Fragments
Legend
Fragments' Guide to 64 Frost Mage Twinking
Last Updated in 4.2
Table of Contents:
1. Introduction
2. Gear, Gems, & Enchants
3. Professions
4. Talents & Glyphs
5. Races & Macros
6. Consumables
7. Tips
8. Conclusion
Why bother optimizing a 64 Frost Mage? Isn't it just freezing the opponent and spamming ice lance? What does it matter which stats are prioritized - won't you just win either way?
All of these are valid questions. However, optimized gear is much more important than it may appear to a level 60 twink. The fact is, this bracket is increasingly being overrun by 64s. And, many of these 64 twinks stand a good chance at beating Frost, especially various rogue builds. In these 1v1 battles, small differences in gear end up making big differences in the outcome. Sure, you can be viable using Auction-House-bought Grim Slippers of the Eagle. But, spending a little more time to get the Rocket Boots Extreme Lite will save you many deaths, as it's one of the only counters to a Garrote opening. Some fights can be won with just Water Elemental's Freeze followed by a few Ice Lances. For the rest, it's important to have every edge possible.
The interesting part about using Burning Crusade gear in the 60-64 bracket is the prominence of sockets. Because you can use epic Wrath gems in the low-level socketed items, pieces with sockets are almost always worth much, much more than pieces without sockets. Think of it like this: every socket, regardless of color, is just +20 intellect. Almost no non-socketed items will have the intellect needed to beat a socketed piece.
The following gear choices are almost always about maximizing damage, mainly due to the massive survivability that Frost already has. Ice Barrier is just ridiculous in this bracket, and a 64 Frost Mage has almost all of the CC of an 85. Simply put, Frost has so much CC and the other classes and specs have relatively few ways to break it. For that reason, it's almost always overkill to stack resilience and stamina.
Hit and Spell Penetration are not worth very much in this bracket, largely due to the fact that you are facing mostly level 60s. It's far better to stack Crit and Intellect. The following gear list is set according to a point of Crit being worth slightly more than half of a point of Int.
For every item with a socket, always use Brilliant Cardinal Ruby. Don't worry about the socket color or socket bonuses. Horde Mages may want to use one Stormy Majestic Zircon if there are many Dwarves (and to a lesser extent, Gnomes and Blood Elves) on the opposing team. Dwarves have a racial frost resistance, and Gnomes and Blood Elves have a racial arcane resistance, and the gem negates those. Items are ranked in terms of how good they are - BiS is the #1 item in each slot. I show many alternatives anyway, in case you are too lazy or unlucky to obtain the (often raiding-acquired) BiS.
The list does not include grandfathered Naxx gear or enchants.
Head:
1. Destruction Holo-Gogs
Meta Gem: Chaotic Skyflare Diamond
Enchant: Knothide Armor Kit
Comments: As you can guess, nothing comes remotely close to these. Don't look for alternatives - get these!
Neck:
1. Amulet of Vek'nilash
2. Choker of the Fire Lord
3. Luminous Pearls of Insight
4. Earthen Mark of Power
5. Sigil of Shaffar
Comments: 1&2 are very, very close - either one is fine.
Shoulder:
1. Terrorcloth Mantle
2. Tattered Dreadmist Mantle
Enchant: Inscription of the Orb
Cloak:
1. Cloak of the Devoured
2. Cloak of the Brood Lord
3. Spore-Soaked Vaneer
Enchant: Spell Piercing
Chest:
1. Auchenai Anchorite's Robe
2. Robes of the Augurer
3. Raiments of Divine Authority
4. Chemise of Rebirth
Enchant: Powerful Stats
Bracer:
1. Crocolisk Hide Bindings of the Invoker
2. Crocolisk Hide Bindings of Intellect
3. Burrower Bracers
4. Bracelets of Royal Redemption
Enchant: Superior Spellpower
Gloves:
1. Manaspark Gloves
Enchant: Exceptional Spellpower
Comments: For this and the next few socketed items, there really are no alternatives. Sockets are just that good.
Belt:
1. Mindfire Waistband
Legs:
1. Lifegiver Britches
2. Haramad's Leg Wraps
Enchant: Runic Spellthread or Golden Spellthread
Boots:
1. Rocket Boots Xtreme Lite
2. Ethereal Boots of the Skystrider
3. Boots of Epiphany
Enchant: Tuskarr's Vitality
Comments: Rocket Boots let you escape any fight. You'll die half as much using them.
