TBC FROST MAGE GUIDE
by
PEREGRINE
WWW.WARMANE.COM
PATCH 2.4









APPENDIX

1a. INTRO
2a. GENERAL GAMEPLAY
3a. TALENTS
4a. GEAR
5a. ENCHANTS AND GEMS
6a. COMPOSITION SETUP
7a. ROGUE MAGE COMPOSITION GUIDE
8a. TIPS/TRICKS/USEFUL ITEMS
9a. MACROS







1a. INTRO



From the beginning of WOW, history mages are considered a top-notch class with a unique ability to handle
multiple opponents at the same time while being successful in
surviving.

The Burning Crusade brought a plethora of new abilities for mages, including ice lance that many called no skill
spell.
While former might be true to a certain degree, the fact remains that mage with good reflexes and complete
overview of the game can turn the tide of the game quickly in
their favor.



Since the elemental build has disappeared in the TBC expansion mages rerolled to complete frost based talent
tree which gave them quite a push in survivability.
This mage guide will cover all you need to know for the Frost specialization and how to master it including some
neat tricks.
You can use the search function to quickly jump to a specific part of the guide.


2a. GENERAL GAMEPLAY

So how do you play the mage class? Is it by spamming Ice Lance? Deep Shatter in Frost Nova?
There are plenty of ways in dealing with your opponents and there is no right way.
Most of the times u need to react and respond to the situation that occurs.


Warriors:
DIFFICULTY 1/10

Warriors are generally the easiest matchup for the mage. They only have 3 major abilities you should be
concerned of.
The charge (only usable out of combat), the intercept and the spell reflect.
The best idea to shut down the warrior class is to either.

a) Pop Water elemental, use ranged nova and freeze him from 36-yard range while moving away from pet so you
don't get charged if by any chance nova gets resisted.
b) Use the counterspell on the warrior, so he gets into combat right away rendering charge impossible
c) Spamming Ice Lance while jump charging to deny the range on the charge.

Once the warrior is unable to get the initial charge, you have won the 90% of the game.
He can only use intercept which you can easily blink. From there you can Frost Nova him, and purely spam ice
lance. Pop second pet for additional nova and spam icelance again.
Use Fireblast on every cooldown.
Do not forget to use Frost ward so you can reflect the Spell reflect with Icelance and eat no damage.
Use r1 frostbolt to keep him snared when your cone of cold is on cooldown.


Shaman:
DIFFICULTY 1/10



The Shamans are nearly the same as the warrior with an addition of having 2 unique abilities; the earth shock
and the grounding totem.
To truly counter the shamans you only cast when the shaman is in frost nova, and you have counterspell
available.
Freeze the shaman and counterspell him at the same time.
Since the shaman class cannot use totems while being counterspelled in TBC, they are unable to stop your
shatter. The only way to stop it is if they trinket your Nova and go line of sight.

Tip:
Use the Arcane missiles when shaman goes line of sight to provide additional damage.





Hunter:

MARKSMAN
DIFFICULTY 7/10

Marksman/Survival
The hunter class is bit sketchy one. To avoid the hunter damage you need to stay on top of him the whole game,
or he will destroy you quickly with
viper sting and silence/scatter shot/frost trap.
The best way is to run mounted up to hunter/instantly counterspell him, so he is not able to trap you in the
scatter shot.

Once he is rooted, you can continue spamming ice lance. Do note; you can also polymorph the hunter to make full
shatter in which case if he trinkets he will not be able to
trinket frost nova from you/ your pet.
The hunter should be already at 50% before you use your first iceblock.


BEAST MASTERY

DIFFICULTY 8/10
Beast Mastery

Now, this is rather quite hard one. If the Beast mastery hunter is stacked with a lot of PvE gear chances are

you will most likely lose if you are caught in the open.
The good thing is that Beast Mastery hunter has absolutely no defensive CDs outside Beast mastery cooldown.
The bad thing is that Beast mastery cooldown last 18 sec while your iceblock is only 10 sec.
The general idea is to run mounted to hunter start the DPS race blowing nearly all cooldowns before cold snap.
Once the beast mastery cooldown is used you need to blink to nearest pillar and tank the damage for 8 sec.
Do not be afraid to use cold snap to refresh your Ice barrier/ Use mana shield in conjunction with mana gem.

After 8 sec has passed iceblock instantly and sit the rest of duration of beast mastery cooldown.
Once the beast mastery cooldown is done, all you have to do is blink to the hunter, nova him and sit on him for
the remainder of his health. Use only instants to bring him down.

