Hello all! After reading several feedback topics about Frost Mage tree, I created a design that takes most issues into account and improves the existing Frost Mage tree. This is WIP, so feedback might lead to changes in it. The suggested design is not mandatory, but it is fitting - it splits Frost Mage tree into mostly AoE damage branch (left), mixed damage profile branch (middle) and mostly Shatter / single target damage based branch (right) and tries to keep most talents that are related to specific abilities close to each other.
Current issues of Frost Mage tree:
- Frost Mage tree provides mostly similar playstyle to current and it is mostly based on Icy Veins uptime keeping.
Solution: Suggested design adds new and improves existing playstyles - improves 3 target cleave playstyle based on Iceborne (Frost Deathborne) or Fractured Frost, can improve Slick Ice playstyle for people who like it, adds more bursty playstyle to Icy Veins in alternative to existing Icy Propulsion playstyle and tries to make Mastery based Glacial Spike playstyle more competitive with others. - Many 2 and 3 point nodes in the tree, which could limit build variety. Some of them are also barely worth the point investment.
Solution: Suggested design removes all 3 point and big amount of 2 point talents and compensates that with many new nodes addition, allowing to make more customized and varied builds. - Icy Veins requires too many talent points invested to be upgraded.
Solution: Suggested design reduces amount of point investment into Icy Veins, removes some of the undertuned talents for it and adds new to make it more customizable for player’s needs. - Single-target, AoE and similar ability talents are too scattered in the tree.
Solution: Suggested design changes position of many talents to create branches devoted to single-target, AoE and cleave damage and places most particular ability related talents closer to each other.
Here is the visualized talent tree (described order is from left to right in it). As I do not have 3rd level of trust, I ask somebody with it to post the link in the thread, so that people can see the draft without necessity to follow this link:
imgur.com/a/jl3rcrF
Numbers after the names mean point investment.
Tree has totally nodes for 51 points, giving players access to around 60% in their build (just like most other classes). Third part is organized the way to let people pick only 3 of 5 fully upgraded end talents simultaneously, providing build diversity and matching the mentioned value.
Full list of talent tree nodes*:
*Do not search for Deep Freeze, Ice Nova and Ring of Frost here - they are suggested to be kept as general tree talents.
Row 1:
Ice Lance (1): Quickly fling a shard of ice at the target, dealing X% of Spell Power Frost damage.
Row 2:
Blizzard (1): Ice shards pelt the target area, dealing X% of Spell Power Frost damage over 8 sec and reducing movement speed by 50% for 3 sec.
Comment: It is moved to the left part of second row to be an opening talent of left AoE damage branch.
Frozen Orb (1): Launches an orb of swirling ice up to 40 yards forward which deals up to X% of Spell Power Frost damage to all enemies it passes through. Deals reduced damage beyond 8 targets. Grants 1 charge of Fingers of Frost when it first damages an enemy.
Enemies damaged by the Frozen Orb are slowed by 30% for 3 sec.
Comment: It is moved to the central position in 2nd row, as it is a universal ability that can be used to deal both ST and AoE damage, especially with upgrades.
Fingers of Frost (1): Frostbolt has a 15% chance and Frozen Orb damage has a 10% to grant a charge of Fingers of Frost.
Fingers of Frost causes your next Ice Lance to deal damage as if the target were frozen.
Maximum 2 charges.
Row 3:
Controlled Blizzard (1): Blizzard becomes a channeled spell, has its cooldown removed, its damage is increased by X% and it can be channeled while moving with 50% movement speed reduction.
Comment: As I saw that many players miss channeled Blizzard, this talent is for them. It allows to use it as a channeled ability with no cooldown and enables the old Frost Blizzard AoE playstyle. However, some people might not enjoy it, so this talent is optional.
Ice Explosion or Shatterstone (1):
Ice Explosion: Turns Arcane Explosion into Ice Explosion, which deals 10% increased damage as Frost damage, has X% reduced mana cost and reduces cast time of next Blizzard by 0.5 seconds, stacking up to 4 times.