Rings:
1. Ring of the Fallen God
2. Circlet of the Victor
3. Band of the Victor
4. Rittsyn's Ring of Chaos
5. Burning Blade Cultist Band
6. Farseer's Band or Sage's Band
Trinkets:
1. Mind Quickening Gem
2. Neltharion's Tear
3. Rejuvenating Gem
4. Ancient Crystal Talisman or Glowing Crystal Insignia
5. Vengeance of the Illidari
Gnomes Only: Sonic Booster
Gnomes Only: Noise Machine
X. The Burrower's Shell
X. Runed Fungalcap
X. Petrified Scarab
Comments: Wow, so many choices. A numerical ranking system doesn't work too well for these, for some trinkets are not very good by themselves but are good in combos. In general, MQG is amazing, except its long cooldown means that while it's on cooldown, you should switch out trinkets. BiS would be MQG + NT, and during the five minute cooldown, switch MQG for VotI or ACT. If you can't get MQG, then go for NT + ACT, switching out the on-use trinket for RG during its cooldown. No matter what you pick, the goal is to minimize time waiting for cooldowns. The 60-64 bracket has the luxury of being able to switch trinkets in the BG, as there aren't arenas or RBGs yet. Make good use of that luxury. The last three trinkets are just for flag running; if you decide to go for the flag, switch to any two of them.
Gnomes should always use MQG + NM, switching to NM + NT.
Wand:
1. Nesingwary Safari Stick
2. Wand of Qiraji Nobility
3. Voidfire Wand
Weapon:
1. Dignified Headmaster's Charge
2. Staff of the Shadow Flame
Enchant: Mighty Intellect
Comments: The heirloom is by far BiS. If you don't have an 85 main to help get it, you can still obtain the heirloom solely through PvP. Just convert your honor points that you earn to justice points, then spend 3500 justice points on the staff.
Unless you have something grandfathered, the best pair of professions is Herbalism + Engineering, with First Aid as well. Here's a list of each profession and the in-combat benefit you gain from it:
Alchemy: Mixology and Alchemist Stone
Blacksmithing: Greater Rune of Warding
Enchanting: Enchant Ring - Stats and Enchant Ring - Spellpower
Engineering: Frost Grenade, Gnomish Poultryizer, Goblin Rocket Launcher, Nigh-Invulnerability Belt, Destruction Holo-Gogs, Goblin Rocket Boots Xtreme Lite. Gnomes can obtain the following: Flexweave Underlay, Frag Belt, Noise Machine, Sonic Booster.
Inscription: Nothing.
Jewelcrafting: Nothing. Epic gems are now unobtainable for the 60-64 bracket.
Leatherworking: Drums of War
Tailoring: Frostweave Net
Skinning: +40 Crit
Mining: +60 Stamina
Herbalism: +240 Haste for 20 sec, every 2 minutes
First Aid: Frostweave Bandage
You'll notice that Herbalism averages out to +40 haste, on par with the Skinning bonus. However, due to the nature of PvP, much of the CD of Lifeblood occurs outside of combat, when running back from being dead or waiting for respawns or something. Because of that, the haste bonus comes out on top.
The following is the optimal talent and glyph setup: http://www.wowhead.c...Mshsdb:MmZqMZzm
Rationale for the taking or not taking the following (more debatable) talents:
Early Frost: Taken, because much like Lifeblood, much of the ICD will expire outside of combat. Almost every frostbolt you cast will benefit from the talent.
Piercing Chill: Not taken, as enemies are rarely grouped up enough for this to be significant, and the 2 points can be spent better elsewhere.
Permafrost: The healing and extra slow aren't amazing, but the MS effect is where the talent shines. However, roughly 3% per talent point is simply not enough to warrant choosing the talent over some of the others.
Enduring Winter: Not taken, mana should not be an issue.
Reactive Barrier, Shattered Barrier: Taken, because they are great against rogue insta-gib, which is by far Frost's greatest enemy. This stops Ambush openings, blink stops Cheap Shot openings, and Rocket Boots counter Garrote openings - between the three, you should be good on defense to rogue gibs.
As for Glyphs...
Glyph of Frostbolt and Glyph of Ice Lance are pretty self-explanatory.
Glyph of Ice Barrier is absolutely AMAZING.
