Kuni's Frost Mage PVE Guide (Cataclysm)

[Taurrus]

I'd get the tier leggings as it seems that would be the biggest intellect boost, and if I recall has a fair chunk of hit on it which should cap you.

Semi-related, grats on getting both the ring and the trinket to show up for you in the same day.

Thanks, yeah it was a really good lucky day, I'm now 350 ilvl. I'm now looking forward the Dwarf Caster Weapon, and it is quite a chore. Now that I need more dwarf's digger places, all I see are trolls everywhere along with fossils.

It wouldn't be a bad idea if Blizzard let us somehow "cancel" or adjust it a bit to avoid fossiles from keep coming. I mean after you get the pet and the Mount there isn't any purpose on doing them anymore. (I have 360 fossils fragments and no use of them)

Good luck.

[boinga]

i did this and it is working but whenever i enter combat this big arcane looking graphic appears over my character is there any way to turn this off?

that means Deep Freeze is off cooldown.
you can do what i did, edited that aura and reduced its size and opacity and it's not as intrusive now.

[Styxz]

Ty found the bliz textures =)

[Kuni Zyrekai]

i did this and it is working but whenever i enter combat this big arcane looking graphic appears over my character is there any way to turn this off?

Yeah, just either change the graphic or disable the deep freeze aura. I used something huge because I was zoning out and forgetting to DF.

[ozmoses123]

thanks i got it now

[DeathDefier]

Edit: nevermind.

[breckers]

So I've seen the few comments explaining how close haste and mastery are and that they are lower priority stats compared to hit and int and even spell power, but I've yet to see an explanation as to why haste is no longer a wonderful stat like it was in Wrath. Is it because Frost relies so heavily on instants/procs that the rate at which you spam Frostbolt in between the procs doesn't matter or is there some other thing I'm missing. I had been reforging the spirit and haste/mastery to hit (trying to reach the 17% cap for raids) then focusing on crit where hit already existed on the gear... but then I had the 'genius' idea to waste some gold and reforge things to lower my hit to just 5-man capped and see if haste made a difference. I did about the same dps, quite honestly. Anyway. Haste. Yes. Why is it no longer good?

Also... has anyone else been having issues with Ice Block? I can't seem to get the jerk to stay on me for more than 2 seconds, DoTted up or not. I hit it and *boom* it's up and it's gone in a blink of an eye.

[Imnick]

Also... has anyone else been having issues with Ice Block? I can't seem to get the jerk to stay on me for more than 2 seconds, DoTted up or not. I hit it and *boom* it's up and it's gone in a blink of an eye.

Have you got a /cancelaura macro?
That's the only thing I can think it might be. Mine works fine.

Can't really comment on the haste but I have a feeling it's because you can't currently stack it high enough to make an enormous impact, and because 60-70% of our damage is from instant cast spells which have only a very minor haste contribution.

[Taurrus]

Haste for frost is basically more chances to proc instant spells. The faster you do those frostbolts the more chances you'll have to get finger of frost and brain freeze.

[Imnick]

Haste for frost is basically more chances to proc instant spells. The faster you do those frostbolts the more chances you'll have to get finger of frost and brain freeze.

It's a toss up between more of them or ones that hit harder.
Neither haste nor mastery can be gained in any such large quantity on a single piece of gear that they become significantly better than the other.
This is why they are roughly equal in weighting, you want a balance of both.
Crit is a bit more iffy because past 33% it really only effects frostbolt, dot ticks and frost orb (and perhaps your pet), however I believe that the higher chance to crit on frostbolt which makes up a good 30% of your damage or so means it isn't completely useless, although I'd value haste and mastery over it probably.

[Kuni Zyrekai]

Anyway. Haste. Yes. Why is it no longer good?

It's not that it's no longer good, because it's quite honestly within 0.02 DPS of mastery. It's that in Wrath, all you did was literally spam frostbolt, use brain freeze if you had your T10 bonus, and use deep freeze when it came off cooldown. Shatter added 50% crit and most people were already nearing 50% raid buffed without stacking crit. Hell I was stacking haste to hell and back and still had 52% crit raid buffed. Haste was amazing if only because every other stat was taken care of already.

