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Frost Mage Guide for WoW Forever

How to play Frost Mage in WoW Forever, with single-target and AoE leveling builds, raid and farming specs, and the Ice Lance and Shatter rotation.

MageFrostLevelingPvEAoERaidsDungeons

By stillsixty staffUpdated

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Variants

Overview

Frost is the safest way to level a Mage in WoW Forever, and no other Mage spec turns control into damage like it. Every Frostbolt slows its target, Frost Nova pins a whole pack in place, and Forever adds the tools that cash those freezes in. Ice Lance hits a Frozen target for four times its normal damage. Fingers of Frost gives your Chill effects a chance to make any target count as Frozen. Shatter adds up to 50% critical strike chance against Frozen targets.

At level 30 you pick one of two builds. The single-target build kills one mob at a time and never lets it touch you. The AoE build gathers packs and grinds them down under Blizzard. At 60, Frost shares its points with Arcane for Missile Barrage, which turns one Frostbolt in five into a free, double-speed Arcane Missiles.

Strengths

  • The strongest control in the Mage kit: a slow on every Frostbolt, Frost Nova every 21 seconds with talents, Cone of Cold, Blink and Ice Block.
  • Almost no downtime. You conjure your own food and water, and kited mobs rarely land a hit.
  • Burst on demand: a Frozen target plus Ice Lance and Shatter gives you instant crits that end fights.
  • Two leveling styles in one tree, single-target kiting or AoE packs, and you can switch between them with one respec.
  • A real raid build at 60, with Fingers of Frost, Winter's Chill and Missile Barrage all feeding the same Frostbolt loop.
  • Group utility: Polymorph, Counterspell, Remove Lesser Curse, food and water for the party, and portals.

Weaknesses

  • Cloth armor and a small health pool. A mistake in melee range costs you the fight.
  • Even with Improved Frostbolt, Frostbolt takes 2.5 seconds to cast, so pushback and interrupts hurt until Ice Barrier arrives at the bottom of the tree.
  • Bosses can't be frozen. In raids your Shatter damage comes only from Fingers of Frost procs, never from Frost Nova.
  • Blizzard's chill is weaker than in Classic, so AoE pulls need more care and a tighter kite.
  • Everything you do costs mana. You play around Evocation, mana gems and drinking.

What's new in Forever

New in Forever
  • Ice Lance is a tier 3 Frost talent you can take at 20. Trainers teach new ranks at 28, 34, 42, 48 and 56. It is instant and deals 300% more damage to Frozen targets.
  • Fingers of Frost (tier 5, 2 ranks, requires Ice Lance): your Chill effects have a 15% chance to make your next one or two spells treat the target as Frozen for 15 seconds.
  • Shatter has 3 ranks worth 17%, 33% and 50% critical strike chance against Frozen targets.
  • Winter's Chill raises the critical strike chance of Frostbolt and Ice Lance by 2% per stack, and your rank sets the maximum stacks.
  • Improved Blizzard slows by 15%, 25% or 40%, down from Classic. Permafrost now lengthens your Chill effects by up to 33% and adds up to 10% extra slow.
  • Cone of Cold slows by 40% for 6 seconds.
  • Ice Block sits in tier 4 and Cold Snap in tier 5, and Ice Barrier now requires Cold Snap.
  • Elemental Precision has 5 ranks of +1% hit with Frost and Fire spells.
  • Frostfire Bolt is a trained spell at 40, with new ranks at 50 and 60. It deals Frost and Fire damage, slows by 40% and burns for 9 seconds.
  • Mage Armor lets 50% of your mana regeneration continue while casting. Arcane Intellect lasts an hour, and Arcane Brilliance covers your whole raid.
  • Remove Lesser Curse also removes Banes, and every Mage learns Teleport: Dalaran at 50.

Talents

The build that kills one mob at a time and never lets it hit you. Improved Frostbolt speeds up your main spell, Frostbite freezes targets for free, and Shatter turns those freezes into Ice Lance crits.

