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Frost Mage Review - Battle for Azeroth Community Opinions
Live
Geposted
27.07.2018 um 00:02
von
Squishei
Throughout the pre-patch, we'll be launching a community opinions article for every class and spec. We're continuing our Battle for Azeroth Class Reviews and in this post, we'll be taking a look at the state of Frost Mage. See if this spec appeals to you in Battle for Azeroth!
We reached out to the Frost Mage community to give their thoughts and opinions on the changes and current state of the spec.
If this spec appeals to you after reading this article, check out our
Battle for Azeroth Frost Mage Guide
.
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
Sunday
Monday
17:
Assassination
18:
Subtlety
19:
Outlaw
20:
Fury
/
Arms
21:
Ret
/
Windwalker
22:
Feral
/
Enhancement
23:
Havoc
24:
Survival
25:
Beast Mastery
/
Marksmanship
26:
Fire
/
Frost
27:
Arcane
28:
Boomkin
/
Elemental
29:
Demonology
30:
Destruction
/
Affliction
31:
Shadow
1:
Unholy
/
Frost
2:
Holy Paladin
3:
Disc
/
Holy
4:
Restoration Druid
5:
Restoration
/
Mistweaver
6:
Blood
7:
Brewmaster
8:
Guardian
/
Protection Warrior
9:
Vengeance
10:
Protection Paladin
Norrinir
- SimulationCraft developer, Mage theorycrafter and moderator in the Mage Discord
Kuni
- Mage guide writer/theorycrafter and moderator in the Mage Discord
Frosted
- SimulationCraft developer, Mage theorycrafter and admin of the Mage Discord
Dikembe
- Mage theorycrafter and contributor in the Mage Discord
Preheat
- Raider and officer in Limit (US-Illidan)
Frost Mages didn’t see many changes coming from Legion into Battle for Azeroth. Most focus went into fixing unfun or underperforming talents, with only minor adjustments to the baseline abilities. The spec plays almost exactly like its Legion version.
Baseline changes
Meisterschaft: Eiszapfen
are now generated by
Hagel
as well as
Frostblitz
and they no longer depend on the damage of those spells. In addition, Frost’s Mastery also increases the damage of
Gefrorene Kugel
. As a result, it is now competitive with other stats in most situations. However, Mastery doesn’t affect
Eislanze
, which means that at some point
Frostblitz
becomes more powerful than
Eislanze
. Compared to Legion, this situation is far less likely to occur, but the underlying problem is still present and might resurface at some point.
Water Elemental lost Water Jet and
Eiskälte
no longer generates charges of
Eisige Finger
. Loss of those spells has been partially covered by increasing
Frostblitz
’s chance to grant a charge of
Eisige Finger
. While
Eiskälte
is far less powerful compared to Legion, it is still a very useful tool for open world and dungeons, where it enables
Zertrümmern
for big hitting spells such as
Kometenhagel
or
Gletscherstachel
. Overall, the Water Elemental is now mostly a passive source of damage rather than an active source of
Eisige Finger
charges.
Utility and defensives have also seen some changes.
Eisbarriere
no longer scales with your Intellect, but instead uses a percentage of your maximum Health.
Arkane Intelligenz
and
Fluch aufheben
make a return, giving Mages access to the Intellect raid buff and curse removal.
The lack of changes to
Eisige Finger
and
Hirnfrost
is surprising. These two procs still fight against each other. Using
Eisige Finger
empowered
Eislanze
after casting
Hirnfrost
Hagel
wastes the
Eisige Finger
effect as the target is already considered frozen because of
Winterkälte
. If the Mage prioritizes using
Eislanze
first, some of the
Hirnfrost
charges will be wasted as the buff doesn’t stack; if the Mage prioritizes using
Hagel
first,
Eisige Finger
will be wasted as a result of the previously mentioned interaction.
