Fire Mages are alive again (Updated for 6.2.3)

Guides and discussions of all things specific to the Pyromaniacs of Azeroth.
EmberPFU
Posts: 13
Joined: Sat Oct 10, 2015 10:40 am

Fire Mages are alive again (Updated for 6.2.3)

Unread postby EmberPFU Sat Oct 10, 2015 12:05 pm

Hi, this is my first post (simple guide) on Altered Time, I hope it will help some of you guys out there who wants to spec fire in 6.2.

Who am I? I'm just an ordinary player who loves to play fire since WotLK, I currently raid for Play For Uber in the Taiwanese server, guild progress is 13/13M.

As all of you know, fire received a major nerf with the T17 2-piece bonus remake, and at the current state it seems like it's not viable anymore. But actually if the fight duration is short (under 5 minutes), fire still has a chance to stand toe to toe with arcane, and far better than frost.

How is it possible? With the current gear from HFC, fire no longer needs 2 crit trinkets, you can achieve 100% crit chance against your Prismatic Crystal if you have around 718~720 itlv. with only 1 crit trinket proc. Now, to make fire viable you need a big combustion, to do this, you'll need the Desecrated Shadowmoon Insignia as your 2nd trinket.

With the Desecrated Shadowmoon Insignia, fire no longer needs to have full Mastery enchantments to have a big Combustion like post T17 2-piece nerf. Having around 47% crit chance together with the upgraded Sandman's Pouch, you can achieve 100% crit chance against your Prismatic Crystal every 2 min, along with the legendary ring, they sync extremely well together. If you don't have 47% crit (without 125 crit food buff), just use the Thunderlord enchant on your weapon, and if yes use the Bleeding Hollow one instead.

To build a big combustion you need Prismatic Crystal, and the basic rotation you want to do is:

Prepot at 3
Precast Pyroblast at 3 (it's a must now, as you might have a chance to summon T18 2-piece phoenix which gives you 6% haste and damage)
Boss pull
Cast Fireball until Heating Up procs
Cast a Fireball again with a Inferno Blast right afterwards to turn the Heating Up proc into Pyroblast! proc.
Now if you don't have a Heating Up proc together with the Pyroblast! proc just cast Fireball until you have it.
After having Heating Up proc and Pyroblast! proc, put your Prismatic Crystal down and use your legendary ring

Now, your rotation will be different depending on if you have Time Wrap/Blood Lust or not

If you have TW/BL

After putting down the Crystal

Fireball -> Pyroblast -> Fireball -> Pyroblast -> Pyroblast -> Pyroblast -> Combustion -> Inferno Blast -> Dragon's Breath w/ Cold Snap -> Dragon's Breath

If you don't have TW/BL

Fireball -> Pyroblast -> Pyroblast -> Pyroblast -> Combustion -> Inferno Blast -> Dragon's Breath w/ Cold Snap -> Dragon's Breath -> Blastwave -> Blastwave

With around 720 itlv. and with the legendary ring buff, the combustion should tick around 75k~82k per tick (crit), and your legendary ring should deal around 800k~1.2M damage with this rotation on pull.

That's the basic rotation for having a nice Combustion.

Let's go a bit more in depth, to decide which crit trinket you want to equip.

>If your raid uses the legendary ring with no delay, which means using it every 2 min
>If your raid delays the legendary ring but the fight duration is more than 6.5 min
Go for the upgraded Sandman's Pouch (715 itlv.)

