Fire Mages Arena Viable

[Hole]

First and foremost I would like to say hello to my fellow mages out there. May we smite warlocks for all eternity.

I recently began messing around with fire PvP, which I must say is quite fun. The RNG sprints, instant pyros, disarms, etc. are very very fun. I think fire could be viable for 3v3´s if mana weren't such a huge dilemma. I just want to hear people´s suggestions and ideas on how we can make this happen.

Yes yes I know many of you are going to yell about the patch notes and the mana reduction on pretty much all fire spells (and I think it is a nice change), but the fact remains that mana shield is the only thing standing between my rotting flesh protected only by cloth and a 2H axe. Mana shield is like a Hummer on steroids when it comes to mana consumption! Even talented it still hurts the manahole. I was thinking about maybe a fire barrier (much like ice barrier) but instead of a frost nova when it breaks, perhaps a blast wave. Oh and it would be awesome if living bomb threw people into the air upon explosion again to interrupt casts and whatnot...

I´d like to hear your thoughts on this topic, because I am really getting tired of frost PvP.

[bw13187]

These are the problems with fire:

Everything costs way too much. 700 for living bomb, 900 for blast wave, 900(?) for D breath...if you go the Flamestrike route that's like a thousand... Your mana shield might be able to tide you over if you weren't blowing everything on your damage spells. No other class has to spend so much to do so little damage. Thankfully they're reducing the costs of this shit in the patch, yay.

That still leaves...Weakass damage. all those instant spells I just mentioned, and Scorch and fireblast, have piss poor coefficients. You really may as well not even gem spellpower, because it's not going to do you any good. You can try to cast a fireball but thats like a 8-talent point sink and its still never going to finish casting. gg. The moves just do not hit hard enough. The updated scorch glyph is gonna be good, but they should just increase its baseline damage by 20% and let you keep your damn glyph. Hell they should just go ahead and make blast wave and D breath do more damage too...and maybe have Firestarter convert the DoT of Flamestrike into a 100% direct damage aoe spell. That would rock.

Lastly...As you mentioned... RNG. RNG disarms, RNG escapes...RNG stun procs. And worst of all.. RNG damage.

As fire PVP, your damage is utterly laughable till you get a hot streak. And it's freaking hard to get a hot streak with 1k resilience targets. So you better gem all crit, cause, as stated, spellpower's fuckin worthless.

My recommendations:

Have Blazing Speed make the mage immune to snares/roots for at least 1-2 seconds... "Mage gains blazing speed! Crippling poison fades! rogue hits mage for 900 melee swing. Mage gains crippling poison!" Is just bullshit. Also have blazing speed leave a fire trail on the ground like in Diablo II. Anyone standing in it takes.....umm....9k DPS. Sounds good.

Put a 1 second silence, pacify, daze, stun, knockdown, disorient, SOMETHING on the end of living bomb. The pop-up effect was brilliant, not sure why that was removed.

Make scorch (but not pyro) ignore resilience. The spell is weak as hell anyway. This would give mages a way to reliably proc HS in PVP without affecting PVE.

Make molten armor hit harder. Like...really hard. Like for a thousand or more. Suck it, rogues.

76 pt talent... FIRE HYDRA. That's all Im saying.

*edit: final word: fire is not really viable at this time. It's very fun vs 0 resil targets but you just dont have reliable damage against real players. Oh, and you're the absolute easiest to kill spec in the game.

[joell28]

no spell power is an 3k dmg spell with hot steak

[bw13187]

No crit = never getting to cast said spell with hot streak.

[Hole]

My recommendations:

Have Blazing Speed make the mage immune to snares/roots for at least 1-2 seconds... "Mage gains blazing speed! Crippling poison fades! rogue hits mage for 900 melee swing. Mage gains crippling poison!" Is just bullshit. Also have blazing speed leave a fire trail on the ground like in Diablo II. Anyone standing in it takes.....umm....9k DPS. Sounds good.

Put a 1 second silence, pacify, daze, stun, knockdown, disorient, SOMETHING on the end of living bomb. The pop-up effect was brilliant, not sure why that was removed.

Make scorch (but not pyro) ignore resilience. The spell is weak as hell anyway. This would give mages a way to reliably proc HS in PVP without affecting PVE.

Make molten armor hit harder. Like...really hard. Like for a thousand or more. Suck it, rogues.

76 pt talent... FIRE HYDRA. That's all Im saying.

