Kuni's Frost Mage PVE Guide - 8.1.0

[Uduwudu]

That seems...all over the place. Its hard to say where you can improve since I don't have logs available.

Take a look at the guide over at Alter Time here for gameplay and talent tips.
Chesder has a great TellMeWhen setup thats updated for 7.3.0 over here; it tells you which spells to cast next in your rotation, and should help your dps. Its not perfect, but its very good when you're new to Frost.

Hopefully those help.

Almost none of these ideas and write ups are good enough ... the casting times are too slow, to help, and you are taking damage in between ... it just doesn't make any sense ...

I have a feeling I'm done with this Frost BS ... not enough help and Kuni's is insane ... that first 6 hits, doesn't even get me to half way into the Kazakhtun (start of MacAree mob) and I ended up having to go play elsewhere and get the Warframe, to finally take him down ... way too frustrating, and not worth the hassle, with the horrible information out there.

Not sure logs are going to help ... I followed the Ability Priority List (#6) and all it got me, was over 500 gold repairs ... until it was Warframe time ... you can not fight (solo, I guess) when the stuff you are casting is that slow ... !!! AND the information can not be quite right, or is completely out of line with the timing and game changes!

Again, it feels like old information and it's not getting cleaned up and updated, or even tried ... like Pet Battles, people are inventing strats out of ... it should work, and not trying it. Those folks obviously think that programmers at Blizzard are a bunch of idiots! At least they are not senile!

[Aktec]

Almost none of these ideas and write ups are good enough ... the casting times are too slow, to help, and you are taking damage in between ... it just doesn't make any sense ...

I have a feeling I'm done with this Frost BS ... not enough help and Kuni's is insane ... that first 6 hits, doesn't even get me to half way into the Kazakhtun (start of MacAree mob) and I ended up having to go play elsewhere and get the Warframe, to finally take him down ... way too frustrating, and not worth the hassle, with the horrible information out there.

Not sure logs are going to help ... I followed the Ability Priority List (#6) and all it got me, was over 500 gold repairs ... until it was Warframe time ... you can not fight (solo, I guess) when the stuff you are casting is that slow ... !!! AND the information can not be quite right, or is completely out of line with the timing and game changes!

Again, it feels like old information and it's not getting cleaned up and updated, or even tried ... like Pet Battles, people are inventing strats out of ... it should work, and not trying it. Those folks obviously think that programmers at Blizzard are a bunch of idiots! At least they are not senile!

Frost isn't the best spec for solo world stuff, but I'm suprised you are having this much trouble even at ~900 ilev. Are you trying to face tank these elite mobs? Remember you are a squishy cloth caster, use blinks to kite away and use ice barrier whenever its up. Frostbolt is an important ability to get procs, but its often more effective to just run from the dangerous mobs and maintain distance to stay safe, if you just spam frostbolt while a mob is wrecking you your gonna have a bad time.

Could be worth trying out fire, I find it the better solo spec and it has the ability to do reliable burst dmg without relying on procs.

[Ambereldus]

Like what Aktec says, Mages are glass cannons. You need to use your movement and CC abilities to stay alive. I don't remember the fight you're talking about, but here are a couple general tips:
- Most of your abilities slow the mobs, use that advantage to run away and gain distance. You take no damage if they can't hit you.
- Blink is your best friend. Take the talent Shimmer and use it gain distance on mobs, you can use it while casting.
- Frost Nova is a great way to gain some time to run away, AND Ice Lance deals increased damage to frozen targets.
- Cone of Cold is worth the GCD if the mob can be slowed.
- Ice Barrier about 15-20 sec before a hard fight, and recast it as soon as it breaks.
- You have a get-out-of-jail-free spell, Invisibility. I rarely use it, but it can save you a repair bill if a fight goes poorly.
- You have ANOTHER get-out-of-jail-free spell, Ice Block, and you can use it twice quickly if you use the Cold Snap ability.
- Inturrupt casters whenever you can, their spells can hurt. Think about which ones hurt more, and focus on interrupting those.
- Use your pet's abilities! You can get 2-3 free FoF procs OR Ice Nova the mob from range! This doesn't apply with Lonely Winter, but you SHOULD be using the Bone Chilling talent if you're having problems kiting.
- Polymorph adds you don't want to fight right away, if you can. It doesn't work on all mobs, but it can help make hard fights a LOT easier.
- If you're still having problems, the Ice Nova and Glacial Spike talents also freeze targets in place, giving you space and increasing Ice Lance damage.

