Fire Mage DPS Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities — The War Within (11.0.5)

Last updated on Nov 26, 2024 at 16:17 by Dutchmagoz 66 comments
General Information

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.

1.

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.

1.1.

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.

1.2.

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.

1.3.

PvP

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

2.

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.

3.

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.

Single-Target Mythic+/AoE
Hero Talents
Talent Selections, etc.
Fire Explained Single-Target Rotation AoE Rotation
3.

Fire Explained

The Fire rotation at its core is all about generating as many Hot Streak Icon Hot Streak procs as possible to fire off instant cast Pyroblast Icon Pyroblasts. There are many ways to do this, but the general rotation involves casting Fireball Icon Fireball until Heating Up Icon Heating Up procs, and then converting it into Hot Streak Icon Hot Streak via Fire Blast Icon 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 Icon Heating Up and the cycle continues into Fireball + Fire Blast -> Pyroblast.

Additionally, you have some other methods to generate Hot Streak, like Phoenix Flames Icon Phoenix Flames and Dragon's Breath Icon Dragon's Breath (if talented into Alexstrasza's Fury Icon 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 Icon Call of the Sun King)

This Fireball / Pyroblast cycle is alternated by Combustion Icon 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 Icon Scorch (and Phoenix Flames Icon 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 Icon Sun King's Blessing is another method of obtaining Combustion, making it very important that you do not waste these procs.

4.

Single-Target Rotation for Fire Mage

  1. When Combustion Icon Combustion is ready, go into the Combustion rotation below.
  2. Cast Meteor Icon Meteor if Combustion Icon Combustion is not ready within 45 seconds.
  3. Cast Shifting Power Icon Shifting Power when Combustion Icon Combustion is on cooldown, and you do not currently have it active. Lastly, ensure you do not have 3 charges of Fire Blast Icon Fire Blast. Generally, this means using it right after your Combustion phase ends.
  4. Hardcast Pyroblast Icon Pyroblast when you have a Sun King's Blessing Icon Sun King's Blessing proc.
  5. Cast Pyroblast Icon Pyroblast when you have a Hot Streak Icon Hot Streak proc. Generally aim to cast Pyroblast immediately after a Fireball Icon Fireball cast so both land at the same time. See our Pyro Chaining section below for more info on why.
  6. Cast Scorch Icon Scorch if the target is below 30% health and Improved Scorch Icon Improved Scorch is timing out within a couple of seconds, and you do not currently have Hot Streak Icon Hot Streak.
  7. Cast Scorch Icon Scorch if you have a Heat Shimmer Icon Heat Shimmer proc, and you do not currently have Hot Streak Icon Hot Streak.
  8. Cast Frostfire Bolt Icon Frostfire Bolt when Frostfire Empowerment Icon Frostfire Empowerment procs and you do not have Hot Streak Icon Hot Streak.
  9. Cast Fire Blast Icon Fire Blast when you have Heating Up Icon Heating Up to convert it into Hot Streak Icon Hot Streak.
  10. Cast Phoenix Flames Icon Phoenix Flames to generate Heating Up Icon Heating Up or convert Heating Up into Hot Streak Icon Hot Streak. Ensure there are no spells in flight toward the target when doing this.
  11. Try to keep up Feel the Burn Icon Feel the Burn by timing your Fire Blast Icon Fire Blast and Phoenix Flames Icon 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.
  12. Cast Scorch Icon Scorch as your filler if the target is below 30% Health to generate Heating Up Icon Heating Up / Hot Streak Icon Hot Streak.
  13. Cast Fireball Icon Fireball as your filler to generate Heating Up Icon Heating Up / Hot Streak Icon Hot Streak.
  14. Cast Scorch Icon Scorch if you have to move and have no instant casts to burn.
4.1.

Combustion Rotation

Combustion Icon 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 Icon 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 Icon Fire Blast and Phoenix Flames Icon Phoenix Flames, though preferably, all charges will be available unless you are specced into Spontaneous Combustion Icon Spontaneous Combustion, in which case you should not pool any charges. Combustions gained via Sun King's Blessing Icon 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 Pyroblast Icon Pyroblasts. Since Combustion guarantees a crit, this will always cause your Pyroblast to proc Heating Up Icon Heating Up or Hot Streak Icon Hot Streak. Because of this, you only need one other spell to generate Hot Streaks. During Combustion, this will be Fire Blast Icon Fire Blast, Phoenix Flames Icon Phoenix Flames and Scorch Icon Scorch.

4.1.1.

Entering Combustion

Cast Meteor Icon Meteor into Scorch Icon Scorch. Right at the start of your Scorch cast, cast Combustion Icon Combustion.

4.1.2.

Rotation During Combustion

Follow the priority list below while Combustion Icon Combustion is active.

