Frost Mage Guide - Talents, Rotations, Races & More

Level 30 Single Target Talents (0,21,0)

If you aren't interested in AOE farming than follow this talent tree to work towards doing single target damage with Fingers of Frost, Frostbite, Ice Lance & Shatter.

1. Start with 5 points in Improved Frostbolt and then put 3 points into Elemental Precision and 2 points into Frostbite.
2. Pick up Ice Lance, finish Frostbite and put 3 points into Piercing Ice.
3. Put 2 points into Shatter, 2 points into Arctic Reach and 1 point into Ice Block.
4. Finally pick up Fingers of Frost when you hit level 30.

Level 30 AOE Talents (0,21,0)

This isn't going to work well until you can put 3 points into Improved Blizzard. If you want to play AOE Mage you'll want to respec to this later in the BETA once we can get up to level 30.

1. Start off with 5 points in Improved Frostbolt. this is going to be very helpful early on and when you're taking on solo enemies.
2. From here put 3 points into Elemental Precision and 2 points into Permafrost.
3. Get 3 points into Improved Blizzard, finish Permafrost and put 1 point in Ice Lance.
4. Grab Ice Block, put 2 points into Arctic Reach, 2 points into Piercing Ice and 1 point into Ice Block.

Level 60 Talents (12/3/36)

Here's a look at what we think the level 60 Frost Mage Talent Tree will look like. As mentioned above, this guide will be updated as we go through the beta and during launch to include any other Endgame Frost Mage Talent Trees, along with all the other information you need to excel in the endgame and Raids as a Mage.

Playable Races

Alliance - Human, Gnome & Skyborn

Horde - Orc, Troll & Undead

Recommended Races

Gnome is quite possibly the best race in the game and the one you want to pick as Alliance. Eureka! reduces the cost of your next 3 abilities and gives them 10% increased damage. Expansive Mind gives you 5% more maximum mana. Escape Artist grants you immunity to Roots and Snares.

Troll is great since you’ll be fighting a lot of beasts in the early game and they have 5% increased damage to beasts. Their Berserking buff grants you 10% casting speed for 10 seconds and they also have Rapid Regeneration which allows you to restore 50% of your health every 3 minutes.

Orc is the other competitive horde race choice. Blood Fury boosts your Spell Power by 10% for 15 seconds. Shatter Curse grants immunity to Curses, Banes and reduces Magical Damage taken. Hardiness decreases stuns by 20%

For every race's full ability list, check our racial abilities guide.

Single Target Rotation

The primary Skills you’ll use are Frostbolt, Ice Lance, Fire Blast & Frost Nova. The single target rotation really can be very simple:

1. Spam Frostbolt.
2. If they ever get frozen from Frostbite throw an Ice Lance at them.
3. When they get close use Frost Nova to freeze them and hit them with an Ice Lance.
4. You can finish enemies off with Fire Blast or just keep running and using Ice Lance if needed.

The entire idea is to keep mobs chilled so they barely get to you before they die. You take Frostbite and Shatter so you can hit them with huge instant cast crits using Ice Lance when they're frozen.

AOE Rotation

AOE farming as a Mage is a bit of an art form, it's easy to learn the basics and hard to master. Mages can go from AOE farming just several mobs to farming entire dungeons in 1 pull when you become an expert. With the changes to Blizzard and chill the latter may not be possible anymore. But you'll certainly be able to find a comfort zone while farming in the open world where you can pull tons of enemies into a pack and Blizzard them all down.

One important thing to note is that you need to do this to packs of enemies that aren't caster mobs. Caster mobs in general are much harder to manage when AOE farming so you need to be mindful of that.

