Frost Mage

Frost Mage puts 44 points into Frost, 5 points into Fire and 2 points into Arcane by level 60, with no respec on the way.

No talent ability is worth building around here: the points go to passive bonuses.

Ice Barrier is left out on purpose: in our sim it does less for leveling than the same points spent elsewhere.

By our sim, this build gets you from 10 to 60 in about 27% less time than playing with no talents.

At level 40 most of your ability damage comes from Frostbolt (56%), Ice Lance (24%) and Fire Blast (20%).

Each talent gets a tier for how much it helps this build level, by our sim: S best, A strong, B solid, C small, Filler needed to reach deeper talents.

1. 10-14
   

   Improved Frostbolt 1-5 S

   Frost. S tier: one of this build's best points for leveling.
2. 15-16
   

   Wand Specialization 1-2 B

   Arcane. B tier: a solid point for leveling.
3. 17-19
   

   Elemental Precision 1-3 B

   Frost. B tier: a solid point for leveling.
4. 20-22
   First, filler points:

   • Ice Shards 1-2C

   

   Frost Channeling 1 A

   Frost, at level 22. A tier: a strong point for leveling.
5. 23-25
   

   Piercing Ice 1-3 A

   Frost. A tier: a strong point for leveling.
6. 26
   

   Frost Channeling 2 A

   Frost. A tier: a strong point for leveling.
7. 27-34
   First, filler points:

   • Ice Shards 3-5C
   • Frost Warding 1-2
   • Ice Lance 1

   

   Fingers of Frost 1-2 S

   Frost, at level 33. S tier: one of this build's best points for leveling.
8. 35-37
   

   Incineration 1-3 C

   Fire. C tier: a small gain for leveling.

1. 
   Frostbolt

   filler
2. 
   Ice Lance

   when Fingers of Frost procs (hits as if frozen)
3. 
   Fire Blast

   on cooldown

Share of your ability damage

• Frostbolt56%
• Ice Lance24%
• Fire Blast20%

What our sim found levels best at this level with this build: DoTs once per mob, cooldowns on cooldown, and the rest on your best filler. Auto attacks are always on, so they are not listed.

Spell power > Stamina > Spirit > Intellect

• Spell power1.00
• Stamina0.38
• Spirit0.14
• Intellect0.05

1% crit is worth about 3 Spell power.

Stat values like Pawn: point for point, your best stat is 1.00 and the rest are worth that share of it. MP5 is mana regen per 5 seconds, as item tooltips show it. Your own gear shifts these: the Character page works them out for you.

• At level 40, for the same item budget, spell power helps most, then Stamina. Look for gear with those first.
• Some points (Frost Warding, Fingers of Frost and Frostbite and others) are filler to reach the next tier; they do little for leveling on their own.

How this is made: a typical character at each level (Classic-like stats, quest greens for gear) pulling same-level mobs one at a time, with downtime counted. It is an early version, refined as players’ combat logs measure what each talent really does.