Fire Mage DPS Spell Summary (Legion 7.3)

Table of Contents

• +Introduction
  • 1. Class Overview
  • 2. Patch 7.3 Changes
  • 3. Patch 7.2.5 Changes
  • 4. Strengths
  • 5. Weaknesses
  • 6. Viability in the Current Patch
  • 7. Contents
  • 8. ChangeLog
• +Easy Mode
  • 1. The Basics
  • 2. Talent Choice
  • 3. Stat Choice
  • 4. Basic Rotation
  • 5. ChangeLog
• ×Spell Summary
  • 1. Spell Summary
  • 2. Main Resources
  • 3. Your Mastery
  • 4. Important Procs
  • 5. Basic Abilities
  • 6. DPS Cooldowns
  • 7. ChangeLog
• +Builds and Talents
  • 1. Talent Choices
  • 2. Talent Cheat Sheets
    • 2.1. Raid Encounters
      • 2.1.1. Single Target
      • 2.1.2. Intermittent Cleave
      • 2.1.3. Heavy Cleave/AOE (Stacked)
  • 3. Tier 1 (Level 15) Talents
  • 4. Tier 2 (Level 30) Talents
  • 5. Tier 3 (Level 45) Talents
  • 6. Tier 4 (Level 60) Talents
  • 7. Tier 5 (Level 75) Talents
  • 8. Tier 6 (Level 90) Talents
  • 9. Tier 7 (Level 100) Talents
  • 10. ChangeLog
• +Artifact Traits and Relics
  • 1. Artifact Progression — First 35 Points
    • 1.1. Early Point Investment
    • 1.2. Second Golden Trait
    • 1.3. Final Point Investment
  • 2. Patch 7.2: 35+ Trait Path
  • 3. Relic Choice
  • 4. ChangeLog
• +Netherlight Crucible Relic Paths
  • 1. General Optimization Advice
  • 2. Tier 2 Upgrade Priority
  • 3. Tier 3 Upgrade Priority
  • 4. ChangeLog
• +Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities
  • 1. Ability Priority List
  • 2. Important Notes
    • 2.1. Effectively Creating Crit Trains
      • 2.1.1. Spells That Do Not Trigger or Cancel Heating Up
    • 2.2. Phoenix's Flames
    • 2.3. Flamestrike Usage
    • 2.4. Rune of Power
    • 2.5. Blazing Barrier
    • 2.6. Scorch
  • 3. Core Concepts
    • 3.1. Combustion Usage
    • 3.2. Critical Strike Chains
    • 3.3. Movement Management
      • 3.3.1. Quiet Movement
  • 4. Opening Sequence
  • 5. ChangeLog
• +Stat Priority
  • 1. Basics
  • 2. Getting a Better Understanding
    • 2.1. Statistics Explanations
  • 3. ChangeLog
• +Gems, Enchants, and Consumables
  • 1. Gems
  • 2. Enchants
  • 3. Consumables
  • 4. ChangeLog
• +Macros and Addons
  • 1. Addons
    • 1.1. ElvUI
    • 1.2. Weak Auras
    • 1.3. Boss Mods
      • 1.3.1. BigWigs Bossmods
      • 1.3.2. Deadly Boss Mods
    • 1.4. Name Plates
      • 1.4.1. KUI Nameplates
      • 1.4.2. TidyPlates
    • 1.5. Damage Meters
      • 1.5.1. Skada
      • 1.5.2. Details
    • 1.6. Extra AddOns
      • 1.6.1. Mik's Scrolling Battle Text
      • 1.6.2. DeathNote
      • 1.6.3. Doom CooldownPulse
      • 1.6.4. Angry Assignments
  • 2. Macros
    • 2.1. Generic Macros for Mages
      • 2.1.1. Stopcast Blink
      • 2.1.2. 1-Button Block
      • 2.1.3. Block Cancel
  • 3. ChangeLog
• +Gear, Legendaries, and Best in Slot
  • 1. Tier 20 Set Bonus
  • 2. Best in Slot List
    • 2.1. Trinket Notes
  • 3. Evaluating Upgrades Using Stat Weights
  • 4. Racial Bonuses
  • 5. Legendaries
  • 6. Loot Competition
  • 7. ChangeLog

General Information

On this page, we list the spells that you will often use as a Fire Mage.

