Last updated on Jun 10, 2024 at 00:00by Wrdlbrmpft
Welcome to our Cataclysm FrostMage PvP guide! The following pageswill lead you through the basics of Frost Mage PvP.
1.
Frost Mage PvP Overview
Frost Mage does strongburst damage, offers the best crowd-control toolkit of all Mage specs andhas powerful survivability spells and talents. Sheeping in PVP is nowharder, as the cast time has been increased, so you need to be carefulwhen sheeping enemies, not to trigger any spell locks during thelong cast time.
2.
Strengths and Weaknesses
Strengths
Powerful cooldowns that can serve both defensive and offensive purposes.
Best crowd-control of all Mage specs.
Huge burst-on-demand damage potential.
Viable in most PVP situations.
Strong survivability toolkit.
A diverse range of spells, usually offering a useful option for any scenario.
Weaknesses
If you are out of mana, you are out of mana.
Vulnerable to interrupts, as all of your damage is in the Frost spell school.
You have to micro manage your Water Elemental, which has very useful abilities.
3.
Talent Build and Glyphs
3.1.
Prime Glyphs
Glyph of Frostbolt — A straight 5% crit chanceincrease for your
Frostbolt.
Glyph of Mage Armor — Enhances the mana regenerationof your
Mage Armor.
Glyph of Pyroblast — A straight 5% damage increaseto your
Ice Lance.
3.2.
Major Glyphs
Glyph of Frost Armor — Allows your
Frost Armor to regenerate2% of your maximum mana every 5 seconds. If you use
Glyph of Mage Armoras a Prime Glyph, you may also use
Glyph of Dragon's Breath here, butthat is completely optional.
Glyph of Ice Barrier — 30% more damage absorption for your
Ice Barrier.
Glyph of Polymorph —
Polymorph now removes all damageover time effects from the target, so the sheep does not break instantly.
3.3.
Minor Glyphs
Glyph of Slow Fall — Removes the reagent cost from
Slow Fall.
Glyph of Conjuring — Reduces theMana cost of conjuring by 50%.
Glyph of Arcane Brilliance — Reduces theMana cost of
Arcane Brilliance by50%.
4.
Rotation and Playstyle
If you have not already, we recommend taking a look at theSpells Summary page first.The better you know your abilities, the better and more versatileyou are at playing your Mage. The rotation always depends on whatyour enemies do and if they are frozen or not. For a better understandingof when your spells deal most damage, we highly recommendreading the Rotations pagefrom the PvE section. The followingspells are considered most important for Frost Mages:
Frostbolt — Cast when not at risk of beinginterrupted. Works like a charm with
Early Frost
Deep Freeze — stuns enemies for 5 seconds.Only usable on Frozen targets. Instant cast.
Flame Orb — Your Flame Orb (now
Frostfire Orb)inflicts damage per second. Theseticks operate akin to standard Frost spells concerning Fingers ofFrost and Brain Freeze, with each tick havinga chance to trigger them. Expect these activations during FlameOrb's duration and be prepared to cast Ice Lanceto prevent reaching the maximum two charges of Fingers of Frost.
Freeze (Water Elemental) — The Freezespell from your Water Elemental should be utilized wheneverfeasible. While some advise reserving it for Deep Freeze, thisposes an issue due to Deep Freeze's 30-second cooldowncompared to Freeze's 25-second cooldown. To optimize your DPS(yielding approximately one extra charge of Fingers ofFrost every two minutes, resulting in a marginal DPS increase),Freeze should be employed whenever available. Instant cast.
Icy Veins — Icy Veins serves as your primaryDPS cooldown. Icy Veins should be utilized whenever feasible.Together with
Cold Snap it delivers intense burst damageonce or twice per fight, depending on the fight's duration.
Cold Snap — Resets the cooldown of all Frostabilities, including
Icy Veins.
Ice Lance — Does double damage on frozen targets(works with
Fingers of Frost). Instant cast.
Frostfire Bolt —
Brain Freeze can be usedwhen
Brain Freeze is active.
Fire Blast — Use to dps and to stun,if
Impact procs. Instant cast.
Cone of Cold — AoE damage and 4-seconds freeze CC. Workswell together with
Shatter, which triples your critical strikechance versus frozen targets.
Frost Nova — Freeze CC. Has the same
Shatterinteraction as
Cone of Cold above.
Ring of Frost — Freeze CC that works with
Shatterand can be used to create distance between you and enemies or to set atrap.
Flame Orb — A high damage ability, useful if you seek tonuke one target to oblivion.
5.
Utility Spells
In addition to your main damaging and CC spells, you also have importantutility spells:
Invisibility — Used to flee from combat.
Time Warp — Alternative to
Bloodlust/
Heroism, offers 30% increased attack/casting speed for youand your group for 40 secons.
Spellsteal — Steal beneficial magic effects from yourenemies.
Polymorph — Transforms your enemies into a pet, removingall dots on them, thanks to
Glyph of Polymorph.
Mirror Image — Minor DPS increase.
Mana Shield — Absorbs Damage at the cost of mana.
Mage Ward — Absorbs Frost, Frost or Arcane damage, gives you
Blazing Speed, after dissipating from absorbing damage.
Ice Block — Makes you immune to all attacks for 10 seconds,but can be cleansed by spells like
Mass Dispel
Remove Curse — Cleanse 1 curse from a friendly target.Especially useful when dealing with Warlocks.
Slow Fall — This ability can be key to ambush attacks, orsurviving jumps from high above.
Blink — Teleports you 20 yards forward, even out of moststuns/snares.
Counterspell — Interrupts enemy casts and can spell lockthe cast spell scool for 7 seconds. With the talent, it also silences enemiesfor 4 seconds. Off global cooldown.
Frost Armor — The armor you want to use versus meleeenemies. It slows melee attackers and provides additional armor, whilealso regenerating mana through the
Glyph of Frost Armor.
Mage Armor — Used against casters. Provides resistanceversus all spell schools and regenerates mana, whilst also reducing theduration of harmful Magic effects against you.
6.
Best Professions
If you are looking to maximize the potential of your FrostMage in Cataclysm PvP, these are therecommended professions:
Tailoring —is great for the
Lightweave Embroidery cloak enchant.
Jewelcrafting —Gives you three powerful from
Chimera's Eye, giving you a 3x stat boost, compared to normal gems.
While Engineering was a very strong profession in the past expansions,in Cataclysm we prefer Jewelcrafting and Tailoring.
7.
Gearing
The list linked below provides you with the Best-in-Slot gear setup for aFrost Mage in PvP.
Frost Mage PvP Best-in-Slot
8.
Arena Teams and Compositions
To learn in which setups Frost Magesare typically strongest, please read the guides we have prepared below:
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