Frost Mage Guide

I. Introduction

I see a lot of questions regarding a frost mage and what he can and can't do. I have been a frost mage a long time, earlier in fact than I should have been. I have also tried every frost build commercially vendored. In addition I have also tried fire and arcane out. Wonderful trees both.

II. Dealing damage with Frost:

Contrary to popular belief frost can do a heck of a lot of damage with a total build. Single or multiple targets PvE and PvP frost can do comparable damage to fire. However fire can do the damage with less work and from a safer distance. Moreover fire can do it with less investment, which brings us to the very important first law of a frost mage.

FROST TIP NUMBER UNO: You do not go frost before you are 45'th level, better yet don't go frost till 55. The longer you can hold out the better. Why? Because fire is less reliant on its own talents to produce results. Frost needs every point you put in.

Damage Cont.. The damage you do with frost comes from the 2.5 second frost bolts that have a 15% frost bite proc, the shatter points you got, the ice shards you got for the 200% crits, the 6% damage bonus from the piercing ice and that frost channeling that makes you last 15% longer. Also in this package is the 35% cone of cold bonus, which if you climb this high is an absolute must for both PvE and especially PvP. However, without everything and the kitchen sink frost does less damage, in fact every point you pull lowers you damage and efficiency across the board. Note this and remember that. The less vital points to pull are the channeling, the piercing ice and nothing, every point after that comes out of your pocket.

Summary: To deal good damage with frost you need the following talents

-Improved Frost Bolt 5/5: This is the core of your damage, the frost bolt, by reducing its cast time you improve the spell in terms of flat DPS, in terms of interrupt ability and in terms of utility. This is a must for every frost build that hopes to damage with frost.

-Ice Shards: Doubles your critical damage, how much better can you get. With this you can put up great big E-peen numbers and really make a difference in your damage output.

-Improved Cone of Cold: This makes cone of cold viable as a source of damage. Before this talent the skill is very much dead weight in terms of damage per mana. After this talent it is still a hog but a beefy razorback kill you sort of hog as opposed to the fat sow it was before.

-Shatter: If you plan on soloing ever or PvP then this is an awesome talent. While it is worthless in raids and certain instance situations it is still the only way that frost can compete with fire in terms of burst.

-Piercing Ice: A gimme talent that is only to be used when all other options are exausted. Not a huge boost in terms of damage it is still worth the points invested. Used in the larger frost builds.

-Frost Bite: This one shows up under both damage and control for good reason. It can be both. PvP it is a control talent. However PvE it is a damage talent that speeds up killing of generic mobs amazingly and can allow you to solo caster elites with a great degree of success. It is basically a 10% bonus critical talent PvE. It has PvP merits as well.

-Artic Reach: Get this, period, its range, range is god.

-Frost Channeling: A better talent than Piercing ice for the points invested, it has roughly double the effect as with frost one must get away from the notion that all the damage has to be in one blow. This allows you to keep on chugging. Take it before piercing ice unless there is a pressing reason not to.

II. Control:

Control is very ice. Get it, ice instead of nice? Anyway frost has a control half to its talents. This half of frost can in fact be developed almost without the damage half, and in fact a very good build can be made doing just this. However if you choose to tackle the damage aspect of frost you have to also take a look at control. If you are going ice/arcane you can afford to neglect some of this as built in frost already has decent control. The critical control talents are as such...........artic reach................. Moving on to frost tip number 2

FROST TIP NUMERO DOS: Control talents are completely based off of the spec you are running in some specs artic reach is it in other specs its just the beginning. I will address this further in the talent builds section.

Summary: The control talents are a wacky bunch here is the basic lowdown on each one.

-Artic Reach: Get this, its range, range is the devil.

-Winters Chill: A decent 3 points that usually come near the end of a build. Some people love it others are iffy.

-Improved Frost Nova: Why not is the word of the day. It will make a difference and it is the gateway to the shatter effect. Any primary frost build should have this.

-Improved Blizzard: Absolutely necessary if blizzard is to have any use. Without this blizzard is an inferior flame strike, with this blizzard is a snaring monster. Max this talent unless you have a specific reason to hate yourself.

