Frost Mage Midnight Talents Guide

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The class talent tree received a major overhaul, removing most defensive talents and replacing them with mostly weak utility options. Spells like Mirror Image and Greater Invisibility are still present, but since their defensive components were removed, they are largely situational and mainly useful in some specific Mythic+ scenarios. There are three talents that revolve around Mirror Image and four talents that revolve around Greater Invisibility, which you are more or less forced to pick since there are no other talent options.

In Midnight, there are two new notable choice nodes. One is a choice between Time Walk and Temporal Realignment. Time Walk may seem familiar, as it is essentially a renamed version of Master Of Time from The War Within. Temporal Realignment, on the other hand, functions as a budget cheat death that automatically triggers Alter Time if you drop below 25% health and heals you back to 50%. I would still recommend picking Time Walk in almost every situation, but you can pick Temporal Realignment if you often forget to use Alter Time.

The second new choice node is between Spatial Manipulation and Reflection. You should always Spatial Manipulation for the extra Shimmer charge.

Each Mage spec also gets access to a special Barrier effect, which changes depending on the specialization you are playing. Frost gets Improved Ice Barrier, which reduces your physical damage taken by 10% and absorbs an additional 5% of your maximum health. This barrier is especially strong in Mythic+, since, from my experience, a lot of Midnight trash mobs and bosses have a bunch of physical dealing abilities.

Glacial Bulwark – Ice Block and Ice Barrier now have an additional charge. This is by far one of the most powerful talents that Mage has to offer. Having the ability to recharge a Barrier or Ice Cold while you press one is extremely overpowered and makes Frost Mage one of the tankiest specs in the game. This talent is on a mandatory choice node with Cold Snap, but you would never pick that talent over Glacial Bulwark in the current iteration.

Splitting Ice – Your Flurry and Frostfire Bolt spells strike 1 additional target at 80% effectiveness. This talent makes your 2 target cleave extremely powerful.

Comet Storm – Casting Ray Of Frost replaces your Ray of Frost with Comet Storm, calling down a series of 7 icy comets on and around the target that deal up to X Frost damage to all enemies within 8 yards of their impacts. Each comet shatters 1 stack of Freezing. What is important here is that it is no longer a separate spell, but instead it replaces Ray Of Frost immediately after you finish channeling it.

Icicles – Frost crystallizes around you, generating an Icicle every x seconds. Upon generating 5 Icicles, Frostbolt upgrades to Glacial Spike for its next cast. Glacial Spike conjures a massive spike of ice that impales your target, dealing x damage and slowing the target’s movement speed by 50% for 8 seconds. This new iteration of Icicles grants you Glacial Spike passively, so you no longer need to track how many icicles each spell gives you, since you will always get one every few seconds. Additionally, Glacial Spike now replaces Frostbolt whenever you get it, so you don’t have to bind Glacial Spike to a separate keybind.

Thermal Void – Consuming Brain Freeze has a 100% chance to cause your next Ice Lance to shatter x additional stacks of Freezing. Very important buff that affects your rotational priority.

Ray Of Frost – Channels an icy beam at the enemy for x seconds, dealing x damage every x seconds and applying 8 stacks of Freezing over its duration. This is now your major offensive cooldown, which becomes especially powerful on AoE when also talented into Comet Storm.

Blizzard choice node – You can now select between cast at cursor Blizzard and cast at target Blizzard, depending on your preference.

Summon Water Elemental – Summons a Water Elemental to follow and fight for you. This returning iconic pet was taken away from Frost Mage in an expansion ago. It is no longer tied to Icy Veins, so you have to make sure you resummon it every time it expires.

Hand Of Frost - Shattering an enemy has a 10% chance to summon a Hand of Frost to pursue your target, dealing x Frost damage and applying 1 stack of Freezing on contact.

Hand Of Frost - Each stack of Freezing you Shatter increases your chance to summon a Hand of Frost by an additional 1.0%. Damage from Hand of Frost increases your spell damage by 1% for 8 sec. Multiple applications may overlap.

Hand Of Frost - Ray Of Frost summons 4 Hands of Frost over its duration. Ray of Frost gains an additional charge, and its damage is increased by 25%.

The only talent that stands out here and changes your gameplay is the final, third apex talent, which grants you a second Ray Of Frost charge.

Frostfire

Frostfire, as the name suggests, uses both Fire and Frost spells to deal damage. Its main damage output comes from Comet Storm (which also summons a Meteor), Glacial Spike, Shatter and Flurry.

Important Frostfire Hero Talents

Isothermic Core: Comet Storm now also calls down a Meteor, dealing x fire damage to nearby enemies. Damage reduced beyond 8 targets. Damage from Meteor shatters 1 stacks of Freezing. This makes Comet Storm talent a mandatory pick and makes it a powerful AoE ability.

Frostfire Bolt: Replaces Frostbolt.

Frostfire Empowerment: Your Frostfire spells have a 10% chance to activate Frostfire Empowerment, causing your next Frostfire Bolt to be instant cast, deal 60% increased damage, and explode for 60% of its damage to nearby enemies. A random proc that just causes your Frostfire Bolt to be instant, so you just have to keep an eye out for it so that you don’t get surprised by an instant Frostfire Bolt.

Defensive Frostfire Talents

Imbued Warding – Ice Barrier also casts a Blazing Barrier at 25% effectiveness.

Meltdown – You melt slightly out of Ice Block and Ice Cold, allowing you to move slowly during Ice Block and gradually increase movement speed. Ice Block and Ice Cold trigger a Blazing Barrier when they end.

Both of these talents are in a choice node. Since Meltdown is tailored around Ice Block and isn’t particularly useful, you should pick Imbued Warding in every situation.

Spellslinger

This hero talent, as the name suggests, focuses on slinging as many spells as possible. The entire hero talent tree revolves around Frost Splinter, which make up a major portion of your damage, and nearly every talent contributes to their generation.

Important Spellslinger Hero Talents

Splintering Orbs: Whenever your Frozen Orb deals damage, you summon 1 Frost Splinter, up to 4. Additionally, your Frozen Orb damage is increased by 40%. This is one of the most important Spellslinger talents, making Frozen Orb a very good Frost Splinter generator.

Augury Abounds: Conjuring one or more Frost Splinter has a 10% chance to conjure a burst of 8 Frost Splinters.

Infused Splinters: Direct damage from Frost Splinters has a 15% chance to apply 1 stack of Freezing. This is a very important talent that grants generating Frost Splinters even bigger value. You might be randomly jumping Freezing stacks if you are generating a bunch of Frost Splinters, so it’s important to keep an eye on the amount of Freezing stacks your enemy has.

Polished Focus: Ice Lance Shatters 1 additional stack of Freezing. Shatter damage is increased by 20%. The only thing that this talent changes is that it makes your regular Ice Lance shatter 5 stacks of Freezing instead of 4.

Spellfrost Teachings: Direct damage from Frost Splinter reduces the cooldown of Frozen Orb by 0.25 seconds. This talent drastically changes your gameplay because you should constantly keep an eye out for when Frozen Orb comes off cooldown.

Defensive Spellslinger talents

Reactive Barrier: Ice Barrier can absorb up to 25% more damage based on your missing health, reaching maximum effectiveness when you are below 25% health.

Phantasmal Image: Your Mirror Image summons one extra clone.

You should, by default, always pick Reactive Barrier, since Mirror Image doesn’t have a damage reduction attached to it anymore.