Saturday, December 17, 2011

MoP feedback post, part 2.

I'm a bit late on this one, but I did write up a feedback post for the second revision of the talent calculator for Mists of Pandaria. This one still deals mostly with Frost, but I did give some opinion on the actual talent tree this time, as well.

This one is generating a (very small) amount of discussion, so it looks like I'm finally getting the ball rolling! You can find the post here: http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/3764466623

And, below is a transcript of my post.

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I have already posted once previously about my concerns with Frost Mage when the first talent calculator was released: http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/3595575292


Now, I am posting again, obviously, to ask about some of my new concerns - both pertaining to Frost spec and to Mages in general.


A. About Frost...

I see that Fingers of Frost was added back into the talents; thank goodness, as this is sort of the key to making the spec fun.

However, what worries me now is the wording on Fingers of Frost: "Your freezing effects that fail due to target immunity now grant the Fingers of Frost effect." I don't think this is a good idea. The wording is a bit vague; however, I foresee two problems with this, based on the two different interpretations I can think of:


1. "Freezing Effects" means chilling/movement slowing effects related to Frost spells.

This would be really lame, since FoF seems to have a 100% proc rate. Our rotation would come down to (Something-Ice Lance-Something-Ice Lance) ad infinitum. If "Freezing Effects" really refers to Frost-related movement slows, it would be much more fun with a percentage chance to proc.


2. FoF truly doesn't proc unless you fail to Freeze something.

This means that the only way to proc FoF is to try and Freeze the target. For starters, the only spell in our spellbook that actually Freezes targets is Frost Nova, which I'd rather not use as an integral part of my DPS rotation - why even be RDPS if we have to get into melee range? Now, to be fair, I'm aware that the Water Elemental likely still has Freeze; but, I still think this takes a huge part of the fun out of playing Frost Mage.

I saw in a blue post "Seeing the forest for the talent trees", a short section about picking classes based on flavor, and Mages were specifically addressed:

"There will still be some utility in the various specs, but less than we have today. You should pick a spec because you like the rotation or the kit. Fire is about crit, Hot Streak, and Ignite. Frost is about Shatter combos and the Water Elemental. Arcane is about mana management and clearing Arcane Blast stacks."

For what it's worth, I don't believe that either of these are technically what make Frost fun. The Water Elemental could be all-but removed if the Freeze ability was given to us and was off the GCD. Water Elemental doesn't have the variety and versatility of Hunter/Warlock pets (a given, since we only have one pet), and it doesn't even have the types of utility spells granted by Enhancement Shaman's Spirit Wolves. Water Elemental is just free FoF procs every 25 seconds.

I also disagree about Shatter making Frost fun. It's not like, "Woo, I got some ballin' crits, rock on Frost!" (cue Joe Satriani's Summer Song) If Shatter weren't in the game, right now, Frost would still be fun - even if their DPS would be terrible without it - because Frost's fun comes from intelligently making split-second decisions on how to spend or conserve incoming procs of FoF+BF.

Thus, if Pet Freeze were really the only way to get FoF procs, there wouldn't be any randomness, and no need to make any quick decisions. We already know exactly when we're gonna get FoF - every 25 seconds! And, since Brain Freeze doesn't appear to be affected by FoF, and Deep Freeze doesn't appear to do damage anymore (I'm aware that it might still deal damage, and it just isn't reflected in the tooltip; but, just in case...), there's also no necessary decisions to conserve procs anymore, either. Got FoF? Use an Ice Lance, right now. Got BF? Use a Frostfire Bolt, right now.

I'm aware that there are additional talents available in the Level 45 Tier which Freeze targets; however, having FoF always come from a Freezing spell means that FoF essentially has a cooldown, and making it absolutely predictable when we're going to get FoF charges is the exact opposite of what makes Frost fun right now, in my opinion. Not to mention, this would essentially force us to spec for Ice Ward all the time. This seems to contradict the reasons for changing the talent system in the first place, as this definitely isn't a choice; as it stands, if there's a Freezing spell anywhere in the talent tree, we're likely to get it unless it requires melee range (and maybe even then; who knows?).

If the argument would be made that this is less important now, what with all of Frost's new spells...I disagree. Simply having more cooldowns to use is not fun, unless they are somehow meaningful. Right now, every spell in Frost's rotation has meaning. What place do Frozen Orb (which doesn't proc FoF) and Frost Bomb have in our spec right now? They don't generate FoF procs, and since raid bosses can virtually never be Frozen, they'll never benefit from Shatter, anyways. They are not fun based on my perspective of what makes Frost fun, nor is it based on Ghostcrawler's! They're nothing more than additional cooldowns based on spells from another spec, serving only to homogenize all three (although I can at least see why Arcane Orb/Bomb are attractive, since you can increase their damage with Arcane Blast).

3. Frost Bomb

Will Frost Bomb even be better than Living Bomb for Frost? The damage is 1/4th of Living/Arcane Bomb's damage, and Living Bomb can be cast on three targets at once. That means we need four targets to Living Bomb's one target to do comparable damage with it. I realize this can combo with Shatter, but does that mean that Frost Bomb is going to suck without having a Freeze ready? Are we going to have to pull the reins on our single target DPS to do more AoE? Also, it's not unreasonable in AoE situations to have adds that could die in five seconds. Ten seconds, easily. That means we'd probably only get off one Frost Bomb, and maybe even zero if we're unlucky. Living Bomb just sounds more reliable and easier to use without having to curtail our DPS.

4. And now for something completely different:

Icy Veins. Still not a DPS cooldown that rewards us for playing the spec "properly", a la Combustion and Arcane Power. Any thoughts on changing this?

Those are my Frost-specific concerns. But, now...


B. Meaningful Decisions:

In a Mists of Pandaria FAQ that came out during Blizzcon, this was the reason given for the talent system overhaul:

"As with the talent-system redesign in Cataclysm, our goal is ultimately to give players more meaningful character-customization options and to eliminate “cookie-cutter” talent builds. We were only partially successful in realizing that goal in Cataclysm, as many talents still felt mandatory to a given specialization, and some talent choices in the trees were still not particularly interesting or exciting. By giving the benefits of the previously “mandatory” talents to players automatically as part of their specialization choice, and allowing any specialization to choose any given talent, we hope to be able to give players much more significant and interesting decisions to make about their character."