Tip:
Do not bother sweeping the pet as the hunter can auto dispell it since there is a talent in the Beast Mastery
tree.


Paladin:
DIFFICULTY 2/10



The paladin class. Unfortunately for them, or being your luck the paladin class is the easiest one to defeat.
They have no kick, only crusader strike, and judgment which is rather to say almost impossible to do any damage
to frost mage if you use your CDs correctly.
The best way to destroy paladin is the simple one; sheep him, spell steal his buffs, fake an opener, wait for
freedom.

Sheep again, spell steal freedom or wait till it goes out by another sheep and from there simply setup a
shatter. From there it is pretty much game over.
Do note, use the counter spell when his freedom is up to prevent usage of freedom for 4 sec and opening a chance
for another shatter.
When he uses bubble just iceblock it or kite it. He can't do any serious damage as most likely he will be forced
to heal himself.


Warlock
DIFFICULTY 10/10



The true counter to mages, the warlock class.
Since the warlock has fel hunter that has insane resistances in TBC, it is impossible to kill it in 1 vs. 1 duel
especially with warlock class trinket voidstar talisman.
The warlock spell lock also comes from warlock pet so doing a shatter/cast when you counter spell a warlock is
also pointless as he will simply spell lock you before the end.
The only viable tactic is to use instants and instants only unless warlock spell locks you to prevent incoming

damage.
Only then you are allowed to cast with improved counterspell/icy veins.
Make sure to iceblock early to remove the dots on you especially if you see death coil incoming to prevent mass
healing to warlock from death coil.
Also, dispell your curse of tongues if you are afflicted with it and have an iceblock on the cooldown.

Your best bet here is to open with a pet, nova pet ice lance,ice lance, your Nova ice lance ice lance,
fireblast,cone of cold, counterspell,scorch,fireblast,cone of cold.
Iceblock all dots,cancel your pet so he does not heal off from your pet when your pet is fully dotted.
Cancel the iceblock, cold snap, resummon the pet and counterspell the warlock. From there continue using your
instants and he should be near dead/dead.

Tip a: Use the mage armor versus warlock
Tip b: Use partiall shadow resist gear to counter the warlock.
Tip c: Make sure to poke the warlock with your weapon while you are instant casting to interrupt his fear/do extra damage.


Rogue
DIFFICULTY 10/10

One of the toughest fights in your matchups.
The well geared rogue can anhiliate the mage in the opener if done correctly. Given that he has 2 vanishes, he
can simply wait for the cloak of shadow
and kill you.
Nothing to be done here. Good Bye


I am kidding. While this fight will be really hard for you to win there are ways to win it.
Ice armor is a must. Pvp gear is a must.
Now the casting is off limits. You will use only instants and nothing else,make sure that you do not allow the reset for the rogue or you will lose.
Use the Arcane missiles if he tries to go los.
Make sure to use Blizzard when rogue tries to go behind the pillar, while he is snared you have to move and
shutdown the restealth other wise it is game over.
You can also use the polymorph to reset the rogue in the middle, prepare the shatter and finish him off.
Do note, that must be used when cd on cloak is 25 secs or more, otherwise you risk the reset from the rogue and potentially the loss.


Tip: Use the Fireball followed by r1 Frostbolt in order to prevent vanishes.
Pro tip: In order to regain your health you can simply polymorph the rogue,go behind the pillar,summon water

elmental, drink and send pet to attack the rogue, make sure to use the pet nova to root the rogue in place for

8 sec for complete reset. It might save you many times.





Druid

FERAL
DIFFICULTY 8/10



A good feral will constantly shift your novas, in order to prevent that you have to expect frostbite and
instantly hit your icelance, your GCD can't be on the cooldown.
When summoning your pet be sure to clean your gcd before triggering pet nova, that is very crucial in order to
maintain damage.
Also, when out of instnats use the scorch since you will be interrupted on the frostbolt everytime by good feral
drood by either main or feral charge.

Plus you are triggering his kick which can't be used on the arcane missiles or frostbolt.
Overall, if you let druid completely reset, you will lose.
Use the cold snap early in order to refresh your barrier 2/3 times in row in order to create paramount pressure.
Once you have established the pressure, you must sustain it in order to finish off the druid effectivly.


3a. TALENTS

Cookie Cutter build

This is general talent build that you will use in almost any frost talent composition. Some talents can be
changed for your convenience depending with what class you play.




Frost Damage build
This build is build only for damage, it ignores the the survivability and focuses only on pure damage.



