Split 0/0/21 · 21 points at level 30 · Open in calculator

Arcane

0 points

Fire

0 points

Frost

21 points

Talent order

  1. Levels 10–14: 5/5 Improved Frostbolt. Cuts 0.5 seconds off every Frostbolt. From level 26, when Frostbolt becomes a 3-second cast, that is a 2.5-second Frostbolt.
  2. Levels 15–17: 3/3 Frostbite. Every Chill effect gets a 15% chance to freeze the target for 5 seconds. That is a free Frost Nova at range, and later a free Shatter window.
  3. Levels 18–19: 2/2 Improved Frost Nova. Frost Nova comes back every 21 seconds instead of 25, so almost every pull has one ready.
  4. Level 20: 1/1 Ice Lance. Instant, cheap, and 300% more damage against Frozen targets. It becomes your finisher after every Frost Nova and Frostbite proc.
  5. Levels 21–24: 4/5 Ice Shards. Your Frost critical strikes hit harder: +80% crit damage bonus at 4/5.
  6. Levels 25–27: 3/3 Shatter. +50% critical strike chance against Frozen targets. Frost Nova into Ice Lance now crits more often than not.
  7. Level 28: 5/5 Ice Shards. A full 100% crit damage bonus: your Frost crits deal double damage.
  8. Level 29: 1/1 Ice Block. Ten seconds of immunity on a 5-minute cooldown. It saves the pull you misjudged, and it also unlocks tier 5.
  9. Level 30: 1/2 Fingers of Frost. 15% of your Chill effects make your next spell treat the target as Frozen, so your Ice Lance quadruples even when Frost Nova is on cooldown.

Flexible points

  • Fighting mobs two or three levels above you and seeing resists? Take 2/5 Elemental Precision at 18–19 instead of Improved Frost Nova.
  • If you never get into trouble, 1/3 Piercing Ice for 2% Frost damage replaces Ice Block and still unlocks tier 5.

Races

Best races

Alliance: Gnome. Expansive Mind gives you 5% more maximum mana, and Eureka! makes your next three damaging spells cost 10% less mana and deal 10% more damage (2-minute cooldown). Escape Artist breaks every root and snare and makes you immune to them for 3 seconds. When a mob roots or slows you in melee range, it gets you out and keeps you out long enough to Blink and start the kite again.

Alliance raiding: Human. Sword Specialization gives +2% critical strike chance with every spell while you hold a sword or two-handed sword, and Mages can use one-handed swords. Add The Human Spirit for 5% more Spirit, and Will to Survive to break a stun every 3 minutes.

Horde: Troll. Berserking gives 10% casting speed for 10 seconds every 3 minutes, and Beast Slaying adds 5% damage against Beasts, a big share of what you kill while leveling. Rapid Regeneration heals 50% of your health over 6 seconds between pulls.

Horde burst and PvP: Orc. Orc Mages are new in Forever. Blood Fury gives 10% Spell Power for 15 seconds every 2 minutes. Shatter Curse removes and blocks Curses and Banes and cuts Magic damage taken by 15% for 8 seconds, which ruins a Warlock's day. Hardiness shortens stuns by 20%.

All playable races

  • Human: Sword Specialization, The Human Spirit, Will to Survive, Perception.
  • Gnome: Expansive Mind, Eureka!, Escape Artist, Engineering Specialization.
  • High Order Skyborne (Alliance, new): Wind Blessed for 1% Haste, Elemental Insight for 5% damage against Elementals, Read Ley Line to double your health and mana regeneration, and Walk on Air to glide through the air for 10 seconds.
  • Troll: Berserking, Beast Slaying, Regeneration, Rapid Regeneration.
  • Orc (new): Blood Fury, Shatter Curse, Hardiness.
  • Undead: Will of the Forsaken removes Charm, Fear and Sleep; Touch of the Grave gives your spells a 10% chance to drain health; Cannibalize restores health and mana from corpses.

Rotation

Single-target pull

  1. Open with Frostbolt from maximum range (30 yards). Train every new Frostbolt rank.
  2. Keep casting Frostbolt while the mob walks through the 40% slow. You get two or three Frostbolts off before it reaches you.
  3. When the mob reaches you, cast Frost Nova, walk out of melee range and fire Ice Lance. A Frozen target takes 300% more damage from it.
  4. A Frostbite freeze at range is a free Nova. Ice Lance right away, because the freeze lasts only 5 seconds.
  5. When Fingers of Frost procs (the buff lasts 15 seconds), your next Ice Lance treats the target as Frozen. Spend it on the next mob if this one is almost dead.
  6. Finish a low mob with Fire Blast (instant, 8-second cooldown) or Ice Lance instead of starting another 2.5-second Frostbolt.

Cooldowns

  • Your racial goes on the toughest mob of the pull: Berserking for Trolls, Blood Fury for Orcs, Eureka! for Gnomes.
  • Ice Block and Evocation are your two emergency buttons. Ice Block saves your life. Evocation saves the fight when your mana runs out halfway through it.

Two mobs

Polymorph the second mob before it reaches you, kill the first, then pull the sheep with a Frostbolt. Damage breaks Polymorph, so don't let a Blizzard or Frost Nova touch it.

