Blue Protocol: Star ResonanceFrost Mage Icicle Spec GuideBest build and how to play the class.

Basic ATK

Raincall Surge

Skill

Frost Lance

Ultimate

Glacier Hymn

Slot 1 - Mandatory

Meteor Storm

Slot 2 - Mandatory

Crystal Veil

Slot 3 - Mandatory

Permafrost

Slot 4 - Flex

Blizzard

/

Maelstrom

Ice Cores - When playing, you’ll notice two Ice Cores floating beside you. These interact with our abilities to fire Ice Arrows and can provide Frost Crystals when taking action. Unlocked after the first talent in the base tree (Ice Revelation).

Ice Energy - This energy is required to cast and empower our strongest abilities. Recovers at a rate of 2 per second baseline, with further regeneration coming from the field created by our ultimate, our cooldown Permafrost, and talents. Primarily used to reduce the cooldowns for Meteor Storm and Crystal Veil.

Frost Crystal - A resource that can be gained by casting Meteor Storm and Crystal Veil and is spent to eliminate the cast time and increase the damage of Frost Lance.

Endless Cold - Endless Cold is an Icicle-exclusive resource unlocked via a talent, which is at the heart of how we play. After unlocking the talent, every Frost Crystal we consume adds one to the Endless Cold Tracker. At 20 stacks, all Endless Cold is consumed, granting us a buff lasting 10 seconds that causes Meteor Storm to deal 150% increased damage, have no cooldown, and cost no Ice Energy

Note

During the Endless Cold buff. Ice Arrows no longer generate Frost Crystals.

That’s not where it stops, though. While Perma Frost is active, Endless Cold stacks will no longer be consumed at 20 stacks, meaning the buff will not trigger. This isn’t a bad thing, though, as during Permafrost Endless Cold, stacks may continue to stack past 20, with each additional stack past 20 adding a new effect to the Endless Cold buff you’ll gain once Perma Frost expires. Each stack over 20 causes the buff to increase Meteor Storm's damage by 5% up to a limit of 100% at 40 total stacks.

Note

The 5 - 100% Multiplier from over 20 stacks is a special, unique damage increase, making it far more powerful than it may appear (Double damage at 40).

Fixed Skills

• 

  Raincall Surge
  - Our basic attack isn’t ideal to use, but has a 10% chance for the Ice Cores to fire Ice Arrows, providing a Frost Crystal. Can be used if you’re fully out of resources, but otherwise ignored.
• 

  Frost Lance
  - One of our main sources of damage and the focus of many of our talents. Fires Ice Arrows from our Ice Cores and refunds Frost Crystals when dealing Crits, allowing you to chain the ability to bypass this ability's cast time continually. With talents, we only ever use this ability when possessing Frost Crystals.
• 

  Glacier Hymn
  - Summons a Glacier atop enemies, which deals large damage, freezes targets, and summons an Ice Domain under our feet. When we stand in the domain we gain 25% increased Ice DMG, when enemies enter it they freeze temporarily. We use this as our burst rotation opener.

Mandatory Skills

• 

  Meteor Storm
  - This skill summons 3 meteors above your target dealing AoE damage at the cost of 5 Ice Energy. Has a 15 second cooldown and 2 charges baseline, which we’ll bypass with talents and abilities in order to spam it freely wreaking havoc with icicles galore!. This ability is a core part and extension of our burst rotation.
• It’s possible for enemies to move out of the way of this ability before the meteors fall.
• 

  Crystal Veil
  - Grants 1 Frost Crystal on use and another every 3 seconds after. This skill lasts 8 seconds baseline, providing a total of 3 Frost Crystals but when used in Ice Domain deals additional damage and lasts 1 second longer granting 4 Frost Crystals instead. This is our main source of Frost Crystal generation.
• 

  Permafrost
  - Grants up to +21% Haste, +1040 Flat Haste and 6 Ice Energy per second for 10 seconds. Best used in combination with
  

  Glacier Hymn
  to maximize our damage by stacking their buffs
• Try to align
  

  Permafrost
  usage to when you’re about to accumulate 20 stacks of the Endless Cold talent (17 - 19) to maximize its overflow effect.

Flex Skills (Choose 1)

• 

  Blizzard
  - Cast for 2.9 seconds to summon an ice storm that continually damages a wide area. Baseline this ability is usually never worth using but can be enhanced via our endgame talents to eliminate its cast time, increase its crit rate plus damage and add a -10% Ice Res debuff to its hits while also allowing it to Lucky Hit. All this makes it far more worth using.
• 

  Maelstrom
  - Summons a whirlpool which draws in nearby enemies while generating 2 Ice Energy per enemy hit. Considered a must have when dealing with multiple enemies in dungeons due to being one of the best control effects in the game but we must sacrifice blizzard to take it. Use
  

  Maelstrom
  for clearing packs in dungeons then swap to
  

  Blizzard
  at bosses.