Shatterstone: Quickly fling an explosive ice shard into selected enemy, dealing X% of Spell Power Frost damage to the target and all enemies in 8 yds area around it. Damage done is increased by Y% to enemies standing in your Blizzard.
Comment: This choice node allows players to pick between a talent that makes Arcane Explosion more fitting for Frost AoE rotation as a filler to use while Blizzard is active and on cooldown, allowing to make the rotation more mobile, but with close to melee range to compensate and the talent that provides a spammable ranged AoE ability akin to Glacial Fragments legendary, compensated by necessity to still hardcast Blizzard, which leads to having slightly less uptime of it, resulting in slightly slower Snowstorm stacks generation and slightly longer Frozen Orb recharge. Their choice node alongside Controlled Blizzard allows players to pick the AoE rotation they would like most, each with its pros and cons.
Improved Blizzard or Focused Frost (1):
Improved Blizzard - Each time Blizzard deals damage, the cooldown of Frozen Orb is reduced by 0.5 sec.
Focused Frost - Frozen Orb deals an additional X% damage when hitting only one target.
Comment: Improved Blizzard should be unnerfed, as the nerf is no longer warranted. Their choice node is moved to 3rd row and is accessible directly from both Blizzard and Frozen Orb, allowing to connect them.
Flurry (1): Unleash a flurry of ice, striking the target 3 times for a total of X% of Spell power Frost damage. Each hit reduces the target’s movement speed by 70% for 1 sec. 30s CD.
Concentrated Coolness or Explosive Orb (1):
Concentrated Coolness - Frozen Orb’s damage is increased by X% and is now castable at a location with 40 yd range, but no longer moves.
Explosive Orb - Frozen Orb detonates upon expiration or repeat ability key input, dealing Y% of Spell Power Frost damage to all enemies within its area.
Comment: This is the talent that is directly accessible from Frozen Orb and allows further customization for its placement (current or the targeted one from Concentrated Coolness) and damage profile (sustained damage or possibility to detonate it early for additional damage, for example if enemies are close to dying and part of its sustained damage would be wasted).
Improved Shatter (1): Shatter increases your chance to deal a critical strike by an additional 25%.
Comment: Is not useful without normal Shatter, so base Shatter is suggested to become auto filled for Frost Mage in general tree.
Icebound (1): Whenever you attempt to chill a target, apply a stack of Frostbite to affected enemy. When enemy reaches X stacks of Frostbite, he is frozen for Y seconds.
Enemy cannot receive more than 1 Frostbite stack per second.
Comment: Changed to become more controllable, reliable and enable the “build your freeze yourself” playstyle. Some people might still not like it, so this talent is optional.
Row 4:
Winter’s Chill (1): Each hit of Flurry now applies Winter’s Chill to the target.
Winter’s Chill causes the target to take damage from your spells as if it were frozen.
Cold Snap (1): Resets the cooldown of your Ice Barrier, Frost Nova, Cone of Cold, and Ice Block.
Comment: Was moved to a spot where it becomes an optional talent, so that players can skip it if they want.
Lonely Winter or Summon Water Elemental (1):
Lonely Winter - You can no longer summon your Water Elemental, but Frostbolt, Ice Lance, and Flurry deal X% increased damage.
Summon Water Elemental - Summons a Water Elemental to follow and fight for you.
Row 5:
Snowstorm (2): Blizzard damage has a 100% chance to increase the damage of your next Cone of Cold by X% / Y%, stacking up to N times.
Comment: Reduced to 2 point investment and suggested to become a guaranteed proc from Blizzard damage to remove excess RNG from Frost already heavy RNG reliant rotations.
Perpetual Winter (1): Flurry now has 2 charges.
Brain Freeze (1): Frostbolt has a 30% chance to reset the remaining cooldown on Flurry and cause your next Flurry to deal 50% increased damage.
Winter’s Grasp or Improved Water Elemental (1):
Winter’s Grasp - Overchill the selected enemy, freezing it in place for 5 seconds. The effect is broken if damage taken from Mage spells exceeds a certain amount.
Additionally, your next Frostbolt or Ice Lance used in following 5 seconds would deal 50% increased damage to affected target.
