Fire’s survivability and control are greater than that of Arcane, but less than Frost.  Fire relies on DoT’s to do the majority of its damage, making it capable of putting out damage on multiple targets, and at the same boasts greater mobility than that of the other specs. Especially with some buffs received in patch 4.3, fire can do very well in battlegrounds  PvP, but the lack of survivability and control makes arena a bit more… interesting.

When all of its DoT’s are active Fire can do immense burst damage, but is also quite vulnerable to dispel magic and RNG (Random Number Generation,) which means that if you’re facing a good dispeller or are simply unlucky you’ll find yourself doing far less damage than otherwise.

Fire excels at battlegrounds, both random and rated, although that is not to say it is bad at Arena combat, just that Fire will do better when you can spread your damage to multiple targets and can worry less about dispels. For some examples, see the videos below for BG pwnage with Fire.

The guide is oriented towards level 85 PvP. If you aren’t yet 85 and want to get there ASAP then see this leveling guide.

Contents

• Build #1
• Build #2
• Stats and Gems
• Tutorial Video
• Another tutorial Video plus a Fire Vs Frost DK video
• Races

Fire Mage PvP Builds

Build #1

This is the build from the tutorial video below. It has a bit more Arcane and a bit less Frost than some others. View on WoWhead.

Fire Talents, 31 Points

1. Master of Elements – Rank 2/2 – Your spell criticals will refund 30% of their base mana cost. Pretty important if you’re spamming spells.
2. Burning Soul – Rank 1/3 – Reduces the casting time lost from taking damaging attacks by 23%. This is a filer point since you should be using your snares and slows and such to stay out of range. Also, most of your attacks are instant.
3. Improved Fire Blast – Rank 2/2 – Increases the critical strike chance of your Fire Blast spell by 8% and increases its range by 10 yards.
4. Ignite – Rank 3/3 – Your critical strikes from non-periodic Fire damage spells cause the target to burn for an additional 40% of your spell’s damage over 4 sec. If you can get an Ignite going along with your other DoTs for Combustion then you will do a lot of damage.
5. Fire Power – Rank 3/3 – Increases the damage of your Fire spells by 3% and gives your Flame Orb a 100% chance to explode for 1134 to 1336 damage at the end of its duration.
6. Blazing Speed – Rank 2/2 – Gives you a 10% chance when hit by a melee or ranged attack to increase your movement speed by 50% and dispel all effects that prevent movement. This effect lasts 8 sec. It doesn’t happen often but is pretty nice when it does.
7. Impact – Rank 2/2 – Gives your damaging spells a 10% chance to reset the cooldown on Fire Blast and to cause the next Fire Blast you cast to stun the target for 2 sec and spread any Fire damage over time effects to nearby enemy targets within 12 yards.
8. Cauterize – Rank 2/2 – You have a 100% chance that an attack which would otherwise kill you will instead bring you to 40% of your maximum health. However, you will burn for 12% of your maximum health every 1.5 sec for the next 6 sec. This effect cannot occur more than once per minute. If you Ice Block right after then the Cauterize DoT drops.
9. Blast Wave – Rank 1/1 – A wave of flame radiates outward from the target location, damaging all enemies caught within the blast for 851 to 1003 Fire damage and are slowed by 70% for 3 sec.
10. Hot Streak – Rank 1/1 – Your spells no longer trigger Arcane Missiles. Instead, your critical strikes with Fireball, Frostfire Bolt, Scorch, Pyroblast, or Fire Blast have a chance to cause your next Pyroblast spell cast within 15 sec to be instant cast and cost no mana.
11. Combustion – Rank 1/1 – Combines your damaging periodic Fire effects on an enemy target but does not consume them, instantly dealing 955 to 1131 Fire damage and creating a new periodic effect that lasts 10 sec and deals damage per time equal to the sum of the combined effects.
12. Improved Hot Streak – Rank 2/2 – Any time you score 2 non-periodic critical strikes in a row with your Fireball, Frostfire Bolt, Scorch, Pyroblast, or Fire Blast spells, you have a 100% chance to trigger your Hot Streak effect.
13. Firestarter – Rank 1/1 – Allows you to cast the Scorch spell while moving. Using scorch lets you “fish” for Hot Streak procs.
14. Dragon’s Breath – Rank 1/1 – Targets in a cone in front of the caster take 1195 to 1387 Fire damage and are disoriented for 5 sec. Any direct damaging attack will revive targets.
15. Molten Fury – Rank 3/3 – Increases damage of all spells against targets with less than 35% health by 12%.
16. Critical Mass – Rank 3/3 – Your Living Bomb and Flame Orb spells deal 15% more damage, and your Pyroblast and Scorch spells have a 100% chance to cause your target to be vulnerable to spell damage, increasing spell critical strike chance against that target by 5% and lasts 30 sec.
17. Living Bomb – Rank 1/1 – The target becomes a Living Bomb, taking 928 Fire damage over 12 sec. After 12 sec, the target explodes dealing 464 Fire damage to up to 3 enemies within 10 yards. Limit 3 targets.

