I’m an avid reader of Euripedes over at Critical QQ and I highly recommend checking out his blog for anyone interested in mage related topics. In November he had a post regarding a frost leveling spec for mages.
You may recall my first character was a mage (Pinskin) and I must admit I miss him. I don’t miss being alliance – not even a little bit – but I do miss the fun I had min/maxing the theorycraft behind his spells.
Recently I created a mage alt named Bîte. I purchased the Bind to Account shoulders and sent them his way along with 50g to get him started with bags, basic equipment and enough to train whatever he may need along the way.
My first impression of Euripedes’ guide was very positive. Don’t get me wrong, it is a wonderful guide and I would recommend it to anyone. I decided to level following it until I reached level 12. Some of you may have heard of the term ‘Irish Mage’.
You drink and fight, drink and fight, drink and fight. Repeat.
The mana trouble I’ve faced with Pinskin wasn’t even a consideration when I read this guide the first time through. Pinskin was 60 long before TBC and was 4/5 t5 before I switched to horde. Leveling Pinskin has been such a minority of his play time that I’ve completely forgotten this plight.
As such I’ve decided to task myself with another guide that focuses more on longevity, which seems to be my biggest problem so far. Bîte has recently hit 20 and it takes a great deal of patience to keep from smashing my face into the keyboard waiting for him to get his mana back. Since I switched over to horde I’ve leved a druid, dk and hunter. So, clearly I’m not used to down time.
Caveat: This guide is meant to be for a frost mage. Blizzard designed this game so you could put points wherever you want (or don’t place any) and still kill what you need to level. There is more than one way to skin a cat, but there are techniques that are more efficient. Having said that, here is my guide for longevity and decreased down time.
I’ll begin by a list of suggested glyphs in order of priority. That is, the first glyph on the list should be the one you use first – since available glyph spots unlock as you level up it’s important you use the most useful as early as you can.
Major Glyphs:
Glyph of Evocation
Glyph of Frost Nova (Replace with Glyph of Water Elemental at level 50)
Minor Glyphs:
Glyph of Arcane Intellect
Glyph of Slow Fall
Glyph of the Penguin (Nothing else is really useful so you may as well get to see the cool penguin instead of the common sheep)
Level 10-14: Improved Frostbolt
This is a very fundamental spell and is the main nuke for the frost tree. The faster you can cast this the faster things will become dead. It’s as simple as that.
Level 15-17: Elemental Precision
This talent is used to increase the chance to hit your target as well as decrease the amount of mana you use. Most of the time you level (especially if you are powerleveling) you will be fighting mobs 1 or 2 levels higher than you. When the level disparity between you and the mobs reaches this much your chance to hit diminishes very quickly. A missed spell is wasted time and mana.
Level 18-20: Permafrost
This will add aditional snaring to your targets as they run towards you. The longer they take to get to you the less damage you take. I recommend maxing this out to increase your survivability. Especially if you play like I do and try and chain pull as much as you can. Speed is the name of the game. Well, in this case it isn’t but you know what I mean.
Level 21-23: Ice Shards
You will want to prepare for the crits you will see when you get to level 25. This spell will increase how much damage they do. Up until now crit was negligible since you are probably around 5% or so. Soon that number will increase significantly so you want your damage to reflect this new opportunity.
Level 24: Frostbite
Frostbite will give your spells a chance to root your target. So, on top of the increased snare there is now a chance for them to get rooted in place. The true power of the frost build will become clear to you when this procs. 
Level 25-27: Shatter
You have now increased your crit chance against frozen targets by 50%. This is why we wanted 3/3 Ice Shards. It is time to begin using your frost nova for more than an “Oh, Shit” spell. Also, when Frostbite procs you will be a very happy mage.
You now have Cone of Cold to play with as well. The mana cost for this spell doesn’t make it worth using as a focus spell, but as an Area of Effect (AoE) it really shines. If you get in a situation where 3 or more mobs are hostile you can frost nova them and cast Cone of Cold. Not only will you see huge numbers but you will have plenty of time to give yourself some distance since you’ve just applied a 60% snare.
Level 28-29: Frostbite
Finish this off to increase your frozen crit opportunities.
