The frost mage has undergone a considerable change since his predecessor from burning crusade. While you could confidently put all your skill points into the frost tree before, it is now advisable to spend at least some points in the arcane tree to get the important damage and crit talents.

Also, the playing style of the WoW frost mage has changed quite a bit. Previously the rotation of frost mages consisted almost mainly of firing frost bolts. Now the attacks have become more fun because of the new talents. The mage has to monitor specific buffs in order to be able to cast fireballs at just the right time to get advantages. That way he can cast with less casting time, less mana cost and increase his critical strike chance even more. The mage can even play a trick on the game by firing a quick icelance as third spell during the buff.

The loyal pet of the mage, the water elemental, has also become more powerful. Because of new talents and shorter cool down times the mage can have the water elemental pet at his side almost at all times. Another new talent of the elemental offers the possibility of a group buff that restores mana to the whole party. Apart from that, the frost skill tree offers some more interesting talents who improve the pvp abilities of the mage, especially when it comes to control and damage reduction. Additionally the mages do really a lot of damage to frozen targets, a condition they can cause a lot easier now.