-Permafrost: For almost every frost build more than 1 point in this talent is a waste. The one point that is spent makes it such that the blizzard snare can very rarely be escaped. Under normal circumstances, resisting one of the waves allows you to escape the snare. With a 2.5 sec duration escape is impossible before the next wave.

-Frostbite: As a PvP control talent this is a godsend. A snared player even for 4 seconds is great. Since it proc’s off of every blizzard wave and almost everyone in the blizzard is stuck there this roots a lot of people. PvE this talent is a liability more often than not as it breaks up packs when AoE’ing. Take it as you see fit, though it does belong in any heavy duty frost build.

III. Defense: Ice block, Frost barrier. In short ice block is better than frost barrier. Ice block is essential. The minute you put one point in that blue tab you better work your way up to that or the baby Jesus will choke to death on his own vomit. In-group PvP or PvE or just in general this skill is god. In fact the truth is I made up the defense category just so I can rant about how good this is. This is what ice block does. It freezes you in place granting total immunity to everything for 10 seconds. In addition it clears you of all negative status effects save res sickness and the mark of frost antizerg debuff of Azuregos the raid ice dragon. This means that in one button push you can wipe all a priest/warlocks debuffs, give yourself 10 seconds to have timers reset, give you priest 10 seconds to heal you, drop all aggro in any PvE situation. Ignore the fact that ragnaros himself wants you dead. Remove a physical debuff like hamstring or sunder armor or save you weak mage but in group PvP because if that angry cow with a mace insists on beating you for the duration of the spell you are at a definitive advantage because while all the immunes are popping up for him, his decidedly un immune keister is getting baked. Frost barrier, if your there get it if not don't its just that simple. IF you are going for 31+ points in frost then it’s a no brainer and its really handy. If you are debating 30/31 points in frost then it’s your choice totally. Which way you swing is an entirely personal preference.

Summary

-Iceblock: The god talent. Get this or die.

-Ice Barrier: If you are there get it if not don’t bother.

-Coldsnap: Included for sake of completeness, get it there is no reason not to as all frost builds worth their salt climb to iceblock.

IV. Talent Builds that work:

Not to be a jackass to all those people who have working talent builds that aren't in my list but I think that some builds are better than others. And this is something that deserves addressing.

46/5 Frost arcane: This build is a very cool customer...haha...I crack me up.... that said this is a very skill intensive build that is formed by simply taking everything in frost save improved frost ward then grabbing improved arcane missiles. Its advantages are that it is the best bar non in terms of damage per mana, and you are very reliable. Your blizzard, if used with skill and care can bring an entire group to its knees and by golly your damage isn't half bad either. Of course this is a difficult build to master, without IAE you are left swinging in the wind if you don't take care, and for PvE mixed mob pulls can spell the end of you without proper support. That being said a build like this does best to neglect HP and load up on nothing but Int items. If you are playing correctly the enemy should never touch you, and without the second mana bar of arcane you need a higher top end. That being said, you will in PvE last longer and do more than any other mage. What is best not mentioned to these guys is their lack of really solid instant option in PvP and their inability to win one on one. Without support they die.

Frost Talents

Arctic Reach Rank 2, Improved Frost Nova Rank 2, Improved Cone of Cold Rank 3, Improved Blizzard Rank 3, Piercing Ice Rank 3, Shatter Rank 5, Improved Frostbolt Rank 5, Ice Shards Rank 5, Frost Channeling Rank 3, Cold Snap Rank 1, Ice Barrier Rank 1, Permafrost Rank 4, Frostbite Rank 5, Ice Block Rank, Winter's Chill Rank 3

Arcane Talents

Improved Arcane Missiles Rank 5

40/11 Frost arcane: A slightly less hardcore version that still is down with the whole frost thing. A usual sacrifice is piercing ice and frost channeling to get clear casting and evocation. While it does less damage this build can be considered the most efficient raid build out their. With it you are the energizer bunny of mages in places where you are expected to produce once in a while but not all the time. This build allows spamming blizzard (every wave now has a chance to proc clear casting) far more than the 46/5 build even though you frost bolt spam will be shorter. It also has a way to recover from mana burn or provide an emergency boost through evocation. Plus this has the added advantage of exploiting the clear casting system with rank 1 frost bolts.

