Ice Lance (always cast ONLY WHEN Fingers of Frost up) and Frostfire Bolt (always cast WHEN Brain Freeze) is increased by Shatter, a Frost-specific passive ability.

+Because of Shatter it is possible to have more than a 100% chance to critically strike with Ice Lance Icon Ice Lance (when Fingers of Frost Icon Fingers of Frost is up) and Frostfire Bolt Icon Frostfire Bolt (when Brain Freeze Icon Brain Freeze is up). To obtain your criticalstrike chance against frozen targets, Shatter multiplies your critical strike chance by 2 and adds 50%. At 25%, critical strike chance, your chance to critically hit frozen targets is 100% (25% x 2 + 50%).

Enemies are subject to a mechanic called Crit Depression (or Crit Suppression). Testing has shown that when you attack an enemy that has a higher level than you,you deal 1% less critical strikes for each level between you and the enemy.Raid bosses are 3 levels above you, so -3% critical strike chance is applied before Shatter, so you need to reach 28% critical strike chance in order for Shatter to guarantee critical strikes.

This means that stacking Critical Strike Rating beyond 28% (23% with the+5% critical strike chance raid buff) is not very useful.


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4. Talents & Glyphs


4.1 Talents



There isn't a default Talent set for Frost Mage . Most of the Talents can be changed and used according to a Raid Instance Needs.I will Try to Explain them as much as possible.

Tier 1 Talents :- Are intended to enhance your movement when attacking a target.

->Presence of Mind - Grants you an instant-cast for any spell of your choice every 90 seconds.
->Blazing Speed - Suppresses slowing effects and increases your movement speed by 150% for 1.5 seconds . Mostly a PvP talent but it has its used in PvE such as getting out of tricky situations or moving from Point A to B.
->Ice Floes - After activating this spell it Allows you to cast Spells while Moving it has 3 charges.

I Personally use Blazing Speed
It really comes down to personal Choice which of these you want to pick, Try them all and see what suits your play style.

Tier 2 Talents :- These talents help you survive when you about to take Normal to Moderate damage

->Temporal Shield - Offers 15% damage taken reduction for 4 seconds, on a 25-second cooldown.Every time you take damage while this damage reduction is active, it is healed back over the course of 6 seconds.
->FlameGlow - As small passive shield that always absorbs a bit of the damage you receive.
->Ice Barrier - Absorbs a Hefty chunk of damage (the absorption effect scales with Spell Power) and prevents spell casting from being delayed, while active.

In my opinion Ice Barrier is Generally better if you know when you are about to receive a large hit from a Raid boss which cannot be avoided such as Raid Wide Damage.

Tier 3 Talents :- These Talents help to Crowd Control { CC } mobs / Adds

->Ring of Frost - Summons a 10-yard ring that lasts for 10 seconds and that freezes for 10 seconds, enemies entering it (up to a maximum of 10 enemies ).
->Ice Ward - Places a Ice Ward on a friend target and causes all enemies within 10 yards of a friendly target to become frozen for 5 seconds when the friendly target is struck.
->FrostJaw - Silences and freezes the target in place for 8 seconds , Damage caused will break the effect.

These are mainly PvP talents but Ring of Frost is a solid choice for Raiding as it can help you Crowd Control Mobs / Adds during certain Raid mechanics.

Tier 4 Talents :- These Talents also help you Survive when you mess up.

->Greater Invisibility - Improves Invisibility giving it an instant effect and making you take 90% less damage while Greater Invisibility is active ( And for 3 seconds after coming out of Invisibility ).
->Cauterize - It's basically like a second chance to live in case you mess up really bad in a Raid Mechanic.
-> Cold Snap - When activated, this spell finishes the cooldown of your Ice Block, Frost Nova, and Cone of Cold spells, and heals you for 30% of your maximum health.This spell is usable while stunned, frozen, incapacitated, feared or asleep, and is not on the global cooldown.

It mainly Comes Down to Greater Invisibility VS Cauterize Alot of people go with Cauterize as it's a life saver when you are in a tight situation.

