Fire Mage Guide and Discussion

Flamethrøwer

Flamethrøwer

New Member
UPDATE 1.17.11: The various posts in this thread have been updated today. Error fixes, updated information, and general housekeeping.
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This thread is intended to condense research I and others have done on Fire Mages into a nice, readable post. This post's data should be current as of 12.12.10.

I'd like to encourage any discussion you like in this thread. It is early in the expansion, and I would enjoy intelligent discussion on any topic I mention here (even... no, especially if it proves me wrong; that means I get to improve!)
Credit goes to ElitistJerks.com and Wowhead.com.

Topics:
1. General
2. Gearing and Stat Priotity
3. Specs
4. Combustion
5. Glyphs
6. Scorch Weaving
7. Haste and DOTs
8. Fireball vs. Frostfire Bolt
9. Gems
10. Misc. Notes
11. Conclusion
(I've broken these into separate posts for easier navigation/editing/quoting/discussion.)


1. General
Strengths
Mobility. The fire spec allows for excellent mobility during any fight. Any of the following can be cast while on the move:
- Scorch (properly talented)
- Pyroblast! (not to be confused with Pyroblast, more on this later)
- Fire Blast
- Living Bomb
- Flamestrike (AOE)
- Blast Wave (AOE)

AOE. Between Living Bomb, Impact, Flamestrike and Blast Wave, the fire spec can really shine in any AOE situation if done correctly.

Weaknesses
Mana Constraints. Fireball is a high-dps, but mana-unsustainable nuke. Mix scorch with Fireball to achieve a good dps/mana balance. More on "Scorch Weaving" later.
Critical Dependency. The nature of the fire spec is that it lives and dies by the critical hit.
 
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2. Gearing and Stat Priority

In order of priority:

I. Intellect.
Intellect IS by far the strongest stat for a mage. Increases mana and spell power.

*** Insert haste here as second priority, until you hit the soft cap of 516. (See post 24)

II. Hit (until capped)
Hit is strong, but weaker than intellect. You still need 17% hit to be capped for raid bosses. After hitting this cap, hit becomes useless.

III. Spellpower.
Still found on weapons and trinkets. Very strong stat.

IV. Critical Strike.
The fire spec is built around this stat. You will prefer this to Mastery and Haste.
Crit affects the following:
- Hot Streak: Instant cast pyro. More of these please!
- Flashburn: Increased DOT modification via Ignite.
- Ignite: DOT
- Master of Elements: Mana return, which translates into more Fireballs, which translates into higher dps.
- Combustion: HUGE DOT on the target. See Section 4 for more info.

V. Mastery.
Slightly better than Haste, but weaker than all other above stats. Our mastery is Flashburn, which increases the damage of fire DOTs on the target. This should be reforged into hit (if you'll get the full benefit of the hit rating, i.e. if it doesn't put you over the hit cap), or critical strike rating.

VI. Haste.
Whatever. I'll take it if I have to. This should be reforged into hit (if you'll get the full benefit of the hit rating, i.e. if it doesn't put you over the hit cap), or critical strike rating.



Reaching the Hit Cap
Tips:
1. Pick gear with hit rating. (duh)
2. Don't gem for hit, even if you are below cap. Gemming for intellect is simply better. Use the minimum amount of non-intellect gems to activate your meta. Socket bonuses are not likely to be worth it unless they are an intellect bonus; however, I've not seen many socket bonuses yet, so consider each situation carefully, especially when you would have to compromise two or more gems to get a single socket bonus.
3. Enchant your gear for hit, but only if you'll receive the full benefit of the enchant.
4. Reforge Mastery and Haste into Hit Rating until cap.



Enchants
Tips:
1. Enchant for Intellect whenever possible. If an intellect enchant is not available for the slot, follow this order:
- Hit until capped
- Crit
- Mastery
- Haste

2. In the only exception to the above rule - get the runspeed enchant to boots. While this only provides 35 Mastery, there are so many fights in Cataclysm where quick movement is necessary.
 
