Fire Mage DPS Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities — The War Within (11.0.5)
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 — The War Within (11.0.5).
If you were looking for WotLK Classic content, please refer to our WotLK Classic Fire 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 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.
Fire Mage Rotations
Each of the sections below explain the rotation for Fire Mage at different target counts. Click the boxes to switch to the desired damage type.
Fire Mage Rotation
The buttons below can be used to select between curated Single-Target and AoE/Mythic+ loadouts. You can also use the switches below to add or remove individual talents you may also be using. Keep in mind, some talents are so critical to the spec to function correctly, or you must take them to be able to navigate the tree properly, in which case they will not have a checkbox below and will be assumed picked.
Hero Talents | |
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Talent Selections, etc. |
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Fire Explained
The Fire rotation at its core is all about generating as many Hot Streak procs as possible to fire off instant cast Pyroblasts. There are many ways to do this, but the general rotation involves casting Fireball until Heating Up procs, and then converting it into Hot Streak via Fire Blast.
Since Fire Blast can be cast while casting, you always keep chaining Fireballs, and then when one of them crit, while you are casting the next Fireball, you cast Fire Blast to generate the Hot Streak. Then, as your Fireball cast finishes, you can fire off the Fireball and use an instant Pyroblast. Both of these spells will land at the same time, and if one of them crits, you immediately get a new Heating Up and the cycle continues into Fireball + Fire Blast -> Pyroblast.
Additionally, you have some other methods to generate Hot Streak, like Phoenix Flames and Dragon's Breath (if talented into Alexstrasza's Fury), These other spells exist to provide even further Hot Streak generation, as they are guaranteed critical strikes. (with Call of the Sun King)
This Fireball / Pyroblast cycle is alternated by Combustion phases. During Combustion, all of your spells are guaranteed critical strikes, so instead of casting Fireballs to trigger Heating Up, you chain Pyroblasts and Fire Blasts. You also tend to throw in Scorch (and Phoenix Flames with some talents) outside of Fire Blast and Pyroblast, for when you run out of Fire Blast charges.
Finally, you have various talents that provide multiple things to track. For example, Sun King's Blessing is another method of obtaining Combustion, making it very important that you do not waste these procs.
Single-Target Rotation for Fire Mage
- When Combustion is ready, go into the Combustion rotation below.
- Cast Meteor if Combustion is not ready within 45 seconds.
- Cast Shifting Power when Combustion is on cooldown, and you do not currently have it active. Lastly, ensure you do not have 3 charges of Fire Blast. Generally, this means using it right after your Combustion phase ends.
- Hardcast Pyroblast when you have a Sun King's Blessing proc.
- Cast Pyroblast when you have a Hot Streak proc. Generally aim to cast Pyroblast immediately after a Fireball cast so both land at the same time. See our Pyro Chaining section below for more info on why.
- Cast Scorch if the target is below 30% health and Improved Scorch is timing out within a couple of seconds, and you do not currently have Hot Streak.
- Cast Scorch if you have a Heat Shimmer proc, and you do not currently have Hot Streak.
- Cast Frostfire Bolt when Frostfire Empowerment procs and you do not have Hot Streak.
- Cast Fire Blast when you have Heating Up to convert it into Hot Streak.
- Cast Phoenix Flames to generate Heating Up or convert Heating Up into Hot Streak. Ensure there are no spells in flight toward the target when doing this.
- Try to keep up Feel the Burn by timing your Fire Blast and Phoenix Flames in such a way that you refresh the stacks as late as possible. Generally, this will work out automatically, but do keep an eye on it, and perhaps cast a Fire Blast earlier or later during a cast to ensure it refreshes Feel the Burn.
- Cast Scorch as your filler if the target is below 30% Health to generate Heating Up / Hot Streak.
- Cast Fireball as your filler to generate Heating Up / Hot Streak.
- Cast Scorch if you have to move and have no instant casts to burn.
