Fire Mage Frequently Asked Questions — Battle for Azeroth (BfA) 8.1

1. 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 Enhanced Pyrotechnics and 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.

Haste is almost always good for both single-target and AoE DPS. There is no Haste cap for Fire Mages.

Having said that, the best way to determine what items you should use is to use Raidbots Top Gear

2. How good is Fire Mage in BfA Patch 8.1?

Fire Mage is the best Mage spec for almost all situations in 8.1. For a more thorough answer, see the spec viability section on the intro page.

3. Which race is best for Fire Mages?

Dark Iron Dwarf is the best race for Fire Mages. However, all races are very close in DPS. For a full overview of the DPS of every race, check the simulations page.

4. 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 prefered, 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.

5. Should I Use Rune of Power or Incanter's Flow?

Rune of Power and Incanter's Flow are very close in overall DPS, with Rune of Power being slightly ahead on low movement fights. 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.

6. Changelog