Ice Block

Ice Block
Ice Block (1 rank) Mage ability 5 min cooldown Instant You become encased in a block of ice, protecting you from all physical attacks and spells for 10 sec, but during that time you cannot attack, move or cast spells. Also causes Hypothermia, preventing you from recasting Ice Block for 30 sec.
Properties
Class	Mage
School	Frost
Cooldown	5 min
Improvements	[Ice Floes]
Related buff
Magic Ice Block Immune to all attacks and spells. Cannot attack, move or use spells. Duration: 10 seconds

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

In the WoW TCG.

Ice Block is a mage spell that gives short-term immunity to all damage and attacks (except priest [Mass Dispel] and warrior [Shattering Throw]), at the cost of being able to take no action. Ice Block also purges most debuffs.

Using Ice Block debuffs the mage with Hypothermia for 30 seconds, which prevents him from using Ice Block during that time. This is only relevant for Frost mages with the [Cold Snap] talent, which will reset the cooldown for Ice Block. It prevents the mage from casting Ice Block, then resetting the cooldown and immediately casting it again. The effect is similar to the paladin debuff [Forbearance].

"Ice Block" is often used as a verb, meaning to use Ice Block to avoid an attack, as in "I Ice Blocked that rogue's [Eviscerate]." When Ice Block is used to remove a debuff, it is commonly referred to as "Ice Blocking out of ~", as in "I Ice Blocked out of sheep."

Rank table

Rank	Level	Cost
1	30	80

Improvements

Talents

• With 2 talents into [Ice Floes], the cooldown time for Ice Block to reduced to 4 minutes; with 1 point the cooldown is 4 minutes, 30 seconds.
• Ice Block also becomes 12 mana with [Elemental Precision] (3% less mana) and [Frost Channeling] (15% less mana).

Equipment

Wearing 4 pieces of Aldor Regalia reduces the cooldown of Ice Block an additional 40 seconds.

With [Ice Floes], you can reduce the cooldown of Ice Block to 3 minutes, 20 seconds.

Glyphs

Glyph of Ice Block
Glyph of Ice Block Level 25 mage ability Instant When Ice Block terminates, it triggers an instant free Frost Nova and makes you immune to all spells for 3 sec. Exclusive with:  [Glyph of Regenerative Ice]
Usable by
Class	Mage
Properties
Level learned	25
Glyph type	Major Glyph
Exclusive with	[Glyph of Regenerative Ice]
Source item
20 Glyph of Ice Block Major Glyph Use: Permanently teaches you this glyph. When Ice Block terminates, it triggers an instant free Frost Nova and makes you immune to all spells for 3 sec. Classes: Mage Requires Level 25 Sell Price: 1

Source

This item is created with Inscription (225); discovered through  [Research: Ink of Dreams].

Materials required:

3x [Ink of Dreams]

1x [Light Parchment]

Patch changes

• Patch 7.0.3 (2016-07-19): Removed.
  
• Patch 6.0.2 (2014-10-14): Requirements changed.
  
• Patch 5.0.4 (2012-08-28): Updated.

  Previous version: Your Frost Nova cooldown is now reset every time you use Ice Block.
  

• Patch 3.0.2 (2008-10-14): Added.
  

External links

Item	Spell
Wowhead WoWDB	Wowhead WoWDB

Notes

Casting the spell while you're already Ice Blocked (hitting the hotbar key again) will cancel the spell. It won't cancel itself on a second tap until the global cooldown has finished.

Ice Block removes almost any harmful debuff(s) on caster, even if the caster is not in control of his/her actions. This includes Polymorph and all of a rogue's stuns. Due to the technicality that it "purges" the harmful effect without specifically dispelling it, on-dispel effects like Unstable Affliction's damage and silence will not be triggered. Certain raid-level debuffs are not dispellable by Ice Block, but it will still prevent you from taking damage.

Ice Block can be removed via [Mass Dispel], [Shattering Throw], and in rare cases [Purge] and [Dispel Magic] only if these spells are cast at the same time as Ice Block.

Ice Block will not protect you or other raid members from Gruul's [Shatter] effect, only the slowing effect from being Stoned by Gruul.

Tips and tactics

A gnome mage using Ice Block.

Ice Block is useful for escaping from incapacitating effects and crowd-control spells, waiting for your cooldowns, blocking a large single-hit attack (such as Pyroblast, Eviscerate), or buying time for a healer to heal you.

In a one-on-one battle, Ice Block may give your opponent time to cool down abilities, heal, or run. You should rarely let Ice Block expire on its own, but instead cancel when the timing is right, usually immediately after casting.

If used in conjunction with [Cold Snap], Ice Block can be used up to 3 times every 10 minutes, and with [Ice Floes] every 8 minutes.

Ice Block can be used to avoid fall damage (see [Blink] and Slow Fall for other ways). While Ice Blocked your character falls normally, but doesn't take any damage when hitting the ground. (In previous patches, an Ice Blocked mage would hover in the air, then begin to fall when the spell expired.)

Ice Block will prevent drowning and fatigue damage, and reset the damage counter (not the bar) to zero. You will still lose breath and become fatigued while iceblocked.

Ice Block is powerful enough to remove almost any debuff, including [Living Bomb] or Baron Rivendare's 45-minute debuff. (However, doing so will not prevent you from completing the 45-minute Stratholme run.) Some notable exceptions are [Resurrection Sickness], Vaelastrasz's Burning Adrenaline, Deathbringer Saurfang's Mark of the Fallen Champion and the Deserter debuff from battlegrounds.

Contrary to popular belief, Ice Block will NOT reduce your current threat level. The reason for this misunderstanding is that enemy AI is programmed to ignore you if you are invincible and move on to the next-highest target on its hate list. As soon as the effect fades the enemy may resume attacking you. However, it will prevent you from performing any actions that generate threat, allowing others (who are still attacking, healing, etc) to rise ahead of you on the mob's hate list. Use [Invisibility] to remove threat.

It is worth noting that a level 70 priest can use [Mass Dispel] to remove ice block. This may be followed with a [Shadow Word: Death] for a quick kill if the mage is low on health. [Improved Counterspell] could be useful here if you manually break ice block while the priest is casting, but act quickly.

Using this macro a mage can instantly stop casting a spell and ice block to protect themselves with no delay. This makes it very useful in PvP or PvE situations which requires you to have fast reflexes to a changing situation.

/stopcasting
/cast ice block

For those that have the skill of Herbalism, casting [Lifeblood] right before Ice Block give your health a reprieve (albiet a low one)

Patches and hotfixes

• Patch 2.3.2 (2008-01-08): Ice Block is trainable for mages of all talent builds at level 30.
  
• Patch 2.3.0 (2007-11-13): In Patch 2.3.0, Ice Block was reverted back to its old behavior.

  Originally, a player who Ice Blocked in midair would continue to fall normally. At one point this was changed so an Ice Blocked player hovered while the spell was active, then began to fall when it expired.
  

• Patch 2.1.0 (2007-05-22): Hypothermia debuff added.

  Prior to this, a mage with Ice Block and [Cold Snap] could be protected for 20 consecutive seconds, with only a short interruption to use Cold Snap.
  

• Patch 1.4.0 (2005-04-19): Fixed race condition where damage would sometimes be applied after Ice Block was activated.
  

External links

• Wowhead
• WoWDB