>On special occasion such as Iron Reaver, Iskar, Gorefiend, Zakuun take the Mythic Goren Soul Repository instead

The reasons are simple,

>Heroic and Mythic Iron Reaver: at around 2 min after pull he will start dashing around and you won't have a chance to IB your Combustion from your Prismatic Crystal onto the boss

>Mythic Gorefiend: Your raid will most likely use the legendary ring at the start of every phase 2, Sandman's Pouch can only sync with it at pull and at the first phase 2. *Side Note: Use your combustion rotation on the boss at phase 2 to get the 100% damage increase instead of using it on your Crystal, you can place the Crystal afterwards for a second burst with Dragon's Breath and Blastwave*

>Heroic and Mythic Iskar: Use your Crystal at pull, save your Combustion for phase 2 as the legendary ring will be used there. For Myhtic Iskar, Kindling will be a better choice. (Thanks to Alzer for the heads up)

>Mythic Zakuun: Depending on your raid, the fight duration will be in between 3.5 ~ 4.5 min. or even faster, so using Goren trinket will be the safest choice for you as you need your burst when the boss reaches 30%.

Gear choices are:
Head: T18 or Archimonde
Neck: Xhul
Shoulders: T18
Back: Hellfire assault one or Kilrogg
Chest: T18 if you use the Head Archimonde if not then Kilrogg
Bracers: Tyrant
Gloves: T18
Waist: Archimonde or Zakuun
Legs: T18
Feet: Zakuun
Ring 1: Socrethar or Tyrant one with socket
Ring 2: Legendary Ring
Trinket 1: Sandman's Pouch 715 or Goren Soul Repository 700
Trinket 2: Desecrated Shadowmoon Insignia
Weapon: Archimonde or Gorefiend

Enchatments: All crit

Important talents:
Cold Snap for bosses you know you won't die easily, farm runs and stuff like that.
Blastwave for most of the fights except Hellfire Assault and Xhul, take Living Bomb for these two.
Rune of Power for Iron Reaver and Zakuun, rest Incanter's Flow.
Always Prismatic Crystal. Only exception is Heroic Hellfire Assault, take Kindling there, mobs die way too fast.

Glyphs:
Combustion and Dragon's Breath Glyph is a must
Inferno Blast Glyph is a must on Hellfire Assault
The rest get whatever you want

That's pretty much all I could think of for now, I hope it will help some of you guys. Will add more in the future.

If there are any suggestions or questions feel free to post them below, I'll reply them asap.

6.2.3 Section

Some small updates for 6.2.3

First of all, sorry for being away for awhile, was kinda busy.

Second of all, thanks to the people who are kind enough to answer questions in the comments below.

Your Prismatic Crystal burst rotation should differ depending on whether you have Blood Lust/Heroism/Berserk.

With one of the buffs I mentioned above, your burst rotation on the Prismatic Crystal should be changed to

Fireball-> Pyroblast-> Fireball-> Pyroblast-> Pyroblast-> Pyroblast-> Combustion-> Inferno Blast-> DB(Cold Snap)->
DB-> Blastwave-> Blastwave


You can achieve this when you have around 25% haste (with raid buff) together with Blood Lust/Heroism/Berserk.

Without the buffs mentioned above, stick to the Fireball-> Pyro-> Pyro-> Pyro burst.

New Gear choice list

Head: Mythic Archimonde
Neck: Xhul +75 crit
Shoulders: Mythic T18
Back: Hellfire Assault or Kilrogg +100 crit 10% speed
Chest: Mythic T18
Bracers: Tyrant
Gloves: Mythic T18
Waist: Archimonde or Zakuun
Legs: Mythic T18
Feet: Mythic Zakuun
Ring 1: Socrethar or Tyrant one with socket +50 crit
Ring 2: Legendary Ring +50 crit
Trinket 1: Sandman's Pouch 725 ***
Trinket 2: Desecrated Shadowmoon Insignia
Weapon: Mythic Archimonde +Bleedig Hollow

*** The 725(735 after upgrade) sprit trinket/strength trinket from the 2nd/3rd boss in Mythic Shadowmoon Burial Grounds are good alternatives too. Both are on-use trinkets with a 20 sec duration which gives crit together with a 2 min cooldown.