Instant. 30-40 yds range. 30s CD.
Improved Water Elemental - Your Water Elemental receives abilities Freeze, which roots enemies in selected area and Water Jet, which does continuous Frost damage and grants Brain Freeze to the Mage.
Additionally, Water Elemental has X% more health and takes Y% reduced damage from area of effect atacks.
Comment: This talent would provide a choice between guaranteed ranged root that triggers enhanced Shatter (useful for petless builds that currently lack it, as even Ice Nova in general tree is not too reliable and can break breakable CC on target / enemies near the target) and possibility to boost your Water Elemental (useful for pet builds). Water Elemental’s Freeze is moved here as well to prevent pet based Frost Mages from possibility to get access to too many root effects.
Deep Shatter (1): Your Frostbolt deals 50% additional damage to Frozen targets.
Comment: Hardly worth 2 point investment, as both Frostbolt damage is small in PVE and if it hits a frozen target, it can break the freeze, so occasionally would compete with Ice Lance. 1 point investment and bigger bonus (as Frostbolt does much less damage in PVE than in PVP) seem more fitting for it.
Frigid Shattering (2): Your Frost spells deal 10%/20% more damage to targets that are rooted and frozen.
Comment: Accessible from both Shatter and Frostbite, as they are synergizing talents.
Row 6:
Burst of Cold (1): Your Frost Nova instantly resets the cooldown of your Cone of Cold and increases its damage by X% for 6 seconds.
Comment: PVP talent that would have good usage in PVE as well and has good synergy with Snowstorm, so is opened by it.
Glacial Assault (1): Flurry has a X% chance each strike to call down an icy comet, crashing into your target and nearby enemies for Y% of Spell power Frost damage.
Comment: Has too weak effect for 2 point investment, so is suggested to become a 1 point talent.
Ebonbolt or Frozen Touch (1):
Ebonbolt - Launch a bolt of ice at the enemy, dealing X% of Spell power Frost damage and granting you Brain Freeze. 2 sec cast time. 30s CD.
Frozen Touch - Frostbolt grants you Fingers of Frost and Brain Freeze X% more often.
Comment: Ebonbolt needs a buff, otherwise it would continue to be outclassed by Frozen Touch just as it is now. 30s CD ans slightly shorter cast time for QoL might be enough.
Wintertide (2): Increases Frostbolt damage by X% / Y%. Fingers of Frost empowered Ice Lances deal N% / M% increased damage to Frozen targets.
Comment: Suggested to become a 2 point investment talent in the center - it is more accessible there and 2 point investment keeps the nearest 2 tree rows talent point investment balanced.
Winter Blast or Water Blast (1):
Winter Blast - Winter’s Grasp now additionally affects up to X enemies in 8 yds area around the initial target.
Additionally, your next Frostbolt or Ice Lance would hit all enemies affected by Winter’s Grasp. Empowered in such a way Ice Lance does not split via Splitting Ice.
Water Blast - Your Water Elemental now can use Water Blast ability, which deals damage to the target and all other enemies in 8 yds area around it.
Additionally, Water Elemental now does X% more damage.
Comment: This talent would provide a choice between making Winter’s Grasp root AoE (useful for petless builds in AoE situations) and possibility to make Water Elemental stronger and give him a spammable ranged AoE ability (useful for pet builds, especially in AoE situations).
Arctic Piercing (1): Frostbolt critical strikes empower Ice Lance, increasing damage dealt by X% for Y sec, stacking up to Z times.
Bone Chilling (1): Whenever you attempt to chill a target, you gain Bone Chilling, increasing spell damage you deal by 0.5% for 8 sec, stacking up to 10 times.
Whenever you root or freeze a target, you get 2 stacks of Bone Chilling.
Comment: Slightly modified to make this talent more useful for CC based builds and give it better synergy with Frostbite, which is a possible opening talent for it.
Row 7:
Piercing Shards (1): Flurry does X% more damage. This bonus is doubled for Flurries affected by Brain Freeze.