I took Glyph of Evocation because it's not a good idea to rely on healers in this bracket, especially as a 64. The few healers that queue don't want to heal you. Evocation gives some HP regen outside of bandages.
Minor glyphs don't really matter.
The best Alliance race is Gnome, the best Horde race is Goblin. This order is just a loose guide as to the relative power of the races in this bracket, with the most important racials in parentheses. Note that all resistances scale directly with level, so they would be +64 of their particular resistance.
Alliance:
1. Gnome (Engineering bonus is just insane, not to mention Escape Artist, a mana pool increase, and Arcane Resistance)
2. Worgen (Darkflight, 1% Crit Chance, and a good Resist racial)
3. Human (Free PvP Trinket)
4. Draenei (Gift of the Naaru, 1% Hit Chance, and Shadow Resistance)
5. Dwarf (Stoneform, Frost Resistance)
6. Night Elf (Shadowmeld, Nature Resistance)
Horde:
1. Goblin (Rocket Jump/Barrage and 1% Haste)
2. Orc (Blood Fury, Stun duration reduction)
3. Troll (Berserking, Slow duration reduction)
4. Blood Elf (Arcane Resistance, Arcane Torrent is not as useful as you'd think due to the range requirement)
5. Forsaken (Will of the Forsaken, Shadow Resistance)
Some macros that I found useful:
Simple macro to have your pet attack your target, replace Frostbolt with any other nuke.
Stops whatever you're doing to Ice Block immediately.
Just like the above.
Counterspelling your focus target.
You should keep a healthy amount of the following on you at all times:
Frostweave Bandage
Super Healing Potion
Super Mana Potion
Free Action Potion
Living Action Potion
Fel Blossom
Swiftness Potion
Make sure to always have Mana Gems handy. Conjure a fresh three charges before each game, usually that will last you the whole battleground.
Mage food and water are not the best choices. For water, use the vendor-bought Filtered Draenic Water. The best food is buff food made by cooking. There are many choices if you only care about how much health it restores, but if you want a good Well Fed buff as well, choose either Crunchy Serpent, Blackened Basilisk, or Golden Fish Sticks.
Here are a few things that I've learned in my time in the 64 Bracket:
-Freeze and shatter. Freeze and shatter. Freeze and shatter.
-Every Prot Paladin ever will always open up with Avenger's Shield followed by a HoJ when the AS silence over. If the Paladin is alone, don't waste Blink on the HoJ. They're annoying, but their damage is pitiful and likely won't even break Ice Barrier.
-ALWAYS have Ice Barrier up, every time. You never know when you'll get Ambushed.
-Rocket Boots is a very powerful cooldown, don't waste it.
-Use Molten Armor in this bracket, you'll almost never get hit by melee with all of the CC that you have.
-If you see a Resto Druid or Shaman, feel lucky because it's pretty much a free kill, unless they are a properly-geared resilience-stacking 64.
-You can kill almost any level 60 in two Ice Lances with Fingers of Frost (i.e. after a Water Elemental Freeze). Sometimes it's not worth it to kill the healer if you can kill the DPS before a heal can go off. Sheep the healer instead.
-If you're ice blocked, don't blink away in the same direction that you're facing inside of the ice cube, but rather do a very quick turn (mouse-turn, NEVER keyboard turn).
-Cone of Cold is your friend - don't waste a Water Elemental Freeze if you could do the same with a Cone of Cold.
-Don't instantly assume that stun = blink out of it. If it's a short stun or a weak DPS, save your blink. Ice Barrier will protect you, don't worry.
-If you have a spare moment, buff yourself with Mana Shield and Mage Ward.
-A good opening against another mage is to polymorph. If it goes through, great. If they waste their Counterspell on the Arcane school, even better.
Playing a Frost Mage is great fun, and it's a solid investment as far as the bracket goes. Even if Frost gets nerfed, the same gear that works for Frost also works fine for Fire and Arcane. Plus, this is relatively easy and inexpensive to gear for the bracket; the only expensive thing is levelling Engineering, and that's only a few thousand gold. I highly recommend giving Frost a shot, it's the most fun I've had in a twink bracket - and I'm not even in full BiS yet!
