| Shatter | |
|---|---|
| |
| Requirements | |
| Class | Mage |
| Talent required |
 [Improved Frost Nova] |
| Properties | |
| Affects | Spell Critical Chance |
"Freeze them solid and then strike, hard and with purpose. Then watch them shatter..."
Shatter is a Mage talent that passively increases the Mage's spell critical strike against frozen targets by 10% per rank, up to 50% at max rank 5. A frozen target is a target immobilized by a frost-based effect, such as [Frost Nova], Freeze, Frostbite, 
[Freezing Trap] or the freeze effect from the 
[Freezing Band]. The critical strike chance applies to all of the mage's schools. The talent is popular in most frost builds and elementalist builds, especially in combination with talents such as 
[Ice Shards], which increases critical strike damage, and Frostbite which freezes more enemies. Mobs in raid mobs, especially raid bosses, are often immune to freezes making this talent less useful in those situations.
| Rank | Critical Strike % Increase |
|---|---|
| 1 | + %10 |
| 2 | + %20 |
| 3 | + %30 |
| 4 | + %40 |
| 5 | + %50 |
A devastating 
[Frostbolt] - 
[Ice Lance] combo crits twice on this frozen Talbuk with the aid of Shatter
Tips
Freeze effects now have a much higher chance to break when taking damage, meaning it can be difficult to get more than one spell to land on each freeze. It is still possible to get two criticals on the same freeze effect before it breaks. First, use a long cast time spell that also has a projectile travel time, such as [Frostbolt] or 
[Fireball]. Immediately after the cast, use an instant spell such as [Ice Lance] or 
[Fire Blast], or use 
[Presence of Mind] with another spell, if you are fast enough and at good range. The check to see if the target is frozen, and thus the critical strike check, is done at the time the cast completes, while the freeze effect is not removed from the target until after the spell hits. Thus, both spells will have the benefit of Shatter due to the time of flight for the first spell.
This talent is considered essential and the main source of damage for Frost Mages in PVP.
Past changes
Prior to patch 1.11, the critical strike bonus only applied to frost spells. After this patch, Shatter applied to all of the Mage's spell schools. This change made Shatter a viable talent combined with fire and arcane schools, especially in elementalist builds.
In patch 2.0.10, freeze effects were changed to break much earlier when the target was critically stricken. Typically, a freeze effect such as Frost Nova will now break on the first critical strike. In Patch 2.1 this was changed back, however the overall chance that a freeze will break on any damage was still increased.
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