ray of frost is very easy to play around though.
flurry > comet storm > ray. It’s that way every time without fail (flurry > lance > comet storm > ray, if haste is high enough). you even get 2 globals of movement before ray to be sure your in position. Paired with either ice floes or shimmer.
frost rotation is essentially 9 buttons including cooldowns, with a lot of mobility. Of those, 3 of them are only once a minute or later. That’s nearly a perfect amount when so many of them are longer cd’s. most of the rotation is 4 buttons, with a small combo every 30/60/120s. What’s even better, is that it’s a mostly deterministic rotation as well. If your damage is low, it’s 100% on you (with the exception of someone killing you with a mechanic).
I disagree. I much prefer playing frost without glacial spike. I do like ray of frost though.
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Would’ve been cool if they brought back ebonbolt. Every 45s your next frost bolt is converted into an ebonbolt (receiving all frost bolt modifiers). 2p
Then have 4p as some sort of modifier after you use ebonbolt so even if you don’t build a huge ebonbolt it enables stuff after.
Glacial Spike seems so cool on paper, and even looks really awesome when you cast it.
The problem is the way it feels. Glacial Spike doesn’t flow with the rotation. It feels like a giant stop right in the middle of an otherwise smooth rotation, and I think that’s why people don’t like it.
If Blizzard could change the feel of spike I think a lot of people wouldn’t mind it or even come to like it.
I genuinely don’t understand this at all. It has virtually the same cast time as Frostbolt, and if you can count to 4 and/or install any of the hundred weakauras (it’s built into most WA packs people should be running for any content above LFR) then it’s super smooth and fits perfectly into the existing rotation. You’re casting Frostbolt most of the time, you can see when/if you have Flurry charges so really it’s just a matter of being able to count.
If you’re insinuating that players feel they have to stop their current rotation to cast GS then… I mean, if they’re playing wrong sure. If you’re halfway through a Frostbolt cast, and stop to cast GS then you’ve just lost dps. Finish the 1 second of cast, or wait for your IL CGD then cast GS. Otherwise, you know it’s coming and can plan for it easily. The best part is, with the changes and Flurry being a charge-based system it’s so much easier.
I don’t know what to tell you really. It fits well with both the AoE and ST rotation, it is very easy to track and it chunks like a beast. The only gameplay improvement that could be made to it is to remove its interaction with Winter’s Chill so it can be cast every time it’s up without having to wait for a Flurry. That of course means Flurry is less useful, but there’s not really much else it can do to make it even more fun to use.
I personally love that GS is back. So much so that I’m going to main a mage again for the first time in a long time.
To your point about GS/WC, I think GS would feel better (and maybe even the rotation itself) if we didn’t have 2 stacks of WC. That’s the only place I feel a bit awkward in the rotation is when I have to get that one Ice Lance cast off to consume one WC stack and then get my GS or RoF in there.
It does get easier the more you play it and I know we wanted 2 WC stacks for the double ice-lance but now we’re no longer only consuming WC with IL. Just having 1 stack of WC would be a smoother rotation … but I ain’t gonna die on that hill.
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I find it so interesting how so many ppl don’t like GS! I love it, it’s like a huge gun you gotta build up to and use it at times to top everything off. But I totally feel ya at the same time, theres things I totally hate about other classes I wish they didn’t make the king of the jungle.
I’m hoping for mage changes coming I’m gonna be so bummed if they just want frost to be a little guy next season
This idea works, but that sounds more like a 4pc effect.
I’m fine with having WC be at two, I wish however it had an instant and casted version instead of just two stacks. It is a blast doing Frostbolt>Flurry>GS>IL. I’ve never been a big fan of double lance.
As a PvPer, a 10% damage boost to Glacial Spike is awesome. Bout to detonate people.
Not sure why the PvErs are complaining, wont it make your numbers higher?
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No idea who decided to base an entire tier set around the last talent ‘choice’. Is it even a talent choice if you base your entire tier set around it? Like who is not going to take Glacial Spike if they have the tier set? This is incompetent on so many levels, but I guess it’s too late now.
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Blizzard admitted that the some of tier sets intentionally drive people to talents they would never use. Like Holy Prism/Light’s Hammer for HPals this tier, when HPals never touched those with a 10 foot pole.
Glacial Spike is weird since people took it anyways, though.
They could fix this by adding an alternative effect that triggers off Icicles if you don’t have the Glacial Spike talent. They won’t, but they should.
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I’d actually love to see Icicles get more use in active spells. When they reworked the talents, I thought it would have been the perfect opportunity to rejig Comet Storm and Ray as the 3 Capstone abilities that required X number of icicles and did sufficient damage.
You then have a ST, a cleave and an AoE ability tied into an existing resource. Ray would exist on a lower cooldown because of it, GS could still be viable for ST or M+ especially on Tyr weeks, and CmS could come off CD faster and/or hit harder. It would open up options, and potentially reduce button bloat as you’d likely only be able to take two at most. Then your tier set could just increase the bonus damage from active icicles, rather than tie them to one spell only.
That said, I still think that with the AoE component GS will be pretty win for M+.