How is Fire?

[Deleted]

So I've come back to WoW after a hiatus, I quit around Nighthold and I played a MM Hunter, I enjoyed it at the time but sadly my interest in classes comes and goes in spurs which of course is less than ideal when it comes to MMOs.

I've kind of lost interest in my Hunter and am now looking for something else to sink my teeth into, and I find my Fire Mage to be immensely fun and satisfying and now I'm just wondering how they are doing in terms of damage, if they're any good basically.

Thematically I love Arcane but always found it complicated to play, and with boss mechanics all around you in fights I found it hard to keep track of burn and conserve phases while avoiding death. This is probably why I chose to play a MM Hunter, because it and BM are super simple to play.

Frost doesn't really interest me in terms of class fantasy, I was never really into ice magic.

So do you think fire is the way to go? Or would you recommend me a different class and spec entirely?

[Aktec]

Fire is a fun spec but unfortunatly its in kinda a weak spot atm in terms of ST dmg. But if you aren't doing end game mythic raiding that won't matter too much, the other problem fire has is its very reliant on getting good legendaries (basically you really want the bracers) to do ok dmg. Its fairly good in dungeons just learn how to aim cinderstorm or you'll be a tanks worst nightmare but as a mm hunter you should know about that with sidewinders.

[gallamann]

Couple questions you should ask yourself...

Are you a person who must be top 3 in a raid's DPS? If so, fire mage probably isn't going to make you happy this tier.

Are you a mythic progression raider? If so, maybe look at another class.

Is Heroic raiding where you will stop? Then fire will work.

Like you, love the fire playstyle. My guild is casual, so am going to stay fire (we always clear heroic before next tier).

Personally, legendary bracers piss me off due to their RNG nature. Have found I much prefer to play Helm (with AF talent) and belt as my legendary's. However that will most likely change as I am thinking 2pc T19 and 4pc T20 which will put Helm out of use in raids.

Going to be interesting to see how many fire mages are willing to give up 2pc T19, as a lot currently have <40% crit.

[Alvito]

Bottom 3 specs for just about all of ToS. It wasn't great in NH it seems to be worse in ToS.

[Malmmoc]

It's early, but so far:

https://www.warcraftlogs.com/statistics/13#

[Zenfoldor]

I just wanted to say on heroic levels you can put out a very solid dps performance with shard and belt, if you don't have bracers. Plus shard is bis for frost, so imho when considering the huge benefit shard brings to other specs(and zero benefit of bracers), Shard >= Bracers > Belt for ST(all else garbage), and for any AOE or mythic+ Helm+Belt is best combo. Humble as it may be, I was able to do decent in my bracket in ST without the wrist

https://www.warcraftlogs.com/reports...&view=rankings

I'm 8/12 for fire legos and no wrist.

(just to be clear, I'm not suggesting shard out-sims bracers, I'm suggesting that if you are ranking legendaries, you have to have some value added for the benefit of those legendaries to another spec, swapping out to frost for single target may be something any fire mage might consider in this tier, and the shard is quite versatile in that aspect, bracers may also have a wider variance vs a more consistant single target legendary, but yes as a whole I've found fire to have a higher lego requirement for solid performance than ice, considering "crap" legendaries are pretty good for frost, and only very specific legendaries work for fire).

[Soulwell]

It's early, but so far:

https://www.warcraftlogs.com/statistics/13#

Jsing fire didn't get cucked nearly as hard as frost did with the t19 nerfs.

[mrgreenthump]

Fire gets inflated atm, by fights that suit it. Almost nobody has killed the last 4 bosses, that suit Frost far better. Also Frost T20>Fire T20.

Arcane is hard to say, because nobody plays it.

[lockybalboa]

Hmm fire seems to be the top performing spec so far... And for many fights... Surprise surprise.. https://www.warcraftlogs.com/statistics/13

[itchynose]

Hmm fire seems to be the top performing spec so far... And for many fights... Surprise surprise.. https://www.warcraftlogs.com/statistics/13

Only because Frost got the nerf bat in preparation for T20 and Lego Helm. Both greatly increase Frost AOE/cleave which will close the gap in ToS add fights where Fire is currently shinning.

[nickseng]

https://www.warcraftlogs.com/rankings/13#class=Mage

Huh, looks like fire is only top for 2-3 fights out of 9. It's almost like you should never look at the overall fights.