Combustion Rotation
Combustion should be used on cooldown whenever possible. You should always overlap Combustion with other damage boosts to further increase your damage, such as Meteor, trinkets and racials.
Since Combustion makes every spell critically strike, you want to get as many hard-hitting spells in the window as possible. To facilitate this, you should save at least one charge of Fire Blast and Phoenix Flames, though preferably, all charges will be available unless you are specced into Spontaneous Combustion, in which case you should not pool any charges. Combustions gained via Sun King's Blessing do require pooling regardless of talents, as Spontaneous Combustion does not work for these Combustions.
During Combustion, we will be casting a lot of instant Pyroblasts. Since Combustion guarantees a crit, this will always cause your Pyroblast to proc Heating Up or Hot Streak. Because of this, you only need one other spell to generate Hot Streaks. During Combustion, this will be Fire Blast, Phoenix Flames and Scorch.
Entering Combustion
Cast Meteor into Scorch. Right at the start of your Scorch cast, cast Combustion.
Rotation During Combustion
Follow the priority list below while Combustion is active.
- Instant-cast Pyroblast whenever you have Hot Streak.
- Hardcast Pyroblast when you have Sun King's Blessing final stack.
- When Flame's Fury procs (the proc gained from Phoenix Reborn), cast Phoenix Flames to generate Heating Up / Hot Streak.
- Cast Frostfire Bolt for generating Heating Up / Hot Streak when Frostfire Empowerment procs.
- Use Scorch for generating Heating Up / Hot Streak when Improved Scorch has less than 5 seconds left, and you do not currently have Hot Streak.
- If the target is above 30% health, and you do not have Hot Streak, use Scorch when you proc Heat Shimmer to apply Improved Scorch.
- Use Fire Blast and Phoenix Flames for generating Heating Up / Hot Streak while keeping Feel the Burn buff up. When you run out of stacks of Fire Blast and Phoenix Flames, use Scorch.
It is important to note if you proc the final stack of Sun King's Blessing during Combustion, you should hardcast Pyroblast to extend your Combustion by 6 seconds. Make sure to keep up your Feel the Burn buff during it.
Worth noting, activating Combustion while you have Sun King's Blessing's Combustion active will NOT add 12 seconds to Combustion. Instead, it will reset the duration. So never cast Combustion during Sun King's Blessing's Combustion.
Opening Sequence for Fire Mage
If you are not running Firestarter: Pre-cast Pyroblast into Phoenix Flames. Then go into the Combustion rotation.
If you are running Firestarter:
- Pre-cast Pyroblast.
- Chain Pyroblast and Fire Blast until you are out of Fire Blasts.
- Cast Shifting Power to get 3 Fire Blast charges again.
- Cast Fireballs and Fire Blasts and consume your Hot Streaks as you get them until 10 stacks of Sun King's Blessing. Keep your Fire Blast charges at or above 2.
- Once at 10 charges of Sun King's Blessing, hardcast Pyroblast (even if the target is still above 90% health). Near the end of the cast, cast Combustion. Ensure you press Combustion before the Pyroblast cast finishes, or you will lose the Sun King's Blessing Combustion.
- Continue the standard Combustion rotation like normal.
Multi-Target Rotation for Fire Mage
There are 2 main AoE rotations. Either simply doing your single target rotation, and letting Mastery: Ignite and Firefall do the AoE for you, or a Flamestrike based rotation.
Cleave Based AoE Rotation
The AoE rotation when running the Cleave based build is exactly the same as your single target rotation. Mastery: Ignite will automatically spread, and Firefall will thrown down a barrage of Meteors and Comet Storms (due to Isothermic Core), and various other talents will also do incidental AoE damage for free for you. Simply follow the single target rotation.
The only exception is when there are low health enemies that are close to dying. In these cases, you can use Flamestrike to quickly finish off the low health enemies, and then go back to the single-target rotation.
