Frost Mage DPS Stat Priority — 12.0.5

The following is a good guideline for stats for Arcane Mages:

No stat should really ever be hard stacked. Everything works off each other. As an example: Haste may be great, but there comes a point where slower yet effectively higher damage per cast time spells would be better, through stacking Mastery to improve Frostbolt's damage. Yet if you were to do the opposite, stacking Mastery to the exclusion of Haste, you would see the opposite show up. Faster, slightly weaker, casts would be better than heavily stacked Mastery casting very slowly. This is the primary reason stat weights are not static, and in fact, change with every piece of gear.

TCHow do Stat Weights Work?

As a primary example, here is are the stat weights of a given character for whatever talent set they logged out in:

And here is what happens if all Haste is removed and turned into Mastery:

Stacking even a small portion of stats has skewed the weights so hard that Haste is now valued above Critical Strike, and very nearly above Intellect.

Optimization

Simulations and Tools

While a generalized stat priority will assist new players, there really is no substitute for simming your character. Learn more with this guide!

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Intellect is your "primary" stat, meaning that you use it rather than Agility or Strength, not that it is the best in all situations. It provides you with Spell Power, which increases the damage of your spells.

Versatility is a flat-out damage done increase and damage taken reduction.

Critical Strike increases your chance to Critically Strike.

Mastery: Freeze and Shatter is a flat increase to spells that Freeze, or Shatter respectively. A notable exception as of writing is Blizzard and Frozen Orb are included in the Freezing side of the Mastery.

Haste decreases the cast time of your spells. In particular, decreasing the cast time of Frostbolt is very beneficial because it means that you can cast Frostbolt more often, increasing your chances to get procs, and the rate at which you generate Icicles. Haste also lowers your base Global Cooldown. Haste also increases the cast speed of your Water Elemental and Mirror Images.

Every stat has a limit where they will begin to offer less increase per point gained, which are known as the points of diminishing return. Once you have reached these amounts, stats will become progressively less valuable and may fall behind other options. The current breakpoints are:

Itemization

Gearing and Enchants

Your stat priority extends to enchants, consumables, and gear. Take what you learned on this page and apply it to your gameplay with these two guides!

GearEnchants

Kuni

Guide Author

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This guide has been written by Kuni, one of the best Frost Mages in the world, who raids in Mortal Desire.