And if all of that fails...find a friend. You're a glass cannon, all you need is for someone to take hits for you and you can literally melt a boss's health bar.
You have the tools, you just need to use them.

[Thelxi]

I've looked at a few guides now an no one seems to talk about freezing rain. On single target, is it important to cast 2 instant blizzards or does it really not matter whether you cast even a single blizzard as most guides would imply?

[Thelxi]

I've looked at a few guides now an no one seems to talk about freezing rain. On single target, is it important to cast 2 instant blizzards or does it really not matter whether you cast even a single blizzard as most guides would imply?

[nickseng]

I've looked at a few guides now an no one seems to talk about freezing rain. On single target, is it important to cast 2 instant blizzards or does it really not matter whether you cast even a single blizzard as most guides would imply?

Yeah, you don't cast Blizzard on ST no matter if it's instant or not.

[RedTGP]

After trying frost and never really doing well with it even following this guide to a T - I think I have found the problem and it may help alot of other frost mages. Having mained a mage for many years I am used to ABC (always be casting) and queuing up spells, and keybinding my spells I use all the time. Based on this guide I have frost bolt keybound to 1, flurry to 2 and ice lance to 3. I am usually hard casting frostbolt then when brain freeze procs as quick as I can hit flurry, which is instant cast, then 3 for ice lance - IE right from the guide on brain freeze proc hard cast frostbolt then instant cast flurry, then ice lance. The problem is - doing this I hit 1 for a few seconds for frostbolt then 2-3 in quick succession - trying to maximize casts. When doing this my ICE LANCEs DISAPPEARED! I ran skada - no ice lance damage! Tried details - same thing. I have a super fast PC (5 Ghz) and less than 50ms latency. If however, I pause for a second after hitting flurry then hit ice lance BAM! It works - much more DPS! I was over 15 feet from target as well. Such a simple fix to more DPS! Never had to pause before between spells - actually it normally pays to que them up a little in advance. Hope this helps others!

[Ambereldus]

That sounds very similar to an issue I run into when my lag tolerance setting is very short. You can probably fix that issue by extending it above your actual latency.

I don't remember if the client still has that setting shown by default, but I know the console command still exists. This link doesn't describe exactly what you're experiencing, but it includes the CVAR commands necessary to set it properly. I would recommend starting with double your normal latency, and go higher or lower as you prefer. There's no downside to having a high lag tolerance, so don't be afraid to try maxing it out at 400ms; personally, I prefer high values because it makes it easier to properly queue my spells.

[Zephre]

I've recently picked up mage again and found one thing that annoys the hell out of me.

Usually with a flurry proc it'd would go like this? FB > Flurry > Ice Lance right after to shatter. I've read some guides and it has told me to clear ice lance stacks before launching flurry but it's annoying the hell out of me when I cast frostbolt and I'm about to flurry when a damn ice lance proc shows up causing me to waste the fingers of frost lance, what should I do in such a situation? Continue to clear stacks or launch the ice lance regardless?

And how does it work with hoarding stacks of FoF for casting on the move?

[The Archmage]

I've recently picked up mage again and found one thing that annoys the hell out of me.

Usually with a flurry proc it'd would go like this? FB > Flurry > Ice Lance right after to shatter. I've read some guides and it has told me to clear ice lance stacks before launching flurry but it's annoying the hell out of me when I cast frostbolt and I'm about to flurry when a damn ice lance proc shows up causing me to waste the fingers of frost lance, what should I do in such a situation? Continue to clear stacks or launch the ice lance regardless?

And how does it work with hoarding stacks of FoF for casting on the move?

It is called proc munching and, unfortunately, it is un integral part of Frost's intended toolkit in Legion. Generally speaking, Flurry procs have prio over everything else: therefore, if you find yourself in a situation where you have both a flurry and an ice lance proc active, you still flurry and then ice lance, resulting in a waste of Fingers of Frost.

[Kuni Zyrekai]

Incredibly late update to current patch. Sorry guys, life got pretty crazy.

If a mod could edit the post title, would be great.