Right now, I still feel like there's some no-brainer decisions in our current talent tree. Let's go over it real quick:

Level 15: No problems. Heavy movement makes Scorch attractive, and low movement makes Presence of Mind attractive. Ice Flows is somewhere in-between the two.

Level 30: No problems. I honestly can think of a lot of fights this expansion where I would have taken Blazing Speed over Mana Shield or Ice Barrier (Atramedes, Ascendent Council, Al'Akir, Ragnaros, Blackhorn), so I'm not really sure why people don't like this option here. Mana Shield has its uses in PvP, but could possibly be made more attractive for PvE - maybe roll in the Incanter's Absorption talent as part of its ability?

Level 45: My main problem here is that Frost PvE is pretty much locked to Ice Ward. The argument could be made that Frostjaw gives us an additional interrupt; but, if we're going to sacrifice DPS for an interrupt (that is, getting 1 FoF charge instead of potentially getting 2, not 'wasting' a global where I could be doing damage), I'm pretty sure the rest of the raid can pick up my "second" interrupt after Counterspell. Otherwise, I can see this tier is being an interesting one for Fire and Arcane.

Level 60: No problems. Greater Invisibility sounds great, and Invisibility was really strong on certain fights (Atramedes if you were running during air phase, Chimaeron P2). Cold Snap's mana regen makes it sound pretty sexy, not to mention I won't have to use it at the start of a fight as Frost - maybe now I can actually use two Ice Blocks! Cauterize is obviously good, and I don't think it's quite the no-brainer that other people do. You can't use Cauterize as a crutch, since it has a 2 minute internal cooldown (that's maybe three times in a raid boss?). And, if a Mage is banking that hard on Cauterize, there might be a bigger underlying problem.

Level 75: I've never thought that Heavy Polymorph was interesting, even in Arcane. I know no Arcane Mages who ever pick it up in PvE, and people who trinket out of Polymorph in PvP aren't affected by the stun. Looking at it that way, we'd need to cast two Polymorphs in PvP, giving us a ranged stun with a 3.4 second base cast. Maybe other people feel differently; but, I've never found anything useful or fun about this talent.

Level 90: I don't see any meaningful decision to be made here at all. I can't imagine an Arcane Mage ever picking up Living Bomb or Frost Bomb when they could be doing more damage with Arcane Bomb. The same is true for Fire; why get a "Bomb" that doesn't synergize with our spec?

I also am not convinced anyone would take Frost Bomb - not even a Frost Mage, either, for the reasons I stated earlier. I don't believe that anyone who PvPs would use Frost Bomb, either. It's an extremely delayed movement slow, and I would be willing to bet that it's more trouble than it's worth to try and plan your battle strategy around getting in range to be hit with spells/Charged/Death Gripped/Shadow Stepped/Wolf Stunned/etc. and waiting four seconds. For a movement slow.

Thursday, November 24, 2011

Mists of Pandaria feedback post.

Blizzard recently released their early version of the talent calculator for 5.0, as well as projected spell trees for each class and spec. Their intended purpose is to get feedback and make changes accordingly. Since I'm like, the only Frost Mage on Earth, I felt the need to make a feedback post on Frost myself, after looking at the new changes.

I've included a transcript of the post below. However, you can follow the thread here: http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/3595575292

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Looking at the talent trees for Mage, I can see the clear idea behind the Fire and Arcane specs, which look similar to how they are right now:

- Fire has to manage their DoTs. They are clearly rewarded for keeping track of their DoTs, as it allows them to do unparalleled AoE damage, and their main DPS cooldown is also a DoT spell that scales in effectiveness based on whether they're playing the class 'correctly' or not (although having Ignite replace Mastery and as a completely static passive ability may trivialize this a bit).

- Arcane has to manage their mana and their Arcane Blast stacks. All Arcane spells deal increased damage based on AB stacks, but the stacks also fall off after a while, so Arcane Blast needs to be refreshed - not spammed - to keep mana high and damage up. Their DPS cooldown plays to this by increasing the damage of spells while increasing the mana cost. It, too, rewards the Arcane Mage for playing the class by its intended design (although I can Arcane Missiles circumventing intelligent use of AP in its current state).

...So, Frost.

As someone who actually raids in Frost, I've always thought that the philosophy behind Frost was proc management - Fingers of Frost and Brain Freeze can proc quickly and instantly. The number of charges for FoF and BF that a Mage can hold is finite. Also, what a Frost Mage does when they have 1FoF, 2FoF, FoF+BF, whether or not Deep Freeze is off cooldown, etc. is drastically different. Thus, the spec is rewarded for making intelligent decisions on how, where, and when to spend the procs in the QUICKEST amount of time possible - any time we gain a FoF/BF charge when we have the maximum amount is a DPS loss.

Looking at the new spec abilities and talent trees, it appears that I was either wrong about this being the intended design for Frost. DPS between specs are supposed to be more balanced with the new talent trees since they don't get increased survivability/CC options, right? Well, what exactly IS the Frost Mage's design philosophy? I can't figure it out.

Here's what we've got for unique spells:

1. Frostbolt: This doesn't even look attractive. It does less damage than Fireball, has the same base cast time, and costs more mana. Fireball can at least proc Ignite. Arcane Blast increases the damage of every Arcane spell, making its relevance pretty obvious. How is the movement slow for Frostbolt supposed to be equal to these?

2. Summon Water Elemental: This is the big wildcard in the spec. Maybe the Water Elemental is completely revamped, with a variety of cool new options that will make everything clear. ...If not, though, then the only thing it brings to the table is an additional way to freeze an opponent (and not even give us free FoF charges, which is currently the most important aspect of the Water Elemental).

3. Brain Freeze: Whee, an instant cast spell sometimes.

4. Icy Veins: Unlike Fire and Arcane's DPS cooldowns, which reward the class for playing smart, Icy Veins is...haste. Oh, and pushback negation...when we can already reduce it by 70% with a passive. This has always been boring, and I was really hoping that 5.0 would see Icy Veins become a cooldown which increased the rate of FoF/BF procs. Now, that seems less likely than ever.

