Well, we Fire Mage types burned our way through Firelands, and then we burned the Lord of Fire himself. Is there anything we can’t burninate? I don’t think so. So, if you want to flambee dragons, fricasee Forgotten Ones and Fireball Bits O’ Deathwing in Patch 4.3 like nothing else, here’s your guide to talent spec, build and glyphs, reforging and gems, stat priorities, and your priority / rotation system, so you can get right on making the DPS meter beg for mercy.
Updated Feb 27th 2012 for Patch 4.3
Fire Mage changes in Patch 4.3
Fire Mages have been seriously buffed in the new patch. Hurrah! The buffs aren’t subtle, either – “Pyroblast’s initial damage has been increased by approximately 26%, and its damage over time has been increased by approximately 100%. Fireball damage has been increased by approximately 17%, and Living Bomb damage over time has been increased by approximately 10%, and its explosion damage has been increased by approximately 120%”, according to the patch notes.
What does this mean? Well, we’re going to do more DPS. Beyond that, it initially appears – theorycrafting is still in flux – that Living Bomb moves to be higher priority than Pyroblast, meaning that the priority list is now Combustion > Flame Orb > Living Bomb > Pyroblast. It’s also going to mean that it’s significantly more practical to cast Fireball than Scorch now if there’s any chance so to do.
It also slightly changes Fire’s glyphing – see below. Talent build is unchanged.
Fire Rotation / Priorities
Like most DPS classes in Cataclysm, Fire Mages don’t have a rotation. Instead, they have a fairly simple and flexible priority system – cast the highest-priority spell you can at any time.
Keep Molten Armor and Arcane Brilliance up at all times.
- Top Priority: If you have at least three DOTs ticking on the target (Ignite, Living Bomb and the Pyroblast DOT), cast Combustion.
- Second Priority: Refresh Living Bomb if it needs to be refreshed and cast Flame Orb if it’s available
- Third Priority: Cast Pyroblast if Hot Streak has procced, and refresh Critical Mass with Scorch likewise if needed (it shouldn’t be, normally).
- Fourth Priority: If you have nothing else to do, cast Fireball, or if you HAVE to move, Scorch. Use Fireball in preference to Scorch.
AOE: For very short-lived targets, use Blast Wave, then Dragon’s Breath, then Flamestrike. For longer-lived targets, use Living Bomb on multiple targets if they will last long enough, then use Blastwave when you can and otherwise spam Flamestrike.
For AOE on elites, you can also simply proceed with your single-target rotation on one of the targets, and use Fire Blast when Impact procs to spread your DOTs to all three targets. In this case, also use Blast Wave when it’s available.
Want to stay up to date?
Want to stay up to date with what's happening in the world of WoW and other MMOs?
Subscribe to the Melting Pot on Twitter or by a feedreader (Google Reader or others) to learn about everything that's going on in the MMORPG world, before it goes mainstream.
Fire Talent Spec
This is the standard Fire talent spec for 4.3
Stats, reforging and gemming for Fire
Intellect is the most important stat for Fire followed by Hit, then Haste, then Crit. Mastery is your worst stat. If you reach 15% Haste, then Crit and Haste swap places.
Reforging: Reforge to the Hit Cap (1,742). If you hit this, then reforge to Haste to 15%, then Crit. Reforge from Mastery (and Spirit if you have any) first. After that, reforge Haste if you’re above 15% Haste, or Crit if you’re below 15% Haste.
Gems: Use a Brilliant Inferno Ruby unless the socket bonus provides 10 or more Intellect or 20 or more of another stat. In that case, use Veiled Demonseye for blue sockets and Reckless Ember Topaz (before 15% Haste) or Potent Ember Topaz (after 15% Haste) for yellow sockets.
Fire Mage enchants
Remember, your professions may provide more suitable enchants than these. Check the stat weights above.
| Head | Arcanum of Hyjal |
| Shoulders | Greater Inscription of Charged Lodestone |
| Back | Enchant Cloak – Greater Intellect |
| Chest | Enchant Chest – Peerless Stats |
| Wrist | Enchant Bracer – Mighty Intellect |
| Hands | Enchant Gloves – Haste |
| Belt | Ebonsteel Belt Buckle |
| Legs | Powerful Enchanted Spellthread |
| Feet | Enchant Boots – Haste |
| Weapon | Enchant Weapon – Power Torrent |
| Off-Hand Weapon | Enchant Weapon – Superior Intellect |
Glyphs
Prime: Fireball, Pyroblast, Molten Armor. If your Living Bomb damage is 2x or more your Fireball damage, glyph Living Bomb instead.
