Frost Mage

Patch 7.2.5

Written by Qoning Last Updated: 19th Jun, 2017

Stat Priorities

Frost benefits greatly from having 33.3% crit, which is about 11 332 crit rating. The reason for this is, of course, Shatter. With Shatter, 33.3% guarantees you a critical strike whenever your spells benefit from it. Therefore, it should be the first goal of gearing for Frost to reach close to this soft cap (also called Shatter cap). After that, it will depend on your talents - for Thermal Void, you generally want more haste, while mastery becomes very weak; with Glacial Spike, you will want more mastery and versatility rather than haste. Crit beyond the Shatter cap is usually not worth taking, though it’s not completely worthless.

For Thermal Void

Critical Strike (to 33.3%)
Intellect
Haste
Versatility
Mastery
Critical Strike (after 33.3%)

For Glacial Spike

Critical Strike (to 33.3%)
Intellect
Mastery
Versatility
Haste
Critical Strike (after 33.3%)

Usually, you will want to keep mastery, versatility and haste roughly equal to each other for Glacial Spike.

Gear

Legendaries

Many of the legendaries for Frost actually have their uses. Also, your BiS legendaries will largely depend on your character’s stats, talents and fight. This is just a list of how I will rank them in overall usefulness. Don't forget to sim for yourself for the best results.

Trinkets & Set Bonuses

You will want to get the new T20 4p as fast as you can and, if possible, also keep the old T19 2p alongside it, since the synergy between them is very strong, even after the nerfs. I recommend getting a high Titanforge of two lower value slots, like gloves and cloak of T19.

Unfortunately, due to Titanforging, it’s literally impossible to make blanket trinket statements. In Tomb of Sargeras, I would rank the trinkets as follows.

The best way to calculate stat priorities for your character is to "sim" your character

Find out how to sim

Races

Most of the racial abilities are close enough that you don’t need to be concerned too much about them. One exception is Dwarf, which has a slight edge, thanks tothe 2% crit from Might of the Mountain. Personally, I would always go for a race with an on use racial ability for progression raiding, even if it comes out as slightly worse for a long term fight.

Enchants

Cloak: Enchant Cloak – Binding of Intellect
Neck: Especially for GS, you should sim Enchant Neck – Mark of the Hidden Satyr against Enchant Neck – Mark of the Trained Soldier for your own character.
Rings: Enchant Ring – Binding of Critical Strike or Enchant Ring – Binding of Versatility

Gems

Socket Saber's Eye of Intellect in one slot and socket Deadly Eye of Prophecy in the rest (as long as you don’t overcap crit of course).

Consumables

You should always use the following consumables:

Playstyle & Rotation