On boss fights where the ring will be delayed, both of the trinkets will be far better than Sandman's.
Last edited by EmberPFU on Wed Jan 06, 2016 2:13 pm, edited 10 times in total.
Alzer
Posts: 50
Joined: Tue Jan 27, 2015 3:29 pm

Re: Fire Mages are alive again

Unread postby Alzer Sun Oct 11, 2015 3:40 am

Pretty good general overview/tips and tricks for 6.2, which is nice since there isn't alot of updated information here regarding the changes brought upon by the legendary ring and the small patch that buffed fire.

A few thoughts:
Now, to make fire viable you need a big combustion, to do this, you'll need the Desecrated Shadowmoon Insignia as your 2nd trinket.
I think "need" is misleading, while a very strong trinket and definately BiS, there are other viable options, most notably, the kazzak trinket.
These are the current trinket sims for my full M geared character with 768 ring, keep in mind these fluctuate HEAVILY depending on your gear (even more so if you are using Goren Soul Repository as your crit trinket); there have been times where gaze simmed very low and times where kazzak trinket almost caught up to Insignia.
Image
450s, coupled with sandman and PC + Combustion synced with ring
>Heroic and Mythic Iskar: Use your Crystal at pull, save your Combustion for phase 2 as the legendary ring will be used there
I strongly disagree with this, if you choose to use crystal on this fight, align it with combustion for the adds. If your guild pulls out the Phantasmal Resonance and lets the ring explode on it, you can get ridiculus damage on the add this way. Alternatively use kindling and combust on the pull, which provides higher boss damage at the cost of add damage.
Blastwave for most of the fights except Hellfire Assault and Xhul, take Living Bomb for these two.
Rune of Power for Iron Reaver and Zakuun, rest Incanter's Flow.
Always Prismatic Crystal. Only exception is Heroic Hellfire Assault, take Kindling there, mobs die way too fast.
1. Living bomb is also very strong on Kormrok and Iskar.
2. I would not use Rune of Power on Iron Reaver unless you are absolutely sure what you are doing, with the new DB buff, playing with Rune of Power is incredibly frustrating.
3. There are definately cases where crystal is not an automatic choice; kindling is a good talent on Iskar and Xhul, kill timer has a big impact.

And while fire is alive, it has its weaknesses, primarily priority target damage when your combustion is not ready, the most prominent example I can think of in HFC is doomfires on archimonde and pretty much everything on gorefiend.
That being said, fire is still stronger than alot of people think, doing very competetive 2+ target cleave damage (my 2 target cleave sims at 135k, most top frost mages I have compared to hover between 125k-135k).
EmberPFU
Posts: 13
Joined: Sat Oct 10, 2015 10:40 am

Re: Fire Mages are alive again

Unread postby EmberPFU Sun Oct 11, 2015 11:40 am

Thanks for your reply!

Like you said, the Kazzak-trinket may be another viable option, but when it comes to 2 or more targets, constant cleave fight, the Mythic Insignia will out perform Kazzak significantly.
I strongly disagree with this, if you choose to use crystal on this fight, align it with combustion for the adds. If your guild pulls out the Phantasmal Resonance and lets the ring explode on it, you can get ridiculus damage on the add this way. Alternatively use kindling and combust on the pull, which provides higher boss damage at the cost of add damage.
Agreed, I made a mistake by adding Mythic to it. For Mythic kindling will be the best choice. Most raids now choose to kill the Phantasmal Resonance before it casts chains.
1. Living bomb is also very strong on Kormrok and Iskar.
Haven't tried Living Bomb on Kormrok as I focus to line 2x Dragon's Breath and 1x Blastwave on the first grab (delayed my opener so the Sandman's Pouch will have a delayed proc) and then 1x Dragon's Breath and 2x Blastwaves on the rest until Cold Snap is back.
2. I would not use Rune of Power on Iron Reaver unless you are absolutely sure what you are doing, with the new DB buff, playing with Rune of Power is incredibly frustrating.
Actually the hit range of the boss is huge, so I choose RoP here, but if the raid's dps is not enough and the boss manages to phase into phase 2, it is indeed as you said, frustrating. But if the boss doesn't have the chance to phase into p2, RoP will be a better choice tho. As barrage can be soaked by Evanesce, there won't be much running around unless you're extremely unlucky ;)
And while fire is alive, it has its weaknesses, primarily priority target damage when your combustion is not ready, the most prominent example I can think of in HFC is doomfires on archimonde and pretty much everything on gorefiend.
True. Blastwave and Dragon's Breath are the only solid burst damage mechanic fire has. That's why on certain bosses fire isn't viable unless your raid is doing farm runs. (Mythic Gorefiend, Mythic Iskar etc.)
Alzer
Posts: 50
Joined: Tue Jan 27, 2015 3:29 pm

