I know the post is long check the TLDR at the bottom for a summary.
I know a bit about mages. I mained one into AQ. In classic, I decided to roll a druid, and because of the tank shortage on my server I ended up being feral.
By all accounts, I do a darn good job. I actually manage to hold threat quite well as opposed to other bears and obviously better than warriors, which I hear often from dps have major problems generally, especially AOE threat in groups.
So I tell you this as a friend: stop it.
Stop frost novaing in dungeons.
Unless you’re in a very specific situation, a mage should almost never be frost novaing in a dungeon ever And pretty much NEVER in a raid
I cannot tell you how many times I pull and see a mage immediately run up and frost nova/CoC shatter combo in a group. Every mage. Every dungeon. Every group. Stop it
- First of all. When mid pull, mobs are still shifting and getting into position. For bears this means rotating swipes through the group. When you Nova all of that stops. Threat stops because mobs out range thorns and swipe and autos. Mobs are now out of position. Threat is no longer being generated.
- Now, naturally, they follow up with an immediate cone of cold for “big shatter combo deeps bro”. So that already fragile agro (that you ruined to start with) is now completely shattered (pun intended)
- Now naturally some mobs are unrooted from damage , some still have agro, some don’t, some are moving some are still rooted. Checkmate. The tank in this position can literally do nothing. If they stay to keep generating agro the moving mobs will attack the ranged, chasing the ranged means losing agro on the rooted mobs to dps actually doing their jobs and the healer.
- Now that the group is effectively split, there is no way to get them gather them up and tank effectively.
- Now, in the case that the ranged or healer are in danger from the mobs, the mage has no nova to hold them at bay.
This naturally results in a sht show. Everything is spread, dps is inefficient, tanking is inefficient, everything is split, the healer is getting attacked. it’s a mess.
Additionally, a fundamental mechanic every mage doesn’t seem to get is that a rooted mobs attacks whatever they’re stacked on, tank or not. So naturally, this split pack ends up near the ranged to which the mage Nova’s again rooting them right on top of the healer who immediately gets deleted.
The point I’m making is that frost nova in dungeons, in general, is bad. There is no surer sign I can get of a bad mage then one who immediately runs up on pull, Nova’s and CoCs. It ruins the flow of the dungeon, causes more work for your tank, kills your healer, puts your entire group in a weaker position in general, and just generally slows down the run.
I could care less what your dps is. I don’t even have meters. All I care is that agro isnt a chore, my healer stays alive, moon is polyed, and that the run is smooth. I don’t care if you’re bottom on dps if you’re doing your job.
To me, mages that shatter combo in groups are literally the biggest liability you can have and almost outweigh bringing them in the first place. Generally, it does outweigh the benefits.
There’s many many more reasons I could put in here on why novaing in groups is generally just a sign of a bad player. Only in very, very specific situations should you use nova (protecting ranged, when the mobs aren’t on you yet, when the tank is kiting because the healer is OOM, or just generally as a last resort in desperation). Even facing imminent death, it’s generally better to ice block or just die rather than nova.
I just wanted to put out a friendly PSA that mages who nova in dungeons as part of their dps rotation are thought of as bad by the in the know community at large and other mages that know how to play their class
TLDR Frost novaing in dungeons and raids is bad, and is a sign that you are a bad player. Use frostbolt to focus down targets even at the expensive of aoe damage, or simply use cone or blizzard without nova
I’m crying