Arcane, 7 Points

1. Arcane Concentration – Rank 3/3 – Gives you a 10% chance of entering a Clearcasting state after any damage spell hits a target. The Clearcasting state reduces the mana cost of your next damage spell by 100%.
2. Improved Counterspell – Rank 2/2 – Your Counterspell also silences the target for 4 sec.
3. Improved Blink – Rank 2/2 – Increases your speed by 70% for 3 sec after casting the Blink spell.

Frost (3 Points)

1. Piercing Ice – Rank 1/3 – Increases the critical strike chance of your spells by 1%.
2. Shatter – Rank 2/2 – Multiplies the critical strike chance of all your spells against frozen targets by 3, and increases the damage done by Frostbolt against frozen targets by 20%.

Glyphs

• Prime
  
  • Glyph of Living Bomb – Increases the damage of your Living Bomb spell by 3%.
  • Glyph of Pyroblast – Increases the critical strike chance of your Pyroblast spell by 5%.
  • Glyph of Molten Armor – Your Molten Armor grants an additional 2% spell critical strike chance.
• Major
  • Glyph of Dragon’s Breath – Reduces the cooldown of your Dragon’s Breath by 3 sec.
  • Glyph of Mana Shield – Reduces the cooldown of your Mana Shield by 2 sec.
  • Glyph of Evocation – Your Evocation ability also causes you to regain 40% of your health over its duration.
• Minor
  • Glyph of Arcane Brilliance – Reduces the mana cost of your Arcane Brilliance spell by 50%.
  • Glyph of Slow Fall – Your Slow Fall spell no longer requires a reagent
  • Glyph of Armors – Increases the duration of your Armor spells by 30 min.

Skip to => Build #1 – Build #2 - Stats and Gems – Tutorial Video – Burnination Video – Races

Build #2

This is the build from the second video, below. It’s a bit more Frost and a bit less Arcane than the other and some of the Fire talents are different. It’s also a common arena build.

View this build on WoWhead. See below for stats, gems, and a video.

Fire talents (31 Points)

