Frost AoE Grinding without taking damage - updatedFollow

POST EDITED to reflect 1.11 talents

A few precursors:

a) This method works. I've tried all sorts of builds and styles and this is by far the most efficient. Grinding this way without losing health means you can take as many mobs as you can get your hands on. There is no 'maximum number of mobs I can manage in one go'.

b) This method takes practice. Expect to die A LOT while learning. Even when you're adept you'll still make the odd mistake and die anyway. If you don't like dying, roll a warrior and kill things one or two at a time.

c) This works best with the talents from about level 54 onwards. Before this you should take whichever bits you can in order to successfully AoE grind. I levelled from about 40 to 60 more or less totally on grinding this way. Before this it was probably more hassle than it was worth (I tried anyway...)

d) What I am saying here is no big secret and has already been said, albeit spread across several different threads.

e) What I describe here is certainly not the only way to AoE grind, and doesn’t pretend to be. Folks will likely disagree with some points here and there, but like anything in WoW you should adapt to suit your own style. What is certainly not in doubt is that if you follow these instructions, you WILL be killing 12-15 mobs each pull and end up on full or near full hp. Final mana will of course depend on your base mana pool.


Build (this bit has changed):

Arcane Talents - 4 point(s)

* Arcane Subtlety - rank 2/2 (necessary to avoid resists)
Arcane Focus - rank 2/5

Frost Talents - 47 point(s)

Frost Warding - rank 2/2
Improved Frostbolt - rank 5/5
* Elemental Precision - rank 3/3 (necessary to avoid resists)
* Ice Shards - rank 5/5 (+dmg)
* Improved Frost Nova - rank 2/2 (absolutely essential for timing)
* Permafrost - rank 3/3 (absolutely essential for timing)
* Piercing Ice - rank 3/3 (+dmg on each pull)
* Cold Snap - rank 1/1 (lets you carry on if you do get a resist)
* Improved Blizzard - rank 3/3 (absolutely essential for timing)
Arctic Reach - rank 2/2
Frost Channeling - rank 3/3
* Shatter - rank 5/5 (+dmg)
Ice Block - rank 1/1
* Improved Cone of Cold - rank 3/3 (much more dmg from cone of cold)
Winter's Chill - rank 5/5
* Ice Barrier - rank 1/1 (for rounding 'em up)

Link to Talent Calculator with this build in it

Notes: I have marked what I consider to be essential talents for this technique with a star. The non-stared things could be switch around to provide a more balanced build whilst still allowing for AoE grinding. Also, this build is perfectly suited to frost grinding but pretty useless for anything else. I can hold my own in an instance ok but other builds would be much better for this. Other posts deal with other builds. Finally, do NOT take frostbite, however tempted. While this is an awesome spell for pvp, kiting elites, instances etc., it is very unhelpful for this type of grinding, which is based on keeping the mobs together. If some are frozen and some aren’t, they split up and can be missed by your blizzard. Well executed frost grinding finishes with the last blizzard falling on mobs packed in a VERY tight radius. Frostbite is seriously unhelpful with this.


The Area:

Melee type mobs only – this is almost essential. You can go to areas where there is the odd caster but these will need taking out singly first. No hunter spec types are possible either. The reason this is so important is that this method relies on uninterrupted Blizzard, which is a channeled spell. You’ll be needing lots of mobs all in one place, though.

There are many posts on good AoE spots. Here is one:

Allakhazam Grinding Spots


The Technique:

1. Watch for ‘lie of land’ and ‘wandering mobs’. Both can stuff you up
2. Pick off any casters or shooter type mobs before you start
3. Full mana
4. Ice barrier
5. Mount up
6. Round up mobs (circular type motion is best – gathers them together)
7. Hop off mount
8. Wait until all are on you. This step is important – you are effectively using yourself as a focal point here. Your shield will take almost all damage unless you have absolutely loads (>15) mobs or they are coming from a very wide range (takes more time). If this is the case, use ice block
9. Frost nova

(please note that if any resist you should use cold snap and try again straight away. If this is on cooldown then ice block may help but is a little clumsy and you may already have used it – see above)

10. Blink
11. Walk forward 3 paces (puts your pretty much at max. Blizzard range)
12. Turn and first blizzard with far edge of target on gathered frosted mobs
13. Second blizzard as they are walking towards you – outside edge of target on rear-most mob

(please note that steps 11, 12 and 13 are the bits that take the most practice. Speed is of the essence and hot-keying them rather than using mouse is almost essential. Getting the target in the right place is a skill which makes all the difference between success and failure)

14. Cone of Cold. (Important to do this before the frost nova even though there will be less crits. You need them frozen in place)
15. Second Frost Nova
16. Walk away about 8 paces (no blink necessary here)
17. Turn and blizzard – this final blizz will take down most mobs. Any strays or runners can are usually on so little health that a decent wand will take them down.