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3. Specs

Fire Build - General Spec

The Breakdown

Fire Tree

Tier 1
Master of Elements - Recommended. Mana efficiency, leading to increased dps.
Burning Soul - Highly Recommended. Spell pushback is an issue on many Cataclysm fights.
Improved Fire Blast - Optional. Increases range for Impact procs. Depending on the fight, this may or may not be a benefit.

Tier 2
Ignite - Mandatory. This talent is a core of the talent tree.
Fire Power - Recommended.
Blazing Speed - Do not take. PVP talent.

Tier 3
Cauterize - Highly Recommended. Good for progression content.
Blast Wave - Highly Recommended. Low mana cost, works with Improved Flamestrike for very nice AOE damage.
Hot Streak - Mandatory. This talent is a core of the talent tree.

Tier 4
Molten Shields - Optional. Might be used in very specific situations.
Combustion - Mandatory. This talent is a core of the talent tree.
Improved Hot Streak - Mandatory. This talent is a core of the talent tree.
Fire Starter - Highly recommended. DPS on the run!

Tier 5
Improved Flamestrike - Highly Recommended. Great AOE spam.
Dragon's Breath - Essential. Mostly because you need it to get to Living Bomb.
Molten Fury - Mandatory. This talent is a core of the talent tree.

Tier 6
Pyromaniac - Recommended, but situational. This is completely wasted on single target fights.
Critical Mass - Highly Recommended.

Tier 7
Living Bomb - Mandatory. This talent is a core of the talent tree.

Subspec Talents
Tier 1
Piercing Ice (Frost) - Highly recommended. This is the best option of all the subspec talents.
Netherwind Presence (Arcane) - Recommended. This is second only to Piercing Ice.
Arcane Concentration (Arcane) - First point is optional, the second and third points should be skipped.
Improved Counterspell (Arcane) - Skip in standard builds. An interrupt is suffcient for raids; silence should not be needed.

Notes:
- No points taken in Improved Fire Blast. This means that you'll need to be within 30 yards to use Impact (if you're using it at all). If this becomes unacceptable to you, or a burden on certain fights, points could be taken from Netherwind Presence or Cauterize.
- Molten Shields and Blazing Speed are skipped completely, and they are primarily PVP talents, and will have very limited use in raiding.
- Cauterize is included for two reasons: 1. This is new content for everyone, and a second chance at not standing in the fire is worth it, and 2. You can consider abusing this for a dps gain. For instance, a situation like Unchained Magic on Sindragosa, or on Festergut, there are 2 Pungent Blights, and you could Iceblock one and use Cauterize for the other.
- Pyromaniac is included, but it is situational. You could drop Pyromaniac for Arcane Concentration, resulting in a minor dps gain on single/double target fights, but a large dps loss for fights with three or more targets. Which brings me to my next spec...

Fire Build - Single target fights only

This build is a dps loss for fights with less than three targets.
 
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4. Combustion and Flame Orb

Combustion
Combustion sums up the individual dps of all your existing DOTs on the target, and creates a new DOT for that value that ticks once per second for ten seconds.

- Combustion can be spread via Impact. Impact-Combustion, as this is known, is an incredibly powerful AOE when used properly. The best way to get an Impact proc for the Impact-Combustion combo are Blast Wave and Flamestrike. A couple casts of either will almost guarantee an Impact proc.
- As a DOT, Combustion damage is modified by Flashburn.
- The DOT portion of Flamestrike does not leave a debuff on targets, and thus does not interact with Combustion.

When should you use Combustion?
- Use Combustion when AT LEAST Living Bomb and Ignite are on your target.
- The ideal Combustion will be cast when the target has the DOTs from Living Bomb, Pyroblast, and a big Ignite from Pyroblast or Fireball. At 85, combat stats including crit are drastically lowered, so this may be difficult to do, which brings me to my next point...
- It's always worth it to WAIT to cast Combustion until Living Bomb and Ignite are both on your target. This should be a common occurrence. Ignite is what makes Combustion worth having, even if you have to wait for a bit after it's cooldown is up.

