Cone of Cold

Cone of Cold is a mage spell that deals frost damage to all enemies in front of the caster. It is a point-blank Area of Effect spell. The area of effect is a 90 degree arc region (a "cone") extending 10 yards in front of the caster. The spell also snares all enemies it hits with a 50% speed reduction for 8 seconds.

Talent improvement
Most obviously Improved Cone of Cold increases the damage by 15/25/35%. Precision and Frost Channeling reduce the mana cost of the spell, while Frost Channeling also lowers its threat. Cone of Cold deals Frost damage, so the bonuses from Piercing Ice, Ice Shards, Arctic Winds and Winter's Chill apply to the spell. Arctic Reach extends the area of effect to 12 yards at max rank. Ice Floes reduces the cooldown of the spell to 8 seconds at max rank Master of Elements will refund a percentage of the mana cost of the spell if it critically hits at least 1 target.

The snare component of Cone of Cold is affected by Permafrost, which increases the duration of the snare to 11 seconds at max rank, and increases the snare to 40% of movement speed. Also, the snare will trigger the Frostbite talent.

As with all mage spells capable of critical hits Arcane Instability, Spell Power, Molten Fury, Playing with Fire and Shatter can increase effective damage output.

Tips and tricks


Cone of Cold is hard to use while running, despite its instant casting time. Slight lag will make the cone occasionally point in odd directions, or at odd angles if the caster is also turning. The cone will always point in the direction the caster is facing, even while moving in one direction but facing another, such as when jumping, falling or strafing. To make sure you hit your target, try to be standing still or moving straight backwards when you cast, the cone will then always be where you expect it.

This spell is expensive for one target, it's more mana efficient to wait for Fire Blast to cooldown.

When under the effects of Cone of Cold, enemies are moving at 50% speed, this can be further reduced to 40% of their movement speed with the Permafrost talent. Backwards movement is 50% of normal running speed. It's possible to Cone of Cold a target, then backpedal while casting instant spells.

The Permafrost talent will extend the duration of Cone of Cold's snare effect by 1 second per rank, and the Ice Floes talent will reduce the cooldown by 1 second per rank. Combining points in these talent, it is possible to make the snare effect longer than the spell's cooldown time, meaning the mage can kite one or many melee mobs indefinitely. This is important when using the spell for Frost AoE Grinding.