Frost Mage Gear and Stats

[Majicplicity]

Basically for the last 2 years, I have raided heavily on Alliance. About a month ago, I decided to take a step back and go join some friends on a differant server on the horde side. Well, I got to 70 less than a week ago, and am trying to gear myself for kara to start. I have the shoulders and the boots for the frozen shadoweave set and am working on the chest. I notice none of the pieces have any crit or +hit on them, and are strictly just +dmg. I am really trying to figure out where I need to be as far as crit as a frost mage, and of course I know I need to work on my + hit. Any advice anyone has for me as far as gear or where I should be as far as stats would be greatly appreciated.

Current Gear:
http://armory.worldofwarcraft.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Caelestrasz&n=Majicplicity

[Krispin149]

if you want to raid seriously, you shouldn't be frost. Also, +hit items were really hard to get at the starting of Kara from what I remember, but the are some items like the black stalk from heroics which will help. I don;t really have any specifics but you can easily find the hit you need with atlas loot.

[Ideon]

you should aim for ~30% crit unbuffed, +16% hit (without talents like Elemental Precision and Arcane Focus that is only for arcane) and loads of spell damage, 1000+ if possible

[tornblake]

As previously said, if you plan on raiding very hard on your mage, fire is the way to go.

However, as far as frost goes, +Spell Hit>+Spell Damage>+Spell Crit. I'm unsure as to where haste fits into a frost rotation, so I won't list it.

The hit cap for a mage with 3/3 Elemental Precision is 164.
Your ideal crit with a full stack of Winter's Chill is 30%+
As for damage, the more the better. And point for point, +Spell Damage beats everything else for a frost mage after you reach the Spell Hit cap.

Do keep in mind that a large chunk of your dps will come from your pet, learn to keep him safe at all costs.

You're definitely on the right road, keep farming badges and filling in pieces with PvP gear as you can.

[Meliodoul]

I've been a frost mage for the entire career of my character and I've learned a decent number of things about it so I'll help ya out a little bit. For starting out Kara, getting that chest piece is going to be a huge benefit because it is +damage. Until you start getting higher up there, +damage is kind of all that frost really has going for it, but that's ok.

You get a little help with getting spell crit and spell hit, granted you're throwin' frostbolts (which is a given). Elemental precision is going to give you a free 3% spell hit and Empowered Frostbolts will tack on an extra 5% crit chance, so keep that in mind while you're fidgeting with armor so you don't make any sacrifices you don't need to.

Next, don't worry about going frost in raids, it's awesome. It's not a huge, holy crap, 5000 damage spell, burst-fest, but it lasts a hell of a lot longer, and used properly, is a hell of a lot better. Keep in mind that, though it seems like smaller damage, you have a water elemental that can help you add more damage to things, AND you have Winter's Chill, which I find very effective in raids since you get more of an opportunity to see it work for you, especially on bosses.

Where you're at, i'd say focus on your +damage and go to town. Get yourself a little bit goin' on spell hit, but don't make huge sacrifices. Spell hit isn't THAT important UNLESS it's on a boss (despite what people think. Don't believe me, do Kara trash in non-spell hit gear and check WWS). As I got the gear for it, I made up two sets, one that was spell hit-tacular, and one that was damage/crit-tacular.

You should be able to manage quite well, and get quite easily to the following:

+750-850 Frost Damage (not spell damage 'cause the shadoweave set is biased)
+15-18% crit (not including +5% from empowered frostbolts and anything you gain from winters chill)
+5-8% spell hit, +14% for bosses (since you get 3% free on frostbolts and that's pretty much all you'll be casting)

Also, macro your icy veins to your frostbolt so you cast it whenever you get the chance, it's 20 seconds of 2 second frostbolts and it's a great way to boost the DPS. If you check my gear, you'll notice I went very heavy on haste. It's something I'm trying...I like it a lot and I have yet to see a mage, even a lot of Tier 5 mages, out DPS me.

Good luck and GO FROST MAGES!

[Milliana]

Raiding as frost is indeed not sub-par, especially not pre-T6. If you sync your WE with your cooldowns, and use both when available you should be on par with fire if not above.

If you need +hit, go for Spellstrike pants and Belt of blasting. Both are craftable BoE so should be easy to get, and both will hold their own till well within the T5 area. They lack stam, so be careful on some fights like Netherspite where there is a lot of damage all around. If you need to compensate, the S3 bracers and the S1 weapons are available for honor and fine for raiding as well.

Other easy +hit are the glove enchant (cheaper in mats then spelldamage and only slightly less effective) and Scryer's bloodgem which is obtained at revered.

[Majicplicity]

Thanks for all the replies. I am about a day away from having the chest piece, and have been working on the mats for the belt. I have the scryer bloodgem in my pack for bosses. Spell strike pants are on my list as well, but am trying not to overload myself too much. As I said I stepped back from hardcore raiding (was in hyjal/bt on the alliance side) but the competitiveness comes out in me even in a casual standpoint. As far as frost vs fire, I plan to stay frost. I enjoy it, and could get linked a thousand sites saying fire is better dps, and wouldn't change because of it. Have gotten some mixed answers from both here and some friends I have talked to in game, but in the end it seems to focus on spell dmg more than crit, at least at the stage I am in and get hit capped or as close to as possible without sacrificing too much spell dmg.

[tonythe1]

Hit cap for frost with EP is 127, don't say things if you're not sure. 18/0/43 can rip things apart, I've beaten fire mages before in MH/BT, and they didn't suck, I'm just able to pull 1.5K DPS. This spec does require more skill to play, whether some people want to admit it or not. The only time you will need to go fire is for the sunwell most probably but I've seen frost mages in there before.

[Baldassar]

Deep frost is great for t4 and early t5 raiding, don't mind the narrow minded people, just go ahead.

You will need (only for raid bosses, not for 5mans) 16% hit with spells, which for a deep frost mage, accepting the existance of ghost hit (elemental precision gives 6% to frostbolt rather than 3) costs 126 hit rating to get 98.98% hit, 127 to get 99%, which is the cap.

Spell damage is your only friend until you have more than 1 thousand unbuffed. You get 15% crit from talents and winter's chill, and you should have another 10% without any effort, so due to the fact that spell crit rating is the most expensive stat, it is not worth gemming or looking for at any gear level. If an item just happens to have it, it's welcome.

Spell haste is the next stat that should concern you, when you are satisfied with your spell damage. I have not done much calculations about frost so i cannot give you a number where spell haste tops spell damage. this spreadsheet (http://www.manoutoftime.org/staticpages/index.php/tcom) should help you determine it yourself.



P.S. note that if you wish to play an Arcane Blast spec when (if) you get your hands on two tier 5 parts, spell haste will be one of the worst stats to get, whilst spell damage will be the only dps stat you will be needing.