5. Frost Orb: A GCD for additional damage, with a movement slow. Arcane Orb is obviously better since it benefits from AB, and Flame Orb at least explodes. What gives?

6. Mastery (Frostburn): Since this only increases the damage against Frozen targets, I don't see this being relevant in PvE at all unless Fingers of Frost exists in some form unseen in the spell tree.

The only explanations (except one) that I can see for the state of Frost spec also have flaws:

1. Water Ele has crazy, ballin' abilities we've never seen before

- Yeah, this could potentially be the thing that explains it all. We'll see.

2. Water Ele doesn't have anything new, and its additional damage keeps Frost competitive

and

2.1 Chilled (slowed) targets are counted as 'Frozen', and thus effected by Frostburn

- Both of these would still leave the spec in a boring state. If Frost is really competitive in this way, who would play Fire and Arcane? You could deal comparable damage with "1 1 1 1 Brain Freeze 1 1 1 1 Frost Orb 1 1 1 1 Icy Veins".

3. Frost Mages are expected to freeze bosses/adds in raids

- If raid bosses be snared with these kinds of spells, it will either be knocked off too quickly by incoming damage from other sources, or hold the boss in place for long amounts of time, causing potential problems with tank positioning (I could imagine a variety of potential wipes due to this).

Even if this were the case, Frost apparently only has one ability that freezes targets in place - Frost Nova. Pet Freeze may exist, that's true. This means that for optimal DPS, we'd have to rely on Ice Warding the tank for AoE and Frostjaw for single target. I don't think this could be right, though, since the talents are supposed to be for flavor and utility, without there being any "must-have" talents for a spec.


I apologize if I come off sounding overly negative - I'm just disappointed to see that Frost Mage might wind up being worse than before, become boring, or both. I really wanted to speak up and find out what's going on...and, if these things really were overlooked, I wanted to bring them to light. I mean, there's only like two Frost Mages in WoW, right? So if I don't, what are the odds that the other Frostie was ever going to speak up?

Saturday, November 19, 2011

Frostylosophy - Every last consideration I make when DPS'ing in Frost.

Me and Corv are planning a new add-on. Now that he's done with IceCap - an add-on which helps Frosties determine their crit-cap at any time - we are thinking about a new add-on for Frost Mages, which we hope to make into the CombustionHelper or MageManaBar equivalent for Frost.

We've got plenty of ideas scribbled out; but, more importantly, Corv asked me to type out...well, essentially every last thought I have about how to maximize damage in Frost PvE. I doubt that every piece of info I wrote will be relevant to the add-on (the AoE stuff in particular, I'm not really sure if an add-on is necessary for), but it's definitely got us narrowing down what information is most important to track.. If you're a Mage, read it, weigh in, and tell all your Mage friends to weigh in, too!



A: Single Target


Your Single-Target Spells: Frostbolt, Ice Lance, Deep Freeze, Frostfire Bolt, Frostfire Orb (Flame Orb), Freeze (Pet Ability)


Rotation:


1, Frostfire Orb on CD

1.1. Initiate Pet Attack manually, and remember to do so every time your previous target dies.

2. Deep Freeze on CD

3. Frostfire Bolt (see conditions for more info)

4. Ice Lance (see conditions for more info)

5. Freeze (see conditions for more info)

6. Frostbolt; at least once every 15 seconds, when Early Frost procs.



Single Target Conditions & Wisdom:

1. Use Frostbolt if:

- You have no charges of Fingers of Frost or Brain Freeze, and Freeze is on cooldown.
- Early Frost is up and you do not have Brain Freeze + Fingers of Frost.
- Early Frost is up, Frostfire Orb is active, and you have no charges of anything.

- Wisdom: Glyph for Frostbolt. You'll be casting it a lot, and you should do as much damage as possible with it.
- Wisdom: Use up your Early Frost proc as soon as possible; at normal levels of Haste for a Frost Mage, it will reduce the cast time by roughly 1/3, meaning one additional Frostbolt per minute.


2. Use Freeze (Pet Ability) if:

- You have no Fingers of Frost Procs
- Frostfire Orb is not active
- Or, during the GCD of Frostfire Orb.
- Pet Freeze can be cast during a long cast, or during a GCD; thus, you should always do so. It's best when used during a proc-based GCD (Ice Lance, Deep Freeze, Frostfire Bolt) which has no chance of proccing Fingers of Frost.

- Wisdom: If you don't trust yourself to manage procs properly, You can use Pet Freeze as a cooldown by using it just before Deep Freeze comes off of cooldown.

Freeze CD: 25 Seconds.

- "Why is Freeze so far down in the rotation?" Yes, a lot of rotations put this near the top; however, Deep Freeze, FFB, and Ice Lance are only cast under the assumption that you have at least Fingers of Frost charge, except in special circumstances. Thus, if you have any FoF charges, Freeze goes to the bottom of the priority queue. If you have no FoF charges, Pet Freeze jumps up to the top, just behind Pet attack. Thus, your boss fights will usually begin with FFOrb, and you'll start Pet Attack and cast Pet Freeze before FFO's GCD is up. If you are switching targets mid fight and Freeze is coming off cooldown, it jumps just ahead of Pet Attack.


3. Use Ice Lance if:

- YOU DO NOT HAVE BRAIN FREEZE. <--- This applies to all conditions.
- You have two (2) Fingers of Frost charges.
- You have any number of Fingers of Frost Charges, and Freeze is about to come off cooldown.
- You have one (1) Fingers of Frost charge, Deep Freeze is on CD, and...
- You need to move.
- The fight is about to end
- You have two Frostfire Orbs out, and don't trust yourself to react to gaining the second charge quickly enough.
- Your Deep Freeze stunned the target.

- Wisdom: Don't Glyph for Ice Lance unless you didn't spec for Ignite.
- Bonus Wisdom: Spec for Ignite.
- Wisdom: If you need to move and Deep Freeze is on CD, try to only move when you have a Fingers of Frost proc. If you absolutely have to move without it...cast Fire Blast first.
- Wisdom: ...Try really hard not to let the last two conditions for casting Ice Lance occur.