Frost Talents

Arctic Reach Rank 2, Improved Frost Nova Rank 2, Improved Cone of Cold Rank 3, Improved Blizzard Rank 3, Shatter Rank 5, Improved Frostbolt Rank 5, Ice Shards Rank 5, Cold Snap Rank 1, Ice Barrier Rank 1, Frostbite Rank 5, Ice Block Rank 1, Winter's Chill Rank 3, 4 flex points that can go into channeling/piercing ice with the extra going to permafrost

Arcane

Imp. Arcane Missiles rank 5, Arcane Concentration rank 5, Evocation rank 1

33/18 frost/arcane: The standard PvE/PvP build for the man not that interested in sacrificing everything for frost. he picks up damage and the utility of instant arcane explosions. A good instance build and a solid choice for those not sure of their own skills. Unlike the build before blizzard need not be the end all of damage and you still have the devastating FN+FB+CoC combo for single target damage well into 2K+ land, with the barest of luck. Your counter spell silences and overall life is good. This is a great instance PvP endgame build and I most strongly recommend it to those without a definite vision of what they want to do end game. With this build you are welcome in all places and can function well enough to enjoy yourself wherever you go. Core talents: Imp CoC, frostbite, shatter, ice shards, improved frost nova. Note that dropping 1 point into permafrost for the improved blizzard is a good idea.

Frost

Arctic Reach Rank 2, Improved Frost Nova Rank 2, Improved Cone of Cold Rank 3, Improved Blizzard Rank 3, Shatter Rank 5, Improved Frostbolt Rank 5, Ice Shards Rank 5, Cold Snap Rank 1, Ice Barrier Rank 1, Frostbite Rank 5, Ice Block Rank 1,

Arcane

Imp. Arcane Missiles rank 5, Arcane Concentration rank 5, Evocation rank 1, Imp. Arcane Explosion Rank 5, Imp. Counterspell Rank 2

30/21 frost arcane: This build is the more aggressive cousin of the 33/18. Sacrificing a few points out of frost bite for PoM. I like this one and it is the one I settled on after about 6 respecs. It retains the high damage to groups that frost is famous for and give it the PoM trick. A fireball, a frost bolt, a sheep a flame strike, versatility is good and it allows you to serve in a multitude of manners. You have the best AoE in the game and all it cost you was an ice barrier and 2 points from frostbite. It improves you in CTF and also gives you good in PvE. This build can be built two ways, one with Frost bite one without. Unfortunately there is no way to tell which way you should go, you have to see if frost bite fits your style. Both builds have imp FB, Imp CoC, Artic reach, coldsnap, imp blizzard, ice block, shatter, ice shards all maxed. The variable 3 points go to either frost bite or winters chill. Some people get channeling but the truth is this is an aggressive build so why not be aggressive.

Frost

Arctic Reach Rank 2, Improved Frost Nova Rank 2, Improved Cone of Cold Rank 3, Improved Blizzard Rank 3, Shatter Rank 5, Improved Frostbolt Rank 5, Ice Shards Rank 5, Cold Snap Rank 1, Ice Block Rank 1, 3 flex points that either go into frostbite or winters chill, your choice.

Arcane

Imp. Arcane Missiles rank 5, Arcane Concentration rank 5, Evocation rank 1, Imp. Arcane Explosion Rank 5, Imp. Counterspell Rank 2, Presense of Mind Rank 1, 2 flex points that can go into mana shield or dampen magic, your choice.

