Frost Mage PvP Guide
Foreword
I have barely ever played mage, almost everything in this guide comes from what I've seen from other mages, and what I have learned by playing with mages. Don't expect s00per d00per quality, but I'm sure you could get some benefit out of it.
Only took me about 30 minutes to write out, so I'll be happy to fix up any mistakes.
Gear
Guess it depends on a) your playstyle and b) what you can get.
I'd aim for wrathful haste MH/OH /w spell pen wand.
Offsets : Haste
Mainsets: 3/5 Wrath and 2/5 Sanctified OR
4/5 Wrath and 1/5 Sanctified.
Neck: Hit if you need to get capped, haste if you're capped
Cape: Read above.
Rings: I'd generally run with 2 pve rings, but it's basically whatever you can get your hands on.
Trinkets – Human:
Charred Twilight Scale
Dislodged Foreign Object
Trinkets: UnHuman (is that a word?):
Medallion of the Alliance
Charred Twilight Scale.
This is under the assumption that you're donating, so if you aren't... get whatever you can. I'd take proc trinkets over use trinkets anyday though.
If you aren't comfortable running with low resil, get more. If you think your kiting abilities are superior, run with less.
Gems
Yellow Slots: +20 Haste
Blue Slots: If the socket bonus is good, go for SP + Stam
If not, go for sp+haste or pure haste.
Red Slots: +10 Spellpower +10 Haste OR +23 Spellpower
Enchants:
Head – Resil
Shoulders – Resil
Cape – Spell pen
Chest – Resil
Bracers – Spellpower
Gloves – Spellpower
Belt - +1 Socket
Legs – Spellpower / Stam
Boots – Tuskarr's Vitality
Spec: 20/0/51
http://armory.molten-wow.com/calcula...00232102231051
If you need the extra hit, you can throw 1 in Precision and take 1 off Chilled To The Bone.
Glyphs
Major:
Glyph of Evocation (60% of your health regens along with mana)
Glyph of Ice Barrier (Absorbs more)
Glyph of Polymorph (Removes all dots from the target you're sheeping to ensure it doesn't break)
Minor
Glyph of Fire Ward (5% Reflect)
Glyph of Frost Ward (5% Reflect)
Glyph of Slow Fall
Stats
Hit: Get around 160 hit rating. Pick up the talent if you're lacking.
Spell Pen: Spell pen doesn't work on Molten apparently. Ignore it.
Once you hit this cap, I'd take haste as being higher priority to spellpower, but try to balance it out.
Skills
Blink – Break stuns and teleport forward.
Fire Blast – Mostly used as a filler
Frostbolt – Your main spell. Use this to proc trinkets/FoF/etc.
Frost Nova – Snares all targets in range with a frost nova. Use it to peel your partner and give you time to get some distance on your target (if they're on you).
Cone of Cold – Nice slowing effect + procs your talents + sometimes freezes the target.
Ice Lance – Use this with Fingers of Frost procs and in conjunction with shatters. (explained later)
Spellsteal – Takes a buff off the target. Useful if you think you can steal a bop or mana shield, sacred shield, etc. Or if you're helping your partner to purge junk off them at the start of the game.
Blizzard – Only time i'd use it is when I'm trying to a) get rogues/druids out of stealth and b) keep people in combat.
Remove Curse – Removes Hex and warlock curses.
Polymorph – Your main cc spell. Turns your target into a sheep for 9 seconds > 5 seconds > 2 seconds.
Ice Barrier – Equivalent of Power Word: Shield. Absorbs a chunk of damage, should be using it on cd if it's taken off. When it is dispelled/absorbed fully it snares everyone around it.
Deep Freeze – Use it offensively, to score a kill or get your priest to get mana burns in, to force a trinket, or defensively (as a cc). Also commonly used to get guaranteed polymorphs on the target. DF > Poly.
Evocation – Restores 60% of your health and 60% of your mana. Make sure you have a shield up before you use it, since dots will affect how many ticks you get.