1. Burning Soul – Rank 3/3 – Reduces the casting time lost from taking damaging attacks by 70%.
2. Improved Fire Blast – Rank 2/2 – Increases the critical strike chance of your Fire Blast spell by 8% and increases its range by 10 yards.
3. Ignite – Rank 3/3 – Your critical strikes from non-periodic Fire damage spells cause the target to burn for an additional 40% of your spell’s damage over 4 sec.
4. Blazing Speed – Rank 2/2 – Gives you a 10% chance when hit by a melee or ranged attack to increase your movement speed by 50% and dispel all effects that prevent movement. This effect lasts 8 sec.
5. Impact – Rank 2/2 – Gives your damaging spells a 10% chance to reset the cooldown on Fire Blast and to cause the next Fire Blast you cast to stun the target for 2 sec and spread any Fire damage over time effects to nearby enemy targets within 12 yards.
6. Cauterize – Rank 2/2 – You have a 100% chance that an attack which would otherwise kill you will instead bring you to 40% of your maximum health. However, you will burn for 12% of your maximum health every 1.5 sec for the next 6 sec. This effect cannot occur more than once per minute.
7. Blast Wave – Rank 1/1 – A wave of flame radiates outward from the target location, damaging all enemies caught within the blast for 851 to 1003 Fire damage and are slowed by 70% for 3 sec.
8. Hot Streak – Rank 1/1 – Your spells no longer trigger Arcane Missiles. Instead, your critical strikes with Fireball, Frostfire Bolt, Scorch, Pyroblast, or Fire Blast have a chance to cause your next Pyroblast spell cast within 15 sec to be instant cast and cost no mana.
9. Improved Scorch – Rank 2/2 – Reduces the mana cost of your Scorch spell by 100%.
10. Molten Shields – Rank 1/1 – Reduces the global cooldown of your Mage Ward spell by 1 sec and your Blazing Speed also removes any movement slowing effects when triggered and is also triggered any time Mage Ward dissipates from absorbing damage.
11. Combustion – Rank 1/1 – Combines your damaging periodic Fire effects on an enemy target but does not consume them, instantly dealing Fire damage and creating a new periodic effect that lasts 10 sec and deals damage per time equal to the sum of the combined effects.
12. Improved Hot Streak – Rank 2/2 – Any time you score 2 non-periodic critical strikes in a row with your Fireball, Frostfire Bolt, Scorch, Pyroblast, or Fire Blast spells, you have a 100% chance to trigger your Hot Streak effect.
13. Firestarter – Rank 1/1 – Allows you to cast the Scorch spell while moving.
14. Dragon’s Breath – Rank 1/1 – Targets in a cone in front of the caster take Fire damage and are disoriented for 5 sec. Any direct damaging attack will revive targets.
15. Molten Fury – Rank 3/3 – Increases damage of all spells against targets with less than 35% health by 12%.
16. Critical Mass – Rank 3/3 – Your Living Bomb and Flame Orb spells deal 15% more damage, and your Pyroblast and Scorch spells have a 100% chance to cause your target to be vulnerable to spell damage, increasing spell critical strike chance against that target by 5% and lasts 30 sec.
17. Living Bomb – Rank 1/1 – The target becomes a Living Bomb, taking 928 Fire damage over 12 sec. After 12 sec, the target explodes dealing 464 Fire damage to up to 3 enemies within 10 yards. Limit 3 targets.

Frost (8 Points)

1. Piercing Ice – Rank 3/3 – Increases the critical strike chance of your spells by 3%.
2. Shatter – Rank 2/2 – Multiplies the critical strike chance of all your spells against frozen targets by 3, and increases the damage done by Frostbolt against frozen targets by 20%.
3. Ice Floes – Rank 1/3 – Reduces the cooldown of your Frost Nova, Cone of Cold, Ice Block, Cold Snap, Ice Barrier, and Icy Veins spells by 7%.
4. Improved Cone of Cold – Rank 2/2 – Your Cone of Cold also freezes targets for 4 sec.

Arcane (2 Points)

1. Improved Counterspell – Rank 2/2 – Your Counterspell also silences the target for 4 sec.

Glyphs

• Prime
  • Living Bomb – Increases the damage of your Living Bomb spell by 3%.
  • Pyroblast – Increases the critical strike chance of your Pyroblast spell by 5%.
  • Molten Armor – Your Molten Armor grants an additional 2% spell critical strike chance.
• Major
  • Polymorph – Your Polymorph spell also removes all damage over time effects from the target.
  • Evocation – Your Evocation ability also causes you to regain 40% of your health over its duration.
  • Frost Armor – Your Frost Armor also causes you to regenerate 2% of your maximum mana every 5 sec.
• Minor
  • Slow Fall – Your Slow Fall spell no longer requires a reagent.
  • Arcane Brilliance – Reduces the mana cost of your Arcane Brilliance spell by 50%.
  • the Monkey – Your Polymorph: Sheep spell polymorphs the target into a monkey instead.

Skip to => Build #1 – Build #2 - Stats and Gems – Tutorial Video – Burnination Video – Races

Fire Mage Stats

4% hit > 195 Spell Penetration > Intellect > Critical > Haste > Mastery

• Get the Spell Pen from the Cloak enchant and gems
• Int is all powers, ignore Spirit, Agility, Strength
• With Hot Streak and Shatter Fire probably can’t get enough Crit.
• Reforge Mastery and excess Hit (over 4%) into Crit.

