Mage Frost Talent Builds

For every mage out there you will find a different opinion on the effectiveness of the Frost tree versus the Fire and Arcane trees. There are countless builds plastered over every mage related forum. As with many aspects of World of Warcraft, the extent to which you delve into the Frost tree will be determined by the role you wish to play in the PvE or PvP arena. I hope to impart my experience with the Frost tree so that you can have a well thought out overview of how to initially spend your talent points.

With due respect to the exclusive Frost – Fire “Elementalist” fans, I find that a minimum of 11 talent points should be spent in the Arcane tree to be truly effective in PvP and PvE encounters. From personal raid experience, I believe the Clearcasting and Evocation talents are absolutely necessary talents in the endgame. This means that at least 11 points should be spent in the Arcane tree, just enough to get Evocation. If you wanted additional PvP flexibility, you could spend an additional 5 talent points in Instant Arcane Explosion and 2 talent points in Counterspell.

With the above in mind let me break down the Frost talents by Tier. I will progress in a linear fashion, walking you through point distribution as the points become available. I will discuss the talents and their effectiveness at the end of each Tier as well as make my recommendation as to where they should be spent.

Frost - Tier 1 (0 Talent Points Required)
Improved Frostbolt(0/5) - Reduces the casting time of your Frostbolt spell by 0.1 – 0.5 seconds.
Permafrost (0/5) - Increases the duration of your Chill effects by 1-3 seconds.

You will have 20 to 40 points to spend in the Frost talent tree depending upon the number of points spent in the Arcane tree. The first 5 points can be effectively spent in Improved Frostbolt, thereby unlocking Tier 2. Permafrost is a complimentary talent which may be useful if you have extra points later on. 5/5 points in Improved Frostbolt will shave off ½ a second on your Frostbolt casts. Tier 2 is now unlocked after spending 5 talent points.

Frost - Tier 2 (5 Talent Points Required)
Ice Shards (0/5) - Increases the critical strike damage bonus of your Frost spells by 20% per point.
Winter's Chill (0/3) - Increases the power of your Chill effects by slowing the target's movement by an additional 4%-12%.
Improved Frost Nova (0/2) - Reduces the cooldown of your Frost Nova spell by 2 - 4 seconds.

The next level has some very helpful talents, but many only be used if you have the extra talent points to spend later. At this time we only have to spend 5 points to open up the next tree. I recommend putting 5 talent points into Ice Shards since it directly relates to the maximum damage done and it will effectively double the damage you do when a critical strike hits. Tier 3 is now unlocked.

Frost - Tier 3 (10 Talent Points Required)
Piercing Ice (0/3) - Increases the damage done by your Frost spells by 2%.
Cold Snap (0/1) - When activated, this spell finishes the cooldown on all of your Frost spells.
Improved Blizzard (0/3) - Adds a chill effect to your Blizzard spell. This effect lowers the target's movement speed to 70%-30% of normal. Lasts 1.50 sec. (unless improved by Permafrost)

My next few points have always gone into Piercing Ice. The 3 talent points spent there will increase all Frost damage by 6%. For solo gameplay this is the best route as it increases your overall damage. I also spend 1 talent point in Cold Snap, the cooldown wiping can come in very handy in both PvE and PvP situations. The remaining point is best put in Frost Nova.

For a Frost Control build you would be better served to put 3 points into Improved Blizzard, Coldsnap and 1 point in Improved Frost Nova, Permafrost or Winter’s Chill. Such builds may be required by your guild for Nefarian and other AOE encounters where slowing and freezing massive numbers of NPCs is necessary. Now Tier 4 is unlocked.

Frost - Tier 4 (15 Talent Points Required)
Arctic Reach (0/2) - Increases the range of your Frostbolt spell and the radius of your Frost Nova and Cone of Cold spells by 10%.
Frost Channeling (0/3) Reduces the mana cost of your frost spells by 5%-15%.
Shatter (0/5) - Increases the critical strike chance of your Frost spells against frozen targets by 10%.
Improved Frost Ward (0/1) - 50% of the damage absorbed by your Frost Ward is to your mana.

Without hesitation I would throw 2 points in Arctic Reach and 3 points in Frost Channeling for all Frost builds. The range and mana conservation is invaluable. This unlocks the Tier 5 should you wish to explore deeper into the Frost tree and forgo the 31 point Arcane Power / Frost build.

For end-game raiding the 31 point Arcane Power / Frost build is very effective, efficient and downright fun for all encounters leading up to the BWL Nefarian encounter. However, the Nefarian encounter can make very good use of the crowd control talents of a properly talented Frost Mage so expect that a few mages will be asked to re-spec into 3/3 Blizzard, Permafrost and perhaps Winter’s Chill.

If you choose to go deeper into the Frost talent tree, read on Apprentice.

Frost - Tier 5 (20 Talent Points Required)
Ice Block (0/1) - You become encased in a block of ice, protecting you from all physical attacks and spells for 10 sec, but during that time you cannot attack, move or cast spells.
Improved Cone of Cold (0/3) - Increases the damage dealt by your Cone of Cold spell by 15%.

Out of the two Tier 5 talents the most effective and useful one is Ice Block. Since you have chosen to forgo the Arcane Power / Frost build by putting 21 points in Frost, where you go from here is very much open. Ice Block is instrumental in keeping mages up in high end raiding instances. The time you are invulnerable is just enough time for your healers to cast a quick heal and to shield you. It is also enough time for other classes to gain aggro if you were unfortunate enough to pull it.

For the solo build I would put 1 last point in Improved Frost Nova, 1 point in Ice Block and 3 points in Improved Cone of Cold. You’ll need to fill out the Improved Frost Nova talent to unlock Shatter and the Improved Cone of Cold will work in concert with Shatter as you spend your final points.

For a purely Ice Control build I recommend 1 point in Ice Block. The remaining 4 talent points I recommend putting into the lower level control talents, 1 last talent point in Improved Frost Nova and 3 talent points in Winter’s Chill. Tier 6 is unlocked.

Frost - Tier 6: (25 Talent Points Required)
Frostbite (0/5) - Gives your Chill effects a 3% chance to freeze the target for 5 sec.

At this point if you have 18 points in Arcane you will have 8 points left to spend.

For the solo build I would put 4 points into Shatter at this time. Shatter is very useful for close up AOE damage as it increases the critical strike potential for “frozen” targets. This means all your frozen NPCs will be subject to the Shatter effect when you use your Improved Cone of Cold blast. When used in conjunction with Cold Snap, a mage could hit innumerable frozen targets with two consecutive critical strikes, with each hit capable of 1000+ damage.

The final point which would unlock Tier 7 would be best put in Permafrost or Blizzard. Permafrost would be a good choice for increasing your chill effects by one second or Blizzard for increased movement reduction.

For an Ice Control build I recommend at least 1 point in Permafrost and you can divide the remaining 6 between Permafrost and Frostbite. I recommend 5 points in Permafrost over Frostbite because the Frostbite freezing effect could cause for uneven AOE kiting. Save the final point for Tier 7.

Frost - Tier 7: (30 Talent Points Required)
Ice Barrier (0/1) – Instantly shields you, and at the highest rank it will absorb up to 818 damage. Lasts 1 min. While the shield holds, spells will not be interrupted.

Place a point here when the tree unlocks. You’ll either have a few points left or none.

For the solo build 18 Arcane, 33 Frost, you will have 2 points left. You could realistically put those points anywhere. Depending upon where you want a little extra Frost versatility.