Fire Mage DPS Spec, Builds, and Talents — Battle for Azeroth (BfA) 8.1

1. Talent Choices for Fire Mage

Level	Choices
15	✓ Firestarter	? Pyromaniac	✓ Searing Touch
30	✗ Blazing Soul	✓ Shimmer	✗ Blast Wave
45	✓ Incanter's Flow	✗ Mirror Image	✓ Rune of Power
60	✓ Flame On	✗ Alexstrasza's Fury	? Phoenix Flames
75	✓ Frenetic Speed	✗ Ice Ward	✗ Ring of Frost
90	✓ Flame Patch	✓ Conflagration	✓ Living Bomb
100	? Kindling	? Pyroclasm	✓ Meteor

Talents can be freely changed when out of combat and in a rested XP area (such as an inn or a capital city). Moreover, Tome of the Tranquil Mind and Codex of the Tranquil Mind can be used to temporarily allow players to change talents anywhere, as long as they are out of combat.

2. Talent Cheat Sheets for Fire Mage

While optimizing talents on a contextual basis is the highly recommended method of setting up your build, the talent build listed below works great for general purposes.

• Level 15: Searing Touch or Firestarter if you have Duplicative Incineration on at least one Azerite Item.
• Level 30: Shimmer
• Level 45: Rune of Power
• Level 60: Flame On
• Level 75: Frenetic Speed
• Level 90: Conflagration (single target) OR see talent discussion
• Level 100: Meteor

3. Tier 1 (Level 15) Talents for Fire Mage

✔ Firestarter

? Pyromaniac

✔ Searing Touch

Tier 1 talents offer a minor boost to sustained damage.

• Firestarter causes Fireball and Pyroblast to always critically strike when your target is above 90% Health.
• Pyromaniac gives you a small chance to re-activate Hot Streak instantly.
• Searing Touch makes Scorch a guaranteed Critical Strike and deals 150% more damage when the target is below 30% Health.

Searing Touch is the best option if the boss loses Health at a steady rate throughout the fight. It also gives you a lot of flexibility by turning your main filler spell into Scorch, (while the boss is below 30%) which can be cast while moving. It is also the best talent for AoE situations.

Firestarter is the best option if the boss remains above 90% Health for a disproportionate amount of time, or if you have Duplicative Incineration on any of your Azerite items.

Pyromaniac can be used when the boss spends a disproportionate amount of time between 30% and 90% Health.

4. Tier 2 (Level 30) Talents for Fire Mage

✘ Blazing Soul

✔ Shimmer

✘ Blast Wave

Tier 2 talents offer a boost in defensive utility.

• Blazing Soul causes Blink to apply Blazing Barrier.
• Shimmer replaces your Blink ability. It functions exactly the same as Blink, except it is off the Global Cooldown, is a 20-second cooldown instead of 15, does not interrupt spellcasting, and it does not break stuns.
• Blast Wave causes an explosion around yourself, dealing Fire damage to all enemies within 8 yards and knocking them back and then reducing their movement speed by 70% for 4 seconds.

Shimmer should be your go-to talent in most situations, as it gives you more mobility and the ability to Blink without triggering a Global Cooldown. Not only does this result in a noticeable damage gain, but should also allow for better survivability on high movement fights.

Blast Wave can be useful for Mythic+ if you need the additional control for kiting.

Blazing Soul gives you extra survivability when you blink. It can be useful in some situations, but is not an advised pick over Shimmer.

5. Tier 3 (Level 45) Talents for Fire Mage

✔ Incanter's Flow

✘ Mirror Image

✔ Rune of Power

Tier 3 talents are focused on providing the player a consistent damage increase.

• Incanter's Flow increases your damage between 4% and 20%, cycling every 10 seconds.
• Mirror Image creates 3 copies of yourself which damage enemies and last 40 seconds.
• Rune of Power places a small zone which increases the damage you do by 40% for 10 seconds. This ability has a 40-second cooldown, with 2 charges.

Rune of Power is the best DPS talent. However, due to its restrictive nature, it may be not be practical to use on all encounters. Incanter's Flow is a bit weaker numerically, but is usable on all types of fight encounters.

Mirror Image is close to the above 2 talents on pure single target encounters. However, it loses a lot of value if at any point there are multiple targets available, so it is not used in general.

6. Tier 4 (Level 60) Talents for Fire Mage

✔ Flame On

✘ Alexstrasza's Fury

? Phoenix Flames

Tier 4 talents are focused on providing unique damage utility.

• Flame On reduces the cooldown of Fire Blast by 2 seconds, and increases the maximum number of charges by 1.
• Alexstrasza's Fury causes Dragon's Breath to always critically strike, and contribute to Hot Streak.
• Phoenix Flames deals decent damage to the primary target, and splashes for low damage to surrounding targets. It is always a Critical Strike.

