This is a long, dogmatic and misleading post.
Frost Nova is a very valuable tool in dungeons. When used correctly, it helps group loose mobs around the tank. And they immediately turn to the tank and attack it, which generates rage for the tank and keeps them in melee range so the tank can more easily lay down some sunders.
Furthermore, it is very valuable when used to prevent runners, the most frequent cause of a fight going fubar and leading to wipes.
Mages out there, please don’t listen to the OP. Frost Nova is a VERY valuable tool for adding extra control in dungeon runs. (It is, admittedly, less useful in raids, and should probably be put away except in exceptional circumstances.)
But if the OP is mostly wrong, he’s also a little right. If you’re ONLY using Frost Nova to get a freeze in order to get a shatter crit, then you’re using Frost Nova wrong. Use it to turn chaos into order. And be happy when it (coincidentally) delivers an additional shatter crit.
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Very much this. OP is a loud mouthed butthurt idiot. Do not listen to him.
How good mages think mages work in dungeons:
Tank pulls, gathers, --> Frost nova --> Flame Strike + CoC --> Keep distance while carefully moving in a wide circle around the tank and the mobs while casting AE. If mobs are more threatening, blink away and safely cast blizzard. In emergencies, cold snap to re frost nova, forcing the mobs to attack the tank and generate rage, allowing the tank to quickly regain control of the situation and not limiting damage output of the party.
How bad tanks think mages should work in dungeons:
Sheep Moon --> Frost bolt… Frost bolt… Frost bolt… Frost bolt… Frost bolt… Frost bolt…
How everyone thinks mages work in raids:
Frost bolt… Frost bolt… Frost bolt… Frost bolt… Frost bolt… Frost bolt…
OR
Decurse… Decurse… Decurse… Decurse… Decurse… Decurse… Decurse…
AND
Priest whispers: Hey, can I have more water?
Paladin whispers: Water please!
Warlock whispers: Food and water please, 3 stacks of each!
Hunter whispers: Wtf dude, I needed that item!
you sound like an awful player
you do realize that what zhuul said is almost exactly what the OP said, right?
If the mobs are next to your tank and controlled, feel free to nova…
Censuses prior to the release of Classic, and my own (admittedly limited) personal experience playing Classic, indicate that mages are not massively over-represented, as many feared would happen. They are the most populous dps class, but probably only by very small percentage over warlocks and hunters. And there are certainly more warriors and priests than mages, at least on my server. And generally, I see quite a few druids and shaman too.
The only class which feels particularly under-represented to me is the rogue. I don’t know why, but you hardly see any of them in zones or in dungeons.
Heck, HEALER threat at that point. I don’t blow my load 2 seconds into the pull after all.
Telling people not to use a situationally good ability because it has potential downsides is the kind of concrete thinking that led to the litany of nerfs to fun over the years.
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Nope. You do realize there is a vast difference in what they said, right? OP says there is almost zero times to use frost nova. We did not say that remotely. Hush.
trying to figure out if you are serious here.
we’re definitely out there. you’re not supposed to see us.
as for dungeons. the better of the lower level weapons are quest rewards so no need to run wc/bfd/sm more than once. and with the amount of cheap blues in AH i just bought my 30 weapons instead of bothering with sm at all. never liked those dungeons. and those two weapons lasted me into the 50’s. that way i could do what i rolled rogue to do, which was certainly not leveling in dungeons.
have no idea how many rolled rogue though but i encounter my fair share on a pvp server.
did you actually read his entire post? the only difference is using nova on runners. rest basically sends the same message.
Should take a gander at it yourself. He clearly states you should almost never use it in dungeons and should probably never use it anyway and in no case should you EVER use it in a raid. Guy is a loony, I use my frost nova almost to the point of on perma CD. There are tons of situations where its great to use, ESPECIALLY in dungeons. Imo make frequent use of frost nova, not try to almost never use it like the OP is trying to tell mages.
As a healer I couldn’t care less about the mage using that stuff. Just be smart about it, dont get hit by the mobs and if you you aggro cc them, and iceblock/blink.
For gods sake dont stand in melee the whole time ( iv seen mages do that )
Id prob have dropped this tanks groups for making it much longer with speeches, etc but honestly I’m here to play/heal. If the mage is pulling too much aggro and getting smashed/not using their toolkit to cc - ill just let them die. ( cant waste my whole mana bar on a noob mage who cant blink or slow )
As a tank you just need to keep going and keep aggro on you as best as you can. Not spark debates mid pull or tell people how you think it should be. If the group gets held up for an extended period of time over stupid crap like this I can easily find/make more groups thatll just get it done.
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i’m just gonna /facepalm and go play now.
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Holy paly makes it easy cause we can still bubble mages if they pull tons of aggro and it usually defaults back to tank.
Kinda love that lol.
What an idiotic thread. You can’t apply a blanket rule like this, and it shows you have no idea what you’re talking about. The fact you even write up a diatribe like this about something so silly is laughable. Get outside a little more bud.
A good mage knows when to nova and doesn’t do what you described. Sadly, 90%+ of the mages in classic are absolute and utter gutter trash. I can be nearly AFK watching TV in a dungeon and out DPS any other mage I come across, even many levels higher than me. People that didn’t play mage in classic have a lot of learning to do.
Watching these n00b mages (and every DPS class for that matter) pull agro right off the bat and get whacked is extremely amusing. These people either didn’t play classic, or played too much retail since then and forgot what threat is. You also have so many ways to not die as a mage who pulls agro, that if you keep dying you are just bad at the class.
You are most likely not a very good tank if this is that much of an issue for you. 9/10 tanks at the moment have no idea how to actually generate or hold threat, or what to do when things get crazy. A good tank wouldn’t even complain about this. Good tanks are not common, though.
This is how it was in vanilla, though 
Actually, good mages position themselves in what may (to other classes) seem oddly counterintuitive positions. They do so to get better LOS on sheeped mobs (in case they need to be re-sheeped). And being relatively close to the melee means that they can easily use Frost Nova for it’s best use in dungeons, which is to root runners.
But I agree that it is stupid to stand at literal melee range of the mobs and cast Frost Nova. You just need to stand close enough that mobs are in the radius of a potential Frost Nova.
A frost mage would have to be particularly stupid to pull aggro, so feel free.
The reason for this is that they have an in-built talent that reduces their threat generation. It isn’t cleverness. Or, at least, it’s just the fairly mundane cleverness of someone who chooses to pick a threat reduction talent.
That doesn’t mean it can’t happen. But usually it’s because the mage has come in too soon in the fight. (Honestly, would it kill people to sit and drink for the first few seconds of a fight? Kills two birds with one stone. Recovers some mana, and gives the tank a little time to generate threat.)
The other situation where it can happen is if the tank has marked a secondary target X, but has generated zero threat on it during the fight. If the tank has focussed too much on the skull target, and hasn’t generated any threat on X before skull dies, that’s a tanking mistake, not a dps mistake.
These things happen, though, and I never make a fuss about them. I’m usually of the mindset of reacting to what’s happening, and actually enjoying the challenge of fixing mistakes. If the other players in my group were perfect little automatons and never did anything wrong, I think I’d die of boredom. As a frost mage, my job is to be the second line of control (after the tank) in difficult fights or fights that get out of control.
Stop backpeddling because you are horribly wrong.
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My kind of paladin! 