The Icekicker: Frostkeeper Healing for PVP

Introduction

Frostkeeper is a Mage tank healing soul that specializes in direct healing unlike the Chloromancer soul which heals from its damage. However, it isn’t just a “single-target” healer–it specializes in being able to heal two targets at once and can keep a third minutely shielded when you allocate 32pts into the soul. It is a perfect healer for PVP because you’ll be able to heal two players at once.

Soul Tree

There are a few variations of this build that you can utilize and it will just be dependent on the utility you’d like to have at your disposal. The guide will work out for all of the variations although some of the macros will be more specific to some builds.

One thing I will notate here is that my variations do not have a point allocated into Chilling Purity for the AOE cleanse. You can adjust your points if you want to pick this up. You could forego a point in Innervating Surge if you’d like to have this! Since Dominator is no longer prevalent and you can’t cleanse the Twisted debuffs, I figured I would be lazy and only rely on my ST cleanse should I have to do so.

You can also swap your points around in Chloromancer for stuff that you’d prefer like taking points out of Circle of Life for Phytogenesis. I do not use Radiant Spores in PVP however if that’s something you’d like to take advantage of, that would be worth swapping your points around for. There is no actual ‘wrong’ build here despite what people might claim! The little differences will be based on the player’s preference and playstyle, so do what works best for you!

Frostkeeper Variations

• 3% Mit + Infrigidate: 54 Frostkeeper / 22 Chloromancer / 0 Arbiter
• Spell Power: 51 Frostkeeper / 22 Chloromancer / 3 Stormcaller
• Extra Break Free: 51 Frostkeeper / 15 Chloromancer / 10 Stormcaller

Masteries

For your level 63 mastery, you can swap around as this is more preference. Personally, I use Mental Cynosure because I find the cleansing aspect of it to be extremely useful.

• Eldritch Swiftness: Increase your movement speed by 10%
• Coalesced Resolve: Reduce CC effects on yourself by 10%, combat rez gives a 100% health returned
• Mental Cynosure: Increase mana regen by 10%, Increase Charge regen by 10%, ST Cleanse applies additonal cleanse

Your level 65 mastery can also be swapped to Mending Response however I like to combine Phantom Stream with the Cold Snap after I have used up the instant cast charges, as that’s enough time leftover to make Phantom Stream immune to interrupts.

Planar Attunement

If you are not max PA, you will want to consider prioritizing points immediately into the Attunement of War‘s first tier due to how strong they are for a PVP healer. Here are a couple examples:

• Double Tap: Gives your interrupted spells a 100% chance to reduce the cast time of the interrupted spell by 25%. This ability only works in PvP.
• Hastened Withdrawal: Gives you a 10% chance when taking Physical damage from a player to dispel all movement impairing effects and increase your movement speed by 10% for 2 seconds. Once triggered, this effect may not occur again for 5 seconds. This ability only works in PvP.

Buffs

Abilities

The following are abilities that you will want to place on your ability bar for single-target healing, party healing, cooldowns, and utility.

Core Mechanics

Healing Rotation

Your “rotation” for healing will be very simple and as you get used to the playstyle, you can go a little more crazy advanced with it.

Telluric Burst > Earthen Renewal > Earthen Renewal > Filler

Your filler will vary greatly from player-to-player. I like to spot heal another player with an Entropic Veil boosted Bloom. This is entirely your preference and you can go wild with what you want to do.

Alternatively, you can utilize Hail Blast if you have spec’d into the build with Infrigidate. I sometimes find this more valuable than casting Rime (if Bloom is on CD) since I’ll be using Earthen Renewal.

Whether it’s a cleanse, Barrier swap, Rime, anything goes and there is no “wrong” approach to this whatsoever.

Barrier Mechanics

Earthen Barrier, Frost Barrier, and Crystal Barrier are pivotal in the playstyle of Frostkeeper in PVP. You will want to swap your Barriers around in PVP to get the most out of your healing and shielding. I use an add-on to track my Barriers as this makes it easy to see when they’ve fallen off (Frostkeeper Barriers do stack but sometimes it can fall off the original target), been purged, or if I was just lazy and forgot to apply one or more.

The big thing to take away here is that there is no right or wrong way with how you prioritize your Barriers. However, to get the most healing (and shielding) output possible and that is being extremely proactive with swapping them in a Warfront versus leaving them on the first player that you put it on.

