DPS Rotation & Cooldowns

A general priority guide for Frost Mage abilities and cooldowns. Helpful for understanding the spec's fundamentals and getting comfortable with core synergies. Updated for the latest patch in World of Warcraft: Midnight (12.0.1).

Single Target

• Comet StormView detailsIf talented
• FlurryView detailsIf Brain Freeze is active and Thermal Void is not active
• Frozen Orb
• Glacial Spike
• Ice LanceView detailsIf Fingers Of Frost is active
• Ice LanceView detailsIf Freezing at 6+ stacks
• Flurry
• Ray Of Frost
• Frostbolt

For single-target, prioritize Comet Storm if talented, followed by Flurry when Brain Freeze is active and Thermal Void is not. Use Frozen Orb and Glacial Spike next, and spend Ice Lance procs from Fingers Of Frost or high Freezing stacks.

AoE

• Comet StormView detailsIf talented
• BlizzardView detailsWith Freezing Rain
• FlurryView detailsIf Brain Freeze is active and Thermal Void is not active
• Frozen OrbView detailsEnsure it hits multiple targets
• Glacial Spike
• BlizzardView detailsIf Splinterstorm is not active
• Ice LanceView detailsIf Fingers Of Frost is active
• Ice LanceView detailsIf Freezing at 6+ stacks
• Flurry
• Ray Of Frost
• Frostbolt

For AoE, prioritize Comet Storm if talented, followed by Blizzard with Freezing Rain. Use Frozen Orb to hit multiple targets and Glacial Spike for heavy damage. Spend Ice Lance procs from Fingers Of Frost or high Freezing stacks.

Cooldowns

• Ray Of FrostView detailsUse during burst phases
• Frozen OrbView detailsUse on cooldown for consistent damage
• Icy VeinsView detailsActivate for increased casting speed and damage

Use Ray Of Frost during burst phases, Frozen Orb on cooldown for consistent AoE damage, and Icy Veins to enhance overall performance.

New to Class? Try Assisted Rotation

Patch 11.1.7 introduced new features that make it eaiser to pick and play new characters. These new settings can be enabled from settings » gameplay enhancements:

• Single-Button Assistant
• Assisted Highlight
• Cooldown Manager

If you are new to World of Warcraft or a certain class, enabling Assisted Highlight and Cooldown Manager can help you learn which abilities to prioritize and use.

While the Single-Button Assistant can be a much easier and more accessible way to play the game, it does come with a slight performance hit due to a small GCD penalty, as you will have to wait 25% longer in between spells and abilities.

To see which specs are best with the Single-Button Assistant feature, you can check out our DPS Rankings which uses SimC to sim every class using this feature.