Fire Mage DPS Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities — Shadowlands 9.0.5
On this page, you will learn how to optimize the rotation of your Fire Mage in both single-target and multiple-target situations. We also have advanced sections about cooldowns, procs, etc. in order to minmax your DPS. All our content is updated for World of Warcraft — Shadowlands 9.0.5.
If you were looking for WoW Classic content, please refer to our Classic DPS Mage rotation.
Fire Mage Rotation
Welcome to our Rotation page for Fire Mages. On this page you will find everything you need to know about actually playing the spec in Raiding scenarios.
Mythic+
The primary focus on this page is on raiding scenarios. Although the rotation is going to give pretty good results in Mythic+ as well, for a more Mythic+ oriented rotation, see our Mythic+ page.
Easy Mode
If the rotations below seem overwhelming to you, or you would simply like to read a more simplified version of the rotation, you might benefit from visiting our Easy Mode page which outlines a close-to-optimal rotation in simpler terms.
PvP
The content on this page is purely PvE-related. If you are looking for PvP Rotation Tips, please visit our PvP page below.
Single-Target Rotation for Fire Mage
Use the switches below to tailor the rotation to the talents you are using or situations you expect to be facing, and it will populate the rotation priority list appropriately:
If you are using the Infernal Cascade Conduit and want to fully optimize
this Conduit, we suggest looking at the advanced opener section below.
Meteor Talented
Disciplinary Command Equipped
Firestorm Equipped
Temporal Warp Equipped
Soul Igniter Equipped
- Activate on-use trinkets like
Sinful Aspirant's Badge of Ferocity right before activating and racials like
Berserking right before activating
Combustion.
- Cast
Combustion while you are in the middle of a
Fireball cast.
- Cast
Rune of Power if Rune of Power is not already active due to Combustion.
- Cast
Pyroblast when you have a
Hot Streak proc.
- Cast
Dragon's Breath if
Combustion is active and there is less than 1 second left on Combustion.
- Cast
Fire Blast when you have
Heating Up.
- Cast
Phoenix Flames when you have
Heating Up and
Combustion is active.
- Cast
Phoenix Flames when
Rune of Power is active, and you will cap on Phoenix Flames charges before
Combustion is ready.
- Cast
Scorch if the target is below 30% Health.
- Cast
Fireball to generate
Heating Up.
- Cast
Scorch if you have to move and have no instant casts to burn.
The core component of this specialization is chaining as many Critical
Strikes together as possible to maintain large Mastery: Ignites. Fire is
an extremely reactive specialization, meaning that most of your optimizations
will occur moment to moment, rather than planning a large damage dump minutes
in advance.
It is highly recommended you read the "Combustion Usage" section as it is of crucial importance to the Fire specialization.
We strongly recommend reading the opening section below on how exactly the Combustion phases and the opener look.
How to use Covenant Abilities in the Fire Mage Rotation
Most Covenant abilities are simply used on cooldown, with some optimisations:
- Single Target: Cast
Shifting Power when you are out of Fire Blast charges and
Rune of Power and
Combustion are not currently active.
- Whenever you use Shifting Power, make sure you are in melee range so it hits your target.
- 2+ Targets: Cast Shifting Power when you are out of Fire Blast charges, even if you are in Combustion.
- Cast
Mirrors of Torment around 10 seconds before you plan to use
Combustion. Make sure to not sit close to 3 Charges of
Fire Blast while Mirrors of Torment is on the target, to avoid over-capping on Fire Blast charges when it procs.
- Cast
Radiant Spark on cooldown.
- Cast
Deathborne on cooldown, but try to sync it with
Combustion. Do not delay Deathborne for more than 30 seconds when trying to sync it with Combustion, unless you are certain you will only get 1 more Deathborne usage maximum on the fight.
How to Use Disciplinary Command in the Fire Mage Rotation
To assist with using Disciplinary Command, we suggest this WeakAura.
