Fire Mage Guide

[Kat]

Yes well i am not surprised since you have 496 ilvl gear.I never said that mages couldn't make it to the top of the meters , i was asking for advice or pointers since mine seem to be lacking at the moment.

[elpadrino293]

Or you could face the fact that you were seriously lucky there.. Your raid buffed crit is what? 33-34%? that would make your 1.25 multiplier crit rate around 40% maybe a bit more with int procs.. And you had allmost 47% crit rate with pyro and fireball in that log, so its around 6% more than what your gear should average and around the same maybe bit lower than what the unnerfed CM would produce, so ye.. Gz on being the luckiest mage in the world

even last nights raid i was breaking 100k regularly and even broke 140k ignite on one of our blade lord attempts... maybe i should play the lottery

[Arghh151]

even last nights raid i was breaking 100k regularly and even broke 140k ignite on one of our blade lord attempts... maybe i should play the lottery

Clearly your ilvl helped. Breaking 100k regularly cannot be common, look at this math, using some very solid stats. You have less then a 3% chance of getting a 140k ignite on a non debuffed boss. And this takes into account, this 3% opportunity coming when you trinkets are proccing, jade serpent is up, combustion is ready, and you are in a position where you can actually string it all together without a fight mechanic stopping you. This is the type of stuff that makes everyone think mages are OP. this is not the norm people... Most mages cannot hope for this 1 time a raid, otherwise 'regularly'. And most mages don't have near these stats.

(Note, this doesn't take into account the boss -3% crit, as I cannot see a confirmation on whether that is truth or not). If so, the odds are even worse.

Crit: 33.00%		
Crit + CM: 41.25%		
Average Pryo: 275000		
Mastery: 21.5%		
Starting Ignite: 15000	(from what may already be on the boss)
			
Pyro	 Crit Chance (consecutive)	Ignite: (Pyro*Mastery) + Starting Ignite on 1st	                Combustion
275000	41.25%	                        74125	                                                               37062.5
275000	17.02%	                        133250								       66625
275000	7.02%	                        192375		                                                       96187.5
275000	2.90%		                251500	                                                               125750
275000	1.19%	                        310625	                                                               155312.5
275000	0.49%	                        369750	                                                               184875

One other interesting item I would like to note is GC legendary '7 pyros' in a row comment, here are those odds at 30 crit (1.5 cm) (which was probably more the norm back when he said that).

0.22%, in PVP nonetheless, where someone let the mage do this for 7 globals lol.

Pyro	Crit Chance (consecutive)
1	45.00%
2	18.56%
3	7.66%
4	3.16%
5	1.30%
6	0.54%
7	0.22%

[mrgreenthump]

Clearly your ilvl helped. Breaking 100k regularly cannot be common, look at this math, using some very solid stats. You have less then a 3% chance of getting a 140k ignite on a non debuffed boss. And this takes into account, this 3% opportunity coming when you trinkets are proccing, jade serpent is up, combustion is ready, and you are in a position where you can actually string it all together without a fight mechanic stopping you. This is the type of stuff that makes everyone think mages are OP. this is not the norm people... Most mages cannot hope for this 1 time a raid, otherwise 'regularly'. And most mages don't have near these stats.

(Note, this doesn't take into account the boss -3% crit, as I cannot see a confirmation on whether that is truth or not). If so, the odds are even worse.

Crit: 33.00%		
Crit + CM: 41.25%		
Average Pryo: 275000		
Mastery: 21.5%		
Starting Ignite: 15000	(from what may already be on the boss)
			
Pyro	 Crit Chance (consecutive)	Ignite: (Pyro*Mastery) + Starting Ignite on 1st	                Combustion
275000	41.25%	                        74125	                                                               37062.5
275000	17.02%	                        133250								       66625
275000	7.02%	                        192375		                                                       96187.5
275000	2.90%		                251500	                                                               125750
275000	1.19%	                        310625	                                                               155312.5
275000	0.49%	                        369750	                                                               184875

One other interesting item I would like to note is GC legendary '7 pyros' in a row comment, here are those odds at 30 crit (1.5 cm) (which was probably more the norm back when he said that).

0.22%, in PVP nonetheless, where someone let the mage do this for 7 globals lol.

Pyro	Crit Chance (consecutive)
1	45.00%
2	18.56%
3	7.66%
4	3.16%
5	1.30%
6	0.54%
7	0.22%

The story for on pull crit is a bit different, cause depending on your proffessions and trinkets, you can have 4-8% more crit on pulls and that would take 33% to whole another level, its the whole reason why some mages got those huge chains in the first place, like I remember having around 40% crit on my mage once on a pull when I still kept track of it, and that with the crit reduction meant 55.5% change to crit with spells fireball and pyro.. Obviously you cant get that anymore, but still its something to keep in mind when calculating chances in PvE..

And futhermore, you will be critting far more than 275k with that gear on pulls.. And the composition of the ignite should be Fireball + HS pyro + pyro (HS if crit from fireball or hs pyro) + HS pyro + pyro(HS if previous Pyro crits)

And this brings me to the final point, Thats not how ignite works that is unless you hack the game and manage to get all those pyros landing before first pyro tick

[Arghh151]

The story for on pull crit is a bit different, cause depending on your proffessions and trinkets, you can have 4-8% more crit on pulls and that would take 33% to whole another level, its the whole reason why some mages got those huge chains in the first place, like I remember having around 40% crit on my mage once on a pull when I still kept track of it, and that with the crit reduction meant 55.5% change to crit with spells fireball and pyro.. Obviously you cant get that anymore, but still its something to keep in mind when calculating chances in PvE..

