Focus Magic: Cataclysm Talents - Part 1: Frost
WoW Blogs - Focus Magic Mage Blog
Welcome to the 5th instalment of Focus Magic! Over the past few weeks, we’ve been analysing the current Mage in all it’s glory and specs. However, we are yet to discuss the upcoming Cataclysm talents. And that’s just what will occupy us for the next few weeks! Keep in mind all the talents discussed are still in Beta, so are subject to change. My source of information is the WoWhead talent calculators for Cataclysm and the first talent tree we will analyse is… Frost!
As you can see from the picture the left hand side shows the menu for the Frost Talents. The benefits you receive from choosing Frost are;
Summon Water Elemental – Making Frost Mage’s a pet class. A great addition to any Frost Mage, and receiving this spell at level 10 makes levelling as Frost that much more fun and efficient. However, whether this is a permanent pet or if it still needs to be glyphed is to be confirmed. I would assume since it’s a main benefit from Frost, it would make sense to make this invaluable levelling tool permanent. But we’ll just see what happens with that one.
Frost Specialization – Increases the damage of your frost spells by 25%. Doesn’t take a genius to work out this is awesome. Arcane and Fire have copied versions of this, just respective to their own tree.
As we delve into the actual Frost talents, it’s obvious to see a lot is subject to change from the lovely 51-point trees we’re used to in WotLK. The small, concise talent trees of 31-points will certainly get rid of most filler, useless talents we see so much inWotLK. So let’s see what we get from the new Frost talent tree… (Note: The number in brackets next to the name of the talent, is the amount of maximum talent points you can spend in that talent.)
Tier 1
Early Frost (2) – Reduces the cast time of your Frostbolt spell by 0.25/0.5 secs. This effect becomes inactive for 15 sec after use. Not a bad talent, speeding up the cast time of your opening Frostbolt. A great levelling tool, although the 15 sec inactivity period kinda sucks.
Piercing Ice (3) – Increases the critical strike chance of your spells by 1/2/3%. Oooh. Firstly, extra crit is always nice. But notice this isn’t specifically for Frost spells. Being on Tier 1, this talent will inevitably be used in many raiding specs.
Shatter (2) – Multiplies the critical strike chance of all your spells against frozen targets by 2/3. – Wow. This is insane. Multiplies your crit % by 2/3 on frozen targets?! When Fingers of Frost is procced, or you freeze an enemy (which happens a LOT as Frost) depending on your crit chance, you could essentially have a 100% crit chance.
Tier 2
Ice Floes (3) – Reduces the cooldown of your Frost Nova, Cone of Cold, Ice Block, Cold Snap, Ice Barrier and Icy Veins spells by 7/15/25%. – Similar to the current talent, except this one possesses greater utility with it reducing the cooldown on many more of your essential spells for Frost. This will prove very useful for Levelling, PvE and PvP alike.
Improved Cone of Cold (2) – Your Cone of Cold also freezes targets for 2/4 secs. A much needed buff to a dying spell, Cone of Cold with an added freeze element will not only be incredible in PvP, but also for levelling; especially when Frost Nova is on cooldown.
Piercing Chill (2) – Your Frostbolt criticals apply the chill effect to 1/2 additional nearby targets. This could prove very useful for dealing with overpulls while levelling, or even just pulling 3+ mobs. Freeze them all, watch that Frostbolt crit slam your target, and Hey Presto! They’re all chilled. Lovely.
Permafrost (3) – Your chill effects reduces the target’s speed by an additional 4/7/10%, and the target’s healing received by 8/16/25%. In addition, your Water Elemental is healed for 5/10/15% of the damage dealt by you. – A great talent in all aspects, an extra snare effect on the target, less healing received by that target AND it heal’s your Water Elemental. This talent has it’s obvious uses in Levelling and PvP, although I can’t see much room for it in a PvE environment.
Tier 3
Ice Shards (2) – Adds a chill effect to your Blizzard spell. This effect lowers the targets movement speed by 25/40%. Lasts 1 sec. In addition, increases the range of your Ice Lance spell by 2/5 yards. – Apart from the increased range of Ice Lance, which could be situationally useful in PvP, this talent doesn’t do much for me. I can, however, see it has massive AoE levelling potential, putting a chill effect on your Blizzard spell, and twined with Permafrost, this could really boost a Frost Mage’s ability to safely AoE level.
Icy Veins (1) – [3% of base mana, 3 min cooldown] Hastens your spellcasting, increasing casting speed by 20% and reduces the pushback suffered by damaging attacks while casting by 100%. Lasts 20 sec. – Ah, Icy Veins. How I love you so, and to see you not changing much for Cataclysm, I will continue to love you.
Fingers of Frost (3) – Gives your chill effects a 5/10/15% chance to grant you the Fingers of Frost effect, which causes Ice Lance and Deep Freeze to act as if your target were frozen. Fingers of Frost has 2 charges and lasts 15 sec. – Fingers of Frost moving up to Tier 3 is a great upgrade for levelling Mages, as it’s one of the most useful talents for a Frost Mage to deal quick damage. This also has changed from allowing any 2 of your next spells to be under this affect to a specific 2, which could prove more useful for Frost Mages in aid of a mis-click (The amount of times I’ve used a FoF charge on… Fire Blast… >.> ).
