Frost/Fire Shatter + Ignite

Mage · Levelling 10–60

2/26/194 flex points (levels 57–60)

His favourite questing spec, massively slept on: Shatter raises the crit chance of all your spells on frozen targets, so Fireball + Fire Blast (or Ice Lance) into a Frost Nova both crit and drop huge Ignites. Best with Mage Armor and Spirit at 34+.

Shatter combo
Ignite
Questing

Arcane (2)

Frost/Fire Shatter + Ignite - WoW Roster

Pick order

1Improved FrostboltFrost★lvl 10–14 5/5
What makes Frost strong: a mandatory start.
2Elemental PrecisionFrostlvl 15 1/3
2% hit with one point.
3FrostbiteFrost★lvl 16–18 3/3
A chance of a free freeze to fire the combo into.
4Improved Frost NovaFrostfillerlvl 19–20 2/2
More Frost Novas, more combos.
5Improved BlizzardFrostlvl 21–23 3/3
To help the tank with AoE pulls in dungeons.
6Ice LanceFrostlvl 24 1/1
May be even better than Fire Blast to pair with Fireball.
7ShatterFrost★lvl 25–27 3/3
The core: crit chance on frozen targets, for all spells.
8Ice BlockFrostlvl 28 1/1
Great for PvP.
9Missile BarrageArcanelvl 29–30 2/2
Free Arcane Missiles: 2 points in any build.
Then deeper into Fire.
10Improved FireballFire★lvl 31–35 5/5
Fireball is half of the combo.
11IgniteFire★lvl 36–40 5/5
The combo's crits turn into big Ignites.
12Burning SoulFirelvl 41–43 3/3
Easier casting under hits.
13PyroblastFirelvl 44 1/1
With Heating Up: a big Pyroblast batched with Fire Blast.
14Improved Fire BlastFirefillerlvl 45 1/2
Opens row 4.
15Heating UpFire★lvl 46 1/1
Fire Blast crits speed up Pyroblast.
16Master of ElementsFirelvl 47–49 3/3
You crit so often that mana comes back.
17Improved Fire BlastFirefillerlvl 50 2/2
Opens row 5.
18Critical MassFirelvl 51–55 5/5
Even more crit.
19Blast WaveFirelvl 56 1/1
Further down the Fire tree.

4 flex points (levels 57–60)

Alternatives

Arcane Meditation no longer mandatory with Mage Armor (34) and Spirit stacking, still strong before that

Tips

Combo: Frost Nova (or a Frostbite freeze), then Fireball and Fire Blast (or Ice Lance) so they land together on the frozen target.
AoE: Frost Nova the clump, then Flamestrike: with Shatter it crits and Ignites every target.
Based on his Season of Mastery experience: the new talents may change it, experiment.
Spirit stacking + 50% regen while casting (Arcane Meditation) means you barely ever drink; Mage Armor at 34 adds the same again.
When you do drink with high Spirit, 5–10 sec is enough: shorter downtime.
Hit: 1 point of Elemental Precision (2%) and 2 of Arcane Focus (2%) cover mobs of your level.
Polymorph breaks on your Fireball: use it as an interrupt on healers before you have Counterspell.
Keep your wand upgraded (MP5 or spell power); weapon oils are cheap and last through death.
Don't buy water: save gold for the level-40 mount, mages have no speed boost before it.

Links

Metal Goblin · English by Metal Goblin Talent trees, icon names and effects: talentsforever.com (CC BY 4.0)

Frost/Fire Shatter + Ignite

Arcane (2)

Frost/Fire Shatter + Ignite

Arcane (2)

Fire (26)

Frost (19)

Pick order