[The Archmage]

Sure thing! Done, and thanks for the update!

[Deleted]

That will be op in bfa ? or none change

[nymphrine]

great guide still.

[Kuni Zyrekai]

So I've been picked up by Icy Veins full time. That means I can't really rewrite the guide here, but I intend to take Azortharion's style of posting a link to it and taking comments and such here as per usual. At least I'm obligated to keep it updated now?

Disclaimers: M+ guide is outdated and is still Furty's old suggestions, and will not be updated until a bit into launch proper. Raid boss tips are cleared out also not to be updated until raid launch. Simulation page will start to be filled out with actual results when we get a better baseline profile to play with for T22/once Azerite traits are fully implemented in SimC.

@The Archmage, if you could edit the title? I'll probably make a new thread when 8.0.3 hits, so whatever.

[Obelisk Kai]

So I've been picked up by Icy Veins full time. That means I can't really rewrite the guide here, but I intend to take Azortharion's style of posting a link to it and taking comments and such here as per usual. At least I'm obligated to keep it updated now?

Disclaimers: M+ guide is outdated and is still Furty's old suggestions, and will not be updated until a bit into launch proper. Raid boss tips are cleared out also not to be updated until raid launch. Simulation page will start to be filled out with actual results when we get a better baseline profile to play with for T22/once Azerite traits are fully implemented in SimC.

@The Archmage, if you could edit the title? I'll probably make a new thread when 8.0.3 hits, so whatever.

Congratulations Kuni, I look forward to following your guides during the coming expansion.

If you don't mind, I do have a question for you.

After messing around with both thermal void and glacial spike, I find I have a marked preference for thermal void. Not only do I enjoy the gameplay of trying to keep my Icy Veins going as long as possible, but I find i don't like holding flurry procs from the the third or fourth icicle...nor do I enjoy fishing for those procs...nor do I enjoy holding off on using ebonbolt simply to keep it as a backup brain freeze generator. Long story short, I just don't enjoy glacial spike as much as I do thermal void.

Yet I fear in raiding, glacial spike will be THE build to take. I know it's early days, but what is your personal feeling regarding the end game meta? Will we all be using Glacial spike, or will a TV build be competitive?

[The Archmage]

Title updated!

And gratz on becoming a full Icy Veins team member (you always kinda were, if i am not mistaken, but now it's official! )

[Swizzle]

(you always kinda were, if i am not mistaken, but now it's official! )

He's always been a bitch, you right.

Nah but seriously though, grats on the gig. Didn't really agree with all the IcyVeins M+ stuff, but hopefully you get that shit sorted for BfA.

[Kuni Zyrekai]

Yet I fear in raiding, glacial spike will be THE build to take. I know it's early days, but what is your personal feeling regarding the end game meta? Will we all be using Glacial spike, or will a TV build be competitive?

Personal feeling is either they do something to GS to neuter the BF holding meta, or some fashion of neutering GS/buffing TV to make TV the talent of choice yet again. Blizz has historically looked down on strange gameplay like we're seeing. How they address it is anyone's guess. If absolutely nothing changes GS is a decent chunk ahead last I checked, which admittedly was quite a few builds ago.

(you always kinda were, if i am not mistaken, but now it's official! )

I was on to review every time a patch went out if their base stuff was correct or not, and then it was up to the author to actually change anything. Something I was not too happy about in general, and had them pull my name off of it a few times.

Now I'm the author and can fix things as often as needed to keep up with theory.

He's always been a bitch, you right.

Nah but seriously though, grats on the gig. Didn't really agree with all the IcyVeins M+ stuff, but hopefully you get that shit sorted for BfA.

Thanks. And yeah, that's the plan. It should be a better resource in general this expansion, and not just Frost too. They pulled on a lot of authors who seem to know their stuff rather than having one person doing multiple classes.

[Obelisk Kai]

Personal feeling is either they do something to GS to neuter the BF holding meta, or some fashion of neutering GS/buffing TV to make TV the talent of choice yet again. Blizz has historically looked down on strange gameplay like we're seeing. How they address it is anyone's guess. If absolutely nothing changes GS is a decent chunk ahead last I checked, which admittedly was quite a few builds ago.

Fingers crossed then. Will be interesting to see how everything shakes out in Uldir.