Fire Mage DPS Spell List and Glossary — Midnight Pre-Patch (12.0)
On this page, we present you with all spells and procs that you need to understand as a Fire Mage in World of Warcraft — Midnight Pre-Patch (12.0).
If you were looking for Mists of Pandaria Classic content, please refer to our Mists of Pandaria Classic Fire Mage spells.
Fire Mage 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.
Keep in mind some spells might be much easier to use via macros or are more easily used in combination with other spells. Visit the macro page below to get a good idea of such macros.
Unlocking Abilities
Note that this page simply lists all the different abilities, assuming you are at max level. If you are leveling, check out our dedicated Mage Leveling page, which has detailed information on when you unlock all of these abilities.
Main Resource for Fire Mage
Mana is your primary resource, though it has little to no impact on
your main rotation. It is not 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.
Mastery for Fire Mage
Mastery: Ignite is your Mastery. All direct damage caused by
Fireball,
Pyroblast,
Fire Blast,
Scorch
and
Flamestrike (see Basic Abilities to learn more
about these spells) will cause your target to burn for a percentage of that
damage over time. Hitting a target with Ignite already active will add the
new Ignite damage to the already existing Ignite and then distribute itself
again over the full duration. By default, Ignite only hits any target hit by
an ability that causes Ignite, but various talents allow you to spread a portion
of Ignite to nearby targets.
Baseline Abilities for Fire Mage
These abilities are available no matter what talents you choose and form the bread and butter of this specialization.
| Ability | Abbreviation | Description/Effect |
|---|---|---|
| FB | This is your main filler spell. You will be casting it a lot
to fish for |
|
| IB/FB | Fire Blast (often abbreviated IB due to its old name, "Inferno Blast"),
is technically a talent, but required to pick to progress the Fire tree.
It has 1 charge (up to 3 with various talents), and always
critically strikes when used. This ability is not on the Global Cooldown, and
can be cast while casting other abilities. This
ability is used to generate an automatic Critical Strike following
|
|
| Pyro | Although technically a talent, Pyroblast is the very first node and
required to pick. It is our main nuke. It has an extremely long cast time by default,
but can be turned instant via |
|
| FS | Our main nuke on cleave and AoE. It has a long cast
time, but can be made instant via |
|
| - | Blink is an instant-cast spell that immediately travels you 20 yards forward, breaking any stuns and roots you might be affected by. This iconic Mage spell is a very strong mobility spell that helps with getting around the battlefield. | |
| CS | Counterspell is an instant-cast spell that is not on the global cooldown, which, when cast, will interrupt your target's spell cast and also lock them out of casting any spells of the same school as the interrupted spell for 6 seconds. If you cast this on a target that is not casting, it will have no effect. | |
| TW/BL/Hero | Time Warp is an instant-cast spell that is not on the global cooldown,
which increases Haste by 30% for 40 seconds for all party and
raid members within 100 yards. This ability debuffs everyone with a debuff that
prevents the possibility of benefiting from Time Warp, |
|
| AI/Int | Arcane Intellect buffs the entire raid, giving them more Intellect. Mages are the only class that gives this buff, so most raids will want at least one Mage to ensure the raid has this buff. | |
| Poly | Polymorph, one of the most iconic Mage spells in the game, turns your target into a critter that cannot do anything while at the same time healing them. This spell does no damage. Instead, it heals your target, so it is not used in any DPS rotations. However, it is a very useful spell used very actively in PvP and sometimes in PvE content to reduce the number of enemies you are fighting at the same time. There are various collectibles to change the appearance of your Polymorphed target, but as a baseline, your target turns into a sheep. | |
| Invis | Invisibility is a utility spell that makes you invisible over 3 seconds. It can be very useful to skip certain enemies in a dungeon or open world content. Additionally, it also completely drops your aggro over 3 seconds, which can be useful when you are at risk of getting aggro on enemies. | |
| Cone/CoC | Cone of Cold is an instant-cast spell that slows enemies in front of you. It is generally not used as a damage spell but purely as a control spell. | |
| - | Conjure Refreshment is a utility spell that generates food for you. If you are in a group, instead of directly creating food, it instead creates a table that you and your party or raid members can click to gain food instead. This food will regenerate health and Mana out of combat while eating it, but it does not provide any combat buffs like some other types of food. | |
| - | Slow Fall is an instant-cast spell that, as the name suggests, makes you fall more slowly, avoiding any fall damage. You can also use this on other players to reduce their falling speed and fall damage. This is primarily used to save yourself from dying when falling from high places and in some niche PvP situations. | |
| Nova | Frost Nova is an instant-cast spell that does a bit of damage to targets around you, freezing them in the process. This freeze effect stops them from moving but not from using any spells or abilities. The freeze effect can also break from damage, both yours or anyone else's damage. This spell is usually not used in a DPS rotation, but it is often used for its crowd control effects in PvP or open-world content. | |
| Port | Portal is a spell that opens up a portal to a specific destination. There are multiple variants of this spell that open up Portals to most of the big cities in World of Warcraft. Anyone in your party or raid group can take this portal to quickly travel around the world. | |
| TP/Tele | Teleport is a lot like |
Important Procs for Fire Mage
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."