Major: Evocation, Polymorph, Dragon’s Breath. If you’re sure you won’t use Polymorph, choose Blast Wave or Blink instead.
Minor: Slow Fall, Conjuring – others are your preference.
Links
- Icy Veins Fire guide – excellent dedicated guide.
- MMO Champion’s quick-off-the-mark 4.3 guide.
- Arcane Brilliance at WoW Insider – one of the massive WoW Insider’s better columns, well worth reading.
- Elitist Jerks Fire Compendium – huge and detailed. Not updated for 4.3 yet.
You also might find the rest of MMO Melting Pot interesting – we look for the best articles about WoW and other MMOs and deliver them straight to you. Check out the latest articles .
Have you found this guide useful? If so, please consider sharing it! You can find buttons for Twitter, Google+ and Facebook below.
{ 27 comments… read them below or add one }
What about Fire Blast? Cast when it procs? Use every time off CD? Only use when there’s a second mob to spread the DOTs to?
@Hotfrosty – Damn good point. The answer – don’t use it in your single-target rotation, but when AOEing, use it when Impact procs to spread your DOTs, assuming you’re running DOTs on that AOE.
I’ve added a section above about that!
@Hugh Hancock – Awesome, thanks a bunch. I was wondering why my dps was so garbage as fire, I was using Fire Blast every time it was off CD or when it procced, even when single target. I tried removing it from my rotation and it went WAY up.
For the AoE on elites, I do my single target rotation (if they will live a while) and use FB procs as well as BW and DB whenever off CD. If they won’t live long I just target one, LB it, then BW, DB, FS spam and if I get an impact proc I’ll spread the LB also.
@Hotfrosty – Sounds like a pretty solid plan. You may find that a single-target rotation on smaller numbers of adds gives slightly better DPS (3 -4 is the usual breakpoint for AOE rotations, not sure how the theorycraft breaks down for Fire), but it’ll work well either way.
I was told to cast fire blast whenever I procs because it has additional chance to crit over standard spells from talents. This can mean it has a higher chance of proccing instant pyro blast.
@Tyler – Interesting! That implies you’re using an alternate build with Improved Fire Blast. Even with that spell, in normal circumstances it’s still going to be an overall DPS loss to use Fire Blast, but if you’re having to move around a lot, you can use Fire Blast off cooldown rather than Scorch to “fish” for Pyroblast procs.
Yeah, I must admit that I actually don’t raid with my mage (guild always wants me to heal it seems), so the build I use is probably not the one most people use while raiding. That being said, it was nice to read this guide, thanks!
Just a quick question about the blog you didnt mention about what armor we should use (molten vs mage) i currently use molten and oom fairly quickly because of it where as with mage armor u really dont lose alot of mana but a significant amount of crit.
Suggestions please and thank you.
@John – I do actually mention Molten Armor at one point, but it’s fairly brief! Current state of the art is that you should keep Molten Armor up most of the time, but if you’re badly running OOM, it’s worth testing Mage Armour to see how much your DPS drops.
@Hugh Hancock –
Why not Light weave Embroidery on the cloak? is this not a better proc?
nice little guide btw .. going to try Fire and , was a bit wary of things . This makes easier to understand thanks
@Luscan – In general appropriate profession enchants/enhancements will be better, yes.
Thanks! Glad it’s been helpful!
SO many sites are telling me back and forth “crit > haste”, “haste > crit”. Yours says haste until 15%, but others say just go pure crit. Confused.
@Korodiusss – What’s the reasoning from the sites saying “go Crit”? I’m pretty confident we’re giving the right recommendation for most situations, but I’m always interested to read counter-argument.
If they’re not considering the effects of Ignite Munching, in particular, they may be overvaluing Crit, as I understand it.
If in doubt, here’s a solid way to know EXACTLY how to respec, although it’s a bit of a pain – download the program Simulationcraft from http://code.google.com/p/simulationcraft/ , and run your character through it. That’ll give you accurate stat weightings for your current situation.
