Playing a Fire Mage: The Basics
Fire Armor
Fire Mages should use Molten Armor at all times.
Choice
Use Hot Streak whenever possible, recast Living Bomb after every explosion, use Flame
Single Target Orb whenever possible, and spam your filler nuke in between. Filler nuke can be Scorch,
Fire DPS Fireball, or Frostfire Bolt. Fireball is the highest dps. Scorch is used during periods of
movement or knockbacks. Frostfire Bolt is an alternative to Fireball, but is lower DPS.
Make sure the Critical Mass debuff is always present on your target (Unless another
Debuffs
Mage/Warlock is applying an equivalent buff).
After Patch 4.06 - there isn't much 'Mana Management' required to playing the Fire spec
Mana anymore. However, make sure you have enough mana to cast Fireball during Molten Fury
Management range (-35% Health), Boss weakened phases and during powerful trinket on-use or passive
proc periods.
Recognise that "Ignite" is by far the most important contributor to a strong Combustion.
Don't use Combustion without Ignite present. Ideally, use Combustion when Ignite,
Pyroblast (Dot), and Living Bomb are on your target. The biggest Ignites will stem from
Combustion
Pyroblast and Fireball crits, resulting in bigger Combustions. You can, however, fish for
Ignites via Scorch if you have no time to wait. Download CombustionHelper to assist you in
managing this cooldown more easily
Put Living Bomb on 3 targets, use Blastwave on cooldown and spam Flamestrike. Mana
management is also an essential part of multi-target dps. You will not have enough mana
to continually spam AoE for an extended period. Fortunately Fire specs have easy ways to
dramatically improve efficiency. Use Blast Wave whenever possible as this is a very mana
Multiple Target
efficient spell. Even if you are in maximum efficiency mode Blast Wave is still good. Only
Fire DPS
using Flamestrike only when its dot is expired will greatly increase its dpm. You can further
increase dpm by skipping Flamestrike and spamming Scorch with Living Bomb on a single
target to fish for Impact procs. Impact procs are unreliable, but do MASSIVE AoE damage
with very high efficiency.
Fire can use every spell in its arsenal while moving except for Fireball. While moving
Fire Mobility continue casting as normal, but use Scorch in place of any Fireball casts. Never stop
casting!
Gearing a Fire Mage
The most important initial step to correctly gearing a Fire Mage is to understand how we value various
Combat Ratings. Our understanding of Combat Ratings will influence the gear we choose to wear, enchants,
gems, meta-gems... everything.
Combat Ratings
Relative
Rank Name Notes
Value
Please note that Combat Rating relative values shuffle depending on a given
character's current stats and gear. Therefore, the most accurate relative
Important
values applicable to YOU can be found by using Simulationcraft and Rawr -
and importing YOUR character.
The Relative values below may be subject to change. Treat the values below
Important as a general guide for highly geared ilvl 372 geared players. They may or
may not be applicable to you in your current gear.
Last Table Update: 8th February. Simulationcraft is source, to view more
detailed information: Click here
Intellect is the strongest stat by far. Much stronger than even Hit.
Intellect is a Primary Stat. It increases our Spell Power, Critical Strike Chance
1 Intellect 3.2296
and our Mana. Due to the strength of Intellect: we aggressively Gem,
Enchant and Gear towards maximising the amount present on our gear.
Hit is a very strong stat, but still weaker than intellect. You'll need 17% hit
2 Hit 2.4597 (1742 rating) for Tier 11 boss mobs. The value of Hit falls off once Hit
capped.
Spell Spell Power can still be found on weapons and trinket effects. Spell Power is
3 2.3709
Power a very strong stat.
Haste now has a higher relative value compared to Crit/Mastery. Ignite
Munching devalues Crit and Mastery considerably. Please remember that the
relative values listed here are for very geared 372 players. Haste might be
4 Haste 1.4677
slightly weaker than crit with lower levels of gear. You need to run Rawr /
Simulationcraft with YOUR character - to find out whether Haste is slightly
better or worse than crit for YOU.
Surprised how Crit has dropped in relative value? The biggest factor is Ignite
Munching. In a bug-free world without Ignite Munching, Crit would be
considered a much stronger stat. But in practise, Crit loses considerable
5 Crit 1.3896
value when Ignite Munching is factored in and accounted for. Various tools
(SimulationCraft, Rawr) now account for Ignite Munching, and as a result,
Crit has been devalued to levels that more accurately reflect ingame results.
Mastery is our weakest stat. It is also devalued by Ignite Munching. Mastery
6 Mastery 1.2287
is the first candidate to reforge into Hit Rating.
