Frost Nova

Frost Nova
Frost Nova (5 ranks) Mage ability 10 s. yd range 185 Mana at max rank 25 sec cooldown Instant 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, [Arctic Winds], [Arcane Instability], Spell Power, [Playing with Fire],  [Molten Fury], [Shatter]
Related debuff
Magic Frost Nova Frozen in place. Duration: 8 seconds

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

Litori's pursuers found themselves quite literally frozen in their tracks.

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

Improvements

The [Ice Floes] talent will reduce the cooldown to 20 seconds at max rank. [Cold Snap] will simply finish its cooldown. The  [Glyph of Ice Block] also resets its cooldown every time the mage uses Ice Block.

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

Elemental Precision and [Frost Channeling] reduce the mana cost of the spell, while Frost Channeling also lowers its threat. Frost Nova deals Frost damage, so the bonuses from [Piercing Ice], [Ice Shards], [Arctic Winds] and Winter's Chill apply to the spell. [Master of Elements] will refund a percentage of the mana cost of the spell if it critically hits at least one target.

As with all mage spells capable of critical hits [Arcane Instability], Spell Power,  [Molten Fury], [Playing with Fire] and [Shatter] can increase the effective damage output of this spell.

As of Patch 3.0.2,  [Impact] from the Fire talent tree will work with Frost Nova.

Glyph of Frost Nova causes the spell's root effect to last longer against foes you're damaging- rooted targets can take an additional 20% more damage before the Frost Nova root breaks.

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. Also use Frost nova to root enemies that you may have pulled off the tank, and allow them to regain aggro.

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.

Patch changes

• Patch 2.1.0 (2007-05-22): Changed to crowd control. All targets over level 60 have a slightly larger chance to break out of crowd-controlling effects when they take damage.
  
• Patch 2.0.10 (2007-03-06): "The chance Frozen effects are broken when the target is critically struck by a spell has been increased.

  This should only affect Frozen targets that are hit with a spell crit; the Frozen effect can be broken by a spell crit from any player, not just the player that created the Frozen effect. However, please keep in mind that this is already how the game currently works. Only the chance of the Frozen effect being broken has been changed; the types of attacks that can break the Frozen effect will not be changed.

  It is still possible to score Frostbolt followed by Ice Lance on a frozen target and get double crit, however the situation will still be closely monitored and may be adjusted in the future. " (Source)
  

External links

• Wowhead
• WoWDB