Fire Mage
About the author
This guide was written by Dutchmagoz, who raids in MCO, one of the most efficient guilds in the world (top 100 with a 13-hour a week schedule) and who is a theorycrafter at Altered Time.
Spec Overview
The fire spec is a spec mostly build around critical hits. Getting two critical hits in a row will grant you a http://www.wowhead.com/spell=11366/pyroblast proc, which is a hard hitting spell which also leaves a big DoT. To help getting multiple crits in a row, fire uses http://www.wowhead.com/spell=108853/inferno-blast which is a guaranteed crit. The spell casted for most of the fight is http://www.wowhead.com/spell=133/fireball.
Fire has another built in dot in the form of its mastery (http://www.wowhead.com/spell=12846/mastery-ignite) which interacts with its biggest cooldown, http://www.wowhead.com/spell=11129/combustion, which is a very strong dot based around your ignite.
Fire gets a lot of "free" crit!
- 15% extra crit from http://www.wowhead.com/spell=165357/incineration (wowhead tooltip is outdated, it's 15% now)
- baseline crit via http://www.wowhead.com/spell=30482/molten-armor (it's 15% now, wowhead tooltip is outdated).
- 1.3 modifier on the main nukes thanks to http://www.wowhead.com/spell=117216/critical-mass.
- Bad luck prevention incase your fireball just won't crit via http://www.wowhead.com/spell=157642/enh ... rotechnics (10% now, wowhead tooltip outdated)
Cons and pros:
Cons:
- Very reliant on getting critical strikes.
- A lot of the damage is delayed, which may be an issue for quickly killing adds. (pyroblast dot, mastery, combustion being a DoT)
Pros:
- Very good AoE DPS and cleave DPS
- Gains single target DPS from doing cleave damage
- Quite mobile for a caster in WoD
Links
Changelog
• 9/12/15: A guide is born
Rotation
The fire rotation isn't a true rotation, but a priority system.
Single target
The single target priority system consists of 2 aspects: the normal filler "rotation", and the combustion "rotation". You use the combustion rotation whenever combustion is off cooldown, and you use the filler rotation at all other points of a fight.Pre-pull:
- [With http://www.wowhead.com/spell=116011/rune-of-power talented]: Make sure you got 2 runes down on spots you know you may have to move to somewhere in the first 3 minutes of the fight, so you don't have to re-cast it as often.
- 3 seconds before the fight, use your potion and begin casting http://www.wowhead.com/spell=11366/pyroblast
- Start the combustion rotation
Normal filler rotation:
- [With http://www.wowhead.com/spell=44457/living-bomb talented] Keep living bomb up on the target. you can refresh living bomb anywhere in the last 3.5 seconds without losing uptime or explosion damage. In higher ilvl gear (~685+) living bomb becomes a single target DPS loss to use, so simply don't use it all then.
- [With http://www.wowhead.com/spell=153561/meteor talented] Cast meteor on cooldown, unless combustion is coming off cooldown soon. (every second meteor will be with combustion, see combustion section below)
- [With http://www.wowhead.com/spell=157981/blast-wave talented] Cast blast wave on cooldown, preferably with a trinket / ring proc, unless prismatic crystal is coming up within 20 seconds, then don't use it.
- Fireball/pyro filler:
1. Cast http://www.wowhead.com/spell=133/fireball until http://www.wowhead.com/spell=48107/heating-up procs.
2. Cast http://www.wowhead.com/spell=108853/inferno-blast to turn Heating Up into http://www.wowhead.com/spell=48108/pyroblast proc. (never interrupt a cast for this)
3. Continue casting fireballs until you get a new Heating Up proc.
4. Cast http://www.wowhead.com/spell=11366/pyroblast when you got both Pyroblast! proc and Heating Up proc and there's a fireball in the air flying towards the boss.
Why only cast pyroblast with both a heating up proc and a fireball in the air?:
This is because when you got a heating up, and both fireball+pyroblast land on the boss at the same time, only one out of the two have to crit to give you a new pyroblast, so you're increasing your chance of getting a pyroblast significantly.
Combustion rotation:
For combustion, you want to make sure, (especially on your opener) that your trinkets and ring etc are procced before starting the combustion rotation below. Also use any on-use effects during it.
