Fire Mage DPS Spec, Builds, and Talents — Dragonflight 10.2

Below is the "standard" Fire Mage single target build. It is also decent at doing cleave damage via Mastery: Ignite.

Keep in mind, although Living Bomb is taken in the single target talent tree below, you should not actually cast it on single target; it is purely taken because it is required to get to Firefall.

The below build is a build focused around heavy AoE damage via Flamestrike. It gives up some single target and cleave DPS but gains significant AoE damage against larger groups of enemies. (4+ targets) See our Ignite vs Flamestrike section below for more information.

For AoE-based situations, there are 2 main builds you can opt into. One focuses on Mastery: Ignite, whereas the other focuses on Flamestrike. The single target build is decent at doing cleave DPS. However, it suffers when fighting larger groups of enemies. Around 3 targets, both builds do similar DPS, however, at 4 targets onwards, the Flamestrike build starts doing more damage.

However, this additional damage does come at a cost. The Flamestrike-based build gives up significant priority target DPS. Meaning it does all its damage evenly to all targets. Whereas the Ignite-based build can heavily focus down a single target and do all of its AoE damage effectively for free.

This means that in mixed content, for example, Mythic+ or a raid boss that has both AoE phases and single target phases, you have to pick what you want to excel at. If you want to focus on heavy AoE damage, you should go for the Flamestrike build, whereas if you want to focus more on priority target DPS while still doing decent AoE damage, the Ignite build is favored.

The general Mage tree is extremely flexible. It is almost entirely personal preference, apart from a couple of key DPS nodes. You have many more points available than you need to get all of the DPS nodes, leaving you with many options in terms of survivability, crowd control, and utility. Below, we will highlight some of the key nodes that are important for DPS and suggest some of the best non-DPS nodes. However, even after that, you can assign a bunch of points as you see fit.

Talent	Reason for taking
Overflowing Energy	A large DPS boost.
Incanter's Flow	A large DPS boost.
Shifting Power	A large DPS boost.
Ice Block	One of the best defensives in the entire game.
Mirror Image	A great defensive tool useful in all content.
Alter Time	A very strong defensive and mobility tool in one, useful in all content.

Talent	Reason for taking
Spellsteal	A good pick if there are buffs you can steal that are either beneficial to you, or make the content easier by removing it from the target.
Remove Curse	A good pick if there are curses you can dispel.
Winter's Protection	Can be useful if you need the reduced cooldown to be able to solo soak a specific raid mechanic. If combined with Ice Cold and Cryo-Freeze it also becomes a very strong damage reduction tool.
Incantation of Swiftness	Can be useful for skipping content, like trash packs in dungeons, or open-world enemies
Tempest Barrier	A minor defensive tool useful in all content.

The tier 2 talents contain almost entirely utility/mobility talents.

Talent	Reason for taking
Tome of Rhonin	A straight up DPS boost
Tome of Antonidas	A straight up DPS boost
Shimmer or Ice Floes	Both are extremely strong mobility tools. This choice is largely a personal preference. Ice Floes ultimately allows for more movement without losing DPS, but it comes at the cost of losing out on the burst movement (without having to give up a global cooldown like Blink does) that Shimmer provides.
Diverted Energy	A great survivability tool useful in all content.

Talent	Reason for taking
Master of Time	A decent survivability and mobility tool useful in all content.
Quick Witted	A good pickup in content where you need the reduced interrupt cooldown, like Mythic+ in a low interrupt group.
Slow	A good pickup to assist in kiting, especially when solo. Generally not too much usage in group content, though.
Cryo-Freeze	A very good self-healing tool when playing solo or a very strong defensive in all content when combined with Ice Cold.
Reduplication	Can be useful if it would give you an additional usage of Mirror Image for a specific high-hitting ability, but usually hard to proc this.
Reabsorption	Adds a relatively useful self-heal onto Mirror Image, but usually hard to proc this.
Blast Wave	Great crowd control that can be extremely useful in Mythic+ and open-world content, for its ability to AoE interrupt enemy spellcasts
Volatile Detonation	Used to further increase the ability to kite with Blast Wave, but should be careful in grouped content to not knock enemies into additional enemies and pull more than planned.
Mass Slow	Can be used to kite packs of mobs in Mythic+, in some cases, or good for open-world content.
Ice Nova	For even more crowd control. Also, technically a minor DPS increase when moving as it can be used when on the move if you have no Ice Floes / Shimmer ready and no other instants.
Ring of Frost	For even more crowd control.

In this tier, we unlock some of the strong final nodes as a priority, whereas the rest is flexible.

Talent	Reason for taking
Time Anomaly / Temporal Warp	The strongest of the final nodes. We usually suggest picking Temporal Warp. However, if you are doing group content where you are unable to use Time Warp (or similar effects) relatively early in the content you are doing, you can consider going Time Anomaly, otherwise Temporal Warp.
Greater Invisibility	One of the best defensive tools in the game.
Mass Barrier / Mass Invisibility	A single-point talent (assuming you took Greater Invisibility) that provides quite a lot of defensive power for your group if you take Mass Barrier. Since the cooldown is not shared with Blazing Barrier, it is a useful defensive tool even when solo. Mass Invisibility can be a very strong tool for Mythic+ to skip packs.
Temporal Velocity	A decent mobility tool. It is not that great of a talent on its own, but it is on the path to some very strong other nodes, so it's pretty much always taken.