4. Use Frostfire Bolt if:

- YOU HAVE BRAIN FREEZE. <--- This applies to all conditions.
- You have two (2) Fingers of Frost charges.
- You have one (1) Fingers of Frost charge, and Deep Freeze is not about to come off CD.
- You have no (0) Fingers of Frost charges, and have held Brain Freeze through several casts.
- You have to move.

- Wisdom: Glyph for Frostfire Bolt. Not only does it increase the damage by a ton, but it removes the Chill effect, preventing it from proccing Fingers of Frost just before a Pet Freeze.
- Wisdom: "Several casts" is awfully subjective, and you should try and get a feel for how long you can hold onto a charge of Brain Freeze before proccing another. I personally like to wait until there's been roughly a 50% chance to proc before throwing FFB without FoF. You have a 49% chance to proc BF after four casts. With 4t12, you have a 51% chance to proc after two casts. The most important thing is not to waste a Brain Freeze proc; it's free damage, instant-cast, and can still proc Ignite.
- Wisdom: If you need to move, try only to move when you have a Brain Freeze proc. When moving, of course, Deep Freeze takes precedence over BF+FoF. If you absolutely have to move without any procs...again, use Fire Blast.


5. Use Deep Freeze if:

- It is off cooldown, immediately, as quick as possible.

- Wisdom: If Deep Freeze is about to come off cooldown, you may wish to save one (1) charge of Fingers of Frost. This sounds cut and dry, but becomes more complicated when Deep Freeze is about to come off cooldown with BF+FoF. Get a feel for how often your Fingers of Frost will proc, so that you can find a comfortable 'waiting time' for holding your procs. For example, I personally choose five seconds before CD. At this time, no matter what, I will not use a Brain Freeze proc with only one charge of Fingers of Frost. The only exceptions are:
- Pet Freeze will come off cooldown during/within a few seconds of your personal time frame.
- Frostfire Orb will come off cooldown during/within a few seconds of your personal time frame.


6. Use Frostfire Orb if:

- It is off cooldown, with some considerations:
- Do not use it on an add that's about to die; try throwing it at something that's going to live long.
- Do not use it on a target that's moving or likely to move in the next 15-20 seconds.
- Be sure there are no obstructions in the path you're planning to throw it in.

- Wisdom: ...Naturally, you should talent to make this the Frostfire Orb. I figure that's a given, but hey! If you are wondering why, it's because Flame Orb can't proc Fingers of Frost/Brain Freeze.
- Wisdom: If you have trouble keeping up with your procs, it can be useful to get rid of your FoF/BF procs before using Frostfire Orb. In any case, I personally never throw FFO with two (2) charges of Fingers of Frost, or if I have a Brain Freeze proc, as it's entirely possible to proc a charge before the GCD is finished.
- Wisdom: As noted above, do not try using Pet Freeze during Frostfire Orb. You may risk it if you can get rid of all your procs and do not have Early Frost ready; however, there's always a fair risk of having a wasted FoF proc, so be careful.



B. AoE Spells: Blizzard, Cone of Cold, Freeze (Pet Ability), Flamestike


I. Cone of Cold rotation (6-8 adds):

1. Frostfire Orb on CD

1.1. Initiate Pet Attack manually, and remember to do so every time your previous target dies.

1.2. (Cone of Cold)

2. Deep Freeze on CD

2.1 (Cone of Cold)

3. Frostfire Bolt

3.1. (Cone of Cold)

4. Ice Lance

4.1 (Cone of Cold)

5. Freeze

6. Frostbolt; at least once every 15 seconds, when Early Frost procs.



Conditions & Wisdom:

1. General:

Yes, this is the single-target rotation with Cone of Cold built in. Since Cone of Cold is an eight-second cooldown, you can't spam it, and if you don't have over eight (8) adds, I wouldn't reccomend using Blizzard. Thus, the ideal is to use Cone of Cold at certain points in your single-target rotation while focusing the most resilient add. You probably won't use Cone of Cold more than twice until there are too few adds to bother keeping it in your rotation. At that point, remove it from the rotation and ignore all conditions listed below in favor of the conditions and wisdom of the single-target rotation.


2. When to use Cone of Cold?

The reality of the situation is, all of your non-Frostbolt spells are probably going to do more damage than Cone of Cold. Thus, your single-target abilities take precedence. Thus:

- If you have Deep Freeze ready, use Deep Freeze before Cone of Cold; Cone of Cold is placed at 2.1 in the above rotation.
- If you have BF+FoF, use Frostfire Bolt before Cone of Cold; Cone of Cold is placed at 3.1 in the above rotation.
- If you have any Fingers of Frost charges (but without Brain Freeze), use Ice Lance before Cone of Cold; Cone of Cold is placed at 4.1 in the above rotation.
- Finally, assuming Pet Freeze is on cooldown and you have no procs at all, Cone of Cole is placed at 1.2 in the above rotation.


3. What about Freeze?

- Remember that Cone of Cold has a chill effect and can proc Fingers of Frost/Brain Freeze. So, if you have no procs available, cast Cone of Cold, get rid of any procs generated by Cone of Cold, then cast Freeze during one of your GCDs.



II. Blizzard Rotation (9+ Adds, short-to-moderate length pull)

1. Blizzard

1.1 Freeze, during Blizzard

1.2 Pet Attack (see conditions for more info)

2.x. Deep Freeze/Frostfire Bolt/Ice Lance (see conditions for more info)



Conditions & Wisdom:


1. "Freeze doesn't do much damage..."

There's two big reasons you want to use Freeze:

- If you are trying to AoE adds with no aggro table, you are going to need to root them in place; hence, Freeze is absolutely important.
- Even if you aren't fighting adds with no aggro table, your Mastery - Frostburn - will increase the damage done against Frozen Targets, and the talent "Shatter" multiplies your Critical Strike chance against Frozen targets. Thus, Freeze gives your Blizzard bonus damage and a huge bonus to Crit chance.


