Focus Magic: The New Frost

It's finally time to talk about Patch 3.3 and the lovely changes to Frost in this episode of Focus Magic

Intro

Oh, Arcane DPS is truly frightful, and Fire is always delightful, but since 3.3 loved us so....LET IT SNOW, LET IT SNOW, LET IT SNOW!!

You heard that right, fellow mages, it's time for what you've all been waiting for, it's time to cover the changes to Frost spec in Patch 3.3.

Disclaimers Usually Mean Something Bad

Now, bear this in mind. In a simple single target tank-and-spank boss fight, the kind that all the theorycrafters LOVE to model things on, all tests show that frost is still a good 8-10% worth of DPS behind the likes of Fire and Arcane. Of course, when was the last time you fought a raid boss that simplistic, where you never had to move position or had to otherwise deal with a boss's abilities. Oh, right. Patchwerk. Well, he doesn't count. Anyway, there are of course plenty of mitigating factors which could increase or decrease your DPS with this spec, so take that with a grain of salt and try it for yourself.

What Frost Brings To the Table

So, none of us have been Frost for a pretty good long time. Let's talk about what it brings to a raid team.

Buffwise, a frost mage with Winter's Chill is going to provide the 5% increased Critical Strike Chance debuff which is also provided by Improved Scorch and Improved Shadow Bolt. Winter's Chill applies 1% per cast of Frostbolt, stacking 5 times. You can also quickly stack it to 5 on a single mob or a group of them by using Blizzard. And because you're going to be spamming a LOT of Frostbolts, you can easily maintain it without having to add a spell to your rotation to do so.

Speaking of Blizzard, a single point in the Improved Blizzard talent will add a chill effect to the spell, which in addition to triggering Winter's Chill, also causes Fingers of Frost, Frostbite, and Torment the Weak if you have those talents. This makes it an extremely potent spell to AOE down trash and adds, you will often see Fingers of Frost/Frostbite chain-proccing, which will cause a large number of Shatter-crits. Yay Frigidy-doom!!

A PvE Frostmage will also be rocking the Focus Magic too, so one lucky caster's gonna get an extra 3% crit.

Finally, let's talk about the Frostbolt snare debuff. You might notice that this debuff will apply to any mob now, even if you have the Glyph of Frostbolt, which is suppose to remove it. Well, it doesn't actually prevent the debuff from being applied, it simply reduces the movement speed reduction to 0%. Previously, this would cause the debuff to not even apply, but now it shows up, despite not doing anything, to correct a bug with the healing reduction from Permafrost. Previously, if you had the frostbolt glyph AND the Permafrost talent (a rare combination), the glyph prevented Permafrost's movement reduction AND healing debuff. Now the glyph simply reduces the snare to 0%, but still allows it to show up to correct this bug. This may confuse you if you have the glyph and cause you to think you're still getting a slow effect out of it, but you aren't. Also, a glyphed Frostbolt will NOT trigger Torment the Weak.

Talent and Glyph Setup

Okay, you know what you bring to a raid, let's set up your talents and glyphs.

You're gonna put 18 points into Arcane, obviously, because of the need for Torment the Weak. This talent's way too powerful not to have. Grab your first 5 points of filler, grab Arcane Concentration, Student of the Mind, Focus Magic, a filler point (Spell Impact or Magic Absorption), and get Torment the Weak.

Head over to frost and start filling up all the usual damage dealing talents. Skip Frostbite (you might get one point in here later), Frost Warding, Permafrost, put only 1 point in Improved Blizzard, then skip Improved Cone of Cold, Frozen Core, Cold As Ice (again, for now), Shattered Barrier, and do not put more than 1 point in Enduring Winter. That single point is there to trigger Replenishment, any more than that is a waste.

If you followed my suggestions above, you should have 1 point extra that you can put in any one of several places. Frostbite will give you a chance to trigger the freeze effect, which will mostly be useful in AOE situations. You could also throw a second point in Improved Blizzard for the extra movement slowdown for AOE purposes as well. Finally, you can throw that point in Cold as Ice for a 10% cooldown reduction for Cold Snap, Ice Barrier, and your Elemental. This one's my personal pick.

Glyphs are pretty easy. You'll want Molten Armor, Frostbolt, and the new Eternal Water as your majors, anything else is going to reduce your Damage. Pick whatever minor ones you like.

The Rotation

Our new rotation is a bit tricky, but if you've mastered Shatter Combos, you'll be fine.

You'll want to set your pet to Attack, then start spamming Frostbolts. When Fingers of Frost Procs, you'll likely see the proc happen JUST as you launch the Frostbolt that triggered it and you've started to cast your next one. Let it fly, then fire up a second one. At the end of the cast of that second Frostbolt, immediately hit Deep Freeze at the end, or Ice Lance if Deep Freeze is on cooldown. If timed right, they'll both hit the mob at the same time and both will likely crit.

Bear in mind, Deep Freeze will only do damage if the target is permanently immune to stuns. Most bosses fall into this category, as do many high-health elites

When Brain Freeze procs, use the Fireballs as they become available, but remember they don't hit NEARLY as hard as any of your Frostbolts. Never use them when Fingers of Frost is up, save them until later.

Outtro

So the question you have to ask is this: Should you change? Is Frost right for you? I can’t exactly answer that. The best way to figure out if you should go for Frost is to respect into it, take the advice I’ve given you here, and try it out. See what it does for you. I’ve had a wide range of experience with it, ranging from topping the DPS meters in NITF-25 to being middle of the pack. Take a chance on it, go grab the spec and glyphs, re-do all your bars and summon your pet. Frost is back, and it’s waiting for ya.

That’s it for this week, my fellow mages! Not sure what we’ll be discussing in the next episode, but if you have some ideas, post them in the AIE Class forums! This has been Dahkar, aka OLD MAN FRANKS, reminding you: Help control the gnome population, roll a troll today!