Mage PVP Guide - Frost

[Cheezyweezy]

well reaching duelist/gladiator levels in arena boils down to primarily knowing your opponents inside and out and how to counter every thing they are capable of throwing at you
Mages are in a very good place right now(some argue too good but that argument doesn't belong here)

To truly grasp the mechanics of arena, you need to hit the books and learn EVERY class and possible comps they use

As it has been mentions plenty of times, hit up arenajunkies and maybe even EJ and look at the basic overview of every classes spec and their stratagies

[rathok]

Ohhhh I only wish we were talking about comp strats...lol

I've only just begun to get into PvP, and I'm looking for some general stuff that makes a good Gladiator Mage

The difference between a decent mage and an amazing mage is that a decent one will put out some great dps while an amazing mage will do great dps completely locking down his CC targets and knows how to position himself. Those focus macros that i listed in the strat are the ones i use and they make it really easy (once you learn how to use them) to do as much dps as possible while keeping a CC target locked down.

Edit: And as Cheesy said, knowing thy enemy.

[Skarrd]

Talking on the topic of just gear, I think I'd go for T9.245 hat, gloves, and shoulders, assuming you have access to all of these. The relentless shoulders, while neat looking, aren't really itemized towards frost, and the T9 hat is identical to the badge hat, but you'll want it anyway since it would give you the 2pc.

I'm considering running (heroic) Skyweaver Vestments as I get myself back into the pvp scene. If I run with the hit from that, I can run mortalis, reign258, lightbane focus 245, 245 icehowl wand, and the badge ring. With that I sit at 410 resil, 880 haste, 3351 SP. Resil is sort of baby, which would be fixed as I can grab a 258 pvp weapon/offhand/wand, but the damage potential seems pretty nuts.

[myrmidons]

Meta:
Chaotic Skyfire: +crit rating/+ 3% crit damage


Why this one instead of the 25 spell and 2% meta gem? because i would say that 25 sp would give u overal damage more aswell and ofcourse 2% more mana.

[Bananengurke]

very very very important addon is also Spellalerter which alerts you when anyone casts any important buffs or casts, but you can condense it to making it only show when spellreflect is activated.
It's unbelievable how many casters theses days play without this addon, and you can very clearly see who uses it or not (or similar addons)
for example I was playing against a druid in 2s and he wanted to lock me down in cc, but everytime I cast spellreflect he stopped the cast, waited three secs, then continued to cc.
but then again I meet some mages in duels and I just get off spellreflecting everything while being kited. one time after I won against a frostmage who was better equiped ( and higher rating ) than me, he said "I would have won but prot is too hard" , to which I replied "L2P, I'm not prot, it's called spellreflect"

[Skarrd]

very very very important addon is also Spellalerter which alerts you when anyone casts any important buffs or casts, but you can condense it to making it only show when spellreflect is activated.
It's unbelievable how many casters theses days play without this addon, and you can very clearly see who uses it or not (or similar addons)
for example I was playing against a druid in 2s and he wanted to lock me down in cc, but everytime I cast spellreflect he stopped the cast, waited three secs, then continued to cc.
but then again I meet some mages in duels and I just get off spellreflecting everything while being kited. one time after I won against a frostmage who was better equiped ( and higher rating ) than me, he said "I would have won but prot is too hard" , to which I replied "L2P, I'm not prot, it's called spellreflect"

You don't need a mod to see spell reflect, it's called some god damn awareness. If I'm attacking a warrior i literally stare at his buffs. Not to say the mod wouldn't free up my vision a bit, but I don't ever get reflected unless he uses it in the last millisecond of a cast.

[rathok]

Talking on the topic of just gear, I think I'd go for T9.245 hat, gloves, and shoulders, assuming you have access to all of these. The relentless shoulders, while neat looking, aren't really itemized towards frost, and the T9 hat is identical to the badge hat, but you'll want it anyway since it would give you the 2pc.

I'm considering running (heroic) Skyweaver Vestments as I get myself back into the pvp scene. If I run with the hit from that, I can run mortalis, reign258, lightbane focus 245, 245 icehowl wand, and the badge ring. With that I sit at 410 resil, 880 haste, 3351 SP. Resil is sort of baby, which would be fixed as I can grab a 258 pvp weapon/offhand/wand, but the damage potential seems pretty nuts.

No, the relentless shoulders are not well itemized for frost but those are in there just to keep your resil up to acceptable levels. 410 resil is not even close to acceptable when your looking at 2k+. Beast cleave and PDW will fking rape you, RLS too... or Spellcleave, or anyone that looks at you funny. Your definitely a liability with that low of resil. If you want the burst you might as well just take a destro lock over a 400 resil mage.

