Table of contents:
- Introduction
- When can I go fire?
- Abilities
- Talents & Glyphs
- Rotation
- Races
- Gearing
Introduction
Hi everyone! This guide is mostly aimed at people who aren't already a 100% confident in their DPS as a fire mage. More advanced players will probably still find it useful to go over. It will go over all the basics you need to know to play fire in a heroic raiding environment.
When can I go fire?
Short answer: 4 piece tier 16, with at least ~35% character sheet crit self buffed. (Molten armor + arcane brilliance)
Longer answer: There is no specific point where fire is suddenly viable, and before it was not. Nor is there a point where fire will automatically beat frost or arcane. You will basically always want 4pc tier 16, without it, fire burst is a lot more RNG and you will lose a lot of overall DPS. There is no specific amount of crit you need for fire to be viable, but anything below 35% is not a fluid playstyle and will simply not pull compareable numbers to frost or arcane.
Abilities
A quick overview of all the major abilities you will use as a fire mage in a PVE environment:
http://www.wowhead.com/spell=133" target="_blank - Your main filler ability.
http://www.wowhead.com/spell=2948" target="_blank - Basically a weaker version of fireball, but can be used while moving! Useful to cast instead of fireball while you’re moving.
http://www.wowhead.com/spell=11366" target="_blank - A high damaging spell which becomes instant after 2 non dot crits in a row. (http://www.wowhead.com/spell=48108" target="_blank) The major damage of the fire spec comes from proccing this spell.
http://www.wowhead.com/spell=108853" target="_blank - One of the main tools to get pyroblast procs, also spreads the 2 spells below to 3-4 (glyphed) nearby enemies:
http://www.wowhead.com/spell=12846" target="_blank - Fires’ mastery. Every non dot fire ability will leave a dot equal to your mastery %. Multiple hits in a row will add to the current ignite.
http://www.wowhead.com/spell=11129" target="_blank - A dot which gives fire the insane cleave potential. Its damage is dependant on (20% of) your target’s ignite (mastery) dot when you cast it.
http://www.wowhead.com/spell=125430" target="_blank - A bomb of your choosing. See talents on what bomb to pick.
http://www.wowhead.com/spell=108978" target="_blank - A big DPS cooldown if used correctly. This will save all procs and stats you have for 6 seconds, allowing you increase your bloodlust/trinkets by 6 seconds, or to re-gain procs like pyroblast! after 6 seconds.
http://www.wowhead.com/spell=120" target="_blank - This spell combined with the glyph (http://www.wowhead.com/item=42746#modifies" target="_blank) will help your AoE damage.
http://www.wowhead.com/spell=30482" target="_blank - This will help you score those crits you want for pyroblast! Always use molten armor for fire.
http://www.wowhead.com/spell=2139" target="_blank - Interrupt enemies’ cast. A lot of mobs in the world and raids will require interrupting.
http://www.wowhead.com/spell=30449" target="_blank - This lets you steal a buff from the enemy you’re fighting. Only buffs that are “glowing” on the boss frame are stealable. In siege of orgrimmar there’s nothing worth stealing, but in a lot of dungeons and open world content there is, so keep your eyes open!
http://www.wowhead.com/spell=1953" target="_blank - Lets you get out of sticky situations quickly and lets you move around faster.
Talents & Glyphs
Talents:
Tier 15: http://www.wowhead.com/spell=12043" target="_blank - http://www.wowhead.com/spell=108843" target="_blank - http://www.wowhead.com/spell=108839" target="_blank
Fire always picks presence of mind, because fire has scorch to move around with, we don’t need ice floes or blazing speed.
Tier 30: http://www.wowhead.com/spell=115610" target="_blank - http://www.wowhead.com/spell=140468" target="_blank - http://www.wowhead.com/spell=11426" target="_blank
Temporal shield is a very strong ability, which reduces your damage taken by 15% for 4 seconds, and also heals you back for all the damage you take during those 4 seconds, and as a bonus, it’s not on the global cooldown! In general, temporal shield is the go-to talent for heroic bosses aslong as you make sure to time it well. Temporal shield is only good if you manage to time it well with big incoming damage.
