Frost Mage DPS Gear, Legendaries, and Best in Slot (Legion 7.2.5)

Table of Contents

• +Introduction
  • 1. Class Overview
  • 2. Patch 7.2.5 Changes
  • 3. Patch 7.2 Changes
  • 4. Strengths
  • 5. Weaknesses
  • 6. Viability in the Current Patch
  • 7. Contents
  • 8. ChangeLog
• +Easy Mode
  • 1. The Basics
  • 2. Talent Choice
  • 3. Stat Choice
  • 4. Basic Rotation
  • 5. ChangeLog
• +Spell Summary
  • 1. Spell Summary
  • 2. Main Resources
  • 3. Basic Abilities
  • 4. Important Procs
  • 5. DPS Cooldowns
  • 6. ChangeLog
• +Builds and Talents
  • 1. Talent Choices
  • 2. Talent Cheat Sheets
    • 2.1. Raid Encounters
      • 2.1.1. Heavy Cleave/AOE
    • 2.2. For General Use
  • 3. Tier 1 (Level 15) Talents
  • 4. Tier 2 (Level 30) Talents
  • 5. Tier 3 (Level 45) Talents
  • 6. Tier 4 (Level 60) Talents
  • 7. Tier 5 (Level 75) Talents
  • 8. Tier 6 (Level 90) Talents
  • 9. Tier 7 (Level 100) Talents
  • 10. ChangeLog
• +Artifact Traits and Relics
  • 1. Artifact Progression — First 35 Points
    • 1.1. Early Point Investment
    • 1.2. Second Golden Trait
    • 1.3. Final Point Investment
  • 2. Patch 7.2: 35+ Trait Path
  • 3. Relic Choice
  • 4. ChangeLog
• +Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities
  • 1. Ability Priority List
  • 2. Important Notes
    • 2.1. Frost Bomb
    • 2.2. Tier 3 Talents
      • 2.2.1. Rune of Power
      • 2.2.2. Mirror Image
      • 2.2.3. Incanter's Flow
    • 2.3. Water Jet
  • 3. Core Concepts
    • 3.1. Cooldown Overlap and Maximizing Cleave
    • 3.2. Movement Management
    • 3.3. Opening Sequence
  • 4. ChangeLog
• +Stat Priority
  • 1. Basics
    • 1.1. Stat Weights
  • 2. Getting a Better Understanding
    • 2.1. Statistics Explanations
    • 2.2. How Exactly Mastery: Icicles Work
      • 2.2.1. Glacial Spike
    • 2.3. Critical Strike Cap
  • 3. ChangeLog
• +Gems, Enchants, and Consumables
  • 1. Disclaimer
  • 2. Gems
  • 3. Enchants
  • 4. Consumables
  • 5. ChangeLog
• +Macros and Addons
  • 1. Addons
    • 1.1. ElvUI
    • 1.2. Weak Auras
    • 1.3. Boss Mods
      • 1.3.1. BigWigs Bossmods
      • 1.3.2. Deadly Boss Mods
    • 1.4. Name Plates
      • 1.4.1. KUI Nameplates
      • 1.4.2. TidyPlates
    • 1.5. Damage Meters
      • 1.5.1. Skada
      • 1.5.2. Details
    • 1.6. Extra AddOns
      • 1.6.1. Mik's Scrolling Battle Text
      • 1.6.2. DeathNote
      • 1.6.3. Doom CooldownPulse
      • 1.6.4. Angry Assignments
  • 2. Macros
    • 2.1. Generic Macros for Mages
      • 2.1.1. Stopcast Blink
      • 2.1.2. 1-Button Block
      • 2.1.3. Block Cancel
    • 2.2. Specific Macros for Frost Mages
      • 2.2.1. Water Elemental: Freeze
      • 2.2.2. Water Elemental: Water jet
      • 2.2.3. Pet Macros
  • 3. ChangeLog
• ×Gear, Legendaries, and Best in Slot
  • 1. Tier 20 Set Bonuses
  • 2. Best in Slot List
  • 3. Evaluating Upgrades Using Stat Weights
  • 4. Racial Bonuses
  • 5. Legendaries
  • 6. Loot Competition
  • 7. ChangeLog

General Information

This page is a gear reference for Frost Mages. It lists your best items and Legendaries, gives you gearing advice, and shows you how you will be competing for loot with other classes.

The other pages of our Frost Mage guide can be accessed from the table of contents on the right.

About Our Author and Reviewer

This guide has been written by Furty, who has an illustrious history in the World of Warcraft raiding scene and race for World First. He has been a member of guilds such as Serenity, Midwinter, and many more, and is currently raiding in Future. He plays most classes at the highest level. You can follow him on Twitter and watch him play on Twitch.

This guide has been reviewed and approved by Kuni, one of the best Frost Mages in the world, who raids in Midnight Sanctuary.

1. Tier 20 Set Bonuses

The Tier 20 set piece bonuses improve the functionality of your Frozen Orb.

• 2-piece bonus: Frozen Orb increases your Critical Strike damage by 20% for 10 seconds.
• 4-piece bonus: The cooldown of Frozen Orb is reduced by 5.0 seconds whenever you gain Brain Freeze.

Both of the Tier 20 bonuses are very valuable pickups, and should be acquired as soon as possible. The 2-piece bonus greatly enhances your burst damage, while the 4-piece allows us to burst more frequently. Both bonuses are worth using even at the expense of higher item level offpieces due to their power.

