#1 - March 1, 2014, 2:47 p.m.
I have noticed there arent really that many guides for frost mages, or mages in general, thats directed to PvP that are updated at the moment. With the break between S14-15 I was pretty bored since you couldnt do any rated PvP, and therefore I thought I could spend some time doing a guide directed to the community. Im not the best mage thats WoW have seen but being 2.4k+ I feel like I have atleast some understanding of the class and therefore I think I can help atleast new mages with some directives on how to spec, gem, glyph etc. This guide is mostly aimed towards people thats new to the mage class but my hope is that everyone might learn something new. Without further delay:
1. Talents
2. Glyphs
3. Stats, gems and enchants
4. Macros
5. General gameplay and tips
1. Talents
Level 15: Against most comps you will be running with PoM. PoM + Alter combo is really powerful and a well timed poly on the healer - alter back - RoF on the dps can put up alot of pressure on the enemy team. PoM have a big range of usage, you can use it to get a clutch PoM poly on the healer or you could use it to tripple RoF the whole enemy team.
Sometimes I play Blazing Speed against heavy melee comps that will train you all game or certain melee/caster setups. Normally I go with PoM against melee teams as well cause of the simple reason that it can give your team alot of momentum. Its abit harder to use PoM correctly so if you are feeling you just getting roflstomped I would suggest to try using Blazing cause of the good opportunity to create distance.
Level 30: Temporal Shield is an obvious choice in 3s. Its not only a damage reduction but it will also heal back a certain amount when it expires. Its able to use it while you are stunned, slept, feared, frozen and incapacitated and this combined with the fact that its NOT on GCD makes it a really powerful tool. However, cause of its short duration and how it works its alot harder to use it than Ice Barrier. It requires some practice to get really good with it, a perfectly timed Temporal Shield could save your team from a block, link, guardian or w/e - so its definitely a talent worth using! The only time I go with Ice Barrier is when I duel, doing bgs or queing 2s (in other words where I dont have a healer).
Level 45: Ring of Frost is the best choice here and its what I use as my standard spec against most comps. Its a very powerful spell especially combined with PoM and I would recommend it in most situations. Ice Ward is also a good talent and even if I go with RoF most of the times there are some situations where Ice Ward comes to use. If you are facing a melee team that will cleave you down for example it could be wise to use Ice Ward if you feel it will create some distance. Normally I just use it in duels or 2s.
Level 60: Cold Snap is the obvious winner. Heals you for 30% of your HP and resets the CD of your block. It can be used in any CC as well as in your current block. It will also reset the lockout on frost for Ice Block. Now, if you happen to get into this situation you have done something terrible wrong, getting kicked on frost on low HP and die before you can block is really !@#$ing bad. However, if you do for some reason get into this situation you should know that Cold Snap will "reset" the lockout. So if you have block but get kicked on frost while your healer is in some CC or whatnot and you judge you are going to die before the lockout expires you could, as a final solution, use Cold Snap to reset block and use it. But as I said, this is a situation you shouldnt get into, if you play correctly, keeping track of enemy CDs and atleast have some small knowledge about your enemy you could easily anticipate things like this. But if you get into a worst case scenario you should know there is a way out.
Level 75: Best choice for arena is Living Bomb. It doesnt brake CC as easy as NT and it will deal good damage. Remember to use frost nova before you apply Living Bomb since LB will benefit from it even when nova expires/breaks. And when you are going ham you should always use nova, icy veins + on use (ideally with procs), THEN Living Bomb. The only time I go Nether Tempest is when Im doing rbgs.
Level 90: Incanter's Ward is the best. It gives you not only passive damage increase but after the shield is broken it gives you up to 15% damage increase. This is obviously one of your biggest offensive CDs you have. I see alot of mages that uses this quite randomly and/or mages that will alter before they have Incanter's Ward up. I used to do this myself but when I learned how to use it correctly I gained alot, so simply by learning how to use Incanter's Ward properly you can increase your gameplay alot. Since the CD is only 25 sec its really good to use it when you are doing swaps combined with Deep/Silence combo. So make sure you are utilizing it to the fullest!
2. Glyphs
Glyph of Armors, Glyph of Polymorph and Glyph of Deep Freeze are normally what most mages use as the standard spec in 3s. Glyph of Armors is a must in all matchups as well as Glyph of Polymorph (most of the time atleast). The only glyph spot that you really can choose from and experiment with is the Glyph of Deep Freeze. Running with this glyph gives you the most damage compared to if you would not have the glyph, its not that huge of a difference but it gives you a slightly higher burst. Its also really good to get quick deeps off, especially against druids since they will have time to shift the novas if you have a GCD on it.
Glyph of Deep Freeze: Even if its the best overall to go with Glyph of Deep Freeze there are situations and comps where it could be more beneficial to go with some other glyph. If you play a comp that relies on the mages damage to land kills or a comp where you just wanna pump out as much damage as possibly, then you should play with Glyph of Deep Freeze since with the GCD removed you will be able to do slightly more damage. If you play a comp that requires you to coordinate damage with your teammate in order to score kills then it could be wise to go with another glyph, cause even if you will do slightly worse damage the 5 sec Deep Freeze stun will buy your teammate 1 more sec to do damage, which obviously is really good - especially if you swap to the healer. A good example of this would be Godcomp, the comp still works if you play with the glyph but I find that you will have more success in scoring kills without the glyph since 1 additional sec will be very beneficial to your shadowpriest.
Its also a very good idea to not have the Glyph of Deep Freeze if you play a comp where you will use deep mostly as a CC. If you play RMP or RMD you mostly kill someone in a kidney/cheap shot anyway, and since Prey on the Weak will be beneficial to you as well its very common to use Deep as a CC on the healer, which of course will be best without the glyph since the longer the stun is the better it will be as a CC. Its also based alot on personal preference, I have played with and without the glyph alot and there are pros and cons with both ways, if you play a comp where you can choose its mostly what you like playing with.
Glyph of Ice Block: Except for the above mentioned glyphs you could also choose between Glyph of Evocation and Glyph of Ice Block. The rest of the glyphs doesnt really have any place in the arenas, maybe Glyph of Ice Lance could be used in rbgs but I would 99% of the time use any of the 5 mentioned glyphs above. Glyph of Ice Block is obviously really good if you face a spellcleave sicne the 3 sec immunity will allow you to freecast whatever you want, set up some damage or just buy your healer some time to top you up without you having to worry about getting killed or interrupted. You can use this glyph in many ways, the immunity will also be more forgiving to offensive blocks. If you have all your procs up while you are in the block you could alter with the immunity buff up while you are unleashing your damage, and then altering back with all the procs again + immunity buff. Doing this will practically make you an unstoppable killing machine for 6 sec. You could also alter with the immunity buff up if your healer is in a CC without trinket and you judge you will die before he gets out. Obviously its best to use alter when you are going ham with all procs up but it could be used defensively as well, and this is one way of doing it.
Glyph of Evocation: I normally just use Glyph of Evocation in duels and 2s but it has its place in 3s as well, provided you dont run with the Glyph of Deep Freeze or Glyph of Ice Block. There isnt really much to say about it, its nice to have as an extra backup if you feel you need it. But I think Glyph of Ice Block is best in most cases if you want a defensive glyph, going up against melee/caster it will do some good and even against double melee sometimes cause of the free frost nova. If its a ret or DK it could also save you from some small amount of damage. I guess this choice is also based on personal preference to some point.