Flame Orb
Flame Orb has a high spell coefficient, making it a powerful 1-minute CD. In other words, cast it any time it's up, as soon as it's up (does not take priority over Pyroblast! or refreshing your Living Bomb).

How it works:
- Flame Orb moves forward, attacking the closest single target. At the end of it's path, it explodes via your Fire Power talent.
- Flame Orb travels very fast (about 5 seconds to travel it's full duration of 40 yards) when it's not attacking anything. It slows down greatly when it is attacking something. This will likely stay on the first target it hits for the full duration of it's existence, so be careful when casting around multiple targets.
- Although it provides consistent ticks of damage, it is NOT a DOT, and as such, it will not interact with Combustion and Flashburn.
- It's ticks can crit, causing Ignite. This Ignite would interact with Combustion and Flashburn.
 
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5. Glyphs

Prime

Recommended
Pyroblast
Molten Armor
Fireball

Optional
Frostfire (if being used as your primary nuke, this will replace the Fireball glyph - more on this later)

Do Not Use
Living Bomb (it's nice, but the three recommended glyphs are far better)
Mage Armor


Major

Recommended
Evocation (health is always nice)
Polymorph (helps keep careless dps from breaking your sheep)

Optional
Blink

(Major glyphs for Fire spec mages are scarce.)


Minor

Recommended
Conjuring (for fights longer than 6 minutes, you will need to conjure another mana gem, and this will reduce that mana cost.)
Arcane Brilliance (It will help if you need to reapply Arcane Brilliance during a fight due to a battle rez or ankh.)


In all cases above, use the recommended glyphs. Notice minor and major do not have three recommended glyphs. You may fill those empty spots with anything you like.
 
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6. Scorch Weaving

*** NOTE: As my gear has improved, I have been able to cast Fireball more and more often in heroic fights. In some cases, I cast it the entire fight. This is where playing a Fire Mage becomes less of a science and more of an art. Each fight will present different circumstances, and fire mages need to be able to react to them.

Sadly, you can't spam Fireball for the entire duration of a boss fight. Not even in heroics. For this reason, you must find a way to weave in Scorch (costs no mana) with your Fireballs to achieve an optimal dps/mana balance. Here is where the spec becomes an art form rather than a science.

You MUST Scorch at least enough to keep Critical Mass up. This is at least once every 30 seconds, and will most likely never be an issue.

A couple crazy options:
1. Don't use Fireball at all. (?!) This sounds ridiculous, but spamming scorch could provide up to 90% of the dps that a Fireball spam would. This is because of Hot Streak - you get a lot more opportunities for this to proc.
2. Use Mage Armor. This will make mana almost a non-issue, but comes with two key problems: First, you lose mobility, as you won't be able to Scorch on the move. Second, it's lower dps than using Molten Armor and Scorch Weaving.

I feel that a more reasonable solution is to Fireball when you know you will be able to stand still for the full cast, and use Scorch when you either aren't sure or you know you'll need to move.

You'll want to save enough mana to be able to spam Fireball when the target goes under 35%, as we have a damage increase at that point via Molten Fury.

In the ideal fight, a fire mage will want to go OOM at the same time the boss dies. If the mage runs out early, he/she must Scorch spam. If he/she has mana remaining, that's more Fireballs he/she could have cast.

As mentioned earlier, this part of the spec is an art form. You'll get better at it with experience!
 
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7. Haste and DOTs

Haste isn't great for Fire Mages - but sometimes you can't avoid it. This section will help you identify what some of the key levels of haste are, and how they benefit you.

We all know that haste will reduce the cast time of whatever it is you are trying to cast. However, haste will also reduce the time in between your DOT ticks. A DOT tick is the actual point in time that a DOT does damage.

