PvE Frost Mage Talents & Builds

• Author: Kurathis
• Date: June 10, 2021
• Updated: September 12, 2021
• Expansion: TBC Classic

Frost Mage DPS

Stat Priority

Talents & Builds

Pre-Raid & Best In Slot (BiS)

Glyphs, Gems, Enchants, & Consumables

Rotation, Cooldowns, & Abilities

Improved Blizzard Build

Please note that this build is not designed for solo AoE and instead is intended for dungeon and raid groups.

The main appeal for Frost Mages in TBC Classic endgame content is their outstanding level of control. Because of this, we want to focus on our build on grabbing all of the essential talents to best prepare us for our responsibilities outside of simply using Polymorph.

Just like the other two specializations, Frost Mages dip into Elemental Precision so that we gain a free 3% Spell Hit Rating. The reduced mana cost is always nice, too.

Because we will be mainly using Frostbolt, lowering its cast time through Improved Frostbolt is incredibly benefical.

Ice Shards, Arctic Winds, Empowered Frostbolt, and Piercing Ice are all talents that directly increase our damage, so they are absolutely essential – you could even say they’re vital to our success.

Frostbite, Improved Frost Nova, and Permafrost are all talents that directly increase your level of control over mobs.

Cold Snap is an important talent, and not just because it’s a prerequisite for us to pick up Ice Barrier. It provides us an extra layer of security/safety in the event that a pull goes sideways by allowing us to finish the cooldowns on all Frost spells. Similarly, Ice Floes is another important talent since it reduces the cooldown on your most-used Frost spells, including Cold Snap.

Winter’s Chill is a talent that we will see proccing every time we cast a Frost spell, stacking up to 5 times, increasing our critical strike chance by 10%. While we’ll mainly see this happening when using Frostbolt, Ice Lance can also trigger this debuff.

Ice Barrier is one of the most important talents to pick up for Frost Mages – it’s kind of like our entire identity. It allows us to absorb roughly 1,075 damage – magical or physical – and sits on a 30-second cooldown.

Summon Water Elemental is a phenomenal addition to our arsenal. Not only does it bring an extra bit of control through Freeze, which is very similar to Frost Nova, but it also brings additional damage for 45 seconds. The Water Elemental typically can’t take too much damage before dying, but all should be well if you allow your tank time to build sufficient threat.