2. Controlling your pet

This might be a result of my being horrible at moving my pet; however, I find that it's incredibly difficult at times to be able to use Freeze in AoE situations if my Pet is going nuts on something. Thus, I tend to place my Pet on passive just before an AoE Rotation, allowing him to move closer to me. Once I cast Freeze, I can resume attacking something. If there's a main enemy that won't die to the AoE (i.e Ragnaros phase 2), have the pet attack that enemy. Otherwise, be ready to switch targets a lot.


3. I got SO much procs right now!

Naturally, using Pet Freeze will get you max Fingers of Frost charges. Your Blizzard, too, has a chance to proc Fingers of Frost AND Brain Freeze. When your Blizzard is almost done channeling, Feel Free to fire some of your procs off if there's a main enemy to focus. If there is no extra-special add, don't worry about throwing off your procs until some of the adds start dying, and you need to switch to the Cone of Cold rotation.



III. Flamestrike Rotation (9+ Adds, no main enemy, long pulls)

1. Flamestrike

2. Blizzard

2.1 Freeze, during Blizzard

1.2 Pet Attack



Conditions & Wisdom:


1. General

This rotation theoretically does more AoE damage than if you were to simply cast Blizzard; however, the damage increase is very, very small, and it requires a pretty specific set of conditions to be optimal:

- There's no main enemy that would necessitate dumping your procs, as Flamestrike requires constant, immediate refreshing for this rotation to be superior.
- The pull is extremely long, with no kiting or possibility for the adds to be moved at all, since this rotation has a bit of a ramp-up and is completely ruined if the adds have to be moved.

Yes, I suppose if these conditions could be met, this rotation would be the highest-damage AoE rotation that Frost could do. ...However, I don't think I've ever found a pull like this yet.



C. Cooldowns:


Your Cooldowns as Frost (profession Cooldowns excluded):

- Icy Veins (Haste, pushback)

- Mirror Image (Pure DPS)

- Cold Snap (Resets CD of Deep Freeze, Frostfire Orb, Icy Veins, Water Elemental, Ice Block)


1. Conditions & Wisdom: Icy Veins


There honestly isn't much to know about Icy Veins. It grants haste, reduces all pushback from oncoming attacks, and its cooldown can be reset by Cold Snap. The cooldown is 2:24...if you'd rather think of it that way than 2.4 Minutes...Naturally, you want to use it on cooldown, barring spots where you know you'll have to AoE (it's true that your AoE spells cast faster...but, the damage increase is not going to be as great). Since Cold Snap can reset the cooldown, you'll want to reset it after it was used recently.


2. Conditions & Wisdom: Mirror Image

There kind of aren't any special conditions. Use it on cooldown, make sure you're close enough to hit some stuff. The only thing I might advise is, if you are running low on mana, you might use some mana cooldowns first, as their max mana upon summoning is based on the remaining percentage of mana you have left. The chance of them OOM'ing in Frost is relatively low compared to, say, Arcane; but, don't risk wasting a cooldown.


3. Conditions & Wisdom: Cold Snap

The cooldown is 6:24, so the chances that you'll use it twice are pretty slim on anything but raid bosses. However, you do want to use it at the beginning of the fight. The exact sequence I use at the beginning of a fight is:

- Frostbolt (x2? x3?)
- Freeze
- Deep Freeze
- Frostfire Orb
- Icy Veins
- Cold Snap
- Deep Freeze
- Frostfire Orb

I may begin with more than one Frostbolt if I'm feeling unlucky, as this sequence nets extremely high burst damage and generates a ton of threat. After this is done, use your single target rotation as normal until Icy Veins runs out; then, cast Mirror Image and use Icy Veins again.

If Cold Snap comes off cooldown before the end of the fight, make sure that none of your affected spells are about to come off cooldown. If they have all been used recently or still have over half their cooldown left, that would be a good time to use Cold Snap midfight.



IV: Miscellaneous

1. Crit Debuff - Critical Mass, Shadow and Flame

These are raid debuffs caused by Fire Mages and Warlocks respectively. They increase a target's chance to be critically hit by 5%, and is vital to your single target rotation spells having a 100% chance to crit. Do your best to ensure that you're paired up with the Fire Mage/Warlock in your raid group, as it can have a pretty large effect on your DPS.


2. Fire Blast in Frost?

If you have to move with no procs of Fingers of Frost or Brain Freeze, can't use Frostfire Orb, Pet Freeze is on cooldown, and you don't need to refresh Ice Barrier, Mage Ward, or Mirror Image, Water Elemental, you don't need to remove any curses, CC/Spellsteal/Interrupt anything, aren't being counted on at that exact moment to cast Time Warp, you don't need to refresh a recently B-Rezzed raid member's Arcane Brilliance or aid anyone with Slow Fall, you don't need to cast Blink, Ice Block or Invisibility to avoid certain death, and there aren't a few adds within close range for you to try and scrape up some procs with Cone of Cold...when you truly have nothing else of value to do with a GCD...

...I would recommend casting Fire Blast over Ice Lance with no Fingers of Frost procs. It does about the same damage as Ice Lance, and can proc Ignite. If you have already cast Fire Blast on the move, still need to move out of danger and still don't need to do ANY of the above-mentioned actions, THEN cast Ice Lance with no Fingers of Frost procs.

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Tier 13 set bonus for Frost.

EDIT: Links now fixed because my guildmate, Corv, is a genius. P.S: Get a blog, Corv.

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I'm going to assume - however dangerously - that anyone into WoW enough to read a blog about it has also been keeping current with WoW-related news. Specifically, the Tier 13 set bonuses have been announced.


2P -- Your damaging spells have a 30% chance to grant Stolen Time, increasing your haste rating by 50 for 30 sec and stacking up to 10 times. When Arcane Power, Combustion, or Icy Veins expires, all stacks of Stolen Time are lost.
4P -- Each stack of Stolen Time also reduces the cooldown of Arcane Power by 3 sec, Combustion by 4 sec, and Icy Veins by 6 sec.


I don't wanna say too much about the changes in relation to Arcane and Fire (since this is a Frost blog, after all), other than to say it sounds screwy for Arcane and totally_awesome for Fire.