***EXAMPLE****************************************
For instance, if you have a DOT that does 3000 damage every 3 seconds for 12 seconds, then this DOT will tick 4 times - at 9, 6, 3, and 0 seconds (counting down from 12), doing 3000 damage each time. Since it does 3000 damage every 3 seconds, this DOT does 1000 dps.

Haste can be used to reduce the time in between those ticks.

Let's say we get enough haste to reduce the time between ticks by .2 seconds. The ticks will go faster, but there is still only time for four ticks in the 12 seconds the DOT will be up. It would tick at 9.2, 6.4, 3.6, and 0.8 seconds, again doing 3000 damage each time. Although the ticks are occurring more rapidly, this is still a 1000dps DOT.

Now, let's apply enough haste to reduce the time between ticks by .3 seconds. The ticks again go faster, doing damage at 9.3, 6.6, 3.9, and 1.2 seconds, doing 3000 damage each time. Still not enough time to get in another tick, and this remains a 1000dps DOT.

However, if we get enough haste to reduce the time between ticks by .8 seconds, the ticks will occur at 9.8, 7.6, 5.4, 3.2, and 1.0 seconds. Notice that we got 5 ticks of damage into the 12 second DOT! 5 ticks of 3000 damage = 15,000 total damage over 12 seconds, transforming this into a 1250dps DOT.

***EXAMPLE****************************************

The key concept in the above example is that the amount of damage per tick and the duration of the DOT are constants, while the time between the DOT's ticks can be modifed by haste, and with enough haste, additional damage ticks can be squeezed into the DOT's fixed duration.

Without showing all the math, here are the percentages of haste required to get an extra tick out of your DOTs:
Living Bomb and Pyroblast:
- 1 extra tick 12.5% (516 Haste)
- 2 extra ticks 37.5% (3476 Haste)
- 3 extra ticks 62.5% (6436 Haste)
- 4 extra ticks 87.5% (9396 Haste)

Combustion ticks 10 times, Flame Orb ticks 15 times, so they get ticks in smaller steps of 10% and 7% and the spells are on a cooldown timer, so the their steps are small compared to Living Bomb and Pyroblast's thresholds.


Remember, you'll have 5% haste from any caster hybrid, 3% haste from Netherwind Presence, thus you'll get your first extra tick at 516 haste.
 
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8. Fireball vs. Frostfire Bolt

I know many mages did not expect this debate, but Fireball and Frostfire Bolt are actually very close in dps as a primary nuke. While Fireball is ahead, the dps increase is very marginal (<1%).
- They cost the same amount of mana
- They do the same amount of initial damage
- The difference comes down to their Glyphs: Fireball's 5% additional crit vs. Frostfire's extra DOT damage. The difference is actually small enough that you could almost choose based on whichever you think is prettier.
 
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9. Gems

Meta
***NOTE: The Chaotic Meta requirements are still awaiting revision. Use the Ember cut in the meantime.
Use the Chaotic Shadowspirit Diamond. It currently requires more blue gems than red, but I have heard from Elitist Jerks that this is going to be changed in a patch.

Red
Brilliant Cut (Intellect)

Orange
Potent (Intellect + Crit)

Green
***NOTE: This gem is no longer considered viable due to it's lack of intellect. You should be able to use Brilliant, Veiled, or Potent to match socket bonuses when needed and activate your meta gem.
Piercing (Hit* + Crit)

Purple
Veiled (Intellect + Hit*)

Always use enough Hybrid gems to activate your meta, preferably using them to also activate quality socket bonuses.

*Provided you use the full amount of the hit, and it does not put you over the cap.
 
