Frost Mage PvP Guide (2024)

Last updated on Jun 10, 2024 at 00:00by Wrdlbrmpft

Welcome to our Cataclysm FrostMage PvP guide! The following pageswill lead you through the basics of Frost Mage PvP.

Frost Mage does strongburst damage, offers the best crowd-control toolkit of all Mage specs andhas powerful survivability spells and talents. Sheeping in PVP is nowharder, as the cast time has been increased, so you need to be carefulwhen sheeping enemies, not to trigger any spell locks during thelong cast time.

• Glyph of Frostbolt — A straight 5% crit chanceincrease for your Frostbolt.
• Glyph of Mage Armor — Enhances the mana regenerationof your Mage Armor.
• Glyph of Pyroblast — A straight 5% damage increaseto your Ice Lance.

• Glyph of Frost Armor — Allows your Frost Armor to regenerate2% of your maximum mana every 5 seconds. If you use Glyph of Mage Armoras a Prime Glyph, you may also use Glyph of Dragon's Breath here, butthat is completely optional.
• Glyph of Ice Barrier — 30% more damage absorption for your Ice Barrier.
• Glyph of Polymorph — Polymorph now removes all damageover time effects from the target, so the sheep does not break instantly.

• Glyph of Slow Fall — Removes the reagent cost from Slow Fall.
• Glyph of Conjuring — Reduces theMana cost of conjuring by 50%.
• Glyph of Arcane Brilliance — Reduces theMana cost of Arcane Brilliance by50%.

If you have not already, we recommend taking a look at theSpells Summary page first.The better you know your abilities, the better and more versatileyou are at playing your Mage. The rotation always depends on whatyour enemies do and if they are frozen or not. For a better understandingof when your spells deal most damage, we highly recommendreading the Rotations pagefrom the PvE section. The followingspells are considered most important for Frost Mages:

• Frostbolt — Cast when not at risk of beinginterrupted. Works like a charm with Early Frost
• Deep Freeze — stuns enemies for 5 seconds.Only usable on Frozen targets. Instant cast.
• Flame Orb — Your Flame Orb (now Frostfire Orb)inflicts damage per second. Theseticks operate akin to standard Frost spells concerning Fingers ofFrost and Brain Freeze, with each tick havinga chance to trigger them. Expect these activations during FlameOrb's duration and be prepared to cast Ice Lanceto prevent reaching the maximum two charges of Fingers of Frost.
• Freeze (Water Elemental) — The Freezespell from your Water Elemental should be utilized wheneverfeasible. While some advise reserving it for Deep Freeze, thisposes an issue due to Deep Freeze's 30-second cooldowncompared to Freeze's 25-second cooldown. To optimize your DPS(yielding approximately one extra charge of Fingers ofFrost every two minutes, resulting in a marginal DPS increase),Freeze should be employed whenever available. Instant cast.
• Icy Veins — Icy Veins serves as your primaryDPS cooldown. Icy Veins should be utilized whenever feasible.Together with Cold Snap it delivers intense burst damageonce or twice per fight, depending on the fight's duration.
• Cold Snap — Resets the cooldown of all Frostabilities, including Icy Veins.
• Ice Lance — Does double damage on frozen targets(works with Fingers of Frost). Instant cast.
• Frostfire Bolt — Brain Freeze can be usedwhen Brain Freeze is active.
• Fire Blast — Use to dps and to stun,if Impact procs. Instant cast.
• Cone of Cold — AoE damage and 4-seconds freeze CC. Workswell together with Shatter, which triples your critical strikechance versus frozen targets.
• Frost Nova — Freeze CC. Has the same Shatterinteraction as Cone of Cold above.
• Ring of Frost — Freeze CC that works with Shatterand can be used to create distance between you and enemies or to set atrap.
• Flame Orb — A high damage ability, useful if you seek tonuke one target to oblivion.

In addition to your main damaging and CC spells, you also have importantutility spells:

• Invisibility — Used to flee from combat.
• Time Warp — Alternative to Bloodlust/ Heroism, offers 30% increased attack/casting speed for youand your group for 40 secons.
• Spellsteal — Steal beneficial magic effects from yourenemies.
• Polymorph — Transforms your enemies into a pet, removingall dots on them, thanks to Glyph of Polymorph.
• Mirror Image — Minor DPS increase.
• Mana Shield — Absorbs Damage at the cost of mana.
• Mage Ward — Absorbs Frost, Frost or Arcane damage, gives you Blazing Speed, after dissipating from absorbing damage.
• Ice Block — Makes you immune to all attacks for 10 seconds,but can be cleansed by spells like Mass Dispel
• Remove Curse — Cleanse 1 curse from a friendly target.Especially useful when dealing with Warlocks.
• Slow Fall — This ability can be key to ambush attacks, orsurviving jumps from high above.
• Blink — Teleports you 20 yards forward, even out of moststuns/snares.
• Counterspell — Interrupts enemy casts and can spell lockthe cast spell scool for 7 seconds. With the talent, it also silences enemiesfor 4 seconds. Off global cooldown.
• Frost Armor — The armor you want to use versus meleeenemies. It slows melee attackers and provides additional armor, whilealso regenerating mana through the Glyph of Frost Armor.
• Mage Armor — Used against casters. Provides resistanceversus all spell schools and regenerates mana, whilst also reducing theduration of harmful Magic effects against you.

If you are looking to maximize the potential of your FrostMage in Cataclysm PvP, these are therecommended professions:

1. Tailoring —is great for the Lightweave Embroidery cloak enchant.
2. Jewelcrafting —Gives you three powerful from Chimera's Eye, giving you a 3x stat boost, compared to normal gems.

While Engineering was a very strong profession in the past expansions,in Cataclysm we prefer Jewelcrafting and Tailoring.

The list linked below provides you with the Best-in-Slot gear setup for aFrost Mage in PvP.

To learn in which setups Frost Magesare typically strongest, please read the guides we have prepared below:

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