30/21 Fire/frost: This is the final oddball. IT IS THE ONLY BUILD I SUGGEST THAT HAS LESS THAN 30 POINTS IN FROST. Why you ask, because this build focuses entirely on frost for control. Remember me mentioning that a while ago? Well this is it. This is also the only build that get permafrost to the top, why because the idea is to nuke the opponent into the ground while reapplying the frost snare as far apart as possible. This is also the most inefficient frost build and the least PvE friendly. This is a PvP build, great in battlegrounds as you fire potency turns people into human candles, while your frost makes sure the ice cream doesn't melt. Its like a birthday where you get to have you cake. Of course the ramification is that in PvE you are a second stringer. If your good you can make it work... but if not you suck. The AoE you have is limited to the tricky, blizzard flame strike, blast wave nova...... repeat combo. You can make it work but if you screw up you have no panic button and unlike a full frost you don't get to plan things out as well. Still that being said you are still great as long as you can rest every fight. The real toll this build takes is it robs you of longevity. Which those who raid/AoE regularly will tell you is life. Unlike others you will find you butt rooted after every fight.

Frost

Arctic Reach Rank 2, Improved Frost Nova Rank 1, Improved Blizzard Rank 3, Improved Frostbolt Rank 5, Cold Snap Rank 1, Permafrost Rank 5, Ice Block Rank 1, Winter's Chill Rank 3

Fire

Ignite Rank 5, Critical Mass Rank 3, Improved Flamestrike Rank 3, Fire Power Rank 4, Flame Throwing Rank 2, Blast Wave Rank 1, Improved Fireball Rank 5, Impact Rank 5, Incinerate Rank 2

Note that the fire build can be modified as you like it, fire can be changed to personal preference without much fear. I like this one

29/22 Arcane/Frost: This build is the only build I have not tried out personally but it comes well recommended. The purpose is to maximize the efficiency of a mage in a raid situation where large portions of the mages talents are rendered worthless. Mashangi guarantees me, and I believe him, going on what I know that this build is unsurpassed in its ability to perform in the molten core and other raids.


Frost Tree:

5/5 Improved Frostbolt

5/5 +crit damage talent

3/3 6% more damage talent

(Sorry, doing this off top of my head, dont remember the names of the talents)

1/1 Cold Snap

2/3 Improved Blizzard (1 point because I needed another to get to the lower tier in the tree, another because I had 1 extra point leftover in the end)

3/3 Frost Channeling

2/2 Arctic Reach

1/1 Ice Block


Arcane:

5/5 Improved Arcane Missiles

5/5 Clearcasting

1/1 Evocation

5/5 Improved Arcane Explosion

5/5 Arcane Meditation (15% mana regen in combat)

4/4 +8% mana talent (Cant remember the name)

1/1 PRessence of Mind

3/3 Arcane Instability


V. PVP tips and tricks

For frost PvP is very different than for a fire/arcane mage, different classes are now dangerous and some classes that were initially feared are no longer. For PvP I would recommend using Either the 30/21 arcane/frost build, the francis to the forum trolls, or the 33/18 frost/arcane build. The latter is at a bit of a disadvantage on the alliance side due to purge cleaning ice barrier, but most of the time in real pvp priests don't have time to dispell so horde should think more about this. Unfortunately shamans are rampant so alliance is a bit....well moving on. Also here in the PvP section is 30/21 Fire/frost, but it behaves like a fire build so I will leave it be for a bit.

General Tips

1. Burst damage and you: To get burst damage against a target the best way is the FN+FB+CoC combo, if you have a little damage gear this crits for a little over 2K damage often enough, and can be relied on to produce 1.5 K. Throw in a fire blast and your looking like a fire mage. The problem is that A) you have to get close, which in a big battle is unpleasant, and B) they have to stand still for the 2.5 sec frost bolt. The solution to both of these problems, and the end to many cocky shamans and fire mages, is counterspell right after the nova. Counterspell is not on the universal cooldown so the effect is instantaneous, meaning they are snared and silenced for 4 seconds guaranteed (no resists, duh). You then Wind up the combo and let fly. If you are playing the 30/21 a PoM fireball is the next step. the 3K damage this should do with a bare minimum of effort can kill. Arcane explosion to death, since scorch is not so good.

