Kuni's Frost Mage PVE Guide - 8.1.0

[Polarthief]

quick question. how good is darkmoondeck squall after the buffs?

Mediocre for all 3 specs. Do not bother. Huge waste of money unless you're just trying to inflate your iLvl.

[Kuni Zyrekai]

I mean, it beats out any base 340 dungeon trinket. That's more a function of ilvl than the trinket being actually good, but whatever. I picked one up since the individual cards totaled about 12k.

[Huggykaze]

Question time! I've just started playing Frost in BfA and I'm having a blast dropping frozen meteors and giant icicles on everything around me. I do, however, wonder about the Glacial Spike gameplay. The guide says to only use it I have an active Brain Freeze proc, so my question would be:

If I get to 5 icicles with no Brain Freeze proc and Ebonbolt on CD, I keep fishing for the proc, but it's all tsun and doesn't want to show up. Do I keep spamming Frostbolt or just fire the Big Popsicle of Doom? In the former case, won't I lose some GS casts?

[Kuni Zyrekai]

Just keep spamming. Yes, you'll probably lose a couple GS casts, but it sims best.

This specific interaction is why we were asking for Flurry on charges, a la Fire Blast. Oh well.

[Huggykaze]

Just keep spamming. Yes, you'll probably lose a couple GS casts, but it sims best.

Now this really comes as a surprise tbh, but I guess with crit-capped Shatter, you'll have to lose... a lot of GS casts to note a DPS loss. Seems unlikely.

Thanks for clarifying this.

[Kuni Zyrekai]

Now this really comes as a surprise tbh, but I guess with crit-capped Shatter, you'll have to lose... a lot of GS casts to note a DPS loss. Seems unlikely.

Thanks for clarifying this.

The most likely culprit for this interaction I'm fairly sure is Icicles critting. GS forces a monolithic roll for 5, where individuals fired while waiting for BF may or may not crit, you're likely to get 1-2 compared to 0 for a non-crit GS.

Gut feeling sadly, but I can't really work out another way it tends to be a gain given the relative base DPCT values.

[Slothybabe]

I've managed to get close to crit capped (31%) for portions of fights with azerite trait procs and trinket procs and I've found that TV/LW is pulling ahead in my sims over GS/BC. Most of my gear is fairly crit/haste heavy, 342ilvl.

[nickseng]

I've managed to get close to crit capped (31%) for portions of fights with azerite trait procs and trinket procs and I've found that TV/LW is pulling ahead in my sims over GS/BC. Most of my gear is fairly crit/haste heavy, 342ilvl.

Can you share those sims? I'm quite curious to see the detailed report.

[Deleted]

Question time! I've just started playing Frost in BfA and I'm having a blast dropping frozen meteors and giant icicles on everything around me. I do, however, wonder about the Glacial Spike gameplay. The guide says to only use it I have an active Brain Freeze proc, so my question would be:

If I get to 5 icicles with no Brain Freeze proc and Ebonbolt on CD, I keep fishing for the proc, but it's all tsun and doesn't want to show up. Do I keep spamming Frostbolt or just fire the Big Popsicle of Doom? In the former case, won't I lose some GS casts?

In bosses you should wait until brain freeze, but on freezeable adds like trash on dungeons or some adds of the bosses you can just glacial spike them and freeze them with your pet

[ShiyoKozuki]

Mediocre for all 3 specs. Do not bother. Huge waste of money unless you're just trying to inflate your iLvl.

it's pretty good now, 3%+ of my damage now while my other dungeon trinkets are 1-2% at best.

[PlazaPlaza]

I have an alt Mage, is it worth changing to Glacial Spike even if I play just some Mythics and not being hardcore on this toon? I liked TV a lot... Or is it really a huge difference between TV and GS?

[Nikkaszal]

I have an alt Mage, is it worth changing to Glacial Spike even if I play just some Mythics and not being hardcore on this toon? I liked TV a lot... Or is it really a huge difference between TV and GS?