Tier 5 Talents :- Enables you to choose ONE of these damage over time bombs to include in your rotation and increase your DPS

->Nether Tempest - This can be considered as our Area of Effect (AOE)
Bomb is best used on targets greater than 3 in Close Proximity.
->Living Bomb - This Bomb is best used on 1 and 3 Targets, Is our most
Powerful Bomb.
->Frost Bomb - Places a Frost Bomb on the target. After 4 seconds, the bomb explodes Dealing AOE damge but is on a 10 Second cooldown.

One of Most important thing to keep in mind is that ALL OF THE BOMBS has a chance to proc Brain Freeze
Living Bomb & Nether Tempest Proc Brain Freeze alot more than Frost Bomb as They have a chance to Proc Brain Freeze every time they Tick ( aka Damage Over time ) , While Frost Bomb just explodes after 4 Seconds.

Tier 6 :- These are Mana Management talents

->Invocation - Removes Evocation's Evocation, cooldown and reduces its channel period and duration by 50%.
Completing an Evocation causes you to deal 15% increased spell damage, but passively regenerate 50% less mana, for 1 minute.
Upon Completing an Evocation with the Invocation you gain a buff Invoker's Energy
->Rune of Power - Places a Rune of Power on the ground, which lasts for 1 minute. While standing within 5 yds of your own Rune of Power, your mana regeneration is increased by 75% and your spell damage is increased by 15%. Only 2 Runes of Power can be placed at one time. Replaces Evocation
->Incanter's Ward - Passively increases damage done by 6%.
Places a magical ward on you, absorbing damage for 8 seconds. Absorbed damage will restore up to 18% of your maximum mana. When this effect ends, you gain up to 15% increased spell damage for 25 seconds, based on the absorption used.

Frost Mages Should use only Invocation the other two talents Rune of Power & Incanter's Ward aren't recommended at all.


4.2 Glyphs


There aren't any Mandotory glyphs for Mages. Some Glyphs modify the way how Some Spells function. I'm mentioning below what i think is viable to use.

Major Glyphs

~Splitting Ice :- Your Ice Lance and Icicles now hit 1 additional target for 50% damage.

~Icy Veins :- Your Icy Veins causes your Frostbolt, Frostfire Bolt, Ice Lance, and your Water Elemental's Waterbolt spells to split into 3 smaller bolts that each do 40% damage, instead of increasing spell casting speed. This
Glyph is better used when you're at a high Item Level ( In my Opinion Item Level > 490 ). Just play around with the glyph to see if you are doing more DPS With the Gylyph or Without the Glyph .

~Glyph of Water Elemental :- Increases the health of your Water Elemental by 40%, and allows it to cast while moving. When in Assist mode and in combat, commanding your Water Elemental to Follow will cause it to stay near you and autocast Waterbolt when your target is in range.

Minor Glyphs

~Mirror Image :- Your Mirror Images cast Arcane Blast or Fireball instead of Frostbolt depending on your primary talent tree.

~Glyph of Rapid Teleportation :- After casting a Mage Teleport spell, or entering a Mage Portal, your movement speed is increased by 70% for 1 minute.

~Glyph of the Unbound Elemental :- Your Water Elemental is replaced by an Unbound Water Elemental ( This is a visual upgrade to your water elemental with new model ).


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5. Main Spells & Rotations


5.1 Main Spells

->Frostbolt :- This is your main Filler Spell that you spam through a fights duration.

->Frostfire Bolt :- Cast this Spell only when you have Brain Freeze Procs.

->Ice Lance :- Cast This Spell only when you have Fingers of Frost Procs.

->Living Bomb :- Keep this on the target / targets as the mage bomb's are
a crucial part of a mages DPS.

+ A Tip with Living Bomb is when the bomb is under 3 Seconds and you
Reapply Living Bomb the current Bomb Explodes and A new bomb is Applied, Thus not loosing your DPS by Prematurely Applying Living Bomb.

->Nether Tempest - This can be considered as our Area of Effect (AOE)
Bomb is best used on targets greater than 3 in Close Proximity.

->Frozen Orb :- Procs MULTIPLE Fingers of Frost when IT'S DAMAGING a Target.

->Mirror Image :- Creates 3 copies of the caster nearby, which cast spells and attack the Mage's enemies. Lasts 30 seconds. Use on cooldown & try to use when you have Time Warp / Bloodlust is availabe , Potions are activated , Trinkets are activated to maximise DPS output.