[Soulwell]

https://www.warcraftlogs.com/rankings/13#class=Mage

Huh, looks like fire is only top for 2-3 fights out of 9. It's almost like you should never look at the overall fights.

A fire mage and frost Mage at around 910 ilvl going head to head single target fire would probably win. That being said fires t19 barely got touched whereas frost got hit with a stick. Fire will stop scaling at around 925-930 and frost will come out of the closet with a bright blue dildo and start slapping people. Most of the fights that frost is actually on top for are mages with 4s already/geared out the ass.

[nickseng]

A fire mage and frost Mage at around 910 ilvl going head to head single target fire would probably win.

You mean st like goroth?

https://www.warcraftlogs.com/ranking...032&bracket=17

[Soulwell]

You mean st like goroth?

https://www.warcraftlogs.com/ranking...032&bracket=17

Hard to justify when there 2k fire parses and 9k frost

[Biomega]

Hard to justify when there 2k fire parses and 9k frost

It's almost like there's a reason 5 times more people play Frost.

[Sylvaeres]

Bottom 3 specs for just about all of ToS. It wasn't great in NH it seems to be worse in ToS.

Uh, any fight with any sort of adds (mistress, hazjar, Host) it is very good at. I wouldn't call 33% of a raid "Not that good"

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A fire mage and frost Mage at around 910 ilvl going head to head single target fire would probably win. That being said fires t19 barely got touched whereas frost got hit with a stick. Fire will stop scaling at around 925-930 and frost will come out of the closet with a bright blue dildo and start slapping people. Most of the fights that frost is actually on top for are mages with 4s already/geared out the ass.

Lmao what did you just say? Unless you have a handicapped frost mage vs a 99% fire mage of course. But otherwise, you don't know wtf you're talking about

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Hard to justify when there 2k fire parses and 9k frost

That's because frost>fire for single target. Your rationale is incredible

[fiestatastic]

Hard to justify when there 2k fire parses and 9k frost

no it isn't, it's easy to justify. Fire is terrible single target. Look at the logs even on the fights where fire shines, the boss dmg is pathetic, on par with blood dk.

[Deleted]

no it isn't, it's easy to justify. Fire is terrible single target. Look at the logs even on the fights where fire shines, the boss dmg is pathetic, on par with blood dk.

Which boss would you define as ST and where fire cant get padding dmg?

Take a look at what good fire mages can do: Like this guy or Dylemma.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EeqTXgVKBPs

[Alvito]

Which boss would you define as ST and where fire cant get padding dmg?

Take a look at what good fire mages can do: Like this guy or Dylemma.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EeqTXgVKBPs

Anybody with cds that line up with getting 10 stacks of the buff is going to destroy on that fight. I'd love for fire to be better then it is, but sadly for the last few months it has been a gimmick spec and that doesn't seem to be changing.

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Uh, any fight with any sort of adds (mistress, hazjar, Host) it is very good at. I wouldn't call 33% of a raid "Not that good"

There are better aoe options and as others gear up more and more fire will fall further behind. For it's aoe to really shine they need large groups of adds that take awhile to die.

[Zenfoldor]

Anybody with cds that line up with getting 10 stacks of the buff is going to destroy on that fight. I'd love for fire to be better then it is, but sadly for the last few months it has been a gimmick spec and that doesn't seem to be changing.

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There are better aoe options and as others gear up more and more fire will fall further behind. For it's aoe to really shine they need large groups of adds that take awhile to die.

Like trash. That's why I can always donkey punch my raid in overall (encounters+trash) dps, but lose very consistently in single target to lower ilvl lower bracket ranked specs. Unfortunately, trash and overall(encounters+trash) dps mean very little, but it is fun though. Plus as fire I never die, great burst, world pvp is f'n crazy, can move without worrying about anything(and in fact am required to juke and jive during combustion to prevent hardcasting pyro), and sub 30%(belt) cast all relevant spells while moving at a very high rate of speed.

I mean, it sucks I can't keep up in st, but it is fun. I'm gonna try and do multi-spec this tier. Frost is better, no doubt, but not as much better as it was last raid, and also with nearly maxed out fire legos now and concordance meaning nothing after 1 point, I'm in a position to easily swap specs, skill/relics being the only limiter. As far as gear, secondary stats are not the game changers they used to be.

ETA: Also, the best players are playing frost, so Fire's dps is actually under-represented on those logs relative to frost.