Flame On should be your go-to choice on raid bosses, as it allows for the most Hot Streaks throughout a fight, for both single target and AoE.

Alexstrasza's Fury can be used in situations where snap AoE damage is required, or there is a constant stream of 5+ targets available.

Phoenix Flames is great AoE damage on short AoE durations, which makes it especially useful in Mythic+ or fights with occasional add waves.

7. Tier 5 (Level 75) Talents for Fire Mage

✔ Frenetic Speed

✘ Ice Ward

✘ Ring of Frost

Tier 5 talents focus primarily on providing utility.

• Frenetic Speed causes Scorch to increase movement speed by 30% for 3 seconds when cast.
• Ice Ward gives Frost Nova 2 charges.
• Ring of Frost places a ring that can freeze up to 10 targets for 10 seconds at the targeted location, broken by damage.

Frenetic Speed is the only talent with a benefit in raids.

8. Tier 6 (Level 90) Talents for Fire Mage

✔ Flame Patch

✔ Conflagration

✔ Living Bomb

Tier 6 talents add various cleave and AoE utility to your kit.

• Flame Patch adds a burning ground effect to Flamestrike that lasts for 8 seconds.
• Conflagration cases Fireball to apply a small damage over time (DoT) effect to your primary target. Any targets affected by either this small DoT or Mastery: Ignite can flare up to deal AoE damage.
• Living Bomb applies a bomb to the target which explodes after a delay and spreads itself to nearby targets.

Conflagration is the best choice for single target.

Flame Patch is the best talent for 3 upto 12 targets as long as the targets remain inside the burning area for the entire duration.

Living Bomb is the best choice for 12+ targets, and it also results in a single-target damage increase in AoE situations. It is worth noting that even though Flame Patch is technically better on 3+ targets, it does lose a lot of damage to the priority target because Flame Patch requires you to use your Hot Streaks on Flamestrike, whereas with Living Bomb you can continue to throw out Pyroblasts on the primary target and still do decent AoE damage.

9. Tier 7 (Level 100) Talents for Fire Mage

? Kindling

? Pyroclasm

✔ Meteor

Tier 7 talents add new abilities and major playstyle shifts to your kit.

• Kindling reduces the cooldown of Combustion by 1 second every time Fireball, Fire Blast, and Pyroblast critically strike.
• Pyroclasm gives you a 15% chance to cause your next non-instant Pyroblast to do 225% extra damage after consuming Hot Streak. It can stack up to 2 times.
• Meteor summons a meteor to fall from the sky after a short delay, dealing large initial damage and leaving a burning patch on the ground for 8 seconds.

Meteor is the best option for single target, assuming it is possible to always hit the target with Meteor. It is also the best talent for AoE as long as the targets remain in the burning area for most of its duration.

Pyroclasm is slightly behind Meteor on single target, so it can be used on encounters where the target moves a lot, and landing Meteor is difficult.

Kindling is an option on heavy cleave where the targets do not remain inside Meteor's burn effect, or where the reduced Combustion cooldown allows you to use Combustion for certain raid mechanics which require a DPS boost, and Combustion would not be available without Kindling.

10. PvP Talents (War Mode)

In Battle for Azeroth, there will be the option to enable "War Mode". Enabling War Mode grants the following benefits:

• PvP talents enabled in the outdoor world.
• 10% increase in World Quest rewards at max level.
• 10% more experience gained while leveling.
• Earn Conquest Points which can reward gear every week.

With the benefits of enabling War Mode for leveling and PvE content, it is recommended to enable the feature to maximize your leveling and rewards at max level. However, doing so will enable PvP combat, and the possibility of being attacked by members of the opposite faction while leveling or doing World Quests exists.

10.1. Fire Mage War Mode Talents

In this section we will rank the War Mode talents for leveling and outdoor content.

1. Tinder is great because there are often times where you are not casting Fireball for prolonged periods of time due to moving from area to area. This talent will make your first Fireball on almost every new encounter do more damage, and be extremely quick. Combined with Firestarter it is a guaranteed Critical Strike, giving you Heating Up, which you can then follow up with a Fire Blast giving you a Hot Streak instantly on almost any new target you fight.
2. Firestarter is great for giving you Combustion much quicker than otherwise possible. It allows you to use Combustion very often, giving you a huge damage increase over the course of leveling / world content.
4. Temporal Shield is off the Global Cooldown, so it can be used without sacrificing any damage, and is very strong for when you know damage is incoming. You can simply tank the damage and heal back to full Health when the shield ends.

11. Changelog