Flamestrike Based AoE Rotation
The Flamestrike based build is also relatively straight forward. It follows the single target rotation, with one very critical change: Any time you would normally use Pyroblast, you instead cast Flamestrike. This only applies on 4 or more targets. On 3 or fewer targets you do the single target rotation even when running the Flamestrike based AoE build.
Important Notes for Fire Mages
Effectively Chaining Critical Strikes
Understanding how to generate Critical Strikes as efficiently as possible is crucial in utilizing Fire effectively. This specialization 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 paramount.
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 simultaneously, giving a chance of an immediate follow-up Hot Streak if both 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 critically strikes. This grace window is why it is so critical to always cast Fireball into Pyroblast, because normally, if only one of them crits, and the other does not, you will lose the Heating Up. But if you cast both at the same time, if only one of them crits, you keep your Heating Up.
This is known as "Pyroblast Fishing" or "Pyroblast Chaining" 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 various combos that are covered in more detail in the rotation section above.
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 (unless talented into Fuel the Fire)
- Any non-damage spell, such as Blink or Ice Block
Scorch
Scorch should be used in place of Fireball while Combustion is active. The reasoning is pretty 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. Wherever possible, try to instead rely on Shimmer or Ice Floes before relying on Scorch. The only exception is when your target is under 30% Health, as you should then use Scorch freely instead of Fireball.
Changelog
- 26 Nov. 2024: Updated rotation to have Frostfire as the defaults now that it is better than Sunfury after the buffs.
- 21 Oct. 2024: Reviewed for Patch 11.0.5.
- 24 Sep. 2024: Updated AoE rotation to include a flamestrike based rotation now that it is more viable due to the latest buffs.
- 09 Sep. 2024: Updated for The War Within Season 1.
- 28 Aug. 2024: Fix a typo.
- 21 Aug. 2024: Updated for The War Within.
- 23 Jul. 2024: Updated for The War Within Pre-Patch.
- 10 May 2024: Updated the separate tier section to refer to the correct tier set.
- 07 May 2024: Reviewed for 10.2.7.
- 22 Apr. 2024: Updated rotation based on new tier set from Season 4.
- 23 Mar. 2024: Split Combustion rotation up into two distinct sections, one to enter Combustion, and one during Combustion, for readability. Additionally simplified the opener description.
- 19 Mar. 2024: Updated for Patch 10.2.6., added Flame Accelerant as default checked rotation checkbox, and added line for using Fireball in Combustion during it. Also cleaned up some typos.
- 15 Jan. 2024: Reviewed for Patch 10.2.5.
- 19 Nov. 2023: Updated checkboxes to by default has Alexstrasza's Fury enabled due to optimisations found make AF part of the default talent tree.
- 06 Nov. 2023: Updated rotation for new best talent builds in 10.2, and new tier set.
- 04 Sep. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.1.7
- 15 Jul. 2023: Updated AoE Flamestrike rotation due to the nerf to Flamestrike.
- 14 Jul. 2023: Updated AoE Flamestrike rotation based on latest optimisations.
- 10 Jul. 2023: Updated rotation for the Fire Mage rework of 10.1.5.
- 01 May 2023: Updated rotation pased on new tier set bonuses and new optimal talents.
- 20 Mar. 2023: Rewrote parts of the rotation to be easier to follow, and split the SKB/Pyroclasm into its own section. Reviewed for Patch 10.0.7.
- 24 Jan. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.0.5.
- 03 Jan. 2022: Add Shifting Power to the rotation.
- 11 Dec. 2022: Update AoE rotation to more clearly explain the AoE rotation when you are not talented into Flamestrike/Flamepath.
- 11 Dec. 2022: Added section explaining rotational changes due to the tier set.
- 28 Nov. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight launch.
- 24 Oct. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight 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, Turtles and the owner of the Mage Discord server, Altered Time, where he is involved in all things Mage, and you can reach out to him directly for feedback or questions about the guide.
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