Good morning everyone. I want to thank you all in advance for your guidance.
My new focus is to figure out frost mage. I main a pally (ret/prot). and have a good number of toons at 70 but mage is the class I can never figure out for M +. On my pally I typically play in the 17-18 range for keys and all frost mages seem to be doing 100-120k dps min. I did a 9 on this guy last night on my mage and my dps was between 25-30k. I know I’m only Ilvl 421 on this guy instead of 438 like my pally but I’m so confused.
I know it has to be my rotation. But after reading all of these blogs I still can’t figure it out. My assumption is I’m supposed to use frost bolt as a filler to wait for GS to proc but it’s wild. They are only hitting for like 9-10 the frost bolts and it’s killing my dps. Also blizzard isn’t hitting as hard as I would expect. I know my gear isn’t good on this guy yet I just feel bad not helping much on dps on keys so im trying to figure it out before I push higher on this guy.
I know this was a long winded way of me asking is their a basic dps rotation I should be following? Thanks for the guidance all I really appreciate you. Trying to find a caster that I like.
Hey I suggest looking at videos on youtube. I like Manather’s videos.
http s://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXyG-YGswGM&t=1707s
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He knows his stuff, but from a basic “I’m totally new to this class” perspective, I’d be completely confused by what he’s talking about. Heck, even as someone who’s played Mage for far too many years, trying to wrap my head around what he was saying in the AoE video required multiple views.
As much of a cop-out as it sounds, places like the Icy Veins or Wowhead guides are a good place to start. However, because there’s no set rotation any more it can look really complex for someone not used to it. Since the rework, Frost has become significantly more complex than it was and it will take some practice to get into the flow. Also note that AoE and ST have fairly different rotations.
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Sort of, but there’s more to it that that. A super basic rundown is this:
AoE:
Cast Blizzard as you’re running in towards the pack
Throw out Frozen Orb,
Hit Comet Storm if the pack isn’t moving much and immediately follow that with either Ice Nova or Frost Nova to freeze them (Comet storm will do more damage)
Use Cone of Cold on the pack so it hits at least 3 targets - this will reset Orb and Comet Storm
Use Orb and Comet Storm again
Always refresh Blizzard if there’s 2+ targets (a mouse-over macro will help immensely with this), assuming they won’t die in the next 3 seconds.
From here you sort of go into a ‘standard’ rotation of priorities
GS if it’s up - for 1 target you will want to Flurry before or after (or Nova) to get the debuff to make it crit, if there’s 2 targets just use on cooldown
If you have Ice Lance procs, use them. These can also generate Icicles which you need for GS.
Flurry should be used with GS but if you have 2 charges and a proc, you can use it.
Frostbolt is your lowest priority and really only used if nothing else is up.
There’s a bit more to it, and a lot of “IF/THEN” situations but that is the basics. Practice the opener on target dummies and then you can do things like determine if it’s better to dump a CMS combo towards the end of a pack or wait for the next etc.
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Single target is a bit more interesting, especially when starting off and trying to dodge mechanics as well. It’s also much more of a priority system with almost no set rotation. There’s quite a bit of nuance too, where things change slightly depending on whether certain conditions are met (e.g. “This spell procs Flurry, so don’t use if you have 2 charges” etc).
Ray of Frost will be your top priority, but must be cast when the boss has at least 1 ‘Winters Chill’ debuff from Flurry.
GS is next, and again should be cast so it hits the boss while a Winters Chill debuff is up - you can Flurry before or immediately after GS to get this on.
CmS is your next, and again needs to hit the boss with the WC debuff.
There will be times where all 3 of the above spells are ready, but WC is time limited and only has 2 charges
Now for the basic rotation outside of those 3 cooldowns:
Orb when it’s ready
With 2 Flurry charges or likely to cap cast Frostbolt > Flurry > your priority spell (Ray - GS - CmS - IL). If you don’t have Ray/GS/CmS then use 2x IL
Frostbolt if nothing else is up.
Again, it’s more complicated than that but that’s the basics. As you get more comfortable you can work in the little bits and pieces, like those in Manather’s vids.
You guys are all so helpful! I really appreciate you all!