- [With http://www.wowhead.com/spell=153561/meteor talented]: Firstly, make sure meteor and combustion are both off cooldown, then:
1. Cast http://www.wowhead.com/spell=133/fireball until http://www.wowhead.com/spell=48107/heating-up procs.
2. Cast http://www.wowhead.com/spell=108853/inferno-blast to turn Heating Up into http://www.wowhead.com/spell=48108/pyroblast proc. (never interrupt a cast for this)
3. Continue casting fireballs until you get a new Heating Up proc.
4. Cast http://www.wowhead.com/spell=11366/pyroblast when you got both Pyroblast! proc and Heating Up proc and there's a fireball in the air flying towards the boss.
5. Cast http://www.wowhead.com/spell=153561/meteor on the boss
6. Keep casting any extra pyroblast! procs you got left onto the boss (usually just one, sometimes two)
7. Make sure the last pyroblast landed on the boss, and cast http://www.wowhead.com/spell=11129/combustion, if there's any adds/cleave potential, make sure you spread combustion afterwards with inferno blast if there's any nearby targets.
- [With http://www.wowhead.com/spell=152087/prismatic-crystal talented]: Firstly, make sure both prismatic crystal and combustion are off cooldown, then:
1. Cast http://www.wowhead.com/spell=133/fireball until http://www.wowhead.com/spell=48107/heating-up procs.
2. Cast http://www.wowhead.com/spell=108853/inferno-blast to turn Heating Up into http://www.wowhead.com/spell=48108/pyroblast proc. (never interrupt a cast for this)
3. If you didn't get a new heating up from the previous fireball (which was still in the air when you cast inferno blast), cast another fireball, otherwise, go to step 4.
4. Cast http://www.wowhead.com/spell=152087/prismatic-crystal
5. Cast fireball once if you already have http://www.wowhead.com/spell=48107/heating-up, otherwise keep casting it until you get it
6. Cast http://www.wowhead.com/spell=11366/pyroblast when you got both Pyroblast! proc and Heating Up proc and there's a fireball in the air flying towards the crystal.
7. Use up any other pyroblast procs you get until you run out of pyroblasts (should be at least 2 pyroblasts unless you got extremely unlucky)
7. Make sure the last pyroblast landed on the boss, and cast http://www.wowhead.com/spell=11129/combustion, and then cast inferno blast to spread it to the boss and any additional targets.
8. Continue your normal filler rotation on the prismatic crystal until it times out. Make sure both http://www.wowhead.com/spell=157981/blast-wave stacks are used before prismatic crystal runs out.
Multiple targets:
There's a lot of different type of multiple target scenarios in raiding. There's big 5+ groups of mobs all stacked up nicely [AoE rotation], there's 2-4 target cleave [Cleave rotation], and there's 2+ targets spread around the room [Spread rotation].
AoE rotation: (5+ targets stacked up)
- [With http://www.wowhead.com/spell=159485/gly ... ons-breath glyphed]: Use dragon's breath on cooldown
- [With http://www.wowhead.com/spell=44457/living-bomb talented]: Apply living bomb on a target, then use http://www.wowhead.com/spell=108853/inferno-blast to spread it to surrounding targets.
- [With http://www.wowhead.com/spell=157981/blast-wave talented]: Cast blast wave on cooldown.
- Cast http://www.wowhead.com/spell=2120/flamestrike every time the ground effect drops off.
- Continue normal filler rotation
Cleave rotation: (2-4 targets stacked up)
- Make sure you spread combustion/living bomb/ignite/pyroblast as often as possible with http://www.wowhead.com/spell=108853/inferno-blast.
- Instead of pyroblast camping, you just use inferno blast whenever you get a heating up, and always use pyroblasts when your inferno blasts are within 2 seconds off coming off cooldown. If your pyroblast crits, you can immediately inferno blast to turn it into a new pyroblast, while spreading all your dots (including a high ignite) at the same time.
Spread rotation: (multiple targets not next to eachother)
- Rotate your http://www.wowhead.com/spell=48108/pyroblast procs on the different targets to keep the DoT up on as many targets as possible.
- Continue your normal filler rotation on the highest priority target.
Talents Cheat Sheet
Level 15: Ice Floes is the only real DPS improvement here. Blazing Speed can be fun or useful, but Ice Floes just lets you maintain your rotation. Evanesce is used to ignore a handful of mechanics.
Level 30: Flameglow is generally the best simply due to not needing either a GCD or any attention. Ice Barrier is situationally useful for when you need the extra absorb. Alter Time does nothing to actively prevent your death, you have to react to the fight or use it purely as a movement talent.
