LocNess' WoD Fire Mage Guide (Updated for 6.2)

[Seatoo]

I keep trying fire and seem to do fairly well on Kargath and Butcher but do horrible on pretty much everything else, I generally when am raid buffed am around 39% crit and use Blastwave Mirror Images and Meteor. Is fire just that much weaker (I'm being pushed into Arcane), I saw someone say they were at 43% self buffed which seems crazy...

Basically I guess what I'm asking is what gear wise do I need to do to be effective in heroic and mythic hm?

[LocNess]

Grab as much Crit and Mastery as you can. The 660 PvP Conquest pieces have several Crit/Mastery pieces that are excellent for Fire (I was using Bracers and Helm primarily), and I was using them. Try and get the DMF Trinket, or a Copeland's Clarity. Both preferably. Otherwise until BRF, there is not much you can do. Arcane and Frost will just excel above it unfortunately except for Tectus and Twins. Make sure you are using Living Bomb for Tectus/Twins and taking advantage of add damage for things like Imperator and Koragh. And it isn't too crazy to get that high for Fire. I was at ~2200 crit rating before I stopped gearing for it and I was only around 672 at the time I think.

[nickseng]

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/character/t ... e/advanced" target="_blank

~45% crit, raid buffed + food

Crafted gear helps a lot.

[LocNess]

Indeed. I have crafted 670 Crit/Mastery legs, as Highmaul legs are not that great for us.

[Seatoo]

What sort of dps are you two able to pull, and how does it compare to other mages in your guild and the rest of the raid?

[Garrod]

Depends on the fight and what specifically I'm doing on a fight. I'm pretty far behind on Mythic Butcher for obvious reasons, but everything else I'm pretty on par with our Arcane and Frost Mages and raid DPS as a whole. Only times I get chewed out for my DPS is on Mythic Ko'ragh when I get a little too LB happy on the adds early...

If your dead set on playing Fire at least invest in a 3/3 DMF trinket, and then 3/3 crafted pants with crit/mastery on them if you can afford it(so glad I picked up tailoring).

[LocNess]

What sort of dps are you two able to pull, and how does it compare to other mages in your guild and the rest of the raid?

I was pretty much middle of the pack to top every pull as soon as my ilevel caught up and I got my Copelands/DMF. Just went Arcane however and the DPS increase is noticeable.

[nickseng]

I'm in a pretty casual raid group, so I might not be the best mage to judge performance.

With that said, most of the time I'm solidly in the middle, behind the hunters, but ahead of the shammies and locks and pallies. Our raid is pretty cool with what you play, as long as you don't suck.

[Mybull]

What sort of dps are you two able to pull, and how does it compare to other mages in your guild and the rest of the raid?

I was pretty much middle of the pack to top every pull as soon as my ilevel caught up and I got my Copelands/DMF. Just went Arcane however and the DPS increase is noticeable.

Usually top 5 of the chart for most heroic/mythic bosses except for brakenspore which the mages are intercepting those shooters.

Did a 33K DPS on heroic Butcher as fire with 673 ilvl. Still beyond Shayande's with ilvl 666 but made 36K dps, he is in the halls of legends now

May the odds of RNGeesus be ever in your favor

[Darkwraith01]

I keep trying fire and seem to do fairly well on Kargath and Butcher but do horrible on pretty much everything else, I generally when am raid buffed am around 39% crit and use Blastwave Mirror Images and Meteor. Is fire just that much weaker (I'm being pushed into Arcane), I saw someone say they were at 43% self buffed which seems crazy...

Basically I guess what I'm asking is what gear wise do I need to do to be effective in heroic and mythic hm?

This is what I have been doing, on average, as fire on Heroic HM.

Kargath ~ 25k - 26k DPS
Butcher ~ 23k - 24k DPS
Tectus ~ 30k DPS
Brackenspore ~ 22k - 24k DPS (I'm usually the "shooter cleaner")
Twins ~ 23k DPS (still haven't being able to get this fight 100% right)
Ko'ragh ~ 24k DPS
Imperator (Normal, haven't done Heroic) ~ 22k DPS (around 656 ilvl at the time)

Note_1: even though I'm at 665 ilvl, I don't have that much crit (around 38% raid buffed) - my follower raid missions bad RNG seem to award me with a lot of haste/multistrike gear...
Note_1: I'm far from being a good mage, so you'll probably be able to do higher DPS than those numbers if you are above average. FYI - my bracket rankings on warcraft logs vary a lot, from 35% - 87%.

[Komma]

Guide review #3 on a Saturday afternoon.

If you have been looking to burn enemies into cinders in a more beautiful way than a Destruction Warlock, than this is a good place to start.

Typo: Than -> Then

Living Bomb is now a talent, and it may also be spread by Inferno Blast again.

It was already a talent!

Ignite is now a span of 5 seconds, instead of 4.