4a. GEAR

There are 2 gear builds.

One has a focus on the pure spell power while the other one has full haste focus.
It is up to you to decide which build is more to your liking.
Some builds are suited more to double dps instead dps plus healer.
My personal preference is mix and match but I'do like to use both.

Below you will find full guide for both gear setups.
You can mix and match to your personal preference.



DPS GEAR

Head - http://tbc.cavernoftime.com/item=35097

Neck - http://tbc.cavernoftime.com/item=37928

Shoulders - http://tbc.cavernoftime.com/item=35096

Back - http://tbc.cavernoftime.com/item=34242

Chest - http://tbc.cavernoftime.com/item=35099

Bracer - http://tbc.cavernoftime.com/item=35179

Weapon- http://tbc.cavernoftime.com/item=34336

Weapon 2 – http://tbc.cavernoftime.com/item=35102

Offhand - http://tbc.cavernoftime.com/item=35016

Wand - http://tbc.cavernoftime.com/item=35065

Trinket 1 - http://tbc.cavernoftime.com/item=33829

Trinket 2 - http://tbc.cavernoftime.com/item=37865

Ring 1 - http://tbc.cavernoftime.com/item=34362

Ring 2 - http://tbc.cavernoftime.com/item=29305

Boots - http://tbc.cavernoftime.com/item=33914

Legs - http://tbc.cavernoftime.com/item=34181

Belt - http://tbc.cavernoftime.com/item=35164

Hands - http://tbc.cavernoftime.com/item=35098


HASTE GEAR

Head - http://tbc.cavernoftime.com/item=35097

Neck - http://tbc.cavernoftime.com/item=37928

Shoulders - http://tbc.cavernoftime.com/item=35096

Back - http://tbc.cavernoftime.com/item=34242

Chest - http://tbc.cavernoftime.com/item=35099

Bracer - http://tbc.cavernoftime.com/item=34447

Weapon- http://tbc.cavernoftime.com/item=34336

Offhand - http://tbc.cavernoftime.com/item=35016

Wand - http://tbc.cavernoftime.com/item=34347

Trinket 1 - http://tbc.cavernoftime.com/item=32483

Trinket 2 - http://tbc.cavernoftime.com/item=37865

Ring 1 - http://tbc.cavernoftime.com/item=34362

Ring 2 - http://tbc.cavernoftime.com/item=34230

Boots - http://tbc.cavernoftime.com/item=34574

Legs - http://tbc.cavernoftime.com/item=34181

Belt - http://tbc.cavernoftime.com/item=34557

Hands - http://tbc.cavernoftime.com/item=35098




5a. ENCHANTS AND GEMS

Metagem - http://tbc.cavernoftime.com/item=34220
Head - http://tbc.cavernoftime.com/item=29191
Shoulder - http://tbc.cavernoftime.com/item=28886
Back – http://tbc.cavernoftime.com/spell=34003
Chest – http://tbc.cavernoftime.com/spell=33992
Bracers - http://tbc.cavernoftime.com/spell=27917
Weapon - http://tbc.cavernoftime.com/spell=27975 OR http://tbc.cavernoftime.com/spell=27982 for additional Frost
damage.
Rings – http://tbc.cavernoftime.com/spell=27924 ONLY AVAILABLE TO ENCHANTERS
Boots - http://tbc.cavernoftime.com/spell=34008
Legs - http://tbc.cavernoftime.com/item=24274
Hands - http://tbc.cavernoftime.com/spell=33997

6a. COMPOSITION SETUP

Mage/Rogue
EFFECTIVNESS 10/10
DIFFICULTY 10/10

Mage/Feral
EFFECTIVNESS 7/10
DIFFICULTY 10/10


Mage/Disc
EFFECTIVNESS 10/10
DIFFICULTY 6/10


Mage/Shadow Priest
EFFECTIVNESS 8/10
DIFFICULTY 9/10

Mage/Rdruid
EFFECTIVNESS 7/10
DIFFICULTY 7/10

Mage/Rshaman
EFFECTIVNESS 6/10
DIFFICULTY 6/10

Mage/Paladin
EFFECTIVNESS 6/10
DIFFICULTY 9/10

Mage/Mage
EFFECTIVNESS 8/10
DIFFICULTY 6/10


7a. ROGUE MAGE COMPOSITION GUIDE


Rogue/Mage versus Rshaman/Warrior
DIFFICULTY 2/10

When facing Rshaman/Warrior you will have 2 options available depending on the position of the warrior.
If the warrrior/shaman are stacked together you as a mage have to rush in and nova both. At same time you nova