Concerning the bonus in relation to Frost, however...I am somewhat conflicted. There's no doubt that having more Haste is going to boost our damage. There's also no question about whether or not having Icy Veins more frequently is good or not. It might even make Mastery a more attractive stat to gear for after reaching Crit Cap (although common convention is that Haste and Mastery are very close at the moment).

Instead, my real concern is that it's...boring? Like, really, really boring. Even if I think the Arcane 4t13 is screwy, it at least affects the most interesting part of Arcane; when we get Arcane Power again, that signifies another burn phase. Likewise, the single-most satisfying part of playing Fire is landing a totally rad, 10K+ Combustion DoT; getting the chance to do that more often is just too cool.

Icy Veins, however, is far from being the most interesting thing about Frost, even if it is our big DPS cooldown. "Wow, we sure do cast quickly. Woooo." We might as well have Lifeblood as our Cooldown.

Not to mention, does anyone else find this to be a bit cyclical? We cast spells and gain a haste buff...so that we can get our haste cooldown that much quicker...so that we can use our haste cooldown...and then we lose our haste buff? Does this sound interesting to anyone!?

The problem, in my opinion, is that Arcane's DPS cooldown and Fire's DPS cooldown are synergetic with what's fun about playing Arcane and Fire in general - respectively, resource management and crazy burst damage; and DoT management and landing high periodic damage as a reward for making good decisions.Frost's big DPS cooldowns - Icy Veins and Cold Snap - are not at all synergetic with what makes Frost a fun spec to play in PvE.

Frost is all about managing procs and short cooldowns. It rewards players for making smart split-second decisions on how to spend, conserve, or gain their procs. Getting Icy Veins faster isn't a satisfying, climactic affair which gloriously highlights the fun and excitement of firing off a baller-ass Frostfire Bolt with an Ignite on the tail-end, or quickly deciding whether to Ice Lance our last proc away instead of saving it for the Deep Freeze which comes off cooldown in eight seconds. It's just...


Haste.


So, how to fix the fun factor for our 4t13? Well, there's a few options:

1. Revamp the bonus entirely. Probably not gonna happen, given that it's thematically consistent with the look and name of the Tier 13 Set, "Timelord's Regalia". But, that could be a way to do it.

2. Have the 4t13 affect Cold Snap. After all, Cold Snap is still a 6.4-minute cooldown, even after taking three points in Ice Floes. However, Cold Snap might just be a liiiitle bit on the crazy side if we could lower its cooldown. It's also not a hell of a lot more fun, anyways.

The third solution came to me as I was writing this post. The answer that I never saw before is almost too obvious now.

3. ...Why not change Icy Veins? The real problem here isn't that the set bonus is crappy (although I still wonder if it shouldn't be altered somewhat for Arcane); the real problem is that Icy Veins is crappy. It may be a valuable DPS cooldown to us (what caster would decline a 20% casting speed buff?)...but it's no fun at all.

My proposition is that Icy Veins, instead of giving casting haste and pushback reduction, gives casting haste and an increased chance to proc Fingers of Frost and Brain Freeze. After all, if proc management is the most exciting thing about Frost, why not give us more procs? Now, we get to have our ballin' Frostfire Bolts more often, AND we have way more procs to manage. With this change, the power of Icy Veins may truly reward those who are smart about proc management more than anyone, just as Arcane Power and Combustion reward playing their respective specs properly.

So in conclusion...I'm kind of a genius. BRB, editing my Mage Class Feedback post on Blizzard's forums. Any thoughts?

Saturday, September 17, 2011

My Class Feedback Response.

Recently, Blizzard made some forum topics on their website asking for player feedback about their classes. Being the loudmouth that I am, I wrote them a short novel, only to find out that you can only make posts with 5000 characters or less. Either way, I posted it, and I thought I'd post it here, too. So, for the other two Frost Mages on Earth, what do you think? Agree, or disagree?...

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Almost every answer here pertains to the Frost Spec, as I play it far more than Fire or Arcane. I enjoy the other specs and also find them very fun; however, I lack the experience to comment on them in-depth.

What type of content do you focus on? [PvE/PvP/Both]

Both, with a much bigger focus on PvE at the moment.


If PvE, what type of PvE? [Heroics/Raids/Other]

Raiding. My guild is 6/7 Firelands, and we were 1/12 Heroic on Tier 11 before Firelands was released.


If PvP, what type of PvP? [Arenas, BGs, Rated BGs]

Arenas (usually 2's and some 3's) and normal BGs.


What are your biggest quality-of-life issues? For instance, no longer requiring ammo could be considered a quality-of-life improvement for hunters.

It would be nice if Mage-class Armors carried a one-hour duration without a Glyph, along with Arcane Brilliance.


What makes playing your class more fun?

I enjoy that Frost feels more 'Active' than Fire or Arcane, in that I feel like I have to make more split-second decisions due to the way procs change what you are able to do - and possibly, what you should be doing.


What makes playing your class less fun?

Here's a few things:

1. Far too dependent on Crit as a stat. We need to get as close to 34% Crit as possible. This is a pretty high number, so this makes gear options pretty strict and limited. It also makes us comp-dependent, as Critical Mass/Shadow & Flame is one of the only feasible ways to hit that number.

This may sound like a complaint about my DPS not being competitive. It's not; I rank on World of Logs every time I can make to my guild's raids - my DPS in Frost is just fine. Needing such an outrageous amount of one stat is not fine.


2. Frostbolt costs too much mana. The cast time of Frostbolt is 20% faster than Fireball or Frostfire Bolt, and yet it costs 4% more of our Base Mana to use. We're stuck a few, extremely inefficient options: Run Mage Armor, which is flat-out overkill, or max out Enduring Winter, which only lowers the base mana cost by 1%.


3. Too many filler points in the talent tree (for PvE). Frost has 4-6 points spent on talents with _extemely_ specific uses: using Blizzard against AoE groups with no threat table (3 Points in Permafrost, 2 Points in Ice Shards, 1 Point in Enduring Winter), or getting more Fingers of Frost procs against boss encounters where there's two adds that are always in close proximity to the boss (2 Points in Piercing Chill, 1 Point in Permafrost, 3 Points in Enduring Winter). In other words, if we put one point in Permafrost and Enduring Winter (for raid buffs/debuffs), we could seriously put the other four points anywhere in the tree and it would make no difference in most encounters. Even Permafrost's raid debuff is pretty insignificant, so it could be as much as five pointless points.


