Playstyle & Rotation
Opener:
- Precast Frostbolt / Glacial Spike
- Use Light's Potential
- Flurry as soon as the boss is pulled
- Frozen Orb
- Ray Of Frost
Frostfire Single Target Priority:
- Comet Storm
- Flurry if you don’t have a Thermal Void buff up
- Frozen Orb
- Glacial Spike
- Ice Lance if you have Fingers Of Frost proc up
- Ice Lance if you have 10+ stacks of Freezing on the enemy
- Ray Of Frost
- Frostfire Bolt
Frostfire AoE Priority:
- Comet Storm if the enemy / pack is stacked
- Flurry if you don’t have Thermal Void buff up
- Frozen Orb
- Glacial Spike
- Blizzard
- Ice Lance if you have Fingers Of Frost proc up
- Ice Lance if you have 10+ stacks of Freezing on the enemy
- Ray Of Frost
- Frostfire Bolt
Spellslinger Single Target Priority:
- Flurry if you have Brain Freeze buff up and Thermal Void buff down
- Frozen Orb
- Glacial Spike
- Ice Lance if you have Fingers Of Frost buff up
- Ice Lance if the enemy has 6 or more Freezing stacks
- Flurry
- Ray Of Frost
- Frostbolt
Spellslinger AoE Priority:
- Blizzard if you have Freezing Winds buff up
- Flurry if you have Brain Freeze buff up and Thermal Void buff down
- Frozen Orb
- Glacial Spike
- Blizzard if there are 7 or more enemies
- Ice Lance if you have Fingers Of Frost buff up
- Ice Lance if the enemy has 6 or more Freezing stacks
- Flurry
- Ray Of Frost
- Frostbolt
General Playstyle
The gameplay loop for both hero talents revolves around smashing your cooldown abilities like Frozen Orb, Blizzard (only AoE!) and Glacial Spike whenever they are ready. When you’re done with your cooldowns, you will then start spending your Freezing stacks with Ice Lance, and then rebuild the Freezing debuff again with Flurry, Frostbolt and Ray Of Frost.
Frostfire only presses Ice Lance if your enemy has 6 or more Freezing Stacks or if you have Fingers Of Frost, while Spellslinger if your enemy has 10 or more Freezing stacks or if you have Fingers Of Frost buff up.
Cooldowns
As of right now, your major cooldown, Ray Of Frost, is at the bottom of the priority and only serves as a Freezing builder. Only after you’re done with all the Flurries and Ice Lance, you should be pressing Ray Of Frost. Frozen Orb and Glacial Spike should be pretty much pressed on cooldown when they’re ready.
You can also try lining it up with a potion / bloodlust, but that isn’t as important. Remember that if you are talented into Comet Storm, it replaces Ray Of Frost right after you finish channeling it.
Defensives
Mage is by default the squishiest class in the game without using any defensives, but they also have access to some of the best defensives if used properly.
Ice Barrier - The most spammable Mage defensive. It places an absorb shield on you and has a 30 second cooldown by default, which can be reduced by 5 seconds with talent Barrier Diffusion. As of Midnight, all Mage barriers are on a shorter GCD than your other abilities.
Ice Cold / Ice Block - The biggest Mage defensive cooldown. Ice Block makes you immune but also prevents you from casting anything, whereas Ice Cold grants 70% damage reduction, is off the GCD, and allows you to cast spells while active. Most Mage players prefer Ice Cold for this reason. It is on a 3 minute cooldown by default, which can be reduced to 2.5 minutes if talented into Permafrost Bauble.
Coldest Snap - A Frost Mage–only cooldown that instantly resets your Ice Barrier, Frost Nova, Ice Cold, or Ice Block. This ability is best used immediately after using Ice Cold or Ice Block, or just before you plan to use them again. It is an extremely powerful defensive but has a 5 minute cooldown and is on a choice node with Glacial Bulwark.
Alter Time - One of the best Mage defensive cooldowns, but extremely difficult to use. The first time you press it, it snapshots both your location and current health. Pressing it a second time teleports you back to the snapshotted location and health. Use this defensive when you are about to take a big hit, then press it again to restore your health and position.