| Ability | Abbreviation | Description/Effect |
|---|---|---|
| HU | This is a passive that will proc any time your direct-damage
spells score a Critical Strike. Heating Up itself does not show in your spellbook
as a passive, but it is the buff you get after critically striking once, which
after the next critical strike turns into |
|
| HS | This is a passive that procs after you score a second critical
strike in a row following |
To learn how to use these abilities together in your rotation, read the rotation part of our guide below.
Class Tree Active Abilities for Fire Mage
In this section, we will go over all the active abilities in the Mage general talent tree. Active abilities are abilities you can press yourself.
| Ability | Abbreviation | Description/Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Barrier | Blazing Barrier is an instant-cast spell that provides you with a shield that absorbs damage before your health pool. Additionally, while the shield is up, it causes some minor damage when you are attacked by melee. This is an incredibly strong defensive tool and proper usage of this will increase your survivability greatly. | |
| Block/IB | Makes you completely immune to all damage, and removes (almost) all debuffs
from you. You are unable to do anything while in an Ice Block, but you can cancel
it by pressing it a second time. Causes |
|
| - | Spellsteal is a utility spell that steals one magic beneficial effect from a target enemy and applies it to yourself for a maximum of 2 minutes. There are many powerful effects in all types of content that can be stolen with this spell, which can greatly boost your damage or survivability. In some cases, enemies might have buffs which can be removed from the enemy via Spellsteal, but you do not receive the buff yourself. This is pretty rare, but does sometimes happen for balance reasons. | |
| - | Remove Curse can be used to remove Curses from a raid or party member. Sometimes called Decurse. | |
| MI | Mirror Image spawns 3 copies nearby that will attack your enemies and greatly reduce the threat you generate while at least one is alive. Any direct damage you take will cause one of the copies to be removed. These copies can not be controlled. Although the copies do some damage, it is primarily a defensive ability, as the damage they do is very low. The copies will also take aggro before you, which allows you to survive significantly longer in solo content. Generally, they do not take damage from area damage, but they do die from direct attacks on them. | |
| AT | Alter Time can be used as both a defensive and a mobility tool. Ten seconds after casting this ability or after pressing it a second time, you will be returned to your location and health from when you cast it. One common usage is to activate it right before a big hit and then re-activating it after the big hit to immediately heal back to full health. | |
| - | Mass Polymorph is an AoE version of |
|
| - | Ice Nova is an instant-cast spell that freezes your target and
targets around it for 2 seconds. Although it does do some damage, it is
generally not used for the damage aspect, as the damage is not high enough to
make it worth casting just for damage. Unlike the Freeze from
|
|
| - | Shimmer replaces |
|
| GI | Greater Invisibility is a stronger version of |
|
| DB | Dragon's Breath is a short-range instant-cast crowd control
spell. It will disorient all enemies in front of you for 4 seconds when cast,
canceled by damage. It is often used in dungeons as a way to interrupt multiple
enemies all at once. A common combo in PvP or solo content is to use Dragon's Breath
into |
|
| SN | A ranged crowd-control ability that knocks your target (if it is an enemy target) and surrounding enemies into the air. This can be used both on enemy and friendly targets but will only knock up/damage enemy targets, and does double damage to the primary target. It is often used in dungeons as a way to interrupt multiple enemies all at once. Although this ability does damage, it is generally not used for its damage and purely for crowd-control. | |
| - | Makes you and all your party or raid members invisible for 12 seconds. The invisibility breaks when any ability or item is used and does not apply on allies in combat. | |
| - | After casting |
|
| - | Replaces |
Class Tree Passive Abilities for Fire Mage
In this section, we will go over all the passive abilities in the Mage general talent tree. Passive abilities are abilities you cannot press yourself but instead apply some effect to other abilities.
