Winter ' s Chill < onlyinclude > < / onlyinclude > Winter ' s Chill is a mage talent that gives the mage ' s frost spells a chance to apply the " Winter ' s Chill " effect . Each application of the debuff increases the critical strike chance of all spells cast against the target by 1 % . The debuff stacks up to 5 times . The talent also increases the mage ' s chance to critically hit with Frostbolt . This talent is most useful when it is maxed out . Any lower makes it likely that the ' Winter ' s Chill ' will not stack , as not all your spells will be applying it ; maxing out the talent means that " every " frost spell you cast will apply this debuff . Because the effect expires after 15 seconds , a new Winter ' s Chill must land every 15 seconds to maintain the stack , otherwise it will expire and must be re - stacked . Notes . The debuff has a separate resist from the spell ; a frost spell that hits the target for full damage may still have the debuff resisted . Also note that " any " damaging frost spell will attempt to apply the debuff , including Frost Nova . This talent is highly recommended for frost mages seeking to raid , and is still very useful for frost soloing . Winter ' s Chill versus Improved Scorch . This effect does NOT stack with which provides the exact same bonus . As such , a single charge of either will not allow the other to be applied to the mob , making mistaken Winter ' s Chill or applications costly in terms of raid DPS and time . A mage must decide which to use in his or her spell rotation . While this would naturally follow one ' s chosen spec ( either Fire or Frost ) , careful consideration of either Winter ' s Chill or Improved Scorch may prove very beneficial to one ' s build and strategy . Currently , Improved Scorch is preferable to Winter ' s Chill . That ' s because Improved Scorch applies the full 5 % buff with one hit . On the other hand Winter ' s Chill can be applied by any frost damage spell , including and , whereas only Scorch applies Improved Scorch . When it comes to speed of application , Improved Scorch is fully applied with one hit . Blizzard is the fastest way a Frost mage can apply Winter ' s Chill . Blizzard gives a debuff " per damage tick " - with its 8 ticks of damage , a single Blizzard is enough to stack all 5 applications for the maximum critical strike bonus . In terms of debuff duration , Improved Scorch has the advantage . It lasts 30 seconds compared to Winter ' s Chill ' s 15 seconds . This means a Fire mage does not have to Scorch often to maintain the debuff or lower his DPS . However , Winter ' s Chill is refreshed by any Frost spell from a mage with the Winter ' s Chill talent , making it the easier to maintain of the two debuffs . Because even high - powered , damaging Frost spells can be used to maintain Winter ' s Chill , a Frost mage will not lose as much DPS as a Fire mage who has to switch to Scorch to refresh Improved Scorch on a target . That is not to say Scorch and Improved Scorch are completely without advantages . Scorch has excellent DPM and is good for non - solo PvE as it attracts little threat , at the cost of high damage . Winter ' s Chill is naturally tied to the other debuffs and advantages of the Frost magic school , namely snare s and root s . Spells like Blizzard and both also have AoE s , with the former being a channeled spell and the latter cast at instant speed . For parties and raids , in the event another mage is present who uses the talent opposing one ' s own , communication must be made so that either applications of Winter ' s Chill or Scorch do not cancel each other out or that the stronger debuff is used .