Skill Priority

Frost Lance

>

Meteor Storm

>>

Blizzard

>

Permafrost

>

Glacier Hymn

>

Crystal Veil

=

Raincall Surge

=

Maelstrom

Ensure all abilities you’re using are levelled to 30 - only advancement requires consideration.

Focus on

Frost Lance

Meteor Storm

Blizzard

Permafrost

Glacier Hymn

Maelstrom

Crystal Veil

Important!

Embedded is our recommended core max-level Icicle talent tree containing all the specs' top talents.

Gameplay Altering Talents

Most of our talents just help us do what we’re already planning on doing better, but some have a drastic impact on our itemization and rotation. Below is an outline of all the gameplay-altering effects you need to be aware of in the Icicle spec and Base Frost Mage talents.

Base Frost Mage Tree

• Secondary Amp - This provides us with a +3.5% increase to our highest flat stat out of Crit, Haste, Luck, Mastery, and Versatility. This is strongest on either Crit or Luck. Ensure one of these is the highest stat at all times.
• This accounts for the highest stat after self buffs, party buffs, or imagines.
• Intellect Cooling - Provides us with a 10% cooldown reduction, allowing us to execute our burst windows sooner.

Icicle Tree

• Energy Saving / Deep Cold Magic Spear- The combination of these talents drastically improves
  

  Frost Lance
  's performance when consuming Frost Crystals in exchange for making it close to unusable without them.
• Energy Saving causes
  

  Frost Lance
  to refund 50% of its Ice Energy cost with Frost Crystals, but costs 50% more without them.
• Deep Cold Magic Spear increases
  

  Frost Lance
  damage by 70% but causes it to take twice as long to cast, which can be fully eliminated with Frost Crystals.
• Frozen Stars - If
  

  Frost Lance
  crits and lucky hits at the same time, reset
  

  Meteor Storm
  ’s CD. This node provides more
  

  Meteor Storm
  for us to use outside of the Endless Cold window, leading to more Frost Crystals and a faster rotation.

• Glacier Fury - Enhances our
  

  Blizzard
  every 15 Frost Crystals we consume. Enhanced Blizzard has no cast time, deals 30% more damage, and can lucky hit. You almost always want to use enhanced Blizzard as soon as available to ensure you start building up toward the next one right away.
• Freezing Meteor Storm - When
  

  Meteor Storm
  deals damage, there is a 20% chance to freeze the target. Also, while
  

  Permafrost
  is active, extend the duration by 0.5s when
  

  Frost Lance
  and
  

  Meteor Storm
  crit. This node is our only way of extending the duration of
  

  Permafrost
  , and is also our most consistent way to apply freeze to enemies.
• Frozen enemies also receive 20% increased Ice damage, so this node also doubles as a damage increase.
• Frost Domain - The reason our Ultimate
  

  Glacier Hymn
  grants us a 25% Ice Dmg increase. We have a talent for maximizing our burst damage.
• Frost Assault - Causes
  

  Blizzard
  to reduce the Ice Res of targets by 10% for 10 seconds.
  

  Blizzard
  has a 5-second duration, making the effective uptime of this buff 15 seconds with high enough luck (roughly 33%), it’s possible to lower
  

  Blizzard
  's cooldown by 10s to keep this up full-time!
• This ability's -10% Ice Res doesn’t work how you may expect. In BP: SR -Ice Res is identical to 10% increased Ice DMG%.
• Critical Cold, Frost Lance Barrage & Infusion Sublimation - These talents add new effects to
  

  Permafrost
  that drastically improve its power. During
  

  Permafrost
  :
• Critical Cold grants us 15% Crit DMG while also increasing our and our party's Crit Rate by +3%!
• Frost Lance Barrage causes
  

  Frost Lance
  to fire 2 lances instead of 1, doubling its hit count and damage.
• Infusion Sublimation grants us 100 Ice Attack while also reverting our Frost Crystals at the end of
  

  Permafrost
  to the amount we had before using the cooldown. Also increases our Max Frost Crystals by 1. With this aim to have 4 Ice Crystals before using
  

  Permafrost
  .
• Meteor Storm Expansion - Adds an additional hit to
  

  Meteor Storm
  , taking it from 3 to 4 while also increasing its Ice DMG by 10%. Elevates this ability's chance to lucky hit while also boosting its damage massively.