->Icy Veins :- Accelerates your spellcasting, granting 20% spell haste and reducing the pushback suffered from damaging attacks while casting by 100%. Lasts 20 seconds.

+ This spell is modified when you USE Glyph of Icy Veins, which
is changed to Icy Veins.
+ As i said in Mentioned in the Glyphs Section Just play around with the glyph to see if you are doing more DPS With the Glyph or Without
Without the Glyph.

->Ice Block :- You become encased in a block of ice, protecting you from all physical attacks and spells for 10 seconds, but during that time you cannot attack, move or cast spells. Causes Hypothermia, preventing you from recasting Ice Block for 30 seconds.

+Use this if you are going to die or want to avoid some Heavy Damage in a Raid Mechanic.
+Ice Block can be used to remove some DE-BUFF'S on yourself such as Cauterize

->Ice Barrier :- Provides you with a Shield that can absorb a Normal to Moderate amount of damage, Scales with spell power.

->Alter Time :- Alter the fabric of time, causing the caster to return to their current location, health, mana, buffs, and debuffs, when cast a second time, or after 6 seconds. Effect negated if the caster dies within the 6 seconds before the effect occurs or moves too far away.

+ A very important Cooldown Spell of the mage Learn to use it when your doing highest amount of DPS with much as possible item activations , Trinket are activated Bloodlust or Timewarp is activated .
+ A lot of Mage's mess up using this spell Properly. ( Best way Learn this spell is to Practice using this spell until you're confident to use Alter Time Properly.)

->Blink :- Teleports the caster 20 yards forward, unless something is in the way. Also frees the caster from stuns and bonds.

->Blazing Speed :- Suppresses movement slowing effects and increases your movement speed by 150% for 1 second. This spell may be cast while a cast time spell is in progress and is not on the global cooldown.

->Summon Water Elemental :- Summon a Water Elemental to fight for the caster. Always have your Water Elemental Summoned to fight with you, without the Water Elemental IT'S a DPS LOSS

->Evocation :- As a Frost Mage you need to use the talent Invocation and RECAST IT WHEN Invoker's Energy is about to Expire ( Possibly when about less than 10 seconds ) .

->Invisibility :- Turns the caster invisible over 3 seconds, reducing threat each second. While invisible, you are untargetable by enemies. Lasts 20 seconds. Invisibility is cancelled if you perform any actions.

Time Warp :- Warp the flow of time, increasing melee, ranged, and spell haste by 30% for all party and raid members. Lasts 40 seconds.Allies receiving this effect will become unstuck in time, and be unable to benefit from Bloodlust, Heroism, or Time Warp again for 10 minutes.

+ Before using Time Warp Discuss with your Raid leader DO NOT USE IT UNTIL CALLED FOR.

->Arcane Brilliance :- Infuses the target with brilliance, increasing their spell power by 10% and their critical strike chance by 5% for 1 hour.


5.2 Rotations

Single Target Rotation

1. Cast Evocation
2. Prepot Potion of the Jade Serpent
3. Apply Living Bomb and maintain it on the target ( Recast Living Bomb on target when its under 3 Seconds to make the current active Living Bomb Explode and Apply new Living Bomb
4. Cast Icy Veins
5. Cast Frozen Orb
6. Cast Mirror Image
7. Cast Frost Bolt :- This is your Main Filler spell that you will be casting Throughout the fight.
8. Cast Frostfire Bolt ONLY WHEN Brain Freeze Procs.
9. Cast Ice Lance ONLY WHEN Fingers of Frost Procs.

Important :- Cast Alter Time When you are having Trinket Proc's ,Timewarp/Bloodlst, Fingers of Frost Procs + Brain Freeze Procs and Potions are Active. (Learning to use this come from self Practice, Teaching to use this spell from a Guide is impossible, Practising from Trial & Error is the only way of learning to use this spell).


Multi Target Rotation

For 2 and 3 targets that are spread out use Living Bomb.

Between 2 and 4 enemies that are stacked together Cast Nether Tempest and use Frostfire Bolt From Brain Freeze Proc's. Also Cast Frozen Orb and use Ice Lance from Fingers of Frost Proc's.

