PvE Frost Mage Stat Priority – WoW Classic
Nevermore • Updated June 7, 2025
Frost Mages have the same stat priority as most caster specializations, favoring Spell Power, Hit Chance, and Intellect. Here you can find the stat priority ordered in terms of importance for Frost Mages, along with an in-depth explanation for each stat.
Stat Priority
- Hit Chance
- Spell Critical Strike Chance
- Spell Power/Frost Damage Spell Power
- Intellect
- Spirit
- Mp5
- Stamina
Hit Chance is the most important stat for most Caster specializations, including Frost Mages! The cap for Spell Hit Chance in WoW Classic is 16%, with Mages having a special benefit thanks to the Elemental Precision talent, automatically receiving 6% as a result. As such, Mages need to acquire the rest of the 10% Hit Chance from their gear, making it far easier when compared to other Caster specializations. In the first phases, the Hit Chance cap is impossible to acquire without dampening the other stats, however, later on, Mages should always be around the cap to ensure a maximum DPS output.
Spell Critical Strike Chance is a stat that allows your spells to land critical hits, dealing extra damage! This stat is pretty self-explanatory, being very important to maximize Damage Output. Thankfully, Frost Mages have an advantage through several talents that allow them to have both increased Critical Strike Chance and Critical Strike Damage such as Shatter, Winter’s Chill, Ice Shards, and Improved Arcane Explosion depending on the build they’re playing. There is an effective cap for Spell Critical Strike Chance, yet it is unreachable. You also gain an increased Spell Critical Strike Chance from Intellect!
Spell Power is the second most important stat for Frost Mages, empowering all of their Damage! The stat is split into Raw Spell Power and Frost Damage Spell Power, with both variants being viable. However, Raw Spell power is the preferred variant, as it is far more useful overall since it empowers Fire & Arcane spells as well. You will want to stack as much Spell Power as possible without dampening other important stats such as Spell Critical Strike Chance or Intellect.
Intellect is a stat that increases a Frost Mage’s Mana Pool and Spell Critical Strike Chance. Every point of Intellect increases Mana while every 59.5 points of Intellect increases Spell Critical Strike Chance by 1%. The stat acts as the primary stat for the class/specialization, often being stacked as much as possible without dampening Spell Power and Spell Critical Strike Chance. There is no active cap to how much Intellect you can acquire.
Spirit is a stat that increases your Health & Mana regeneration while out of combat. Through the Arcane Meditation talent, Frost Mages can use Spirit as a means of keeping their Mana Pool healthy, especially when further combined with Mage Armor. Spirit follows the MP5 rule, meaning that each tick is recuperated every 2 seconds.
Mp5 is a stat that grants Mana Regeneration every 5 seconds, with each regeneration happening every 2 seconds. The regeneration is called “tick” and works just like Spirit, allowing Frost Mages to maintain a healthy Mana Pool when combined with Arcane Meditation and Mage Armor.
Stamina is a stat that increases your Health Pool! This stat for Frost Mages can be mostly ignored, however, some Stamina is required to avoid becoming a Glass Cannon.
All other stats such as Agility, Armor, Strength, Attack Power, Melee Hit Chance, and Melee Critical Strike Chance should be entirely avoided as they grant absolutely no bonus to Frost Mages!
PvE Frost Mage Stat Priority
As Frost Mages, We will want to focus on Spell power then haste with other stats being secondary while taking care to remain hit capped.
Stat Priority
- Hit rating
- Cap: 368 rating / 289 if your raid has a Shadow Priest or Balance Druid / 263 if there’s also a Draenei in your party
- Spell Power
- Haste Rating
- Critical Strike Rating
- Spirit
- Intellect
PvE Frost Mage Stat Priority
Kurathis • Updated June 2, 2025
- Spell Hit Rating (With Elemental Precision, your target is 164 Spell Hit Rating)
- Spell Haste Rating
- Spell Damage
- Spell Critical Strike Rating
- Intellect
Spell Hit Rating – For every 12.62 Spell Hit Rating, we gain 1% Spell Hit Chance. The reason why this is our top priority is that any missed spells mean less damage for us, and if we’re responsible for kiting certain mobs and we miss a Frostbolt or Polymorph, it could spell disaster for us
Spell Haste Rating – While not too common on items in Phase 1, there are still some items that provide Haste Rating placed in your Pre-Raid/BiS gearsets. Haste decreases our casting time (it increases our casting speed) which means we get to cast more spells, quicker. It also decreases our global cooldown on spells
Spell Damage – The more spell damage we have, the more damage our spells cause
Spell Critical Strike Rating – A critical strike causes 150% damage. Having more critical strike chance means we’ll be prone to more critical strikes, increasing our damage
Intellect – Intellect provides the mana we require to cast our spells. The more mana we have, the more spells we can cast before going out of mana (oom) Intellect also provides a slight increase to our spell critical strike rating, as well.
You forgot to mention that intellect also gives you an increased spell crit chance
Great catch! I’ve updated the guide to better reflect this.
so its 164 hit including the Elemental Presicion? I thought if u have elemental presicion it minus 6 from 164 making it 158 needed?
By default, casters need 16% Spell Hit to reach their cap. 16% is equivalent to 202 Spell Hit Rating. With Elemental Precision providing 3%, or roughly 38 Spell Hit Rating, that reduces our required Spell Hit Rating down to 164 or 13%.