Frost Resistance for Hunters

Every so often you will realize that a fight is impossible to do because everyone just keeps dying. It’s not that you or your raid are horrible at the game, because let’s face it, you’re dodging everything you should be. So what is it that keeps killing you all? Lack of a resistance is usually the cause of raid wipes from my experience, and after playing through the content in Wrath of the Lich King, I’ve come across the need for Frost Resist gear. We’ll cover what gear is available to you and where it is used after the break.

Resistance gears often seem to be nothing but a waste of time, money, and effort. Granted, I never raided anything prior to WotLK and I’ve heard that encounters and raids used to be much more challenging and certain gear sets were required. Fine, I can deal with that. I also never had to use my Resist gear in 25man Ulduar. I got used to going to the Hodir fight and just burning him down while gladly accepting heals because of the raid damage. The first time I ever ran 10man Ulduar was just a few weeks ago, and I was the only person without Frost Resist gear. While I lived through the fight, I was the only person in the raid to actually prove a challenge to keep up for the healers, and I also took the most damage aside from the tank. It was an eye opening experience for me, and I immediately went out and got my Frost Resist set.

The Gear

For hunters, you’re going to be looking at three pieces of gear, a chest piece, a belt and boots. Each one only has stamina and some Frost Resistance on it, but even though it may look like a huge DPS loss, your survivability will surely make up for it. Below are the three pieces and the mats that they require.

Icy Scale Belt

• 8x Heavy Borean Leather
• 2x Eternal Fire
• 2x Eternal Water
• 4x Icy Dragonscale
• 1x Frozen Orb

Icy Scale Boots

• 8x Heavy Borean Leather
• 2x Eternal Fire
• 2x Eternal Water
• 4x Icy Dragonscale
• 1x Frozen Orb

Icy Scale Chestguard

• 10x Heavy Borean Leather
• 3x Eternal Fire
• 3x Eternal Water
• 8x Icy Dragonscale
• 1x Frozen Orb

On my server, the boots and belt would cost about 200g a piece to make. Most of the cost comes from the leather and the Eternal Fires. The chest would probably hit about 300g to get all of the mats. Overall it’s not too bad to make if you do your dailies or farm for a day or two.

What To Use

When it comes to choosing which pieces you should make, you really need to look at your gear and also consider how well you do on a fight like Hodir or Sapphiron. If you are a raider who pays attention and very rarely gets hit by anything you aren’t supposed to get hit by, you may be able to scrape by with just one piece of Frost Resist gear. I chose two to be safe, although tanks should always use all three pieces of Frost Resist gear for the Hodir fight. I chose the boots and the belt partly because of the mat cost, but also because my chest piece is part of a 4set bonus and has really decent stats. Not only would I lose my 4set, but the stats I would lose from using the chest would be significantly higher than the stats I would lose from either my boots or my belts individually. The Frost Resist I gain, although less than it would be if I used the chest piece, is enough to keep me alive and lighten the healing load for the healers.

To make up for lost stats, you also have the gem slots in each piece of Frost Resist gear. Because hit rating is a very important thing to have, I gemmed my gear with Rigid Autumn’s Glow to get me as close as possible to the hit cap. If you have an item like Grim Toll that provides enough hit rating for you to stay capped while using Frost Resist gear, then you can gem it with your normal Delicate Scarlet Ruby. You can also get your Frost Resist gear enchanted, but since you won’t use it all too often, it isn’t recommended unless you absolutely need to do it.

When To Use It

I would honestly only recommend using Frost Resist gear on the 10man version of the Hodir fight, mostly because in 25man you have enough healers to make up for the loss of the Frost Resistance. You also should have Pally resist auras up on both 10 and 25man versions of the fight, so you will always have some Frost Resist to aid the healers. If you find yourself taking too much damage from Frozen Blows or you are getting hit by Flash Freeze or even Icicle, then yes, your Frost Resist gear can still help in 25man, it’s just not as necessary as it is for the 10man encounter.

When it comes to Pre-Ulduar content, I honestly never used Frost Resist gear, but those of you that raid Naxxramas on a regular basis may need it. I’ve had times where healers have been stressed on Sapphiron, but it doesn’t always happen. It’s really up to you to decide whether or not you need the gear for your encounter, but just remember, only you can prevent raid damage (to yourself). Get your gear so that you don’t hold yourself or your raid back. It’s up to you to take care of any issues at hand, and taking damage in the Hodir or Sapphiron encounter is one issue you can fix.