I've played as Frost Mage before and I know that frosts, despite the fact that the fire is TOP DPS spec, can pull a decent amount of damaged (if right talents are chosen and mastered the rotation). I also checked bugtracker for known bugs on Lordaeron, many of them are fixed.
So, now I need an opinion - is the properly talented*, glyphed and rotation-mastered mage VIABLE enough to pull almost the same damage (it will proly never be high as fire I KNOW) as infamous Fire ones?
(Yes I am aware that this is also gear-depended question), but I need serious opinions and/or numbers here.
*when I say properly talented, I mostly mean NO PvP talents.
Well, first of all, Fire isn't even a good choice at this gear level. Arcane is, followed closely by FFB.
Having said that, Frost is "kinda" viable as far as dungeons are concerned. This is the build which I imagine would be viable in PvE as Frost. Imp Cone of Cold is not picked because you rarely use this spell and just go for Blizzard instead. Frostbite is useless on bosses. The rest of the talents are DPS-oriented.
Use Icy Veins, Water Elemental and Mirror Image on cooldown, use Cold Snap to reset the first two, fill with Frostbolt, use Ice Lance and Deep Freeze on Fingers of Frost procs, shoot FFB on Brain Freeze procs. That's it.
Moot point. Even if you could rival the damage of a fire or arcane spec in boss fights, you would never get to prove it. The MIN/MAX mentality is too strong. Enjoyment is not a factor. 10 years ago you could raid as frost mage, but here, it's the 1 best way or the highway. ffs