- For the Pet Battle ability, see [Ice Lance].
Ice Lance | |
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Properties | |
Class | Mage |
School | Frost |
Cooldown | None/Global Cooldown |
Other information | |
Level learned | 10 |
Improvements | [Lonely Winter], [Splitting Ice] |
- "It's hard to nail a moving target. An immobile one, though... now that's a different story." - Velindra Sepulchre [1]
Ice Lance is a level 10 Frost 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.
Notes
The double bonus on frozen targets is applied after all spell damage, talents and other modifiers have been calculated.
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 power 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 high burst damage.
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.
Trivia
- Ice Lance is a common Mage spell in Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft. The flavor text reads: "The trick is not to break the lance. Otherwise, you have "Ice Pieces." Ice Pieces aren't as effective."
- Ice Lance is a Talent, an upgrade to Jaina's Basic Ability [Frostbolt] in Heroes of the Storm.
Patches and hotfixes
- Patch 7.2.5 (2017-06-13): Ice Lance missile speed increased by 30%.
- Patch 7.1.0 (2016-10-25):
- Damage increased by 5%.
- Now learned at level 10 (was 5).
- Hotfix (2016-09-23): Ice Lance damage increased by 13%.
- Hotfix (2016-08-26): Ice Lance (Frost) deals 20% additional damage in PvP.
- Patch 7.0.3 (2016-07-19): Damage increased by 52%. Now deals 200% more damage to frozen targets, up from 100%.
- Hotfix (2014-10-17): Damage has been increased by 20%.
- Patch 6.0.2 (2014-10-14):
- Now replaces Fire Blast and is now only available to Frost mages.
- Base damage has been increased by 100%, but its damage multiplier against frozen targets has been reduced by 50%.
- Hotfix (2013-09-23): Ice Lance's damage has been increased by 20%.
- Patch 5.4.0 (2013-09-10): Damage has been increased by 43%.
- Patch 5.0.4 (2012-08-28): Damage multiplier against frozen increased from 2 to 4.
- Patch 3.0.3 (2008-11-04): [Molten Fury]: This talent no longer prevents Ice Lance ranks 2 and 3 from dealing triple damage against frozen targets.
- Patch 3.0.2 (2008-10-14): [Arcane Impact] renamed to [Spell Impact] and now affects [Blast Wave], [Fire Blast], [Cone of Cold], and Ice Lance.
- Patch 3.0.2 (2008-10-14): Two ranks added for the 71-80 character level range.
- Patch 2.1.0 (2007-05-22): A data error was fixed that was causing Ice Lance to cause more threat than intended.
- Patch 2.0.1 (2006-12-05): Introduced with one rank.
References
External links
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