-Fragments (US-Turalyon)
Last Updated in 4.2
Table of Contents:
1. Introduction
2. Gear, Gems, & Enchants
3. Professions
4. Talents & Glyphs
5. Races & Macros
6. Consumables
7. Tips
8. Conclusion
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
1. Introduction
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
1. Introduction
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Why bother optimizing a 64 Frost Mage? Isn't it just freezing the opponent and spamming ice lance? What does it matter which stats are prioritized - won't you just win either way?
All of these are valid questions. However, optimized gear is much more important than it may appear to a level 60 twink. The fact is, this bracket is increasingly being overrun by 64s. And, many of these 64 twinks stand a good chance at beating Frost, especially various rogue builds. In these 1v1 battles, small differences in gear end up making big differences in the outcome. Sure, you can be viable using Auction-House-bought Grim Slippers of the Eagle. But, spending a little more time to get the Rocket Boots Extreme Lite will save you many deaths, as it's one of the only counters to a Garrote opening. Some fights can be won with just Water Elemental's Freeze followed by a few Ice Lances. For the rest, it's important to have every edge possible.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
2. Gear, Gems, & Enchants
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
2. Gear, Gems, & Enchants
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
The interesting part about using Burning Crusade gear in the 60-64 bracket is the prominence of sockets. Because you can use epic Wrath gems in the low-level socketed items, pieces with sockets are almost always worth much, much more than pieces without sockets. Think of it like this: every socket, regardless of color, is just +20 intellect. Almost no non-socketed items will have the intellect needed to beat a socketed piece.
The following gear choices are almost always about maximizing damage, mainly due to the massive survivability that Frost already has. Ice Barrier is just ridiculous in this bracket, and a 64 Frost Mage has almost all of the CC of an 85. Simply put, Frost has so much CC and the other classes and specs have relatively few ways to break it. For that reason, it's almost always overkill to stack resilience and stamina.
Hit and Spell Penetration are not worth very much in this bracket, largely due to the fact that you are facing mostly level 60s. It's far better to stack Crit and Intellect. The following gear list is set according to a point of Crit being worth slightly more than half of a point of Int.
For every item with a socket, always use Brilliant Cardinal Ruby. Don't worry about the socket color or socket bonuses. Horde Mages may want to use one Stormy Majestic Zircon if there are many Dwarves (and to a lesser extent, Gnomes and Blood Elves) on the opposing team. Dwarves have a racial frost resistance, and Gnomes and Blood Elves have a racial arcane resistance, and the gem negates those. Items are ranked in terms of how good they are - BiS is the #1 item in each slot. I show many alternatives anyway, in case you are too lazy or unlucky to obtain the (often raiding-acquired) BiS.
The list does not include grandfathered Naxx gear or enchants.
Head:
1. Destruction Holo-Gogs
Meta Gem: Chaotic Skyflare Diamond
Enchant: Knothide Armor Kit
Comments: As you can guess, nothing comes remotely close to these. Don't look for alternatives - get these!
Neck:
1. Amulet of Vek'nilash
2. Choker of the Fire Lord
3. Luminous Pearls of Insight
4. Earthen Mark of Power
5. Sigil of Shaffar
Comments: 1&2 are very, very close - either one is fine.
Shoulder:
1. Terrorcloth Mantle
2. Tattered Dreadmist Mantle
Enchant: Inscription of the Orb
Cloak:
1. Cloak of the Devoured
2. Cloak of the Brood Lord
3. Spore-Soaked Vaneer
Enchant: Spell Piercing
Chest:
1. Auchenai Anchorite's Robe
2. Robes of the Augurer
3. Raiments of Divine Authority
4. Chemise of Rebirth
Enchant: Powerful Stats
Bracer:
1. Crocolisk Hide Bindings of the Invoker
2. Crocolisk Hide Bindings of Intellect
3. Burrower Bracers
4. Bracelets of Royal Redemption
Enchant: Superior Spellpower
Gloves:
1. Manaspark Gloves
Enchant: Exceptional Spellpower
Comments: For this and the next few socketed items, there really are no alternatives. Sockets are just that good.
Belt:
1. Mindfire Waistband
Legs:
1. Lifegiver Britches
2. Haramad's Leg Wraps
Enchant: Runic Spellthread or Golden Spellthread
Boots:
1. Rocket Boots Xtreme Lite
2. Ethereal Boots of the Skystrider
3. Boots of Epiphany
Enchant: Tuskarr's Vitality
Comments: Rocket Boots let you escape any fight. You'll die half as much using them.