Talent	Reason for taking
Ice Cold	Turns Ice Block into a very strong defensive cooldown that does not come at the cost of any DPS but removes the immunity aspect from it. Generally, we suggest taking this if you do not need the immunity aspect of Ice Block, as it lasts 6 seconds, and you are unlikely to sit in Ice Block for that long. Additionally, when combined with Cryo-Freeze, it also becomes a very strong self heal that you do not need to sit in Ice Block for to get the benefit of.
Dragon's Breath	If you have Alexstrasza's Fury talented, you should also pick up Dragon's Breath for DPS. Without Alexstrasza's Fury, it is a very good crowd-control ability, especially useful in Mythic+ to interrupt spell casts.
Accumulative Shielding	A minor boost to your survivability that works in all content.
Displacement	A decent mobility and defensive tool. Difficult to take without giving up one of the capstone nodes, but if you are skipping a capstone node, a very useful mobility + defensive tool.
Frigid Winds + Ice Ward	These nodes give you even more kiting power. Not very useful in most group content, but strong when solo and on the way to Ice Cold. If you are not taking Ice Cold, these two talents should be skipped for most group play.
Time Manipulation	Can be useful if you are doing content where you really need the extra crowd control.

In this section, we will go over the Fire Mage Talents. The focus of this section will be PvE content.

This section sets up a lot of the core components of the spec.

You always take all talents in this section, except for Firestarter and Fuel the Fire.

Talent	Reason for taking
Firestarter	Very good DPS boost as long if the enemy remains above 90% health larger than a usual amount of time. For example, if a raid boss has a large shield at 100% health that you need to burn through first.
Fuel the Fire	Only taken for the Flamestrike based AoE build.

Talent	Reason for taking
Flame On	Large DPS increase on both single target and AoE, numerically stronger than other options.
Critical Mass (1x)	Large DPS increase on both single target and AoE, numerically stronger than other options. You always take at least one point of Critical Mass as the first point is stronger than the second. See the optional section below on when to take the second point.
Combustion	Large DPS increase on both single target and AoE, numerically stronger than other options.
Improved Combustion	Large DPS increase on both single target and AoE, numerically stronger than other options.
Feel the Burn	Large DPS boost in all content, numerically stronger than other options.
Firemind	Large DPS boost in all content, numerically stronger than other options.
Call of the Sun King	Decent DPS boost in all content, numerically stronger than other options.
Improved Scorch	Great for both single target and AoE.

Talent	Reason for taking
Alexstrasza's Fury	You should use Alexstrasza's Fury for AoE and cleave situations. Additionally, you can take either Alexstraszas Fury or a point in Controlled Destruction. Both are pretty much equal DPS, and the difference primarily comes from how much time the target spends above 70% and below 30% health. You can pick either pretty much up to personal preference.
Critical Mass (second point)	Taken on single target but skipped in AoE situations.
Intensifying Flame	Taken for single target, but skipped in AoE situations.
Flame Patch	Picked for heavy AoE when going Flamestrike based AoE.
Incendiary Eruptions	Picked for heavy AoE when going Flamestrike based AoE.

Talent	Reason for taking
Fevered Incantation	Large DPS increase on both single target and AoE, numerically stronger than other options.
Kindling	Large DPS increase on both single target and AoE, numerically stronger than other options.
Fiery Rush	Large DPS increase on both single target and AoE, numerically stronger than other options.
Sun King's Blessing / Unleashed Inferno	The best capstone node available. Generally, you will want to go with Sun King's Blessing. However, if the content you are doing has lots of downtime, Unleashed Inferno can be better. Additionally, if you really need more burst DPS to deal with a certain boss mechanic, Unleashed Inferno can also be used to beat that burst DPS check. Whichever option you pick, it is better than any other talent available.
Wildfire	Not the best node on its own, but required to get to Sun King's Blessing, and better than Flame Accelerant.
Conflagration	Numerically better than other options on both single target and AoE.

Talent	Reason for taking
Living Bomb + Convection + Firefall	Taken for single target, but skipped in heavy AoE situations or when going Flamestrike based AoE. Keep in mind that both Living Bomb and Convection are useless for single target. you should never actually cast a Living Bomb on single target. The only reason you take them is to reach Firefall, which is a very strong single-target talent.
Controlled Destruction (2x) + Hyperthermia	Can be taken instead of the three talents above for single target. If the target you are fighting moves a lot, causing Firefall Meteors to miss, these 3 talents should be taken instead. Otherwise, it is numerically slightly worse, but players might prefer the Hyperthermia playstyle over the Firefall playstyle.
Phoenix Reborn	Skipped for single target or low target counts, but numerically stronger than other options for AoE situations.
Meteor	Skipped for single target or low target counts, but numerically stronger than other options for AoE situations.
Flame Accelerant	Picked in single target but skipped in AoE situations.