Frost Mage DPS Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities - Dragonflight 10.2.7 (2024)

At its most basic, the premise of Frost Mage is to spam Frostbolt until you gain a proc. Fingers of Frost allows you to cast Ice Lance and gain thebenefits of the frozen state. Brain Freeze resets the cooldown of Flurry and Flurry wants you to use a casttime spell, like Frostbolt, going into the Flurry, andthen follow up with 2 Ice Lances to consume the 2 remaining Winter's Chill charges.

This Frostbolt > Flurry > Ice Lance > Ice Lance combo is the heart of the spec, and if you have thatcommitted to memory, then the rest is simple.Anything beyond it is simply cooldown and movement management. The prioritylists below will showcase where exactly they are to be usedoptimally, but as long as they are being used at all, your damage should notsuffer too severely.

Adding talents to the mix, you gain a few cooldowns and the requirement tokeep track of your Mastery: Icicles. All of the spells added by talentsstill want to take advantage of the idea of the combo above but are used slightlydifferently each. Comet Storm should follow a Flurry so thatit lands as Winter's Chill is still on the target, allowing all comets to Shatter. Likewise, Ray of Frost wants to be cast into the finalcharge of Winter's Chill to benefit the entire channel. Glacial Spikewants to Shatter as many casts as possible, either replacing the Frostbolt that precedes the Flurry in the combo or one of the spellsthat would take the place of the following Ice Lances.

On single target, Shifting Power should simply be used whenever allof your talented cooldowns are on cooldown, and you have no procs to go.

PvP plays slightly differently, favoring burst windows rather thanthe sustained DPS of PvE. More information about PvP can be found in our PvPguide found here:

This is a priority system, not a rotation. This means things higher uphave priority over things lower on the list rather than cast them in thisorder. You would go down the list until you hit the first true thing,cast that spell, then go back to the top and start again. This, of course,assumes raw single target with no mechanics. Please do not go throwing Icy Veins into an immunity phase.

Active Talents	Passive Talents
Shifting Power	Temporal Warp
Comet Storm	Ice Caller
Glacial Spike	Coldest Snap
Ray of Frost
Ice Nova

1. Cast Icy Veins.
2. Cast Ice Lance whenever there are charges of Winter's Chill on the target that is not otherwise prioritized.
3. Cast Ice Lance if you have Fingers of Frost.
4. Cast Frostbolt.

This boils down to Shatter your big cooldowns like Ray of Frost and Comet Storm, and play around your Mastery: Icicles and Flurry to land Glacial Spikeinside Winter's Chill. This means that you can have situations where you are at3 Icicles, throwing Flurry > Ice Lance > Glacial Spike. LikewiseGlacial Spike > Flurry > Ice Lance > Ice Lance is valid, as is Frostbolt > Flurry > Glacial Spike > Ice Lance. Just do what you canto hit 5 Icicles, and fire Glacial Spike into Winter's Chill.

With the addition of Mage Frost 10.2 Class Set 2pc, we end up in astrange situation on two unfreezable targets where the most benefit you can getis by casting Flurry at one target, swapping targets to hit Glacial Spike into the second charge of Flurry, so both land in a"frozen" target and explode, dealing damage to each other. On freezable targetsyou can just abuse Ice Nova and Frost Nova to force bothtargets to be frozen, so this situation is going to be specifically 2 targetunfreezable mobs, which is a somewhat rare encounter.

Should this situation arise, save all your Flurry charges for the Glacial Spike double target.

It should be noted that this only really works on 2 target scenarios,because multiple grouped mobs means that it is unlikely you will manage tocleave both targets with Winter's Chill active. So, while this scenario isfairly rare, it should be kept in mind, as it is a relatively high DPS gain todo it.

The AoE priority system should kick in when you are fighting 3 or moremobs, dropping to the above rotations once you fall below.

For the most part, if you have Ice Caller talented, your AoEconsists of Frozen Orb and Blizzard to lower the cooldown.That is the primary driver. Everything else is just cooldown management, suchas Ice Nova, and Shifting Power.

If you do not have Ice Caller talented, do not AoE until 7 targets.Also, consider speccing Ice Caller next time you do that fight.

The very rare time where a raid will want Coldest Snap, you shouldsimply cast Cone of Cold after a Comet Storm, and then recasting Frozen Orb and Comet Storm right afterward.

1. Icy Veins
2. Cast Frozen Orb
3. Cast Blizzard
4. Cast Flurry if available.
5. Cast Ice Lance if you have Fingers of Frost available.
6. Cast Arcane Explosion if there are 7 or more targets, and you are above30% Mana.
7. Cast Frostbolt.

For a Mythic+ specific look at how to effectively AoE with a proper AoEbuild, see the M+ page:

Frost Mage is an extremely straightforward specialization; however, itoffers enough choice and flexibility that understanding the fundamentalconcepts of the spec is paramount to success. 4 major concepts form the centralcore of optimizing for success:

1. always be casting;
2. movement management;
3. proc management;
4. maximizing cleave.

Managing movement is a fundamental skill shared by all the caster classes inWorld of Warcraft and the Mage class lends itself beautifully to dealing withhigh movement. Learning to fully maximize efficiency concerning movementis extremely important for all the Mage specializations.