“Use reforging to change mastery and haste into hit and crit, saving the gems and enchants for Int (as much as you can. )
Hit, to the 17% cap (1741.58 rating.) You can’t do damge to what you can’t hit. Draenei have a 16% (1639.14 rating) cap.
Spellpower – found on some trinkets and enchants. Since it’s direct damage this is a powerful stat.
Crit – Fire is built around Crit, so the more you can get, the better. But… there is something called “Ignite Munching,” which is basically Ignite doing significantly less damage than it should due to various weirdesses in the game engine’s math. This effectively makes crit somewhat less valueable since it cannot increase damage as much as it should. If this is ever fixed then Crit will have a significantly higher value.
Haste – Due to ignite munching Haste is, in some gear configurations, as good as Crit.
Mastery – Reforge into Hit (to the cap,) then crit”
I guess it doesn’t exactly say Crit > Haste, but it doesn’t tell me that I need the 15% haste, and it also tells me to reforge haste into hit/crit. It makes sense to me that you would need haste, THEN crit, maybe this site isn’t making it clear enough for a new fire mage.
Thanks for the prompt response and the tips on how to make sure i’m doing well!
@Korodiusss – Hmm. It’s difficult to say more without knowing the site writer’s reasoning or math, but I’d say that this is a slightly simplistic recommendation, as it appears not to be taking account of the effect of haste caps.
(A note on Haste Cap, btw – if you regularly raid with a Balance Druid, Shadow Priest, or Shaman, remember to take their 5% haste buffs into account!)
Our recommendations could be more complex themselves, mind – this is meant to be a Quick-Start Guide, after all, not a “first switch your calculator program to Scientific Mode” guide
. And this is one of those areas where there’s a lot of argument, much like the “to Hit Cap or not to Hit Cap” argument with Shadow Priests.
The good news is that no matter which way you go, you’re unlikely to do your DPS too much harm – as is always the case in theorycrafting, if there’s a lot of argument it means there’s no clear winner. Unless you’re pushing for Realm First, you’ll not go too far wrong reforging in either direction!
I have done some testing with near 2800 mastery as Fire mage. I did 2 tests with a group of mobs in BWD.
Test 1: 2814 Mastery, 12% Haste (Boomkin in group) 18% crit chance.
Test 2: 340 Mastery, 12% Haste (Boomkin in group) 26% crit chance.
Test 1, spreading combustion netted 66,214dps
Test 2, spreading combustion netted 41,496dps.
What the Eff?
Do you think there would ever be a point (say above 2500) where Mastery would be more effective on a single target than crit?
I don’t want to start an entire extra testbed, and I know that’s a spread fight, but it’s incredibly significant. I am concerned that it wouldn’t be more effective to do the Mastery stack noting that every ignite / LB dot / FFB dot / Flamestrike dot / PB dot is affected by it.
Oh yeah btw, I use Frostfire Bolt with the glyph instead of Fireball.
Comments?
@Vetheena Shadow – Hmm, interesting. How many mobs in the group?
With so much mastery ya will loose alot of haste alot of critt wich means ya wont have a great change of gettin good crits aka ignites wich builds around the mastery, my guess that you where just lucky, and yes FFB is worse then FB since FB was boosted in 4.3patch, also next fix it will get nerfd alittle but still be over FFB.
Stats are easy: non 4set t13 go for:Int>hit17%> 2005haste>critt>mastery>haste. and ofc get 5% haste in a raid. then you have around 25% haste wich makes 13 combustion tics instead of 10.
With the 2set on t13 ya will have lesser haste then 2005haste>critt (cant remember the nr)
I’m not sure about the whole combustion “at least 2 dots on target”. That logic suggests that you should cast combust with living bomb and pyroblast dots, but that is a 2k per second dot. you MUST have all three for combustion to be good enough. Also, need to mention that ignite should preferably proc from Pyroblast if you want the best DoT. Also mention that in areas with damage increase (such as hagara’s feedback in DS, or magmaw’s exposed head) you will want to proc ignite and cast combustion, even with fireball if its getting dangerously close to the end of the damage increase as that will always net a bigger damage increase.
