Some issue from WoD are still here, a lot are new. Some come from the lack of balance, other from gameplay or bug.
I haven't done the infamous testing of FoF & BF proc rate. But I will try to check at it too.
What is the actual state of the Frost mage spec ?
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- Feedback & Balance
- in detail
- Know issue & bug
- Proposition
1. Feedback & Balance
The first two things that every mage notice in WoD are : how low Frostbolt’s damage are, and how fragile we now are. Mage are Glass Canon and Frost mage is really made of thin ice. But WoD also show a return of the kitting as it’s the best tool for mage to survive some encounters.
leveling and questing.The leveling process, and by extension the whole PvE experience, are really fine and smooth. But talent choice can have a great impact. As example, if leveling with Unstable Magic do good result, Ice Nova seem the talent of choice while Frost Bomb show to be difficult to use.
Frostbolt’s lack of damage can lead to some very dangerous situation leading to 2 possibility : kite or death.
The change to Deep Freeze is really impacting here. Before it was both a control tool, stopping a mob to reap us to death, and a DPS tool allowing us to burn him alive. Actually, there so little use of this spell that I have removed it from my binding.
dungeon
Frost in dungeon feel really good with it have similar problem.
Survivability is mostly provided by healer. But with some fight mechanics that require soloing mobs quickly while taking constant damage , the low frostbolt’s damage/low survivability problem show up fully with bad luck or bad timing.
AoE is strange as it’s difficult to know when to go full AoE or to keep Cleaving. Improved Blizzard perk really feel good.
PvP
The first concern is with Deep Freeze. Why choosing to make it break on damage ? Removing the frozen effect (and its associated cost) could have been enough to keep the burst capability in-line. Know these spell is more or less useless because the risk to push Stun on DR is great.
My second concern is for Multistrike PvP change. how is intended to work with Brain Freeze proc generation ?
2. In detailSurvivabilityIf it don’t really show during leveling, the questing in level 100 area are really a pain to manage heal between combat. Outside of the difficulty to find safe place to sit and eat, it’s the frequency to do so that are problematic.
Frostbolt damage and proc randomness
Frostbolt damage feel a lot too low but these feeling is reinforced by the proc randomness. Because of the way Brain Freeze proc, it’s not frequent until 620 ilevel. Fingers of Frost proc are really present only during Frozen orb and every 30s with Water Jet/Freeze. But outside of it, it’s just Frostbolt spam.
I think Fingers of Frost as too much way to proc it. It’s random but can be generated.
Cleave, AoE and Mastery.
It’s difficult to know when to AoE and when to keep the rotation and just cleave. Our AoE rotation is centered around Frozen orb and Ice Lance spamming, with Blizzard to quickly recovering Frozen orb. Cleave depend a lot on Ice Lance too but outside of Frozen orb, it just don’t proc enough. When to switch between the 2 rotations is very difficult to find out.
Those two situation are also problematic as Mastery is ignored. The biggest the pack of mob is, the less these stat is interesting. It’s to the point that our AoE just ignore it completely. It just make gearing even more complicated.
L75 versus L100.
There is a strange feeling after hitting level 100 : the new talent feel weaker and less important than those at level 75. It can explain by the fact that is the level 75 that do damage on all those pack of mob, not the level 100. The only one, that are useful in cleave and AoE situation, is Thermal void. At contrarily, Prismatic Crystal and Comet Storm are weaker as the number of mob increase.
There’s two explanation of this situation : Prismatic Crystal and Comet Storm are shared damage, and the balance of damage between those two talent’s rows. But pushing part of the AoE damage from L75 to L100 could help a lot in making this talent interesting.
Level 75 talent
Frost bomb and Unstable Magic are amazing talent but have some specific difficulty.
Frost Bomb is difficult to apprehend by the casual player. It’s not really a DoT but not a really a Debuff too. A lot of player liked the old mechanism. Why not pushing the main damage as a timed explosion while keeping the AoE on Frozen Ice Lance? It will reward player skill while it will be : “put frost bomb on main target” for more casual player.
Unstable Magic problematic come from its randomness. During questing or in dungeon, it’s not rare to not see an explosion on two pack in a row. It feel that these talent not worth it compared to Frost Bomb or Ice Nova that have guaranteed result. A possibility would be to change the proc rate at 40% or more while reducing the damage, if not 100%. The player will see a more regular AoE, knowing that these talent is a good option.
Ice Nova has another problem. In dungeon, it’s the perfect tool because it offer very good damage and AoE control. But adding tank control ability, it’s possible to push mob into stun DR.
Level 100 talent
There is a lot of issue with this Comet Storm.
Its damage are low for a 30s Cooldown of the level 100 talents. Those talent change the rotation around their use. But Comet Storm damage are not important enough so all other Frost aspect, like Fingers of Frost or Frost bomb, is more important. It’s damage are weaker than Ice Nova or Brain Freezed Frostfire bolt. The logic say that the rarer a spell is, the mightier it is. A 30s spell should hit harder than a 25s spell or a proc that proc every 10s. It should feel like Meteor : “nuclear attack incoming”.
Part of its damage can be avoided easily. Even snared mob can avoid one or two comets. Root are break by the first comet, allowing the target to move outside of the small area of effect.
There’s a lack of interaction with other class mechanism. Other level 100 talent have interaction except Comet Storm. It’s just a fire and forget spell. It don’t put a snare on mob, Shatter or generate Icicle. There’s a lot of possibility.
3. know issue & bugWater ElementalWelly show some serious A.I. problem with Line of Sight, Water Jet auto-cast confusion. It also forget that it’s invisible and keep attacking it’s target.
There’s some difficulty around Water Jet. Maybe the tool-tip isn’t clear enough.
glyph choiceOur glyph haven’t change that much. Some are very situation when other feel near mandatory. None of those glyph are real choice like it’s the case for glyph of Arcane Power. The most interesting choice of glyph is Icy Veins because it trade Haste for Multistrike. Because Haste have so many “soft cap” and the spec use so many instant spell, using the glyph do better damage in most case, “infinite IV” being the exception.
Cone of Cold, Water Elemental and Splitting Ice can’t be called “good glyph” as they just add mechanism. even more, glyph of Water Elemental is so fundamental that not using it result in dead pet on a lot of fight.
4. conclusion
The spec is in a very good situation globally. It’s not too much gear dependent like Fire and it perform well. Even if most of the issue are small and don’t feel important, there’s an accumulation that give an awkward feeling.
Fingers of Frost generation is a good example. It feel like Dev haven’t choose if it’s a proc to react, a resource to manage or a filler spell.
Comet Storm is another good example. Very well designed and awesome animation but it just have no situation to shine.
Finally, it make me think that it was tuned around the T17 bonus, especially the 4-pieces that give a lot of Fingers of Frost proc, but forgetting that it won’t be here before the Blackrock Foundry raid.