Overview
If you bring it, you lean on Frostbolt, the Water Elemental, and Frost's efficiency rather than raw single-target ceiling.
Strengths
- +Excellent mana efficiency
- +Water Elemental adds sustained damage + utility
- +Strong on add/AoE-friendly fights
Weaknesses
- −Lower single-target ceiling than Fire/Arcane
- −Rarely the optimal raid choice
Stat priority & caps (raid)
Stat caps (raid)
| Stat | Cap | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Spell Hit | 202 rating | 16% cap for a raid boss (+3 levels). Draenei Heroic Presence, Shadow Priest's Misery, and hit talents lower how much you need on gear. |
- Spell Hit: 16% cap for a raid boss (+3 levels). Draenei Heroic Presence, Shadow Priest's Misery, and hit talents lower how much you need on gear.
Full gear with usage %, gems and enchants is on the Frost Mage PvE BiS list.
Recommended talent build
18/0/43 · RaidThe Deep Frost build: Empowered Frostbolt, Ice Shards crit scaling and Summon Water Elemental, with Arcane efficiency talents up top. The consistency pick — one-button rotation, unmatched threat safety, and the same skeleton PvP frost builds start from.
Arcane
18Reduces your target's resistance to all your spells by 5 and reduces the threat caused by your Arcane spells by 20%.
Reduces the chance that the opponent can resist your Arcane spells by 2%.
Gives you a 20% chance to avoid interruption caused by damage while channeling Arcane Missiles.
Increases your damage with Wands by 13%.
Increases all resistances by 2 and causes all spells you fully resist to restore 1% of your total mana. 1 sec. cooldown. (1s cooldown)
Gives you a 2% chance of entering a Clearcasting state after any damage spell hits a target. The Clearcasting state reduces the mana cost of your next damage spell by 100%. (Proc chance: 2%, 1s cooldown)
Increases the effect of your Amplify Magic and Dampen Magic spells by 25%.
Increases the critical strike chance of your Arcane Explosion and Arcane Blast spells by an additional 2%.
Increases your armor by an amount equal to 100% of your Intellect.
Decreases the mana lost per point of damage taken when Mana Shield is active by 10%.
Gives your Counterspell a 50% chance to silence the target for 4 sec. (Proc chance: 50%)
Allows 10% of your mana regeneration to continue while casting.
For 4 sec after casting Blink, your chance to be hit by all attacks and spells is reduced by 13%.
When activated, your next Mage spell with a casting time less than 10 sec becomes an instant cast spell.
Increases your total Intellect by 3%.
Reduces all damage taken by 2%.
Increases your spell damage and critical strike chance by 1%.
Increases the critical strike chance of any spell cast while Clearcasting by 10%.
Your Arcane Missiles spell gains an additional 15% of your bonus spell damage effects, but mana cost is increased by 2%.
When activated, your spells deal 30% more damage while costing 30% more mana to cast. This effect lasts 15 sec.
Increases critical strike damage bonus of all spells by 25%.
Increases spell damage by up to 5% of your total Intellect.
Reduces target's movement speed by 50%, increases the time between ranged attacks by 50% and increases casting time by 50%. Lasts 15 sec. Slow can only affect one target at a time.
Fire
0Reduces the casting time of your Fireball spell by 0.1 sec.
Gives your Fire spells a 2% chance to stun the target for 2 sec. (Proc chance: 2%)
Your critical strikes from Fire damage spells cause the target to burn for an additional 8% of your spell's damage over 4 sec.
Increases the range of your Fire spells by 3 yards.
Reduces the cooldown of your Fire Blast spell by 0.5 sec.
Increases the critical strike chance of your Fire Blast and Scorch spells by 2%.
Increases the critical strike chance of your Flamestrike spell by 5%.
Hurls an immense fiery boulder that causes 148 to 195 Fire damage and an additional 56 Fire damage over 12 sec.
Gives your Fire spells a 35% chance to not lose casting time when you take damage and reduces the threat caused by your Fire spells by 5%.
Your Scorch spells have a 33% chance to cause your target to be vulnerable to Fire damage. This vulnerability increases the Fire damage dealt to your target by 3% and lasts 30 sec. Stacks up to 5 times.
Causes your Fire Ward to have a 10% chance to reflect Fire spells while active. In addition, your Molten Armor has a 50% chance to affect ranged and spell attacks.
Your Fire and Frost spell criticals will refund 10% of their base mana cost. (9ms cooldown)
Increases all spell damage caused by 1% and all spell damage taken by 1%.
Increases the critical strike chance of your Fire spells by 2%.
A wave of flame radiates outward from the caster, damaging all enemies caught within the blast for 160 to 192 Fire damage, and Dazing them for 6 sec.