Other than that, read many guides and think they’re great: only commenting on mages as I have more to say about them (mage is main).
Aha! Good catch, you’re absolutely right. I’m updating the guide to suggest you need 3 DOTs, not 2.
Your other tips are definitely useful, but a bit specific for what’s meant to be a quick-start guide, so I’m not going to add them to the main guide. However, for anyone who’s reading the comments in search of more suggestions to improve their DPS (and I know a lot of people do) – these are great tips!
There’s quite a bit of…misleading information in this guide. Not as much wrong as they aren’t as accurate as they should be.
#1: Fireblast should be used any time you can not get off fireball. See: Mobile, Ultraxion, Hagara, or even Spine. Not only is this roughly the same damage as scorch, but it’s only limited by the gcd and it has a higher crit rate. This of course assuming that you did pick up the fireblast talent, which quite frankly, is not optional. Even elitistjerks needs to update their information on this. Improved scorch is by far an un-needed talent in this day and age as long as you’re geared in at least LFR DS gear. In fact I would even go as far as to suggest speccing out of cauterize unless your guild specifically depends on it for a fight(see ultraxion)…this would change the spec to the following: http://www.wowhead.com/talent#oohZffhbkzRRsfoc …which makes use of the molten shields talent which pulls mage ward off the global cooldown(well…not really but pretty darned close…but really does if you have a haste proc or buff rolling. See: Velocity, Heroism, Slowing the Sands) which is a net dps gain in comparison to any time you would use it without the talent.
#2: There is no ‘set’ haste cap. There are multiple plateaus and haste between these plateaus is negligible. Assuming group haste buff, 2pt13 stacked to 10, and dark intent, the haste rating caps are as follows: 1065(3rd extra combustion tick), 2215(4th extra combustion tick), 2501(additional ticks on both pyroblast and living bomb).
#3: Combustion has more requirements than just have 3 dots on the target. The ignite must be a healthy ignite. 13k from fireball is nice and all, but 22k from pyroblast is incredibly helpful, and 5k from scorch is just miniscule. At the absolute very least the ignite must be from a fireball crit, ideally from a pyroblast crit. This is the difference between a 94k combustion and a 230k combustion. An immense difference for a single button press you can only do once every 1-2 minutes(depending on 4pt13).
#4: Pyroblast dot should always be on the target. Always. Even if this means hardcasting pyroblast. The DPCT(damage per cast time) of pyroblast is significantly higher than fireball when the dot comes into the picture. This is why we cast fireball so much, we cast it so much because a) it’s faster cast and thus more shots for a higher PPM(procs per minute) of hotstreak and b) pyroblast’s DPCT is lower when it merely refreshes the dot. A hardcast pyroblast + 1 tick(roughly 2 seconds depending on haste, which is typically longer than flight time of a follow up hotstreak unless it’s literally attached to the end of the cast) is more DPCT by roughly 3.4%(growing more and more until the dot falls off or the dot is refreshed all the way up to an immense 60% higher DPCT if no hot streak procs at all). At the same time, this completely removes the need to think about critical mass(due to pyroblast’s duration being shorter than critical mass).
#5: I saw someone bring up an argument FOR mastery. Now I’m not going to say that mastery is bad, however, their data was incredibly skewed. Of course your dps is going to be higher in a short fight when you’re revolving around combustion. That’s what mastery does. Outside of this period mastery…I won’t say falls flat, but it becomes less valuable. Personally, I feel(can’t back it up with data, it’s rng(crit) vs static(mastery)) that once the ratings are even, they’re even in value. Especially when you’re talking about crit above 30%(full buffs). But this is also me and my experience with what I refer to as ‘effectiveness plateaus’ as in crit becomes dramatically less value everytime the denominator is decreased(or the numerator above 50%). I.E. plateaus: 20%, 25%, 33%, 50%, 66%, 75%, etc…
#6: Hot Streak pyroblast has a higher priority than living bomb uptime. Feel free to try and prove to me that 1 tick of living bomb does more for you than a pyroblast. The last thing you want is to have a spell in the air proc hot streak on you again during the gcd you spent casting living bomb.