The Spell Blizzard is also an AOE spell which should be cast as a filler during AOE situations only.

Important :- At least have a stack of Tome of the Clear Mind To change out the talents According to a Raid's Mechanics .


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6. Enchants & Gemming

6.1 Enchants

Head : ( Head Enchants are Removed from the Game )

Shoulder : Greater Crane Wing Inscription or Secret Crane Wing Inscription ( If you got Inscription )

Back: Enchant Cloak - Superior Intellect or Lightweave Embroidery ( If you got Tailoring )

Chest : Enchant Chest - Glorious Stats

Wrist : Enchant Bracer - Super Intellect

Hands : Enchant Gloves - Greater Haste

Waist : Living Steel Belt Buckle

Legs : Greater Cerulean Spellthread

Boots : Enchant Boots - Greater Haste or Enchant Boots - Pandaren's Step

Weapons : Enchant Weapon - Jade Spirit

Rings : Enchant Ring - Greater Intellect ( If you got Enchanting )


6.2 Gemming


Meta :- Burning Primal Diamond

Red :- Brilliant Primordial Ruby or Brilliant Serpent's Eye

Yellow :- Reckless Vermilion Onyx or Quick Sun's Radiance

Blue :- Lightning Wild Jade


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7. Professions



Tailoring :- Lightweave Embroidery

Engineering :- Synapse Springs You can Use with major cooldowns.

Enchanting :- Enchant Ring - Greater Intellect ( Remember to apply on both Rings )

Herbalism :- Lifeblood

Leatherworking :- Fur Lining - Intellect

Inscription :- Secret Crane Wing Inscription

Jewelcrafting :- Brilliant Serpent's Eye

Blacksmithing :- Socket Bracer AND Socket Gloves In which you fit 2 Brilliant Primordial Ruby


Important :- As a Mage you can use Tailoring & Enchanting OR Tailoring & Engineering.


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8. Consumables



Flask :- Flask of the Warm Sun

Potion :- Potion of the Jade Serpent

Food :- Mogu Fish Stew OR Braised Turtle


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9. Addons


-> Deadly Boss Mods aka DBM : An Add-on For raiding , provides encounter based information | Version 5.4.19

http://www.curse.com/addons/wow/deadly-boss-mods

-> Recount : Monitoring Your DPS | Version 5.4.8c

http://www.wowace.com/addons/recount/files/1674-v5-4-8c-release

-> ReforgeLite : An Addon for Making Reforging much more Accurate | Version 1.38

http://www.wowace.com/addons/reforgelite/files/62-v1-38

-> TellMeWhen : An Addon for Monitoring Spell cool-down's / Monitoring Item Proc's and Many more ( This Add-on can be Complicated to use ) | Version 7.0.2

http://www.curse.com/addons/wow/tellmewhen


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10. Mage Gameplay Guides


Preach Gaming

https://youtube.com/watch?v=1T5roNRD8jQ:




Evreliagaming

https://youtube.com/watch?v=Eq6rnB1xzd8:




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11. Sources


Freakz Database

Mop Veins tk

Preach Gaming

MMO - Champion

[Supmark]

Good to know is also fact that u can use expertise to get spell hit. Same as warlock it might be usefull when gemming your gear.

[Ventress90]

Great guide! Simple & concise! good job


| The COMPLETE Rogue PvE guide | Legendary Cloak Questline - GUIDE |

[Hush]

Good job, but my oppinion, when you have some time add also the BIS GEAR.With this point your guide will be perfect.

[Woofies]

Great guide! I admire your effort

[ryangg]

Nice guide..but I never heard that haste is over mastery

[LethalFactorLK]

Thank you for the nice comments girls and boys

[LethalFactorLK]

ryangg wrote:

Nice guide..but I never heard that haste is over mastery

Mastery is greater over haste for Arcane mage

[lostmyself]

Nice guide Will help me alot thnx

[impact69]

Nice guide gj

[Kromerz]

Good job .
I like your guide

[LethalFactorLK]

Thank you guys for the comments really love the feedback

[Aoi]

And for blue gems?

[LethalFactorLK]

Aoi wrote:

And for blue gems?

Updated gems section

[maxwell]

Great guide.