[FROST] Legion Beta Megathread

[Cracked]

Is that with Flurry or is it prior testing before Frozen Orb was vetoed out of being Brain Freeze's proc?

There hasn't been any raid testing since Flurry was added, so no. I mean, honestly, it felt pretty good, fun to play, decently dynamic with right talents, almost overwhelming with choice. It was just painful to be almost useless in situations in which Fire would do much better etc.

[Bombkirby]

Mind if I ask what the current recommended talent build is? I just started following all of this a week ago.

[Deleted]

Mind if I ask what the current recommended talent build is? I just started following all of this a week ago.

As for dps talents, I'm currently mostly running with ray of frost, ice nova, comet storm, incanters flow/rune of power depending on content, and then unstable magic.

Not entirely sure on unstable magic.

Anyhow, Ray of frost with icy veins, haste trinket proc and rune of power does an obsene ammount of dmg in its 10 secs, it ofc is only usable on fights where you can be immobile for 10 secs, so mostly BGs and dungeon runs really.

Glacial Spike is to me the one talent I'm having trouble with, because I find that I can output the same ammount of dps that it does by using other spells in the same GCD, comet storm however is very nice in quite a few situations, havent tested thermal void much so not sure about it yet.

Rotation wise I just try and get 3 improved ice lance dmg stacks and 3 FoF procs and a brain freeze at the same time, pref with a rune of power up underneath me if possible, but that is not always the easiest conditions to stack, but when it all does align, my god does it pay off haha, Ice lance goes up towards 550k almost with 3 stacks and rune of power + icy veins, and you can get off at least 3 sometimes 4 in a row. Manage that in in pvp and just watch people melt, but it feels just as good in PvE haha.

Frost to me is a very underrated spec atm, sure its average on dps, but the burst is crazy good with the correct setup for it, but you need to be planning ahead and have the stats to back it up, for example crit is alot nicer in legion due to the ice lance dmg proc of frostbolt crits, I've been aiming for 25-30% crit and haste since frost armor gives 8% haste atm, its not that impossible to reach, then I dump into mastery. I think that will pay of the best, as my icicles are near 90% atm, which means that with a icelance cast and procs/buffs I get a 550kish ice lance, followed by 5 icicles that each do at least 60kish dmg but they can proc for way more than that, up towards 200k at times haha. And ofc I by the time all 5 has launched my 2nd icelance for 550k is on its way, and if there is some aoe going on there, I just pop a comet storm as well :P

I never looked at frost mage before, but atm I'm completely sold for it to be my main in legion, sure they lost their stun in pvp, but they still have so much going for them imo

[Deleted]

om ptr what are the current stat prio for frost?

[Deleted]

om ptr what are the current stat prio for frost?

I touched on the stats in my post, but as the artifact trait that makes crit so good isnt on the PTR, since its on the weapon duh... anyhow, I guess mastery and haste really? I mean crit isnt bad but icicles does alot more dmg compared to WoD imo.

And vers is also alot better in legion, so I'd say get a comfortable haste level and then go for mastery and vers over crit probably :P But Im new to frost mages, so I might be way of mark here.

[Deleted]

Glacial Spike is to me the one talent I'm having trouble with, because I find that I can output the same ammount of dps that it does by using other spells in the same GCD

I find it very easy to be suboptimal because it hoards the icicles and if one doesn't use it fast it would be a DPS loss. I guess tuning will tell but it does look deceiving. It looks easy to play but it has caveats.

3 FoF procs

Is that the Icy Hand trait? Doesn't it need a minimum of 15 ranks to unlock? What tree to you have?

Frost to me is a very underrated spec atm

I get the general sense it keeps the character of a an averagely good all-around general-purpose spec. I'm not sure if it's low DPS, sustained damage might prove to be very good in my opinion at release after tuning. For personal style reasons though I may opt in for the niches of the other specs.

[Imnick]

I find it very easy to be suboptimal because it hoards the icycles and if one doesn't use it fast it would be a DPS loss. I guess tuning will tell but it does look deceiving. It looks easy to play but it has caveats..