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10. Misc. Notes

- Pyroblast and Pyroblast! are different spells. Pyroblast is the version of the spell with a cast time and mana cost. Pyroblast! is the instant cast proc and costs no mana.
- Pyroblast! crits give no mana return from Master of Elements, because they cost no mana to cast. They also do not consume Clearcasting because they are instant cast.
- Living Bomb has a three-target max, and will be removed from your current target if you use Impact while three or more other targets are available to receive Living Bomb.
- Scrolls of Intellect will now stack with Arcane Brilliance, since AB technically does not increase your Intellect, it increases Spell Power and Mana. Using a scroll with AB will increase your Intellect, and thus give you even more Spell Power and Mana.
***NOTE: They have changed scrolls to act as Battle Elixirs now. Still stacks with AB, but at the cost of a flask or elixir. Still fun for heroics though.
- Molten Armor should be used at all times.
- Do not spam Fireball during an early Heroism/Time Warp, save Fireball spamming for when Molten Fury kicks in at 35% health. Heroism/Time Warp only affect haste and therefore will not aid in mana management.
- Combustion is still being studied, but it's worth it to wait for a large Ignite DOT to use it. The addon CombustionHelper will help you cast your Combustion at an ideal time.
 
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11. Conclusion

I hope this guide was helpful to any fans of fire such as myself. I highly encourage any discussion on anything presented (or not presented) here. If I'm wrong on a point, I'd love to know about it - that's a good way to improve my gameplay, by taking good advice and modifying my play accordingly.

Sincerely,
The Thrower of Flames
 
Excellent guide. I'm using the "Don't use Fireball" method. Since we've become so heavily dots and scorch dependent, I rarely find a moment to cast FB. Here's the short version of the rotation I've been testing out for single target:

1. Living Bomb - recasting whenever it goes off
2. Scorch
3. Frostfire (until there's 3 stacks - makes this a dot using the glyph for it. After 3 stacks are ticking, spam scorch)
3a. Pyroblast! any time it procs
4. Combustion - hopefully there's even an ignite on the target by then, so LB + FFBx3 + Pyro! + Ignite = lots of dots for this spell.
5. Flame Orb

Only time that I will use Fireball is when a proc for Clearcasting hits, and I don't need to recast a dot. Its a lot of management, but I've seen pretty decent results, and don't go OOM.
 
bestbw said:
Excellent guide. I'm using the "Don't use Fireball" method. Since we've become so heavily dots and scorch dependent, I rarely find a moment to cast FB. Here's the short version of the rotation I've been testing out for single target:

1. Living Bomb - recasting whenever it goes off
2. Scorch
3. Frostfire (until there's 3 stacks - makes this a dot using the glyph for it. After 3 stacks are ticking, spam scorch)
3a. Pyroblast! any time it procs
4. Combustion - hopefully there's even an ignite on the target by then, so LB + FFBx3 + Pyro! + Ignite = lots of dots for this spell.
5. Flame Orb

Only time that I will use Fireball is when a proc for Clearcasting hits, and I don't need to recast a dot. Its a lot of management, but I've seen pretty decent results, and don't go OOM.
Click to expand...

I don't see how Clearcasting makes Fireball preferable to Frostfire Bolt in this situation. They cost the same mana and do the same initial damage, and without the glyphed 5% crit for Fireball, I'd almost rather refresh the FFB DOT. Unless I'm missing something?

Overall, this sounds like a neat solution to the mana problems. Do you spam FFB on burn phases, such as Molten Fury?
 
Ooh thanks Flame for posting! I'm not quite finished reading cuz there's soo much juicy details to absorb but I'm sure this is all VERY useful. =) Nice job.
 
Flamethrøwer said:
I don't see how Clearcasting makes Fireball preferable to Frostfire Bolt in this situation. They cost the same mana and do the same initial damage, and without the glyphed 5% crit for Fireball, I'd almost rather refresh the FFB DOT. Unless I'm missing something?

Overall, this sounds like a neat solution to the mana problems. Do you spam FFB on burn phases, such as Molten Fury?
Click to expand...

Eh, its just to mix it up a little bit so I don't get bored :p
And yes, burn phases will be mostly FFB.
 
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