Rings:
1. Ring of the Fallen God
2. Circlet of the Victor
3. Band of the Victor
4. Rittsyn's Ring of Chaos
5. Burning Blade Cultist Band
6. Farseer's Band or Sage's Band
Trinkets:
1. Mind Quickening Gem
2. Neltharion's Tear
3. Rejuvenating Gem
4. Ancient Crystal Talisman or Glowing Crystal Insignia
5. Vengeance of the Illidari
Gnomes Only: Sonic Booster
Gnomes Only: Noise Machine
X. The Burrower's Shell
X. Runed Fungalcap
X. Petrified Scarab
Comments: Wow, so many choices. A numerical ranking system doesn't work too well for these, for some trinkets are not very good by themselves but are good in combos. In general, MQG is amazing, except its long cooldown means that while it's on cooldown, you should switch out trinkets. BiS would be MQG + NT, and during the five minute cooldown, switch MQG for VotI or ACT. If you can't get MQG, then go for NT + ACT, switching out the on-use trinket for RG during its cooldown. No matter what you pick, the goal is to minimize time waiting for cooldowns. The 60-64 bracket has the luxury of being able to switch trinkets in the BG, as there aren't arenas or RBGs yet. Make good use of that luxury. The last three trinkets are just for flag running; if you decide to go for the flag, switch to any two of them.
Gnomes should always use MQG + NM, switching to NM + NT.
Wand:
1. Nesingwary Safari Stick
2. Wand of Qiraji Nobility
3. Voidfire Wand
Weapon:
1. Dignified Headmaster's Charge
2. Staff of the Shadow Flame
Enchant: Mighty Intellect
Comments: The heirloom is by far BiS. If you don't have an 85 main to help get it, you can still obtain the heirloom solely through PvP. Just convert your honor points that you earn to justice points, then spend 3500 justice points on the staff.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
3. Professions
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
3. Professions
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Unless you have something grandfathered, the best pair of professions is Herbalism + Engineering, with First Aid as well. Here's a list of each profession and the in-combat benefit you gain from it:
Alchemy: Mixology and Alchemist Stone
Blacksmithing: Greater Rune of Warding
Enchanting: Enchant Ring - Stats and Enchant Ring - Spellpower
Engineering: Frost Grenade, Gnomish Poultryizer, Goblin Rocket Launcher, Nigh-Invulnerability Belt, Destruction Holo-Gogs, Goblin Rocket Boots Xtreme Lite. Gnomes can obtain the following: Flexweave Underlay, Frag Belt, Noise Machine, Sonic Booster.
Inscription: Nothing.
Jewelcrafting: Nothing. Epic gems are now unobtainable for the 60-64 bracket.
Leatherworking: Drums of War
Tailoring: Frostweave Net
Skinning: +40 Crit
Mining: +60 Stamina
Herbalism: +240 Haste for 20 sec, every 2 minutes
First Aid: Frostweave Bandage
You'll notice that Herbalism averages out to +40 haste, on par with the Skinning bonus. However, due to the nature of PvP, much of the CD of Lifeblood occurs outside of combat, when running back from being dead or waiting for respawns or something. Because of that, the haste bonus comes out on top.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
4. Talents & Glyphs
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
4. Talents & Glyphs
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
The following is the optimal talent and glyph setup: http://www.wowhead.c...Mshsdb:MmZqMZzm
Rationale for the taking or not taking the following (more debatable) talents:
Early Frost: Taken, because much like Lifeblood, much of the ICD will expire outside of combat. Almost every frostbolt you cast will benefit from the talent.
Piercing Chill: Not taken, as enemies are rarely grouped up enough for this to be significant, and the 2 points can be spent better elsewhere.
Permafrost: The healing and extra slow aren't amazing, but the MS effect is where the talent shines. However, roughly 3% per talent point is simply not enough to warrant choosing the talent over some of the others.
Enduring Winter: Not taken, mana should not be an issue.
Reactive Barrier, Shattered Barrier: Taken, because they are great against rogue insta-gib, which is by far Frost's greatest enemy. This stops Ambush openings, blink stops Cheap Shot openings, and Rocket Boots counter Garrote openings - between the three, you should be good on defense to rogue gibs.
As for Glyphs...
Glyph of Frostbolt and Glyph of Ice Lance are pretty self-explanatory.
Glyph of Ice Barrier is absolutely AMAZING.