Notes on technique: the above technique done correctly will leave you virtually untouched. However, everyone makes the odd mistake with timing etc. and you will need to remain adaptable. Sometimes a mob that wanders in (or is pulled in by a member of the opposite faction who is insanely jealous of your uber grinding skills) can be dealt with by sheeping, but you have to be stupidly quick with this to make it work. Be prepared to frost nova and leg it if things get gnarly, particularly when you first start or move to a new area.

Of course there will be skeptics, and I could well be lying. But my mage turned 60 just before Easter and had ground enough for his epic mount within 2 weeks just using this style. I had some lucky libram drops and I have alts to disenchant/sell greens etc. but my main (priest) took about 5 months to get his epic (and he was helped by the mage!).

Good luck. Remember to persevere. The rewards are worth it!

Edited, Sep 3rd 2006 at 7:28pm EDT by leatherpatches

Edited, Sep 3rd 2006 at 7:31pm EDT by leatherpatches

Edited, Oct 1st 2006 at 2:30am PDT by leatherpatches

I used this to level up in my later levels. It's a very efficent and exciting method as opposed to grindquesting.

Thanks for your comments. As this is a working tactic which I do on a regular basis, I believe I can address each:




I believe I suggested that you take out the casters and ranged attackers single first. Even better, find an area where they don't exist (yes there are lots - see AoE grinding spot post on official forums).



Sorry to say that it isn't missed. If you have the 'Cold Snap' talent you get immediate reset on frost spells. This enables another frost nova straight away. As for frequency of resists, my experience is that even pulling groups of 10-15 mobs at a time, only one will resist at most and then only every 10 or 11 pulls. It's a fairly rare event.



Possibly I misled you here by not suggesting the level of the mobs. I would keep the mobs about 4 or 5 levels below you - green mobs basically - for this very reason. At level 60 I generally grind level 54-55 mobs. In almost every circumstance the shield is more than enough to take all the damage, particularly if the mobs are rounded up well before you hop off your mount. Like I say in the OP if some take longer to get to you, use ice block. This takes all damage for 10 seconds. It's also a talent spell.



I'm starting to get a little frustrated here...

You need to find mobs that clump together. They exist in droves all over the fabulous World of Warcraft. Location choice is as important for AoE grinding as getting the right spells.



I can only quote my personally situation here. I have only ever had greens that you can buy from AH or drop randomly + blues that you get from instances and quests (SM stuff when I started to AoE grind). My mana pool at 60 was about 5k and I had no problems at all from running out. Frost spells are much less mana intensive than fire, for example. Mana has simply never been a problem. Of course things get easier as you get better gear, but which aspect of the game is that not true for...? We'll have to agree to disagree on the relative speed of killing. 10-15 mobs then drinking from near empty is much more efficient for me than doing the same thing with 3 mobs. Finally on this point, I've found things a lot quicker since I got some +damage stuff, but it is by no means essential at all.



Didn't my whole post imply this? If not then I'm sorry for misleading.



Yes, at first. When you get the hang of it this happens only about once every half hour or so when something unforeseen happens (as detailed in OP).



No chance. I've levelled two characters to 60 and numerous others to their 30s. Mage AoE grinding, once sussed, is easily the fastest way to gain xp and wedge at the same time, IMO.

Edited, Wed May 3 10:53:26 2006 by leatherpatches

Saying AoE grinding is not viable just shows that you don't know how to do it....

I personally started frost AoEing at lvl 23 (without even CoC) off of farmers in hillsbrad, and it only gets easier from there as you get helpfull talents, spells, and gear (ex: a mount) to assist in keeping mistakes too a minimum. The only real problem with AoE grinding is finding good spots to do it in, and hoping some jerk dosent ***** up your pull.

and as for keeping your mobs 4-5 lvls below you... well, it does make it safer and easier, but I find that im rarely in any danger unless more than one mob resists FN ( if just one does using manashield/ice barrier takes care of it untill the second FN comes up)

BTW, my best 'score' is 16 mobs 1-2 lvls below me. (most of the human farm in arathi highlands) in one pull. thats without a mount too ^^

also, it should be stated that it is possible to aoe using a fire/arc build. basically you do the rounding up process the same, exept that after the first frost nova, you flamestrike+CoC and kite them to their death with arcane explosion. this will be a bit faster per pull, but you will end up pulling less and using more mana, so over time its about the same speed in xp.

