https://www.reddit.com/r/worldofpvp/comments/1f44wxc -
Here is my old thread from "Feedback Mages" thread during beta:
Frost Mage PvPers Feedback.
I want to start by saying, I have over 20,000 hours of /played on Frost Mage in 2v2 arena mostly. I am going to start from the top of the Mage tree on the left side and then work on the Frost Tree on the right side. Then touch on Hero talents, PvP talents, Frost Mastery and Frostbolt vs Ice Lance Damage.Mage Tree
Cryo-Freeze:Should not be 50% in PvP. It should remain 80%.
Reabsorption: Should not be nerfed by 2% per mirror. On live, its hardly even good enough for any Frost Mage to take in PvP. Some of us do take it, it actually needs a buff.
Ring of Frost and Ice Nova:
Should not share the same tier. Ring of Frost is a prerequisite for PvP. Spellslinger Frost Mage's will not be able to shatter Comet Storm and Frostfire Mage's with Isothermic Core will not be able to shatter Comet Storm+Meteor without a random Ice Nova proc. Also, Ice nova, Ring of Frost and DB are perquisites for Frost Mage PvP.
Mass Polymorph:
Make it a choice node with Ice Nova. I heard about this one on a stream. Great idea.
Arcane Warding or Incantation of Swiftness:
Consider making it 1 point, so remove curse is not required to get. Make sure to mirror the tree on the other side too. So that only 1 talent point is used for winter's protection or tempest barrier.
Diverted Energy and Accumulative Shielding: Does not work with Mass Barrier.
Barrier Diffusion: Getting Blazing Barrier dispelled should reduce both Ice Barrier's and Mass Barrier's cooldown. Having 0 seconds come off Ice Barrier cooldown from Blazing Barrier being dispelled, is horribly underpowered for PvP. Consider making it effect Ice Barrier's cooldown from all barriers that are dispelled.
Dragons Breath & Super Nova:
If we cannot have Ice Nova and Ring. Then, consider placing Super Nova somewhere else, as with current Frostbolt damage, Dragon's Breath or some type of CC helper, is a prerequisite for PvP. You also can’t do @arena123 with Supernova, but you can do /focus arena1 /cast [@focus] Supernova at that focus. You can arena123, with Ice Nova, Supernova should function the same. Again, Ice nova, Ring of Frost and DB are perquisites for Frost Mage PvP.
Tome of Rhonin & Tome of Antonidas:
Please switch their places. All PvP Mages are already taking Energized Barriers. Which unlocks the tier below. Not all Mages are taking Improved Frost Nova or Tome of Rhonin. Switching the Tome's places, allows us to get Frigid Winds, while still having points for Temporal Velocity etc.
Time Manipulation and Diverted Energy:
Good old swap-o-roo here. i. e. Swap their positions in the tree. Keeping on the time theme with Alter Time but also on the Barrier theme with Accumulative Shielding. Makes sense and is better for Frost PvP.
Frost Tree:
Comet storm:
Not available if you are taking Ring of Frost. Currently taking Ice Nova and not Ring of Frost, is really bad. But, I have to, because Comet Storm's damage on the move is invaluable when weaving Polymorphs and getting trained. Comet Storm hits almost 100% harder than Ice Lance and has delayed burst, making it great, the healers do not know if they should trinket or not because the spell comes down delayed. Just wish it did not cleave and break Polymorphs.
Death's Chill:
Keep it 2% per stack or consider making it: Death's Chill affects Frostbolt only, all the time, not just Icy veins is not active, like Ice Form bug currently does. The stacks can carry over into Icy Veins too. That way you can get 15 stacks before you start your go with Icy Veins+Slick Ice. Leaning into the word "Death's" and "Chill" meaning you are less alive not having Icy Veins - you are in a moment of chilling. Not sending your lively go.
Ray of Frost:
Should be competitve with Ice Lance spam build. I do not even take Ray with Death's Chill build in 2s, but am now considering it. As Ray just got buffed 20% and Death's Chill nerfed to the ground. What the hell blizzard? In-actuality its only a 11% Ray Buff, as I play Frostbolt build and will have those Death's Chills stacks anyways.
Glacial Spike:
Should be competitive with Ice Lance spam build.
Frostbolt:
Should be competitive with Ice Lance spam build.
Slick ice: Should switch positions with freezing rain. Makes since because there are supporting Frostbolt talents all around freezing rain. Some people do not want to take Thermal Void, as they sometimes rarely spam ice lance for the extra 0. 5 seconds.
Frostbite:
Some Mage's do not like playing Frostbite as Healer+Frost. We can't use supernova or blastwave when it procs. Yet you have made Frostbite required to get Ray of Frost because it is not logical to get Splitting Ice just to get Ray of Frost as Splitting Ice breaks too much CC. Taking Subzero without Frostbite also makes almost 0 sense. Frost Mages who want to play Ice Ward and no Frostbite should never take Splitting Ice. Those types of Mage;s usually want maximum control. Considering switching Chain Reaction and Splitting Ice positions or Hailstones and Splitting Ice.
Splitting Ice, Chain reaction and Hailstones:
Their positions are horrible for non cleaving Mage's who do not want to run Frostbite. Considering moving them around in someway like described earlier.
Splitting Ice:
Should not break Polymorphs or CC'd targets. Fractured Frost does not, why does splitting ice?
