The Fire Mage DPS Guide, Watch Them Burn!

Battle for Azeroth and the up and coming Shadowlands. Plenty of stuff to burn down, you pyromaniac.

This Fire Mage guide is primarily intended for use at Max Level in dungeons and raids.  If you’re looking for advice on leveling your Mage, check out our Mage Leveling Guide.

Fire Contents Fire Mage Talents Fire Mage Stats Fire Mage Rotations Gems and Enchants Consumables Professions “How to Fire Mage” Videos Leveling Quickly

If you want the same in-game step by step leveling guide that we use to get to the level cap  as fast as possible, take a look at our favorite in-game leveling guide.     Other Mage Guides:  PvE: Arcane, Frost PvP: Fire, Frost, Arcane, PvP Gearing, FIre Rotations for PvP Other: Mage overview, Mage leveling

 

Fire Mage DPS Talents

At certain times you might value one talent over another, such as if you will be fighting groups or singles. You can change then in a rested XP area (such as a city or Inn,) but for in dungeon/raid use you should keep a stack of Tome of the Clear Mind handy for easy talent switches. BTW – that same tome will also let you rearrange your essences.

Descriptions are below the image and our picks are checked:

Tier 1, level 15

1. Firestarter: Your Fireball and Pyroblast always critically hit targets with over 90% health. Nice opener and great for those fights where the boss up over 90% health for a while.
2. Pyromaniac gives you an 8% chance to instantly reactivate your Hot Streak after using Hot Streak to cast either Pyroblast or Flamestrike. Too random to be reliable, but ok if the target will be at mid health for a long time.
3. Searing Touch boosts your Scorch by 150% and is a guaranteed Crit when the target is under 30% health. This will make Scorch your main attack when the target is low.

Tier 2, level 50

1. Blazing Soul causes a blazing barrier to appear around you when you blink. The barrier lasts for 1 minute, absorbs damage, and burns melee attackers. It absorbs more than your Blazing Barrier. Is that what YOU need?
2. Shimmer gives you an extra charge to your Blink, so more Blinks over all, and it is castable while casting, which is sweet. It does not free you from stuns and bonds like Blink does. The added mobility will be useful in raids.
3. Blast Wave causes an explosion around you, doing some damage, knocks them away, and reduces their movement by 70% for 4 seconds. Getting mobbed? Boom.

Tier 3, level 45

1. Incanter’s Flow for the mobility. Your energy gets a boost while in combat, cycling from 4 to 20% added damage, then back again. 10 second cycle. Not quite as much damage as Rune of Power, but you have the mobility so it is much more flexible.
2. Mirror Image is decent, but as gear gets better the others improve faster. You summon three copies of you for 40 seconds and they blast away.
3. Rune of Power is the best damage increase, but it sticks you to one spot. If that works for your fights, then use it. Lasts 10 seconds, +40% damage, 40 second CD.

Tier 4, level 60

1. Flame On gives your Fire Blast +1 charge and reduces the cooldown by 2 seconds. More Hot Streaks, so this is the pick.
2. Alexstrasza’s Fury causes your Dragon’s Breath to always crit and works for Hot Streak. Good pick if you are always fighting groups of 5 or more and you are close enough for you bad breath to be effective.
3. Phoenix Flames lets you toss a Phoenix at your target which then explodes and also burns nearby targets. Good for burst area damage.

Tier 5, level 75

1.  Frenetic Speed gives you a 30% speed increase when casting Scorch. This makes it the most raid worthy of the set.
2. Ice Ward gives your Frost Nova 2 charges. More use for PvP, though controlling dungeon groups is occasionally required.
3. Ring of Frost drops a ring at the target which freezes anyone entering it for 10 seconds. Might have use to protect you or a healer.

Tier 6, level 90

1. Flame Patch causes your FlameStrike to leave burning ground, which will cook anyone inside the area for 8 seconds. Best for medium to large groups, 4 to 12.
2. Conflagration gives your Fireball an addition bit of damage over 8 seconds. There is some chance for those burning targets to spread that damage to other targets. Best for singles and one or two adds.
3. Living Bomb burns your target for 4 seconds and then explodes, and spread Living Bomb to all enemies within 10 yards. Does you tank pile up large groups of enemies (10+?) If so, then this is good.

