Frost Nova

Frost Nova
Frost Nova (5 ranks) Mage ability 10 s. yd range 185 Mana at max rank 25 sec cooldown Instant sec cast Blasts enemies near the caster for X Frost damage and freezes them in place for up to 8 sec. Damage caused may interrupt the effect.
Properties
Class	Mage
School	Frost
Cooldown	25 sec
Improvements	[Improved Frost Nova], [Arctic Reach], [Piercing Ice], [Ice Shards], [Frost Channeling], [Elemental Precision], Winter's Chill
Related debuff
Magic Frost Nova Frozen in place. Duration: 8 seconds

[[Category:mage abilities]][[Category:mage abilities]]

Frost Nova is a point-blank area of effect spell that does light damage and freezes all enemies within 10 yards of the mage, rooting them in place for 8 seconds. Rooted enemies have a chance to break out each time they take damage; this check is made every time damage is dealt from any source.

Rank	Mana Cost	Damage	Level	Cost
1	55	19-21	10	4
2	85	33-37	26	50
3	115	52-58	40	1 50
4	145	71-79	54	3 60
5	185	99-111	67	8 70

Talent improvement

[Improved Frost Nova] talent will reduce the cooldown to 21 seconds at max rank.

[Arctic Reach] talent will increase the radius of Frost Nova to 12 yds.

Frost Nova deals Frost damage, and is thus affected by the talents [Ice Shards], [Piercing Ice], [Frost Channeling], [Shatter], [Elemental Precision] and Winter's Chill.

Tips and tactics

Use Frost Nova to root enemies in place and then gain some range to cast spells without getting hit. This is especially effective against melee-only enemies, as they will not have any other way to attack you. Against caster-type enemies, use Frost Nova to gain range along with [Counterspell] to interrupt their casting. Against ranged damage dealers (especially Hunters in PvP) use Frost Nova to hold the enemy in place, then stand in the dead zone (outside 5 yds melee range, but inside 8 yds minimum shooting range) to cast spells without getting hit.

Frost Nova is an important ability in frost talent specs that use [Shatter], as it is a guaranteed freeze effect. The [Shatter] talent works on any target rooted by one of your frost spells. With Frostbite fully upgraded, any cold spell that snares has a 15% chance to root. Frost Nova, on the other hand, will always root, guaranteeing you can [Shatter] away with your next cast.

All ranks of this spell root the target(s) in place for the same amount of time and with the same resistance rates, and spell damage is never very much. Some magi opt to always use the first rank, since their damage will come from other spells. On the other hand, the spell cost is also never very much, so some mages use the best rank they have for every extra bit of damage they can do.

Past changes

Originally, Frost Nova took quite a beating from sustained damage. In patch 2.0.10, this changed specific to the spell, to break on all critical strikes. It was still possible to double crit, by using a flight time spell and then a no flight time spell "simultaneously" (such as Frostbolt and then Ice Lance). This was an intended change, confirmed by Vaneras in the EU Mage forums, with the proviso that the situation would be 'monitored'. He added that this change was intended to only affect Frost Nova: - whether it affected the Water Elemental's Freeze spell, or [Frostbite] is unknown, but preliminary testing suggested that one crit would break both.

However, there was a general outcry against this change, and the ability was then partially reversed in patch 2.1.0, general to all crowd control. This change made it so that all targets over level 60 have a slightly larger chance to break out of crowd-controlling effects when they take damage.