WotLK Beta Testing: Fingers of Frost

Now that I am in the WotLK Beta, I can test out all the new spells and their mechanics for all to see. So far I’ve only got an hour of testing in before fatigue kicked in, and servers are down. I will make a post for each individual spell, and update each post as the spell changes. So check back every so often as the spell evolves.

9/9/2008

At the time of this testing, Finger of Frost (rank 2) has a 10% chance to proc a BUFF on the caster, making his/her next two Frost Damage spells cast on the target to be considered “Frozen”. Again, Fingers of Frost is a BUFF proc and not a DEBUFF proc. YOU will gain the buff, and it is a Magic Buff which can be dispelled. You can proc the buff while dpsing one target, and use the buff (next 2 frost spells) on another target.

FoF CAN proc again while the buff is still active. Sadly it will simply refresh the current buff instead of adding to it. Just like Clearcasting with a 10% chance, it wasn’t uncommon to see strings of FoF procs.

You CANNOT squeeze off an Ice Lance right after the 2nd Frostbolt to get a 3rd Spell out of the FoF proc. If it was a debuff on the target, it may have worked, but not with FoF as a buff on you.

You can however use the FoF proc on another Frost Damage Spell: Blizzard. That’s right, the entire duration of the “next 2 Frost spell cast on the target as if the target were frozen” works with Blizzard. With Blizzard ticks now being able to critically strike, when you cast Blizzard with the FoF buff, you will start seeing ticks of ~1400.

The reason the left target dummy is taking more damage than the right target dummy, is because other players are debuffing it.

I also put one point into Improved Blizzard, giving the spell a chill effect, making it able to proc Frostbite. When it does proc Frostbite, you will see more ticks critically striking.

9/10/2008

Tooltip for Fingers of Frost has been changed to: “Gives your Frost damage spells a 5/10% chance to grant you the Fingers of Frost effect, which treats your next 2 Frost spells cast as if the target were Frozen. Lasts 15 sec.” (old version: Gives your Frost damage spells a 5/10% chance to apply the Fingers of Frost effect…) New tooltip is to clarify that it is a self buff and no longer a debuff.

Ice Lance DOES NOT proc Fingers of Frost anymore in the beta build 8926. I actually wasn’t too surprised when I saw that my Ice Lances weren’t procing FoF anymore. You would have been able to Ice Lance players to death.

9/12/2008

After the lag fest that is the Dalaran training area, I logged onto my copied Mage on the Northrend server to do some more testing. There is a lot less latency issues here, and my Frostbolts don’t take 5 seconds to cast.

When I got FoF to proc, I tried the Frostbolt -> Frostbolt + Ice Lance again and was still unable to pull off getting three charges out of the proc, well sort of. My Ice Lance would crit and get the triple damage bonus from the frozen target, but the 2nd Frostbolt would normally be a hit.

However if I got the FoF proc and tried Frostbolt -> Frostbolt + Deep Freeze. The Deep Freeze will land (and usually crits), and the 2nd Frostbolt would also crit. This is most likely due to the debuff that Deep Freeze gives, which is a stun and freeze effect. Still this is a very viable combo to pull off if the mob is Deep Freeze-able.

9/18/2008

Fingers of Frost has been changed to have a 7/15% chance to proc off of any Frost Spells with a Chill effect. This confirms that Ice Lance will no longer proc FoF.


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Comments

  • Euripedes said:

    Tasty.

    Good to hear about this being removed from Ice Lance, too. Frost was already transforming into some ugly faceroll thing, this should go a little ways towards fixing that.

  • Chu said:

    Thank god they removed FoF from Ice Lance. Lance spam is mindless enough as it is.

    Also, I hope they remove impact from Lance as well. It’s mace stun all over again, and that level of OP shouldnt be on a cheap spammable spell.

  • shrinkedge said:

    No, give it back to Ice Lance :) make mages rediculously OP. Woo that would be the day. Very cool your in the beta, looks like fun. Keep us updated with any new info you find interesting.

    Oh, I had a question about a frostfire bolt build. I dont know if it has already been mentioned or tested… but does it gain from both frost and fire trees? Like, do the critical effect and enhanced damage skills stack with eachother?

    Don’t know if you really understand what I’m asking but meh, if you do and you can figure it out that would be cool.

  • TXSundevil said:

    Awesome update, since I too have yet to recieve a beta key, was kind of hoping that you’d get one soon, I knew your reports would do the rest of us frosties proud! Look forward to your updates now that you are in.

  • Tuna (Author) said:

    @ shrinkedge

    Frostfire Bolt is affected by both Fire and Frost talents. You could find a comprehensive list on the EJ forums if you search hard enough. Its like page 89 of one of the 4 Mage posts or something like that. I’m actually working on a Frostfire Bolt post myself, and will list them in the near future if you would rather wait haha.

  • wowbeez said:

    Wotlk is a great update, milions of players reserved a copy. Wrath of the Lich King it’s a new begining like the TBC.