Tier 7, level 100

1. Kindling: Crits from Fireball, Pyroblast, and Inferno Blast reduce your Combustion cooldown by 1 second each. And easy talent to use if you don’t want more buttons. Less DPS than the others.
2. Pyroclasm has a 15% chance, when consuming Hot Streak, to make your next non-instant pyroblast, cast within 15 seconds, do 225% additional damage.
3. Meteor: Drops a fraggin’ meteor!!  Best area attack. Does damage to an 8 yard radius, also burning the ground doing continuous damage to all who remain in the fire. 3 seconds delay from cast to impact so make sure your targets will be there when you call for the bombardment. If the are moving around a lot then the Pyroclasm will be better.

 

Fire Mage Stat Priorities

This will depend on your gear, azerite traits, and corruption. The numbers are very close for most gear levels and most fights. For fights with a bunch of targets Mastery rules because everything is burning.

• Your Stats for single target: Int > Crit > Haste > Versatility > Mastery
• Multiple targets: Mastery > Int > Crit > Haste > Versatility
• Lots of targets: Mastery >>> Int > Crit > Haste > Versatility

Int increases your spell power.

Crit: You have one big reason to pile up the Crit: Pyroblast! procs. That’s where a lot of your damage will come from.

Mastery: Your target burns, damage over time, from all of your various fire attacks, so it’s a solid damage add. The more fire you can lay down on the target the more damage you’ll get from Ignite. Your Combustion copies your Ignite, so the bigger your Ignite the bigger your Combustion DOT.  Note that the more targets you have the more burnination there is so the more value Mastery has.

Haste does reduce cooldown and cast times and increases how quickly your DOTs tick.

Versatility adds to your offensive damage and your defense. It’s a straight up damage add.

Tertiary stats randomly appear on PvE gear. You cannot gem or enchant or otherwise stack them, but they are nice when you get them. They’re worth maybe a couple of gems. The stats are: Leech, Avoidance, Speed, and Indestructible (your gear piece, not you.)

 

In-Depth Fire Mage Rotation Guide

If you still need to get leveled, go here.

The NeedToKnow addon from Curse will help you track your ignites, Living Bomb, and such.

Your Buffs

• Arcane Brilliance.
• Greater Flask of Endless Fathoms, +360 Int for 1 hour.
• Pickled Eel: +125 Crit

Spell Notes

If you’re using Rune of Power then drop at just before the start of the fight. Also quaff your Draenic Intellect Potion just before the tank pulls. That way you will be able to use a second one during the fight.

Your primary attack spell is Fireball, though Scorch can be used if you need to be moving.

Heating Up (HU) is triggered by critical strikes with any of the following spells: Fireball, Pyroblast, Frostfire Bolt, Scorch and the guaranteed critical Inferno Blast. Use IB right after you get an HU proc.

Whenever you have a Heating Up proc cast Inferno Blast if possible for the guaranteed critical effect and therefore the automatic trigger of Pyroblast!. Cast Pyroblast whenever Pyroblast! triggers.

Keep Casting! You should always be casting and queue the next spell before the cast is done.

Combustion

The ideal time to use Combustion is after a critical hit with either Pyroblast or Fireball for maximum effect as the damage of Combustion is increased by the damage of the DoT effect caused by Pyroblast and Ignite.

• Combining trinkets and other forms of damage increase prior to triggering a Combustion will optimize your damage output.
• Use Inferno Blast right after Combustion to spread that Combustion DOT to up to three adjacent targets.

Ideally you’ll have both Ignite and the Pyroblast DoT effects active on a target before using Combustion.

1. Bomb, and refresh just before it expires.
2. Fireball or Scorch (if you need to move) as main damage
3. Use Inferno Blast when Heating Up procs to get a Pyro! proc.

Opening Up for Incineration

1. Before the fight starts take your best guess as to where you’ll need to be and put down two Rune of Power in appropriate places.
2. Quaff your Draenic Intellect Potion just before the fight starts, which lets you quaff another during the fight.
3. Start casting Pyroblast, timed to go off after the tank has the opponent’s attention.
4. Living Bomb, if you have it
5. If you have Meteor, then:
   1. Fish for a Pyro! proc
   2. Drop it and meteor at the same time.
   3. Continue casting Fireball.
6. If you do not have Meteor:
   1. Fireball until Heating Up happens.
   2. Cast Fireball and queue Inferno Blast to proc Pyro! and fire it.
7. Try to get a high Ignite and cast Combustion.

Single Target Burnination

Fireball is your main spell, you will always be casting it if nothing more interesting is available. Remember, you must always be casting something.

1. Place your Rune of Power as needed.
2. When you get a Pyro! proc keep it until you also get a Heating up proc. Then fire the Pyro! proc.
3. Living Bomb if you have it.
4. Upgrade Heating Up Procs with Inferno Blast and fire.
5. Blast Wave, if you have it.
6. Fireball as your filler, Scorch when you’re moving.