Re: Fire Mages are alive again

Unread postby Alzer Tue Oct 13, 2015 6:19 am

Haven't tried Living Bomb on Kormrok as I focus to line 2x Dragon's Breath and 1x Blastwave on the first grab (delayed my opener so the Sandman's Pouch will have a delayed proc) and then 1x Dragon's Breath and 2x Blastwaves on the rest until Cold Snap is back.
While blast wave is certainly easier to use, optimal use of living bomb provides higher damage.

Living bomb explodes for 80% sp, spreading living bomb to six additional targets equals 80%*7=560% sp explosion damage. The explosion hitting 21 targets (20? can't remember if the tank gets grasped) means your living bomb will hit for a total of 560%*21=11760% sp every set of hands.

Blast wave hits for 200%*20+400%=4400% sp, two blast waves hits for a total of 8800%sp.

And this is not even factoring in the fact that blast wave uses up two GCDs and living bomb uses one nor the free ignite/combustion/pyroblast/living bomb ticking damage you get from spreading your living bomb with IB.

Granted, blast wave provides slightly higher boss damage, but that is fairly irrelevant since hands aren't exactly low prio targets.
Actually the hit range of the boss is huge, so I choose RoP here, but if the raid's dps is not enough and the boss manages to phase into phase 2, it is indeed as you said, frustrating. But if the boss doesn't have the chance to phase into p2, RoP will be a better choice tho. As barrage can be soaked by Evanesce, there won't be much running around unless you're extremely unlucky
This might be the case, I haven't had a chance to try it since my guild didn't manage to push it before the air phase yet.
Glitzerbling
Posts: 48
Joined: Mon Jan 26, 2015 4:24 pm

Re: Fire Mages are alive again

Unread postby Glitzerbling Tue Oct 13, 2015 10:16 am

^^ Living bomb on kormrok is the incarnation of whoring on adds. wont help your kill at all (and still uses 2 gcds, since you NEED to use IB to spread). usually hands die within 2 or 3 gcds anyways, so more boss dps is the more useful way to go. + LB does fucck all for your Prismatic Crystal burst.

just my 2 cents.

PS: your calculation is wrong, since the hands live so short, that the explosions will occurr from hands dying, giving you a lot of overkill dmg. (and each bomb will explode for less and less dmg after each other, since they hit less)
Alzer
Posts: 50
Joined: Tue Jan 27, 2015 3:29 pm

Re: Fire Mages are alive again

Unread postby Alzer Tue Oct 13, 2015 11:44 am

^^ Living bomb on kormrok is the incarnation of whoring on adds. wont help your kill at all (and still uses 2 gcds, since you NEED to use IB to spread). usually hands die within 2 or 3 gcds anyways, so more boss dps is the more useful way to go. + LB does fucck all for your Prismatic Crystal burst.

just my 2 cents.
I disagree, giving up alot of hand damage for a tiny increase in ST dps is not what you want to be doing imo, I much rather go living bomb which does good AoE damage and respectable ST dps than have warlocks go demo and do zero boss damage just so hands die in time. During progress, the only way we killed hands in time was to have our locks specc demonology, and even then we had problems with the later sets of hands.

