Kuni's Frost Mage PVE Guide - 8.1.0

[AdrianCC100]

Do I want to pool FoF procs until I have 2 or 3? Or use them right away?

[Cabrian]

80% Splitting Ice was hotfixed to now also affect Glacial Spike - does that change anything on cleave fights?

[Deleted]

Splitting Ice was hotfixed to now also affect Glacial Spike - does that change anything on cleave fights?

I suspect it doesn't make GS worth it still.

[Cabrian]

I suspect it doesn't make GS worth it still.

One would hope that the change from 50% to 80% cleave might actually be worth it... Oh well, perhaps when we have some Mastery and Ice IX and Black Ice traits.

[Deleted]

One would hope that the change from 50% to 80% cleave might actually be worth it... Oh well, perhaps when we have some Mastery and Ice IX and Black Ice traits.

Unless im wrong, your aoe spell Comet Storm, does more single target dps than GS atm.

[Gavran]

How is frost on two-targets cleave fights compare to fire and arcane?

[noimawizard]

Pretty strong actually. Seems like blizz wants frost niche to be ST/two target cleave, and just meh on everything else. Frost simmin nice in 865 gear on ST, and has a buff for ST in 7.1.

[Ham on Rye]

Pretty strong actually. Seems like blizz wants frost niche to be ST/two target cleave, and just meh on everything else. Frost simmin nice in 865 gear on ST, and has a buff for ST in 7.1.

Where are these Frost buffs in 7.1? Do you have a link? Didn't see them mentioned in any of the patch notes, except to update 7.1 for the hotfixes a couple of weeks ago that are already live.

[shoops]

Blizzard should be used on cooldown. Yes, including single target.

So can anyone elaborate on this? This is the first guide I've seen say that. If this is the case would Arctic Gale ever be worth taking?

[Deleted]

So can anyone elaborate on this? This is the first guide I've seen say that. If this is the case would Arctic Gale ever be worth taking?

From what I could understand of the altered-time posts about it. It has a bit to do with your mastery if blizzard beats frostbolt in pure damage (Since frostbolt means icicles for some extra damage) and when you get enough mastery, you'll pass blizzard in damage. Along with what artifact traits you've picked.
However, throwing down a blizzard right away means you'll get about 7 ticks, it doesn't seem to increase with haste from what I tested, however, the cooldown on it does decrease with more haste. 7 ticks = 7 stacks of bone chilling (If you're using that). It also has the same cast time as frostbolt, it acts as a filler and you shouldn't go out of your way to use it.
Over that 8 second time it lasts for, you get the 7 ticks of damage with each having 5% chance to proc Fingers of Frost, so that might be why it is used, especially along with something like Frost Bomb since FoF = Ice lance benefitting from shatter = Frost Bomb explosion for more damage. Not sure how that calculates with Artic Gale though, I'm not an expert and I might just be talking out of my ass (Very likely!).
And I guess this might also be why you would use it during icy veins with thermal void? More FoF procs = longer IV.
That's the main reasons I can see why you would use it, more for the sake of the procs than the out-right damage in the long run.

[ThrowAwayForAReason]

Did they sneak in a small Frost buff recently? All of a sudden I'm hitting like a truck...

[Kuni Zyrekai]

Been dead for a bit, sorry about that. I got better.

Do I want to pool FoF procs until I have 2 or 3? Or use them right away?

Minimal difference in practice. Proc rate's high enough that you'll likely see a second one in a FBomb duration regardless.

80% Splitting Ice was hotfixed to now also affect Glacial Spike - does that change anything on cleave fights?

Nope. CmS is still better.

So can anyone elaborate on this? This is the first guide I've seen say that. If this is the case would Arctic Gale ever be worth taking?

It's a relatively new development born of me playing with the Belt APL. AG's not far behind, but it lacks the burst AOE that lower Mythic dungeons want. It's fine for most other situations though.

I might just be talking out of my ass (Very likely!).