Level 45: Pick one. Most usually take Ring of Frost for non-raiding utility. I prefer Ice Ward because it looks cool, and having 3 Frost Novas while soloing is pretty great.
Level 60: More personal choices. Greater Invisibility allows you to solo a ton of mechanics, and it’ll remove the DoT from just about anything. Cauterize tends to be used when you’re learning a new fight, or when there’s nothing for you to use Greater Invisibility on. Cold Snap is marginally useful in getting either a second Ice Block or Evanesce quickly.
Level 75: Living Bomb is extremely sstrong and one of your key abilities. Unstable Magic Not used in single target or aoe, it's not far off blast wave for single if you'd rather have a passive. Blast Wave hits hard and does AOE damage. Very good for single target fights.
Level 90: Mirror Image is technically the worst of the three, but that doesn’t mean much. They’re all fairly close together. Rune of Power is the best if you can maintain 100% uptime on it. Incanter’s Flow is an acceptable choice for movement or just general Rune of Power hatred.
Level 100: Kindling is good for cleave fights, and worth taking for anything 2+ targets. Prismatic Crystal amplifies damage by 30%, the go-to talent for both single and AoE. Hard to use, easy to mess up though.Meteor is a hard hitting ability which applies ignite and leaves a DoT behind for sustained AOE. Sadly with scaling of items and stats for fire mages, it is no longer top tier.
Advanced Talents
Level 15: Evanesce, Blazing Speed, Ice Floes
Evanesce
6.1 changed it to a 3 second immunity. It doesn’t remove things like Ice Block does, but it’s really useful for fights like Gruul and Flamebender.
Blazing Speed
I’ve personally never used it in a raid encounter, but some people swear by it. You’ll travel roughly the distance of Blink in those 1.5 seconds.
Ice Floes
The ability to cast while moving is incredibly powerful, but I’ve heard a lot of complaints about how hard it is to use. With practice, it’s easily the best talent on the line.
Level 30: Alter Time, Flameglow, Ice Barrier
Alter Time
It can be useful if you use it correctly. You can theoretically heal back all your health after a large hit, but you’ll also be put back where you were. It does not do anything to actively prevent your death while active. You have to hit it a second time to get your health back, or wait for the timer to run out.
Flameglow
Generic passive protection. It’s a tiny amount, but it adds up, especially in fights with a lot of small repeated hits.
Ice Barrier
Grants you a bubble of roughly 10% of your health, but costs a GCD. The question of Ice Barrier and Flameglow comes down to do you need your damage absorb at the start of the damage with nothing for the rest; or do you need to trim the top of the damage slightly, but for the entire duration of the damage events.
Level 45: Ring of Frost, Ice Ward, Frostjaw
Ring of Frost
Hard CC that breaks on damage. There aren’t really any fights where any of these three talents are used this tier.
Ice Ward
3 charges of Frost Nova on 20 second cooldown. If you need to be kiting something, this is your talent.
Frostjaw
The silence component is tied to the root, which breaks on damage. It actually does give the model you hit with it a frozen jaw, if you look closely.
Level 60: Greater Invisibility, Cauterize, Cold Snap
Greater Invisibility
One of the most absurdly powerful defensive cooldowns. You can solo just about anything while it’s active, but be warned that it will break on AOE damage, and put you into that 3 second window. You can also use it to remove just about any DoT, such as Gruul’s Inferno Slice DoT, and Burning Cinders on Blackhand.
Cauterize
The “I can screw up once every 2 minutes and get away with it” talent. Pretty useful for going into a boss fight you’re not familiar with. Be warned that the protection caps out at 200% of your health, so if you take 299% while at full health, you’ll be fine. 300% and you’re dead.
Cold Snap
The heal portion is usually insignificant when compared to the other two talents. Having a second Ice Block or two Evanesces back to back can, rarely, be invaluable.
Level 75: Living Bomb, Unstable Magic, Blast Wave
Living Bomb
extremely strong and one of the key abilities that makes fire so strong on cleave and AoE fights. When using living bomb make sure living bomb always is spread to all possible targets (via inferno blast) before it times out so there's a huge amount of explosions going on. This also increases your DPS on the primary target.
Unstable Magic
the weakest of the 3 talents. Not used in single target nor AoE situations. It's not far off blast wave for single target though if you'd rather have a passive.