I found this video to be a really impressive showing of what AoE farming can do
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6215273222433818517&q=mage+aoe

mage solo'ing the trash elites in Zul'gurub.

I'm sure they had decent gear to be able to do it, but its still really impressive that it can be done.

Hi there,

All in all this can indeed be both challenging and rewarding. I leveled a mage primarily using AOE grinding and much of what the posters say are true. It's exciting especially when resists occur. Sometimes you can recover. Other times you must "reset" and start again. All in all I figure you can use an hour of your time running around working on a quest to gain 2k experience (depending on level and other factors it varies as we all know) or you can spend 2.5 minutes from beginning to being ready to do the next pull and gain just as much (or almost) pulling an average of 8 to 10 mobs a time unrested. If you are rested then you can gain sufficiently higher than this at times as well.

FirstCenturion, I am certain everyone here is as myself respects your point of view as you are very entitled to it. If I could though might I suggest you reviewing your talent spec or your methodology on how you are going about this because having leveled a mage as I have I've been both successful at some rather large pulls (10 to 15 mobs at once) and at the same time have had pulls much less than that go badly and result in a run back to my rather lifeless corpse. On average from my personal experience I can safely pull an average of 8 to 12 mobs at one time for hours and only have the occasional "reset" meaning I end up cutting and running to loose aggro.

Lastly Leather, I am not sure of your own personal technic though as I have seen, you are indeed right the requirement for frostbite to acquire shatter has been implemented though I for one never required the crit's to have my technic of AOE mob multikill work. Does it gimp it? Eh? It depends, I absolutely adore the crits when they happen as it's another mob with less life I have to worry about later in the pull or one that dies from the crit directly. Either way it's less to deal with though that doesn't mean it's something that is required. Personally the crits were a bonus while pulling as you still had to worry about the other 6 to 10 who didn't suffer from it that you must sill kite to death.

Mind you I am fairly sure this is what you meant. If you have other information upon the new build that I may not have seen yet that you are referring to please enlighten me as the more information we all have the better when it comes to maximizing the usefulness of the mage as a class.

Thanks

Will write a new guide for this when new 1.11 is out in the UK (could be a while :).

Great Post OP! I intend to learn this technique once 1.11 arrives and I can respec to an elemental build. The video was also really helpful Nomorejb. Thank you both.

Very hard to say as there are so many factors. Naming a number would just lead to it being disputed and counter-claims of quicker xp etc.

Some of the factors involved include: your level, mob level, how practised you are, where you are grinding (distractions, do you have to take out casters first etc.), are you pvp server, what kit have you got... at which level etc.

You can see the point I'm making.

The best I can do is say that I have played priest and mage to 60, warrior to mid 30s and all other horde characters to mid 20s and this has been by far the most efficient method of getting xp and cash I have come across. It's also pretty bloody spectacular watching 15 scarlet lumberjacks or 10 raptors fall on their sides all at the same time!

Put it this way: if you find an ideal area and are quick with the spells and don't die at all, you'll be killing perhaps 12 mobs on average in the time it takes to empty your mana bar and then sit and fill it again and run to the next group, maybe 2 minutes altogether. So again, in an ideal situation with no mistakes and interruptions (only seems to happen at 3am lol) you'll be killing 30x12=360 mobs per hour. Multiply this by the xp you get for each one (at level 59 killing level 55 mobs for rested 280xp each that equates to 100800 xp per hour). This is, of course, not possible in the real world because nothing ever happens ideally. But it was quick enough for my mage to stand in one field and level from 57 to 60 over a weekend. I pocketed enough cash, cloth and drops to buy most of my epic mount at the same time, as well.

(I should have said WAY before now that waiting for rested xp is by far the best way to level using this technique!)

Yeah, I actually went looking for some "of the Bear" or equivelant blue gear tonight, in fact. Didnt' find much though. =(

Edit - Holy cow that profile's out of date. Guess I haven't run WoWReader for a while. I'm 58 now, not 55! D'oh!

Edited, Thu Jun 1 05:29:59 2006 by AzraelWarraven

Dont, Azreal, worst tip in this thread, agi just doesnt add up the dodge rate enough for a mage and str does absolutly nothing for a mage.
If you have frostwolf insignia 6 (dont know what Ally AV faction is called exactly :P) , wear it, that one is very handy during AOE grinding.

Youre not supposed to get hit, you need int and sta only.
Lots of int, at least 6k mana. And if you want to be comfortable 3.5k HP.

Edited, Thu Jun 1 07:32:01 2006 by Sjans