In this guide you’ll find the best talents and builds for Frost Mage in PvE. Frost Mages have multiple builds that they can use in both Raids and Dungeons, including a specially designed AoE build for Dungeons to peel for their teammates.

Standard Build (Deep Frost)

This is the standard Deep Frost build for Frost Mage, often referred to as the Winter’s Chill build by the community! This build is not the best performing when it comes to Single-Target Damage Output but it acts as a support role for all other Deep Arcane builds, empowering their Damage Output through the Winter’s Chill effect which increases all Frost Spell’s Critical Strike Chance by 10%. Since the build is deep into the Frost Talent Tree, key talents such as Ice Block and Ice Barrier are available which offer great damage mitigation. Improved Blizzard is also taken for its crowd control effect, yet only one point in Permafrost is taken since other talents such as Cold Snap, Artic Reach, or Frost Channeling are much more important to max out. In addition, you also want to reach Arcane Meditation from the Arcane Tree, meaning that you simply can’t spend too many points in the Frost Tree.

In the Arcane Tree, Arcane Focus, Arcane Subtlety, and Arcane Concentration are mandatory while the rest are subjective until you reach Arcane Meditation.

Standard Deep Frost Build (Shatter Variation)

This variation works exactly the same as the previous Deep Frost Build, but it’s also tailored around the Shatter mechanic for AoE in Dungeons and Raids. The problem with the build is that it has no points in Improved Blizzard and only 2 points in Arcane Meditation, meaning that it can’t be used to peel for allies while it also doesn’t have the best Mana Regeneration. However, it retains the major selling points of the build such as Winter’s Chill, Ice Block, and Ice Barrier while providing substantial AoE damage with Shatter.

AoE Build

The AoE build is specifically tailored for Dungeons as it’s not that reliable for Single-Target Damage Output in Raids since it lacks Improved Frostbolt and Arcane Meditation. The idea behind the build is to have access to both the Shatter mechanic and Improved Blizzard with 3/3 points in Permafrost. The idea is to empower your AoE as much as possible, even placing points in Improved Cone of Cold to further increase its damage in the Flamestrike & Cone of Cold combo.

The rest of the build remains the same as the Deep Frost Shatter variant, with the exception of a few talents. The main differences are the lack of points in Winter’s Chill and taking 3/3 points in Improved Arcane Explosion instead of points in Magic Absorption to further increase AoE damage.