| Ability | Abbreviation | Description/Effect |
|---|---|---|
| - | Causes |
|
| - | Whenever you drop below 25% health, immediately heals you by 50% health. Can
only activate while |
|
| - | Increases the critical strike chance of |
|
| - | Reduces the cooldown of |
|
| - | Reduces the duration of |
|
| - | Grants you bonus movement speed for a few seconds after casting
|
|
| - | Reduces the cooldown of |
|
| - | Increases the critical damage of your spells. | |
| - | When you gain |
|
| - | Reduces your mana costs. | |
| - | Increases your Mastery. | |
| - | Reduces the cooldown of |
|
| - | Arcane Warding reduces all magic damage you take by a small amount. | |
| - | Reduces |
|
| - | Reduces the cooldown of |
|
| - | Causes |
|
| - | Reduces the cooldown of |
|
| - | Causes |
|
| - | Makes it so that when you cast |
|
| - | Master of Time reduces the cooldown of |
|
| - | Improved Frost Nova increases the duration of |
|
| - | Increases the duration of |
|
| - | Increases your Critical Strike chance by 2%. | |
| - | Increases your Haste by 2%. | |
| - | Causes casting |
|
| - | Reduces the cooldown of |
|
| - | Gives |
|
| - | Reduces the cooldown of your crowd control abilities. | |
| - | Whenever any of your barriers are removed, it reduces their cooldown by a few seconds. | |
| - | Causes your |
|
| - | ||
| - | You heal by a portion of the damage absorbed by |
Spec Tree Active Abilities for Fire Mage
In this section, we will go over all the active abilities in the Fire talent tree. Active abilities are abilities you can press yourself.
Pyroblast,
Fire Blast and
Flamestrike are technically talents, but they
are part of the first 3 nodes and required to pick to be able to go down the
tree, so they are described under the base abilities section.
| Ability | Abbreviation | Description/Effect |
|---|---|---|
| - | This is a low-damage ability that can be cast while moving.
On enemies below 30% health, it is guaranteed to critically strike, making
it a good way to generate |
|
| - | Our big DPS cooldown. It lasts 10 seconds (by default), increasing
our Critical Strike by 100%. This ability is off of the Global Cooldown, and it
can be cast while you are casting other spells. Since it makes all spells
guaranteed crit: it allows you to chain a lot of instant spells due to
the constant |
|
| - | An instant ability, that after 3 seconds lands on the targeted area, dealing a chunk of initial damage, followed by a damage over time effect for 8 seconds. Both effects deal AoE damage, but only the initial hit is reduced beyond 8 targets. The falling speed increases with your Haste. |
Spec Tree Passive Abilities for Fire Mage
In this section, we will go over all the passive abilities in the Fire talent tree. Passive abilities are abilities you cannot press yourself but instead apply some effect to other abilities.
| Ability | Abbreviation | Description/Effect |
|---|---|---|
| FS (sometimes) | Makes your |
|
| - | Causes |
|
| - | Provides |
|
| - | Provides |
|
| - | Causes |
|
| - | Gives your |
|
| - | Increases your Fire damage. | |
| - | Causes |
|
| - | Reduces |
|
| FO | Provides |
|
| Caut | Gives you a cheat death ability. When you would normally die, you instead will be brought to 35% health, then burning you for 28% of your maximum health over 6 seconds, leaving you at 7% health if you receive no further damage or healing. Additionally, you cannot be slowed during these 6 seconds and gain a 150% movement speed. This effect can only occur once every 6 minutes. Keep in mind, Cauterize will not save you from death if you get hit by a single hit that deals more than 200% of your maximum health. It also does not protect you against fall damage deaths. | |
| - | The target closest to the center of |
|
| - | Reduces the cast time of |
|
| CM | Increases the base critical strike chance of all spells. Additionally, you gain more critical strike stat from all sources, like gear, enchants, buffs, etc. Your character sheet's critical strike chance will already include both this base crit and more crit from all sources. | |
| - | Increases the |
|
| - | Causes |
|
| CD | Causes your |
|
| - | Causes your |
|
| WF | Causes |
|
| - | Causes |
|
| - | Your |
|
| BM/FTB | Sometimes abbreviated as "BM," from its old name, "Blaster Master."