them your rogue has to open instantly on the shaman
and blind the warrior instantly. The warrior will trinket instantly and reflect your polymorph/fear you both.
If you are undead this should pose no problem and just use the racial.
From there you should polymorph/expect spell reflect if it hasn't been used so far. Once you fakecast the

reflect you can proceed to fully sheep the warrior and
keep the pressure on the shaman.
Pro tip: If shaman is silenced/counterspelled he is not able to shock you/use the grounding totem.
Use this to your advantage to repoly the warrrior with 100% chance.
Once the Warrior Polymorph is DRed your rogue can simply cheapshot/kidney him into frost nova into full

polymorph to keep him disabled if the shaman is not dead by then.




Rogue/Mage versus Priest/Rogue
DIFFICULTY 6/10-10/10

Situation 1
To start off, it all depends if the priest/rogue are human/dwarf. If you get sapped most likely it is game over.
The point here is to either kill priest if the priest is non dward if you get sap on the rogue or kill the rogue

if you find him if the priest is dwarf.

If your rogue finds the opposing rogue you need to run mounted to the priest. counterspell him instantly and

sheep him so he can't dispel your sheep.
Once you polymorph the priest the rogue should open instantly on the opposing rogue and do the standard
rotation. If by any chance the rogue trinkets kidney shot
blind him instantly.

From there do not touch the rogue/spellsteal him. Your rogue needs to vanish sap the rogue,
wait for dr and reopen completley again.
From there it is game over as the priest will not be able to catch up avoiding the cc/healing with rogue being

that low.

Situation 2

If you are are unable to find the rogue your rogue needs to sap the priest and you must not get sapped in the
process.
From there you need to spellsteal the priest, open with a full shatter ( expect rogue to open on you, so your
rogue can sap him in mean time).
From full shatter you need to counterspell the priest and apply as most pressure you are able to. After
counterspell your rogue needs to open with a garrote on the priest
rendering pain supppresion still not usable.
From garote he needs to kidney >expect trinket>instantly garrote again.
The priest should be dead by then.

Situation 3
Your rogue gets sapped.
You need to instantly aoe around him in order to push the rogue out.
If you are unable to find him once the rogue open on your rouge you need to sheep him followed by instant

counterspell on the priest if you want to have any chance
winning this fight.
As in the previous method, make sure to blind the rogue once the rogue trinkets the kidney.
From there proceed with the same method as stated in the situation 1.


Rogue/Mage versus Rdruid/Warrior
DIFFICULTY 7/10

On this specific fight, the mage needs to engage the warrior alone if the druid is hidden on the start.
Be sure not to get charged on the start in order to have easy battle until the druid pops out.
Do not polymorph the warr or use the frost nova until druid is out.
Use the frost ward to negate any spell reflect.
If you get rend be sure to polymorph yourself on spell reflect to completely recover any lost health points.

Once the druid is out and in visible your rogue needs to sprint right away to a druid and cheap shot and very

important to gouge and stay away from a line of sight of
warrior.
As the mage you need to instantly either frost nova or polymoprh the warrior and rush to the druid. Once the
druid is out, you need to pop your water elemental,ice veins and
prepare the shatter on the druid. The shatter should land on the gouge followed by kidney shot from the rogue.
The druid must trinket the kidney, or he will be dead. Expect the druid to trinket which is followed instantly
by counterspell and blind to prevent the nature swiftness.

Pro tip: Blind the druid in human form for the easy kill.

Once the druid has been blinded rogue must restealth/vanish and resap for 15 seconds. Once the 15 seconds are
out, you need to repoly the warr (expect trinket) and frost nova the warrior right away. From there just finish
off the druid in cheap/kidney/counterspell rotation.
Pro tip: If the warrior is free he will try to charge the cheapshot in order to disarm the kidney shot from
rogue. The rogue needs to vanish that and must connect the kidney
for fast kill.



Rogue/Mage versus Shadow Priest/Rogue
DIFFICULTY 8/10

The shadow priest/rogue can be quite nasty if you do not connect. The best tactic is to go with invisibility
from the opening of arena gates.
Your rogue needs to go the least expected route and stick with you in the invisibility while telling you the
location of the priest.
Once the rogue has sapped the priest, you need to exit the invisibility and spellsteal the priest.
Pro tip: A good shadow priest will remove all his buffs so the rogue can instantly sap you.
If you see, there are no buffs you need to open instantly with the counter spell followed by pet summon/ice
lance/pet nova followed by your icenova icelance.

