Frost Mage playstyle and rotation guide

Patch 10.1 Last Updated: 24th Apr, 2023
Tamir Frost Mage Author
Tamir

Playstyle & Rotation

General Rotation

As far as frost goes, the spec hasn’t changed much going from Shadowlands to Dragonflight.

  1. A.B.C - Always be Casting
  2. Cast everything on CD (unless holding for a specific scenario)
  3. Use Procs accordingly  - with Fingers of Frost first before Flurry, unless you are at risk of munching Flurry Proc.
  4. Remember the Flurry Shatter rule - Frostbolt > Flurry > 2x Ice Lance.

Opener

Single Target:

  1. Prepot
  2. Frostbolt + Flurry + 2x Ice lance (Shatter Combo) since Flurry system changed, we will always start with a flurry ready off CD
  3. Icy Veins + Racials + Trinkets - With snap Freeze talented, we get Fingers of Frost and Flurry proc as soon as we press Icy Veins, so it means we have to be careful not to Overwriting Procs
  4. Frozen Orb
  5. Rune of Power on CD
  6. Use Procs Accordingly with Fingers of Frost and Brain Freeze
  7. Cast frostbolt as a Filler.

Multi Target:

  1. Prepot
  2. Icy Veins + Trinket + Racials (Use Procs from Snap Freeze Talent)
  3. Frozen Orb
  4. Blizzard (instant with Freezing Rain)
  5. Use Fingers of Frost and Flurry Procs (Ice Lance takes priority on AoE, Because of Splitting Ice)
  6. Ice Nova on 5 or more Targets
  7. Arcane Explosions if Blizzard and Frozen Orb is on CD
  8. Shatter Cone of Cold with Frost Nova Into Cone of Cold Combo if Multiple Targets alive without anything else to press (i.e Blizzard/Orb/No Procs Available)
  9. Use Blizzard on CD on 2 + Targets
  10. Use Frozen Orb on CD
  11. Use Rune of Power on CD
  12. Repeat the previous parts above.

Defensives & Playstyle

As mentioned above, frost has excellent survivability and good Mobility with Mirror Images, Alter Time, 2x Shimmer, 2x Ice Blocks (with cold snap), Greater Invis (which also increases our movement speed if talented), and Ice Barrier.

Rotating our defensives properly can significantly increase our chance to live high sources of incoming damage!

Note - Don’t be afraid to be aggressive with defensive CD since shifting power reduce all our CDs by 10 Seconds, while on 1 minute CD.

For example, using Ice block, then shifting power on CD every time it’s available will bring Ice Block to roughly a 3 minutes CD instead of 4 minutes.