The Arena Mage Cookie CutterFollow

Alright I'm not going to debate what is the best arena spec. 17/0/44 has nothing close to comparison as far as popularity. I'm 17/0/44 myself. I am wondering if I am playing my build correctly. I looked at alot of the top arena mages and many have Empowered Frostbolt. Are these mages raiding with this same build? Obviously every situation is different but it's vary rare I wind up my rank 14 Frostbolt in an arena. Also they gave up Ice Floes to get Empowered Frostbolt. I imagine it doesn't make that big of difference on the big CDs WE, IB, etc, but I find this talent game changing for FN and CoC. Many of them also gave up Permafrost which I find useful but I could see in arena where it would be not as important.

So, from a strictly PVP/Arena perspective, do I need to be utilizing my Frostbolt talents and Spells more?

Thanks!!

Omenv

This is totally dependant on setup and who the enemy is.
I play with a warrior and priest, and some matches I just spend ccing people, rank 1 fb and polymorphing people until the warrior gets someone. All I do in matches like this to add dps is fireblast and petnova/lance. Other games, I'm completely free, and they're scrambling not to get killed, in games like this it really helps if you can frostbolt with (near) maximum damage. In my opinion, empowered frostbolt is just too good to give up, since you'll find yourself in a lot of these situations.

Think of ice floes as a survivability talent, you won't really waste mana on coc in most matches, unless there's melee on you, and you won't need ice barrier as often if you're not being targeted.
I've done without it the last few weeks, but I'm thinking of getting it back due to the focus I've been receiving lately.

I'm actually speccing back into permafrost though, because nothing owns as much as keeping a rogue slowed by an insane amount for an entire game. Again, survivability, but not just your own, youll often be snaring people off of your teammates, and it helps a lot.

There's a lot of options to give up on if you're looking for room, do you really need lowered mana cost (even with clearcasting)? Do you really need 5% less damage from people? Do you really need 100% chance to debuff people? Do you really use coc for damage?

Anyway, nearly every 17/0/44 build is different, just check out what you need in your team setup, your main focus will always be ccing people though.