[Frost Mage] Need Help With PvP?

[BaboonX]

I've decided to make this guide to help out some of the mages out there. Frost mages are a very good class for pvp if you know how to play them. They are pretty easy to play but it does take a lot of practice, knowlege, and some gear to play them well. That being said I'll get on with the guide.

Specs

Chosing specs are pretty basic for frost mages but there are many variations that you can do depending on your play style.


The spec that I like to use is 20/0/51. This is probably the most used spec for frost mages.

You can switch the talents around from improved CoC into Permafrost or Frost Channeling. Basicly, if you go into perma frost, your going to be better against melee classes. But mages already have enough CC against melee where I don't really think it's necessary.. If you go into frost channeling your going to be better against casters in general. Most of mage counters are casters so I would personally chose frost channeling over perma frost. There is also Enduring Winter which can be needed depending on your arena set ups and other things but I personally don't like it.

In the arcane tree you can also switch around talents, from torment of the week and Arcane Fortitude, and, if you feel you don't need improved counter spell you can take those points out to.

Gear

Gear for frost mages isn't that straight forward. It all depends on your play style really. Some mages like to have a lot of haste, some like to have more stam and resilience. I personally think haste is a must for a frost mage, but I know some pretty high rated mages that don't have that much haste.

I read up on spell haste, and a lot of people say Spell Power is better than haste, but spell haste is better than crit rating.

Mages also really need spell pen against paladins / mages / etc. The spell pen I like to have is 120 so paladins frost resistance aura and mages mage armor is cancelled out.

Most of the best mage gear comes from raids which can be a pain but if you can join a guild that is farming naxx / ulduar I highly recommend doing so. The gear you really need from raids are:
A Main hand weapon - None of the PvP weapons really have decent haste/spell power on them. There are two weapons that I know of which are really nice for mages are Life and Death , and The Turning Tide - Item - World of Warcraft. There are other weapons that have spell haste ( I tried looking for a list of weapons that have spell haste but I didn't find anything , sorry ).
Two Piece Tier 7 - Having two pieces of tier 7 is a must imo. With the two pieces you get a set bonus which increases the mana you get from mana gem by 40% and gives you around 200 SP which is really nice for outlasting and burst. The two pieces that I recommend getting is the shoulders and the legs because those two peices have haste.
... The list goes on for the PvE items that help you out in PvP.

Other things that you well want gear wise is the Winters Grasp PvP trinket (+111 SP), the other trinket that gives +res and has a use effect, also the wintersgrasp Salvation set (each piece gives decent spell haste a long with a lot of stam and res).

Glyphs

The glyphs that I really feel are needed are:
Glyph of Icy Veins - This is really helpful against Death Knights, Mages, Hunters, and Rogues. It can mean the difference between you losing or winning in most cases. This glyph removes all Movement impairing effects off you.

Glyph of Water Elemental - This reduces the CD of your water elemental by 30 seconds. Good in Bg's and for long fights.

Glyph of Evocation - When you use evocation it restores 60% of your health along with mana.. A must.

For minor glyphs, I would go with glyph of fire/frost ward, and glyph of lightfall. If you feel the must to get glyph of polymorph.. Do the world a favor and delete your mage. Kthx.

If you want to try some other glyphs, go for it.

General Tips

-Spells

Rank 1 Frost Bolt - Rank one frost bolt is a must. In a lot of cases there is a small gap between you and your enemy when they are to far away from your frost nova, but to close for you to get a full rank frost bolt off. Maybe it's the other way around where they are to far and if you cast a full rank frost bolt they well be out of distance. Either way, rank 1 frost bolt is a must to have keybinded. There are many scenarios that I can give where you need to use rank 1 frost bolt but I won't go into it. Just keep in note, if you can cast a full rank frost bolt or a CoC don't use rank one that just makes me face palm.

Light Fall - This is just a extra buff to avoid a bigger buff getting dispelled or force them to dispell more. Light Fall spam should only be used against other mages.. I facepalm when see mages spamming it against a shaman or priest :/.

Mirror Image - Mirror image works like feign death, it makes it so your opponent well stop targeting you. This can be used to stop pets attacking you, to making a big spell not being casted on you. really great if you know how to use it.

