Playstyle & Rotation
General Rotation
Frost doesn't really have a set rotation anymore, instead we have a priority list that I want to go over in the opener section.
Always be casting - by far the most important thing for a range dps caster is to always cast something, if you are on the move and you cannot use shimmers to get to where you need ice floes might be something you want to look into. Keep in mind that even unbuffed ice lance is still some damage on the move if we absolutely cannot stand still and cast, some damage is better than no damage.
With 11.0.5 patch and the interaction of the new talent Signature Spell - we want to try and always consume glacial spike with a flurry to proc this talent
Glacial Spike Shattering
There is an old, but useful, technique as Frost Mage that we used to do with glacial spike and flurry. We used to shatter our Glacial Spike, followed by Flurry whilst inside the Winter’s Chill window; similar to what we do with the Shatter combo with Frostbolt, flurry and 2x ice lance.
How we want to do that is to try to have Flurry ready when we are close to or at 5 Icicles, then cast Glacial Spike and immediately follow up with Flurry to make our Glacial spike benefit from Winter’s Chill.
We achieve that benefit because Glacial Spike has a sort of “formed“ animation, plus Flurry projectiles are very fast compared to Glacial Spike, so with this technique Glacial Spike benefits from our Flurry’s Winter’s chill window, which increase Glacial Spike damage by a lot It’s extremely crucial to master this technique.
Assuming you have played Frost Mage before and performed that combo with Flurry, you just replace Frostbolt with Glacial Spike > Flurry > Ice Lance.
If you don't have a Flurry proc ready, you can freeze mobs (more M+ focused) with Frost Nova in order to achieve something similar; you need to be close to the pack and press Frost Nova as soon as you release your Glacial Spike keybind. You can also use Pet Freeze, but it only works when you have Icy Veins available.
With that being said, we NEVER hold glacial spike for a Flurry Proc.
Opener:
- Precast Frostbolt
- Flurry as soon as the boss is pulled
- Icy Veins
- Comet storm is Frostfire(so it hits inside the Winter’s Chill, if Spellslinger skip this line)
- Frozen Orb
- Ice Lance
- Continue with filler rotation follow up with spending Flurry/Orb/Comet Storm Icy Veins on CD.
Multi Target:
Not much has changed for the AoE rotation as frost if you played frost in DF it’s pretty much the same:
- Frozen Orb on CD
- Comet Storm on CD
- Spend fingers of frost and flurry procs accordingly
- Shatter Comet Storm with Frost Nova or Ice Nova on AoE for a bigger impact
- Icy Veins on CD
- Blizzard on CD (on 3 Targets or more with Freezing Rain)
- Fill with Glacial Spike
Priority List:
- Never cap on Flurry Chargers
- Ray of frost if you have 1 Winter’s Chill stack available.
- Comet Storm inside Winter’s Chill
- Consume Winter’s Chill with Glacial Spike if possible
- Consume Winter’s Chill with Ice Lance
- Frostbolt to fish for procs and spend them accordingly.
Playstyle
Cooldown Usage
Icy veins isn't the most impactful CD, however it does make us cast faster in Mythic+ situations we want to use it on CD.
During the raid, unless you need to hold it for any type of damage phase amp or an chunky add that spawns (like Fyrrak infernals) feel free to use Icy veins on CD.
You should treat frost as a "if it is glowing and ready", then just press it. Frost is an uptime spec, which means we don’t really want to hold anything specific unless we absolutely have to.
Defensives
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 reduces all our CDs by 10 Seconds, while on 1 minute CD.