Ice Lance


 * "It's hard to nail a moving target. An immobile one, though... now that's a different story." - Velindra Sepulchre

Ice Lance is a mage spell that deals Frost direct damage. The spell can be powerful due to the fact that it deals triple damage to targets that are frozen.

Talent improvement
Elemental Precision and Frost Channeling reduce the mana cost of the spell, while Frost Channeling also lowers its threat. Ice Lance deals Frost damage, so the bonuses from Piercing Ice, Ice Shards, Arctic Winds and Winter's Chill apply to the spell. Spell Impact also increases the damage of Ice Lance. Arctic Reach extends the range to 36 yards at max rank. Master of Elements will refund a percentage of the mana cost of the spell if it critically hits its target.

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

Tips and tactics
Ice Lance is a great source of burst DPS in solo, PvP and some group situations. It is useful in any situation where an enemy can be frozen, which makes it less useful on most dungeon bosses. Since the triple damage bonus is applied after all other flat modifiers such as spell damage effects, the burst damage can get pretty high.

Ice Lance is one of the very few offensive mage abilities that can be used while moving, and the fact that it has no cooldown other than the global cooldown means that it can be spammed repeatedly. Interestingly, it is possible to use Ice Lance to make a "fighting retreat" so to speak and use it on foes directly behind the mage's path of movement. The trick is to face perpendicular to the target that you wish to flee from, and side-step out of the way. Thus if you face left with the target to your left, move to your right, and if you face right with the target to your right, move to your left. The actual targeting arc for spells and abilities is one-hundred and eighty degrees in front of a character, so by "torso twisting" in this manner a mage can run away at full speed while still showering the foe with Ice Lance attacks.

Shatter combo
Summon your minion. From a decent range(~20y), target your enemy and begin casting your Frostbolt. While Frostbolt is casting, use the minion's Freeze on your enemy, and immediately when Frostbolt is done casting start spamming Ice Lance. Because of the distance and travel time, Frostbolt and Ice Lance should hit at the same time and both crit, leading to burst damage of up to ~5000.

On non-frozen targets, the spell is a useful instant that costs very little mana. Unlike wanding, Ice Lance can be cast while running. In PvP, use it to take down shaman totems or to interrupt flag captures in battlegrounds. This spell also procs the Winter's Chill talent, allowing you to stack the debuff early in a boss fight with little threat and little mana. It will not, however, proc Frostbite because it does not have a chill.