While it is difficult to describe the best ways to position and move duringa dungeon or raid encounter, it is essential to your success as a Frost Mage. Ice Floes charges set an important balance; it is important torefrain from overusing these and leaving yourself with nothing when itmatters, but you also want to avoid letting Ice Floes sit at 3charges when you are moving. Try and use Blink for urgentmovement — when you need to travel from one place to another as quicklyaspossible. Ice Barrier is a good choice when you onlyneed to take a few steps, as it only costs a single global cooldown. Forphases withpredictable high movement, you should treat Ice Floes as a DPScooldown and plan your charge usage accordingly. If you are playing with Shimmer talented, you should be using this as a pseudoIce Floes, as it does not interrupt your cast when used. Frost isan especially powerful specialization concerning movement, as you have avariety of spells that are instant cast. You can save charges of Fingers of Frost for predictable movement and use these globals tocover the entire distance travelled. Finally, always try to position yourselfin a location central to fight movement. For example, if the boss is beingmoved in a circle, try to stay on the inside of the kite path to ensure minimalmovement.

Alter Time is likewise useful in terms of movement. Casting itjust after getting a raid mechanic you have to deal with by moving out ofthe raid will make your return instantaneous. In terms of DPS throughput,using Alter Time as a movement ability is always better than a heal unlessyour healers are overwhelmed, and you will likely die without it.

Use Fingers of Frost and Brain Freeze as they come: Fingers ofFrost, through straight Ice Lance casts, and Brain Freeze, through theprimary Frostbolt > Flurry > Ice Lance > Ice Lancecombo. Now,there are situations in which you have mentally committed yourself to goinginto your Frostbolt > Flurry > Ice Lance > Ice Lance, but you proc Fingers ofFrost on that Frostbolt. That is unfortunate, but the Flurry is worth moreoverall. There is a small upside in most builds, though. Wintertideincreases the damage of the Ice Lance cast into a "double frozen" scenario likethis by 20%. While it is not optimal, it lessens the impact.

For further information on how and why the Frostbolt > Flurry> Ice Lance > Ice Lance combo works, see thissection on the FAQ page.

When talented into Glacial Spike, Flurry timing becomes abit of a game to see if you can land Glacial Spike somewhere within the combo.If, for instance, you finished casting some Ice Lances and are at 4Icicles, you should instead just Flurry into Glacial Spike, skipping theinitial spell in the combo.

Additionally, Comet Storm and Ray of Frost should both beheld for Flurry. In the case of Comet Storm, you want to make sure youhave enough time for the comets to finish falling within the Winter's Chillwindow. You could space this out by Flurry, Ice Lance, Comet Storm, Frostbolt, then Ice Lance. The Frostbolt should give you the extratime that you otherwise would not have, and the second Ice Lance will impactbefore Frostbolt unless you are extremely close to the target.

Ray of Frost, on the other hand, wants to be cast into the secondcharge of Winter's Chill at most relevant gear levels so as to not waste therebeing two charges on the target.

Some timing notes:

• 27% Haste lets you Flurry into Comet Storm or Ice Lance into Ray of Frost
• 48% Haste lets you Flurry into Glacial Spike into Ray of Frost
• 52% Haste lets you Flurry into Ice Lance into Comet Storm into Ray of Frost
• 173% Haste lets you Flurry into Comet Storm into Glacial Spike into Ray of Frost

These values are slightly off due to the nature of travel time of Flurry against debuff duration, so this is an absolute worst-casescenario for each. In practice, the values should be slightly lower, soconsider these points that you will absolutely make the timer.

Obviously, the last one is a bit of an absurdity, but there are commonlymechanics that grant a Haste buff you could stack with your own buffs.

Ultimately, Frost Mage is primarily about abusing your casts in a way thatis suitable to the situation. There are an enormous amount of possibilities,synergies, and overlaps that will provide an advantageous result. It isimportant, therefore, that you, as a player, think carefully about how you canuse your spells in a way that makes sense. Try to avoid using your majorabilities haphazardly or without thinking, as this will invariably result inyou losing a lot of damage. When your Frozen Orb is about to comeoff cooldown, for example, start thinking about the ways you are going tocleave with it or if the boss is going to be moved. Check your boss timers tosee how you can line it up for a phase with increased damage dealt or AoE. Alot of this might seem like common sense, but you would be surprised howuncommon that is!

We advise you to use the following opening sequence (or opener).

1. Pre-cast Frostbolt at 2 seconds on the countdown.
2. Cast Flurry to start the cooldown and to Shatter the prior Frostbolt.
3. Frostbolt should land, and the boss encounter should have begun at this point.
4. Activate Icy Veins and Time Warp if popping on pull.
5. Cast Comet Storm.
6. Cast Ice Lance to consume the first stack of Winter's Chill.
7. Cast Ray of Frost.
8. Cast Ice Lance to use one of your two Fingers of Frost from Ray of Frost.
9. Cast Flurry.
10. Cast Glacial Spike.
11. Cast Frozen Orb.
12. Cast Ice Lance to consume the second Fingers of Frost from Ray of Frost before Frozen Orb impacts and grants the first proc from it.
13. Follow your normal priority.

There is the argument to do this in the reverse order, with Frozen Orb first, and then Ray of Frost after Orb expires. Theyare both functionally identical in long-term DPS. However, Ray of Frost firsthas the benefit of front-loading your burst, which is usually more beneficialin practical encounters.