I suppose a better way to put it would be like this: The overall goal for hands should be to kill them as fast as possible while sacrificing as little ST dps as possible, living bomb is perfect for this.

Plus, living bomb is more movement-friendly.

And regarding the GCD, even without living bomb you want to use IB to spread your combustion.
PS: your calculation is wrong, since the hands live so short, that the explosions will occurr from hands dying, giving you a lot of overkill dmg. (and each bomb will explode for less and less dmg after each other, since they hit less)
The calculations are not wrong, just apply your living bomb 11 seconds before hands spawn and it will explode right away.
EmberPFU
Posts: 13
Joined: Sat Oct 10, 2015 10:40 am

Re: Fire Mages are alive again

Unread postby EmberPFU Tue Oct 13, 2015 2:56 pm

This might be the case, I haven't had a chance to try it since my guild didn't manage to push it before the air phase yet.
The raid needs around an average itlv. of 727 (depending on how good the dps is) and using only 2 tanks and 2 healers.
Otherwise, it's nearly impossible.
Glitzerbling
Posts: 48
Joined: Mon Jan 26, 2015 4:24 pm

Re: Fire Mages are alive again

Unread postby Glitzerbling Tue Oct 13, 2015 4:35 pm

^^ Living bomb on kormrok is the incarnation of whoring on adds. wont help your kill at all (and still uses 2 gcds, since you NEED to use IB to spread). usually hands die within 2 or 3 gcds anyways, so more boss dps is the more useful way to go. + LB does fucck all for your Prismatic Crystal burst.

just my 2 cents.
I disagree, giving up alot of hand damage for a tiny increase in ST dps is not what you want to be doing imo, I much rather go living bomb which does good AoE damage and respectable ST dps than have warlocks go demo and do zero boss damage just so hands die in time. During progress, the only way we killed hands in time was to have our locks specc demonology, and even then we had problems with the later sets of hands.

I suppose a better way to put it would be like this: The overall goal for hands should be to kill them as fast as possible while sacrificing as little ST dps as possible, living bomb is perfect for this.

Plus, living bomb is more movement-friendly.

And regarding the GCD, even without living bomb you want to use IB to spread your combustion.
you dont have melees? also blast wave still deals VERY good dmg to the hands.

me on progress went fire too (no warlocks) but mainly because ppl werent optimizing specs and talents, so why should I?
I remember saving up double DB and Double BW for hands, to maximize my dps, but they usually died, before i could get off all 4 casts. thats when I say, LB is too much commitment to something that doesnt need any commitment at all. sure, if you are literally the only guy hitting hands with aoe, then go for LB and whore to your hearts content, but it should be everyone putting in a spell or two and they just die by themselves, without big commitment by anyone. (no nonesense with demo either, thats just flatout stupid to make lock go demo imo)
Envilate
Posts: 2
Joined: Mon Feb 09, 2015 4:15 am

Re: Fire Mages are alive again

Unread postby Envilate Wed Oct 14, 2015 1:25 am

Sorry to seem noob but I've completely ignored fire up until Xhul Mythic progression and this all seems to make sense but one thing; Why do you use 705 crafted trinket instead of 715?
Alzer
Posts: 50
Joined: Tue Jan 27, 2015 3:29 pm

Re: Fire Mages are alive again

Unread postby Alzer Wed Oct 14, 2015 5:08 am

You use the 715 version, a 705 crafted trinket doesn't even exist.
EmberPFU
Posts: 13
Joined: Sat Oct 10, 2015 10:40 am

Re: Fire Mages are alive again

Unread postby EmberPFU Wed Oct 14, 2015 10:00 am

Sorry to seem noob but I've completely ignored fire up until Xhul Mythic progression and this all seems to make sense but one thing; Why do you use 705 crafted trinket instead of 715?
It's 715, 705 was a typo.
My bad, edited. Thanks!
Seatoo
Posts: 100
Joined: Thu Dec 11, 2014 12:15 am

Re: Fire Mages are alive again

Unread postby Seatoo Wed Oct 14, 2015 11:00 pm

I tried this combo last night and I felt like I was doing more damage but wasnt really...still did really bad on M-HFA but amazing on IR, I was bursting nearly at 230k dps.