Level 30-32: Frost Channeling
Similar use as Elemental Precision. This just decreases the amount of mana you use for your spells. More longevity means faster leveling.
Level 33-34: Arctic Reach
Everything will be as it was, but from further away. 
Level 35-36: Ice Flows
I choose this primarily for the Frost Nova cooldown. You will find all too many uses for Frost Nova along your leveling journey and the more you get to use it the happier you will be. There aren’t too many things that are more frustrating than trying to use Frost Nova and it’s still on cooldown. (War Stomp being on cooldown comes close)
Level 37: Cold Snap
The reason I waited so long to get this is because you generally don’t come across such an uncontrollable situation that you need to cast Frost Nova in such close succession. With Ice Barrier coming learning Cold Snap will be more useful and you should be encouraged to use it more liberally since you have more spells tied to it.
Level 38-39: Cold as Ice
The next talent we will choose (Ice Barrier) is greatly impacted by this talent so we may as well get the best use of it early.
Level 40: Ice Barrier
This spell is probably my favorite mage spell. Oh, special place in my heart that is saved for you, Ice Barrier. Your survivability just went through the roof. Go crazy, die a few times and get a feel for how much more you can do now that you have this. Then reserve yourself a bit and play smart and try and get as much done as possible with this new tool.
Level 41-42: Shattered Barrier
This is basically a free Frost Nova that doesn’t require mana. It is on your shoulders to learn to use this offensively as well as defensively. Aggro your mob(s) and get them where you want them in time for them to break your Ice Barrier. You should have figured out how much that will take at level 40 when I told you to go crazy. Now let them break it and laugh at them as you make your way to a comfortable casting range.
Level 43-44: Improved Blizzard
Two points in this will give your Blizzard a very nice snare effect. Now, Blizzard in conjunction with Shattered Barrier can be a very nice tool for AoE grinding. I caution you to not use this too liberally as you will see your mana diminish very quickly. In fact, the reason I waited so long for this talent is because without Elemental Precision and Frost Channeling you will find Blizzard is entirely too burdensome for the lowbie mage.
Use with caution but engage with extreme prejudice.
Level 45-46: Fingers of Frost
Unfortunately this effect stacks with Frostbite so it’s not all that useful right now. You will see this effect truly shine when you AoE with Blizzard and when you fight mobs that are immune to snares and roots. The FoF effect will still grant you the Shatter effect regardless of whether the mob is rooted or not.
Level 47-48: Empowered Frostbolt
Now your main nuke hits harder. Pretty obvious choice really.
Level 49: Icy Veins
The reason I waited so long to get this is because before full Frost Channeling and Elemental Precision this was just too much of a mana drain to be worth it. Rarely, if ever, do I run into a mob that requires so much focus fire that Icy Veins is necessary to take it down.
Level 50: Water Elemental
Say ‘hello’ to my little friend. This guy, combined with Improved Blizzard, can make those pesky group pulls a pile-o-corpses. Simply pop your Elemental and get him casting on someone in the group – generally a caster since they will be the least effected by the snare of Blizzard. He will take a moment to get his cast off. During this time you should have a Blizzard raining down on the group. If a mob somehow makes his way out of your Blizzard your little friend can lock him down with a ranged Frost Nova until you can get him back into the effect.
Level 51: Improved Blizzard
Finish this off to see the true power of the AoE grind with the acquisition of our little friend.
Level 52-54: Improved Water Elemental
You can now make more liberal use of your Blizzard due to the mana regeneration your Water Elemental now provides you. Although he will never be a permanent pet through talents like the Death Knight’s ghoul he will have a significant duration increase thanks to these talents.
Level 55-59: Chilled to the Bone
You will have no trouble at all entering Hellfire Pennisula with your current arsenal. I recommend steering clear of large amounts of AoE pulls to start your Outland adventures. Sadly the gear you are wearing does not have an ideal spellpower to stamina ratio you will need to easily AoE your way through the Hellboars just yet. Give yourself a few levels in the Outlands to get some better itemized gear and we can start that again later. I’m thinking Terrokar or Nagrand – roughly level 63 or 64.