1. The general idea is you start off by going around gathering up enemies. You'll use your wand and Ice Lance to aggro several packs of enemies and get them chasing you.
2. You need to get them grouped up. This is harder to do before you get Ice Block but definitely doable. You just need to get a hang of how to get the first enemies you pull to line up with the more recent ones in a tight group.
3. It's important to note that if you have even 1 enemy that isn't grouped up they can ruin the whole thing. Start small with 1-2 packs, and work your way up from there as you get the hang of it.
4. Once the enemies are all close by, you want to Frost Nova to pin them all in place and either Blink or run away as far as you can before the Frost Nova breaks. From here you cast Blizzard on them to chill the whole pack and start killing them. Make sure to position it so the pack is going to all be running into it as they move towards you, put the edge of Blizzard at the front of the pack.
5. Once you get Ice Block things get a lot easier. You use it once you're happy with what you've gathered. They'll all group tightly on you and than you get to test how fast you can: Get out of Ice Block, Frost Nova the enemies and Blink away. This alone can actually be a learning curve, expect to die instantly a couple times when you come out of block. you need to Frost Nova and Blink very quickly to prevent a disaster.
6. Keep casting Blizzard as it runs out. always move it to the front of the pack when you recast it. You want to make sure the closest mobs aren't going to get out of it's reach and start running full speed towards you.

When the enemies are getting close you have 2 options depending on how close they are to dying.

1. If they're about to die you can use Frost Nova, Cone of Cold, Arcane Explosion and even Flamestrike to finish them off. Just make sure you don't get too close and end up taking 8 swings from them at the same time.
2. If they're pretty healthy you can Frost Nova them again, Blink or back up and just keep doing what you were doing.

At the end of the day this is something that takes practice. Give it a try if you've never done it and see if it's a good fit for how you like to pay the game. If you can master it and utilize it you can level very fast as a Mage and use it as a great way to farm gold too!

You can check how powerful Frost Mage is in WoW Forever in our tier list rankings.

Visit your Class Trainer often to get your new skills, levels 10 & 20 specifically have some incredible new abilities and upgrades to your current ones.

You're a Bakery and Drinking fountain! Always make your own food and water to prepare for your sessions. Mages get a tremendous benefit of not having to buy these consumes.

A Mages Favorite Stats are Intellect and Spirit. Intellect increases your maximum Mana and increases your Spell Critical Strike Chance. Spirit increases your Health and Mana regeneration when you're out of combat. Stamina is also great while leveling especially if going the AOE spec, having more health can be the difference between life and death quite often are you're learning.

In group play you'll be pulling more than 1 mob at a time allowing you to get huge AOE damage from your Flamestrike, Arcane Explosion, Cone of Cold & Blizzard. Keep in mind early on most tanks will have a hard time getting threat on multiple mobs though, you want to play this by ear and make sure you aren't driving them crazy every pull.

You may be asked to sheep mobs regularly in dungeons. You can also take it upon yourself to sheep a distant caster mob that's being annoying or use it as a way for your party to get out of trouble. Speaking of trouble don't forget about the defensive power of Blizzard and Frost Nova, If things are ever getting spicy you can slow down a group of mobs with Blizzard or freeze then in place with your Frost Nova to allow your party to retreat.

Get ready for everyone to ask you for food and water. It's always wise to keep several stacks on you in preparation of this if you're heading off to join a group for any activity.

Wand

For all casters the #1 tip for leveling is to obtain wands early and upgrade them often. Tailors can make Lesser and Greater Magic wands that deal incredible DPS for their level range. Either get the Tailoring Profession and make your own or head over to the auction house to buy one!

Loot has changed in WoW forever and the location of great wands may be different from original Classic. Here's a quick rundown of wands that you can look out for to stay on top of it:

• Level 5 - Lesser Magic Wand, 11.3 DPS (Tailoring or Auction House)
• Level 13 - Greater Magic Wand, 17.5 DPS (Tailoring or Auction House)
• Level 18 - Gravestone Scepter, 29 DPS (Blackfathom Villainy Quest in Ashenvale)

While the Gravestone Scepter is technically available at level 18, the dungeon itself has enemies in the high level 20 range. You likely won't be able to obtain it this early unless you have a group of high level guildies or friends just carry you through the dungeon. Aside form new wands being available up to level 30 in WoW Forever this is likely the best wand you'll be able to obtain in the BETA.

Other

Keep Arcane Intellect and Frost Armor up at all times!

You can make portals to other cities for payment, and can even sell your Conjured Food and Water to people in town.

Auto Shoot Wand Macro

#showtooltip Shoot
/cast !Shoot