-Macros

Water Elemental Macro
#showtooltip Summon Water Elemental
/cast [nopet] Summon Water Elemental
/click PetActionButton5
-This macro allows you to cast your water elemental, but, while your waterelemental is up if you hit this macro again it well allow you to use your pets nova.

Poly Focus
#showtooltip Polymorph
/cast [modifier:shift, target=focus] Polymorph
/cast [nomodifier:shift] Polymorph
-Well cast polymorph but if you hit shift it well polymorph your focus.

Deep Freeze Focus
#showtooltip
/stopcasting
/cast [mod:shift,target=focus] Deep Freeze; Deep Freeze
-Same as polymorph focus

Fast CounterSpell
#showtooltip Counterspell
/stopcasting
/cast [modifier:shift, target=focus] Counterspell
/cast [nomodifier:shift] Counterspell
-Welll stop everything your doing to cast counterspell, hit shift and it well counterspell focus.

Fast Iceblock
#showtooltip Ice Block
/stopcasting
/cancelaura Ice Block
/cast Ice Block
-Casts iceblock, but if you hit this fast two times it well cast it will cancel it faster than normal. Great macro for getting debuffs off you.


Note: For each modifier you can change it. I personally use shift but you can use ALT and CTRL modifiers.

Afflicted 3
This has it's own little section because this is just so wonderfull for mages and all classes in general. This well show the CD's of your targets and players around you. This is great against so many classes.. You can see when a warriors charge is up or a deathknights deathgrip.. It's perfect for helping you time your blinks faster and many other things.

I personally configured it to only have two bars. One is Interrupts which shows when a targets silence is up , and the other is a custom bar I made which allows me to see all the stuns / etc that I want to see. This is easy to do and I will explain how to do this.

1. Open Up Afflicted UI by typing /afflicted ui.
2. Go To Anchors, disable everything except for interupts and Cooldowns.
3. Go down to Spells and go through EVERYTHING. It's in alphabetical order so you can pick what spells you want very easy.
4. When you find a spell you want to watch first you need to uncheck disable cooldowns, then, add it to the cooldown list.

-The only problem using this method is that you well have some spells that you don't want to watch. If this happens , just go to the afflicted ui and find it and disable it. Easy.


Download Addon Here: http://wow.curse.com/downloads/wow-addons/details/afflicted3.aspx

Mages VS Classes

I also enjoyed dueling on my mage, and I have dueled a lot and picked up some pretty nice methods against each class that I would like to share with you.

Death Knight - Death Knights can be pretty hard to beat. When starting out I recommend killing there pet, but, if you don't have enough burst to kill the pet fast enough just start on the deathknight and try and keep his pet off you (if they don't have a pet, ignore this). Make sure you keep some distance on him and just spam your frost bolts / etc. When he Death grips you BLINK AWAY THEN BURST HIM. He is pretty much screwed from this point on. If you have glyph of icy veins, make sure to use it on his Chains of Ice. Make sure to keep up Frost Ward, and use mage amor if you feel it's needed.

Druid
*Resto
Resto druids can be pretty hard to beat. They have barkskin which makes it pretty hard to burst them , and they have hots which can make it pretty hard to stop there heals. What I like to do against a druid is spam spell steal until they have no buffs. This makes it easy to spell steal there hots later on. Do not play to offensive against a druid, make them run out of mana and when they use intervate SPELL STEAL IT, and you pretty much won from that point on.
*Balance
Balance druids have to be the hardest imo. They have very fast casts and trents which can really make it hard to get a full rank frost bolt on them. What I like to do is spell steal everything on them at start, and then do a hard shatter combo on them. When they use trents, use icy veins so the pushback doesn't effect you very much. If you don't have icy veins, use mirror images so the trents attack them instead. Use counter spell on Wrath asap to force him to heal a bit (I'm pretty sure when you CS wrath, he can't cyclone) and just outlast them until you can burst them.
*Feral
Feral can be pretty hard. When the druid pounces on you, make sure to blink asap. He well most likely feral charge you, but no worrys, the feral charge in cat doesn't stun you. Try and make him switch in and out of forms a lot. Use rank one frost bolt when ever they switch forms to make them switch forms over and over. They well run oomfast. The average feral druid only has 5k mana or so. When he is in caster, try and get a shatter combo on him. Save your counter spell for his Cyclone, if he doesn't cyclone, just use it when he trys and heals him self.