How to Activate Disciplinary Command
Disciplinary Command is a Legendary effect that greatly increases
your Critical Strike damage after using a Frost, Arcane and Fire spell within 10
seconds. It does not matter in what order you cast these, as long as all 3 schools
have been cast in the last 10 seconds. Below we go over the best ways
to proc each part of this effect, ordered by the best way to activate that school:
- Fire:
- The Fire part of the effect will be active automatically at all times due to your standard rotation.
- Arcane:
- Using
Combustion while talented into
Rune of Power will trigger the Arcane part of the effect.
- When running the conduit
Diverted Energy, any time the effect heals you, it will count as an Arcane effect.
Shimmer or
Counterspell, if you do not need them for mechanics.
Arcane Explosion.
- Using
- Frost:
Frostbolt.
Frost Nova if you are unable to cast
Frostbolt.
When to Activate Disciplinary Command
You want to activate Disciplinary Command right before
Combustion,
by casting a
Frostbolt (or
Frost Nova if you are unable to stand
still for Frostbolt) and then going into your Combustion rotation. Outside
of right before Combustion, you will want to activate it once between Combustions,
by casting one of the Arcane triggers in the list above followed by one of the Frost triggers from above
assuming you are running a 1-minute Combustion build. (Night Fae +
Kindling)
How to use Soul Igniter in the Fire Mage Rotation
Soul Igniter is a trinket that works slightly differently from other
trinkets. Unlike other trinkets, it can be used immediately after another
trinket. This allows you to use the trinket right after you use a different
on-use trinket, e.g.
Sinful Aspirant's Badge of Ferocity. Due to this, you
can activate your other on-use trinket first, and immediately after activate
Soul Igniter. It is worth noting that the cooldown of Soul Igniter does not
begin until you re-activate it, or it expires. Due to this, if you are running
1-minute Mage (via
Kindling + being Night Fae) you will want
to re-activate Soul Igniter immediately to trigger the cooldown so the cooldown
stays synced with
Combustion.
The macro below will first activate Soul Igniter, and on a second
press fire it. Since you want to shoot it very quickly upon activating it, you
can use this macro to quickly cast and shoot it.
- #showtooltip
- /use soul igniter
- /cancelaura soul ignition
Multi-Target Rotation for Fire Mage
Most of your damage on multiple targets will come from simply doing your
single-target rotation and spreading Mastery: Ignite to nearby targets via
Phoenix Flames (see below on how to maximise this).
However, there are some spell usage changes to the rotation depending on target
counts. It is worth noting, that most of the advice below assumes all targets
are equally important. If any of the targets are higher priority, it is almost
always worth purely focusing the primary target and spreading Ignite to
the other targets.
Without Flame Patch talented:
- Cast
Flamestrike during
Combustion with
Hot Streak: 6+ targets, never hard-cast during Combustion
- Cast
Flamestrike outside of
Combustion both hard-cast and with
Hot Streak: 3+ targets
With Flame Patch talented:
- Cast
Flamestrike during
Combustion with
Hot Streak: 3+ targets, never hard-cast during Combustion
- Cast
Flamestrike outside of
Combustion both hard-cast and with
Hot Streak: 2+ targets
If you use Firestorm and it procs, treat it like a hard-cast when looking at the above list.
Cast
Living Bomb if there are 3 or more targets stacked, and at least 1 of the
targets will live for at least 8 seconds.
Cast Dragon's Breath
if there are 3+ targets present.
Efficiently Spreading Ignite to Nearby Targets
It is key that on multiple targets, you spread your Mastery: Ignite
to nearby targets as often as possible, while the Ignite is as big as possible.
To achieve this, you will never want to use
Phoenix Flames
if you did not recently have a
Pyroblast hit on the target, but instead
use it right after you got a streak of Pyroblasts.
During Combustion you will want to use
Phoenix Flames
as a replacement for
Fire Blast when you run out of Fire Blasts. This will
already guarantee that you are spreading
Mastery: Ignite when it is very big.
