Frost 3.3 Analysis (PvE)

#0 - Oct. 14, 2009, 5:25 p.m.

Updated 10/28

Our accuracy on evaluating these changes has improved, with both SimulationCraft and MageGraph now simulating some of these changes (hopefully with reasonable accuracy, but certainly better than my napkin math). Numbers assume a 5-minute encounter in best-in-slot T9 gear calculated for Frost by Rawr.

Current Numbers and Conclusions

The current cookie-cutter Frost spec is 18/0/53 with Brain Freeze, Spell Impact, and 1/3 SotM. It does about 79.6% of Arcane's DPS and about 82.0% of Fire's DPS. Waterbolt is responsible for about 7.7% of the total.

The new Glyph of Eternal Water looks like about a 6.8% DPS increase.

The Deep Freeze change, with assumptions explained below, looks like about another 4.2% DPS increase if you can use the proc reasonably consistently (see below).

Total combined increase is about 11.1%. Additionally, a couple of points are freed up; maxing out both Spell Impact and Student of the Mind in a 20/0/51 spec brings Frost to about 89.1% of Arcane and about 90.7% of Fire. The spec looks like this:

http://www.wowarmory.com/talent-calc.xml?cid=8&tal=00500503310003000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000523030311233100030152231151

Problems/Bugs/Suggestions for adjustments

Deep Freeze

- Currently consumes two charges of Fingers of Frost
- "Immune" message (from attempted stun) appears alongside damage; confusing

Enduring Winter

This talent is now pretty useless past the first point for both PvE and PvP builds. Remove the duration extension and replace it with something else.

Possible issues the change could improve:
- Dead before resummon cooldown is up
- Damage output
- Utility

Endurance used to be on the list, but was dropped due to the drastic reduction in Waterbolt's cost. I'm ruling out Utility, as I'm guessing that they don't want to add a whole new spell to the pet bar or a new aura to the elemental.

The most likely suggestion would therefore probably be something like:

- Increase Spell Power/Stam inheritance by X/Y/Z%

Glyph of Eternal Water

Instead of completely eliminating the ability to cast Freeze, what if the glyph allowed you to cast Freeze, but doing so sacrifices the elemental? It's still unattractive for PvP (you can only get one nova per summon instead of two) and it still involves a tradeoff in PvE (mana/gcd to resummon, and you're subject to the cooldown so you can't do it more than every 2.4-3 minutes), but it at least allows the option to have that utility on tap in an emergency.

Frozen Core

This change was dropped. It didn't work very well.

#252 - Oct. 20, 2009, 9:26 p.m.

This has been a great thread, and I'm going to risk derailing it by posting here (which is often why I don't respond to some of the better threads).

We're not 100% sure we're going to go forward with the Frozen Core change. It isn't a major PvE damage buff and has some problems with haste. While it does, perhaps, get Ice Lance into PvE, it might encourage some builds that don't feel all that frosty. It also doesn't add much of a dynamic to PvP really, so all in all we're not sure the change is worth it.

We still want to do some Frost changes for 3.3 though. The Elemental glyph will probably stay and we're messing with a role for Deep Freeze for PvE. Putting FFB on Brain Freeze is something that gets suggested a lot.