Been trying to find a concrete answer to this. If I go GF for M+ will my boss damage really suffer drastically? Or should I stick to FW and keep my boss damage up. Not really worried about the raiding aspect of it all.
Really just curious about how much dps you drop in ST by going GF
Yes.
You could. Its what I do right now.
A lot, however, if you are venthyr you are probably fine to run GF for the better aoe and then still have good single target with mirrors of torment.
Freezing Winds is better for mythic+ vs Glacial Fragments for two key reasons:
As it doesnāt fall off at any point in the dungeon, itās also the lego that offers more consistent throughput for the run so it keeps your IV uptime/downtime cycle more consistent as well.
The key to Frost doing good vs great in keys is the amount of IV up time you can maintain throughout the key. A scuffed IV will pretty much leave you without the buff for like ~2mins, which is just awful. Proper Orb and IV uses keep its downtime to like <30 seconds at worst in well coordinated groups with Freezing Winds.
Glacial Fragments is your go-to if you donāt care about priority damage and just want to AoE, although it will cap at 5 targets. It needs to tick more boxes to work properly. You need: a tank that consistently pulls 3-5 targets (ideally 4-5, as FW is very competitive even at 3), excellent Blizzard uptime, team mates that compensate for your lack of ST damage, and not have the dungeon be Necrotic Wake (GF doesnāt work in the Necropolis).
This entirely depends on the key and the affix. Even at +21ish, a non-Tyranical boss is no joke to quickly kill before it repeats an ability/phase.
GF gives me better overall damage than FW. Personally, I only use GF as I am Venthyr so my ST damage is still good.
A lot will depend on what level keys youāre doing. Higher keys means things live longer, so you will want to take that into consideration.
Iād be taking GF for Fort weeks because itās all about the AoE damage and while you lose a bit of ST damage your overall will be better for that run.
FW for Tyr weeks, still gives you OK AoE damage but will give you better ST which is vital to get those bosses down.
For me personally FW has so much more versatility in its use that I have completely dropped GF in all scenarios. You may not end up with the same overall (though it isnāt too far off) but you will have significantly better boss and priority damage which can and often is more valuable to your overall contribution to the successful completion of the dungeon in my experience.
FW is also a greatly more enjoyable playstyle for me too and is less reliant on the tanks positioning (although you still want them to stand in your blizzard for the orb CD reduction).
This is my experience around the +15 keystone range.
Iād take advice like this with a grain of salt, because the drop in ST isnāt āa bitā and you can actually cause keys to break because of it.
This is very true. It becomes even more relevant when you push keys in the +20s, because the higher your key goes, the more relevance your IV uptime and the ST phases of a dungeon get. Also in some dungeons it is flat out better damage, even on an overall basis (NW and ToP are pretty much guaranteed for FW, but depending on your route it can win in Spires & Plaguefall too).
Oh for sure. I think that logic applies to most things in WoW now as there are so many variables at play. There are also some keys that are more 2-3 target or have priority targets so while GF may be ābestā on paper, FW might actually be a better option.
Iām considering making some frost leggoās to run keys with so this thread is muy muy helpful.
Any of you wonderful frost mages out there Night Fae? If so, when do you use the Covenant ability? Just when itās off CD or is there a more strategic way to use it?
When Orb, Blizzard, and Icy Veins are on cooldown and ideally when Icy Veins is running because it works with Icy Propulsion.
Thanks for the info !
I heard that using Night Fae ability is actually a dps loss and not worth usingā¦
Thought that was just for single target.
Itās not worth it on single target, except if you meet two criteria:
Even then, it is just second last on your priority (just above Frostbolt) on ST.
Itās actually stellar on AoE though.
Edit: Also on ST it isnāt a loss in a strict sense, itās just a very, very minor gain for most Frost setups (like around 0.02% to 0.05%) so itās basically not worth casting but not a loss if you do cast it, you basically just break even.