2. Never forget fire: Fire rocks period, you should never allow the fire tree to grow rusty, fireblast, fire ball and scorch are core skills. Scorch is the least useful as your frost bolt is swift but never allow fireblast to be off cooldown for long periods of time. Fireballs are very much better as an opener against a sheeped spell caster. Level one fireballs are a must against rogues, either before or after the frost bolt. I do after but honestly I think before is better, that way he can't vanish if he is mashing the button, plus remember that sheep disorients a player more often than not and it takes a second to get his bearing during which he is snared. Oops Well I will say the same thing in the rogue section.

3. Group PvP: Stay back, lob snares at people who hate being snared and watch the damage rack up. If someone decides to make you his love slave then run around FN, coc and IAE, throwing fireblsts over your shoulder. Iceblock if its clear your gonna die and shout for help. Leave the ice block up for the duration, you can be healed through it.

4. Movement: Alot of people back up, this is dumb, you can run sideways at full speed and still target and enemy behind you. This is true for pve too, run sideways once you FN then nuke once a ways away.

Against Classes

Rogues: Welcome to sweet revenge. Rogues are you little choir boys now. True that the greatest rogue in the world will kill you as so many have complained but 99.99999999999 percent of the time this is an auto win. I have lost once to a rogue on my server and that was because I was farming satyrs and had 150 hp and 3 mana, (I came back and killed her 4 times, not once did she hurt me). If you are 33/18 it takes a bit more skill than 30/21 but is equally doable. First the battle has two stages. Pre poly, and post poly. The first thing is to poly them once thats done its rote. First Put up a mana shield, and if you have it an ice barrier. This absorbs the first blow, which if they are smart is an ambush (big damage no stun), blink, poly morph. If they vanish run and spam level one arcane explosion, if you catch them FN, once blink timer is up again your good for another round. If you are dealing with an especially tricky rogue, he might blind you when you frost nova him the second time. If he does this Ice block through it and poly morph him. remember that polymorph has no facing requirements, their gouge (sleep breaks on damage, no blink, you must be facing them), does, so, polymorph with you back turned once the blink goes off. If the rogue is an absolute go and you are running 30/21 PoM poly him, god is now a sheep waiting to be slaughtered. Once sheeped, level one fireball, frost bolt, repeat until he is dead. Remember you have to be at 30 yard range for the fireball. If you have PoM Wind up the fireball then PoM the frostbolt. If he get close CoC, fireblast, FN. He is a fish in a barrel. Bottom line, you should not lose this fight, and unless he is a god and you are a tard you should win.

Warlocks: Run, or if forced to fight in a manner that isn't cheesy, cause he might spit on you afterwards. My preferred method of meeting the end well is, chain frost bolts to start. Counterspell anything that makes his hand glow black. trinket out of fear one, ice block out of fear two, let fear three end naturally. Chaining as much damage as you can to him as fast as you can is the rule. Unload everything in the beginning. IF he has soul link (his health goes down half as quick) this is over run now, he can't catch you. Remove his curses as he lays them. Make sure its not a level one decoy curse, but only if you have time. If you ambush him odds are better, especially if he is fighting a mob.

Druids: That tiny chance that you had with a warlock is gone. If you can nuke him to half hitpoints, FN+silence+FB+CoC when he returns to caster form. IF you can do this before he instant heals to full you might win. If you can counter a healing spell you might win. I don't want to waste too much time talking about them as we really are screwed anyway you put it. If you ambush them, mount up and run.

Priests: Arcane missiles if he mindflays (blue beam), frost bolt if he doesn't. Move quickly, dropping his dots/fear with iceblock. When he heals himself sheep him, once he is done. Be conservative trying to force him to heal. Bandage when he is sheeped, evoc as needed. If he drops below 50% use the combo to finish him. In this case 30/21 has an advantage as a PoM fireball is a trick most priests don't expect from a frost mage. You might very well die once the fight is over but don't let that stop you. This is a tough but winnable fight. Remember that if a priest runs towards you he wants to fear you. Open your sheeps with a fireball. One last point. If a priest is at 3/4 and is healing counter the heal and kill him. You have 10 seconds so just nuke like hell. If you ambush them sheep them, then nuke.

