Frost Mage Guide

Primary stat — always prioritize item level. Higher ilvl means more Intellect.

Increases Icicle damage and Frozen Orb damage. Your best secondary stat for both ST and AoE.

Synergizes with Shatter (guaranteed crits on frozen targets). Roughly equal to Mastery in Mythic+.

Reduces cast times and GCD. Useful for Frostbolt/Glacial Spike throughput, but lower value than Mastery/Crit.

Flat damage increase and damage reduction. Lowest priority DPS stat but valuable for survivability.

Highest priority when Brain Freeze is active and Thermal Void is not active. Also use on cooldown without Brain Freeze as a lower priority filler. Builds Freezing stacks.

Use immediately at 2 stacks of Fingers of Frost to avoid waste. Also use with any Fingers of Frost active, or when Freezing reaches 6+ stacks (10+ for Frostfire) to trigger Shatter.

Use on cooldown. Deals strong sustained damage and generates Fingers of Frost procs. In AoE, aim to hit as many targets as possible.

Use when available. Part of your opener sequence. Applies Freezing stacks and deals heavy damage.

Major cooldown that deals heavy damage and generates large amounts of Freezing stacks. Lower in the priority list but very impactful. Use early in the opener and at the end of fights. Shimmer to safety rather than canceling the channel. Hand of Frost grants 2 charges for flexible burst timing.

Replaces Ray of Frost after you cast it. Each comet Shatters stacks of Freezing on targets — strong in AoE where it hits multiple targets at once. Frostfire builds use this in their single-target priority.

Main filler spell. Always be casting — even suboptimal casts beat standing still. Frostfire Bolt replaces this for Frostfire builds. Use Ice Lance as a filler while moving.

Use in AoE (3+ targets) when Freezing Rain is active — this is your highest priority in AoE. Also usable as a lower-priority AoE filler for Frostfire builds.