Splintering Cold:
Possibly, make this 1 point.
Frostfire
Isothermic Core:
Comet should not place a meteor. Meteor leaves a patch on the ground, causing polymorphs and other CC to potentially track into meteor.
Excess Frost:
Flurry should not cast an ice nova. This will be breaking polymorphs and blinds like mad!
Frostfire Empowerment:
Frostfire bolt should not explode on damage. Again, this will break polymorphs.
Excess Fire:
Ice lance should not spread living bomb. Same exact points, again.
Frostfire Bolt:
Use to not effected by Slick Ice, PvP modifiers, and some other things.
Does less damage than Frostbolt in PvP.
As far as Frostfire goes, getting locked on both frost and fire is really bad; we will not be able to dragons breath without cold snapping.
Spellslinger
Seems fine for Frost PvP. Shifting power does not send out shards to break polymorphs, but some splinters do break other things, Blinds, Ring of Frost, etc and other things. The problems I have with it are losing 6% haste+mastery that Frostfire has. As well as double barrier(needed for dispel protection). Frostbolt should do 25% more damage than Ice Lance as spellslinger, Lance can be nerfed 25%. Consider reducing Frostbolt cast time and/or a 6% haste+verse buff and not letting it break CC at all. Also Frostbolt due to the PvP scaling has a really high spell power co-effecient. It's like 7:1 in against a player in PvP. It almost forces me to go human because of this and run double dps trinket. Consider doing something here about this.Here are some dispel protection ideas:
Old Look Again:
"Your displacement has 50% longer range and duration. ".
New Look Again:
"Your displacement has 50% longer range and duration. Your shimmer reduces displacement cooldown by 2. 5 seconds, and buffs all current wearing shields by 7. 5%. ".
Old Reactive Barrier:
"Your Ice Barrier can absorb up to 50% more damage based on your missing Health. Max effectiveness when under 50% health".
New Reactive Barrier:
"Your Ice Barrier can absorb up to 50% more damage based on your missing Health. Max effectiveness when under 50% health. When your barrier is dispelled, refresh arcane intellect and gain a 3% tempest barrier".
PvP Talents
Frostbomb:
Currently does about the same damage as Frostbolt critical strikes, unless you use it at the end of your Death's Chill Ramp, then it may do about 10-20% more, but its very rare and too hard to manage in PvP. Just as using Ray of Frost at the end of Death's Chills ramp is too hard to time to make Ray worth taking right now. Ray of Frost damage in PvP is severely undertuned. Frostbomb is a prerequisite but also breaks polymorphs and screws up Sub+Frost go's. Secret Technique on the Sub tree has this problem as well.
Ice Form:
Should be about 10 seconds longer and/or effect more than just Frostbolt damage.
Death's Chill lasts outside of Ice Form when Ice Form is selected.
Ice Wall:
Consider binding its rotation to the mouse after first click. Having to turn your character and not see its exact placement is a very bad design.
If I drop 17% verse for 17% mastery. I gain roughly 20% Ray and Ice Lance damage, but I lose 50k/damage per Frostbolt at level 70. Also, 20%+ Ray damage is still not enough to bring it up to speed with Frostbolt spam with Death's Chill. This makes mastery worthless for Frostbolt build. As it should be. Mastery should not be a pvp stat Frost Mage's take. We should reward the player for casting not spamming an instant like Ice Lance. Also, Frostbolt (spellslinger) should hit for a minimum of 25% more than Ice Lance after 15 stacks, not 25% less or equal to. Maybe I am missing something? Like generating more Spellslinger shards with Frozen orb, and you need to play Cold Front in PvP? Not entirely bad but, calling down an orb will break CC. Not sure what route they are trying to go here? Let me know. Dragonflight was so good for Frost PvP, they started buffing Ice Lance and everything went to poo.
Mage Category Grade Letter Scores A to F
Mage Tree: F
Barrier Diffusion, Tomes, Dragons Breath, Super Nova, Reabsorption, Time Manipulation, Diverted Energy and Cryo-Freeze could all be better.
Frost Tree: C-
Talents look decent, but their positioning are bad!
Frostfire Tree: F -
Cleaving mainly is horrible for Organized PvP.
Spellslinger Tree: C+
Only because Spellslinger Frost has a chance to work. Though some of the shards still break Polymorphs!!! Frostfire is required for double barrier dispel protection and it provides up to 6% haste+mastery. Make Spellslinger provide 6% haste+verse or 6% haste and 1250 intellect.
PvP Tree: C-
Frostbomb breaking Polymorph is horrible! Would be a B+ just with that change. Ice form is too short on duration to get 5 Frostbolts+re-polys off to make it worth it. Needs to be 27 seconds minimum. With DK changes like 4 second Polymorphs, sometimes I will pop icy veins and maybe only get 2 Frostbolts off, due to double Grip, shorter CC etc. As I have been playing Frost PvP since Jan 2006. I have 1200 days /played or even more on Frost Mage. I specialize in Frost and nothing else!
Most Rank 1 Frost Mage’s believe in rewarding hard casted damage like Ray+Glacial+Frostbomb or even just pure Frostbolt build. It’s a personal preferences really. Let use choose, do not force us to play Ice Lance spam. We should be able to pick Frostbolt or Ray+Glacial or Ice Lance or combos.