The frost mage rotation is a hard rotation to pin down because frost is based around keeping enemies at a safe distance while dealing a constant amount of damage. It would be next to impossible to give any frost mage a permanent revolving rotation.
There are certain abilities you can use along side each other to create a high amount of burst damage while in a frost build. In order to be a good frost mage you must realize that your job isn't to kill everything faster than everyone else. You're job is crowd control with freezing and aoe burst damage with blizzard.
While leveling you will want to spam frostbolt until your enemy is close to you. You would then trigger frost nova to freeze them in place. Blink away from the frozen target and spam frostbolt again until the target is dead. If you repeat this process while you level it should be very mana and time efficient. (In order for this method to be more effective you should talent spec into anything that has to do with frostbolt or chill effects.)
A frost mage can come in very handy in 5 man dungeons. While battling 1 or 2 man mobs use frostbolt and fire blast to burn them down. When dealing with mobs of 3 or more you will deal the most damage by spamming blizzard until the mob is dead. It is very hard on mana but deals a huge amount of burst damage if you take talent points in improved blizzard.
I do not recommend using frost for any type of raiding. It is more of a soloing or 5 man spec. Look into the arcane spec if you are interested in raids.
As far as i'm concerned frost is the only spec for pvp. A skilled frost mage can challenge any character in the game.
The truth is everyone will find their own frost mage rotation. Just remember that frostbolt is your starter, your closer, you slower, and your nuke. Learn to love it and you will love the frost build.
What Is The Best Leveling Spec For A Mage?
Mages are far and away one of the hardest classes to level in World of Warcraft. They whee cloth which makes their chances of taking moderate amounts of damage and surviving very slim unless you are an experienced player. I believe that survivability and mana control are the biggest factors when leveling a mage. This is why I believe that frost is the best mage leveling spec.
Because mages rarely ever engage in melee combat they need to keep all enemies at a distance. The frost spec is solely designed for slowing enemy's movement speed while dealing moderate burst damage to bring them down. Almost every frost spell has a slowing affect which extends for a moderate amount of time making it easy for mages to avoid close quarters combat.
While using a frost spec the mage's primary attack becomes frostbolt. It is your starting attack, your nuke, you slower, and your friend. Learn to love it. Not only does frostbolt deal a good amount of damage it provides a slowing affect every time it is cast. If you spec correctly you will also have a 15% chance to freeze enemies in place for up to 8 seconds.
Mages that are using frost spec must take 3 ranks in shatter. At rank 3 you have a 50% chance to get a critical strike against frozen targets. This helps in dealing high amounts of burst damage. All you have to do is drop frost nova, step back and spam frostbolt. Three shotting enemies becomes very common while using this method. You can even throw in an occasional fire blast for fun.
Last but not least the frost spec offers the talent ice barrier. This talent shields the mage from all damage until it is broken. The talent has a 30 second cooldown which can be lowered depending on which way you spec. This talent is especially useful when rounding up large mobs. Once you grab about 10 or so you can drop frost nova to freeze them all. You can then step back and keep dropping blizzard until they are all dead. It is a great way to get quick xp.
If you don't want to spend all your questing time drinking and eating food you should probably spec frost. In my opinion the best leveling spec for a mage.
Is Arcane The Best Build For Max DPS?
Arcane mage dps is based around single target strikes with powerful bolts of arcane damage. This spec is most useful in end game raids or heroics. I don't believe that arcane will offer the highest amount of dps conceivable by the mage. If you read on I'll explain why.
It is clear that blizzard designed the arcane build for two things, high single target burst damage and helping parties with several beneficial magic talents and effects. Arcane will deliver a constant amount of dps while bursting pretty often. It may not put you at the top of the dps meters but it will put you near the top of total damage count.
The frost and fire specs are made to be used alone, rarely involving talents of an opposite spec to be used. This is where the arcane mage dps differs greatly. Arcane builds are made to be used with most of your frost and fire talents as well. This makes this build the most diverse of the three by a long shot. In my opinion it is the hardest spec to play.
If you are looking for a leveling spec then frost is definitely the smart choice. Frost mages deal moderate amounts of damage while keeping enemies at a distance providing better survivability. This tree is also very mana efficient.
If you are looking to maximize your dps for 5 mans or just to show off then you would want to spec into fire. Fire relies on critical strikes to deal the highest amounts of single target and aoe burst damage achievable by the mage.
Like I said above, arcane mages are most suitable for end game raiding and heroics. The talents in that build will help you deal moderate amounts of damage while helping your party in a big way. I hope that this article helped you get a better understand of arcane mage dps.