#7: As to AoE, yes you are to lead with blastwave, however, this should immediately be followed with a hardcast pyroblast and a living bomb on one target. If impact has procced, then use it to spread. If not, use arcane explosion to fish for the proc. After your dots are spread, use blizzard whenever blast wave is on cooldown and flame strike is applied to the ground under the adds(this means the rotation would be something along the lines of blastwave->pyroblast+livingbomb->???->spread->Blizzard->flame strike->Blizzard->Repeat). Combustion always a huge plus if you care about blowing cooldowns on trash and will always net higher damage output as long as the trash will last.
#8: Powerful Enchanted Spellthread, not Powerful Ghostly Spellthread. It’s not a dps gain, but spirit does 0 for us, stamina at least does something. As to haste/mastery enchants on pieces, it depends on whether or not you need the haste to reach the plateau.
#9: Glyph of Conjuring is a must. This lowers the cost of conjuring your mana gem making it a mana gain even if you have to summon it before using it.
I believe that’s every major issue I saw.
-Ghobe, top 95 percentile fire mage in current content…without the legendary staff.
Actually there was one other thing. The molten armor vs mage armor debate. This issue only comes up in two places in current content: Yor’sahj the Unsleeping and Madness of Deathwing. It happens on Yor’sahj when the mana void comes out, to counter this immediately switch to mage armor once it drains all of your mana and use a mana gem. Once you’re above 10k mana again it should be safe for you to switch back to molten armor unless your raid saves the void until the next void comes out(a.k.a. heroic mode). On Madness, due to it being such a long fight, mana issues will arise during it. These are countered through using mana gem at every opportunity that you can receive the full effect(which for a geared player of 390+ this should be anytime you’re below 100-110k mana), using mage armor while moving between platforms, and evocing on the platform after you fall below 30% mana while having mage armor active. After all of these times you switch to mage armor, you should immediately switch back to molten armor. If you find yourself empty on mana then you need to look at when you’re using your mana gems and evoc or you’re severely undergeared for the content you’re currently attempting.
First up – thanks very much for all this feedback! It’s really appreciated.
As for Mastery – yep, I agree with you.
For the rest of your (very interesting) points, first up, I’ll say this – I’m not a world-first raider level theorycrafter, so this advice is compiled from people I know are far better than me. That’s slightly complicated by the fact that there aren’t too many up-to-date theorycraft sites I’m aware of for Fire. (If you can point me to a guide that IS up to date, aside from Icy Veins, I’d very much appreciate it.)
I’m going to have to go away and do some serious research to check out your suggestions, so it’s not going to happen straight away. However, I really value the fact you took the time to write this, and said research WILL happen. Most likely, it’ll happen when I next review all these guides, which is slated for a couple of weeks.
On a few points, whilst you’re probably correct, I’d say that your suggestions are too complex for the main guide – although I’d encourage people who want to squeeze out more DPS to read them. These are “Quick-Start” guides – we’re not trying to compete with EJ, but instead trying to give people a comparatively easy-to-follow guide to get up and running.
I’m going to make a few changes right now, though, notably on the Spellthread and glyph points, where you’re absolutely right. Thanks!
Ghobe if you still check out this comment section or any one else for that matter, I’ve been looking around for a while now and can’t seem to find an answer and I’m too lazy to theory craft it myself.
So yeah is it worth casting flame orb during BL? (assuming 25% normal haste) Since bloodlust doesn’t seem to effect it’s damage. Same question in regards to the nozdormu buff on Madness
Sorry I haven’t looked back in a while and you might have found your answer by now, but here’s the answer…
Flame Orb is not worth casting in the middle of your rotation during lust if you can combust. The period that lust is up is one of your best opportunities to get a large(40k+, that’s a 700k+ combustion!) ignite(and for all fights it can be applied to, you should be as close to the target’s center as possible to reduce flight time). Otherwise, flame orb is still very much worth while to cast for the potential hot streak procs it can cause to happen. Though you’re right, the damage of flame orb is not increased due to the fact that flame orb is not affected by haste.
Interesting, thanks!
Incidentally, apologies about having not incorporated all your suggestions yet. Things have been crazy busy for me for a while, and updating these guides keeps being put on the “tomorrow” list.
Wish I could edit these comments.
If it is still worth casting, would the priority shift a little in terms of spells that benefit more from haste.
{ 4 trackbacks }