Leveling issue as a frost mage

[sponge5307]

So I boost a mage to lvl 100 (I play a mage before and always raid as a Arcane). Anyways I though frost would be the easiest of the spec to level since you can slow your enemies and hopefully they would die before getting to you.

Atm leveling is been pretty hard. I don't hit hard enough for the mobs or trash before they get to me. Ice barrier sometimes enough and I ended up kiting the mobs and taking forever to kill something. Let's not talk about doing mini world bosses alone coz it just can't be done.

Anyone leveling as frost have any advice. I feel I don't hit hard enough and my hp is too low. Other caster seems to fair a lot better when leveling. Boomkin had lot's of HoT's and heals I can just grab a mob and kill them easily and damage is actually good. Warlock have their pet to tank for them and literally you never die as a warlock, ele shammy got some nice damage but still better than frost mage.

[Xirrohon]

I would only level as Fire. Once you get Champion Modera things become much easier as she Frost Novas pretty consistently and holds decent threat. Also, I would use Mirror Image while leveling for Rares and Oh Shit moments. Ive been working on a couple alts and the leveling experience for those have been considerably easier than Mage.

[sponge5307]

Well I can't really go back to fire not till 102 since I went with the frost spec weapon 100.

[Re1ax]

Its a mage. Just accept that you cant facetank 4+ mobs like some other classes. Kite mobs, and conjure food to get your health back up between pulls. It can certainly require a little more patience than others, but it is not impossible like you make it seem.

[klaps_05]

fire is the best for leveling because its very easy to get pyros which do significant dmg, and your heal and escape button is the same

[Deleted]

fire is the best for leveling because its very easy to get pyros which do significant dmg, and your heal and escape button is the same

Ehm.... No, Frost is the best to level with and I soloed plenty of stuff I only saw tanks touch due to roots and slows.

Frost and mages in general take abit of finesse atm, you cant face tank stuff, you need to kite them, and stick to 1-2 mobs, groups just wont work.

Also talents, double frost nova, ice block, ice nova, glacial spike and I went lonely winter, but that tier is a preference mostly.


Glacial spike alone will do 50% of most mobs HP, and it freezes for 4 sec in that time you can get in at least 3 ice lances, and most mobs are dead by then :P


I saw plenty of mages and other players just stop and ask me how I was bursting through mobs like I was, so yeah.... this is a L2P issue, because I had 0 issues with frost as long as I kept my cool and didnt overpull packs.

[Eschotaeus]

Yea, as people said, mages are just harder to level. Kiting is a must, and that's a skill that can come slowly if you don't have it going in. Limiting your pulls to 1-2 mobs can also be a challenge, especially if you're coming from a tank who couldn't pull enough mobs to kill themselves if they tried (cough demon hunter cough).

I haven't touched frost other than to unlock so I can't say much for comparison, but fire works fine for leveling. Between blink, barrier, and alternating DB/nova stuns you should have no problems keeping distance, you just gotta be careful where you're blinking. Fire also has some pretty sick burst even at lower ilvls because of combustion+RoP, which takes care of world elites. I was able to kill the elite constructs for the enchanting quest (~5.2m health) by pulling them into a building and popping everything. While leveling I did the same thing to anything with over 2m health and never failed to kill something I wanted dead.

Finally, as an aside, I wouldn't say anything good about ele sham leveling. Lower damage than mages with none of the control. If you follow the official forums or the ones here, it's a common topic: ele sucks. I asked on the official forums if I should use it to level, and the answer was

Ask yourself how much you appreciate the ability to see. If it isn't that important to you, then the eye-gouging experience really won't be that bad.

Friends don't let friends level ele.

[PurechaosSK]

its only more challenging because you are still in i640 gear if you missed invasions. It will get better soon. Just blink and kite and do 1 mob at a time my friend.

[Deleted]

Mage is probably the least forgiving class for players new to the spec, and also undergeared players. You have to do things right. Only time I died during legion leveling was when I blinked into texture and instantly died. Frost might not be that good for elites while leveling though.

[Redwyrm]

I am leveling with Frost. And while it's challenging, I've only died a couple of times due to underestimating certain enemies. Don't pull more than two at once. If you do, pop mirror image to tank for you a bit. Pop Ice Barrier a few seconds before you pull if you can so that you can get a second one off during the fight if needed. I have been able to take most of the rares solo by burning them down fast enough before they chew through my mirror images.

[Ham on Rye]

I leveled as Fire in alpha, and in beta, and am leveling as Frost on live. I find them both fairly easy. The best part of Frost is that you can get to 5 Icicles very easily, and then when you cast Glacial Spike, you Shatter it using the Water Elemental Freeze, enabling you to take off the majority of mob health in one hit. Ice Nova and Ebonbolt also hit reasonably hard, so make sure you use them to your advantage. I've had virtually no downtime at all.

[deepr]

I love my Frost Mage and have no problems at all. Feels more powerful than ever, on single target. AoE is crap. I've played Frost during WotLK and Cata.
I'm using 1-1-3-2-1-2-2
Hotkey your Water Elemental's Freeze (take Water Jet off auto cast, it shares cooldown with Freeze).
Hotkey your Water Elemental basic attack so you can let him take the first hits if needed.
Don't forget Ray of Frost, it's very powerful too, not as much as Glacial Spike perhaps, but as long as you freeze and slow, you can channel the spell for its full duration.
Ebonbolt seems kind of useless, except when everything else is on CD. I wish it was something with more utility.
Just use Invisibility (+pet on passive) if you really need to get away.
Ice Floes to cast Frostbolt while running.
Shimmer for two blinks (I have no need for the second Ice Block at all), but it seems bugged as it doesn't break stun and roots. Is this bugged or intended?

Oh and obviously make full use of every Freeze effect you can get: Frost Nova, Pet Freeze and Glacial Spike for freezes. Fingers of Frost from Frozen Touch talent (a no brainer), Frostbolt and Frozen Orb. Brain Freeze from Frostbolt.
Only when Brain Freeze pops you cast Flurry, then immediately after that Ice Lance.
When you have 2x Fingers of Frost+Brain Freeze, first cast Ice Lance twice, then Flurry, then another Ice Lance.

Spend a lot of time on hotkeying as efficiently as possible. My left hand doesn't move, only the fingers. Thumb on Alt+ a key is by far the easiest method for lots of extra hotkeys (so Alt + anything close to WASD) + a few buttons on mouse. Blink is handy to have on mouse.

[Bullettime]

Been leveling as Arcane, so different spec, but feel your pain there. Fighter Chow fixed a lot of leveling issues though since as long as you don't pull too much and get destroyed, you just feel heal between mobs.