Hunters: Armor up, mana shield and ice barrier. Charge the hunter, blinking about 10 feet in front of him. You appear behind him, frost nova and sheep his pet. This counters the trap and takes the pet out of combat for the next 50 seconds. He will most likely concussive shot you to disrupt the poly, ice block out and poly anyway. If you are desperate, i.e he succeeds in stopping your poly, and you are 30/21 you can PoM poly his pet. The key to this battle once the pet is taken care of is not to stand on top of him, but to circle around using CoC to keep him close. IF he feigns death IAE to damage him and bring him back into combat, describe a circle around him to avoid any traps. The key is constant damage. Always hurt him so IAE till he dies, fire blast, CoC and FN. If you ambush him sheep him pet level one bolt on him to put him in combat and run towards him blinking to close ground.

Warriors: Warriors have three shots to kill you, and you have three shots to die. First things first, assuming that you are both mutually aware and he charges or he gets the drop. Remeber that the charge stun is 1 second. Don't blink. Frost Nova and run, then sheep him. If you are both mutually aware and you have time run into his range and FN, then sheep. If he breaks the nova and then intercepts this is time two to kill you, blink now and sheep him. You can PoM if your scared. Remember have your shields up. Once sheeped, run out quick if he intercepted, run in just inside FN range if he didn't. FN, CoC FB combo and then run sideways. Here is shot three to kill you, the hamstring. If he gets a finger on you and hamstrings you block, if the timers are not up wait them out then go back to it. If he has a million hitpoints work on it, cycling blinks and FN and coc's to keep him away. Intercept is on a relatively long cooldown and if it takes that long to kill him your in trouble. If you ambush, Frost Bolt spam till he dies.

Other mages: I don't give out secrets to beating me.... but really its a huge huge things with a million permutations of what can and can't happen. The bottom line is Block out of the sheep right when he launches hi opener. Don't get snared against and ice mage. Use the FN silence thing and remeber that your cold snap resets the ward timers, which you want to always have up. Sheep the other guy right off the bat if fire, wait fort his sheep if frost. You don't want to have arcane countered cause the frost mage will nova you and then FB+CoC.

Paladins: For those of you out there who know these guys they are a joke. Here is a fun fact. Countering a paladin shuts down all his spells from ever school. Ain' that nifty. They have a resistance aura that matches you style so luck can do you in but the basic strategy is sheep them. I like to FN sheep and it removes any chance they will hit me. Once sheeped then back up and lob frost bolts. Even if he chain cleanses, which he will, the snare is reapplied the moment afterwards. Also remember that if he has blessing of freedom run till its on cooldown. A good strat is run sideways throwing fireblasts over your shoulder till he is at half, counter his heal and kill. If he bubbles to heal then bandage evocate, mana gem and keep running. If he heals at 80% stop attacking while he heals, kill his mana pool.

Shamans: Shamans are a class I have never dueled. however I know what it means to face them on the battle field and I have played them. IN the end it comes down to who gets the first move. IF its you you win, if its them they win. Polymorph. Back up to max range, nuke, counter a heal, if he instant heals, PoM the polymorph or counter him, polymorph. Use the nova counter combo to kill him. Since the nature of totems is that they really can't be removed without hurting your game plan, remember that arcane explosion isn't absorbed by grounding totems so can be used to hurt him. Run away, toss fireblasts. Pray. This is a very difficult battle made easier by loads and loads of damage gear. My Frost bolts do 700 damage, the two I can get on hjim before he is in shocking range can be half of his life. I then nova counter, FB+CoC (pray for 2.5K) , PoM fireball for 900, fireblast, before if he is good after if he is dumb. This killl most shamans dead.

Capture the Flag

Tips:

1. 30/21 is stronger in CTF. PoM rocks. PoM sheep the runner, PoM a fireball on the priest, whatever you like

2. Level one blizzard spammed on the flag prevents rogues. With a decent mana pool you are looking at maybe 3 minutes of coverage, before you mana is low enough that you can't defend the flag well.