The only exception is, when you are actively in Combustion, but there are no
nearby targets, and you know there will be soon. In this case, you need to Keep
one stack of Phoenix Flames for when the extra targets arrive and immediately
spread Ignite to them.
Important Notes for Fire Mages
Effectively Creating Crit Trains
Understanding how to generate Critical Strikes as efficiently as possible is key to utilizing Fire effectively. This is a specialization that is designed to crit more often than not, so it is easy to understand why learning to execute the right combos to create a chain of crits is of paramount importance.
Whenever you get a Heating Up proc, you should convert it to a
Hot Streak using
Fire Blast. Generally, you will
then want to cast a
Fireball, and immediately spend your
Hot Streak on a
Pyroblast as your Fireball cast finishes. Both of
these spells will strike at the same time, chance at an
immediate follow up Hot Streak if both of them critically strike.
If only one of the spells critically strikes, Heating Up will
proc and you can immediately Fire Blast and repeat this process.
There is a 0.2-second grace period where Heating Up will not
be canceled if two spells impact simultaneously and only one of them critically
strikes.
This is known as "Pyroblast Fishing" and is the best way to create a large
chain of crits. The exception to this rule is during Combustion,
where all spells will crit, allowing you to chain together a variety of combos
that will be covered in more detail later in the guide.
Spells That Do Not Trigger or Cancel Heating Up
Dragon's Breath (unless talented into
Alexstrasza's Fury)
Blast Wave
Living Bomb
Meteor
Frost Nova
Flamestrike
- Any non-damage spell, such as
Blink or
Ice Block
Pyroclasm Usage
The Pyroclasm talent gives a chance to proc the
buff of the same name,
which makes your next non-instant
Pyroblast hit extremely hard.
Normally, you will want to just cast these non-instant Pyroblasts as you get
the procs, however, since the proc can stack up to 2 times, there are scenarios
in which you should hold onto it as long as you only have 1 charge:
- If Rune of Power will run out before you would be able to finish the non-instant Pyroblast, you should wait until Rune of Power ends and then cast the non-instant Pyroblast.
That said, the most important thing is actually using the
Pyroclasm procs. If they ever time out before being used, it is
a huge DPS loss. Because of this, it is advisable to always keep 1 stack of
Shimmer available for the situation where you get a certain raid
mechanic on you while casting the non-instant Pyroblast, so you can simply
Shimmer away instead of interrupting this long cast and risk losing the
proc.
Meteor Usage
Meteor should always be used together with
Rune of Power,
since they have the same cooldown. If you do not have Rune of Power talented,
it should be used on cooldown, but make sure it is available when
Combustion becomes available.
Flamestrike Usage
Flamestrike is Fire's spammable source of AoE damage. It is generally
not used much, unless you have no meaningful high priority targets and you want to AoE
everything down at a similar pace.
Mastery: Ignite is also applied by Flamestrike. Flamestrike is a targeted ability, so it can
be helpful to already have the reticle placed during your
previous spell cast, allowing you to instantly Flamestrike.
At certain target counts, you will change the single-target rotation from using
Hot Streak on
Pyroblast to Flamestrike.
It is important to note that casting Flamestrike when multiple targets
are present may not be the best choice if the targets do not have equal kill
priority. Though it will result in higher DPS, it can often be a wiser choice
to
Pyroblast the most important targets first (on raid encounters)
to give your group the greatest chance of success.
Below, we have listed all the exact scenarios during which you should cast Flamestrike, assuming all targets have equal priority:
Without Flame Patch talented:
- Cast
Flamestrike during
Combustion with
Hot Streak: 6+ targets, never hard-cast during Combustion
- Cast
Flamestrike outside of
Combustion both hard-cast and with
Hot Streak: 3+ targets
With Flame Patch talented:
- Cast
Flamestrike during
Combustion with
Hot Streak: 3+ targets, never hard-cast during Combustion
- Cast
Flamestrike outside of
Combustion both hard-cast and with
Hot Streak: 2+ targets
If you use Firestorm and it procs, treat it like a hard-cast when looking at the above list.