*edit: final word: fire is not really viable at this time. It's very fun vs 0 resil targets but you just dont have reliable damage against real players. Oh, and you're the absolute easiest to kill spec in the game.

QFT

I always wanted a fire pet, i.e. hyrdra, but i was thinking why not a fucking dragon? Much like a gargoyle only 20 times better because it has a mimiron missile-like effect where you get one shot if you stand in it. So you can kill druids while they drink for no reason because they´re still at 95% mana. Maybe also give scorch the 20% MS effect that frostbolts now have.

Speaking of druids... why don´t they light on fire?

I like the input I´m hearing! Any more creative ideas?

[Clarkis2001]

Yes I'm a Warlock (insert devilish laugh here) but I also have a Mage I've recently starting PvPing with. First I have to say that to beat a Destro Warlock (which most PvP Warlocks are) just go Frost and pillar hump/LOS in Arena and you will certainly win. In BGs and World PvP this may not be as easy but like those situations matter.

Also I'm completely against anyone else getting any sort of pet! It used to be just Warlocks and Hunters which made the classes unique. Now I know Blizzard has said they don't want class homogenization yet seem to be encouraging it but really there are enough pets in the game now: Enhancement Shaman, Frost Mage, Unholy DK in addition to the true pet classes Warlock and Hunter. Okay my rant on that is over.

I'm all for making Fire PvP viable (I mean come on Blast Wave and Dragon's Breath are so freaking fun) but not through pets. Also there isn't really any class that has all three trees PvP viable. This is assuming Arcane is still viable as, like I said, I just started to PvP with my Mage.
Warlock: Aff/Destro
Shaman: Resto/Ele
Mage: Arcane/Frost (not so sure about Arcane anymore but the burst is nice)
Druid: Resto (Feral & Balance can both do well but perhaps not amazingly so)
DK: Unholy (like they need any other options)
Warrior: Arms/Prot (maybe Prot isn't viable but I've seen it do reasonably well)
Rogue: Mut-Prep/Combat (Killing Spree = 13k damage w/no setup needed... 100% fair)
Paladin: Holy/Prot/Ret (all three can do well here but mostly Holy I think)
Hunter: Survival (donno much knowledge about this class so this is a guess... sorry)
Priest: Disc/Shadow (good Shadow Priests can definitely mess someone up)

Right now I've been doing BGs to get honor (I know it's hard to compare to Arena) and find Arcane awesome. Yes it's squishy but is just a blast to play! I'd actually see them making Arcane more viable than Fire since that style of playing is a lot like Destruction Warlocks. I know at WotLK release that Arcane was OP and maybe they overcompensated but would prefer that than Fire (except Blast Wave and Dragon's Breath because nothing beats running in and using those two abilities).

[Skultharion]

Serious case of RPers here

[Sigma6987]

Serious case of RPers here

wat

[Deleted]

wat

propably just trying to say that this is your average MMO-champ forum arena thread with so much cluelessness that it's unreal.

[Alburn]

I dont think fire mages need any buffs . They are OP as it is . The difference between frost and fire is as frost u wont take much dmg and u will get the kill eventually if ur opponent is decent . As fire it will be close but faster . Its fun cause it will be close always !! So play ur fire mage more b4 u strt askin for more op shit !!

[Swizzle]

I dont think fire mages need any buffs . They are OP as it is . The difference between frost and fire is as frost u wont take much dmg and u will get the kill eventually if ur opponent is decent . As fire it will be close but faster . Its fun cause it will be close always !! So play ur fire mage more b4 u strt askin for more op shit !!

which is why you see so many fire mages both in raids and in arena and in BGS :

[Alburn]

lol arcane and frost are doin to good in arena anyways and plus ive seen fire mages at 2k in 2's . As i said b4 its good but u will have close calls and thats y ppl dont take the risk . Ppl who do and can handle it enjoy alot . They cant make all 3 specs of mages to much to handle . It just wont be fair to other classes .

[Humbaba]

I've played 2400 fire mage/rogue 2v2 teams. Between sap, blind, poly, blast wave, dragons breath, novas, you can lock someone down for a while if you get your CC chains coordinated. I would assume thats the only combo you can pull it off in tho

[Alburn]

dude fire / arcane mage . duel mage team ;D
i can even see destro fire doin well .

[Swizzle]

i'm sorry, but fire isn't arena viable.

