[Frost]Akraen's Comprehensive Guide to 5.4 Frost(Advanced)V.2

[Polarthief]

So is it probably not worth dropping my 4 PC until I get another heroic off piece (hopefully fallen protectors chest)?

Oh and my Armory in case it matters: http://us.battle.net/wow/en/characte...ra/Cute/simple

The 4P doesn't necessarily hinder you, it just means you're stuck with all that crit that's near worthless for you.

2P is mandatory (obviously), but feel free to break your 4P (or never go for it in the first place) when you get pieces (of same iLevel or better) with more Haste and/or Mastery (depending on your build), such as Protector's Chest, Galakras's Helm, Juggernaut's Legs, or Nazgrim's Shoulders. ALWAYS use the Glove tier piece because there are ZERO off-tier gloves that don't have Crit or Spirit on them.

[Ponkster]

The 4P doesn't necessarily hinder you, it just means you're stuck with all that crit that's near worthless for you.

2P is mandatory (obviously), but feel free to break your 4P (or never go for it in the first place) when you get pieces (of same iLevel or better) with more Haste and/or Mastery (depending on your build), such as Protector's Chest, Galakras's Helm, Juggernaut's Legs, or Nazgrim's Shoulders. ALWAYS use the Glove tier piece because there are ZERO off-tier gloves that don't have Crit or Spirit on them.

I'm going for the trash Hit haste gloves, I have the token in my bags ready to upgrade when they drop! So there are gloves :P

The 4-set isn't bad either, its just gonna be better to equip off set pieces that are either high ilvl (warforged) or have nicer stats. I wouldn't say the 4-piece is total trash though if you have it you might as well equip it if you don't have replacements! I know some top mages are using it because they are waiting on drops.

[Akraen]

The crit is far from worthless these days. That's not the reason. The reason I dislike tier is the ilvl difference. 580 > 574, any stat combination.

[Ponkster]

The crit is far from worthless these days. That's not the reason. The reason I dislike tier is the ilvl difference. 580 > 574, any stat combination.

Warforged in 10-mans is hardly ever seen, we are yet to see any cloth I understand in 25-man that its far easier attained

[Akraen]

Got almost all my WF'd from coins!

[Bedacles]

Warforged in 10-mans is hardly ever seen, we are yet to see any cloth I understand in 25-man that its far easier attained

In my experience on 10 man most of the *Forged (going back to ToT) seems to come from coin rolls although it does happen occasionally otherwise. But it's true if you look at some of these guys' gear doing 25 man, it's a little staggering if not cool the amount of (Heroic) Warforged they are sporting!

[Polarthief]

In my experience on 10 man most of the *Forged (going back to ToT) seems to come from coin rolls although it does happen occasionally otherwise. But it's true if you look at some of these guys' gear doing 25 man, it's a little staggering if not cool the amount of (Heroic) Warforged they are sporting!

One piece, for all my Heroic 25 kills :X

Never even got a Normal+ Immerseus trinket, and had to coin my Toxic Totem (Day 1, no less, lol)

[gallamann]

10 man here, never received a Warforged (Thunderforged) piece via a bonus roll. Never won a Warforged/Thunderforged via boss drops (we use roll /100 and our Shadow Priest always wins on the War/Thunder Forged rolls).

My first piece of gear that was Warforged came from Ordos, heck I won't be surprised if Ordos gear is only Warforged I get

Loot can be a RNG nightmare, for example in 5.4 I have yet to get PBoI, despite killing it Flex/Normal every week since release (the one time it did drop normal the SP won). All three of us casters have yet to get a 553 weapon, heck the other two are still rocking ToT weapons (I have Flex)... meanwhile everyone else in raid is enjoying 561+ weapons.

RNG can be a real bitch.

[Akraen]

A shadow priest is winning non-spirit WF'd cloth over you?

Seriously?

I'd quit the guild.

[Mastamage]

Coin rolls were terrible for awhile but I managed to coin H PBoI ( 10 coins later and 1 week after I coined the cloak...), HWF chest from Protectors, sword from Nazgrim, bracers from Spoils, WF belt from Iron Jugg and tier legs from celestials. Not bad for coin rolls as of late.

Unfortunately I still can't use the nazgrim sword bc I don't have an off-hand so I'm stuck with the 549 Horridon staff...

I'm going to a mastery build now that Comshit is having lag spikes during raids causing the haste build to falter a bit.

[Bedacles]

I'm going to a mastery build now that Comshit is having lag spikes during raids causing the haste build to falter a bit.

I travel alot for work and the baseline latency in certain places for example is 150ms. I use the "mixed" build i.e. 12684 and then stack mastery to 75% or whatever I'm at and it seems to work ok. Have you tried the full mastery build and convinced it's better with lower latency or are you going "hybrid/mixed"? What's your latency?

Please let me know your results in any case!

[Mastamage]

I travel alot for work and the baseline latency in certain places for example is 150ms. I use the "mixed" build i.e. 12684 and then stack mastery to 75% or whatever I'm at and it seems to work ok. Have you tried the full mastery build and convinced it's better with lower latency or are you going "hybrid/mixed"? What's your latency?

Please let me know your results in any case!