If the priest has buffs on himself spellsteal all the buffs, resheep the priest and prepare the shatter with the
counterspell.
Your rogue needs to open with a garrote and then instantly vanish while spamming sap in order to hopefully sap
the opposing rogue.
If you connect like this, all you need to do is chase the priest, spam instants and create a momentum.
Let your rogue use the second vanish for additional garrote paired with the rupture.
Since the opposing priest will be low, the rogue will not be able to connect completely.
Your job here is to sheep the rogue instantly while csing the priest (your cs should be off cooldown). From
there rogue has to sit either 4 sec polymorph which gives enough time for your rogue to finish off the priest.




Rogue/Mage versus Priest/Warlock
DIFFICULTY 7/10

Now, this fight requires you to be on your feet and quickly sprint to the warlock and sap him.
If the lock is human and uses perception, you must prevanish and sap him. It is really important to have the
upper hand in beginning of the match.
From there you need to force the insurmountable pressure to the priest.
If the priest is dwarf you need to change the kill target to warlock as you will not be able to kill dwarf
priest so easily due to
health stone, stoneform, instant heal.

If the priest is not dwarf prevanish, sap the warlock, rush the priest and your mage needs to use only instants.
When there is a 2 sec left on the sap r1 frostbolt the warlock so you can apply the trash debuffs.
From there resummon your pet repeating the nova/ice lance combo and silencing the warlock fear to stop him
effectively.

Depending on the situation you can also cheap shot>full kidney him if he is near the priest so you can apply the
force to priest (which you will fake cast) and
if he counterspells you instantly iceblock removing the silence and prepare a full shatter to follow by r1
frostbolt>polymorph.
The priest should be dead by then.

If the priest is dwarf, you need to go circle around the warlock avoiding his pet and sapping the priest.
From there you need to blow your cooldowns on the warlock and fully nuke him.
Be offensive and spare no cooldown.
When there is a 3 second left on the sap have your rogue vanish and resap the priest followed by the garrote on

the warlock.
Your mage needs to counterspell the priest in the process to stop the pain suppression.
From there your rogue needs to instantly cheapshot/kidney the priest and expect the trinket right away.
When the priest trinkets the cheap/kidney instantly follow up by blind.
The match is over by then as the warlock should be really low and finished off by the mage.






8a. TIPS/TRICKS/USEFUL ITEMS

Use r1 frostbolt to protect the polymorph from dispelling.
Use the polymorph to reflect the spell reflect from warrior so you can heal yourself fully.
Frost nova can also be used as a CC tool to prevent anyone (nondispeller) from reaching you and keep them from

the line of sight.
Use the frostward to negate damage if you plan to shatter warrior, so you don't take any damage.
Use r1 blizzard to stop people from drinking behind/root them so your team members can reach them easily.
The Zul Gurub neck has a 2 second off counterspell so your counterspell is only 22 seconds instead of 24.
The Freezing band item is extremely potent for TBC due to procc being same as deep freeze in the Wotlk.
If it procs the opposing player must either instantly trinket, or he will take anywhere from 4-10k damage
depending on your gear and haste.
Use the Mage armor versus casters and the Ice armor versus melee.
The scorch spell is really good for baiting kicks and counterspells. Use it conjunction with the icelance to
provide a mini shatter.
Remeber to have your iceblock cancel button available so you can easily cancel the iceblock and counter

THIS section is open for updates, so if you have any tricks feel free to message me and if they are valid I'll

be happy to update.


9a. MACROS

COUNTERSPELL WITH A MODIFIER
#showtooltip Counterspell
/stopcasting
/cast [modifier:alt, target=focus] Counterspell
/cast [nomodifier:alt] Counterspell

SUMMON WATER ELEMENTAL
#showtooltip Summon Water Elemental
/cast [nopet] Summon Water Elemental
/click PetActionButton5

FROSTBOLT WITH PET ATTACK AND CANCEL ICEBLOCK
#showtooltip Frostbolt
/cast Frostbolt
/petattack
/cancelaura Ice Block

ONE BUTTON ARMOR CHANGE
/castsequence Ice Armor,Mage Armor

POLYMORPH WITH A MODIFIER PLUS PET PASSIVE
#showtooltip Polymorph(Rank 1)
/cast [modifier:alt, target=focus] Polymorph(Rank 1)
/cast [nomodifier:alt] Polymorph(Rank 1)
/petpassive

SPELL STEAL
#show Spellsteal
/cast Spellsteal
/cancelaura Hand of Sacrifice