Hirnfrost
remains unpredictable and mostly outside of control of the Mage. The instant
Hagel
thus cannot be delayed without the risk of wasting further
Hirnfrost
charges. This worsens the conflict between
Hirnfrost
and
Eisige Finger
, but it is especially problematic with spells such as
Gletscherstachel
that can hugely benefit from
Zertrümmern
. Shattering
Gletscherstachel
with a
Hagel
can be a fun minigame, but the Mage has to waste up to one quarter of all
Hirnfrost
charges to do this consistently.
The disconnect here is that
Winterkälte
allows you to apply
Zertrümmern
to any spell (even when the target is immune to being Frozen), but the game punishes you for trying to use it with anything other than
Eislanze
by wasting
Eisige Finger
or
Hirnfrost
charges.
The end result is that the Mage is discouraged from planning ahead and adapting to external events such as additional enemies, extra damage phases or movement, as any such attempt will result in damage loss in the long run. The rotation is still mostly dictated by the random number generator, the Mage has little control over it and the parts the Mage has some control over can be summarized as “choosing the lesser evil.”
Talents
Talents saw a huge improvement compared to Legion. Arctic Gale, Unstable Magic, and Frost Bomb have been removed in favor of some of the Artifact traits and Legion legendaries.
Level 15
Knochenkälte
and
Einsamer Winter
are reasonably competitive and mostly come down to whether the Mage wants to play with a pet. Ray of Frost has been replaced with
Eisnova
, which is however undertuned and the extra utility isn’t enough to make up for it.
Level 30
Flimmern
had its recharge time increased from 15 to 20 seconds. This might make the choice between it and
Eisschollen
more interesting.
Gletscherpanzer
sadly only saw an increase to armor percentage, and is still useless in most situations.
Level 45
This talent row received zero changes.
Rune der Kraft
is still slightly weaker than
Fluss des Beschwörers
due to Frost’s lower burst damage.
Spiegelbild
lacks in damage, but it does offer some utility as the pets can tank and absorb some damage in the open world.
Level 60
Splitting Ice and Ice Nova have been removed and replaced with
Kettenreaktion
and
Schwarzblitz
.
Kettenreaktion
is tailored more towards fights with two or more enemies, while
Eiskalte Berührung
and
Schwarzblitz
are more focused towards single target fights.
Schwarzblitz
also offers
Hirnfrost
on demand, which is very useful with
Gletscherstachel
.
Level 75
Eisschutz
might see more play as an extra way to Shatter
Gletscherstachel
or
Kometenhagel
.
Eisige Winde
is amazing utility whenever enemies need to be kited around, such as in Mythic+ dungeons.
Ring des Frosts
is extra crowd control on top of
Verwandlung
, but its uses are rather specific as the frozen enemies break out after any damage is done to them.
Level 90
This talent row now focuses purely on AoE and each talent has its niche.
Kometenhagel
excels when burst AoE damage is required,
Gefrierender Regen
shines in sustained AoE situations and
Zersplitterndes Eis
is the cleave choice, especially now that it affects
Schwarzblitz
.
Level 100
Kometenhagel
has been replaced with
Froststrahl
, which now channels much faster and grants two charges of
Eisige Finger
.
Froststrahl
could be an interesting burst option on this tier, but sadly the damage isn’t there yet. Both
Thermale Leere
and
Gletscherstachel
are competitive options.
Gletscherstachel
excels for cleave fights with
Zersplitterndes Eis
, while
Thermale Leere
takes over for sustained AoE where the Mage produces very high number of
Eisige Finger
charges.
Final words
The talent rework is the highlight of all the changes that came to Frost Mages. Interesting active talents that were previously overshadowed by the passive choices give a much needed breath of fresh air. Items that have Mastery are once again useful, making the item choices more varied and interesting.
However, the some of the most important core issues remain unaddressed. As long as
Eisige Finger
and
Hirnfrost
fight against each other, the rotation will involve awkward and unfun decisions that lead to wasted procs.
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