Alternative Talent Choices

In situations where you’re swapping

Blizzard

out for

Maelstrom

for extended periods of time, you can consider swapping the

Blizzard

-specific talents on our talent tree for other options. Under these circumstances, we recommend swapping:

• Stormy Encounter
• Sharp Blizzard
• Frost Assault

For:

• Continuous Stream
• Frost Crystal Empowerment

• Main Tree
• Alternate Tree

Recommended Icicle Build

Alternate Icicle Build

If you want to create your own Talent tree, check our tool:

Talent Planner

Important!

All gear & talent related info is based on extensive in-game testing, parsing, theory crafting and simulations. If you want to learn more about how damage works to understand our decisions, check out our Damage Formula Guide.

Stat Priority

Crit Rate

     

Haste

 

Luck

     

Mastery

   

Versatility

   

Main Stats

1. Crit Rate - Critical hits trigger many talents in our tree and scale best with how much Crit Dmg we get in our kit, making it one of our best stats. Here are the key effects Crit Scales:
• Simultaneous Frost Lance Crits + Lucky hits cause Meteor Storms cooldown to reset.
• 30% fixed chance to fire an Ice Arrow to generate a Frost Crystal on Frost Lance Crit.
• 30% chance to summon Frost Comet on Frost Lance Crit or Lucky Hit
2. Luck - Luck is our other core stat and is strong due to the myriad of luck-focused talents, free scaling we receive, and the high kit count of our abilities. These are all the reasons Luck is a 5/5 stat.
• We gain +15% Lucky Strike Dmg Multiplier for free and gain a further +1% every 2% luck we have.
• Crystal Veil hits have a chance equal to half our luck to reduce Blizzard's cooldown by 1s.
• Simultaneous Frost Lance Crits + Lucky hits cause Meteor Storms cooldown to reset.
• 30% chance to summon Frost Comet on Frost Lance Crit or Lucky Hit
3. Mastery - Our mastery offers 0.65% Ice Dmg per 1% Mastery we have, which while solid, isn’t game-changing compared to Luck and Crit. Still a good stat to pick up in moderation, balance investment into it alongside versatility.
4. Versatility - This stat is always beneficial, providing an extra multiplicative boost on top of everything else. Stats suffer diminishing returns, so building a bit of Versatility can help a lot more for damage than overcommitting to one or two other stats. Balance investment into it with mastery.
5. Haste - Most of our skills have fixed tick rates or are instant cast, making Haste and Cast SPD% often an undesirable stat for us. The only exception to this is that Haste improves our Ice Energy recovery, which can warrant minimal investment if you find yourself running low.

Bonus Stats

In gear slots you’re not using Set Gear in and which aren’t taken up by your class's signature Class weapon (if you have it), prioritize the following Purple Stats:

Helmet, Armour, Gloves, Boots

Intellect %

Weapons & Accessories

MATK% > Ranged DMG% = DMG% vs. Bosses >> Cast SPD%

Set Gear

Icicle Frost Mage’s 2P and 4P set bonuses are both definitely worth equipping as soon as you’re able to complete Raids and are better than Purple Bonuses. Here is what they do:

2-piece SET

After casting

Crystal Veil

, increase

Frost Lance

DMG by 15%, lasting for 10s.

4-Piece SET

Increase Crit DMG of

Frost Lance

by 15%. When consuming a Frost Crystal, increases

Blizzard

DMG by 5% for 10s, stacking up to 10 times.

Class weapon

Our Class weapon is also definitely worth using over purple stats. Instead of a purple stat it grants:

• 15% CRIT DMG.
• Increased stats.

Here are the best modules for Frost Mage - Icicle - listed in priority order:

1. 

   Special Attack
   - A majority of our damage comes from Frost Lance, making the elemental damage from this module a great choice!
2. 

   Elite Strike
   - Always a good module for DPS, thanks to its almost always relevant Boss/Elite DMG%. Slightly weakened by the fact that many of our abilities already gain tremendous Generic DMG%.
3. 

   Intellect Boost
   - The stats from this Module are nice, but similar to Elite Strike, we already have a lot of Generic DMG%, weakening it slightly.
4. 

   Crit Focus
   - The Crit DMG from this module is excellent, but the factthat it’s missing a damage stat compared to other modules puts it behind other options.
5. 

   Luck Focus
   - The +Luck Luck Dmg Multiplier from this module isn’t as effective as we already have so much from our talents. It is also missing a damage stat compared to our best choices, causing it to fall behind.

Important!

Some imagines will not be available to farm until all zones are unlocked - the most vital of these is

Muku Scout

.