More accurately, it went from 4-6 seconds to 5-6 seconds.

This could be helpful for large AoEs that are periodic, such as on Immerseus when the Slimes explode when entering the middle, and it can be used while you are in the middle of a cast so you don't waste a Global Cooldown.

For this and many of the other talent row descriptions, we need some updates for WoD!

Currently Mirror Image is the best choice for Single Target, with Incanter's Flow and Rune of Power beating it out on cleaving and AoE fights depending on the amount of movement.

Please doublecheck this! If I remember correctly, RoP is ahead on single target ever since the Fire buffs.

Prismatic Crystal allows you to build up damage, and then unleash a flurry of AoE, however currently we cannot spread DoTs too it, so you have to switch to it and then spread DoTs off.

Typo: "too it" -> "to it".

Crit > Mastery > Haste ~= Multistrike > Versatility

Please double check after recent haste buffs .

Haste allows us to put out more Fireballs over time, allowing more chances for Critical Strikes, and thus more Pyroblasts.

Should mention that Haste increases Pyroblast, Living Bomb, and Combustion DoT ticks, slightly increases Combustions because of more spells packed within less ignite ticks, and also makes it easier to Pyro-camp without worrying about buffs falling off.

100 Haste = 1%

100 -> 90

And a thing to note is Multistrike does interact with Ignite, and increases Ignite when you get a MS.

Put this under MS's description. The formula is not necessary and only confuses players. It acts exactly the same as any other spell anyway.

Off to dinner! I'll go through the rest after I'm back.

[Komma]

The gnome returns after clearing a table of conjured refreshments.

Single Target Spell Priority

Combustion with a strong Ignite
Pyroblast
Inferno Blast if you have Heating Up active
Fireball
Scorch if moving

This section is a little bit lacking. You didn't even mention the most important trick of all - Pyro camping! How do talents fit in? How to avoid Pyro munching? There are many things that haven't been mentioned at all!

If you chose Living Bomb, you will want to try and get a Pyroblast onto a main target, as well as Living Bomb, than use Inferno Blast to spread everything.

Typo: "than" -> then"

The AOE section as a whole needs some work. When to use Flamestrike? Meteor? When to single target? How important is spreading LB and/or Pyro? What should I do first and in what order?

Okay, so how do I use Combustion?

Section is missing adaptations for Prismatic Crystal and Kindling!

Prepot/Mirror Image
Precast Pyroblast
Fireball/Inferno Blast to get Heating Up and Pyro! proc up at the same time
Meteor
Pyro *crit*
Pyro *crit*

This implies a Combustion ASAP after the opener. Is that actually ideal? Might it be better to chain a few fireball+pyros first, to take full advantage of potions and trinkets?

VII - T17 Raids - How to Fire in Highmaul and Blackrock

There are a lot of generic "single target" or "multitarget" suggestions, but nothing specific regarding each talent row. In particular, level 90 talent comparisons need to be elaborated on. How about some analysis on PC vs Meteor as well?

*Coming December 2014*

*looks at calendar...*

Bank Pyroblast! Utilize Procs

This should have been mentioned earlier as part of the core rotation, because it heavily affects usage of instant casts!

Guide needs a bit of work!

[Figdan]

This could be helpful for large AoEs that are periodic, such as on Immerseus when the Slimes explode when entering the middle, and it can be used while you are in the middle of a cast so you don't waste a Global Cooldown.

For this and many of the other talent row descriptions, we need some updates for WoD!

Currently Mirror Image is the best choice for Single Target, with Incanter's Flow and Rune of Power beating it out on cleaving and AoE fights depending on the amount of movement.

Please doublecheck this! If I remember correctly, RoP is ahead on single target ever since the Fire buffs.

komma remembers correctly. I apologize for my lack of being around much lately. Should be fixed here shortly

[Siulja35]

on what fights do RoP beat out MI? Feel like the only one would be butcher due to movement not being an issue in this encounter.

[TLTeo]

Considering that on Kargath as fire you should go in the stands, yeah, butcher only. On every other fight you should use IF though, not MI.

[Siulja35]

When using IF do you try to time combustion up for when you are at 20% or is that just near impossible with how rng dependent we are?

[TLTeo]

Dots don't snapshot IF stacks, their damage is updated dynamically, so there's no need to try that

[Komma]

Dots don't snapshot IF stacks, their damage is updated dynamically, so there's no need to try that

Not only this, but Combustion is unaffected by IF at all. IF only affects the spells that generate ignite, instead of directly applying to Ignite or Combustion.

[LocNess]

Guide has been re-transposed from MMOC. Things to be added are a BRF section, updated Talent Explanations, 4P T17 interaction, and formatting for this guide specifically. It will happen. Promise.

[sownzoria]

What's a good iLvl to switch from frost to fire for Raiding? No real interest in Arcane at this point.
Currently at 665. If this is answered somewhere else, apologies, I'm at work now!