Fire Mage Frequently Asked Questions — Shadowlands 9.0.5
On this page, we go over several of the most frequently asked questions regarding Fire Mage in World of Warcraft — Battle for Azeroth Shadowlands 9.0.5. This will be updated as more common repeated questions surface over the course of the expansion.
Are there any Haste or Critical Strike caps for Fire Mage?
You do not need any specific amount of Critical Strike to make Fire
playable. Due to passives like failed Fireball critical strikes giving
stacking 10% critical strike rating,
Critical Mass and talents like
Firestarter and
Searing Touch, you can play Fire just fine even on very low Critical
Strike levels, so you do not need to worry about having enough Critical Strike.
Of course having more Critical Strike is not a bad thing, but it is not
required. There is no Critical Strike "cap" at which point more Critical Strike is bad.
Additionally, there are no meaningful haste caps or breakpoints either.
Having said that, the best way to determine what items you should use is to use Raidbots' Top Gear.
How good is Fire Mage in Shadowlands Season 1 (Patch 9.0)?
Fire is looking to be the best Mage spec in Season 1 of Shadowlands, with great single-target and great AoE damage.
Which race is best for Fire Mages?
All races are very close in DPS, and it generally does not matter what race you play. For a full overview of the DPS of every race, check the simulations page.
Should I Use Flame Patch or Living Bomb in Dungeons?
Flame Patch does more DPS than
Living Bomb on 3 to 12 targets.
However, the main problem with Flame Patch is the fact
that it forces you to cast
Flamestrike to get any use out of it, which
means Flame Patch is less efficient at focusing high priority targets. Because
of this, we suggest using Living Bomb in situations where priority target DPS is
preferred, as it allows you to focus a primary target, but still get very
competitive AoE DPS via the use of Living Bomb and
Mastery: Ignite.
Should I Use Rune of Power or Incanter's Flow?
Rune of Power and
Incanter's Flow are pretty close in
overall DPS, with Rune of Power being ahead with optimal play.
Because of this, it is quite hard to figure out when to use which
talent. In general, on a fight with very little movement and other fight
mechanics, Rune of Power is usually the best choice. Below we have listed the
reasons to not run Rune of Power:
- There are raid mechanics which you can not plan for in advance that may
cause you to have to move out of your
Rune of Power.
- There is a lot of movement required on the fight in general.
- It is also worth noting that
Rune of Power is a lot harder to play with than
Incanter's Flow, so it should not be used when you are not very comfortable with the spec and fight.
Changelog
- 23 Nov. 2020: Updated for Shadowlands launch. Changed viability question to the expected viability in season 1.
- 21 Oct. 2020: Updated the balance question now that prepatch has been out for a week.
- 12 Oct. 2020: Page updated for the Shadowlands pre-patch.
More Mage Guides
Guides from Other Classes
This guide has been written by Dutchmagoz. Dutchmagoz is a Mythic raider in one of the top raiding guilds, Angered, owner of the Mage theorycrafting website Altered Time, and the owner of the Mage Discord server, Altered Time.
- Castle Nathria 9.0.5 DPS Log Rankings and Analysis, Week 5: Boss Damage Only Rankings Added
- Player Loots One of the Rarest Item in WoW
- A Different Kind of AFK Story
- WoW Patch Timeline from Vanilla to Shadowlands Patch 9.1
- Potentially Infinite Breath of Sindragosa Bug
- Elwynn Forest Without the Trees
- Covenants Per Spec in Castle Nathria and Mythic+ for Top Players
- Animated Ulna World Quest Up on US Servers!