Frost Spec Mage Macro

[crowdx]

Hi all,
so I am currently running a frost mage in the team I am leveling and my macro is just a spam of frost bolt with icy veins thrown in as shown below. My question is, why can I not throw in Ice Barrier or some of casts in this sequence without it locking? Is it a limitation of some spells?
All help welcome
____________________________
#showtooltip Frostbolt
/run SetCVar("Sound_EnableSFX","0")
/Cast Icy Veins
/click MultiBarRightButton1
/use 13
/use 14
/run SetCVar("Sound_EnableSFX","1")
___________________________

[Maxion]

I'm not sure why you want to cast, or even spec into ice barrier for a multiboxed mage, but you can see my mage's frost spec in her armory from the drop down menu by my name at the left of this post, and i think my frost macros in the thread linked in my signature are still up to date since i never really changed them. Just remember to get the main dps macro and the pop cooldowns one.

And if you get the "addon" from http://wow.curse.com/downloads/wow-addons/details/project-8021.aspx
You won't need the SFX lines in your macros anymore. :)

[crowdx]

Well I have a main arcane mage but I was just playing this one frost to see how he would fair.
I see your build is a mix of arcane and frost. I suppose the point that was missed is that is the reason that I can add /Cast Icy Veins and it works fine whereas if I try to add in frost barrier it does not work, might it be a GCD vs a non GCD spell? Same sort of issue would be if I tried to use Bark Skin on my druid!
I am going to try your above setup to see how it works :)

[Maxion]

Well I have a main arcane mage but I was just playing this one frost to see how he would fair.
I see your build is a mix of arcane and frost. I suppose the point that was missed is that is the reason that I can add /Cast Icy Veins and it works fine whereas if I try to add in frost barrier it does not work, might it be a GCD vs a non GCD spell? Same sort of issue would be if I tried to use Bark Skin on my druid!
I am going to try your above setup to see how it works :)

That is exactly it, and I've been running my mage exclusively as frost until ahune this year, since he was immune to frost, and in general wanted to try arcane since I didn't dare join any serious raids on my mage as frost.
Arcane does a fair amount more dps, but runs out of mana a lot faster, and frost will get you far, until 4-5k dps in badge gear just isn't enough anymore.
The replenishment from frost is also very nice if the mage is your only source of it. With my mage as frost, my team would never run out of mana.

[Catamer]

frost spec only uses one spell, no click macro needed if you ask me
( sorry, I can't logon and get my exact macro right now but off hand this is close to it )

/cast [nopet,mod] <<<< summon water pet <<<<
/cast [combat,mod] mirror image
/cast icy viens
/cast frost bolt

I love frost spec when mboxing.
the macro is super easy.
my others never run out of mana when I use it.

I get the most dps out of arcane though when raiding.

[gunsun]

i don't use a /click macro but a castsequence reset=combat frost bolt, ice lance, frostfire bolt takes advantage of some of the frost talents. Every now and then the frostfire bolt is insta-cast and no mana, and the ice lance usually crits or is instant if not.

[pinotnoir]

Once your mages hit 80 spec arcane its a huge dps increase.

[crowdx]

Once your mages hit 80 spec arcane its a huge dps increase.
As said above, I already have an arcane mage in another team but wanted to try frost while leveling this team :)

[pinotnoir]

As said above, I already have an arcane mage in another team but wanted to try frost while leveling this team :)

I tried to find my old frost mage macro but I think it got deleted. I leveled frost and changed to arcane at 80 on my new mage. It was basic with icey veins, and frostbolt. I had the glyph for perma elemental.

[crowdx]

So I played around a little more with the hybrid frost/arcane spec and my dps is at about 60% of my destro lock. I just respecced full arcane on the mage to see the difference and will report back later tonight. I wiped twice in Nexus (my team is lvl 73 and so should have face rolled this) on the last boss simply due to not enough firepower, hopefully speccing arcane will bring the mage in line with my lock and ele shaman which are both putting out similar numbers (lock is about 150 dps ahead but that is close enough while leveling :) )

[Maxion]

Indeed, at lvl 80 around 5k gearscore I finally got dual spec and tried something else than frost, hence the arcane offspec.
With arcane, the mage got maybe about 1k more dps than frost, so went from 5k to 6k, or there abouts, but instead of having the unlimited mana as frost, the mage would go oom at least twice per bossfight, using mana gems and evocate etc every cooldown. And that is really not something I want to have to deal with/worry about when multiboxing.

And until the gear started getting up there, the frost mage was usually topping dps, closely followed by the ele shaman, which eventually gained a lead on the mage as her gear improved.
Not sure how much dps my shaman did last time I ran her solo in a raid, so I can't quite compare with how the mage did when I ran her solo arcane in a raid, since I wasn't running recount either of the runs.

[crowdx]

Well I ran arcane last night and did over double the dps. As you said the only issue is mana. Overall I am happier with arcane as it helps with the shorter fights and I have actually cleared quite a few dungeons now, at or near level, while leveling this new team. :)

[Maxion]

Well I ran arcane last night and did over double the dps. As you said the only issue is mana. Overall I am happier with arcane as it helps with the shorter fights and I have actually cleared quite a few dungeons now, at or near level, while leveling this new team. :)

And with my mage as frost, my team was clearing dungeons in northrend as high as 4 levels above them, but our results will of course vary :)

Just use what you feel is easiest/best for you and gives you the synergy you want in your team without taking too much of your attention to manage. :)

[pinotnoir]

My arcane mage does not run out of mana. I have in his macro the use mana gem and make sure you do not have reset=target. You want to cast 3 arcane blast followed by a missle. When I first started out and had huge mana isssues it was because I had reset=target so the mage mostly just cast arcane blast draining my mana. Once I fixed that he is fine.

[Maxion]

My arcane mage does not run out of mana. I have in his macro the use mana gem and make sure you do not have reset=target. You want to cast 3 arcane blast followed by a missle. When I first started out and had huge mana isssues it was because I had reset=target so the mage mostly just cast arcane blast draining my mana. Once I fixed that he is fine.

As I said, even with such a rotation and using all available mana cooldowns every cooldown, the mana is still not as sustainable without anyone in the group providing replenishment (when the mage is frost that is where I get my replenishment).

[pinotnoir]

As I said, even with such a rotation and using all available mana cooldowns every cooldown, the mana is still not as sustainable without anyone in the group providing replenishment (when the mage is frost that is where I get my replenishment).

Wow that blows. I did not have that problem. Make sure your shaman drops mana totem every bit helps.

[Maxion]

Meh, arcane is just the offspec for now, I never needed to use blessing of wisdom nor mana totem, since cleansing is so much more handy a lot of the time, and do not plan on any major changes to my setup any time soon.