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Frost Mage Guide — Class Guides · WoW Classic

Chills, freezes and Frostbolt: the safest mage tree to solo and level with, and the tree of AoE leveling.

A cloth-wearing caster who deals Arcane, Fire and Frost damage from range, controls enemies with Polymorph and frost spells, and conjures food, water and portals. More about the mage

Class
Mage
Roles
Damage
Used for
Raids and dungeons, Player versus player, Leveling
Top talent
Ice Barrier
Popular builds
4
Version
WoW Classic

How to play

Frost is the safe, efficient mage: Frostbolt slows its target, Frost Nova and Cone of Cold hold enemies at range, Ice Barrier absorbs damage and Ice Block makes you immune for ten seconds. Shatter makes frozen targets easy to crit, and Winter's Chill raises frost crit chance against the target for every mage in the raid.

Frostbolt is the whole raid rotation: it has low threat, and Winter's Chill stacks help every Frost mage. In the open world Frost is the AoE leveling spec: gather a pack, Frost Nova, Blizzard with Improved Blizzard's slow, Cone of Cold, repeat.

In player-versus-player fights Frost kites: Frostbolt and Cone of Cold slow, Frost Nova roots, Shatter crits the frozen target, and Cold Snap resets Ice Block and Frost Nova when you need them again.

At a glance

Single-target damage
Damage to groups
Survivability
Utility for the group
Solo play and leveling
Ease of play

Rated 1 to 5 against the other specs in WoW Classic.

Rotation and priorities

  1. 1Mage Armor in raids, Ice Armor in the open world.
  2. 2Frostbolt on single targets, all the time.
  3. 3Ice Barrier before pulls and whenever it is ready.
  4. 4Frost Nova, then Frostbolt or Cone of Cold to shatter frozen targets.
  5. 5Blizzard on gathered packs; Arcane Explosion when they reach you.
  6. 6Cold Snap to reset Ice Block, Frost Nova or Ice Barrier when you need one twice.

Strengths and weaknesses

Strengths

  • The safest mage: slows, roots, Ice Barrier and Ice Block.
  • The best AoE leveling spec in Classic.
  • Works in Molten Core, where Fire struggles.
  • Low threat in raids.

Weaknesses

  • Less raid damage than Fire later in Classic.
  • Lower crit potential than Fire.
  • Frostbolt-only raid play is repetitive.

Stats and gear

Stat priority

Most valuable first. Bars compare each stat with the best one; a cap in the note means the stat drops off once you reach it.

  1. 1

    Spell damagefrost damage counts

  2. 2

    Hitto 16% against bosses; Elemental Precision covers 6%

  3. 3

    Critical strike

  4. 4

    Intellect

  5. 5

    Staminamore for AoE leveling

  6. 6

    Spirit

What to look for

  • Spell damage and hit for raids; Stamina and Intellect for AoE leveling, where surviving a pull matters more than its speed.
  • Frost damage gear works for Frostbolt and Blizzard.
  • A good wand while leveling.

Items worth chasing

  • Talisman of Ephemeral PowerA burst of spell damage on use.
  • Neltharion's TearA trinket of spell damage and spell hit.
  • Briarwood ReedSpell damage and healing in a trinket.

Builds

Each bar splits the build's talent points by tree.

  • Arcane
  • Fire
  • Frost

  • Winter's Chill Raider

    DamagePvE
    18/0/33

    The raid Frost standard: Winter's Chill raises frost crits for every mage, Ice Barrier and Ice Block add safety, and Arcane Meditation sustains mana.

    • Arcane Resilience 1/1
    • Cold Snap 1/1
    • Ice Block 1/1
    • Winter's Chill 5/5
    • Ice Barrier 1/1

    Open in the talent calculatorTheorycraftingTalent order by level

  • Shatter Duelist

    DamagePvPPvE
    17/0/34

    Deep Frost with Shatter: freeze targets with Improved Frost Nova and crit them while they are stuck, with Ice Barrier and Cold Snap for safety.

    • Arcane Resilience 1/1
    • Cold Snap 1/1
    • Ice Block 1/1
    • Winter's Chill 5/5
    • Ice Barrier 1/1

    Open in the talent calculatorTheorycraftingTalent order by level

  • Blizzard AoE Farmer

    DamageLeveling
    14/0/37

    Built for AoE grinding: Improved Blizzard and Permafrost slow whole packs, Arctic Reach widens your circle and Ice Block buys time when a pull goes wrong.

    • Cold Snap 1/1
    • Arctic Reach 2/2
    • Ice Block 1/1
    • Improved Cone of Cold 3/3
    • Ice Barrier 1/1

    Open in the talent calculatorTheorycraftingTalent order by level

  • Frostbolt Kiter

    DamageLeveling
    10/0/41

    Single-target Frost leveling: Improved Frostbolt and Frostbite to kite, Shatter for crits on frozen targets and Ice Barrier instead of drinking.

    • Cold Snap 1/1
    • Arctic Reach 1/2
    • Ice Block 1/1
    • Winter's Chill 5/5
    • Ice Barrier 1/1

    Open in the talent calculatorTheorycraftingTalent order by level

Key talents

  • Ice Barrier · top talent, up to 1

    Instantly shields you, absorbing 454 damage. Lasts 1 min. While the shield holds, spells will not be interrupted.

  • Ice Shards · tier 2, up to 5

    Increases the critical strike damage bonus of your Frost spells by 100%.

  • Piercing Ice · tier 3, up to 3

    Increases the damage done by your Frost spells by 6%.

  • Cold Snap · tier 3, up to 1

    When activated, this spell finishes the cooldown on all of your Frost spells.

  • Improved Blizzard · tier 3, up to 3

    Adds a chill effect to your Blizzard spell. This effect lowers the target's movement speed by 65%. Lasts 1.5 sec.

  • Arctic Reach · tier 4, up to 2

    Increases the range of your Frostbolt and Blizzard spells and the radius of your Frost Nova and Cone of Cold spells by 20%.

  • Frost Channeling · tier 4, up to 3

    Reduces the mana cost of your Frost spells by 15% and reduces the threat caused by your Frost spells by 30%.

  • Shatter · tier 4, up to 5

    Increases the critical strike chance of all your spells against frozen targets by 50%.

  • Ice Block · tier 5, up to 1

    You become encased in a block of ice, protecting you from all physical attacks and spells for 10 sec, but during that time you cannot attack, move or cast spells.

  • Winter's Chill · tier 6, up to 5

    Gives your Frost damage spells a 100% chance to apply the Winter's Chill effect, which increases the chance a Frost spell will critically hit the target by 2% for 15 sec. Stacks up to 5 times.

Frost abilities by level

When each ability arrives: trained abilities at the level a trainer first teaches them, talent abilities (gold frame) at the first level the talent can be taken.

Related

Other mage specs: Arcane, Fire