  1. Instant-cast Pyroblast Icon Pyroblast whenever you have Hot Streak Icon Hot Streak.
  2. Hardcast Pyroblast Icon Pyroblast when you have Sun King's Blessing Icon Sun King's Blessing final stack.
  3. When Flame's Fury Icon Flame's Fury procs (the proc gained from Phoenix Reborn Icon Phoenix Reborn), cast Phoenix Flames Icon Phoenix Flames to generate Heating Up Icon Heating Up / Hot Streak Icon Hot Streak.
  4. Cast Frostfire Bolt Icon Frostfire Bolt for generating Heating Up Icon Heating Up / Hot Streak Icon Hot Streak when Frostfire Empowerment Icon Frostfire Empowerment procs.
  5. Use Scorch Icon Scorch for generating Heating Up Icon Heating Up / Hot Streak Icon Hot Streak when Improved Scorch Icon Improved Scorch has less than 5 seconds left, and you do not currently have Hot Streak Icon Hot Streak.
  6. If the target is above 30% health, and you do not have Hot Streak Icon Hot Streak, use Scorch Icon Scorch when you proc Heat Shimmer Icon Heat Shimmer to apply Improved Scorch Icon Improved Scorch.
  7. Use Fire Blast Icon Fire Blast and Phoenix Flames Icon Phoenix Flames for generating Heating Up Icon Heating Up / Hot Streak Icon Hot Streak while keeping Feel the Burn Icon 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 Icon Sun King's Blessing during Combustion Icon Combustion, you should hardcast Pyroblast Icon Pyroblast to extend your Combustion by 6 seconds. Make sure to keep up your Feel the Burn Icon Feel the Burn buff during it.

Worth noting, activating Combustion Icon Combustion while you have Sun King's Blessing Icon 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.

4.2.

Opening Sequence for Fire Mage

If you are not running Firestarter Icon Firestarter: Pre-cast Pyroblast Icon Pyroblast into Phoenix Flames Icon Phoenix Flames. Then go into the Combustion rotation.

If you are running Firestarter Icon Firestarter:

  1. Pre-cast Pyroblast Icon Pyroblast.
  2. Chain Pyroblast Icon Pyroblast and Fire Blast Icon Fire Blast until you are out of Fire Blasts.
  3. Cast Shifting Power Icon Shifting Power to get 3 Fire Blast Icon Fire Blast charges again.
  4. Cast Fireball Icon Fireballs and Fire Blast Icon Fire Blasts and consume your Hot Streak Icon Hot Streaks as you get them until 10 stacks of Sun King's Blessing Icon Sun King's Blessing. Keep your Fire Blast charges at or above 2.
  5. Once at 10 charges of Sun King's Blessing Icon Sun King's Blessing, hardcast Pyroblast Icon Pyroblast (even if the target is still above 90% health). Near the end of the cast, cast Combustion Icon Combustion. Ensure you press Combustion before the Pyroblast cast finishes, or you will lose the Sun King's Blessing Combustion.
  6. Continue the standard Combustion rotation like normal.
5.

Multi-Target Rotation for Fire Mage

There are 2 main AoE rotations. Either simply doing your single target rotation, and letting Mastery: Ignite Icon Mastery: Ignite and Firefall Icon Firefall do the AoE for you, or a Flamestrike Icon Flamestrike based rotation.

5.1.

Cleave Based AoE Rotation

The AoE rotation when running the Cleave based build is exactly the same as your single target rotation. Mastery: Ignite Icon Mastery: Ignite will automatically spread, and Firefall Icon Firefall will thrown down a barrage of Meteor Icon Meteors and Comet Storm Icon Comet Storms (due to Isothermic Core Icon 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 Icon Flamestrike to quickly finish off the low health enemies, and then go back to the single-target rotation.

5.2.

Flamestrike Based AoE Rotation

The Flamestrike Icon 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 Icon Pyroblast, you instead cast Flamestrike Icon 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.

6.

Important Notes for Fire Mages

6.1.

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 Icon Heating Up proc, you should convert it to a Hot Streak Icon Hot Streak using Fire Blast Icon Fire Blast. Generally, you will then want to cast a Fireball Icon Fireball and immediately spend your Hot Streak on a Pyroblast Icon 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 Icon 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 Icon Combustion, where all spells will crit, allowing you to chain together various combos that are covered in more detail in the rotation section above.

6.1.1.

Spells That Do Not Trigger or Cancel Heating Up

  • Dragon's Breath Icon Dragon's Breath (unless talented into Alexstrasza's Fury Icon Alexstrasza's Fury)
  • Blast Wave Icon Blast Wave
  • Living Bomb Icon Living Bomb
  • Meteor Icon Meteor
  • Frost Nova Icon Frost Nova
  • Flamestrike Icon Flamestrike (unless talented into Fuel the Fire Icon Fuel the Fire)
  • Any non-damage spell, such as Blink Icon Blink or Ice Block Icon Ice Block
6.2.

Scorch

Scorch Icon Scorch should be used in place of Fireball Icon Fireball while Combustion Icon Combustion is active. The reasoning is pretty straightforward:

  • Faster cast time
  • Guaranteed Critical Strike
  • No travel time

In contrast, Scorch Icon Scorch is very weak outside of Combustion Icon Combustion for the same reasons. Because it has no travel time, you cannot efficiently fish for Pyroblast Icon Pyroblasts.

Scorch Icon Scorch can be cast while moving and will also grant you a speed buff. Wherever possible, try to instead rely on Shimmer Icon Shimmer or Ice Floes Icon 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.

7.

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.
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