Looking for Some Frost Mage Help

I played Arcane Mage as a Main since the start of 9.0 and enjoyed it. I do only M+, so I am aware it was never meta.

Lately though, the Ramp time is far too long to be viable in the dungeons I have been doing. Sure, I can burst 60-80k but that is only if things live long enough and I do my Rotation perfectly, and am not forced to move, and I crit Barrage (that one is big).

So, with everyone being Frost, and me not liking the Combustion playstyle. I thought I would give it a whirl.

I have 4 set, I have Cold Front Leggo, and I am Necro. I am sitting at 27% Haste, 31% Crit (I am not itemized yet).

I simmed myself for patchwerk, and then hit the Target Dummy for 5 minutes. The “rotation” is straight forward, but I checked videos just incase.

The Sims are saying my Ice Lance should be doing 50% More then my damage meters have it! The Sim is at 36% of my overall, Details has it s a mere 22%.

I am casting Ice Lance with Ever FoF Buff, I am using Icy Veins and RoP on CD. As well as Frozen Orb. The Sim has me using some FireBlasts, but I don’t know why. I am not using that Leggo.

There is a huge Dmg different. 8k on Target Dummy 11.6k on Sims, and it is all from Ice Lance.

What am I doing wrong? Is there some sort of hidden synergy I am unaware of? Even my AoE in dungeons is poop. Blizzard and Orb On CD and Flurry and Ice Lance when it procs.

Send help.

Edit:
I think I figured it out?
I need to use Ice Lance AFTER Flurry when I don’t have a FoF Proc, because that still acts as a Frozen target when it lands. That seemed (?) To add some more Ice Lance damage? Still need more practice and AoE is still in shambles.

Some rules of thumb:

  1. For raids, your legendaries will be Slick Ice + Unity. For M+, your legendaries will usually be Cold Front + Unity

  2. Other classes can, and will, outperform Frost on AoE pulls. It’s not every single time though. Our Blizzard is capped, while other classes AoE spells aren’t.

  3. Never worry about Icicles. If you get a lance proc, send it. If you get a FoF proc, it’s always 2 ice lances following it.

  4. Most fights you’d want to run the Splitting Ice talent. For pure single target, because of our tier, you’d want the Comet Storm talent (especially with 4-set).

  5. Frosts covenant will be Necrolord. When you pop your bone mage, spam Frostbolts if you have more than 2 targets. No lances. If you get a FoF, send that, and shatter them by still using Frostbolts. If it’s 2 targets or less, just do normal rotation.

  6. Keeping uptime on Icy Veins is the goal beneath the veil.

I might’ve left a couple things out, but this is the fundamentals here. Frost performs well because of it’s 2 set, and even better if you get the 4 set.

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Frost is a bottom spec for m+ atm. Your not going to top meters or even keep up with other specs. Your best bet is to follow the comments others have provides above, and try to time your cds around large aoe pulls if your running freeing rains build. If your running splitting ice then you want to focus cleave, and if your running comet storm it’s single target.
You can blame some dumb streamer who manipulated frosts aoe so blizz nerfed it.

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That isn’t what I wanted to hear. When I played Arcane, everyone told me I needed to go Frost. Not Fire, and Definitely not Arcane, Frost.

Arcane has a TON of damage. 80k AoE 40k Single. The problem is, it is a 12-15 second Ramp time. Trash is dead before Ramp is complete, and Boss requires movement before Ramp is complete. So, instead of 80k and 40k, I end up with 8k and 15k.

In the Perfect world, I would still be Arcane… But I was reaching a point were I didn’t contribute enough up front Damage that I needed a Change. So, Frost I went.

Frost AOE is WHACK. You need to build into it, and also use Arcane Explosion (Outside of Necro Convern) which BURNS mana. That has been the ONLY way I can compete with AoE in the 18-22k Range. And that, is for a VERY limited time. I am talking seconds.

Necro AOE is great. Frost bolt cleave with insta Flurry mixed in. I can get 25-30k with it… if they live long enough. Boss damage is great as Frost, equal to Arcane but much easier sustain… The AOE is just hurting. I might have to get the Frost Orb Leggo and Pray for Procs this week…

I never liked Fires Combustion playstyle. 1 miss click and all your damage is gone. It is not forgiving… but I might have to try that.

I guess every class suffers from a short coming. My Fury Warrior cant boss damage for sh.t, but his AoE is through the Roof. My DH is pretty stable and burst to kingdom come with Meta and Sinful brand AoE… I guess it is intended. Until you see other classes bursting 40k+ aoe every other pull… then they do 15k+ boss damage…

Just seems… unfair.

I usually have absolutely no issue keeping up with other specs. In fact, I surpass my group mates in DPS as much as I don’t. In boss fights, especially single target and 2 targets, I’m always competitive, and sometimes top.

Just putting in my two cents that Frost can never come out on top. That just isn’t true.

For the OP of this post, do not lose any faith. Just keep practicing. Frost can be niche. As soon as you get a consistent flow for the gameplay, and good IV uptime, things will fall in place.

Never feel bad about AoE fights or pulls; that’s where we can get gutted, for sure. It is what it is in that situation.

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This.

When Brain Freeze Procs, cast Flurry then cast TWO Ice Lances. Both Ice Lances are treated as if they had the FoF proc even though they do not.

Um, no. It’s very much near the bottom of the dps logs. In fact, with over 12k data logs, I am pretty sure I will trust the logs over what 1 person may or may not be able to do.

Well, alrighty then.

Also another thing for single target in a raid environment is to take commet storm. How you use is is when you have Brain Freeze proc

Go frost bolt, BF flurry, commet storm, then ice lance, ice lance.
With 4 pc the commet storm you cast triggers the 4pc buff, which will buff your ice lances slamming into the BF Flurry debuff.