If you can’t or don’t mind losing one global cooldown every ~30 seconds, http://www.wowhead.com/spell=11426" target="_blank is the go-to shield. It’s a pretty big absorb, it lasts an entire minute so you can just use it even when there’s no incoming damage.
Flameglow in its current state is not worth taking for any fight.
Tier 45: http://www.wowhead.com/spell=113724" target="_blank - http://www.wowhead.com/spell=111264" target="_blank - http://www.wowhead.com/spell=102051" target="_blank
This is the crowd control tree. None of these talents are really used in Siege of Orgrimmar, however, all 3 are good for soloing things and pvp. I personally run ring of frost is almost all scenarios, but feel free to pick what you find most useful/fun to play with.
Tier 60: http://www.wowhead.com/spell=110959" target="_blank - http://www.wowhead.com/spell=86949" target="_blank - http://www.wowhead.com/spell=11958" target="_blank
This is the defensive row. Greater invisibility and cauterize are the two main choices here for most bosses. Greater Invisibility is pro-active whereas cauterize is reactive/passive. If you’re new to a boss and not sure what deals the most damage, or what can kill you, picking cauterize is generally the best option. However, if you know beforehand what deals the most damage and what abilities you can survive while using greater invisibility, it’s a very good pick.
Tier 75: http://www.wowhead.com/spell=114923" target="_blank - http://www.wowhead.com/spell=44457" target="_blank - http://www.wowhead.com/spell=112948" target="_blank
Always use Living Bomb on single target fights. Use Nether Tempest when 2-4 mobs are tanked next to eachother for prolonged periods of time. Use Frost Bomb if there’s 5+ mobs tanked together for the entire fight.
Tier 90: http://www.wowhead.com/spell=114003" target="_blank - http://www.wowhead.com/spell=116011" target="_blank - http://www.wowhead.com/spell=1463" target="_blank
Use invocation.
Glyphs:
Major:
http://www.wowhead.com/item=42739" target="_blank - This should be used on practically all raid bosses. It makes you have fewer but bigger combustions, and due to your opener being a big part of your damage, this yields better results.
Then depending on the fight you’re doing, pick two of the glyphs below:
http://www.wowhead.com/item=63539" target="_blank - Good on any fight where the extra target to spread to will matter. (Thus more than 3 extra targets than your main target during a point in the fight)
http://www.wowhead.com/item=42746" target="_blank - Good on a fight with lots of AoE.
http://www.wowhead.com/item=69773" target="_blank - Good on a fight with lots of physical damage.
http://www.wowhead.com/item=42738" target="_blank - Helps your survivability slightly on very healing intensive fights.
http://www.wowhead.com/item=42744" target="_blank - This makes you immune after your iceblock ends or you /cancelaura it. Useful to get 3 seconds of immunity while only using iceblock for 1 second (via a /cancelaura iceblock macro).
Minor:
Glyph of mirror images is a dps loss for fire, so don’t pick it.
There’s no useful minor glyphs for fire. Pick what you like the most. I personally like illusion.
Rotation
Prepull opener:
~6 seconds: Channel Invocation
~3.5 second: Cast Mirror Image
~2.2 seconds: Use http://www.wowhead.com/item=76093" target="_blank
~2.2 seconds: Hardcast Pyroblast
-0 seconds: Cast bomb
During the fight, you want to use http://www.wowhead.com/spell=108978" target="_blank when most of your trinkets/potion/bloodlust are up. This is generally within the first 5-10 seconds of the fight. Make sure you also have a http://www.wowhead.com/spell=48108" target="_blank proc and http://www.wowhead.com/spell=48107" target="_blank proc before using alter time, and you got a fireball in-flight towards the boss. When all those conditions are met, use the following macro:
Spoiler:
Single target:
Fire doesn’t have a set rotation, instead, it uses a priority system. The general priority system is:
1. Keep the http://www.wowhead.com/spell=116257" target="_blank buff up by casting evocation as it runs out.
2. Use http://www.wowhead.com/spell=11129" target="_blank with a high ignite.
3. Cast http://www.wowhead.com/spell=11366" target="_blank when http://www.wowhead.com/spell=48108" target="_blank and http://www.wowhead.com/spell=48107" target="_blank are up
4. Keep your http://www.wowhead.com/spell=44457" target="_blank up. You can refresh Living Bomb anywhere in the last 1.5 seconds and it will still explode. You can refresh Nether Tempest anywhere in the last 1.0 seconds without losing damage.