Why do you use gorens sometimes and the pouch others, maybe its just me but it doesnt clearly explain why? If you're syncing it with the ring you'd think it'd be used all the time...do you have any videos?

Edit:

A few other things:
  • Why not make a crafted back/boots and get it crit/mastery? - Better crit/mastery stats at the expense of a little amount of int (or at least I think its only a little bit...)
    Do you use mastery food? (You mentioned 47% crit w/o 125 crit food)
    When not bursting, what is your rotation?
    What fights do you have issues with in terms of standing in melee for DB?
    How important is DB in the overall single target rotation?
    Does UM hits proc ignite? If yes would that ever surpass BW on single target?
    I feel like I'm casting rather slowly, maybe I'm spoiled from arcane but do you rely on the T-18 buff for your haste? Would maybe the haste weapon enchant work?
    What is your up time on your T18?
    I have tons of questions, I absolutely love fire.
EmberPFU
Posts: 13
Joined: Sat Oct 10, 2015 10:40 am

Re: Fire Mages are alive again

Unread postby EmberPFU Thu Oct 15, 2015 1:56 pm

I tried this combo last night and I felt like I was doing more damage but wasnt really...still did really bad on M-HFA but amazing on IR, I was bursting nearly at 230k dps.
Depending on what talents and trinket you used, unless the adds die real fast, fire won't be "bad".
Did you use Living bomb instead of Blastwave? Did you use the Mythic Goren trinket instead of Sandman's Pouch? Did you use Dragon's Breath on as many adds as possible?

This is also one of the bosses which you will be better off using Mythic Goren trinket. The reason is, 3 min after pull it will phase into the "tons-of-adds" stage, where your Sandman's Pouch will be on cooldown. And usually your raid will Blood lust/Time Wrap there. So it's better to use Mythic Goren trinket to get a chance to proc it, rather than a trinket which will be on cool down.
Why do you use gorens sometimes and the pouch others, maybe its just me but it doesnt clearly explain why? If you're syncing it with the ring you'd think it'd be used all the time...do you have any videos?
It depends on a lot of things. Like I stated in my Post. I explained why choosing Goren trinket will benefit more on Iron Reaver, Mythic Gorefiend, Iskar, Mythic Zakuun.

I'll try to record some videos this week, can't promise tho.
Why not make a crafted back/boots and get it crit/mastery? - Better crit/mastery stats at the expense of a little amount of int (or at least I think its only a little bit...)
You can, but when you're able to get the itlv. 730 boots from Zakuun, it will be better. But if you aren't able to get your hands on one of those or a Heroic Zakuun boots with a Socket, crafted one will be better.

Same as for capes.
Do you use mastery food? (You mentioned 47% crit w/o 125 crit food)
Nope.

When you have 47% crit (including 5% crit buff), with the 715 Sandman's Pouch + 125 crit food it gives you 1.15(2804+125)/110 =30.62% of crit. 1.3(30.62+47)=100.91% of crit towards the Prismatic Crystal.