How do you feel about your “rotation”? (Rotation is the accepted order in which abilities are used to maximum efficiency.)

The single-target rotation is fine - great, actually. On the other hand, the AoE rotations leave something to be desired.

Blizzard is our only AoE spell worth using, and it requires somewhere around twelve targets for it to be comparable to a single target rotation. Cone of Cold isn't much better, requiring about ten targets and having a cooldown.

Again, while this may sound like a complaint about DPS, it's not; it's a complaint that there's almost never a reason to use our AoE spells.


What’s on your wish list for your class?

- Please, let us name our pets! Since it's here for good, it would be nice to have a name with a bit more personality than "Water Elemental."

- It would be nice if Frost Armor had a more common reason to be used in PvE...Not that I have any logical reason why.

- Can we also have one or two new talents in our tree?

- Having Critical Mass available to Frost would be cool, too, and solve one of the only obnoxious aspects of Frost PvE.

- I'd like to see the mana cost of Frostbolt go down proportionally with the other Mage Fillers.

- Is there any way to make Cone of Cold a useful PvE spell without having a huge, rippling effect on Frost PvP?


What spells do you use the least?

Cone of Cold and Frost Nova. I feel like there's a lot of potential for these spells in PvE, beyond proccing Fingers of Frost and snaring adds on Nefarian.

Monday, August 29, 2011

Frosty Specs, current to 4.2

Fire and Arcane have it relatively easy when it comes to creating their spec; Fire has, more-or-less, a "right way" to spec, and Arcane has only one variation, depending on whether or not you want to do AoE or run around like a jackass.

Frost, on the other hand, can be run a few different ways. You can spec to use Ignite for Frostfire Bolts, or not. You can choose to run Molten Armor for additional Crit chance, or Mage/Frost Armor for mana conservation. You can spec to deal with large mobs that need to be dealt with using Blizzard, or you can spec to increase your chance to proc Fingers of Frost against small trash mobs where Blizzard would be a waste.

Below are some variations for Frost PvE. Naturally, there are even slighter tweaks that can be made, depending on the situation; I'll discuss that as necessary.

Before we go on, something worth noting on the WoWHead Talent Calculator is that the tooltip for Ice Shards does not update when Permafrost is taken. Permafrost increases the slowing effect on Blizzard (along with all other spells with Chill effects), adding 4%/3%/3% per level. For example, if two points are taken in Ice Shards, and one point is taken in Permafrost, Blizzard will have a 44% movement slow. Though not reflected in the WoWHead Talent Calculator, it can be seen in game once the spec is finalized.



A. With Ignite:

These variations assume that you'll be putting the minimum amount of points in the Frost tree (31), allowing for eight (8) points in Fire to spec for Ignite and putting all remaining points in the Arcane Tree's Netherwind Presence. There's also a tacit assumption that you'll use Glyph of Frostfire.

The big deal about this spec is that your Frostfire Bolt becomes a _huge_ part of your damage. Without Ignite and Glyph of Frostfire, your Frostfire Bolt hits for roughly the same amount of damage as your Ice Lance, making it more like a Clearcast Ice Lance. When we add in the Glyph and Ignite, there's no comparison whatsoever. Comparing average Crit damages from a recent Raid log, my Ice Lance generally crits for 31K. The impact damage of FFB is anywhere from 4-10K higher than that, depending on the fight. Add in the two ticks of Ignite, which range from 7.2-8.2K on my log, and you have a huge damage difference over Ice Lance. Did I mention that Brain Freeze FFBs cost 0 Mana?

Here are a few variations on Ignite specs for Frost. The important talents to take note of in the variations are Piercing Chill, Permafrost, Ice Shards, and Enduring Winter.


1. AoE-Friendly

For what it's worth, this is the spec I run by default.

Permafrost and Ice Shards are maxed out for AoE purposes. One point in Enduring Winter for raid buff, and to ease the pain of Blizzard's mana cost. No points in Piercing Chill.

The main point of this spec is that your Blizzard now has a 50% slow. This makes it very effective on large AoE groups, who will no longer quickly run out of your Blizzard spell. This is also absolutely imperative if you're going to deal with large, moving AoE mobs that are untanked or have no threat table (Spiderlings during Shannox, Lava Parasites during Magmaw, Blood of the Old God during Cho'Gall). Keep in mind that your Blizzard will be just as effective on mobs handled by a tank without Permafrost and Ice Shards (unless you aggro them!). One point in Enduring Winter ensures that your party has the Replenishment Raid buff, but also, any bit of reduction on the mana cost of Blizzard is welcome.

The only possible variation of this spec would be to put the point from Enduring Winter into Piercing Chill; however, Piercing Chill is more important for fights where there will be no use for Blizzard, making it a bit pointless, if you ask me. Unless you find yourself in the terribly specific situation where you are alternating between attacking small and large mobs (Heroic Halfus, I guess? Kind of?), stick to your one point in Enduring Winter.


2. WTF Is Blizzard


Piercing Chill and Enduring Winter are maxed out, for best efficiency in Frostbolt spam. One point is taken in Permafrost for the 'Healing Received' Raid Debuff. No points are taken in Ice Shards.

This spec is good for small trash mobs, or encounters with multiple enemies which may come close together (Shannox, Rhyolith, Al'Akir, Halfus). Since Piercing Chill has a chance to Chill nearby targets, your chance to proc Fingers of Frost and Brain Freeze goes up, ultimately leading to slightly higher single-target DPS. Remember that if you're fighting an encounter with no adds, you won't get any benefit from this spec.

The variation of this spec is to remove points from Enduring Winter and put them into Icy Shards. However, just like the variation on AoE-Friendly variation where we spread the talent points out, it's too situation-specific to be really effective in most encounters.



Glyphs for Ignite specs:


Your Prime Glyphs have little variation.