Rune of Power
Rune of Power is a medium length cooldown that is best used to
apply significant pressure during its duration. Rune of Power will always overlap
with
Combustion automatically due to the passive portion. The
active portion should be used in combination with
Meteor, if talented,
since they have similar cooldowns. Additionally, it can be used:
- to push a damage check;
- when several advantageous procs overlap;
- during a period of zero movement;
- on AoE.
Blazing Barrier
This can be cast any time you have to slightly reposition. It lasts for 60 seconds, but only has a 25-second cooldown. You can and should cast it before the start of every engagement.
Scorch
Scorch should be used in place of
Fireball while
Combustion is active. The reasoning is fairly straightforward:
- Faster cast time
- Guaranteed Critical Strike
- No travel time
In contrast, Scorch is very weak outside of
Combustion for the same reasons. Because it has no travel time, you
cannot efficiently fish for
Pyroblasts.
Scorch can be cast while moving, and will also grant you a speed
buff when talented into
Frenetic Speed. Wherever possible, try to
instead rely on
Shimmer before relying on Scorch. This spell, when
combined with
Frenetic Speed, can be very useful for extended
movement if your charges of
Shimmer are unavailable. Try not to
lean too heavily on this spell as a movement crutch, however, as it will
deflate your damage due to its lack of potency. The only exception is when you
have talented
Searing Touch, and your target is under 30% Health,
as you can then use Scorch freely instead of Fireball.
Core Concepts for Fire Mage
Fire Mage is an elementary enough specialization to perform on a target dummy, but there are a few key factors that will separate the good from the great. Learning to focus on what is important and master the core concepts of a specialization is what leads to strong overall performance on the damage charts. There are 3 major concepts that form the central trinity of optimizing for success:
- proper use of
Combustion;
- critical Strike chains;
- movement management.
Managing movement is a fundamental skill shared by all the caster classes in World of Warcraft. The highly mobile nature of the Mage class allows flexible and creative ways to move during combat, making it of supreme importance that you give this the proper respect.
Combustion Usage
Combustion should be used on cooldown whenever possible. You
should always overlap Combustion with other damage boosts that allow for a
large overall
Mastery: Ignite, such as
Meteor, trinkets and racials.
Before activating Combustion you should generate a
Hot Streak if
Meteor is talented. You should also try and save at least one charge of
Fire Blast and
Phoenix Flames, though preferably all charges
will be available. Then follow this list of actions.
- Cast
Frostbolt if using
Disciplinary Command.
- Use any on-use trinkets and racials like
Sinful Aspirant's Badge of Ferocity and
Berserking.
- If using
Soul Igniter, activate it after activating any other on-use trinkets like
Sinful Aspirant's Badge of Ferocity first.
- Cast
Fireball.
- Depending on your
Hot Streak /
Heating Up status, execute the option listed below:
- If you already have a
Hot Streak proc: cast
Combustion near the end of your
Fireball cast
- If you already have a
Heating Up: cast
Combustion +
Fire Blast near the end of your
Fireball cast.
- If you have neither: cast
Combustion +
Fire Blast halfway through the
Fireball cast, followed by a second Fire Blast near the end of the Fireball cast.
- If you already have a
- If using
Soul Igniter, re-cast it while having 2 stacks of
Infernal Cascade.
- Cast
Pyroblast.
- Cast Pyroblast and Fire Blast immediately after.
- Cast Pyroblast.
- Cast
Phoenix Flames.
- Cast Pyroblast.
- Right before the global cooldown is over and the
Infernal Cascade buff is close to dropping off, cast Fire Blast.
- Cast Pyroblast.
- Cast Phoenix Flames.
- Cast Pyroblast.
- Right before the global cooldown is over and the
Infernal Cascade buff is close to dropping off, cast Fire Blast.
- Cast Pyroblast.
- chain Phoenix Flames.
- Cast Pyroblast.
