FrostMagen
Legend
should i get only haste gems or haste + intellect? or just intellect..for blue slots, what should i put?
Gems for frost mages?
- Thread starter FrostMagen
- Start date
Esotra
Legend
Ehh, mages.
I'd suggest trying out a mix of intellect, resilience, and haste.
I've found it helps having multiple sets of gear, a defensive/resilience set, an offensive set, and just swap pieces out depending on what you are doing.
Gearing/gemming is situational, the same set for arena may be lack-luster for battlegrounds, and a great battleground set in arena could result in being insta-gibbed in the arena.
Same does kinda go for all classes/specs, there really isn't one way to gem/enchant/gear.
I'd suggest trying out a mix of intellect, resilience, and haste.
I've found it helps having multiple sets of gear, a defensive/resilience set, an offensive set, and just swap pieces out depending on what you are doing.
Gearing/gemming is situational, the same set for arena may be lack-luster for battlegrounds, and a great battleground set in arena could result in being insta-gibbed in the arena.
Same does kinda go for all classes/specs, there really isn't one way to gem/enchant/gear.
Justhealme
OG
Unless you can reach specific haste caps for Deep Freeze, haste does nothing to increase your burst. Beyond that the only significant benefit provided by haste is faster polymorphs.
The caps are:
2 Frostbolt + 1 Ice Lance into a Deep Freeze: 10% haste
3 Frostbolt + 1 Ice Lance into a Deep Freeze: 50% haste
4 Frostbolt + 1 Ice Lance into a deep Freeze: 100% haste.
Needless to say, your items alone should give sufficient haste to reach the first cap without haste gems or cooldowns. The second ones are too high to realistically gem for (having 50% permanent haste would destroy all your other stats). An example I'll use is the Chardev I list for frost mages in the "How to gear your 70 for PVP" thread. It has 14.65% haste from gear and no haste gems. When it pops Skull of Gul'dan along with Icy Veins, this is increased to 51%, meaning it is at the haste cap for 3 Frostbolts. In order to reach 100% haste, you'll need Power Infusion, Herbalism and probably a decent amount of haste gems. It's up to you whether this is worth it.
Inexperienced mages who have a hard time getting casts off while being focused may prefer having high amounts of haste all the time, but in general, intellect is superior in every regard. Apart from increasing your burst potential via spell power, it also helps you reach the 28.33% crit cap and boosts your survivability by making Ice Barrier and Mana Shield stronger. The extra mana (and subsequently boosted Evocation / Mage Armor / Glyphed Frost Armor) means you can afford to use Mana Shield and Cone of Cold more often without running out of mana. There is also the fact that haste caps can be reached with cooldowns, and thus gemming for haste is generally not advisable.
For anyone wondering, yes - a mage at the 100% haste cap I listed will be able to Deep Freeze someone and cast 4 Frostbolts + 1 Ice Lance onto the target before Deep Freeze Ends. For a mage with 1300 spell power, this is approximately 35.000 damage before resilience, assuming no other buffs / debuffs on the target or the mage. If Brain Freeze procs, and that is highly likely after 4 Frostbolt Casts, the damage goes up a little since Frostfire Bolt hits harder than Ice Lance.
TL
R - Gem intellect or resilience.
The caps are:
2 Frostbolt + 1 Ice Lance into a Deep Freeze: 10% haste
3 Frostbolt + 1 Ice Lance into a Deep Freeze: 50% haste
4 Frostbolt + 1 Ice Lance into a deep Freeze: 100% haste.
Needless to say, your items alone should give sufficient haste to reach the first cap without haste gems or cooldowns. The second ones are too high to realistically gem for (having 50% permanent haste would destroy all your other stats). An example I'll use is the Chardev I list for frost mages in the "How to gear your 70 for PVP" thread. It has 14.65% haste from gear and no haste gems. When it pops Skull of Gul'dan along with Icy Veins, this is increased to 51%, meaning it is at the haste cap for 3 Frostbolts. In order to reach 100% haste, you'll need Power Infusion, Herbalism and probably a decent amount of haste gems. It's up to you whether this is worth it.
Inexperienced mages who have a hard time getting casts off while being focused may prefer having high amounts of haste all the time, but in general, intellect is superior in every regard. Apart from increasing your burst potential via spell power, it also helps you reach the 28.33% crit cap and boosts your survivability by making Ice Barrier and Mana Shield stronger. The extra mana (and subsequently boosted Evocation / Mage Armor / Glyphed Frost Armor) means you can afford to use Mana Shield and Cone of Cold more often without running out of mana. There is also the fact that haste caps can be reached with cooldowns, and thus gemming for haste is generally not advisable.
For anyone wondering, yes - a mage at the 100% haste cap I listed will be able to Deep Freeze someone and cast 4 Frostbolts + 1 Ice Lance onto the target before Deep Freeze Ends. For a mage with 1300 spell power, this is approximately 35.000 damage before resilience, assuming no other buffs / debuffs on the target or the mage. If Brain Freeze procs, and that is highly likely after 4 Frostbolt Casts, the damage goes up a little since Frostfire Bolt hits harder than Ice Lance.
TL
R - Gem intellect or resilience.