I would put my build as mastery/mixed. I'm at the 12684 breakpoint with the rest dumped into mastery (73% raid buffed). I can get to another breakpoint if needed

My usual latency is 17ms but when I get lag spikes it goes to 150-450ms randomly.

I have had sufficient time to test this setup (didn't do flex this week and played haste all last lockout). I'll post any logs I have from this coming week to compare to the haste build of last week.

[Deleted]

OK I have a question for you frost mages.

I have been fire all through ToT and SoO, but we are now working on Spoils Heroic, and fire just isn't working for me. Therefore I tried frost just to see how it works, and for me it did a lot better than fire, even with the wrong gems.

I want to be ready for next weeks so I have a couple of questions. Remember that I am not a very experienced frost mage. Never raided with it, only used it in challenge modes.

My char: http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/characte.../Lactia/simple

Which bomb do I use?
Do I go for haste or mastery. Some people seem to think that mastery beats out haste these days. Might also be the best to go for a specific haste breakpoint (depending on the bomb) and go mastery after that.

You can also see my trinkets in my char. I have one trinket I can swap in. (Frenzied Crystal of Rage at ilvl 561), but I dont suppose that one will beat any of those that I have will it?

[Mastamage]

OK I have a question for you frost mages.

I have been fire all through ToT and SoO, but we are now working on Spoils Heroic, and fire just isn't working for me. Therefore I tried frost just to see how it works, and for me it did a lot better than fire, even with the wrong gems.

I want to be ready for next weeks so I have a couple of questions. Remember that I am not a very experienced frost mage. Never raided with it, only used it in challenge modes.

My char: http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/characte.../Lactia/simple

Which bomb do I use?
Do I go for haste or mastery. Some people seem to think that mastery beats out haste these days. Might also be the best to go for a specific haste breakpoint (depending on the bomb) and go mastery after that.

You can also see my trinkets in my char. I have one trinket I can swap in. (Frenzied Crystal of Rage at ilvl 561), but I dont suppose that one will beat any of those that I have will it?

I suggest reading the guide. Everything you just asked, is written in plain sight.

[evoker]

Great work on the guide Akraen, really wondering why it's not a sticky yet!

I've been using a mastery built the past couple of weeks and loving it. For this week, I think I will try a mixture built although my latency is ~80ms and get some random spikes from time to time, but had a question (albeit obvious or stupid to most).

Sitting now at 13451 haste and 11216 mastery and I was wondering about bombs. Multitarget like Protectors the choice is obvious (NT) but what about fights like Shamans (we tank them together on normal) or Malkorok? Does LB still rise to the top over NT? My question is because of these haste breakpoints that refer to NT, what's the point of reaching them when you're not gonna use NT unless you cleave?

I know that NT gives more FFB procs and it was mentioned before, that although you get more procs, LB wins in the end (especially at higher latencies). But at my haste level, I'm unsure if I should be using NT or LB on single target fights.

Before some masta mage bites down my throat with their big worgen teeth, yes I did read the guide a few times and yes English is not my first language, so forgive me if I missed the answer to my question.

Thanks in advance!

[Akraen]

Your signature means I'd always give you my time <3 Walter

SoO is weird - seems once fights go down the target switching no longer even matters. LB or NT is mostly a gray area (use whichever you like). On Malkorok the oozes are not even alive long enough for me to bother put a bomb on, but LB would be enough I'd think anyway. Just focus on Malkorok.

On Shamans, all 3 bombs work. When I was learning it frost bomb made it easier, but now I just use LB. But that's heroic. For normal, I'd use NT because you tank them together.

[Deleted]

Hi, i see alot of criticism about the 4tier bonus for frost mage, but at what point is it actually worth getting?

Here is my armory: eu.battle.net/wow/en/character/twilights-hammer/Vildmagedk/advanced

Im speculating if its worth going after the 4-set with normal head and legs completing the set?
(I know tier head in general is better than what i use, just havnt gotten it yet . )

[Akraen]

It's absolutely worth getting, but then worth dropping again once you get heroic warforged items

[Mastamage]

.Before some masta mage bites down my throat with their big worgen teeth

fight related questions don't bother me but like the above poster, everything about frost mechanics that he asked is written in this guide and Kuni's. I expect someone doing Heroic content to have a grasp on the basics of all the specs...I mean, it is your class after all.

[Deleted]

I suggest reading the guide. Everything you just asked, is written in plain sight.

I did read the whole thing, but spoils does't really fit in any particular category. It's really a blend of a lot of different scenarios decribed in the guide. To a non-expirienced frost mage like myself I can't determain from this guide what the best way to go is here.

The adds will live for vastly different durations, an at any given time there can be anything from 2 to 6 or so adds up etc. It will change throughout, and because of that I personally can't determain which is the best way to go, hence my questions.

From what I gather both frost bomb and nether tempest could be the right choice here.
Frozen orb will give quite a few ice lance procs, which isn't affected by mastery, due to the same reasons fewer frostbolts will probably be cast, which is affected by mastery.

The reason I ask about the trinkets is that it really depends on the haste/mastery cohices which one should be used. Add to that that only the totem trinket is of heroic quality.

I don't ask because I'm too lazy to read, I simply doesn't have enough expirience to be sure that I can make the right decisions, and I don't wanna gimp myself more than I have to.