Critical Strike Chains
We talked about "Pyro Fishing" earlier in the guide, so there is no need to
go over it in detail again here. It should not be understated, however, how
important properly chaining together your abilities is, and the overall impact
it has on your DPS. This is especially true on cleave, as building a smooth and
powerful Mastery: Ignite will determine how much cleave and AoE you are
able to output. Get used to properly chaining your spells by practicing on
target dummies or in LFR.
Movement Management
While it is difficult to describe the best ways to position and move during a dungeon or raid encounter, it is essential to your success as a Fire Mage.
Try and use Shimmer for "urgent" movement — when you need
to travel from one place to another as quickly as possible.
Blazing Barrier is a good choice when you only need to take a few
steps, as it only costs a single global cooldown.
The combination of Scorch and
Frenetic Speed can also
be useful for extended movement if
Shimmer is unavailable.
Always try to position yourself in a location central to fight movement. For example, if the boss is being moved in a circle, try to stay on the inside of the kite path to ensure minimal movement.
Quiet Movement
Many players will unconsciously move during fights, despite it being unnecessary. For example, sometimes the boss or adds will be moved by the tank a couple yards, and though you are still in range to cast, you subconsciously mirror that movement, costing you global cooldowns. Consciously work to "quiet" your movement, and reduce unnecessary movement to a minimum. The best way to see this in action is to take a video of your raid, then watch yourself play. Most players will be surprised by the amount of wasted movement they commit. When you are forced to move, make use of the tips above, and make your path as direct and decisive as possible.
Opening Sequence for Fire Mage
Below we list the standard Fire Mage opener. However, if you are running
Infernal Cascade (which is the best Conduit, so you should), there is a more
advanced opener that requires significantly more practice to pull off successfully.
We list this advanced opener after the standard opener below.
Standard opener for Fire Mages
The opener below assumes the standard talent setup, containing
Rune of Power and
Kindling as talents, while having the Night Fae
Covenant.
- Pre-cast
Pyroblast at 4.0 seconds on the countdown.
- Cast
Combustion and activate any on-use trinkets and racials that you might have right before finishing the Pyroblast.
- Cast
Phoenix Flames.
- Cast Pyroblast, and immediately cast
Fire Blast.
- Cast Pyroblast, and immediately cast Fire Blast.
- Cast Pyroblast, and immediately cast Fire Blast.
- Cast Pyroblast, and immediately cast Fire Blast.
- Replace Fire Blast for
Phoenix Flames and continue chaining Pyroblast and Phoenix Flames until you are out of Phoenix Flames.
- Replace Phoenix Flames for
Scorch and continue chaining Pyroblast and Scorch until Combustion ends.
- Cast
Rune of Power when Combustion is over and go into the standard rotation.
If you get any procs from Pyromaniac, simply use them
immediately. The opener is of paramount importance. It is recommended you
practice in LFR or on a target dummy to build enough muscle memory to
consistently execute it without flaws. If you are playing with
Firestarter, you should chain Fireballs and Pyroblasts until the
target reaches 90% Health, and then go into
Rune of Power and
Combustion with a Hot Streak ready.
Advanced Fire Mage opener with Infernal Cascade.
The opener below assumes the standard talent setup, containing
Rune of Power and
Kindling as talents, while having the Night Fae
Covenant. Additionally, it assumes you are running the
Infernal Cascade
Conduit. The below opener might not feel completely natural at first attempt,
and usually requires significant practice to pull off properly. However, it is the
highest DPS opener when played perfectly.
You always pre-cast Frost Nova 5 seconds before the pull timer finishes
(if using
Disciplinary Command), followed by a
Pyroblast 4 seconds before the pull timer finishes.
What happens after that depends on whether or not this pre-cast was a critical strike or not.
If your pre-cast Pyroblast was a critical strike:
- Use any on-use trinkets and racials like
Sinful Aspirant's Badge of Ferocity and
Berserking.
- If using
Soul Igniter, activate it after activating any other on-use trinkets like
Sinful Aspirant's Badge of Ferocity first.
- Cast
Fireball.
- Cast
Combustion +
Fire Blast a little bit over halfway through the Fireball cast.