The other pages of our Fire Mage guide can be accessed from the table of contents on the right.

About Our Author and Reviewer

This guide has been written by Furty, who has an illustrious history in the World of Warcraft raiding scene and race for World First. He has been a member of guilds such as Serenity, Midwinter, and many more, and is currently raiding in Future. He plays most classes at the highest level. You can follow him on Twitter and watch him play on Twitch.

This guide has been reviewed and approved by Rinoa, a Fire Mage theorycrafter for Altered Time who is also a raider for Pieces.

1. Spell Summary

If you are new to Fire, it is recommended you start here. If you have played this spec before or have already achieved a level of comfort playing this spec in a practical environment, it is recommended you skip this section and move on to the rest of the guide.

2. Main Resources

Mana is your primary resources, though it has little to no impact on your main rotation. It is not realistically possible to run out of Mana without excessive use of Spellsteal, and therefore you do not need to worry about your Mana levels as a general rule.

3. Your Mastery

Ignite is your Mastery. All direct-damage caused by Fireball, Pyroblast, Fire Blast, Scorch, Meteor, Cinderstorm, and Flamestrike (see Basic Abilities to learn more about these spells) will cause your target to burn for a percentage of that damage over 9 seconds. Hitting the target with any of these spells while Ignite is already active will add to the current Ignite, but not extend it. Think of all your Ignites as being independent and separate instances of the debuff, even though they all appear as a single debuff. This means they all expire independent of each other as well. Ignite will automatically spread itself to targets near your Ignite target every 2 seconds.

4. Important Procs

Fire Mage has several important procs that are very important to the normal rotation. These procs can almost be considered as being your real "primary resource".

Heating Up is a passive that will proc any time your direct-damage spells score a critical strike.

Hot Streak is a passive that procs after you score a second critical strike in a row following Heating Up. This passive makes your next cast instant, and doubles the Ignite value from the spell. We will nearly always use this proc on Pyroblast (see Basic Abilities), however, it can be also used on Flamestrike.

5. Basic Abilities

These abilities are available no matter what talents you chose, and form the bread and butter of this specialization.

Fireball is your main filler spell. You will be casting it a lot to fish for Heating Up procs.

Fire Blast has 2 charges, and automatically crits when used. This ability is not on the Global Cooldown, meaning that it can be cast while you are casting other spells. It has a 12-second recharge. This ability is mainly used to generate an automatic critical strike following Heating Up proccing off one of your spell critical strikes, immediately forcing Hot Streak.

Pyroblast is our main nuke. It has an extremely long cast time, so it should only be used as a pre-cast prior to the fight or when Hot Streak is active.

Flamestrike is our main nuke on cleave and AoE (4+ targets). It has an extremely long cast time, so it should only be used as a pre-cast prior to the fight or when Hot Streak is active.

Dragon's Breath is an instant cast spell that does moderate damage and disorients targets in a cone up to 12 yards away from the caster. Dragon's Breath for 3+ targets. It should be used on cooldown, however, if you have access to Darckli's Dragonfire Diadem.

Scorch is an extremely weak spell that can be cast while moving.

6. DPS Cooldowns

Combustion is our DPS cooldown. It lasts 10 seconds, and increases our mastery (the bonus damage generated via Ignite) by an amount equal to 50% of our Critical Strike rating as well as increasing our Critical Strike by 100% each. This ability is off of the Global Cooldown, meaning it can be cast while you are casting other spells. Since this ability drastically increases our damage output via Ignite, it is equally strong in both single target and AoE scenarios.

Time Warp increases Haste by 30% for 40 seconds for all party and raid members. This ability debuffs everyone with a debuff that prevents the possibility of benefiting from Time Warp, Ancient Hysteria, Netherwinds, Heroism, and Bloodlust for the next 10 minutes.

7. ChangeLog

+ show all entries - show only 10 entries

• 12 Jun. 2017: Updated "Main Resource" section as Mana Starvation is no longer a concern.
• 09 Jan. 2017: Updated description of Combustion.
• 29 Nov. 2016: Updated "Main Resource" section to discuss Mana Starvation. Also updated Dragon's Breath description.
• 29 Aug. 2016: Updated for Legion's launch.
• 19 Jul. 2016: Fixed Combustion's description.
• 18 Jul. 2016: Updated for the Legion pre-patch.