Premium

Phantom Arachnocrab

+

Muku Chief

Premium AoE

Storm Goblin King

+

Muku Chief

F2P

Muku Scout [A5]

+

Muku Chief [A0]

Top Gold Imagines

1. 

   Muku Chief
   - Muku Chief provides passive CRIT DMG alongside a powerful active ability that grants a larger CRIT DMG boost as well as flat Crit Rate. Furthermore, it has two charges, allowing superior uptime compared to other Imagines. Our best choice due to the high Crit Rate and the Crit Dmg it provides.
2. 

   Phantom Arachnocrab
   - Unfortunately, there is no passive +Flat Luck and +%Luck imagine to choose from, so Phantom Arachnocrab’s +Flat Mastery and +%Mastery on use cooldown is our next best option when it comes to Gold Imagines at lower advancement levels. Be sure to build versatility on your gear to balance your stats out when using this.

Top Purple Imagines

1. 

   Muku Scout [A5]
   - Muku Scout gives us a passive 15% MATK provided we are consistently hitting attacks. Upon activation, it doubles the stacks, giving a very potent and uncommon 30% MATK buff. Despite the description, it also works with Magic Attack!
2. 

   Inferno Goblin Mage [A5]
   - Inferno Goblin Mage provides passive INT +10% and has an active skill of an additional 20% INT. With our conversion rate of 10 INT to 1 MATK, this is a strong option for increasing our damage. Additionally, this Imagine modifies the INT provided from the healers’ buffs.
3. 

   Lizardman Mage [A5]
   - Lizardman Mage is the generic Ice DMG% Imagine, granting 7.5% passive Ice DMG% and a further 16% on use. While solid, it does not compete with higher multiplier options like Muku Scout or Inferno Goblin Mage, while also being limited to only being used on Ice classes.

Situational AoE Imagines

1. 

   Storm Goblin King
   - Storm Goblin King is not able to keep up in single target due to possessing no passive stat increase at the same time as having a less powerful on-use boost compared to alternatives. But in AoE his lucky hit trigger being fully AoE, combined with many more targets to activate off, makes him a solid multi-target focused option.
2. 

   Lizardman Hunter [A5]
   - Increases your Luck by 800 and Lucky Strike DMG Multiplier by 20% on use which, when combined with its passive, makes it similar to Storm Goblin King in value in AoE.

1. Ruby - Intellect (Crit) - Best until reaching a decent Crit Rate% you’re comfortable with.
2. Diamond - Intellect (Luck) - Use to balance Luck % with your Crit Rate %, while keeping Luck slightly lower.

Burst Rotation

Our goal during our burst rotation is to use as many

Frost Lance

Permafrost

Tip

This opener should be executed while you have as close to 20 Endless Cold stacks as possible. 19 is ideal, but lower amounts are fine; saving cooldowns to build up optimal Endless Cold stacks is not worth it.

Opener

• 

  Meteor Storm
  x 2
• Use Imagines if Available
• 

  Glacier Hymn
  (Remain within your Domain)
• 

  Crystal Veil
• Enhanced Blizzard (If available)
• 

  Permafrost

Immediately after the opener, follow the priority order below until

Permafrost

• Use
  

  Frost Lance
  while you have >1 Ice Crystal
• Use
  

  Crystal Veil
• Use
  

  Meteor Storm
  (Aim to keep at least 1 charge on cooldown at all times)
• Enhanced Blizzard (If available and not used in the opener)
• Use
  

  Frost Lance
• Basic Attack (If no cooldowns are available and at 0 Ice Crystals)

After

Permafrost

Meteor Storm

Downtime Rotation

While waiting for

Glacier Hymn

Permafrost

• Use
  

  Meteor Storm
  if Frost Crystals are 3 or lower
• Use
  

  Crystal Veil
  if Frost Crystals are 2 or lower
• 

  Frost Lance
  when Frost Crystals are available
• Basic Attack if nothing is available

Note

If you are about to hit 20 stacks of Endless Cold before both

Glacier Hymn

and

Permafrost

are available, you can use

Permafrost

early as an emergency and use

Glacier Hymn

during

Permafrost

.

If there are no targets to hit, you can still cast

Crystal Veil

and

Frost Lance

to accumulate Endless Cold stacks, allowing you to get closer to the optimal 19 starting point while bosses may be in intermission phases.

Can Icicle be played on auto?

Playing Frost Mage on auto is possible but not optimal, as the AI is not proficient at lining up cooldowns, managing Endless Cold stacks, and using abilities at suboptimal times, such as using Blizzard while not enhanced. These quirks can be mitigated by using semi-auto and turning off Imagines, Glacier Hymn, Permafrost, and Blizzard from autocombo if desired, but still won't be as effective as a perfectly executed human rotation.