Small groups:

1. Same priorities
2. Cast Bomb on multiple targets
3. Inferno Blast to spread dots.

Moving

1. Bombs away (whichever bomb you’re specced into)
2. Scorch
3. Pyro! when it procs
4. Inferno Blast when Heating Up procs
5. Presense of Mind to insta cast Pyroblast or other cast-time spell.

Offensive Cooldowns

• Combustion, 45 seconds. Takes the Ignite DoT on a target and creates a new, additional 10 second DoT. Resets Inferno Blast, so use IB right after Combustion to spread effects.
• Mirror Image, (if you took this instead of Incanter’s Flow) 2 min, dumps aggro and increases DPS. Images inherit crit, haste, and any spellpower that you have. .
• Time Warp, 5 min CD, The mage version of Bloodlust/Heroism and the Core Hound’s Ancient Hysteria. Duplicates them, but does not stack with them. Coordinate with anyone else in your group who has a similar ability. Keep them at least 10 minutes apart.

Defensive Cooldowns

• Ice Block, 5 min, Emergency damage mitigation. Ice Block will make you immune to all damage for 10 sec.
• Invisibility, 5 min, Another aggro dump, but takes a bit of time to fully activate.

Misc abilities: 

• Polymorph, 1.7 sec. cast, turns the target into a critter. Breaks on damage.
  

 

 

Gems and Enchants and More for Fire Mages

Gems and enchants are much easier than they used to be. In BFA  gem sockets are actually uncommon. All sockets are “prismatic,” which means that they will take any available gem.

Note that your Mage bonus adds to any Int bonuses, making them worth 5% more Int. That bonus does not add to other stats.

Regardless of how many gem sockets you have managed to acquire, you are allowed only one nice Int gem. Make it: Eye of Intellect for +120 Int.

As for the other gems, what are you fighting? If you’re mostly blasting groups, then gem Mastery, masterful. Otherwise Crit or Haste. Quick Sand Spinel (+50 Haste) or Deadly Lava Lazuli (+50 Crit)

Enchants are fairly easy. These days only weapons and rings. (Used to be nearly ever item of gear.)

Weapon(s:)

• Torrent: occasionally +10% to Fire Damage. Or…
• Machinist: Occasionally boost int by 264 and our highest stat,among Crit, Haste, and Mastery, by 170 for 15 seconds.

Rings:

• Accord: +60 Haste, or…
• Accord of Crit, +60 Crit, or…
• Accord of Mastery, +60 Mastery

Short on gold? If you want to buy the best enchants, fund all of your alts, donate to the guild, etc., but don’t have the cash, then see what the Zygor Gold Guide can do about about fixing your poverty.

 

 

 

 

Professions for Fire Mages

You might be better served by using the professions to build a larger gold stash.

Fire Professions
Tailoring
Leatherworking
Jewelcrafting
Enchanting
Inscription
Alchemy
Engineering
Blacksmithing
Skinning	Use this to supply leatherworking and to make gold.
Herbalism	Use this to supply Alchemy and Inscription and to make gold.
Mining	Use this to supply Blacksmithing and to make gold.

 

 

 

Fire Mage Videos

Covers some gear, as well as stats, talents, azerite traits, corruption, consumables, rotation, and more.

100% Crit build?? Hmmm…

 

 

 

The Fast Fire Mage Leveling Guide

Leveling a Mage or some other class? It’s pretty easy these days, since Mages excel at destroying things. Still, there are a lot of quests and a incredible number of things to kill. Wouldn’t it be nice to have a bit of expert help in the “where to go and what to do” department?

Zygor’s guide gives you that help, whether you”re Horde or Alliance and regardless of your level, at all times. It’s like having an expert showing you exactly where to go and what to do.

It doesn’t matter if you stop your questing to gain a few levels in PvP or the dungeons, you’re brand new to the game, or you’re decked head to toe in heirlooms. Come back to the quests and Zygor will figure out where you should be, based on your new level, and update the guide accordingly. It’ll even let you zap your obsolete quests.

You’re not even locked into any particular build. Zygor’s guide has a talent advisor which will recommend talents regardless of your class or spec. All in all you’ll blast to the level cap faster than ever before.

Click here to grab your own copy  and quickly blast to the level cap, even in Shadowlands, or read our review, here.

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Related Mage Pages:

• Arcane PvE
• Frost PvE – Yes Frost does PvE.
• Fire PvP
• Frost PvP
• Arcane PvP – Yes, Arcane in PvP. You won’t top the Arena charts, but BGs can be fun.
• Fire Rotations for PvP
• Other: Mage overview, Mage leveling