Comment: This talent is suggested to connect central part with Comet Storm, allowing to access it without necessity to take AoE talents. It has decent synergy with Brain Freeze, so is opened by Ebonbolt / Frozen Touch. As it is a Flurry talent, it is also accessible from Glacial Assault to provide more prerequisite choices for it.
Icy Veins (1): Accelerates your spellcasting for 20 sec, granting 30% haste and preventing damage from delaying your spellcasts. 2 min CD.
Comment: Suggested to become 2 min CD to be more balanced with Warlock’s Dark Soul: Misery and more synchronized with some other CDs and trinkets. However, the CD reduction is compensated with decent nerf to Icy Propulsion (more about it later).
Flash Freeze (1): Each of your Icicles deals X% additional damage, and when an Icicle deals damage you have a Y% chance to gain the Fingers of Frost effect.
Comment: Suggested to be placed as a cross talent between middle and Splitting Ice, so that SI is accessible from middle without necessity to take freeze based talents. It is generally useful even for non-Mastery builds (as they still use Icicles and can receive additional Fingers of Frost procs) and has some synergy with Arctic Piercing (giving FoF procs to utilize stacked Ice Lance bonus), so is opened by Arctic Piercing as well.
Row 8:
Comet Storm (1): Calls down a series of 7 icy comets on and around the target, that deals up to X% of Spell Power Frost damage to all enemies within 6 yds of its impacts.
Comment: Accessible from both Burst of Cold and Piercing Shards, so can be taken by both ST and AoE damage builds.
Glacial Bolt (1): Frostbolt can now consume Fingers of Frost, dealing X% increased damage and acting as if the target were frozen.
While Icy Veins are active, using Frostbolt against frozen target(s) extends its duration by 1 second.
Comment: A new talent to support Slick Ice and Cold Front builds, it allows to use Fingers of Frost procs on Frostbolt, having good synergy with following cleave Frostbolt talents, Slick Ice empowerment and allowing to build Cold Front Frozen Orbs a bit faster. Icy Veins part was added to allow these builds to keep similar Icy Veins uptime to builds that actively use Ice Lance and have Thermal Void.
Freezing Rain (1): Frozen Orb makes Blizzard instant cast and increases its damage done by X% for Y sec.
Icy Propulsion or Frostfury (1):
Icy Propulsion - Your damaging single target spell critical hits reduce cooldown of Icy Veins by 1 sec. This effect can trigger only once per second and does not trigger from Icicles. Glacial Spike critical hits provide 100% increased value for this bonus.
Frostfury - While Icy Veins is active, your spell damage is increased by 10% and this bonus is additionally increased by X% each time your single-target spells critically hit. This effect can trigger only once per second and does not trigger from Icicles. Glacial Spike critical hits provide 100% increased value for this bonus.
Comment: Icy Propulsion nerf is compensated by reducing base CD of Icy Veins to 2 minutes and making its effect work even when Icy Veins are not active. The nerf also makes Frostfury competitive enough with it. Both passives are not affected by Icicles - this is intentional to make Glacial Spike builds more competitive and is compensated by new boosting passives for Icy Veins, which make it more impactful.
Ray of Frost (1): Channel an icy beam at the enemy for 5 sec, dealing X% of Spell Power Frost damage every 1 sec and slowing movement by 60%. Each time Ray of Frost deals damage, its damage and snare increases by 10%. Can be channeled while moving. Enemies affected by the ray cannot use quick movement abilities.
Generates 2 charges of Fingers of Frost and 5 Icicles over its duration. 45s CD.
Comment: RoF needs buffs to make it more competitive. Possibility to channel it while moving and gap closer blocking makes it more useful for PVE and PVP. Icicles addition makes it more compatible with Mastery builds, to talents of which it leads. 45s CD makes it in line with Shaman’s Lightning Lasso, as both abilities would then be channels usable on the move with comparable damage and would have pros and cons compared to each other.
Ice Nine (1): Frostbolt and Flurry have a 30% chance to generate 2 Icicles.
Comment: Suggested to become a 1 point talent, as its effect is not powerful enough to justify 2 points investment.
