In Raids as a Frost Mage in WoW WotLK Classic – is it possible?

Imagine you are the leader of a raid group and you have one spot left for a damage class. Two mages inquire with you. One is an Arcane Mage and does 9,000 DPS, but is considered an inattentive player who dies often. The other is a Frost Mage and does 7,500 DPS but is good at protecting himself with Ice Blocks and the Ice Barrier. Which one do you take? Most people would say that the Frost Mage is useless in PvE in WotLK. But in this guide we will show you why this is not true and why the Frost Mage is very good in WoW WotLK Classic Raids (PvE).

The reasons for a Frost Mage in WotLK Raids (PvE)

What are the reasons for a Frost Mage in PvE? In this guide we will show you the two most important features of a Frost Mage and why he is very good in WoW WotLK raids. A dead player is like an unoccupied spot in the raid. However, the Frost Mage can protect himself better than his two PvE playstyles, Fire and Arcane. The Ice Barrier alone absorbs an enormous amount of damage. On top of that, the active defense is good thanks to many slowing effects. Finally, there’s the mandatory talent Arctic Winds, which reduces the hit chance from melee and ranged attacks against the mage by five percent. In direct combat against the boss, of course, this matters not much. However, it can be an advantage against trash mobs and adds.

Also, the Frost Mage does much more damage in PvE compared to the previous expansions. This makes the gap to the Arcane Mage smaller and smaller. However, we will clarify in the next sections to what extent the mage has changed in the Frost specialization.

 

 

The Problems of the Frost play style

What problems does the Frost Mage playstyle continue to have in WotLK Classic PvE (raids, dungeons, etc.)? This playstyle already wasn’t quite as PvE capable in the earlier expansions compared to the other skills. Frost is used exclusively by PvP mages and for leveling. This has become the norm and is hardly ever questioned. In addition, the Frost way of playing is not particularly exciting. There is no complex rotation. You fire Frostbolts all the time and watch out for the two procs of Brain Freeze and Fingers of Frost.

Another annoyance is the fact that Frost mages have to invest 18 points in the Arcane skill tree to get to Torment the Weak. However, the same goes for the Fire Mage. However, on the way to the desired talent, you can still take Spell Impact, which strengthens the main spell. Frost mages are left out in the cold, but they can still take Focus Magic and Arcane Concentration. The biggest problem for the Frost playstyle is that there are two established PvE playstyles, Arcane and Fire, and one PvP playstyle with Frost.

Important Skills

The mage has many important and useful skills. However, we will show you which ones they are and what advantage they bring you in this WoW WotLK Classic Frost Mage Raid (PvE) Guide.

Frostbolt

This is the main attack of the Frost Mage. The more Spellpower your character has, the stronger this attack becomes. Such a buff is especially strong in the case of the Frost Mage, since he doesn’t know a proper spell rotation. This is because your Frost Mage uses Frost Bolt as a standard attack even more often than Arcane Mages do with Arcane Strike or Fire Mages do with Fireball.

Deep Freeze

Is a very strong attack against targets that are immune to stun effects (mostly bosses). It is listed with a range of 1,469 to 1,741 damage, but due to its high scaling with spell damage, it is possible to get critical hits of 20,000 and more. With a cooldown of 30 seconds, the Frost Mage thus has a powerful damage boost available in boss fights.

Glyph of Eternal Water

This causes the water element to permanently fight at your side. However, this causes him to lose his Freeze ability. But is this that useful? More information will follow in the next section.

The Water Elemental and the Frost Mage in WotLK Raids

Now that you have your companion permanently by your side thanks to the glyph, it’s time to take a closer look at the frosty elemental. Should I use it in WoW WotLK as a Frost Mage in the raid? We will now clarify these and other questions. Let’s take a look at the basic stats first.

Abilities: Waterbolt, Freeze (not usable with the Glyph of Eternal Water).
Stamina: 118 + 30 Percent from the Mage.
Health: 6.676 + 7,5*Stamina.
Intelligence: 369 + Percent from the Mage.
Mana: 1.082 + 4,95*Intelligence.
Armor: 7.822 + 35 Percent from the Mage.

It all boils down to the fact that the Frost Mage has this permanent companion at his side that continually fires the Waterbolt at the Mage’s target. But how much damage does Waterbolt actually do? How much DPS does the permanent companion give the Frost Mage? Does the Elemental benefit from stats like (critical) Hit Rating?

The Waterbolt

Since your water elemental only uses this ability, we want to know how much damage it does. Waterbolt costs one percent of the elemental’s base mana, which is a paltry 32 mana points. The base damage of the ability is based on the following formula: (256 to 328) + 11.5*(Level-50). Two factors are added to these values. The bonus from the mage’s spell damage and scaling the waterbolt’s spell damage with the elemental’s spell damage value.

The elemental receives one-third of the mage’s spell damage. If your mage has 2,400 spell damage, the elemental has 800 spell damage. Waterbolt scales at 5/6 (83.33 percent) of the elemental’s spell damage. In our case, that would be 666.64. This value can be applied to the Waterbolt’s damage range of 1,267.64 to 1,339.64 points. The Waterbolt can hit critically, but it seems that the elemental has 30% of the mage’s critical hit chance. So, with the best equipment available, you can expect a four-digit DPS amount.

Conclusion

Is the Frost Mage in WoW WotLK Classic really raid (PvE) capable? This question can be answered with a clear “yes”. The gap to the Arcane and Fire Mages has clearly narrowed and is now just before the critical five percent mark. This refers to the deviation in damage potential. Also, quite a few players are willing to trade a slightly lower damage output for an “old love”, the Frost playstyle in PvE. Other benefits are the higher defensive output and, of course, the water elemental, which continues to fire uninterrupted. So the extra damage from the companion is convenient and doesn’t need to be controlled further. Thus, compared to the other expansions, the Frost Mage has gotten in WotLK a boost in PvE.