Improved Freeze (3) – [Requires 3 points in Fingers of Frost] Gives your Water Elemental’s Freeze spell a 33/66/100% chance to cause Fingers of Frost to activate. – An awesome talent. Apart from being able to freeze your enemy at range, you will also be able to quickly deal some huge damage. This has the potential to give Frost Mages the ability to kill mobs before they even move, and in PvP this will be deadly. Again, not really a talent for a raiding environment.
Tier 4
Enduring Winter (3) – Reduces the mana cost of all spells by 3/6/10%. In addition, your Frostbolt spell has a 33/66/100% chance to grant up to 10 party or raid members mana generation equal to 3% of their maximum mana over 15 sec. – An awesome talent for a PvE environment, however for PvP I don’t see this talent having much use. This talent could be debateable as to whether it is useful for levelling, since the reduced mana cost on your spells could reduce downtime, but there may be better places in the Frost tree where you could spend these 3 talent points.
Cold Snap (1) – [8 min cooldown] When activated, this spell finishes the cooldown on all Frost spells you recently cast. – Eh? Define ‘recently’. I’m hoping this acts as the current Cold Snap as it is a very useful talent which can get you out of tough situations. But if this refreshes the cooldown on my Cone of Cold spell I happened to cast 10 seconds ago, well, that’s not very good at all.
Brain Freeze (3) – Your spells no longer trigger Arcane Missiles. Instead, your Frost damage spells with chilling effects have a 5/10/15% to cause your next Fireball or Frostfire Bolt spell to be Instant cast and cost no mana. – A Brilliant talent now, and from what it seems, it will remain a brilliant talent in Cataclysm. Although it seems more for raiding and levelling purposes, it’s use for PvP is debateable. Extra burst damage is always useful.
Tier 5
Ice Barrier (1) – [30 second cooldown] Instantly shields you, absorbing X damage. Lasts 1 min. While the shield holds, spellcasting will not be delayed by damage. – This seems identical to the current Ice Barrier talent, although this has no pre-requirement to use, which is always nice. A must for any Frost Mage, levelling, raiding, PvP’ing, whatever you do, make sure you get used to using Ice Barrier as often and efficiently as you can.
Shattered Barrier (2) – [Requires 1 point in Ice Barrier] Gives your Ice Barrier spell a 100% chance to freeze all enemies within 10 yds for 3/6 sec when it is destroyed. – It seems the freeze duration on this has been slightly reduced, down from 8 seconds. However, it’s still a great talent; take that you pesky Rogue! Freeze!
Reactive Barrier (2) – [Requires 1 point in Ice Barrier] Gives the caster a 50/100% chance for thee Ice Barrier spell to automatically cast with no mana cost upon taking damage that lowers the caster’s life below 50%. This effect obeys Ice Barrier’s cooldown, and will trigger the cooldown when activated. – Interesting talent, this seems very good indeed for the levelling Frost Mage. Saving you from actually clicking the Ice Barrier button, whenever a Frost Mage somehow gets below 50% health, ping! Ice Barrier. Awesome.
Tier 6
Frostfire Orb (2) – Converts your Flame Orb into a Frostfire Orb, causing your Frostfire Orb to benefit from your Frost Specialization. In addition, reduces the speed of targets slowed by your Frostfire Bolt’s chill effect by an additional 10/20%. – These various Orbs Mage’s are receiving in Cataclysm seem very awesome indeed. Extra damage, and only on a 1 min cooldown. Converting your Fire Orbs into Frostfire Orbs gives the orbs good Frost utility, and the damage you see from your Frostfire Orb could be a lifesaver in certain situations.
Tier 7
This is it. The Frost Mage’s big, final, bottom-tier Cataclysm talent. I give you…
Deep Freeze (1) – [Requires 1 point in Ice Barrier, 30 sec cooldown] Stuns the target for 5 sec. Only useable on Frozen targets. Deals X to Y damage to targets permanently immune to stuns. – Seems to be completely unchanged from the current Deep Freeze. You know how good it is already.
So, overall, the Frost Mage’s Cataclysm tree looks quite formidable. I for one, will defiantly be making another Mage to level as Frost from scratch, to try out the new and improved talents. I don’t have any access to Cataclysm’s Beta, as I don’t want any spoilers. So if you have any first hand experience from inside the Beta, please feel free to share your views to us via comments or the Kuurg Contact Page!
Check out this week’s featured video of a Cataclysm Worgen Frost Mage, for a taster of what it might be like when Cataclysm hits. WARNING: This video may contain spoilers, so if you’re like me, and wish to keep Cataclysm as a surprise, just skip it!
That brings this week of Focus Magic to a close your comments are welcome and if you want to get in touch you can use the Focus Magic - Mage Blog Contact Page. Next week, expect either a Fire or Arcane version of this styled article. Until then, stay strong Mages! See you next week!
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Last Updated on Thursday, 19 August 2010 21:53 Written by Kuurg Wednesday, 18 August 2010 00:30