Blast Wave
is a hard hitting ability that also deals AoE damage. Very good for single target fights or for adds that are alive very shortly and are stacked.
Level 90: Mirror Image, Rune of Power, Incanter’s Flow
Mirror Image
Worst of the three, generally only used for on-demand burst or the aggro drop.
Rune of Power
The best talent, if you can use it right. Maintaining 100% uptime on Rune of Power is your goal, but rarely will a fight allow it.
Incanter’s Flow
Averaged out lower than perfect Rune of Power use, but since no attention is paid to it, there’s nothing to fail, unlike Rune’s usage.
Level 100: Kindling, Prismatic Crystal, Meteor
Kindling
is good on cleave fights and worth taking for anything 2+ targets. Prismatic crystal is also very good on cleave fights, but a lot harder to use.
Prismatic Crystal
amplifies the damage you do to it by 30%, making it a good target to build a big combustion on. In practice however this is very hard to do due to needing to cast at least 4 Kindling into it to make a good combustion, and most of those wont be pyroblasts. When using prismatic crystal, you should also use blast wave. The go-to talent for both single target and AoE. Hard to use and easy to mess up though.
Meteor
is a hard hitting ability which also applies ignite. The DoT it leaves behind is also very good AoE damage. The ignite it leaves behind is very nice for building big combustion. Sadly with all the scaling of items and stats for fire mages it has fallen out of favour since BRF and continued that trend in HFC.
Glyphs
Major
Glyph of Combustion
should be used on basically all fights unless you really need the burst every 45 seconds. (for example for specific adds spawning every minute)
Glyph of Inferno Blast
simply increases your AoE/Cleave DPS. No brainer on any fight with 5+ targets at any point.
Glyph of Dragons Breath
good for fights with short AoE phases, especially when combined with cold snap.
Situational
Minor
Glyph of Rapid Displacement
good if you need to move very far during a fight sometimes, or if you need to dodge something often. (Like imperator novas)
Glyph of Ice Block
basically makes you immune for 3 seconds after cancelling/finishing ice block. Can be convenient to basically go immune at the cost of only one GCD with a /cancelaura macro.
Stats
Single target: crit > intellect > mastery > haste=multistrike > versatility
Multiple targets: crit > mastery > intellect > haste > multistrike > versatility
Critical Strike increases your chance to critically hit, which in turn increases your chances to get instant-free Pyroblasts.
Mastery, through Mastery: Ignite, increases the damage of your Ignite DoT, which indirectly increases the damage of your Combustions.
Haste influences the cast speed of your spells. It also influences the frequency of the ticks for Living Bomb, Pyroblast, and Combustion.
Multistrike causes abilities to have an increased chance to hit/heal a second and a third time, each time dealing 30% of the initial damage/heal.
Critical Strike increases your chance to critically hit, which in turn increases your chances to get instant-free Pyroblasts.
Versatility is a flat-out damage done increase and damage taken reduction.
Enchants
Rings: Enchant Ring – Gift of Critical Strike
Cloak: Enchant Cloak – Gift of Critical Strike
Neck: Enchant Neck – Gift of Critical Strike
Weapon: Enchant Weapon – Mark of the the Thunderlord
Gems: Immaculate Critical Strike Taladite
Consumables
Food: Felmouth Frenzy or Pickled Eel
Potion: Draenic Intellect Potion
Flask: Greater Draenic Intellect Flask
Gear
YOU NEED A CRIT TRINKET TO RELIABLY PLAY FIRE!
Looking at the above stat priorities, it's obvious that we want crit and mastery gear, since those are our 2 best stats. So, you want to go for any item with either crit or mastery, or preferably both.
Always gem and enchant crit.
Warforged beats sockets if it's an item with "high budget" AND has crit. Otherwise, socket beats warforged. ("high budget" = helm, chest, legs)
Trinkets (thanks to frosted's thread:
http://www.wowhead.com/item=119194/gore ... &bonus=567 > http://ptr.wowhead.com/item=112320/sand ... &bonus=618 > http://ptr.wowhead.com/item=124229/unbl ... &bonus=567. > http://ptr.wowhead.com/item=124227/iron ... &bonus=567 > http://ptr.wowhead.com/item=124230/prop ... &bonus=567
BiS is http://www.wowhead.com/item=119194/gore ... &bonus=567 and http://ptr.wowhead.com/item=124229/unbl ... &bonus=567
To be completed.
Macros
To be written.