Go for it, TV is good in Mythics. You get can get high % uptime on IV on the bosses, since the fights are short

If you're taking it easy, just play whatever you find most fun

[PlazaPlaza]

Go for it, TV is good in Mythics. You get can get high % uptime on IV on the bosses, since the fights are short

If you're taking it easy, just play whatever you find most fun

Thanks. 10char

[Huggykaze]

In bosses you should wait until brain freeze, but on freezeable adds like trash on dungeons or some adds of the bosses you can just glacial spike them and freeze them with your pet

Meant bosses, trash seems obvious Waiting for BF proc will just make you waste the Popsicle of Doom, thanks a lot either way

[Deleted]

Just keep spamming. Yes, you'll probably lose a couple GS casts, but it sims best.

This specific interaction is why we were asking for Flurry on charges, a la Fire Blast. Oh well.

Hello Kuni. Thank you for guide and all your answers
I have few questions on how you react in situations below.

1, you have 4 icicles and casting frostbolt for 5th. What spell do you queue:
a, ebonbolt, and if you have BF proc from 5th f.bolt. You interupt EB cast immediately and cast GS>flurry>lance
b, same as above, but dont interrupt EB and let it go and waste BF proc. Then GS>flurry>lance
c, you queue up Glacial Spike and hope for BF proc from 5th f.bolt, and if unlucky, interrupt immediately and cast EB instead

2, once you answer qustion above, what do you do if you get both BF and FoF proc from 5th f.bolt.
Just curious, based on answer on 1st question, if you interrupt casting to remove FoF before combo, in such case.

Looking forward on your answers

[lynzh]

Hello Kuni. Thank you for guide and all your answers
I have few questions on how you react in situations below.

1, you have 4 icicles and casting frostbolt for 5th. What spell do you queue:
a, ebonbolt, and if you have BF proc from 5th f.bolt. You interupt EB cast immediately and cast GS>flurry>lance
b, same as above, but dont interrupt EB and let it go and waste BF proc. Then GS>flurry>lance
c, you queue up Glacial Spike and hope for BF proc from 5th f.bolt, and if unlucky, interrupt immediately and cast EB instead

2, once you answer qustion above, what do you do if you get both BF and FoF proc from 5th f.bolt.
Just curious, based on answer on 1st question, if you interrupt casting to remove FoF before combo, in such case.

Looking forward on your answers

I reckon its not C, never interrupt casts!

[Deleted]

I reckon its not C, never interrupt casts!

But C means you are interrupting:
c, you queue up Glacial Spike and hope for BF proc from 5th f.bolt, and if unlucky, interrupt immediately and cast EB instead

So you probably meant B option?

I personally do 1a,:
a, ebonbolt, and if you have BF proc from 5th f.bolt. You interupt EB cast immediately and cast GS>flurry>lance
and if I get both BF and FoF i clear FoF first (for question nr. 2.), then GS>flurry>lance.

[pr0fite]

But C means you are interrupting:
c, you queue up Glacial Spike and hope for BF proc from 5th f.bolt, and if unlucky, interrupt immediately and cast EB instead

So you probably meant B option?

I personally do 1a,:
a, ebonbolt, and if you have BF proc from 5th f.bolt. You interupt EB cast immediately and cast GS>flurry>lance
and if I get both BF and FoF i clear FoF first (for question nr. 2.), then GS>flurry>lance.

Or you can just Cast Frostbolt (on 4th Icicle) -> get 5th Icicle, Cast Ebonbolt and if you get a Flurry Procc from your Previous Frostbolt, just hit Flurry right after the Ebonbolt and you get another Flurry procc from your Ebonbolt cast, then GS -> Flurr -> Ice Lance

[Deleted]

Or you can just Cast Frostbolt (on 4th Icicle) -> get 5th Icicle, Cast Ebonbolt and if you get a Flurry Procc from your Previous Frostbolt, just hit Flurry right after the Ebonbolt and you get another Flurry procc from your Ebonbolt cast, then GS -> Flurr -> Ice Lance

Thats basicaly option b,
b, same as above, but dont interrupt EB and let it go and waste BF proc. Then GS>flurry>lance

Can you confirm that if you have BF proc and cast Ebonbolt>Flurry>ice lance, you will consume only 1st BF proc and not the one from Ebonbolt?

I might be wrong (or maybe low haste?), but as far as I have noticed, EB>Flurry cleared my original BF proc. (Again, might be wrong).

[pr0fite]

I always got a Flurry Procc after i used Ebonbolt -> Flurry -> Procc, might be extremely lucky, but i doubt that