One thing to bare in mind is your range from your Barrier targets and that is 35m (40m if you selected Healing Exigency for your level 63 Mastery). While Earthen Barrier and Frost Barrier will proc without needing you in range, your Crystal Barrier effect will not proc. Your Barrier targets will not also take advantage of the Ground Zero mechanic nor will it proc Frostkeeper’s Armor on your Barrier targets.

Cooldown Usages

The other ability in your arsenal is Earthmending and while I technically don’t consider it a huge “save” cooldown I’m going to lump it here anyway. I personally use it off cooldown so it’s up as much as possible. It hops from injured target to injured target every 3s for 30s. Of course, if the ally dies while it has Earthmending, it won’t hop around but that’s fine!

Tips & Tricks

1. Use Withering Vine to proc and maintain Natural Awareness outside of Bloom and Resurgence filler in your rotation.
2. Bitter Gust allies that have over extended to “save” them from tab target fodder.
3. Natural Conversion is perfect to toss up on enemies.
4. Toggle Entropic Veil for your Chloromancer healing abilities like Bloom, Resurgence, and Flourish.
5. Save Frozen Ground for when you have a strong opposing melee that will focus you. You can also use Vapor Rush (PA T2 Steam) to charge to another enemy to create a larger gap from your previous threat.

PVP Video(s)

Soon!

Recommended Add-ons

• Group Buff Tracker – Easily track your Barrier targets
• KaruulAlert – Track and manage debuffs, cooldowns, buffs, et al
• Gadgets – UI customization

kAlert

If you’d like to utilize my kalert set for Frostkeeper (screenshot), you can just copy the following set to KaruulAlert. File > Import Set > Paste.

KA::Ak8gGeNqlVE2PmzAQ/SvcemrqL2yQT8bgag9dVdv0UkVCDnESGjCRMVtF6o+vQ7ObZJOt0l2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Macros

#show Earthmending
cast @mouseoverui Earthmending

#show Telluric Burst
suppressmacrofailures
cast @mouseoverui Telluric Burst
cast @mouseoverui Resurgence
cast Withing Vines

#show Infuse Magic
cast @mouseoverui Infuse Magic

#show Earthen Renewal
suppressmacrofailures
cast @mouseoverui Earthen Renewal
cast @mouseoverui Resurgence
cast Withing Vines

#show Rime
cast @mouseoverui Rime
cast Withing Vines

#show Frost Barrier
cast @mouseoverui Frost Barrier

#show Earthen Barrier
cast @mouseoverui Earthen Barrier

#show Crystal Barrier
cast @mouseoverui Crystal Barrier

#show Expel Harm
suppressmacrofailures
cast @mouseoverui Expel Harm
cast @group01 Expel Harm
cast @group02 Expel Harm
cast @group03 Expel Harm
cast @group04 Expel Harm
cast @group05 Expel Harm
cast @group06 Expel Harm
cast @group07 Expel Harm
cast @group08 Expel Harm
cast @group09 Expel Harm
cast @group10 Expel Harm
cast @group11 Expel Harm
cast @group12 Expel Harm
cast @group13 Expel Harm
cast @group14 Expel Harm
cast @group15 Expel Harm
cast @group16 Expel Harm
cast @group17 Expel Harm
cast @group18 Expel Harm
cast @group19 Expel Harm
cast @group20 Expel Harm

#show Suspended Reanimation
cast @mouseoverui Suspended Reanimation

#show Bloom
suppressmacrofailures
cast @mouseoverui Bloom
cast @mouseoverui Resurgence

PVP Reductions

• Healing Abilities:
  • Earthmending – Healing reduced by 10% in PVP. (3.6 #9)
  • Earthen Renewal – Now heals for 12% less in PVP (3.6 #11)
  • Telluric Burst – Now heals for 12% less in PVP (3.6 #11)
  • Infuse Magic – Now heals for 67% less in PVP. (3.7 #3)
• Barriers:
  • Earthen Barrier – Now heals for 10% less in PVP (3.6 #11)
  • Frost Barrier – Now absorbs 10% less damage in PVP (3.6 #11)
  • Crystal Barrier – Now absorbs 10% less damage in PVP (3.6 #11)
• Misc:
  • Frostkeeper’s Armor – Now absorbs 10% less damage in PVP (3.6 #11)