I don't have the tier helm just because I don't raid and the T9 bonus is pretty damn worthless. If it was worth anything at all i might have tried to pug a TOC25 but its not so i didn't bother to. Also, as i noted in the guide, that set of gear does not require any raiding other than TOC10 which is very easily pug'd. Yes, there are better sets out there but this is a top notch set that can be put together by most casuals.

[Skarrd]

No, the relentless shoulders are not well itemized for frost but those are in there just to keep your resil up to acceptable levels. 410 resil is not even close to acceptable when your looking at 2k+. Beast cleave and PDW will fking rape you, RLS too... or Spellcleave, or anyone that looks at you funny. Your definitely a liability with that low of resil. If you want the burst you might as well just take a destro lock over a 400 resil mage.

I don't have the tier helm just because I don't raid and the T9 bonus is pretty damn worthless. If it was worth anything at all i might have tried to pug a TOC25 but its not so i didn't bother to. Also, as i noted in the guide, that set of gear does not require any raiding other than TOC10 which is very easily pug'd. Yes, there are better sets out there but this is a top notch set that can be put together by most casuals.

All valid points, I get the casual gear bit but i still disagree on the shoulders. It's a minor amount of resilience drop for a perfectly itemized shoulder piece. If running with a healer in 3's, you dying shouldn't be a serious problem with 500-600 resil, which is still obtainable without any of those useless set pieces. I'm not running a pvp offhand / weapon / wand / rings at the moment and I can sit just at 500, though I'm stuck using the resil pvp trinket for a bit. I'm also running deadly cloak/neck, which is another ~30 resil upgrade.

I come to 589 resil in the "best in slot" pvp gear i'd be shooting for with 740 haste and 2865 SP, ~130 spell pen. I don't think the extra 71 resil is worth the 67 haste drop, personally, but it depends a lot on how your team works. I wouldn't want to be back below 700 haste for just a bit of survivability. I rather like running 818 haste and 2658 SP with just under 500 resil right now but the only way for me to stay that high would be to be way down on spell penetration. Soon as I grab offhand/wand I'll be in a much better place, since my spell penetration is down at 36 right now.

[cehawe]

Bump

[rathok]

Ohhhh I only wish we were talking about comp strats...lol

I've only just begun to get into PvP, and I'm looking for some general stuff that makes a good Gladiator Mage

What comp are you playing? i can add in a brief strat section.

[Spurmwhale]

very very very important addon is also Spellalerter which alerts you when anyone casts any important buffs or casts, but you can condense it to making it only show when spellreflect is activated.
It's unbelievable how many casters theses days play without this addon, and you can very clearly see who uses it or not (or similar addons)
for example I was playing against a druid in 2s and he wanted to lock me down in cc, but everytime I cast spellreflect he stopped the cast, waited three secs, then continued to cc.
but then again I meet some mages in duels and I just get off spellreflecting everything while being kited. one time after I won against a frostmage who was better equiped ( and higher rating ) than me, he said "I would have won but prot is too hard" , to which I replied "L2P, I'm not prot, it's called spellreflect"

I don't use a mod for spell reflect either, but i've gotten used to looking for the icon. Only problem is you guys have another icon that looks like a shield too that sometimes confuses me and i waste a GCD on another icelance.

Prot warriors aren't worth the effort. I can spam frostbolts into geared ones all day and run OOM before i get him anyhwhere near low life. Its retarded.

[tidebajohn]

what proffs u have

[rathok]

what proffs u have

Proffs arent that important. Gear in general isn't THAT important as long as you play it well and follow the general strats for gearing a frost mage (lots of haste/sp). If you really wanna min/max then most people go JC/BS or JC/Enchant for the extra sp and sockets. Personally, I'm herb/skin and have been very successful as such.

[Skarrd]

Proffs arent that important. Gear in general isn't THAT important as long as you play it well and follow the general strats for gearing a frost mage (lots of haste/sp). If you really wanna min/max then most people go JC/BS or JC/Enchant for the extra sp and sockets. Personally, I'm herb/skin and have been very successful as such.

Hyperspeed accelerators are pretty good too, but yeah, professions are mostly irrelevant, though gathering professions are probably less favorable.

[Nizbel]

Hey,

I'm fairly new to the arena scene and looking for any basic strategy advise that people might be able to offer.