I took Glyph of Evocation because it's not a good idea to rely on healers in this bracket, especially as a 64. The few healers that queue don't want to heal you. Evocation gives some HP regen outside of bandages.
Minor glyphs don't really matter.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
5. Races & Macros
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
5. Races & Macros
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
The best Alliance race is Gnome, the best Horde race is Goblin. This order is just a loose guide as to the relative power of the races in this bracket, with the most important racials in parentheses. Note that all resistances scale directly with level, so they would be +64 of their particular resistance.
Alliance:
1. Gnome (Engineering bonus is just insane, not to mention Escape Artist, a mana pool increase, and Arcane Resistance)
2. Worgen (Darkflight, 1% Crit Chance, and a good Resist racial)
3. Human (Free PvP Trinket)
4. Draenei (Gift of the Naaru, 1% Hit Chance, and Shadow Resistance)
5. Dwarf (Stoneform, Frost Resistance)
6. Night Elf (Shadowmeld, Nature Resistance)
Horde:
1. Goblin (Rocket Jump/Barrage and 1% Haste)
2. Orc (Blood Fury, Stun duration reduction)
3. Troll (Berserking, Slow duration reduction)
4. Blood Elf (Arcane Resistance, Arcane Torrent is not as useful as you'd think due to the range requirement)
5. Forsaken (Will of the Forsaken, Shadow Resistance)
Some macros that I found useful:
Simple macro to have your pet attack your target, replace Frostbolt with any other nuke.
Stops whatever you're doing to Ice Block immediately.
Just like the above.
Counterspelling your focus target.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
6. Consumables
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
6. Consumables
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
You should keep a healthy amount of the following on you at all times:
Frostweave Bandage
Super Healing Potion
Super Mana Potion
Free Action Potion
Living Action Potion
Fel Blossom
Swiftness Potion
Make sure to always have Mana Gems handy. Conjure a fresh three charges before each game, usually that will last you the whole battleground.
Mage food and water are not the best choices. For water, use the vendor-bought Filtered Draenic Water. The best food is buff food made by cooking. There are many choices if you only care about how much health it restores, but if you want a good Well Fed buff as well, choose either Crunchy Serpent, Blackened Basilisk, or Golden Fish Sticks.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
7. Tips
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
7. Tips
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Here are a few things that I've learned in my time in the 64 Bracket:
-Freeze and shatter. Freeze and shatter. Freeze and shatter.
-Every Prot Paladin ever will always open up with Avenger's Shield followed by a HoJ when the AS silence over. If the Paladin is alone, don't waste Blink on the HoJ. They're annoying, but their damage is pitiful and likely won't even break Ice Barrier.
-ALWAYS have Ice Barrier up, every time. You never know when you'll get Ambushed.
-Rocket Boots is a very powerful cooldown, don't waste it.
-Use Molten Armor in this bracket, you'll almost never get hit by melee with all of the CC that you have.
-If you see a Resto Druid or Shaman, feel lucky because it's pretty much a free kill, unless they are a properly-geared resilience-stacking 64.
-You can kill almost any level 60 in two Ice Lances with Fingers of Frost (i.e. after a Water Elemental Freeze). Sometimes it's not worth it to kill the healer if you can kill the DPS before a heal can go off. Sheep the healer instead.
-If you're ice blocked, don't blink away in the same direction that you're facing inside of the ice cube, but rather do a very quick turn (mouse-turn, NEVER keyboard turn).
-Cone of Cold is your friend - don't waste a Water Elemental Freeze if you could do the same with a Cone of Cold.
-Don't instantly assume that stun = blink out of it. If it's a short stun or a weak DPS, save your blink. Ice Barrier will protect you, don't worry.
-If you have a spare moment, buff yourself with Mana Shield and Mage Ward.
-A good opening against another mage is to polymorph. If it goes through, great. If they waste their Counterspell on the Arcane school, even better.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
8. Conclusion
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
8. Conclusion
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Playing a Frost Mage is great fun, and it's a solid investment as far as the bracket goes. Even if Frost gets nerfed, the same gear that works for Frost also works fine for Fire and Arcane. Plus, this is relatively easy and inexpensive to gear for the bracket; the only expensive thing is levelling Engineering, and that's only a few thousand gold. I highly recommend giving Frost a shot, it's the most fun I've had in a twink bracket - and I'm not even in full BiS yet!
-Fragments (US-Turalyon)