The "downside" of Glacial Spike is deceptive, because you rarely actually need to care about Ice Lance firing off all of your icicles except if a target is about to become immune or if you want immediate burst.
Icicles will still fire individually if you generate one but are already capped, so the only actual loss of Icicle damage would be from shooting Glacial Ice into an immune target, or timing the end of a fight so that you miss a few that you could have launched with Ice Lance (but you won the fight so who cares).

What you are losing by delaying Glacial Spike is the opportunity to launch more Glacial Spikes, though.

[Deleted]

True it does not block icicles.

[Deleted]

The "downside" of Glacial Spike is deceptive, because you rarely actually need to care about Ice Lance firing off all of your icicles except if a target is about to become immune or if you want immediate burst.
Icicles will still fire individually if you generate one but are already capped, so the only actual loss of Icicle damage would be from shooting Glacial Ice into an immune target, or timing the end of a fight so that you miss a few that you could have launched with Ice Lance (but you won the fight so who cares).

What you are losing by delaying Glacial Spike is the opportunity to launch more Glacial Spikes, though.

My point was more that you can easily use the same GCD and cast time to output the same damage that a spike would do, however spike makes you much less mobile doing said damage. The burst is good for pvp where you need it to catch someone off guard, but in PvE I prefer other options as they keep me more mobile in a somewhat stationary spec. (well really only when there are no procs up)

[Deleted]

When I see something being passive and an alternative being active, the passive will rarely beat the active. In this particular case the active is single target so it has a good chance to be eventually tuned better than Thermal Void. Comet Storm will likely be the best AOE talent since it doesn't split the damage anymore.

[gallamann]

Let's talk T19 4pc bonus

Right now it is pretty bad since they took FO away from the BF proc and replaced it with Flurry.

My simple math puts it at ~17% active, if you manage to squeeze one off 11 secs before boss dies
then it will have a wee bit more use.

So that needs to be addressed, question is what should they target.

From what I read AoE is hurting so that maybe a good spot.

However also reading sustained is BAD atm so that may be a good spot.

Thoughts?

[Deleted]

Let's talk T19 4pc bonus

Right now it is pretty bad since they took FO away from the BF proc and replaced it with Flurry.

My simple math puts it at ~17% active, if you manage to squeeze one off 11 secs before boss dies
then it will have a wee bit more use.

So that needs to be addressed, question is what should they target.

From what I read AoE is hurting so that maybe a good spot.

However also reading sustained is BAD atm so that may be a good spot.

Thoughts?

I assume that they haven't touched the bonuses for a while and they will once they think the classes are settled.

- - - Updated - - -

They might just buff the proc rate.

- - - Updated - - -

sustained is BAD atm so that may be a good spot.

There's an important bug with Ice Lances not getting the full Fingers of Frost bonus, which might be related http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/to...88?page=13#256

[gallamann]

Yeah I saw that (FoF bug), not sure how much that equates too, but certainly will help. I played some Beta last nite and can say I thought a couple times damage was low on FoF IL's. So question is; is that bug every FoF IL or just some.

Not sure a buffed proc rate helps, even at 100% you only have FO for 10 seconds out of every 60, and with GCD you could maybe get off 8 FoF IL's in that 10 seconds (at 100% proc). 10/60 = 16.67% up time. Lets say boss dies at like 4:12, and you got off 5 FO's, even then it is 19.84% uptime (Orwellian, lol).

Also am concerned about BF procs, just not seeing that many of them (this is with just the passive 10%). When I have tried it on dummies, sometimes it takes 18+ casts versus other times it happens sub 10 times, so not sure. Can say more often than not in my Simmerspike testing, I was above 14 frost bolts to see a BF proc. However out in world doing quests solo, it seems like once every 10 minutes, and that is using GS a lot, aka lots of frost bolts cast.