Fire Mage Gems

Unless a socket bonus offers a high Int bonus it’s more effective to gem for Int only and ignore all socket bonuses. The Resilience and Spell Pen gems are the only others that you might want to use. Using the +40 Int gems instead of the +50s will save you a lot of gold and won’t be a big loss. Your call.

If you need more gold then check our gold guide for help.

• Red:
  • Brilliant Chimera’s Eye: +67 Int, requires Jewelcrafting 500
  • Brilliant Queen’s Garnet: +50 Int
  • Brilliant Inferno Ruby: +40 Int
• Yellow:
  • Mystic Cogwheel: +208 Resilience, requires Engineering 525 and Engineering helm
  • Mystic Chimera’s Eye: +50 Resilience
  • Mystic Lightstone: +40 Resilience
• Blue:
  • Stormy Deepholm Iolite: +63 Spell Penetration
  • Stormy Ocean Sapphire: +50 Spell Penetration
• Meta: Burning Shadowspirit Diamond: +54 Int & +3% Crit damage. Requires 3 red gems

Fire Mage Enchantments

• Main Hand/Two-Handed:
  • Power Torrent: Sometimes increase Int by 500 for 12 seconds
  • Enchant Weapon – Hurricane: Sometimes increase Haste by 540 for 12 seconds
• Off-Hand:
  • Superior Intellect: +40 Int
  • Pyrium Weapon Chain: +40 Hit and reduces disarm duration
• Helm:
  • Arcanum of Vicious Intellect: +60 Int and 35 resilience
• Shoulders:
  • Greater Inscription of Vicious Intellect: +50 Int and 25 Resilience
• Cloak:
  • Enchant Cloak – Greater Spell Piercing: +50 Spell Penetration
  • Enchant Cloak – Greater Intellect: +50 Int
• Chest:
  • Enchant Chest – Exceptional Resilience: +40 Resilience
  • Enchant Chest – Peerless Stats: +20 to all stats
  • Enchant Chest – Mighty Stats: +15 to all stats
• Bracers:
  • Enchant Bracer – Mighty Intellect: +50 Int
• Gloves:
  • Enchant Gloves – Haste: +50 Haste
• Belt:
  • Ebonsteel Belt Buckle: Gem slot for +50 or +40 Int gem
• Leggings:
  • Powerful Ghostly Spellthread: +95 Int & 55 Spirit
• Boots:
  • Enchant Boots – Haste: +50 Haste
  • Enchant Boots – Lavawalker: +35 Mastery, Slight run speed increase.
• Rings:
  • Enchant Ring – Intellect: +40 Int, requires Enchanting 475

Skip to => Build #1 – Build #2 - Stats and Gems – Tutorial Video – Burnination Video – Races

Fire Mage PvP Videos

This Fire Mage PvP Tutorial overs talents, glyphs, some of the spells, and how to set up Combustion properly. The CombustionHelper addon he refers to can be found here. It’s a pretty nice video.

Note: The actual tutorial starts at 1:55 or so. The stuff before that is some general 1st person shooter chaos.

Not that we mind that too much.

Patch 4.3 Burnination

Another tutorial video, covering glyphs, frost talents, and some serious burnination.

Build and glyphs are pretty much the same as shown above.

 Pwn in the Arenas – Click here and get better!

Fire Mage Vs Frost Death Knight.

With commentary. Much of this will apply towards fighting any melee class. Nice use of freezes, etc.

Races for the PvP Fire Mage

Not that race is a replacement for skill, but some have certain advantages.

• Humans: Escape ability allows use of two DPS trinkets.
• Gnome: Decent escape, bigger mana pool, small size helps (really.)
• Night Elves: A bit harder to hit.
• Dwarves: Ability washes away bleeds and take less damage.
• Draenei: +1 Hit and a small heal.
• Worgen: +1% crit, Sprint-like ability.
• Orcs: Blood Fury for increased burst, stun resistance, pet damage
• Undead: Remove Fear, Sleep, and Charm. Hold breath longer.
• Trolls: Berserk increases casting speed, less affected by roots & slows
• Goblins: 1% Haste, Rocket Jump.
• Blood Elves: Arcane Torrent restores some mana.
• Tauren don’t believe in Magery.

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