2. Best in Slot List

With the existence of Titanforged and Mythic+ dungeons, there is no such thing as a hard Best in Slot anymore. This is more of a guideline for the best pieces to keep an eye out for in your raid or dungeon (if applicable). Be smart, and if you find higher item level pieces with valuable stat combinations do not hesitate to upgrade to them.

Slot	Item	Source
Helm	Blackened Mask of Disgrace	Fallen Avatar
Neck	String of Extracted Incisors	Demonic Inquisition
Shoulders	Mantle of the Arcane Tempest	Fallen Avatar
Chest	Robes of the Arcane Tempest	Maiden of Vigilance
Cloak	Cape of Mindless Fury	Fallen Avatar
Wrists	Oathbreaker's Cuffs	Fallen Avatar
Gloves	Gloves of the Arcane Tempest	Harjatan
Belt	Braided Torture Lash	Demonic Inquisition
Legs	Leggings of the Arcane Tempest	Mistress Sassz'ine
Boots	Slippers of Enduring Vigilance	Sisters of the Moon
Ring #1	Yathae's Thumb Ring	Sisters of the Moon
Ring #2	Seal of the Second Duumvirate	Kil'jaeden
Trinket #1	Tarnished Sentinel Medallion	Sisters of the Moon
Trinket #2	Terror From Below	Mistress Sassz'ine

Priority order of trinkets (at equivalent item level) is:

1. Kil'jaeden's Burning Wish
2. Unstable Arcanocrystal
3. Tarnished Sentinel Medallion
4. Terror From Below
5. Brinewater Slime in a Bottle (Haste or Critical Strike)
6. Whispers in the Dark
7. Spectral Thurible
8. Charm of the Rising Tide
9. Chrono Shard
10. Infernal Writ
11. Erratic Metronome
12. Swarming Plaguehive
13. Oakheart's Gnarled Root
14. Naraxas' Spiked Tongue
15. Star Gate

3. Evaluating Upgrades Using Stat Weights

You can evaluate upgrades side by side using a simple napkin math formula:

For example, using the stat weights from our Stats page, a pair of boots with 380 Mastery, 1150 Haste, and 976 Intellect, we can calculate a DPS value of:

This does not give an exact DPS value, but can be used to calculate the relative value versus another piece. For example, if we have a second pair of boots with 450 Haste, 970 Versatility, and 976 Intellect, we can compute the DPS value for that second item using the same formula, before comparing the results:

We can clearly see that 2376.7 > 2323.6, and therefore, the first pair of boots are the stronger upgrade. This is the quickest, best, and most reliable way of determining whether or not you should use one upgrade or another, despite the fact that stats weights are very approximate and change with respect to fight type, fight length, and the values of your other stats (synergetic scaling).

4. Racial Bonuses

Sims done in pre-raid gear (840 ilvl).

Racial benefit is pretty minimal for Frost (currently), so it is recommended you just play whatever makes you happiest.

5. Legendaries

Shard of the Exodar causes your Time Warp to not give you Temporal Displacement, and you can also use your Time Warp while affected by Temporal Displacement and benefit from the active effect. Basically, you get an extra Bloodlust/ Heroism once every 5 minutes. Overall the best legendary for single target, and the best for progression if you need to push several separate damage checks within a fight.

Lady Vashj's Grasp causes you to gain 1 charge of Fingers of Frost every 10 seconds while Icy Veins is active. Overall the second best legendary for Frost when combined with Thermal Void.

Kil'jaeden's Burning Wish is a trinket with an on use effect that launches a meteor dealing a powerful critical strike once every 75 seconds. A strong option for Frost, due to the passive stats provided, and has very strong potential on cleave and AoE. Third best overall.

Magtheridon's Banished Bracers causes your Ice Lance to increase the damage of your Ice Lances by 3% for 8 seconds, stacking up to 6 times. Not far behind Lady Vashj's Grasp, and good legendary for single target. Falls behind on multi target but great on 2 targets. Fourth best for single target.

Ice Time causes your Frozen Orb to explode into a Frost Nova that deals damage. Very weak for single target, but only slightly behind Zann'esu Journey for AoE. Good choice for Mythic+ farming.

Zann'esu Journey causes Flurry to increase the damage of your next Blizzard by 35%, stacking up to 5 times. Easily the strongest choice for AoE when combined with Arctic Gale, but not very useful for single target. If this is the only legendary you have you should still use the stacks on Blizzard for single target, but talenting into Arctic Gale is a DPS loss on single-target.

6. Loot Competition

Regarding the loot you will get from raid or dungeon bosses, you will compete with other classes in the following cases:

Item Type	Competing Classes
Tier Tokens	Death Knights, Druids, Arcane/Fire Mages, and Rogues
Cloth Armor	Arcane/Fire Mages, Priests, and Warlocks
Amulets Cloaks Rings	Everyone
Trinkets	Balance Druids, Arcane/Fire Mages, Shadow Priests, Elemental Shamans, and Warlocks

7. ChangeLog

+ show all entries - show only 10 entries

• 19 Jun. 2017: Tier 20 explanation and Tomb of Sargeras best in slot added.
• 27 Mar. 2017: No changes needed for Patch 7.2.
• 02 Mar. 2017: Updated upgrade calculator with new stat weights.
• 21 Jan. 2017: Fully updated BiS list and legendary section.
• 17 Oct. 2016: Added more detail to the trinket section.
• 04 Sep. 2016: Updated item comparison example, following a change in stat weights.
• 29 Aug. 2016: Updated for Legion's launch.
• 20 Jul. 2016: Removed trinket sims and added BiS recommendations.
• 18 Jul. 2016: Updated for the Legion pre-patch.