"Shatter Bomb" Question

[zhengma]

Lately I've been doing a bit of experiment on the "Shatter Bomb" technique (i.e. make sure most targets in the blast radius of Frost Bomb are frozen the instant it goes off for the guaranteed crit), here are some questions:

1. I mostly use WE Freeze and Frost Nova, but we know that their freezing effects are cancelled after the targets receive any damage at all. I've mostly practicing on Stormwind dummies where it's not too much of a problem, but in a real raid, it's virtually impossible to avoid someone else damaging the targets during the 0.x seconds between the Freeze taking effect to the bomb goes off. So, how does this "damage taken may interrupt the freezing effect" work? Is it interrupted instantly, or is there a tiny time window during which it's still considered frozen and any bomb/Flamestrike/whatnot will still guarantee crit?

2. Besides WE Freeze and Frost Nova, are there any other options? Especially, will RoF be a viable option (i.e. not only works, but worthy of its long cast time).

3. We know that Shatter, as a passive ability, albeit nerfed, still exists in WoD, but Frost Bomb has be overhauled. Is there any similar technique in the latest Beta version? Now that our Mastery specifies that the damage buff is on frozen targets only, will we have more options than we do in MoP to freeze?

[Komma]

This trick is most often used in Challenge Modes. The only raid scenario I've seen this used is Heroic Immerseus (number padding, obviously).

1. I mostly use WE Freeze and Frost Nova, but we know that their freezing effects are cancelled after the targets receive any damage at all. I've mostly practicing on Stormwind dummies where it's not too much of a problem, but in a real raid, it's virtually impossible to avoid someone else damaging the targets during the 0.x seconds between the Freeze taking effect to the bomb goes off. So, how does this "damage taken may interrupt the freezing effect" work? Is it interrupted instantly, or is there a tiny time window during which it's still considered frozen and any bomb/Flamestrike/whatnot will still guarantee crit?

You pretty much just practice with the timing so the Freeze applies a split second before Frost Bomb explosion goes off.

2. Besides WE Freeze and Frost Nova, are there any other options? Especially, will RoF be a viable option (i.e. not only works, but worthy of its long cast time).

I believe those are the only two that are relevant.

3. We know that Shatter, as a passive ability, albeit nerfed, still exists in WoD, but Frost Bomb has be overhauled. Is there any similar technique in the latest Beta version? Now that our Mastery specifies that the damage buff is on frozen targets only, will we have more options than we do in MoP to freeze?

With snapshotting gone and Shatter limited to Frost Mages, I can't see Shatter combos being of much relevance in PVE raiding. The closest "impact" spell I can think of is Comet storm, but it doesn't really work either. You can probably still do Frost Bomb Shatter with WE Freeze and good Ice Lance timing, but it wouldn't be nearly as meaningful as it is right now.

[zhengma]

What about Ice Ward on tank? The description of Ice Ward used the word "frozen" explicitly, while not explicitly mentioning any "interrupt".

[durrtygoodz]

What about Ice Ward on tank? The description of Ice Ward used the word "frozen" explicitly, while not explicitly mentioning any "interrupt".

Yes you can use Ice Ward, I'm currently using it in CMs for attempts at world fastest scholo. It's a lot harder to time though because 1. it's on a GCD and 2. you need the adds to melee swing the target to get frozen right before the bomb explosion. Timing the add swing timer with the Ice Ward application can be pretty hard/random at times so it doesn't always happen.

[Dutchmagoz]

You can actually shatter longer than the freeze effect. There's like a 0.5 second grace period where shatter will work, even if freeze gets broken instantly.

[durrtygoodz]

You can actually shatter longer than the freeze effect. There's like a 0.5 second grace period where shatter will work, even if freeze gets broken instantly.

I said this in IRC a few months ago and everyone was like "nope"

:D:D:D:D:D:D