Empowers your |
|
| FI | Causes each consecutive critical strike to
increase your critical strike damage stacking up to 4 times, lasting 6 seconds.
Any critical strike will reset the duration of all stacks to 6 seconds.
Any time you do not critically strike, it resets back to 0 stacks.
During |
|
| - | Reduces the cooldown of |
|
| - | Increases your critical strike chance. During |
|
| - | Gives you a 6% chance when you consume |
|
| - | Makes you do more damage to targets below 35% health. | |
| FtA | Increases the damage of |
|
| - | Causes your |
|
| - | When |
|
| - | ||
| - | Consuming |
|
| - | Casting |
Hero Talents Abilities for Fire Mage
In this section, we will go over the important abilities from the different Hero Talents for Fire Mage.
Sunfury
| Ability | Abbreviation | Description/Effect |
|---|---|---|
| - | Grants |
|
| - | Grants a buff that increases your Haste every time you consume |
|
| - | When you cast |
|
| BoP | Increases the damage of |
|
| GI | Whenever you spawn a |
|
| - | ||
| - | Increases the duration of |
|
| - | Increases the damage bonus of |
|
| - | When your Arcane Phoenix expires, it grants you |
|
| - | Reduces the cooldown of |
|
| - | During |
Frostfire
| Ability | Abbreviation | Description/Effect |
|---|---|---|
| - | Replaces |
|
| - | You melt slightly out of your |
|
| - | Gives all of your Frostfire spells a chance to activate |
|
| - | Proccing |
|
| - | ||
| - | Causes |
|
| - | Increases the bonus damage caused by |
|
| - | Increases |
|
| - | Increases the damage of |
|
| - | Increases the damage of |
|
| - | ||
| - | Increases the critical strike chance of |
|
| - | Your |
Changelog
- 19 Jan. 2026: Updated for Midnight Pre-Patch.
- 30 Nov. 2025: Reviewed for Patch 11.2.7.
- 05 Oct. 2025: Reviewed for Patch 11.2.5.
- 04 Aug. 2025: Updated spells for the 11.2.0 changes.
- 15 Jun. 2025: Reviewed for Patch 11.1.7.
- 21 Apr. 2025: Reviewed for Patch 11.1.5.
- 24 Feb. 2025: Updated for Patch 11.1.0.
- 15 Dec. 2024: Updated for Patch 11.0.7.
- 21 Oct. 2024: Reviewed for Patch 11.0.5.
- 09 Sep. 2024: Removed mention of bug on Ignite the future after the bug fix.
- 28 Aug. 2024: Updated some spell descriptions.
- 21 Aug. 2024: Updated for The War Within.
- 23 Jul. 2024: Updated for The War Within Pre-Patch.
- 07 May 2024: Reviewed for 10.2.7.
- 22 Apr. 2024: Reviewed for Season 4.
- 19 Mar. 2024: Reviewed for Patch 10.2.6.
- 15 Jan. 2024: Reviewed for Patch 10.2.5.
- 06 Nov. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.2
- 04 Sep. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.1.7
- 10 Jul. 2023: Updated all spells and talents for the Fire Mage rework of 10.1.5
- 01 May 2023: Cleaned up some descriptions to be more clear.
- 20 Mar. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.0.7.
- 24 Jan. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.0.5.
- 11 Dec. 2022: Reviewed for Dragonflight Season 1.
- 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 has been playing Mage since 2009 and writing guides and theorycrafting since 2012, with many top 20-100 world kills and rank 1 parses under his belt. He is the owner of the official Mage Discord server Altered Time, where he is involved in Mage Theorycrafting and everything else Mage. You can reach out to him directly for questions or feedback about the guide there.
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