Frost Mage PVE Guide – Cataclysm

Welcome to the PVE Frost Mage Guide for World of Warcraft Cataclysm!

This guide will teach you how to play an Frost Mage in a raid. It covers talents, glyphs, gems, enchantments, rotation, and gameplay tips.

This talent build takes the standard Frost Mage talents.

Prime Glyphs

• Glyph of Deep Freeze
• Glyph of Frostbolt
• Glyph of Frostfire

Major Glyphs

• Glyph of Blink
• Glyph of Evocation
• Glyph of Invisibility

Minor Glyphs

• Glyph of Arcane Brilliance
• Glyph of Conjuring
• Glyph of Slow Fall

Gems are situational and depend on the build and equipment. They are used to reach the required stat caps.

• Meta – Burning Shadowspirit Diamond
• Red/Prismatic – Brilliant Queen’s Garnet, Brilliant Inferno Ruby, or Brilliant Chimera’s Eye (Jewelcrafting)
• Yellow
  • If Socket Bonus is not at least +10 Intellect, Brilliant Queen’s Garnet or Brilliant Inferno Ruby
  • Otherwise, if you are under 33.33% Critical Strike, Potent Lava Coral or Potent Ember Topaz
  • Otherwise, if you are over 33.33% Critical Strike, Reckless Lava Coral or Reckless Ember Topaz
• Blue
  • If Socket Bonus is not at least +10 Intellect, Brilliant Queen’s Garnet or Brilliant Inferno Ruby
  • Else, Veiled Shadow Spinel or Veiled Demonseye

• Head – Arcanum of the Hyjal
• Shoulder – Greater Inscription of Charged Lodestone or Felfire Inscription (Inscription)
• Cloak – Enchant Cloak – Greater Intellect or Lightweave Embroidery (Tailoring)
• Chest – Enchant Chest – Peerless Stats
• Bracers – Enchant Bracer – Mighty Intellect or Draconic Embossment – Intellect (Leatherworking) with Socket Bracer (Blacksmithing)
• Gloves – Enchant Gloves – Greater Mastery or Enchant Gloves – Haste with Synapse Springs (Engineering) or Socket Gloves (Blacksmithing)
• Waist – Grounded Plasma Shield (Engineering) or Ebonsteel Belt Buckle
• Legs – Powerful Enchanted Spellthread or Master’s Spellthread (Tailoring)
• Boots – Enchant Boots – Lavawalker or Enchant Boots – Haste (cheaper) or Enchant Boots – Precision (for hit cap)
• Rings – Enchant Ring – Intellect (Enchanting)
• Weapon – Enchant Weapon – Power Torrent or Enchant Weapon – Hurricane (cheaper)
• Off-hand – Enchant Off-Hand – Superior Intellect

Take Spirit until you’re happy with your mana regeneration. Haste is only useful up if you can hit soft caps, so don’t bother adding extra haste until you can reach the next cap.

• Intellect
• Hit Rating (to spell hit cap of 17%)
• Critical Strike (to 33.33%)
• Haste
• Mastery
• Critical Strike (above 33.33%)

Utilize Molten Armor, unless you’re low on mana (in which case you can use Mage Armor).

Single Target Rotation

• Use Deep Freeze, if Fingers of Frost is up
• Use Flame Orb
• Use Freeze
• Use Frostfire Bolt if both Brain Freeze and Fingers of Frost are up
• Use Ice Lance if you have 2 Fingers of Frost charges
• Use Frostfire Bolt if Brain Freeze is expiring and Fingers of Frost is not proccing
• Use Ice Lance if you have 1 charge of Fingers of Frost and it is expiring
• Use Frostbolt

Multi Target Rotation

• Use Flamestrike and Blizzard against stationary enemies
• Use Cone of Cold if the enemies are close to death
• Use Arcane Explosion if you need to be mama-efficient

Cooldowns

• Use Icy Veins on cooldown
• Use Cold Snap when you need high burst damage
• Use Mirror Image on cooldown, or at pull to lower your threat from Deep Freeze
• Use Evocation if your mana goes below 35%