Mana and downtime

  • Keep Arcane Intellect and Frost Armor up at all times. Frost Armor becomes Ice Armor at 30.
  • Drink conjured water between pulls, not during them. Two or three mobs per drink is normal.
  • From 20, Evocation runs your mana regeneration at 16 times its normal rate for 8 seconds, on an 8-minute cooldown. It is your mid-fight refill: save it for the pull that runs long.
  • Wand a nearly dead mob instead of casting on it. Every spell you don't cast is mana you don't drink back.

Stat priority

Single-target leveling

  1. Spell Power
  2. Intellect
  3. Spirit
  4. Stamina

Spell Power adds damage to every Frostbolt, and at levels 10–30 even small amounts are a large share of a spell's damage. Intellect gives you mana and spell crit. Spirit cuts your drinking time. Kited mobs rarely hit you, so Stamina comes last.

Gear

Wands

A wand is your best upgrade from 5 to 30. It finishes low mobs without spending mana. In Forever, wands don't scale with Spell Power, so buy on damage per second alone. Enchanters craft the four you want:

If you're not an Enchanter, buy these from one. Every wand on the list is a big step up from the last, so upgrade the moment you reach each level.

Armor

Take any cloth with Spell Power first, then Intellect and Spirit. Quest rewards beat vendor gear at every level. Replace a piece as soon as a quest offers Spell Power, even if you lose Intellect.

Professions

Tailoring and Enchanting is the Mage pair. Tailoring makes your cloth gear and bags from 1 to 60, plus the Robe of the Archmage at the end. Enchanting disenchants the cloth pieces you outgrow and makes every leveling wand you want, from the Lesser Magic Wand at 5 to the Greater Mystic Wand at 30.

If gold matters more to you than wands, level with Herbalism and Mining or Herbalism and Skinning instead, and pick up Tailoring and Enchanting at 60 once farming has paid for the materials.

Group play and dungeons

Your job in a group is damage, crowd control and interrupts, in that order.

  • Polymorph one caster or runner on every pull that has more than the tank can hold. Polymorph works on Beasts, Humanoids and Critters. Damage breaks it, so place it on a mob away from your AoE.
  • Counterspell healers and casters. Counterspell locks the whole school for 10 seconds.
  • AoE only after the tank has every mob. Blizzard and Arcane Explosion pull threat from a tank who's still tagging. Wait two globals on big pulls.
  • Frost Nova and Blizzard are group tools too. When a pull goes wrong, Frost Nova the pack and let the party walk away, or slow it with Blizzard while the healer catches up.
  • Remove Lesser Curse clears one Curse or Bane from any party member.
  • Food, water and portals. Conjure a stack of water for your healer before you enter, and make portals at 40.

Tips

The Ice Lance rule

Never Ice Lance a target that isn't Frozen or covered by Fingers of Frost unless it is about to die. Unfrozen, Ice Lance hits for a quarter of its frozen damage. Frostbolt is the better spell.

Nova breaks on damage

Damage can break Frost Nova. Don't Frostbolt a Novaed mob in melee range. Step away, then cast. Ice Lance is instant, so fire it as soon as you're clear.

Train at every even level. Frostbolt, Frost Nova and Blizzard ranks are your damage. Levels 20, 26 and 30 bring Blizzard, Cone of Cold and Ice Armor.

Keep a Fingers of Frost charge for the next mob if the current one dies before you can spend it. The buff lasts 15 seconds.

Bank Evocation for bad pulls when leveling. A full mana bar mid-fight saves more time than Evocation used as a free drink.

Teleport home, not the hearthstone. Teleports come at 20 and 30, and Teleport: Dalaran at 50. Save the hearthstone for your inn.

Macros

Wand macro: starts wanding and never cancels it by accident when you press it twice.

Wand
#showtooltip Shoot
/cast !Shoot

Counterspell that stops your current cast first, so you can interrupt out of a Frostbolt.

Stop and Counterspell
#showtooltip Counterspell
/stopcasting
/cast Counterspell

Polymorph your focus target, or your current target if you have no focus. Set a focus on the add, keep your target on the mob you're killing.

Focus Polymorph
#showtooltip Polymorph
/cast [@focus,harm,nodead][] Polymorph

Blizzard at your cursor. The spell lands where you point, with no targeting circle to click.

Cursor Blizzard
#showtooltip Blizzard
/cast [@cursor] Blizzard

Ice Block that cancels itself on a second press, so you can leave the block the moment your cooldowns are back.

Ice Block toggle
#showtooltip Ice Block
/cancelaura Ice Block
/cast Ice Block

Changelog

  • Guide published with Level 30, Level 30 AoE, Level 60 Raid and Level 60 AoE builds.
  • Refreshed the page title and summary.

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