Splitting Ice (1): Your Ice Lance and Icicles now deal 5% increased damage, and hit a second nearby target for 80% of their damage.
Your Ebonbolt and Glacial Spike also hit a second nearby target for 80% of its damage.
Comment: Suggested to be unnerfed and is now accessible from both Bone Chilling and Flash Freeze, so that both Mastery and non-Mastery builds can decently access it.
Row 9:
Fractured Frost or Iceborne (1):
Fractured Frost - Your Frostbolt and Flurry have 33% chance to hit up to 2 additional targets.
Iceborne - Transform into an Ice Elemental, making your Frostbolt and Flurry hit 2 additional targets near the initial. Lasts 15 seconds. 1 min CD.
Comment: This talent would provide players a choice between passive, but RNG based cleave and controllable cleave, but with CD, similarly to Mayhem and Havoc choice for Warlocks. From 40% to 33% chance nerf to FF is needed to keep them balanced with each other and compensates for it becoming a 1 point investment. Flurry addition to the talents allows to utilize it in the cleave rotation better. Depending on Frost Mage balance situation in DF, cleaved Flurry can proc full Winter Chill (2 stacks), partial Winter Chill (1 stack) or proc no Winter Chill stacks to additional targets.
Improved Icy Veins (1): Icy Veins increases Frost damage done by X(15?)%. This bonus stacks with Frostfury multiplicatively.
Comment: A talent from Legion and one of the mentioned new Icy Veins improvement talents.
Snap Freeze (1): Icy Veins grants a charge of Brain Freeze and X charges of Fingers of Frost.
Comment: 2 charges of FoF would be better than 1, as would allow to utilize both Brain Freeze Winter Chill stacks with Wintertide empowered Ice Lances and make this talent more competitive. However, that would entirely depend on balance situation in Dragonflight, so this addition might be not needed.
Thermal Void (1): Icy Veins’ duration is increased by 10 sec.
Your Ice Lances against frozen targets extend your Icy Veins by an additional 1 sec.
Comment: It is suggested to switch places with Chain Reaction, so that TV is accessible without necessity to take CR and Icy Veins upgrades are connected to each other.
Hailstones (1): Casting Ice Lance on Frozen targets has a 100% chance to generate an Icicle.
Comment: Suggested to become a 1 point investment talent to better match its effect power.
Row 10:
Cold Front (1): Casting X Frostbolts or Flurries calls down a Frozen Orb to your target. Hitting an enemy player counts as double.
Freezing Winds or Slick Ice (1):
Freezing Winds - While Frozen Orb is active, you gain Fingers of Frost every 2 sec.
Slick Ice - While Icy Veins is active, each Frostbolt you cast reduces the cast time of Frostbolt by 2% and increases its damage by 2%, stacking up to 10 times.
Ice Age (2): After using Icy Veins, you get a Brain Freeze effect every 9 / 6 seconds for 18 seconds.
Comment: The new talent that helps with making Icy Veins more bursty and is a replacement of Mirrors of Torment that is not tied to a dispellable CD and is not based on enemy actions.
Chain Piercing (1): Your Ice Lances against frozen targets increase the damage of your Ice Lances by 4% for 10 sec, stacking up to 5 times.
Comment: Renamed to not be confused with suggested Fire tree talent Chain Reaction. Slightly buffed to be on the level of Slick Ice and more fitting for a final talent. As Slick Ice is 1 point investment, so should be Chain Piercing.
Glacial Spike (1): Conjures a massive spike of ice, and merges your current Icicles into it. It impales your target, dealing X% of Spell Power damage plus all of the damage stored in your Icicles, and freezes the target in place for 4 sec. Damage may interrupt the freeze effect.
Requires 5 Icicles to cast.
Passive: Ice Lance no longer launches Icicles.
Comment: With Icicle dependancy removed from Icy Propulsion / Frostfury and new Icicle generating talents, it should become more competitive. If that is not enough, damage boost could be needed.
This sums up the list of my suggestions. Feel free to add your feedback and suggestions about possible additions or changes to Frost Mage talent tree design. Thank you for reading!