You can only change your Thunderlord enchant to Bleeding hollow when you reach 47% crit.
When not bursting, what is your rotation?
Basic fire rotation. Try to use DB on cooldown if possible, only save it when your Prismatic Crystal will be ready in 15 secs or if there will be adds soon.
What fights do you have issues with in terms of standing in melee for DB?
Kilrogg, Iskar (Myhtic), Socrethar (phase 1 and when you get the Gift of the Man'ari debuff during phase 2),
Xhul (Mythic).
How important is DB in the overall single target rotation?
Very important, it was buffed like crazy and it deals tons of damage, able to do around 130k with crits or more when you have the legendary ring buff. Plus, when you use Prismatic Crystal, it hits around 170k to it (crit).
Does UM hits proc ignite? If yes would that ever surpass BW on single target?
No, and no. Never get this talent when you spec fire, useless af. It never will be better than BW on single targets nor multiple. Living bomb is also far better on bosses like Xhul and Iskar.
I feel like I'm casting rather slowly, maybe I'm spoiled from arcane but do you rely on the T-18 buff for your haste? Would maybe the haste weapon enchant work?
You have to get used to the "cast slow, hit hard". That's what fire is all about. You have dots (pyro and ignite) on the boss to cover the long cast times anyway, my fireball's cast time is 2.06 sec.
What is your up time on your T18?
Depending on the fight duration, usually around 60% I'd say. 25% proc chance is quite huge, and that's also why crit is even more important now. More crits = more Pyroblasts = more chances to proc. Also precast pyroblast before pull, you'll have a chance to proc it too.

Ps. I've seen the phoenix hit around 270k~290k on my Prismatic Crystal when I was doing the opener burst after pull. My itlv is 722.
I have tons of questions, I absolutely love fire.
Feel free to ask more!
yungg
Posts: 62
Joined: Mon Dec 01, 2014 12:54 pm

Re: Fire Mages are alive again

Unread postby yungg Thu Oct 15, 2015 8:11 pm

I tried fire also, mostly on velhari and farm bosses, and I was pretty convinced. I ended up doing more boss dps to archimonde than I did overall dps with frost, so color me impressed. Seems like fires strength is its burst, especially on multi target. It seems like it's in an almost similar realm as arcane, albeit without the much higher ceiling arcane has due to stacked 4p procs during PC.
Seatoo
Posts: 100
Joined: Thu Dec 11, 2014 12:15 am

Re: Fire Mages are alive again

Unread postby Seatoo Sun Oct 18, 2015 5:59 pm

So I tried fire again for our first mythic IR kill and our first set of council attempts. It went very well, I would've ended up top 3-5 but as the GM there are certain fun things that I get like artillery assassinations from our tanks because they don't want a fire Mage in mythic :D it rocked for council too up until the splits but I don't think that was a me issue though.
Unbearievabl
Posts: 27
Joined: Sun May 31, 2015 4:58 am

Re: Fire Mages are alive again

Unread postby Unbearievabl Wed Oct 21, 2015 11:09 am

So tonight I ran 9/13M as fire and thought I would share my results. First I will say I've been waiting for a chance to play Fire again, I loved it in BRF and this version of Fire is really enjoyable compared to that. I'll post my logs, VoD, and armory and then give kind of a brain dump on current Fire after a night of experiencing it.

https://www.warcraftlogs.com/reports/2TwmyF3VKBrkjcgh" target="_blank
http://www.twitch.tv/anarre/v/21681750" target="_blank
http://us.battle.net/wow/en/character/a ... wer/simple" target="_blank

Numbered thoughts in no particular order.
1. There is very little RNG if done correctly with Sandman's. If ring use is asynchronous the spec turns into a total RNG fest.

2. On fights where using Sandman's is viable, Fire is probably our most reliable spec.

*3. I'm not 100% sure that my math is right on this but I aimed for 79.23% crit with GSR and Thunderlord procs. This is the crit cap for Fireball and Pyroblast.

4. Once I obtain another crit item (wrists from Velhari, cloak from Assault) I will be able to drop Thunderlord in favor of Warsong or Bleeding Hallow, I'm not sure which way to go just yet.

5. I will likely not play Fire again on fights that I cannot use Sandman's. GSR is frustrating and while it was fun in BRF to manage T17 4PC, GSR, and Darmacs, having GSR as your only RNG in a spec that demands stability to get the most out of it (especially with the ring) is very frustrating.