I'm running a frost mage/prot warrior comp (not a popular comp, but its more to have fun with me and my friend's mains) and i have decent enough gear for just starting in the arena (510 haste, 2150 SP, 100ish spell pen, 650 res)

Though we are not doing horrible, it would be great to get better. Mainly, we are having trouble with trees and hunters (which seem to down me fairly quickly though that might be a left over impression from trying the same comp as arcane).

Any general advice/wisdom would be appreciated; thanks in advance

[Skarrd]

I can't say I know much about your particular comp, but hunters take pretty huge shits on mages. I run rogue-mage in my 2s that I don't play so often and we always push damage on hunters. Without CC for the druid in a druid-hunter, I'm not sure how you're going to survive long enough with only 1.5 dps, tbh. You may be able to have your warrior stun/CC the druid with intervenes and charges on the hunter to break his damage chain while you kill the druid...but I don't think much will work on this comp if they are good players.

[rathok]

Hey,

I'm fairly new to the arena scene and looking for any basic strategy advise that people might be able to offer.

I'm running a frost mage/prot warrior comp (not a popular comp, but its more to have fun with me and my friend's mains) and i have decent enough gear for just starting in the arena (510 haste, 2150 SP, 100ish spell pen, 650 res)

Though we are not doing horrible, it would be great to get better. Mainly, we are having trouble with trees and hunters (which seem to down me fairly quickly though that might be a left over impression from trying the same comp as arcane).

Any general advice/wisdom would be appreciated; thanks in advance

Here is the best way that i have found to deal with druids (we'll use druid/hunter as an example)pen light on their partner (have your prot war open with his stunlock on the hunter and have the mage start spamming frostbolts). What your going to do is dps for about 7 seconds or enough time for lifeblooms to fall off of the druid and once lifeblooms fall off of the druid, pop your water ele+icy veins and poly (make sure you have glyph of polymorph) the hunter while your warrior intercepts the druid. Slightly overlap the intercept with a silence and wind up a frostbolt and then a frostbolt+deep freeze shatter combo using your pets nova. When the druid starts kiting you, you'll need to make sure that you have your images out otherwise there is no way you are going to catch him. If you dont get the kill on the druid (and at higher ratings you wont) then swap back to the hunter after the 3 polys and have your prot stunlock him as best he can and you should be LOSing him when he's not stunned to make him come to you because there is no way he can kill the warrior. Then just start it over again... you should be switching targets every 30 seconds or so. This might sound a bit overly detailed but... once you practice it a bit it will all just sort of flow together. Granted i do this as mage/rogue but its the same concept.

Druids can pump out some stupid HPS on a single target once they have all their hots up and get some power-nourshes going (i know, i have a 1800 druid), its the switches where you catch someone with no HOTs where you have the best chance at forcing cooldowns and getting a kill. Think of arenas as a cooldown war. If you do one of those switches and the druid trinkets a stun and uses barkskin then pressure him if you can but really, its already a success at that point because now you can just dps the hunter for 15 seconds while your stuns DR resets on the druid and the next time you switch to him he will eat full duration stuns/silences with no defensive cooldowns and no trinket. There is no way he can survive that. And prot war dps is no joke for all of you nay-sayers out there. My druid has been solo'd by prots wars in BGs because i underestimated their dps. They can chain together like 4 different stuns, a silence and a 6 second lockout interrupt. IDK why blizz made every other prot spec/class a complete joke in PVP and made warriors pwn face but... thats how it goes. All i can say is that some dev somewhere plays a prot warrior.

[Skarrd]

IDK why blizz made every other prot spec/class a complete joke in PVP and made warriors pwn face but... thats how it goes. All i can say is that some dev somewhere plays a prot warrior.

Prot paladins can toss out some ridiculously fast burst. Warrior burst is done over a longer period of time through the assitance of CC. Prot paladins toss 10k shields at your face.

[rathok]

Prot paladins can toss out some ridiculously fast burst. Warrior burst is done over a longer period of time through the assitance of CC. Prot paladins toss 10k shields at your face.

That's true, i have seen a lot of the new "Prottribution" pallys showing up but generally they wear ret gear and just use a sword+board which is different from the prot wars who are owning BGs with 43k+ unbuffed HP.

[Skarrd]

That's true, i have seen a lot of the new "Prottribution" pallys showing up but generally they wear ret gear and just use a sword+board which is different from the prot wars who are owning BGs with 43k+ unbuffed HP.

Yeah, good point. It's still dumb as fuck though. I keep thinking im safe at 60% hp then a giant shield flies at my face and im at 10%. I'd take a prot warrior over that prot/ret bullshit any day.