WoD Fire Mage Guide for 6.2
[/b]Last updated: 21st of June, 2015.
Learn everything you need to know about fire mages in raiding!
Table of contents:
1. Introduction
2. Overview of the spec.
3. Talents and Glyphs
4. Rotation
5. Gearing
Click any of the links above to go to that section in the guide.
Introduction:
Welcome to my guide to fire! This guide will tell you all you need to know about playing fire in a mythic raiding environment.
This guide is aimed at all levels of PvE play. I tried to keep it short and concise, but at the top of each section there will be a "tl;dr" for the people who just want a quick summary of what to do / pick, followed by a more detailed explanation under it.
If you got any questions or suggestions feel free to post them below! Also any discussion of any possible mistakes I made or if you think something else may work better please tell. I've done my research on everything I wrote here, but there's always the possibility for mistakes.
Overview of the spec:
The fire spec is a spec mostly build around critical hits. Getting two critical hits in a row will grant you a http://www.wowhead.com/spell=11366/pyroblast" target="_blank proc, which is a hard hitting spell which also leaves a big DoT. To help getting multiple crits in a row, fire uses http://www.wowhead.com/spell=108853/inferno-blast" target="_blank which is a guaranteed crit. The spell casted for most of the fight is http://www.wowhead.com/spell=133/fireball" target="_blank.
Fire has another built in dot in the form of its mastery (http://www.wowhead.com/spell=12846/mastery-ignite" target="_blank) which interacts with its biggest cooldown, http://www.wowhead.com/spell=11129/combustion" target="_blank, which is a very strong dot based around your ignite.
Fire gets a lot of "free" crit!
- 15% extra crit from http://www.wowhead.com/spell=165357/incineration" target="_blank
- baseline crit via http://www.wowhead.com/spell=30482/molten-armor" target="_blank
- 1.3 modifier on the main nukes thanks to http://www.wowhead.com/spell=117216/critical-mass" target="_blank.
- Bad luck prevention incase your fireball just won't crit via http://www.wowhead.com/spell=157642/enh ... rotechnics" target="_blank
Cons and pros:
Cons:
- Very reliant on getting critical strikes.
- A lot of the damage is delayed, which may be an issue for quickly killing adds. (pyroblast dot, mastery, combustion being a DoT)
Pros:
- Very good AoE DPS and cleave DPS
- Gains single target DPS from doing cleave damage
- Quite mobile for a caster in WoD
Talents and glyphs:
Tldr:
Single target: Ice floes + blast wave + rune of power + prismatic crystal.
AoE/Cleave: Living bomb instead of blast wave.
Replace Rune of Power with incanter's flow on high movement.
Other talents are personal preference.
This part of the guide assumes you know what the talents do, and I'll just go over what's good and bad about every talent. If you don't know what each talent does, mouseover the tooltips.
Tier 15:
tldr: pick ice floes.
http://www.wowhead.com/spell=157913/evanesce" target="_blank is only good for very specific bosses. It blocks only targetted abilities and not ground effects.
http://www.wowhead.com/spell=108843/blazing-speed" target="_blank is not used for fire unless a specific boss fight requires it. Think of having to get to a specific part of the room very fast. In general it's better to just blink though.
http://www.wowhead.com/spell=108839/ice-floes" target="_blank is the go-to talent for fire. It lets you cast on the move and can be used mid cast, making it extremely strong since you can simply activate it when something lands on you and move out of it. Make sure to bind it to something comfortable like a mouse key.
Level 30:
Tldr: pick whatever you prefer
http://www.wowhead.com/spell=108978/alter-time" target="_blank is very strong on specific bosses. Activate it right before a hard hitting ability lands, and then reactivate it straight after to heal back to full. Also off the GCD.
http://www.wowhead.com/spell=140468/flameglow" target="_blank is convenient because it doesn't require you to do anything and just reduces the damage you take a little. Not very good unless there's a lot of constant damage going on.
http://www.wowhead.com/spell=11426/ice-barrier" target="_blank increases your max hp pool, making it good to stop you from dying to things that are more damage than your max hp in damage. Sadly on the gcd so it is a dps loss. This is my preferred talent for most progress fights.
