Fire Mage DPS Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities — Shadowlands 9.1

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.

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.

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.

The content on this page is purely PvE-related. If you are looking for PvP Rotation Tips, please visit our PvP page below.

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

1. Cast Pyroblast while Firestorm is active.
2. Cast Time Warp while under the effects of Temporal Displacement (or similar effects), right before you plan to use Combustion, stacking 2 Time Warp effects.
3. Activate the Frost Portion of Disciplinary Command, if it is available, and you either plan to use Combustion within the next 5 seconds, or in more than 30 seconds. (see Disciplinary Command section below)
4. Activate the Arcane Portion of Disciplinary Command, if it is available, and you either plan to use Combustion within the next 5 seconds, or in more than 30 seconds. (see Disciplinary Command section below)
5. Cast Meteor if Combustion is not ready within the next 45 seconds, or Combustion is ready. Outside of right before Combustion, if Rune of Power is talented, only cast Meteor during Rune of Power.
6. Cast Combustion when it is off cooldown, 0.5 seconds after casting Meteor.
7. Activate on-use trinkets like Sinful Aspirant's Badge of Ferocity right before activating and racials like Berserking right before activating Combustion.
8. Activate Soul Igniter after activating any other on-use trinkets like Sinful Aspirant's Badge of Ferocity first.
9. Cast Combustion while you are in the middle of a Fireball cast.
10. Re-cast Soul Igniter while having 2 stacks of Infernal Cascade.
11. Cast Rune of Power if Rune of Power is not already active due to Combustion.
12. Cast Pyroblast when you have a Hot Streak proc.
13. Cast Dragon's Breath if Combustion is active and there is less than 1 second left on Combustion.
14. Cast Fire Blast when you have Heating Up.
15. Cast Phoenix Flames when you have Heating Up and Combustion is active.
16. Cast Phoenix Flames when Rune of Power is active, and you will cap on Phoenix Flames charges before Combustion is ready.
17. Cast Scorch if the target is below 30% Health.
18. Cast Fireball to generate Heating Up.
19. 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.

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.

To assist with using Disciplinary Command, we suggest this WeakAura.

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:
  1. The Fire part of the effect will be active automatically at all times due to your standard rotation.
• Arcane:
  1. Using Combustion while talented into Rune of Power will trigger the Arcane part of the effect.
  2. When running the conduit Diverted Energy, any time the effect heals you, it will count as an Arcane effect.
  3. Shimmer or Counterspell, if you do not need them for mechanics.
  4. Arcane Explosion.
• Frost:
  1. Frostbolt.
  2. Frost Nova if you are unable to cast Frostbolt.

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)

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

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.

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.

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.

• 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

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 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 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 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.

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 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.

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:

1. proper use of Combustion;
2. critical Strike chains;
3. 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 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.

1. Cast Frostbolt if using Disciplinary Command.
2. Use any on-use trinkets and racials like Sinful Aspirant's Badge of Ferocity and Berserking.
3. If using Soul Igniter, activate it after activating any other on-use trinkets like Sinful Aspirant's Badge of Ferocity first.
4. Cast Fireball.
5. 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.
6. If using Soul Igniter, re-cast it while having 2 stacks of Infernal Cascade.
7. Cast Pyroblast.
8. Cast Pyroblast and Fire Blast immediately after.
9. Cast Pyroblast.
10. Cast Phoenix Flames.
11. Cast Pyroblast.
12. Right before the global cooldown is over and the Infernal Cascade buff is close to dropping off, cast Fire Blast.
13. Cast Pyroblast.
14. Cast Phoenix Flames.
15. Cast Pyroblast.
16. Right before the global cooldown is over and the Infernal Cascade buff is close to dropping off, cast Fire Blast.
17. Cast Pyroblast.
18. chain Phoenix Flames.
19. Cast Pyroblast.

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.

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.

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.

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.

The opener below assumes the standard talent setup, containing Rune of Power and Kindling as talents, while having the Night Fae Covenant.

1. Pre-cast Pyroblast at 4.0 seconds on the countdown.
2. Cast Combustion and activate any on-use trinkets and racials that you might have right before finishing the Pyroblast.
3. Cast Phoenix Flames.
4. Cast Pyroblast, and immediately cast Fire Blast.
5. Cast Pyroblast, and immediately cast Fire Blast.
6. Cast Pyroblast, and immediately cast Fire Blast.
7. Cast Pyroblast, and immediately cast Fire Blast.
8. Replace Fire Blast for Phoenix Flames and continue chaining Pyroblast and Phoenix Flames until you are out of Phoenix Flames.
9. Replace Phoenix Flames for Scorch and continue chaining Pyroblast and Scorch until Combustion ends.
10. 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.

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:

1. Use any on-use trinkets and racials like Sinful Aspirant's Badge of Ferocity and Berserking.
2. If using Soul Igniter, activate it after activating any other on-use trinkets like Sinful Aspirant's Badge of Ferocity first.
3. Cast Fireball.
4. Cast Combustion + Fire Blast a little bit over halfway through the Fireball cast.
5. If using Soul Igniter, re-cast it while having 2 stacks of Infernal Cascade.
6. Cast Pyroblast.
7. Cast Pyroblast and Fire Blast immediately after.
8. Cast Pyroblast.
9. Cast Phoenix Flames.
10. Cast Pyroblast.
11. Right before the global cooldown is over and the Infernal Cascade buff is close to dropping off, cast Fire Blast.
12. Cast Pyroblast.
13. Cast Phoenix Flames.
14. Cast Pyroblast.
15. Right before the global cooldown is over and the Infernal Cascade buff is close to dropping off, cast Fire Blast.
16. Cast Pyroblast.
17. chain Phoenix Flames.
18. Cast Pyroblast.

If your pre-cast Pyroblast did not critically strike:

1. Use any on-use trinkets and racials like Sinful Aspirant's Badge of Ferocity and Berserking.
2. If using Soul Igniter, activate it after activating any other on-use trinkets like Sinful Aspirant's Badge of Ferocity first.
3. Cast Fireball.
4. Cast Combustion + Fire Blast a little bit over halfway through the Fireball cast.
5. If using Soul Igniter, re-cast it while having 2 stacks of Infernal Cascade.
6. Cast a second Fire Blast about half a second after the first one, but before the Fireball cast is over.
7. 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.
8. Cast Phoenix Flames.
9. Cast Pyroblast.
10. Right before the global cooldown is over and the Infernal Cascade buff is close to dropping off, cast Fire Blast.
11. Cast Pyroblast.
12. Cast Phoenix Flames.
13. Cast Pyroblast.
14. Right before the global cooldown is over and the Infernal Cascade buff is close to dropping off, cast Fire Blast.
15. Cast Pyroblast.
16. chain Phoenix Flames.
17. 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.