6. Fights that Sandman's works well for with our strats: Kormrok (do not attack until grouped), Council, Kilrogg, Iskar (do not attack until adds are about to appear).

7. Fights that Sandman's does not work on: Assault, Reaver (boss dies too quickly, Arcane will be more reliable since their CDs are not as reliant on trinket RNG, once we start seeing sub 1:30 kills fire will be strong again), Gorefiend (once we're able to 1 phase I believe Fire will be one of the best specs at this fight), Socrethar (we save lust for dominator then 2nd ring for 2nd dominator), Fel Lord (once we are able to lust at the beginning of the fight to skip P2 Fire will be dominant).

8. I think Fire's mileage at this point in time will depend a lot on your guild's acceptance of adjusting their ring usage for you or just your strat lining up with Fire's strength.

9. Because of the above I will likely drop another 150 crit so that I'm only aiming for Sandman's cap.

10. One thing that may disrupt the above is how well Fire holds up using Sandman's but not lining up with the ring. If Fire can do well without the ring timing but still line up Combustion/Crystal with Sandman's then it will only be limited on fights like Gorefiend where the fight itself dictates when you can use CDs.

I plan on trying out fire on every fight this week so should be able to talk about Archi and Manny soon.

*Edited to correct value, did not account for crit suppression due to bosses being 3 levels higher.
Last edited by Unbearievabl on Thu Oct 22, 2015 2:29 am, edited 1 time in total.
Incredimage - Illidan US <Encore> 13/13M HFC
Alzer
Posts: 50
Joined: Tue Jan 27, 2015 3:29 pm

Re: Fire Mages are alive again

Unread postby Alzer Wed Oct 21, 2015 3:43 pm

3. I'm not 100% sure that my math is right on this but I aimed for 76.93% crit with GSR and Thunderlord procs. This is what I ascertained to be the crit cap for Fireball and Pyroblast.
You forgot crit suppression, the value you should aim for is 79.23% crit.

If you are using Sandman's Pouch or WF GSR, this corresponds to 2598 crit rating, or 2773 crit rating with a non-WF GSR. (without food buff or thunderlord enchant)
Unbearievabl
Posts: 27
Joined: Sun May 31, 2015 4:58 am

Re: Fire Mages are alive again

Unread postby Unbearievabl Thu Oct 22, 2015 2:24 am

3. I'm not 100% sure that my math is right on this but I aimed for 76.93% crit with GSR and Thunderlord procs. This is what I ascertained to be the crit cap for Fireball and Pyroblast.
You forgot crit suppression, the value you should aim for is 79.23% crit.

If you are using Sandman's Pouch or WF GSR, this corresponds to 2598 crit rating, or 2773 crit rating with a non-WF GSR. (without food buff or thunderlord enchant)
Oh cool, thanks. I'll update my post to avoid confusion and update my character to not be so pleb. =D
Incredimage - Illidan US <Encore> 13/13M HFC
Unbearievabl
Posts: 27
Joined: Sun May 31, 2015 4:58 am

Re: Fire Mages are alive again

Unread postby Unbearievabl Thu Oct 22, 2015 11:43 am

Okay so I finished 13/13M as fire and I've found probably the most annoying thing about current fire. Sandman's Pouch has a 15% chance to proc on spells landing. This is a huge difference to the RPPM trinkets that proc off Incanter's Flow and Ice Floes. Sometimes you can be railed by bad RNG to start the fight and then sometimes in the middle of fights the trinket will take far too long to proc. If everything lines up then Fire is reliably good. But if the trinket fails to proc quickly then it's not going to be good for you since everything is going to be de-synced.
Incredimage - Illidan US <Encore> 13/13M HFC
Laodi
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Re: Fire Mages are alive again

Unread postby Laodi Thu Oct 22, 2015 1:31 pm

Dont looking at the current arcane but:
Is this not was fire was allways. Only the median is a little bit lower currently. Thats why no one was playing it at progress because it lacks steadiness.

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