How to play fire mage

[Deleted]

Combustion helper

seriously, it's a must have as a fire mage, it tracks all your dots as well as ignite damage, so it can give you a much better idea of when to pop combustion on a target.

fire's getting buffs in 4.3, but i honestly dont know whether it'll be best dps spec (in best dps gear - if you dont have BiS gear, play however the hell you like) but be warned, currently RNG can cause massive swings in dps, with differences in the range of 5k to 7k overall dps loss through shitty RNG

as for haste Vs crit, it comes down to haste plateaus. i generally tend to aim for 12.5% haste, which i believe is an extra tick on living bomb, then i go full crit (after hit cap ofc). the next haste plateau is miles off, it's like 24% or something and only with bloodlust/heroism and full raid buffs is it reachable or anything to worry about. so yea, as an alt, not going full hardcore min max, aim for about 12.5% haste and then reforge/gem to crit after the hit cap. or at least, thats how i do it.

I would go for the 15% cap as that's an extra tick on Combustion if I'm not mistaken. This with t13 4-set reducing cd on combustion. No theorycrafting needed but I think that's common sense :P

[namtlade]

To Smigel & pyromagik, Thanks! I just really like the fire spec and have picked up quite a lot of knowledge about it from playing and reading up. I see fewer and fewer fire mages these days and I have only met one fire mage through dungeon finder who really knows how to play the spec and put out serious damage, whereas you can see plenty of incredibly high dps'ers from many different other specs and classes. I find it odd because it's not a terribly difficult spec to play has plenty of utility, survivability, isn't hindered by movement and can put out ridiculous aoe. It does have rng problems and bugs, but the rest of it makes up for that in a way


I will say this though: Combustionhelper is helpful, but by no means necessary. As ignite does 40% of the last crits damage as a DoT, you can tell how big your ignite will be from that. Switching to a something like Mik's scrolling combat text so you can more easily see what your last hits/crits were can just as easily allow you to track how big your ignite will be.
As I previously mentioned I mainly use combustionhelper as a DoT tracker.


I'll leave with a final tip: in ZG when you get to that big pack of zombies at the bottom of the hill leading up to zanzil. Charge up a pyroblast on the pull, pray that it crits. Whether it does or not, living bomb, blast wave, combustion, impact! Blink to the cauldron, spam click the frost cauldron as fast as you can while also spamming flame strike.

Btw, would anyone be interested if I made a video of how to play as a fire mage in a 5man?

[Max Rebo]

To Smigel & pyromagik, Thanks! I just really like the fire spec and have picked up quite a lot of knowledge about it from playing and reading up. I see fewer and fewer fire mages these days and I have only met one fire mage through dungeon finder who really knows how to play the spec and put out serious damage, whereas you can see plenty of incredibly high dps'ers from many different other specs and classes. I find it odd because it's not a terribly difficult spec to play has plenty of utility, survivability, isn't hindered by movement and can put out ridiculous aoe. It does have rng problems and bugs, but the rest of it makes up for that in a way


I will say this though: Combustionhelper is helpful, but by no means necessary. As ignite does 40% of the last crits damage as a DoT, you can tell how big your ignite will be from that. Switching to a something like Mik's scrolling combat text so you can more easily see what your last hits/crits were can just as easily allow you to track how big your ignite will be.
As I previously mentioned I mainly use combustionhelper as a DoT tracker.


I'll leave with a final tip: in ZG when you get to that big pack of zombies at the bottom of the hill leading up to zanzil. Charge up a pyroblast on the pull, pray that it crits. Whether it does or not, living bomb, blast wave, combustion, impact! Blink to the cauldron, spam click the frost cauldron as fast as you can while also spamming flame strike.

Btw, would anyone be interested if I made a video of how to play as a fire mage in a 5man?

Good, concise guide, definitely.

An alternative to CH would be MyBigIgnte, which only tracks ignite values and has adjustable threshold setpoints that are useful on Alysrazor. However, I prefer CH since it has the DoT tracking built in.

I think any video of fire magery would be cool to see, especially since there are probably tons of folks who will be switching to fire once 4.3 hits. I'd bet many of them either may not have played fire much or they may be a bit rusty. Either way, go for it.
I know I haven't played fire in ages, so I could brush up on playing the spec.

[primordic]

Thanks for the info you all! I've been leveling a mage recently and really do love playing Fire in PVP. I feel like I should be doing more damage than I have been, I'm gonna have to try out your rotation suggestions and probably respec too. I like frost as well, but Fire is way more fun, especially with Dragon's Breath!

[Susej]

Having an idea of what your ignite is ticking for is useful information for any mage, rookie or not.

Agreed. It's a wonder the kinds of things people post here to try and feel superior to their fellow mage. There is no way a "Rookie" or "Pro Mage" can manage to tell when their Ignite gets clipped, or tally up the total damage from Ignite, LB, Pyro.

[Sluimerstand]

I think any video of fire magery would be cool to see, especially since there are probably tons of folks who will be switching to fire once 4.3 hits.

I've been Fire all of Cataclysm and I have recorded all Firelands kills with my guild. I can put up a link to my YouTube channel if you're interested.

On-topic: I'll be trying out CombustionHelper in a raid soon, but I don't think I will stick to it. Knowing if my Ignite is big or small, relatively, is enough for me.

[vulcan122]

Well....that was more than I intended to write. Let me know if anything I said was plain wrong, or you have any questions about my ramblings.

Thank you so much, i'm in the same boat as the OP right now and you just simplified it all so well.

[Soulstrike]

How to play fire mage....
hmmm....

Have you ever played Three Card Poker?

you sir just made my day

[Max Rebo]

I've been Fire all of Cataclysm and I have recorded all Firelands kills with my guild. I can put up a link to my YouTube channel if you're interested.

Yes, please do!

[sirwoodrow]

yes that would be cool

[Deleted]

Very helpfull post, thanks a lot. I guess with 4.3 fire mages will be common again seeing its top dps in ptr atm.

[risskel]

I've been Fire all of Cataclysm and I have recorded all Firelands kills with my guild. I can put up a link to my YouTube channel if you're interested.

A cheeky stalk and I came across these, hope you don't mind me linking, but you said you would;
This is their Baleroc kill;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qg8Cw..._order&list=UL

[Dkitty]

With regards to your point putting the points from improved fire blast into cauterize... wouldn't it make sense to put it into arcance concentration for the freecast? while not having mage armor I guess fire mages could get into some mana problems. What do you think?

Absolutely not! As a current raiding fire mage, the only fights i run into a mana problem with is bael, and that's just because it's the patchwerk fight of this teir.. And one evoc makes quick work of those mana problems.