Level 45:
Tldr: Not relevant for PvE unless there's something CC'able.
http://www.wowhead.com/spell=113724/ring-of-frost" target="_blank is nice for CC'ing a group of mobs.
http://www.wowhead.com/spell=111264/ice-ward" target="_blank is useless for raiding since shatter got removed from fire.
http://www.wowhead.com/spell=102051/frostjaw" target="_blank is also useless for raiding in 99% of cases.
Level 60:
Tldr: Pick cauterize unless there's a specific boss ability you want to greater invis.
http://www.wowhead.com/spell=110959/gre ... visibility" target="_blank is a very strong 1.5 minute cooldown which can be used to basically survive any boss ability in the game. It's very strong and should be picked whenever there's incoming damage you can easily anticipate and thus can use greater invis for. (Example: mythic imperator high stacks of branded) Downside is that it's on the GCD.
http://www.wowhead.com/spell=86949/cauterize" target="_blank is a second life. Very good if there's unexpected things that can kill you. It's also passive so you won't have to use a GCD for it.
http://www.wowhead.com/spell=11958/cold-snap" target="_blank is decent for survivability since it gives you a second ice block if a fight requires it. Also resets dragon's breath so helps doing snap AoE damage.
Level 75:
Tldr: Living bomb for cleave/AoE fights. Blast wave for single target or very short AoE phases.
http://www.wowhead.com/spell=44457/living-bomb" target="_blank is extremely strong and one of the key abilities that makes fire so strong on cleave and AoE fights. When using living bomb make sure living bomb always is spread to all possible targets (via inferno blast) before it times out so there's a huge amount of explosions going on. This also increases your DPS on the primary target.
http://www.wowhead.com/spell=157976/unstable-magic" target="_blank the weakest of the 3 talents. Not used in single target nor AoE situations. It's not far off blast wave for single target though if you'd rather have a passive.
http://www.wowhead.com/spell=157981/blast-wave" target="_blank is a hard hitting ability that also deals AoE damage. Very good for single target fights or for adds that are alive very shortly and are stacked.
Level 90:
Tldr: Pick rune of power, unless there's too much movement, then incanter's flow.
http://www.wowhead.com/spell=55342/mirror-image" target="_blank isn't very strong for fire since it doesn't scale with mastery and fire has no abilities which increase their damage.
http://www.wowhead.com/spell=116011/rune-of-power" target="_blank is the go-to talent for fire, simply increases all the damage you do. Make sure you place two of them down in different places before a fight starts so you have to recast it as little as possible.
http://www.wowhead.com/spell=1463/incanters-flow" target="_blank is basically a weaker more RNG version of RoP. Use it when there's too much movement to use RoP on the fight. Try and use hard hitting abilities on high stacks.
Level 100:
Tldr:Use prismatic crystal on single target, and kindling on cleave fights.
http://www.wowhead.com/spell=155148/kindling" target="_blank is good on cleave fights and worth taking for anything 2+ targets. Prismatic crystal is also very good on cleave fights, but a lot harder to use.
http://www.wowhead.com/spell=152087/prismatic-crystal" target="_blank amplifies the damage you do to it by 30%, making it a good target to build a big combustion on. In practice however this is very hard to do due to needing to cast at least 4 abilities into it to make a good combustion, and most of those wont be pyroblasts. When using prismatic crystal, you should also use blast wave. The go-to talent for both single target and AoE. Hard to use and easy to mess up though.
http://www.wowhead.com/spell=153561/meteor" target="_blank is a hard hitting ability which also applies ignite. The DoT it leaves behind is also very good AoE damage. The ignite it leaves behind is very nice for building big combustion. Sadly with all the scaling of items and stats for fire mages it has fallen out of favour since BRF and continued that trend in HFC.
Glyphs:
Tldr: Glyph inferno blast and combustion. Last glyph is preference.
http://www.wowhead.com/spell=56368/glyph-of-combustion" target="_blank should be used on basically all fights unless you really need the burst every 45 seconds. (for example for specific adds spawning every minute)
http://www.wowhead.com/spell=89926/glyp ... erno-blast" target="_blank simply increases your AoE/Cleave DPS. No brainer on any fight with 5+ targets at any point.
http://www.wowhead.com/spell=159485/gly ... ons-breath" target="_blank good for fights with short AoE phases, especially when combined with cold snap.
http://www.wowhead.com/spell=146659/gly ... splacement" target="_blank good if you need to move very far during a fight sometimes, or if you need to dodge something often. (Like imperator novas)
http://www.wowhead.com/spell=115723/glyph-of-ice-block" target="_blank basically makes you immune for 3 seconds after cancelling/finishing ice block. Can be convenient to basically go immune at the cost of only one GCD with a /cancelaura macro.