More or less right. 8 ticks, btw. Biggest thing is that it will generate more FoF than Frostbolt will for the same cast time, and Ice Lance is the largest non-Ray of Frost damage source. The straight Mastery check isn't going to be the entire story due to this.

Did they sneak in a small Frost buff recently? All of a sudden I'm hitting like a truck...

Haven't noticed anything out of the ordinary.

[Bombkirby]

Did they sneak in a small Frost buff recently? All of a sudden I'm hitting like a truck...

Depends on your definitions of "recently." Hotfix buffs happened quite some time ago. Nothing got buffed after that.

[FrostyButt]

Why doesn't Chilled to the Core last the entire Icy Veins duration? If Blizzard allowed CttC to stay active during the entire duration of Icy Vein, I think Frost would be in a very good spot. =)

[Bombkirby]

Why doesn't Chilled to the Core last the entire Icy Veins duration? If Blizzard allowed CttC to stay active during the entire duration of Icy Vein, I think Frost would be in a very good spot. =)

It may just be an oversight. It's linked to the PvP Talent "Ice Form" which changes Icy Veins into a different spell and (iirc) also triggers Chilled to the Core. It was probably easy to just program it so Icy Veins and Ice Form trigger Chilled to the Core and the programmers didn't think about how that would effect an extended Icy Veins/Ice Form.

Or Blizzard doesn't want the entire spec to be too reliant on permanent Icy Veins. Spriests are having Surrender to Maddness nerfed because balancing the spec around permanent StM makes it so they're very lackluster when they don't use that cooldown. As much as I love a lengthy Icy Veins, it would suck they buffed that aspect of Frost and made the entire spec rely on Icy Veins to be competitive, since if it drops off you're back to flinging frozen noodles.

[Belturone]

If CttC does not last the entire duration of Icy Veins, that is definitely both a bug and a disappointment til its fix comes

[Kuni Zyrekai]

Or Blizzard doesn't want the entire spec to be too reliant on permanent Icy Veins.

Bingo. It lasts the 20 seconds of a normal Icy Veins, and only 20 seconds, by design.

[Zakatt]

What about Artifact relics?
Do we just take the highest itemlevel?
Or do we care about the traits, too?
I have one with with 40 Itemlevel and Blizzard and one with 37 and Frostbolt.
Which one schould I take? I saw a ranking of traits for firemages somewhere; for instance Pyroblast was worth 15!! itemlevels there.

[Kuni Zyrekai]

What about Artifact relics?
Do we just take the highest itemlevel?
Or do we care about the traits, too?
I have one with with 40 Itemlevel and Blizzard and one with 37 and Frostbolt.
Which one schould I take? I saw a ranking of traits for firemages somewhere; for instance Pyroblast was worth 15!! itemlevels there.

I don't have a good answer for that yet that works at all levels.

Sim them.

[FrostyButt]

Just received a 860 Obelisk of the Void trinket. I have an 840 Baton and a 850 Sinew. I looked at the trinket list on Altered-Time forums and I don't see Obelisk of the Void listed anywhere.. Or perhaps it's there and I'm blind. Where would Obelisk be ranked? Would it be worth it to replace my Sinew?

Also..

How accurate is Simulation Craft these days? According to SC I should be doing 275,000 DPS in my current armor with Bone Chilling. I then was curious about how I would sim with Ray of Frost. According to SC I should be doing 269,000 with Ray of Frost. (Assuming I played the spec perfectly) So obviously if I was to follow SC, I would pick Bone Chilling. However, in actual practice I am seeing a MASSIVE difference between the two talents. Bone Chilling over 5 minute test on dummy is giving me an ending DPS of about 215,000. Doing the same test with Ray of Frost, it's giving me an ending DPS of about 265,000 DPS. Maybe I just don't fully understand how Simulation Craft works.

(Bursting in the 900,000 with hero/icy veins/Ray of Frost is fun. =D)