Too cool for school

When I last left my mage, he had finished most of the Zangermarsh quests and was getting ready to start on Terrokar Forest with a full load of rested XP and the new patch. Mob killing was the typical FrBx3, FN, FrBx2 with a rest every 3 or 4 mobs to drink.

Well, the patch is here and Frost is a whole 'nother world. I'm running a pure frost spec and I feel so OP that it's crazy. The key talents I feel are making the difference are Improved Water Elemental, Fingers of Frost, and Brain Freeze, but there's plenty of support talents that really set Frost on a lofty pedestal.

It's pretty easy to see why Imp WE is great, but it's more than the extended duration - when he's out, I regen mana fast enough that I can cast non-stop without running out of mana. And that's a lot, since my new rotation is a lot closer to FrB, FrB, FrB, Fireblast, dead mob. That's because there's usually a Brain Freeze in there somewhere that lets me toss an instant-cast, 0 mana cost Fireball into the mix. I didn't think it would be that great, but it procs a lot. I would say once every mob or two is pretty typical. Added to the extra slowing of Chilled to the Bone and extra damage from Fingers of Frost and I rarely cast Frost Nova anymore, especially since you can just stand there with Ice Barrier on and let it auto-FN anyone who breaks it.

To give an example, I did the quest The Shadow Tomb last night. If you recall, it involves a 3-wing mini-dungeon where there's an object at the end of each wing you need to retrieve. To further complicate things, there's also an NPC you have to rescue as part of an escort quest that generally starts as the respawns start popping. Oh, did I mention that the mobs run when low on health? This quest was very painful on both my shadow priest and my rogue.

In contrast, this was a walk in the park for my frost mage. I was able to kill about four in a row without stopping with my WE out. Stop for one drink, then finish the room. Repeat twice and start the escort. The only thing even close to dicey was when I had a double respawn in the central chamber coupled with a caster from a side chamber (3 mobs total). Had NPC on one, sheeped the other, cold snapped and popped the WE on the third and it was cake. I think I cast Frost Nova only once the whole time I was in there.

I love my mage!