Hunters hunters are a pretty hard class to beat for a mage. Make sure to keep melee range on him and make it so he can never range attack you. It's very easy to keep melee range on them with your blink, and your movement slowing effects (frost bolt, frost nova, etc). If you get one shatter combo on him, he's done. Try your best to ignore his pet. If you want you can frost nova or use mirror images so the pet doesn't attack you.

Mage Mages are probably the hardest class for a mage to beat.. They are very tricky and can usually rely on luck to beat them (if there CS misses, or w/e). When you start out, if the mage casts poly, CS IT FAST. Then sheep him. Sometimes what I like to do is use icy veins right when the duel starts then I can be the first one to get a sheep off. Try and spell steal everything away from him. Use a early Mana gem so you can outlast him faster. Try and save your CS for his Evocation if you are specced Frost warding (if he casts frost spells on you, you gain mana). Make sure to evo when he is sheeped or his counter spell is on CD. I like to use icy veins to get a clean evo off against a mage or LoS him. The duel comes down to who ever has the most mana at the end really.. Some things that I like to do is use RANK 1 WARDS so he spell steals it, when he spell steals it, it makes his ward on CD ( I Think? ) so he is screwed with out a ward for a whole 30 seconds which is very nice. Also keep Light Fall up when he is spamming spell steal. You can try and sneek in a AMP MAGIC so he spell steals it which is very nice if he doesn't know how to remove it :P.

Paladin
*Holy
Holy paladins are very easy for mages. Make sure to counterspell his heals then burst him, it's pretty simple. Spell steal his Blessing of Freedoms and force him to dispell a bit. Try and get a clean shatter combo on him and it's over. If he bubbles, run away and evo. Send your water elemental on him if he decides to drink.. When he uses aura mastery, run away in evo, if evo is on CD just run away and bandage / drink. Pretty simple from this point on.
*Prot
There are a few good prot paladin on my server, and honestly I don't know hot to beat them. You can't spell steal devine plea and they can outlast you very easy. I try and get a clean counter spell off on there heals but it can be very hard with aura master. If anyone has a better strat than me please post it.
*Ret
Ret paladins are pretty easy to beat. When you start frost nova, they well most likely blessing of freedom it, then sheep them and spell steal blessing of freedom. Then shatter combo him and force him to bubble. When he uses wings spell steal it and he's done. Try and keep distance on him and do not let him attack you.. Which can be hard because they ahve 20% increased movement speed. Ice Block if you have to, and make sure to save your trinket for Repentance.

Priests
*Disc
Against disc priests you just have to outlast them. When you start out, sheep them, spell steal all there buffs then get away and drink. If they decide to rebuff and then drink, send your water elemental at them to keep them in combat. when your at full mana again, run back and burst them.. try and force them to use there CD's and then run away, drink, come back. Repeat over and over and then it's over. It's easy to outlast them because you have mana gem, evo, and a lot more. I like to Ice block there devouring plague right when they use it so they can't put it back on me for 20 seconds or so.. Pretty easy.
*I won't explain the other specs because I don't see them being that good against a mage. Holy is pretty much the same strat as disc and for shadow I don't have that much experience dueling a good shadow priest so yeah..

Rogue rogues can be pretty hard for mages. If they open up on you with a garrote ice block then nova them, try not to use blink here but if you have to do it. Deep freeze them to force there trinket, then try and sheep them.. If they cloak of shadows the sheep, blink away from them. When you blink if they are ShS spec, keep your frost barrier up, and then they are novad again.. Then sheep and start off clean. It's pretty easy from this point on.

Shaman Shamans are like a mixture of the other classes above. make sure to icelance there totems (esp there grounding totems). When you start off, sheep then kill totems.. Get a clean shatter combo off.. I sometimes like to fake my shadow combo so they use grounding totem, if they do this, icelance the totem, then deep freeze them and burst them. save CS for there heals and make sure not to CS there grounding totem. If there enhancement, there pretty much like fighting a druid except they can't switch forms and break CC's so it's pretty easy.

