Icicle Staff ZvZ PvP Build

Overview

Weapon: Frost Staff

Focus: Support

Mode: ZvZ

Strengths

• Highly impactful if played well

Weaknesses

• Can be expensive

This build is up to date for the November 6, 2024 Horizons Patch #1.

Overview

This Icicle Staff ZvZ PvP build focuses on hindering your enemies and peeling for your zerg. An icicle player can have a significant impact by slowing down large portions of the enemy zerg, causing them to be out of sync or halting their engagement altogether. Frozen Hell and Mythical Web can render an enemy engagement completely ineffective. You have two instant blink movement options by using Frost Nova and Blink, and very strong cooldown reduction if you choose to use Meditation. A skilled icicle player will also scout around their zerg, preemptively disrupting any approaching enemy zergs while alerting their allies about potential flanking attempts.

Equipment

Main Hand Weapon

Elder's Icicle Staff

Head

Elder's Assassin Hood

Alternatives ⇅

Cape

Elder's Martlock Cape

Alternatives ⇅

Armor

Elder's Duskweaver Armor

Alternatives ⇅

Shoes

Elder's Cleric Sandals

Potion

Major Resistance Potion

Alternatives ⇅

Food

Pork Omelette

Alternatives ⇅

Keep in mind: Gear shown in this build is meant as a reference. Choosing the correct tier of gear is very tricky as there are many variables. Some of them being your budget, your spec and minimum Item Power requirements of your guild if used for ZvZ.

You should always check prices based on IP of the items. For example, a masterpiece quality 4.3 Elder's Cryptcandle could be cheaper while providing roughly the same IP as an 8.0.

Usage

Elder's Icicle Staff

Frozen Surge — Doesn't do a lot of damage but good for slowing down anyone in its path. Feel free to spam it off cooldown.

Frost Nova — Use it to freeze anyone near you. Ideally, you'll position yourself in the middle of the enemy frontline, giving you ample opportunity to freeze priority targets, such as enemy DPS who have activated their speed buffs and are actively trying to engage your zerg. It's great for halting pushes and also serves as a very useful movement skill when something goes wrong and you need to escape.

Frozen Hell — The idea behind this skill is similar to Frost Nova. Your main goal is to peel for your zerg. Ideally, you'll drop this in a chokepoint and watch as the enemy slows down enough for your zerg to either escape or reengage. Try to prioritize the use of Meditation to reduce the cooldown of this skill, as well as Mythical Web, since these are your most useful abilities.

Frost — Use this passive to root priority targets or switch to Energetic for better mana sustain.

Elder's Duskweaver Armor

Mythical Web — This skill will remove any movement buffs from enemies, so try to use it directly on or in front of an actively engaging enemy zerg. Doing so will create an opportunity for your zerg to counter them and can lead to a very fast turnaround in the fight because the enemy movement skills will be on cooldown as well. Similar to Frozen Hell, try to use Meditation as frequently as possible to reduce the cooldown of this skill. Knight armor is a good alternative option if you're on a budget.

Authority — Increases the CC of your skills, and since your build is mostly focused on crowd control, this is the right choice.

Elder's Assassin Hood

Meditation — Channel this skill to rapidly regain cooldown for your other skills. Try to use it as much as possible, but be aware that it can be interrupted, and you can't move during its use.

Quick Thinker — Additional cooldown reduction is the most beneficial choice for this build.

Elder's Cleric Sandals

Blink — A useful movement skill, but it can also be substituted with other boots and any run skill.Blink and Frost Nova can be used consecutively, providing you with a significant instant travel distance, which can save you in a pinch.

Efficiency — This passive helps with mana consumption, but an argument can be made for using Concentration or Courier depending on the situation you are in.

Elder's Martlock Cape

Shield of Protection — Quite self-explanatory, but can help you survive when you get caught. The Bridgewatch Cape's Sandstorm is also a very good option for this build.

Rotations

Enemy is engaging ↴

• First, utilize a movement ability or walk to get in the way of the enemy push. Then, use Mythical Web to purge the enemy speed buffs. Subsequently, activate Frozen Hell or, if the engagement front is broad, utilize Frozen Hell to slow the other half of the enemy's engage. When your cooldowns are depleted and you're not in any immediate danger, use Meditation to replenish them and repeat the process.

Consumables

Major Resistance Potion — Provides significantly higher resistance to all crowd control (CC) and damage, so ideally, you'd want to activate it just before taking damage or getting CC'd. While the 7.1 version offers significant benefits if you have the extra silver to spend, it isn't essential.

Pork Omelette — This omelette is the most common food for this build. An argument can be made for using Avalonian Pork Omelette but, since you aren't a tank, the cooldown reduction is more beneficial.