[Overfreeze]

They are reducing all the big fire PvP spells by a lot and making the Firestarter talent free of mana.

So idk if mana will be that big of a problem anymore. i think fire is a really good spec. i mean all the mages specs are really good for arena even tho fire is way behind.

Fire mages have a lot of control. they can knock people off platforms, run fast, cc w/ dragons breath, use Drag Breath and get a Pyroblast off while the enemy is under the disorientate, Polly and start casting a Pyroblast, 2 sec stun every 10% spell hit, etc.

Hopefully with the next patch and all the mana cut backs we can see more variety in mage specs.

[Hole]

Well it seems a few of you out there understand what´s going on. In fact I don´t think any of the above comps listed would work too well, assuming you don´t get a RNG win in the first few seconds of an arena. The only tremendously huge issue I have right now with fire is lack of CC against a dispel team (oh and the fact that they need a barrier of some sort/cooldown on blast wave reduced) since the whole mana thing should in theory be sorted come next patch.

I've played 2400 fire mage/rogue 2v2 teams. Between sap, blind, poly, blast wave, dragons breath, novas, you can lock someone down for a while if you get your CC chains coordinated. I would assume thats the only combo you can pull it off in tho

May I ask what season you pulled this off in? I´m just curious as to how a DK didn´t grip you and tear you a new one, then kill you after a blink with death coil. Oh and good luck against druid teams, because druid HoT´s aren´t stupidly OP in 2´s.

I dont think fire mages need any buffs . They are OP as it is . The difference between frost and fire is as frost u wont take much dmg and u will get the kill eventually if ur opponent is decent . As fire it will be close but faster . Its fun cause it will be close always !! So play ur fire mage more b4 u strt askin for more op shit !!

My friend, no. You probably play an arms warrior with 24k hp... in which case yes a fire mage could tear you a new one using only living bomb, dragon´s breath, blast wave and frost nova. Oh and this only applies to duels. Put any healer on your ass and you will laugh my damage off, maybe fart a little, and then proceed to killing my healer with MS, overpower procs and bladestorm... (assuming ofc you´re a warrior )

Yes I'm a Warlock (insert devilish laugh here) but I also have a Mage I've recently starting PvPing with. First I have to say that to beat a Destro Warlock (which most PvP Warlocks are) just go Frost and pillar hump/LOS in Arena and you will certainly win. In BGs and World PvP this may not be as easy but like those situations matter.

Right now I've been doing BGs to get honor (I know it's hard to compare to Arena) and find Arcane awesome. Yes it's squishy but is just a blast to play! I'd actually see them making Arcane more viable than Fire since that style of playing is a lot like Destruction Warlocks. I know at WotLK release that Arcane was OP and maybe they overcompensated but would prefer that than Fire (except Blast Wave and Dragon's Breath because nothing beats running in and using those two abilities).

Welcome to the fun side brother. Arcane is very very fun because you an pull out some big numbers very quickly. Slow, although dispelable, is better than blast wave and dragon´s breath combined because it is spamable. Idk i just feel like 30 seconds is too long of a cooldown to get somebody off your ass. Unfortunately fire doesn´t have the ability to pull off 6 frost novas in a row.

[brutnus]

My superbig problem with fire mages is. as arcane/frost in pvp you have the chance to cc/nuke someone. as fire you have no chance against players with better gear. unless of course they haven't seen you or they are a fail warrior or pally. in which case you are perfect against.

Fire mage = fun against no resilience targets.

But playing a fire mage with no resilience is pro and con.

Warriors are ez but, feral druids, enh shamans, all rogues and DKs will kill you in 3 secs flat.

I would love to entertain the idea of a resilience free BG/arena.

would it be full of rogues and feral druids yes. but it would still be fun.

[Hole]

My superbig problem with fire mages is. as arcane/frost in pvp you have the chance to cc/nuke someone. as fire you have no chance against players with better gear. unless of course they haven't seen you or they are a fail warrior or pally. in which case you are perfect against.

Fire mage = fun against no resilience targets.

But playing a fire mage with no resilience is pro and con.

Warriors are ez but, feral druids, enh shamans, all rogues and DKs will kill you in 3 secs flat.

I would love to entertain the idea of a resilience free BG/arena.

would it be full of rogues and feral druids yes. but it would still be fun.

Ever consider what armorpen does to a clothie? It´s like you´re wearing a thong and a thong only.