Warlock There was one warlock on my server that kept beating me, but I kept dueling him and found a really good strat and never lost to a warlock again. You basicly NEVER WANT THEM TO GET A CHAOS BOLT OFF. When you start off, frost nova and deep freeze the warlock, if he trinkets, sheep him. Silence the pet before you sheep the warlock so the pet doesn't silence you(if he has felhunter out). Sheep him, kill his pet, then resheep him, and burst him. If he uses fel domination, you should keep staying on the warlock BUT if the warlock has full health from his health stone, sheep him, kill pet again. Make sure to ICEBLOCK , COUNTER SPELL, or do ANYTHING to keep that chaos bolt away from you. Some times I blink out of distance from the chaos bolt if needed. If he has his succubas out, start out by summoning your water elemental and use the nova right around him.. Most warlocks keep there succubas on follow so it well most likely get his succubas out of steal. Make sure to counter spell his succubas and then sheep him and burst his pet pretty straight forward.

Warrior there are a few warriors that have actually beaten me before but I started using a few simple methods and got a plan together for warriors. When they start, they well charge you, don't blink this. Let the warrior break your ice barrier so a nova goes off. Gain your distance then deep freeze and shatter combo him. If he uses Spell Reflect here, icelance it then deep freeze. Fake cast your frost bolts so he uses spell reflect. Ice lance it and it's over.. Use frost ward if you think it's needed against a good warrior. When he intercepts blink. If he charges you then uses bladestorm BLINK or ICEBLOCK. Depending if he used Intercept previously or if iceblock or blink is on cd.. If you are ever at low health against a warrior for what ever reason there is a little trick I like to use.. Frost nova him, and pretend to do a shatter combo, he well use spell reflect.. Use your water elemental and put him on passive then use sheep. While in sheep, make your water elemental frost nova the war so he doesn't touch you. If he has rend on you though you may not be able to do this but if you can it works great.

Useful Comments
These are comments that I find helpful. I am not the best at mages and there are many other people out there that probably no more about mages. I didn't google search everything in the guide to make sure it was all accurate, I just wrote it for fun while I was bored.. But thankfully the community can share there thoughts and correct me with some things .

Well, I didnt read any longer when I saw your 'most common frostmage spec', without 2/2 Magic Attunement. That talent includes Sheep and Counterspell so how can you rather get 2% more dmg from CoC then that?

I may add to this guide later, but I don't have that much experience with arena so I don't really want to write something about arena at this point. If you feel I gave misinformation just post below and I well edit it.. I don't know everything about a mage but I am sure there are some people out there that do.

I hope this helps someone out.

[Tokker]

Well, I didnt read any longer when I saw your 'most common frostmage spec', without 2/2 Magic Attunement. That talent includes Sheep and Counterspell so how can you rather get 2% more dmg from CoC then that?

[Raven^]

I agree about the haste, I'd say 15% is a good number to shoot for.

[BaboonX]

Well, I didnt read any longer when I saw your 'most common frostmage spec', without 2/2 Magic Attunement. That talent includes Sheep and Counterspell so how can you rather get 2% more dmg from CoC then that?

I don't find range to be a issue with those spells at all. If the target is farther away than that distance most likely they won't even be a problem.. In arena if they are that distance there probably out of LoS or can LoS quickly.. Range with Counter Spell and sheep isn't really needed. You also get 2% more damage with Icelance, I know that isn't much but just saying. I have to agree with you that it is probably better than 2% damage from COC and Icelance though.. But in arena it's not really needed imo. . .

I explain further that you can change the build if you want to, not every build fits every person it all depends on your play style really.. and if you feel it's better then use it. . . I wrote this guide pretty fast and I am not the best at mages like I explain at the bottom of this guide. Thanks for your info though.

[PLLee1994PL]

Nice guide, very well written.
Thumbs up!

[Dardragoon]

As a frost mage, I didn't see it in there, but I would like to just say, read the ice lance glyph carefully. On my server I have had to help more mages then I care to count because they thought that glyph worked in Arenas... It doesn't so -DO NOT- use it.

[BaboonX]

As a frost mage, I didn't see it in there, but I would like to just say, read the ice lance glyph carefully. On my server I have had to help more mages then I care to count because they thought that glyph worked in Arenas... It doesn't so -DO NOT- use it.

I do not know one mage that has bought the ice lance glyph of pvp, I don't think it's worth mentioning because it's just common sense.