Counterspell – Locks the target out of that school of magic for a good time if you get them while casting. Also completely silences for 4 seconds.
Iceblock – Your “OH **** I'MA DIE” button. Invulnerable to everything (except Mass Dispel and Shattering throw).
Freeze – Same as a nova, but for your pet.
Cold Snap – Self explanatory, resets cd on all frost spells. Use your cooldowns before you pop this I guess.
Mirror Images – Use it to put more pressure out on your target, keep them slowed and confuse the hell outta them :D
Water Elemental – Your pet. Does damage, can freeze.
Icy Veins – 20% haste. Use it to grt more pressure out and possibly score a kill.
Frostfire Bolt – Use this when 'Fireball!' procs.
Slowfall – Useful as a junkbuff as the game begins, for the other team to get through when dispelling. Costs hardly any mana either.
Frost/Fire Ward: Throw these up depending on who you're fighting. Warlocks = fire ward, frost mages = frost ward, etc.
Arcane Nova: Useful to find rogues/druids in stealth.
Mana Gem: Gives you a chunk of your mana back. Make sure you have 3 of them before you go start a match.
Macros
Freeze: (Casts your pet's nova)
/cast Freeze
Poly Focus: (Sheeps focus target)
/cast [@focus] Polymorph
Counterspell: (Stops casting and counterspells current target)
/stopcasting
/cast Counterspell
Counterspell Focus: (Stops casting and counterspells focus target)
/stopcasting
/cast [@focus] Counterspell
Deep Freeze Focus (Deep Freezes focus target)
/cast [@focus] Deep Freeze
Iceblock: (Stops casting, casts iceblock on first keypress. Takes off iceblock on second keypress)
/stopcasting
/cast Ice Block
/cancelaura Ice Block
Frostbolt: (Casts your pet's waterbolt on your current frostbolt target)
/cast Frostbolt
/cast Waterbolt
General Tips in Arena
1) Make sure you are using the right armour pre-match. Frost armour would generally be used against warriors and rogues while mage armour would be more useful against everyone else. Mage armour makes all harmful magic effects last half as long. (E.g. silencing shot / Strangulate / etc).
2) Set up and keybind Frostbolt (Rank One). It is used to get a quick snare/slow on the target without having to cast a full frostbolt. You'll use it a lot.
3) Against priests, fake cast a few polymorphs. Once they ShadowWord: Death you, go for the actual morph.
4) Use slow fall as a junk buff soon after the match starts on both you and your partner. This = more buffs for the enemy to purge through.
5) Keep Frost/Fire ward up as necessary.
6) You generally will not be using full ranked Dampen or Amplify Magic unless you are playing a double dps comp. I've tried to explain this so many times it's not funny... the spell is absolutely useless. It is only useful in the form of a junk buff that the enemy needs to dispel.
7) Keep an eye out for your procs. Use something like 'Power Auras Classic' to keep an eye on when things proc. You need to know when Fingers of Frost and your insta FFB procs.
8) SHATTER COMBOS:
1. First, have your pet summoned and keybind it's Freeze to make it a bit easier on yourself.
2. Start casting Frostbolt.
3. Just as your Frostbolt is about to finish casting, Freeze them using your pet ability.
4. The moment your Frostbolt finishes casting, cast an icelance.
Doing this will cause both your Frostbolt and Ice Lance to be benefited from 'Shatter', causing ridiculous amounts of damage.
Thanks to thisisforgold for reminding me to put this in ^.^
9) Remember, peeling your partner is almost always more important that sitting in one spot spamming frostbolts. Peeling is when your partner is in trouble and you do stuff to make them... not in trouble? For example, I'm playing priest/mage and i'm fighting priest/rogue. Said rogue is beating me to a pulp. If i call for a 'peel', i basically want my mage to come and nova the rogue and poly the priest, thus giving me time to get away and heal up.
My Keybinds
I recently set this mage up on warsong, despite the fact that I don't use it. Some keybinds are missing, but you get the idea:
Stole the name from bets mage dw.
http://img810.imageshack.us/img810/3953/maget.jpg