And futhermore, you will be critting far more than 275k with that gear on pulls.. And the composition of the ignite should be Fireball + HS pyro + pyro (HS if crit from fireball or hs pyro) + HS pyro + pyro(HS if previous Pyro crits)

And this brings me to the final point, Thats not how ignite works that is unless you hack the game and manage to get all those pyros landing before first pyro tick

I am just putting very simple numbers so people aren't thinking this is normal and average... with the real way ignite works, and other factors, the odds are even worse.

on pull <> average combustion like the poster is saying. also, his gear iis significantly better then most mages. For some reason, people think though 100k ignites are still the norm... Most mages struggle to break 30-50k now if you look at the non top 100 parses

[Menphis]

The BiS boots says "Boots: Sandels Unbidden - Garalon (hof)" in this thread,
but the BiS set on Simcraft seems to be Sandals of the Blackest Night.

I wonder which is better. Both don't have crit on them.

[Flutterguy]

I was actually wondering what kind of actual use I could make out of Alter Time when I first got it. This guide has at least provided a quick a dirty for it.

[XBarbarian]

thank you for this thread.. while I have been getting better at playing my fire mage.. still.. I know there is always more to learn

I have a question to ask as well.. what weapon choice? Alliance Gnome Fire Mage? regarding the Sha touched weapons.. Staff or Sword? as I hope to get lucky in Terrace today ( LFR ) I got the dagger last week.. but.. obviously.. need a sha touched.. which is better? or both equal? I also have the 483 lfr oh...

[Imnick]

The sword is much better than the staff.
The dagger on elite is competitive and possibly even better than the sword until you get the 550 gem.

[Methusula]

thank you for this thread.. while I have been getting better at playing my fire mage.. still.. I know there is always more to learn

I have a question to ask as well.. what weapon choice? Alliance Gnome Fire Mage? regarding the Sha touched weapons.. Staff or Sword? as I hope to get lucky in Terrace today ( LFR ) I got the dagger last week.. but.. obviously.. need a sha touched.. which is better? or both equal? I also have the 483 lfr oh...

As a gnome, you get a free 1% hit while using a dagger or sword via the expertise. The sha touched sword with tornado summoning censor is the best combo.

[XBarbarian]

Thanks guys.. 'preciate the input!

Hopefully.. see some Sword / charm / LFR loving... ( as my guild wont see reg terrace for a bit yet.. we're 4/6 MV )

[draconith1]

I don't know if this has been covered but oh well.

Considering the changes to Critical Mass is it safe to assume that 1 point of intellect is now equal or better than 2 points of crit making it better to gem intellect over crit?

[spaace]

The BiS boots says "Boots: Sandels Unbidden - Garalon (hof)" in this thread,
but the BiS set on Simcraft seems to be Sandals of the Blackest Night.

I wonder which is better. Both don't have crit on them.

Crit is worth most
Hit is worth second most.

Thats why it values hit/mastery over haste/mastery. Depending on the amount of hit on other pieces of gear.

I don't know if this has been covered but oh well.

Considering the changes to Critical Mass is it safe to assume that 1 point of intellect is now equal or better than 2 points of crit making it better to gem intellect over crit?

No. It makes you want crit more. It's also been stated many times before.

[mrgreenthump]

Crit is worth most
Hit is worth second most.

Thats why it values hit/mastery over haste/mastery. Depending on the amount of hit on other pieces of gear.

Hit is only equal in stat weight to the highest stat you would otherwise reforge to hit, so for those boots, its equal to haste or mastery, depending on which stat you gain more, though on the mastery/hit boots, you gain more crit through reforge, so they might inch ahead just a bit cause of that.

[Bugs]

Would it be viable to gem pure Crit gems in all slots and reforge into crit? Above hit cap of course.

[spaace]

Depends on socket bonus..

Most sockets have a good chunk of int attached to them, so its worth to use crit, int/crit, hit/crit gems in spots..

If the socket is blue, and the reward is hit.. and you're well above hit cap, then you'd use say a 320 crit gem there..

---------- Post added 2012-12-15 at 05:37 PM ----------

*Regarding recent Inferno/fire blast changes*

Just doing it right now.. Pyromaniac seems to be spreading to that extra, with ignite/combustion/pyro.. Living Bomb stays on your primary + 2 secondary.
Living Bomb will leave your "primary" target only if you manually laid out 2 other living bombs.

[mrgreenthump]

Seeing that they didnt kick fire down even more while it was recovering from the last butthurt.. And that coupled with arcane getting kinda meh changes limiting the spec even futher and they buffed invoc for long fights whii + now with cast time reduction its fast so no moar cancels whii It seems that with the gear inflation and hopefully better itemization(more crit), Fire could be rising to again as the main progress raider spec(even with less dps than frost it has several benefits)..

Anyways fire didnt get nerfed, Invoc got a buff..

[Deleted]

Seeing that they didnt kick fire down even more

The nerf to the glyph of fireblast (no more lb spreading) is a huge nerf for firemages if you ask me...

[Kuni Zyrekai]

The nerf to the glyph of fireblast (no more lb spreading) is a huge nerf for firemages if you ask me...

Trading LB spread for 5 target ignite/combustion/pyro cleave. Seems like a decent deal?

[Methusula]

Trading LB spread for 5 target ignite/combustion/pyro cleave. Seems like a decent deal?

Agreed. More than makes up for it. Fire will be interesting with current 5.2 patch notes. Not sure where the relative dps will sit, but we will see. This is all very unlikely to stay unchanged anyway. It may not look anything like this by the time the patch actually hits.