First off, I recommend against glyphing for Molten Armor. You don't exactly have the leeway in Ignite specs to be running Molten Armor; you'll run out of mana too fast unless you're doing a short fight, and wasting globals to switch back and forth between armors can result in a huge DPS loss, aside from obvious burn phases. Also, unlike Arcane Mages, using Evocation for the purposes of gaining mana back mid-fight is a big DPS loss. You should try to reach the crit cap without Molten Armor, which can be really easy or extremely frustrating depending on your Raid composition.

Thus, your Prime Glyphs are pretty cut-and-dry:

- Frostfire
- Deep Freeze
- Frostbolt

Frostfire and Deep Freeze hopefully don't need explanations. You're going to be casting Frostbolt a hell of a lot more than Ice Lance, so do what you can to increase its damage - Glyph for Frostbolt.


For Major Glyphs, you're gonna want Ice Barrier for survivability. Evocation is taken for emergency survivability, too. Your last glyph could be a few things:

- Blink gets you around the arena faster, and is good for encounters where you may have to move large distances to hit your targets.
- Frost Armor will basically give you a variation on Mage Armor that works for Physical Damage. The only fight that it's been useful on for this tier so far is Shannox, though I haven't gotten to Heroic modes yet.
- Polymorph is useful when clearing trash, because it...well, because it does what the glyph says it does.

Finally, for Minor Glyphs, the important ones are Slow Fall (saves you money and heartache) and Arcane Brilliance (Will need to be recast in the case of a Battle Res). Mirror Image, which gives Fire and Arcane a minor DPS increase, is useless for Frost. So, pick whatever you like for your last glyph! I personally like Glyph of Armors, because screw having your Armor on a separate timer from Arcane Brilliance.


B. Without Ignite:


If you have a deep, seething hatred for speccing for Ignite...you should play Arcane. Still, if you insist on playing Frost this way, here are some honorable mentions:


1. Versatile

This is the best way I can think of to run a non-Ignite spec. Piercing Chill, Permafrost, Ice Shards, and Enduring Winter are maxed out in the Frost tree, as is Netherwind Presence in the Arcane Tree. No points are taken in Master of Elements in the Fire tree. This spec assumes the user will be running Mage Armor or Frost Armor.

Keep in mind that your damage is going to be lower this way than Ignite specs, and your rotation will phase out Frostfire Bolt entirely; it simply isn't going to do as much damage as Ice Lance, which is favored when Glyphing in the spec since you can use it far more often. What it will get you, however, is versatility in dealing with AoE and small trash mobs, due to having all four of the normally-optional Frost Talents maxed out.


Glyphs for "Versatile" spec:

Take Frostbolt and Deep Freeze for Prime Glyphs, as usual. You won't be running Molten Armor or using Frostfire Bolt, so those glyphs are out. Thus, your last glyph by default is Ice Lance.

Major and Minor glyphs follow the same rules as Ignite specs: Ice Barrier and Evocation for Major, Slow Fall and Arcane Brilliance for Minor. Your third Major could be Blink, Frost Armor, or Polymorph, depending on what you're doing. Go nuts with your last Minor Glyph slot.



2. Mana Conservation, a.k.a GIMME Dem Crits

This is an extremely burst-heavy spec for single-target DPS which relies on the encounter being very short. It's specifically tailored for Mages who are not close to the crit cap, as the DPS in the beginning of the fight will be much higher than other Frost PvE specs when well below the Crit cap. It's implied that you will be running Molten Armor, with Glyph of Molten Armor for an additional 2% crit on all your attacks. It's also assumed that you will get every possible ability to conserve your mana, because you couldn't piss it out much faster with this spec.

Only one point is taken in Permafrost for the Raid Debuff, and no points are taken in Ice Shards. Every talent which reduces mana costs is maxed out (Enduring Winter, Master of Elements, Arcane Concentration). giving the Mage as much breathing room as possible to last the encounting before running out of Mana.

Keep in mind that, while this spec can seem extremely powerful, its usefulness wanes as you move closer to the crit cap. When you do, you can start running Mage Armor/Frost Armor instead of Molten Armor, and thus you'll have a wasted glyph and at least four talent points spent on mana conservation that could be allocated elsewhere. ...Like, on Ignite.


Glyphs for "GDC":

Your Prime Glyphs are Molten Armor, Ice Lance, and Deep Freeze. Since the majority of your damage in this spec comes from Fingers of Frost crits and the burst at the beginning of the encounter, you want to make sure you get the most possible mileage out of Ice Lance and Deep Freeze. Molten Armor is glyphed for reasons I already went over. You won't need to take Glyph of Frostbolt, on the count of Molten Armor raising the Critical Strike Chance of Frostbolt by 5% already, along with all your other spells.

As is typical, you'll take Ice Barrier and Evocation for Major Glyphs. Your last slot is a wild card, but you're only choosing between Blink and Polymorph now, since you won't need to be running any armor but Molten Armor.

For Minor Glyphs, the usual applies: Slow Fall, Arcane Brilliance, whatever-you-want for a third.

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Any questions, comments, or concerns, yell at me!

Saturday, August 27, 2011

Intro Post

I'm not the best PvE Frost Mage.

I don't claim to know everything, and I'm hardly the ultimate authority on how best to go about playing Frost in raids.

That being said, I'm definitely not the worst PvE Frost Mage. I'm not without experience in my class nor competitive gaming in general.

I'll be talking about my experiences and thoughts playing a Frost Mage in a competitive raiding guild, as well as my general strategies. Some of this stuff can be found in other places already, but I want to have a consolidated, organized resource for all things Frosty. More importantly, if I can generate meaningful discussion, attract even better players to read my blog, improve my own game in the process of helping others, and help educate people against the misconception that Frost Mage is for PvP only, then this blog will be a success in my eyes.

I'm Jamie. I've been playing WoW for about a year, and I've been raiding since Tier 11. I've come a long way since then, and it's only getting better. I have a background in competitive 2D Fighting games, which I hope will be the groundwork for my own unique perspective to WoWCraft raiding. When shit gets topsy turvy in a raid, you Ice Block. When there's trouble with your strats, gearing/talent/glyph decisions...you Ice Blog.