Rotation:
The fire rotation isn't a true rotation, but a priority system.
Single target:
The single target priority system consists of 2 aspects: the normal filler "rotation", and the combustion "rotation". You use the combustion rotation whenever combustion is off cooldown, and you use the filler rotation at all other points of a fight.
Pre-pull:
- [With http://www.wowhead.com/spell=116011/rune-of-power" target="_blank talented]: Make sure you got 2 runes down on spots you know you may have to move to somewhere in the first 3 minutes of the fight, so you don't have to re-cast it as often.
- 3 seconds before the fight, use your potion and begin casting http://www.wowhead.com/spell=11366/pyroblast" target="_blank
- Start the combustion rotation
Normal filler rotation:
- [With http://www.wowhead.com/spell=44457/living-bomb" target="_blank talented] Keep living bomb up on the target. you can refresh living bomb anywhere in the last 3.5 seconds without losing uptime or explosion damage. In higher ilvl gear (~685+) living bomb becomes a single target DPS loss to use, so simply don't use it all then.
- [With http://www.wowhead.com/spell=153561/meteor" target="_blank talented] Cast meteor on cooldown, unless combustion is coming off cooldown soon. (every second meteor will be with combustion, see combustion section below)
- [With http://www.wowhead.com/spell=157981/blast-wave" target="_blank talented] Cast blast wave on cooldown, preferably with a trinket / ring proc, unless prismatic crystal is coming up within 20 seconds, then don't use it. - Fireball/pyro filler:
1. Cast http://www.wowhead.com/spell=133/fireball" target="_blank until http://www.wowhead.com/spell=48107/heating-up" target="_blank procs.
2. Cast http://www.wowhead.com/spell=108853/inferno-blast" target="_blank to turn Heating Up into http://www.wowhead.com/spell=48108/pyroblast" target="_blank proc. (never interrupt a cast for this)
3. Continue casting fireballs until you get a new Heating Up proc.
4. Cast http://www.wowhead.com/spell=11366/pyroblast" target="_blank when you got both Pyroblast! proc and Heating Up proc and there's a fireball in the air flying towards the boss.
Why only cast pyroblast with both a heating up proc and a fireball in the air?:
This is because when you got a heating up, and both fireball+pyroblast land on the boss at the same time, only one out of the two have to crit to give you a new pyroblast, so you're increasing your chance of getting a pyroblast significantly.
Combustion rotation:
For combustion, you want to make sure, (especially on your opener) that your trinkets and ring etc are procced before starting the combustion rotation below. Also use any on-use effects during it.
- [With http://www.wowhead.com/spell=153561/meteor" target="_blank talented]: Firstly, make sure meteor and combustion are both off cooldown, then:
1. Cast http://www.wowhead.com/spell=133/fireball" target="_blank until http://www.wowhead.com/spell=48107/heating-up" target="_blank procs.
2. Cast http://www.wowhead.com/spell=108853/inferno-blast" target="_blank to turn Heating Up into http://www.wowhead.com/spell=48108/pyroblast" target="_blank proc. (never interrupt a cast for this)
3. Continue casting fireballs until you get a new Heating Up proc.
4. Cast http://www.wowhead.com/spell=11366/pyroblast" target="_blank when you got both Pyroblast! proc and Heating Up proc and there's a fireball in the air flying towards the boss.
5. Cast http://www.wowhead.com/spell=153561/meteor" target="_blank on the boss
6. Keep casting any extra pyroblast! procs you got left onto the boss (usually just one, sometimes two)
7. Make sure the last pyroblast landed on the boss, and cast http://www.wowhead.com/spell=11129/combustion" target="_blank, if there's any adds/cleave potential, make sure you spread combustion afterwards with inferno blast if there's any nearby targets.
- [With http://www.wowhead.com/spell=152087/prismatic-crystal" target="_blank talented]: Firstly, make sure both prismatic crystal and combustion are off cooldown, then:
1. Cast http://www.wowhead.com/spell=133/fireball" target="_blank until http://www.wowhead.com/spell=48107/heating-up" target="_blank procs.