Gives you a 5% chance when hit by a melee or ranged attack to increase your movement speed by 50% and dispel all movement impairing effects. This effect lasts 8 sec. (Proc chance: 5%)
Increases the damage done by your Fire spells by 2%.
Increases chance to critically hit and reduces the mana cost of all Fire spells by an additional 1%.
When activated, this spell causes each of your Fire damage spell hits to increase your critical strike chance with Fire damage spells by 10%. This effect lasts until you have caused 3 critical strikes with Fire spells.
Increases damage of all spells against targets with less than 20% health by 10%.
Your Fireball spell gains an additional 3% of your bonus spell damage effects.
Targets in a cone in front of the caster take 382 to 442 Fire damage and are Disoriented for 3 sec. Any direct damaging attack will revive targets. Turns off your attack when used.
Frost
43Increases the armor and resistances given by your Frost Armor and Ice Armor spells by 15%. In addition, gives your Frost Ward a 10% chance to reflect Frost spells and effects while active.
Reduces the casting time of your Frostbolt spell by 0.1 sec.
Reduces the mana cost and chance targets resist your Frost and Fire spells by 1%.
Increases the critical strike damage bonus of your Frost spells by 20%.
Gives your Chill effects a 5% chance to freeze the target for 5 sec.
Reduces the cooldown of your Frost Nova spell by 2 sec.
Increases the duration of your Chill effects by 1 sec and reduces the target's speed by an additional 4%.
Increases the damage done by your Frost spells by 2%.
Hastens your spellcasting, increasing spell casting speed by 20% and gives you 100% chance to avoid interruption caused by damage while casting. Lasts 20 sec.
Adds a chill effect to your Blizzard spell. This effect lowers the target's movement speed by 30%. Lasts 1.50 sec.
Increases the range of your Frostbolt, Ice Lance and Blizzard spells and the radius of your Frost Nova and Cone of Cold spells by 10%.
Reduces the mana cost of your Frost spells by 5% and reduces the threat caused by your Frost spells by 4%.
Increases the critical strike chance of all your spells against frozen targets by 10%.
Reduces the damage taken by Frost and Fire effects by 2%.
When activated, this spell finishes the cooldown on all Frost spells you recently cast.
Increases the damage dealt by your Cone of Cold spell by 15%.
Reduces the cooldown of your Cone of Cold, Cold Snap, Ice Barrier and Ice Block spells by 10%.
Gives your Frost damage spells a 20% 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. (Proc chance: 20%)
Instantly shields you, absorbing 455 damage. Lasts 1 min. While the shield holds, spells will not be interrupted.
Increases all Frost damage you cause by 1% and reduces the chance melee and ranged attacks will hit you by 1%.
Your Frostbolt spell gains an additional 2% of your bonus spell damage effects and an additional 1% chance to critically strike.
Summon a Water Elemental to fight for the caster for 45 sec.
Points are filled on each tree above — hover a talent for its tooltip; highlighted talents are the build's key picks.
Single-target rotation
- 1Reach the spell hit cap (16%, less with talents/Draenei).
- 2Summon the Water Elemental and keep it on the boss.
- 3Spam Frostbolt as your main nuke.
- 4Icy Veins + trinkets with Bloodlust; use the Elemental's Freeze on adds.
- 5Manage mana with a gem/Evocation (Frost is efficient by default).
Keep the Water Elemental active and Frostbolt on the boss. Frost's strength is efficiency and add control, not single-target ceiling — bring it for specific fights, otherwise raid Fire or Arcane. Hit-cap first as with any caster.
Mage macros
Focus macros
Focus Counterspell
Lock out a focus caster (enemy healer) without target-swapping.
#showtooltip Counterspell /cast [target=focus] Counterspell
Focus Polymorph
Sheep your focus to control the enemy healer while you burst another target.
#showtooltip Polymorph /cast [target=focus] Polymorph
Defensive
Ice Block toggle
One button to Block and to break Block — cancels the aura if you're already in it.
#showtooltip Ice Block /cancelaura Ice Block /cast Ice Block
PvE addons
Full list on the Mage addons page.
Best race (PvE)
Berserking is the strongest DPS racial for a mage, scaling directly with your cast speed.
Heroic Presence's +1% party hit is strong raid utility; Gnome's Expansive Mind is the DPS-selfish alternative.
More on the best race for Mage page.
Best professions (PvE)
Common mistakes
- ✕Raiding Frost when Fire/Arcane would parse much higher.
- ✕Forgetting to re-summon the Water Elemental.
- ✕Ignoring the hit cap.
FAQ
Should I raid as Frost Mage?
Usually no — Fire or Arcane parse higher for single target. Frost PvE is a niche efficiency/utility pick. Frost is, however, the best arena Mage spec.
Is Frost better for PvP or PvE?
PvP — Frost is the premier arena Mage. For raiding, Fire and Arcane are stronger.