Yep, you read the title right. No Yanna this time. Sorry to disappoint. I needed a change of pace, and honestly I have been a little swamped lately. So I am falling back on an old idea that I originally proposed in the strategy forums. How many of you have ever looked at Frost Nova and thought, "Cool! I wanna break this wide open!" Umm, I just might be the only one I guess. Lets have a look and see what we can figure out about Frost Nova. There are only a few ABCs that are designed to gain advantage through net ticks. Polymorph, Gouge, Frost Nova and Summon Santuria do the job straight up, while others like Mocking Blow and Thunder Clap may or may not actually net extra ticks above the invested cost. Out of these, Gouge and Frost Nova are the most similiar. Both are instants that provide a net increase of one tick. However, the similiarity ends there. Frost Nova has a strict advantage over Gouge for the following reasons; it can affect more than one enemy character, and because it doesn't target it can be used with Polymorph. On the flip side, your Frost Nova comes with a rather fragile Mage attached to it. Unlike the Rogue/Gouge set which wants to be up close and personal, Mages seek to shoot stuff from as far away as possible. Mages are the squishiest of the classes, generally having less health and resist than equivalent clothie counterparts. In fact, aside from epics and two monsters, mages have 6 or less health, the majority having only 5 health. So it is bad news if your mage is close enough to use Frost Nova. Unless you use one of the following:
Team 1: Tick Tock, 12 Honor
Magistrix Enaria x3
-Frost Nova x 3
-Arcane Flux x2
-Polymorph x2
-Ice Block x2
Ice Block is a little counter intuitive to the Frost Nova strat, but these little guys don't cost much and against the right team IB can let you finish what you started. Polymorph of course works wonderfully with Frost Nova. The only downside is not being able to nuke them while they are sheeped. The crit and the Nova, if lucky, can really push the tick advantage your way.
Team 2: Supernova, 24 Honor
Razaani Nexus Stalker x3
-Frost Nova x3
-Arcane Flux x2
-Polymorph x2
-Flamestrike x2
The Nexus stalker has to get up close and personal as it is, and the stats are much beefier than most mages. In addition to that, Astral Traveler lets you really set up your Frost Novas for maximum effect.
For the next team there was some discussion here. http://entertainment.upperdeck.com/WOW/COMMUNITY/forums/thread/1787647.aspx
Tinker potentially gets to ready Frost Nova every tick using Flux and Wisdom. The most likely scenario is using a second Tinker to ensure the lockout and supply Polymorph. However,I would propose that Dizdemona could be a viable third mini instead. Dizzy is less fragile and can self heal with crits. Bringing along Santuria to help with the lockout, and either Hellfire or Curse of Agony for locked out enemy characters.
Team 3: Frost Lock, 24 Honor
Tinker
-Arcane Flux
-Frost Nova
-Polymorph
Dizdemona
-Summon Santoria
-Curse of Agony
-Hellfire
Savin
-Bulwark of Azzinoth
-Blessing of Protection
-Flash of Light
That Polymorph is for stuff that has "can't be ticked up" text on it, just in case your BG has someone that likes ogres or something. Polymorph cannot tick them up, but they lose their abilities until their next turn, so Frost Nova will still actually work on them if you can get to them before their next turn.
I hope you enjoyed this weeks installment. If there is an ABC that you would like to see broken wide open, let me know. No clue what I am doing next week. Tune in anyway, lol.
Sarcastic remarks should come in a different color. Then the forums would be more interesting to look at.