[Deleted]

am concerned about BF procs, just not seeing that many of them (this is with just the passive 10%). When I have tried it on dummies, sometimes it takes 18+ casts versus other times it happens sub 10 times, so not sure. Can say more often than not in my Simmerspike testing, I was above 14 frost bolts to see a BF proc. However out in world doing quests solo, it seems like once every 10 minutes, and that is using GS a lot, aka lots of frost bolts cast.

It's kinda rare. They might be tuning it with the artifact trait in mind. The spec in general appears to have backloaded important traits at the end (Chilled to the Core appears to be one of the strongest traits in the game and it's towards the end).

[gallamann]

It's kinda rare. They might be tuning it with the artifact trait in mind. The spec in general appears to have backloaded important traits at the end (Chilled to the Core appears to be one of the strongest traits in the game and it's towards the end).

LOL, I haven't even tried Chilled to the Core on Beta, the little bit of time I do get, I have been mostly leveling to get a feel for play. Also took the time to take both Arcane and Fire through acquiring artifacts.

My current thinking on Artifact goes;

Shattering Bolts
Let it Go (use early Relic here)
Ice Nine
Shield of Alodi
Black Ice
Frozen Veins
Icy Caress (use early Relic here)
Icy Hand

Then I have to choose whether going back to pick up It's Cold Outside or push to Chilled to the Core...

Going back means;

Jouster
It's Cold Outside
Chain Reaction

Going forward means;

Orbital Strike
Chilled to the Core

It's 25 for all that and price starts climbing after Icy Hand. My gut is telling me go forward because raids and dungeons Chilled to Core is going to be much more useful.

*** above subject to change based upon actual values at launch ***

[Deleted]

LOL, I haven't even tried Chilled to the Core on Beta, the little bit of time I do get, I have been mostly leveling to get a feel for play. Also took the time to take both Arcane and Fire through acquiring artifacts.

My current thinking on Artifact goes;

Shattering Bolts
Let it Go (use early Relic here)
Ice Nine
Shield of Alodi
Black Ice
Frozen Veins
Icy Caress (use early Relic here)
Icy Hand

Then I have to choose whether going back to pick up It's Cold Outside or push to Chilled to the Core...

Going back means;

Jouster
It's Cold Outside
Chain Reaction

Going forward means;

Orbital Strike
Chilled to the Core

It's 25 for all that and price starts climbing after Icy Hand. My gut is telling me go forward because raids and dungeons Chilled to Core is going to be much more useful.

*** above subject to change based upon actual values at launch ***

I doubt you can choose relics that easily. You will usually get high ilevel ones with no alternatives that you must use for now. I don't find Icy Caress better than Clarity of Thought at first glance. But I think it is clear we are getting into territory that can't be intuitively predicted so I'd want to see simulations.

[gallamann]

I doubt you can choose relics that easily. You will usually get high ilevel ones with no alternatives that you must use for now. I don't find Icy Caress better than Clarity of Thought at first glance. But I think it is clear we are getting into territory that can't be intuitively predicted so I'd want to see simulations.

Reason used "early Relic", you get them while questing, on my second one for Let it Go, tossed a Storm Rages one in favor of an Icy Caress one. Ditto on sims

Edit - Mayhap "early" was bad wording, by that I meant ones you get while leveling.

[dark666105]

One thing I like about Glacial Spike is that it is affected by Splitting Ice, thus making cleave that much more potent. Though some of the extra strength from the freeze effect is lost on raid bosses that can't be frozen, it would be nice to see this changed to a Winter's Chill effect so it will be effective on things like raid bosses.

[Deleted]

Do I miss something or Black Ice and Chain Reaction do not proc in the current build?

[Kuni Zyrekai]

Black Ice works, Chain Reaction/Jouster/Frozen Veins don't. I don't have the mental fortitude to go through all the small bonuses, but I wouldn't be surprised if some of those are broken too.

ETA 4 seconds of testing: Icy Hand, Icy Caress, Shield of Alodi, It's Cold Outside, Orbital Strike, Chilled to the Core all work. Not going to piss around with the BF proc rate or the Lance crit damage. Pretty sure BF proc rate is broken based on my raid logs for tues/wed.