Level 60: Deep Freeze
With the lack of AoE you will be doing for a bit you can take advantage of the insanity that is Deep Freeze. Focus fire can’t be easier than when the target is completely stunned. Oh, and I should mention that this stun is also treated as a frozen effect. Crit away. I recommend popping Icy Viens during this fun-fest.
You may want to reserve these cooldowns for a particularly nasty pull. Such as a named mob or even an elite. The average mob will probably die before your Icy Veins is complete.
Level 61-63: Piercing Ice
Now that you are equiping yourself with a decent amount of spellpower you will notice a considerable increase in your damage once Piercing Ice is applied. If you like big numbers then smile. Big numbers inc…
Level 64-68: Artic Winds
Unfortunately the nature of this game is the occasional run in with someone your level until you hit the cap. Everyone aims for the cap. There is very little interest in being under the cap so there isn’t much reason to expect others to be under it. Now that you are finishing up in the Outlands and heading towards Northrend you will get opportunities to go to dungeons. (at least more opportunities)
Artic Winds will allow you to do respectable damage when in groups. The 5% increase to frost damage will help for dungeons, quests and any TBC raids you may wish to join.
Level 69: Ice Floes
Finally finish this off.
From here I leave it to you. I will continue with what I will choose for leveling, but at this point you’ve aquired all the core elements that will make your questing quicker and with little down time.
Some people choose to go 2/2 Arcane Subtlety and 3/3 Arcane focus for 5/5 Arcane Concentration. I will not go that route since that is 5 completely wasted points in Arcane Focus and Arcane Subtlety. When leveling I like to make use of all my points.
Arcane Concentration is very nice, but with Frost Channeling, Improved Water Elemental, Elemental Precision, Evocation and Mage Armor you should never have any mana issues. As such I will continue with all the rest of my points into the frost tree.
Level 70-72: Winter’s Chill
You will now be entering dungeon’s since it is more common to find groups for them in Northrend than anywhere else. As such this is a great debuff to put on the target which is helpful for everyone. You will even make use of it on mobs you kill for normal questing.
Level 73-75: Brain Freeze
An instant fireball is a lot of added damage. Noting further that it’s free makes it very nice to have. Theory crafters will say not to use this while FoF is up. Agreed that you will make more use of your FoF effect if you don’t use a fireball to consume it. I would argue though that during your regular mob leveling you probably won’t find a situation that you’ll need to maximize your dps to the point you really need to worry about that. If you see the Brain Freeze proc just use the damn fireball. If you notice you have FoF then a Frostbolt would be ideal but I wouldn’t sweat it too much either way.
Having said that, if you are in a dungeon (especially a boss encounter) you should be sure to avoid using Brain Freeze to consume FoF. You will want to squeeze out as much damage as possible on a boss fight. Unless, of course, you are pulling aggro.
Having said that, you should never pull aggro. You have 3/3 Frost Channeling and Invisibility. If you pull aggro it’s only because you are being dumb…and you know it.
Level 76-78: Improved Cone of Cold
At this point you will be entering some of the mid-ranged zones in Northrend. Zul’drak or Scholazar Basin are the most likely bets. Many of the quests in these zones are straight kill quests – especially Scholazar Basin. The opportunity to do more AoE presents itself with a significant increase in the damage of Cone of Cold.
Level 79: Frozen Core
At this point it’s really a toss up. Since you make no use for it elsewhere I suggest putting it into Frozen Core. The added survivability for Icecrown and Storm Peaks can’t hurt but truthfully this last point is really just a place holder until you hit 80.
Once you hit 80 I suggest respecing. This spec is not ideal for raiding, pvp or farming. So, do a little research once you hit 80 and decide what works best for you at that point.
I hope you found this guide helpful. Once again I’d like to point out that there are several specs that are useful for leveling but if you are looking for survivability, aoe grinding and mana efficiency this spec should work well for you.
03/09/2009 at 11:49 am
I have created a follow-up/update for mages interested in leveling a bit more aggressively. After following this guide for a while I decided it was a bit too conservative for me. Your survivability and mana longevity is outstanding but the damage is a bit lacking.
You can read about my guide for the geared mage here:
http://ricomoss.wordpress.com/2009/03/09/frost-leveling-guide-for-the-geared/
03/11/2009 at 7:33 am
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