3. If you are defending the runner, cycle, nova, sheep, CoC as you run next to him. This can get you out of the base to where the druid, you are running a druid, can morph and run for real. Don't forget to silence incoming priests and mages who are looking to sheep, fear nova coc the runner.

4. Mages are probably better on offense than defense. Blizzarding the flag room stops the enemy defenders but for you it might miss the sprinting rogue. But the truth is you can find a good use anywhere. \

5. If you arrive late to a battle, stay on the edge and immobilize the warrior, he is 99% of the time chasing something squishy stomping on the Mortal strike button. If the opponents teamwork is good and heals are going, kill the priest but never forget that a paladin that is smart is far more deadly that a priest. Make sure he is not healing. Do a video search on the mage forum for Jamaz. Watch that and look out for that type. Also kill druids, they can heal and deserve to die.

Alterac Valley:

I will update this as I actually have yet to try it. AV is busted right now on boulder fist and the que is a couple of days long.

FAQ's that Don't fit in the rest of my little tirade

The Mob Keeps Warping, that’s not fair

-They aren't, stop complaining, it just looks like they are. The mob is right where it should be, its model is standing in front of you but notice it doesn't attack until the mob, would have gotten there. Also note that if say… frostbite proc's the mob 'warps' to where it should be.

Do snares stack?

-No, only one snare can be active on a target at a time, the snare that slows the target the most is the priority, which can create problems when a short powerful snare like the one attached to improved blizzard hits a target. It removes the snare you have on them and then it vanishes shortly afterwards. Attempting to apply a less powerful snare on target already more powerfully snared fails. However Ice/frost armor snares don't operate on the same scale as they also slow attack speed. So you can have the ice armor snare on a target and any other frost snare, its just the movement reduction doesn't stack.

Why doesn't Curse of the Elements work with frost?

Why does my Frost Bolt never have partial resists?

Why Do mobs start running towards me before they are snared by Blizzard?

-The answer to all three things lie in the way in which the chill and damage effects frost interacts with a target. For all frost abilities save blizzard the chill (slowing effect) is the primary, meaning it is applied first, this is why sometimes a Mob is knocked back by the frost bolt and then the damage appears. The server rechecks the mobs position then checks damage. Thus when a mob checks resistance against frost effects it checks whether or not the chill effect is resisted. Since this is a yes/no question either the entire frost effect goes through or none of it, this is a very bad thing. This means frost can't get double damage from the negative resists applied by curse of the elements. However you do get less resists overall when using curse of the elements. However since most mobs don't have much to begin with you get nothing. Blizzard is the exact opposite, the damage is primary and the snare comes second. Thus the mobs are moving in reaction to the damage, then the snare is checked, this is also bad. However curse of the elements does increase blizzard damage. I tested this on the core hound packs in the MC (I am pretty sure but this is suspect)

I popped Out of Ice Block To early, why?

I got counter spelled and couldn't Ice block. Why?

I silenced him and he Ice blocked out of it, how?

I put up Ice block and died, why?

-Pressing the Ice block Button again causes it to stop, it’s a very useful trick for clearing status effects then getting back into the game. The way ice block works is it can be activated through all status effects, anything that shows up underneath the buff line, and it clears them. However counter spells work by putting a timer on all your skills in that line. This is like having ice block on cool down, you can't use it. Silences are a debuff that stop spell casting, thus can be blocked through. NOTE: You can't cold snap through status effects that prevent casting, thus if you get stunned or silence you can't reset an off timer ice block. Also note that depending on latency ice block might go up on your screen but by the time the message reaches the server another action is que'd up on you, so you die anyway. However if lag is good, you can block a projectile like pyro blast if you are quick.

I have a good Build that’s not on your list, what do you say to that?

-Huzzah for you. I don't really care and unless it’s a major oversight on my part I am not going to include it. The builds I have are the ones that work the best for everyone and there is no point in putting your personal build in here, it might be just right for you but if this is to be a general guide I can't include every talent permutation without destroying the impact of the ones I have.

Why does Improved Frost Ward Exist?

-To trick people into wasting talent points. Its not a very good trick.