Fire Mage DPS Spell Summary (Legion 7.3.5)

Table of Contents

• +Introduction
  • 1. Class Overview
  • 2. Patch 7.3 Changes for Fire Mage
  • 3. Patch 7.2.5 Changes for Fire Mage
  • 4. Fire Mage Strengths
  • 5. Fire Mage Weaknesses
  • 6. Fire Mage Viability in the Current Patch
  • 7. Contents
  • 8. ChangeLog
• +Easy Mode
  • 1. The Basics for Fire Mage
  • 2. Talent Choice for Fire Mage
  • 3. Stat Choice for Fire Mage
  • 4. Basic Rotation for Fire Mage
  • 5. 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
  • 7. ChangeLog
• +Builds and Talents
  • 1. Talent Choices
  • 2. Talent Cheat Sheets for Fire Mage
    • 2.1. Tier 21 4-Piece Bonus
    • 2.2. Without Tier 21 4-Piece Bonus (Single Target)
  • 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. ChangeLog
• +Artifact Traits and Relics
  • 1. Artifact Progression for Fire Mage — 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 for Fire Mage
  • 3. Relic Priority for Fire Mage
  • 4. ChangeLog
• +Netherlight Crucible Relic Paths
  • 1. General Optimization Advice for Fire Mage
  • 2. Tier 2 Upgrade Priority for Fire Mage
  • 3. Tier 3 Upgrade Priority for Fire Mage
  • 4. 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. Phoenix's Flames
    • 2.3. Flamestrike Usage
    • 2.4. Rune of Power
    • 2.5. Blazing Barrier
    • 2.6. 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
• +Stat Priority
  • 1. Stat Priority for Fire Mage
  • 2. Stat Priority with Tier 21 4-Piece Bonus for Fire Mage
  • 3. Fire Mage: Getting a Better Understanding
    • 3.1. Statistics Explanations
  • 4. 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
  • 3. ChangeLog
• +Gear, Legendaries, and Best in Slot
  • 1. Tier 21 Set Bonus for Fire Mage
  • 2. Recommended Legendaries With Antorus Gear for Fire Mage
  • 3. Tier 20 Set Bonus for Fire Mage
  • 4. Best in Slot List for Fire Mage
  • 5. Trinket Notes for Fire Mage
  • 6. Evaluating Upgrades Using Stat Weights
  • 7. Racial Bonuses for Fire Mage
  • 8. Legendaries for Fire Mage
  • 9. Loot Competition
  • 10. 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. 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

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 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 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 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, 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 for Fire Mage

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

• 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.

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