5. Cast http://www.wowhead.com/spell=108853" target="_blank when http://www.wowhead.com/spell=48107" target="_blank is up and inferno blast is off cooldown.
6. Mirror Image
7. Cast http://www.wowhead.com/spell=133" target="_blank (or http://www.wowhead.com/spell=2948" target="_blank when moving).
In general, when you have a http://www.wowhead.com/spell=48108" target="_blank proc, you don’t want to use it straight away. You want to wait till you get a http://www.wowhead.com/spell=48107" target="_blank proc as well, and then launch a fireball+pyroblast at the same time, increasing the chance of getting a new pyroblast proc significantly, since only the fireball OR pyroblast have to crit to give you a new pyroblast proc. (due to heating up grace period)
AoE / Multitarget:
How to play in AoE situations varies greatly on the type of AoE.
If there’s 2-4 targets closely tanked together, you want to use the single target rotation while keeping living bomb/nether tempest up on all (max 3 with LB) mobs. Use inferno blast to spread combustion/ignite/pyroblast dots.
If the targets are spread, keep living bomb/nether tempest up on as many mobs as possible, and rotate your pyroblast procs on the mobs, so you apply the pyroblast dot to as many as possible.
If there’s 5+ mobs closely together, Use glyph of cone of cold, and cone of cold on cooldown. Flamestrike on cooldown if the mobs are not moving while you’re casting it and they will be alive for at least 5 seconds. Spam Arcane Explosion outside of cone of cold/flamestrike.
Races
Horde:
Troll is the best race in the game for fire mages. (http://www.wowhead.com/spell=26297" target="_blank is very strong)
Orcs are pretty good as well. (http://www.wowhead.com/spell=33702" target="_blank)
Alliance:
Worgen is good for 1% extra crit.
Draenei / Human / Gnomes give 1% extra hit. (human only while wearing swords, gnomes swords+daggers)
Gearing
How exactly to gear fire depends a lot on your current gear, but there's two main ways to gear your fire mage:
Standard stat priority:
Intellect (5.5) > 15% Hit/Expertise (8.5) > Crit (5) > Haste (4) > Mastery. (3.7)
High gear (580+ ilvl mostly) stat priority:
Intellect (5.5) > 15% Hit/Expertise (8.5) > Crit (4.8) > Haste to 11k (4.2) > Mastery (4) > Haste past 11k (3.8)
Use http://www.askmrrobot.com/wow/gear" target="_blank to optimize your gear using the given weights above. They’re in brackets () in the above priorities.
Go for the t16 4piece. Either with immerseus helm (http://www.wowhead.com/item=105420" target="_blank) as offpiece or thok/spoils (http://www.wowhead.com/item=105592" target="_blank / http://www.wowhead.com/item=105604" target="_blank) chest as offpiece. After 4pc, just use the items you have with highest item level, even if they don’t have crit.
One hander + off-hand beats a 2hander as long as they’re same item level and have crit.
Trinkets:
Always use http://www.wowhead.com/item=105422" target="_blank. Even flex/lfr version beats any other trinket. (Only heroic warforged trinkets are better than LFR pboi)
Then, pick the highest ilvl trinket between http://www.wowhead.com/item=105540" target="_blank and http://www.wowhead.com/item=105648" target="_blank. If they’re both the same item level, pick black blood.
Advanced gearing
In general, the higher your crit, the lower you can go on haste. I personally run 10.4k haste due to having 19.5k crit. The main haste points you can go for are:
- 14.2k haste (sub 17k crit)
- 10.4k-11k haste (18k+ crit)
- 9.2k - 9.7k haste (19.5k+ crit & very short kill times)