- If using
Soul Igniter, re-cast it while having 2 stacks of
Infernal Cascade.
- Cast
Pyroblast.
- Cast Pyroblast and Fire Blast immediately after.
- Cast Pyroblast.
- Cast
Phoenix Flames.
- Cast Pyroblast.
- Right before the global cooldown is over and the
Infernal Cascade buff is close to dropping off, cast Fire Blast.
- Cast Pyroblast.
- Cast Phoenix Flames.
- Cast Pyroblast.
- Right before the global cooldown is over and the
Infernal Cascade buff is close to dropping off, cast Fire Blast.
- Cast Pyroblast.
- chain Phoenix Flames.
- Cast Pyroblast.
If your pre-cast Pyroblast did not critically strike:
- Use any on-use trinkets and racials like
Sinful Aspirant's Badge of Ferocity and
Berserking.
- If using
Soul Igniter, activate it after activating any other on-use trinkets like
Sinful Aspirant's Badge of Ferocity first.
- Cast
Fireball.
- Cast
Combustion +
Fire Blast a little bit over halfway through the Fireball cast.
- If using
Soul Igniter, re-cast it while having 2 stacks of
Infernal Cascade.
- Cast a second Fire Blast about half a second after the first one, but before the Fireball cast is over.
- Cast
Pyroblast twice. The first Pyroblast is the Pyroblast you get from using 2x Fire Blast, and the second one is from the previous Fireball + the first Pyroblast.
- Cast
Phoenix Flames.
- Cast Pyroblast.
- Right before the global cooldown is over and the
Infernal Cascade buff is close to dropping off, cast Fire Blast.
- Cast Pyroblast.
- Cast Phoenix Flames.
- Cast Pyroblast.
- Right before the global cooldown is over and the
Infernal Cascade buff is close to dropping off, cast Fire Blast.
- Cast Pyroblast.
- chain Phoenix Flames.
- Cast Pyroblast.
To help illustrate the openers more clearly, below we have added the same opener but in image form.
A lot of players will most likely find the timing on this opener tight, and to help with that, the below macro might help. The below macro should be used right after your pre-cast. The "use 14" activates the trinket in the bottom most trinket slot. If your on-use trinket is in the top trinket slot, change it to "/use 13".
- #showtooltip
- /use 14
- /cast Berserking
- /cast Blood Fury
- /cast Fireball
During the Fireball cast, you can press the following macro once or twice (depending on if your opener crit) to activate Combustion and use Fire Blast.
- #showtooltip Combustion
- /cast Combustion
- /cast Fire Blast
After these macros, you should press the rest of your buttons normally during Combustion.
For more Fire Mage macros, please refer to our dedicated page.
Changelog
- 05 Apr. 2021: Fixed an incorrect tooltip.
- 25 Mar. 2021: Updated Combustion usage to include Infernal Cascade usage and added Soul Igniter info to rotation.
- 12 Mar. 2021: Added Disciplinary Command to advanced opener.
- 09 Mar. 2021: Reviewed for Patch 9.0.5.
- 06 Mar. 2021: Added section and rotation toggle checkbox for Disciplinary Command.
- 08 Feb. 2021: Updated advanced opener slightly to help with confusion regarding trinket usage, and made link to advanced opener more standout due to popular request for the opener.
- 28 Dec. 2020: Fixed advanced opener crit/non crit versions being in the wrong order.
- 24 Dec. 2020: Added advanced opener for Infernal Cascade usage.
- 01 Dec. 2020: Updated Night Fae AoE rotation to include using Shifting Power during Combustion.
- 23 Nov. 2020: Updated for Night Fae nerf. Changed rotation to no longer use Shifting Power in Combustion.
- 20 Nov. 2020: Updated for Shadowlands launch. Changed the single target rotation to the new optimal rotation for Shadowlands, added covenant and legendary usage to the rotation, updated Flamestrike/AoE priority and made it more clear when to cast Flamestrike, removed Essence / Wrist usage, updated opener.
- 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.
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