Now you actually have to work towards your crit cap instead of having it handed to you. Now you have a new stat that increases damage done by most of your spells. Ice lance is useful again. Frostbolt's cast time lowered so haste is slightly less effective on it as compared to Wrath... All these things add up, and it works out that getting more fingers procs vs harder hitting fingers procs works out to just about the same, slightly in mastery's favour probably due to your initial burst with cold snap.

[trsvanq]

nice read, its spot on and very informative

[drgmaster909]

Thanks for the guide, I have one question though.

Right now I'm really trying to gear towards the shatter cap, and I had totally forgotten about the 5% crit from boomkins, etc, so I'll take that in to account. However, I wouldn't think that the 5% debuff would be factored in to shatter... 15% crit from boomkins makes sense, but that's because it's a buff on you. 5% crit on the boss wouldn't be a buff on you, so does that really count towards the shatter cap?

[Kuni Zyrekai]

Thanks for the guide, I have one question though.

Right now I'm really trying to gear towards the shatter cap, and I had totally forgotten about the 5% crit from boomkins, etc, so I'll take that in to account. However, I wouldn't think that the 5% debuff would be factored in to shatter... 15% crit from boomkins makes sense, but that's because it's a buff on you. 5% crit on the boss wouldn't be a buff on you, so does that really count towards the shatter cap?

There was extensive testing on shatter in beta. It applies. Crit is calculated as the spell leaves your hand, shatter is applied at the end of the calculation.

[Taurrus]

Has anyone got a problem with their water elemental?, it has been 5 days and now my pet doesn't attack when I use the attack pet button. The only way i can make it work is by binding my frostbolt with the my pet's waterbolt. I still haven't found a way to fix it, I even respec fire and back and nothing.

Since then I've seen some lack on my dps, anyone know how to fix it?

[Imnick]

Has anyone got a problem with their water elemental?, it has been 5 days and now my pet doesn't attack when I use the attack pet button. The only way i can make it work is by binding my frostbolt with the my pet's waterbolt. I still haven't found a way to fix it, I even respec fire and back and nothing.

Since then I've seen some lack on my dps, anyone know how to fix it?

Did you disable autocast on waterbolt?

[Taurrus]

usually I don't touch anything I don't know about. You mind telling where can I set that up?

[Imnick]

usually I don't touch anything I don't know about. You mind telling where can I set that up?

Look at your elemental's castbar
Is there a shiny box around waterbolt?
If no: Right click waterbolt
If yes: You're screwed

[Hazariel]

hanks for the guide, I have one question though.

Right now I'm really trying to gear towards the shatter cap, and I had totally forgotten about the 5% crit from boomkins, etc, so I'll take that in to account. However, I wouldn't think that the 5% debuff would be factored in to shatter... 15% crit from boomkins makes sense, but that's because it's a buff on you. 5% crit on the boss wouldn't be a buff on you, so does that really count towards the shatter cap?

If I remember right, Boomkins provide a 5% haste buff, and not crit anymore. The only 5% crit I've seen so far that apply to me are Feral druid, Fury Warriors and BM Hunters with their specific pet. Shadow Priest also provide the same 5% haste buff.

I just hit 30% raid buff crit and I have 2t11, which means I'm at 35% for my Ice Lance. I guess since it's only a 2% wasted on IL and nothing else, I should keep running with Glyphed Molten Armor?

[Everius]

Haste for frost is basically more chances to proc instant spells. The faster you do those frostbolts the more chances you'll have to get finger of frost and brain freeze.

Atm with Rawr : After reaching the crit cap, It makes you reforge mastery to haste. I would agree with everything above (haste = more FoF)

Now in the next patch, any idea how the haste vs mastery dilemma is going to turn out ?

About the guide : Did anyone point out soft haste cap on FFB ? (1 extra tick at 13.5 % with 2/3 in netherwing presence) (I know its very minor)