Fire Mage DPS Spell Summary in Battle for Azeroth (BfA) 8.0.1

Table of Contents

• +Introduction
  • 1. Class Overview
  • 2. Patch 8.0.1 Changes for Fire Mage
  • 3. Fire Mage Strengths
  • 4. Fire Mage Weaknesses
  • 5. Fire Mage Viability in the Current Patch
  • 6. Contents
  • 7. ChangeLog
• +Easy Mode
  • 1. Foreword
  • 2. The Basics for Fire Mage
  • 3. Talent Choice for Fire Mage
  • 4. Stat Choice for Fire Mage
  • 5. Basic Rotation for Fire Mage
  • 6. ChangeLog
• ×Spell Summary
  • 1. Fire Mage Spell Summary
  • 2. Main Resource for Fire Mage
  • 3. Mastery for Fire Mage
  • 4. Important Procs for Fire Mage
  • 5. Basic Abilities for Fire Mage
  • 6. DPS Cooldowns for Fire Mage
• +Builds and Talents
  • 1. Talent Choices for Fire Mage
  • 2. Talent Cheat Sheets for Fire Mage
  • 3. Tier 1 (Level 15) Talents for Fire Mage
  • 4. Tier 2 (Level 30) Talents for Fire Mage
  • 5. Tier 3 (Level 45) Talents for Fire Mage
  • 6. Tier 4 (Level 60) Talents for Fire Mage
  • 7. Tier 5 (Level 75) Talents for Fire Mage
  • 8. Tier 6 (Level 90) Talents for Fire Mage
  • 9. Tier 7 (Level 100) Talents for Fire Mage
  • 10. PvP Talents (War Mode)
    • 10.1. Fire Mage War Mode Talents
  • 11. ChangeLog
• +Azerite Traits and Armor
  • 1. Disclaimer
  • 2. Azerite Traits for Fire Mage
  • 3. Outer Ring Traits for Fire Mage
    • 3.1. Generic Outer Ring Traits
    • 3.2. Fire Mage specific Outer Ring Traits
  • 4. Middle Ring Traits for Fire Mage
  • 5. Inner Ring Traits for Fire Mage
  • 6. Azerite Traits Rotation Changes and Details for Fire Mage
  • 7. Relative strength of Azerite Traits for Fire Mage
    • 7.1. Single Target Azerite Traits comparison for Fire Mage
      • 7.1.1. Outer Ring Trait Comparisons for Fire Mage on Single Target
      • 7.1.2. Middle Ring Trait Comparisons for Fire Mage on Single Target
    • 7.2. AoE/Cleave Azerite Traits comparison for Fire Mage
      • 7.2.1. Outer Ring Trait Comparisons for Fire Mage on AoE/Cleave
      • 7.2.2. Middle Ring Trait Comparisons for Fire Mage on AoE/Cleave
    • 7.3. Inner Ring Trait Comparisons for Fire Mage
  • 8. Find Azerite Armor By Trait/Power
  • 9. ChangeLog
• +Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities
  • 1. Ability Priority List for Fire Mage
  • 2. Important Notes for Fire Mages
    • 2.1. Effectively Creating Crit Trains
      • 2.1.1. Spells That Do Not Trigger or Cancel Heating Up
    • 2.2. Pyroclasm Usage
    • 2.3. Meteor Usage
    • 2.4. Flamestrike Usage
    • 2.5. Rune of Power
    • 2.6. Blazing Barrier
    • 2.7. Scorch
  • 3. Core Concepts for Fire Mage
    • 3.1. Combustion Usage
    • 3.2. Critical Strike Chains
    • 3.3. Movement Management
      • 3.3.1. Quiet Movement
  • 4. Opening Sequence for Fire Mage
  • 5. ChangeLog
• +Mythic+ Tips
  • 1. Fire Mage in Mythic+
    • 1.1. Fire Mage Mythic+ Rotation
    • 1.2. Fire Mage Utility
  • 2. Mythic+ Talents for Fire Mage
  • 3. Mythic+ Affixes
    • 3.1. Tier One Affixes
    • 3.2. Tier Two Affixes
    • 3.3. Tier Three Affixes
    • 3.4. Seasonal Affix
  • 4. ChangeLog
• +Common and Worst Mistakes
  • 1. Having High Downtime
  • 2. Using Combustion / Rune of Power at the Wrong Time
  • 3. Not Knowing How To Sim Yourself
  • 4. Analyzing Your Mistakes as a Fire Mage
• +Frequently Asked Questions
  • 1. Battle for Azeroth Frequently Asked Questions for Fire Mage
    • 1.1. How Much Critical Strike Should I Get?
    • 1.2. Should I Use Flame Patch or Living Bomb in Dungeons?
    • 1.3. Should I Use Rune of Power or Incanter's Flow?
  • 2. ChangeLog
• +Boss by Boss Strategies
  • 1. Disclaimer
  • 2. Fire Mage in Uldir
    • 2.1. Talent Cheatsheet
  • 3. Taloc
    • 3.1. Suggested talents for Fire Mage on Taloc
    • 3.2. Fire Mage playstyle on Taloc
  • 4. M.O.T.H.E.R.
    • 4.1. Suggested talents for Fire Mage on M.O.T.H.E.R.
    • 4.2. Fire Mage playstyle on M.O.T.H.E.R.
  • 5. Fetid Devourer
    • 5.1. Suggested talents for Fire Mage on Fetid Devourer
    • 5.2. Fire Mage playstyle on Fetid Devourer
  • 6. Zek'voz, Herald of N'Zoth
    • 6.1. Suggested talents for Fire Mage on Zek'voz, Herald of N'Zoth
    • 6.2. Fire Mage playstyle on Zek'voz, Herald of N'Zoth
  • 7. Vectis
    • 7.1. Suggested talents for Fire Mage on Vectis
    • 7.2. Fire Mage playstyle on Vectis
  • 8. Zul, Reborn
    • 8.1. Suggested talents for Fire Mage on Zul, Reborn
    • 8.2. Fire Mage playstyle on Zul, Reborn
  • 9. Mythrax the Unraveler
    • 9.1. Suggested talents for Fire Mage on Mythrax the Unraveler
    • 9.2. Fire Mage playstyle on Mythrax the Unraveler
  • 10. G'huun
    • 10.1. Suggested talents for Fire Mage on G'huun
    • 10.2. Fire Mage playstyle on G'huun
  • 11. ChangeLog
• +Stat Priority
  • 1. The Basics of Stats for Fire Mage
  • 2. Fire Mage: Getting a Better Understanding
    • 2.1. Statistics Explanations
  • 3. ChangeLog
• +Gems, Enchants, and Consumables
  • 1. Gems for Fire Mage
  • 2. Enchants for Fire Mage
  • 3. Consumables for Fire Mage
  • 4. ChangeLog
• +Macros and Addons
  • 1. Addons for Fire Mage
    • 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
• +Gear and Best in Slot
  • 1. Azerite Gear for Fire Mage
  • 2. Evaluating Upgrades
  • 3. Trinket Notes for Fire Mage
  • 4. ChangeLog
• +Simulations
  • 1. How to sim your Fire Mage
  • 2. Fire Mage Single Target Azerite Traits Simulation
  • 3. Fire Mage AoE Azerite Traits Simulation
  • 4. 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

