Frost Mage Frequently Asked Questions — The War Within (11.0.5)

Frost is unique among casters. Every other caster in the game calculates if their spell is going to Critically Strike the moment it leaves your hands. Due to Winter's Chill wanting you to cast an Ice Lance directly afterward but being unable to be applied to the target at long distance before the Global Cooldown is up, Blizzard changed when Frost's spells check their Critical roll to the moment of impact.

This moment of spell-checking allows for the slower traveling Glacial Spike and Frostbolt to be launched first, but impact after the first bolt of the extremely fast Flurry, assuming it is cast directly afterwards. It is this cast time spell → Flurry → Ice Lance combo that is the heart of Frost and it is this combo you must master to be competent in the spec, regardless of the talents chosen.

In addition, Ice Lance also has a fairly fast travel speed and should always follow up any Flurry. Winter's Chill will consider the target frozen—Ice Lance will Shatter and gain the triple damage benefit, just as if it were cast under Fingers of Frost. And again, since Frost's spells calculate their Critical status on the moment of impact, you should cast it immediately afterward rather than wait for Winter's Chill to apply to the target. The travel time involved will make sure your Ice Lance always benefits from frozen status. Waiting will make you miss the window.

Technically, there are a few soft caps, yes. They are not obtainable caps and should not be worried about. Regardless, they are here for the sake of information.

The GCD cap, in which the GCD for all spells cannot be lowered any further, is at +100% Haste. This is what people are usually referring to in regards to any form of Haste cap. Due to the spec having Icy Veins, this has historically been something Frost Mages have bumped up against. In Legion, the GCD cap was moved from +50% to +100%, negating almost all normal scenarios in which it is a consideration and thus is not a thing to worry about as of now.

Any other caps that are mentioned are soft caps, such as the number of spells you could fit into a single trinket effect, boss vulnerability timer, or the amount of Haste required to bring a cast time spell down to GCD cap. Most of these should not be worried about in standard play.

There is a Shatter cap, at 33.34%. This is the point that all spells considered frozen will crit. Beyond that, there is the absolute cap of 100%.

As to how much is needed, that will depend on your gear and how your sim. While stat weights are not a great idea for soft caps like Shatter, due to how they are calculated, the gear comparisons will always ring true. You should always simulate your gear options, no matter what. Simulating will be how anyone, including top-end theorycrafters, raiders, and people in the Altered Time Discord Questions channel will provide help to you.

Technically, Dwarf for single target. Vold Elf would be the better option for both single target and AoE, although Lightforged will win raw AoE simply due to their massive AoE burst racial. That said, the actual difference from best race to worst race is less than 1%, so the most realistic answer is "whichever your transmog looks best on".

Details can be found on the Simulations page: