VenthyrAs long as the target stays alive long enough to consume all three charges, this is a really strong ability.
Brain Freeze with double
Ice Lance deals huge damage, and having three guaranteed procs is excellent. It's a DPS gain to ignore the Shatter combo during
Mirrors of Torment, so you don't munch Brain Freeze procs; simply consume Brain Freeze with Flurry and double Ice Lance. However, the ability isn't much use in AoE.
A reasonably strong Conduit that gives Mirrors some AoE power by boosting the damage of spells like
Frozen Orb and
Blizzard, pushing it ahead of
Ice Bite in multi-target situations.
A short cooldown on a targeted teleport is awesome in Mythic+ and great as an additional gap closer in raids, especially with the increased cooldown on
Shimmer.
KyrianA flat damage increase to our rotation. Cast Radiant Spark with a
Brain Freeze proc, then follow with a
Flurry and double
Ice Lance; that means both Ice Lances have the maximum damage buff.
The best way to use Radiant Spark is to ignore the Shatter combo; use it to replace the
Frostbolt we'd normally cast before Flurry, so the cast order becomes Spark > Flurry > Ice Lance x 2.
Simple and straightforward, though not as strong as other Conduits like
Ice Bite or
Icy Propulsion, especially in AoE.
Although early on everyone considered the Steward (now affectionately known as the owlboi) to be the weakest Covenant signature ability, Mythic+ and raid testing has shown the usefulness of a debuff cleanse - especially on the many, many Bleed effects in Castle Nathria (there are only two it can't cleanse, both on the Stone Legion Generals fight). Not universally useful, but much stronger than first thought.
NecrolordDeathborne is useful in cleave situations, grants 10% spell power and the additional Frostbolt impacts can proc
Fingers of Frost and
Brain Freeze. However, the cooldown is too long for a spell that only buffs Frostbolt - which rarely makes up more than 10% of Frost's overall damage. Despite lining up perfectly with
Icy Veins, the ability is just not useful for Frost.
Doesn't change the weakness of Deathborne, but worth using over
Ice Bite in AoE.
This extra self-survivability is fantastic - it's essentially a self-targeted
Life Cocoon - but the 4-second channel and fact that it is tied to
Deathborne is a real downer. This one is hard to justify taking compared to Door of Shadows or Soulshape.
Night FaeAesthetically this is by far the best-looking Covenant ability, but it doesn't have anything else going for it for Frost, which traditionally don't rely on cooldowns. Being forced into melee range is unhealthy for casters (we’re treated as valid targets for ranged mechanics no matter where we stand), and standing still for four seconds while the spell channels is painful.
Frost doesn't really have any impactful short cooldowns: the closest would be
Frozen Orb, but that rarely makes up more than 5% of our damage on a single target - a little more when you account for the extra Fingers of Frost procs.
This all changes in AoE, of course:
Shifting Power is a perfectly viable pick for a Mage focused on Mythic+, to refresh the cooldowns on Blizzard and Frozen Orb.
Worthless on a single target and cleave, but worth using over
Ice Bite in AoE.
Teleports are universally valuable, and while it might not be as strong as
Door of Shadows this is a good second-place option, especially as we can cast Mage spells while shapeshifted. Three Blinks in the 12-second duration will enable easy repositioning and the ability to dodge some nasty mechanics. The minigame of collecting new forms is also cool! Sadly, this is linked to a really poor class ability for Frost.