Notes: Hit Cap, Meta-Gem, Enchants
While gearing, you'll need to be aware of the following situations outlined below.
Action Notes
Reaching the 17% hit cap with Cataclysm level combat ratings is difficult to achieve without
consciously trying. Here's a good strategy:
1: Pick gear with Hit Rating.
2: Only use hybrid Purple Hit Gems (20 Int + 20 Hit) if the socket bonus is strong
Reaching enough to do so. Read the Gemming section for more details (Gemming for INT is still
the Hit Cap your top priority)
3: Enchant your gear for Hit: IF you'll get the full value out of the enchant AND there's
no Intellect equivilant enchant available for that slot. (Enchanting for INT is still your
top priority)
4: Reforge the weakest combat ratings into Hit rating, starting with Mastery.
Use a Burning Shadowspirit Diamond. newly introduced in Patch 4.06. The activation
requirement is simply to have a minimum of 3 Red gems in gear. In the meantime, you can
Choosing a
temporarily use the Ember Shadowspirit Diamond Metagem instead. If that is too
Meta-Gem
rare/expensive currently on your server, the WOTLK version may suffice: Ember Skyflare
Diamond
Enchant for INT where possible. If there's no intellect enchant available, then follow the order
of: Hit (If you'll get the full value out of it) -> Crit / Mastery / Haste (Use Rawr/SimC to find
Enchants
out what the correct stat order is for your level of gear). Special Note: Boot Enchants are an
exception, see below.
Time spent moving is effectively lost or lower DPS. Although you can still cast Scorch while
moving, it's still lower DPS then a Burn rotation. Runspeed enchants therefore can be
considered a DPS enchant for many encounters, and a strong one at that, with the actual value
Runspeed varying depending on the unique movement requirements of each encounter. In a Patchwerk
Enchant style fight, however, where there's no movement at all - there are 50 Hit / Mastery enchants
available which would strictly be superior for DPS. Generally speaking however, the vast
majority of encounters require sufficient movement to make Runspeed the best enchant for
boots by far.
Enchants and Item Enhancements
Slot Enhancement Notes
Source: Cataclysm Mage
Resources
Head [Arcanum of Hyjal] Guardians of Hyjal: Revered
Neck
[Greater Inscription of Charged
Shoulders Therazane: Exalted
Lodestone]
Back 50 Int
Chest 20 All Stats
Wrists 50 Int
Hands 50 Haste OR 65 Mastery
Waist 1 Socket Made by Blacksmithing
Legs 95 Int & 80 Stamina Made by Tailoring
Non-Runspeed options are: 50 Mastery OR
Feet Runspeed & 35 Mastery
50 Haste OR 50 Hit
Rings
Trinkets
Mainhand Weapon Power Torrent
Offhand Weapon 40 Int
Wand
Gemming
Intellect is always at the forefront of our mind when it comes to Gemming: Fire Mages aggressively prioritise
gemming for Intellect on gear. The following gems are at our disposal:
Stats Name
[Brilliant
40 Intellect
Inferno Ruby]
[Reckless
20 Intellect + 20 Haste
Ember Topaz]
Stats Name
[Potent Ember
20 Intellect + 20 Crit
Topaz]
[Veiled
20 Intellect + 20 Hit
Demonseye]
Speccing a Fire Mage
Here's a good starting build for a Level 85 Fire Mage: Starting Level 85 Fire Build: 3 / 35 /
3
- Improved Scorch was picked up, though be mindful that the talent is now classified as
"Situationally Recommended" instead of "Essential". The value of this talent now largely
depends on the type of content you're doing: Longer heroic encounters, encounters with
heavy AOE-mana demands, or encounters where Evocation can't be used or is difficult to
use - will render Improved Scorch still desirable. For other encounters or content, this
talent could be safely skipped.
- Arcane Concentration was skipped. While this talent was a minor DPS gain (at best)
prepatch, it's arguably not worth any points at all now - after recent mana spell cost
reductions.
- No points in Improved Fire Blast were taken. This means you'll need to be within 30
yards to use Impact, which is the base Fire Blast range. Whether players deem this range
to be unacceptably low for AOE fights is highly subjective.
- Blazing Speed is skipped. PvP talent.
- Molten Shields is skipped, but you may wish to allocate spare points to it. Situational,
minor talent. Might seem some very limited use in specific encounters, but nothing of note.
- Cauterize is picked up. During new Heroic and Progression content, this talent is
extremely useful. Cauterize is not only passive, but on a 1 minute cooldown. Remember
that Cauterize can also situaionally be used for DPS, in addition to its survival passive.
- Pyromaniac is picked up, but be mindful that it's still a very situational talent.