2. Cast http://www.wowhead.com/spell=108853/inferno-blast" target="_blank to turn Heating Up into http://www.wowhead.com/spell=48108/pyroblast" target="_blank proc. (never interrupt a cast for this)
3. If you didn't get a new heating up from the previous fireball (which was still in the air when you cast inferno blast), cast another fireball, otherwise, go to step 4.
4. Cast http://www.wowhead.com/spell=152087/prismatic-crystal" target="_blank
5. Cast fireball once if you already have http://www.wowhead.com/spell=48107/heating-up" target="_blank, otherwise keep casting it until you get it
6. Cast http://www.wowhead.com/spell=11366/pyroblast" target="_blank when you got both Pyroblast! proc and Heating Up proc and there's a fireball in the air flying towards the crystal.
7. Use up any other pyroblast procs you get until you run out of pyroblasts (should be at least 2 pyroblasts unless you got extremely unlucky)
7. Make sure the last pyroblast landed on the boss, and cast http://www.wowhead.com/spell=11129/combustion" target="_blank, and then cast inferno blast to spread it to the boss and any additional targets.
8. Continue your normal filler rotation on the prismatic crystal until it times out. Make sure both http://www.wowhead.com/spell=157981/blast-wave" target="_blank stacks are used before prismatic crystal runs out.
Multiple targets:
There's a lot of different type of multiple target scenarios in raiding. There's big 5+ groups of mobs all stacked up nicely [AoE rotation], there's 2-4 target cleave [Cleave rotation], and there's 2+ targets spread around the room [Spread rotation].
AoE rotation: (5+ targets stacked up)
- [With http://www.wowhead.com/spell=159485/gly ... ons-breath" target="_blank glyphed]: Use dragon's breath on cooldown
- [With http://www.wowhead.com/spell=44457/living-bomb" target="_blank talented]: Apply living bomb on a target, then use http://www.wowhead.com/spell=108853/inferno-blast" target="_blank to spread it to surrounding targets.
- [With http://www.wowhead.com/spell=157981/blast-wave" target="_blank talented]: Cast blast wave on cooldown.
- Cast http://www.wowhead.com/spell=2120/flamestrike" target="_blank every time the ground effect drops off.
- Continue normal filler rotation
Cleave rotation: (2-4 targets stacked up)
- Make sure you spread combustion/living bomb/ignite/pyroblast as often as possible with http://www.wowhead.com/spell=108853/inferno-blast" target="_blank.
- Instead of pyroblast camping, you just use inferno blast whenever you get a heating up, and always use pyroblasts when your inferno blasts are within 2 seconds off coming off cooldown. If your pyroblast crits, you can immediately inferno blast to turn it into a new pyroblast, while spreading all your dots (including a high ignite) at the same time.
Spread rotation: (multiple targets not next to eachother)
- Rotate your http://www.wowhead.com/spell=48108/pyroblast" target="_blank procs on the different targets to keep the DoT up on as many targets as possible.
- Continue your normal filler rotation on the highest priority target.
Gearing:
Stat priority:
Single target: crit > intellect > mastery > haste=multistrike > versatility
Multiple targets: crit > mastery > intellect > haste > multistrike > versatility
How to gear:
YOU NEED A CRIT TRINKET TO RELIABLY PLAY FIRE!
Looking at the above stat priorities, it's obvious that we want crit and mastery gear, since those are our 2 best stats. So, you want to go for any item with either crit or mastery, or preferably both.
Always gem and enchant crit.
Warforged beats sockets if it's an item with "high budget" AND has crit. Otherwise, socket beats warforged. ("high budget" = helm, chest, legs)
Trinkets (thanks to frosted's thread:
http://www.wowhead.com/item=119194/gore ... &bonus=567" target="_blank > http://ptr.wowhead.com/item=112320/sand ... &bonus=618" target="_blank > http://ptr.wowhead.com/item=124229/unbl ... &bonus=567" target="_blank. > http://ptr.wowhead.com/item=124227/iron ... &bonus=567" target="_blank > http://ptr.wowhead.com/item=124230/prop ... &bonus=567" target="_blank
BiS is http://www.wowhead.com/item=119194/gore ... &bonus=567" target="_blank and http://ptr.wowhead.com/item=124229/unbl ... &bonus=567" target="_blank