This guide has been written by Dutchmagoz. Dutchmagoz is a Mythic raider in UnknownError, owner of the Mage theorycrafting website Altered Time, and an admin of the Mage Discord server, Halls of the Guardian.

1. 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.

2. Main Resource for Fire Mage

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. Mastery for Fire Mage

Mastery: Ignite is your Mastery. All direct-damage caused by Fireball, Pyroblast, Fire Blast, Scorch, Meteor, 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 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".

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 Mastery: 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.

Additionally, some talents like Pyroclasm give a Fire Mage additional procs. See the talents and build section for in-depth explanations.

5. Basic Abilities for Fire Mage

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 (3 with Flame On talented), and always critically strikes when used. This ability is not on the Global Cooldown, and can be cast while casting other abilities. 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 (5+ targets). It has a 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 should only be used on 6+ targets, or for the disorient effect.

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

6. DPS Cooldowns for Fire Mage

Combustion is our DPS cooldown. It lasts 10 seconds, and increases your Mastery (the bonus damage generated via Ignite) by an amount equal to 50% of your Critical Strike rating as well as 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 this ability drastically increases our damage output via Ignite, and allows us to chain a lot of instant cast spells, due to giving 100% Critical Strike (and thus always proccing Heating Up) 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, Heroism, and Bloodlust for the next 10 minutes.