Fire Thoughts

[willjones410]

I have one thing to confess. I can't stand number crunching and theory crafting! My philosophy is for other people to do it and I'll just mooch off their efforts. Seems like a fair deal to be honest. Let people who like to theory craft and test out all the numbers and percentages and which spec gets the most DPS, and I'll gladly listen to their expertise. That I've never really played a serious mage before so I'm kind of in alien territory.

So, for now, I have no idea what the optimal spec is for Fire PvE. I get that there are certain essentials, but there are a few choices that need to be made as well. Right now, here's my main PvE spec idea: http://wowtal.com/#k=DsLlrJDS.a21.mage

My main concern is that there aren't enough points in Tier 3 and 4 for the Fire Tree, due to Cauterize and Molten Shields seem like dumb choices for PvE. So you have to go back and take something from 1 or 2. Right now I'm putting points into Fire Power, which seems like a useful talent but one that can be skipped. Two points that could be used elsewhere. Improved Flamestrike? Molten Fury? Pyromaniac? Critical Mass? They all seem like they could be golden brown cheddary damage goodness, but taking them all is expensive and these plus Fire Power leave me with 33 points in the fire tree and few to go into the other trees. A shame because I heard that Invocation in Arcane tree is also golden brown cheddary damage goodness for those who know how to properly counterspell, which any good mage should do when needed.

Any help here would be appreciated.

[DirewolfX]

Your points in the fire tree seem reasonable.

Fire power can't be skipped; it's a straight % damage boost to all of your main spells as fire.

You also shouldn't skip Netherwind Presence in the Arcane tree, because 1% haste is a pure damage upgrade.

[goldengamer08]

To do that would you take 1 out of impact, and put it over into the netherwind presence, making it 3/3? for pve that is

[Deleted]

I would remove the blast wave and put the extra talent into netherwind presence:

http://wowtal.com/#k=Zwl9jwpB.a21.mage

[Skarrd]

I'd run this http://wowtal.com/search/?q=mage#k=eboWYN_.a21.mage depending on how useful the instant flamestrikes actually are in a raid. If they prove to be useless, I'd toss the points in clearcasting. For heroics, I'd consider dropping to 2/3 netherwind presence for 1/1 molten shields.

[takolin]

I'd run this http://wowtal.com/search/?q=mage#k=eboWYN_.a21.mage depending on how useful the instant flamestrikes actually are in a raid. If they prove to be useless, I'd toss the points in clearcasting. For heroics, I'd consider dropping to 2/3 netherwind presence for 1/1 molten shields.

I'm not sure if skipping imp scorch is a good plan. It's a great backup plan when you oom due to only having half an evocation because you had to move out of the fire or when you get CR'ed with evo/gems on cooldown.

My plan was to not take improved flamestrike.


I still hope that burning soul gets banished to the nether and that we get is for free like all other casters and healers.

[Skarrd]

I'm not sure if skipping imp scorch is a good plan. It's a great backup plan when you oom due to only having half an evocation because you had to move out of the fire or when you get CR'ed with evo/gems on cooldown.

My plan was to not take improved flamestrike.


I still hope that burning soul gets banished to the nether and that we get is for free like all other casters and healers.

Yeah, BS may be skipped/removed, but I'm just using the current tree cuz it's all I have. My assumtion with imp scorch is that it's for pvp, and pve mana is balanced around not having it. I could be wrong, of course, but that's why I skip it.

[Whyhello]

Yeah, BS may be skipped/removed, but I'm just using the current tree cuz it's all I have. My assumtion with imp scorch is that it's for pvp, and pve mana is balanced around not having it. I could be wrong, of course, but that's why I skip it.

I would think improved scorch would be an awesome tool for PvE. While fire is already fairly mobile, the ability to keep running and casting is extremely useful in some cases. It's much better than doing nothing, and considering you can still proc hot streaks off of it, it's not terrible dps.

[Skarrd]

I would think improved scorch would be an awesome tool for PvE. While fire is already fairly mobile, the ability to keep running and casting is extremely useful in some cases. It's much better than doing nothing, and considering you can still proc hot streaks off of it, it's not terrible dps.

That's Firestarter, which anyone with a brain should be taking, yeah. Improved scorch just removes the mana cost of scorch.

[Deleted]

Am I the only one who is annoyed by the Pyromaniac talent? I see pretty much everybody taking it and personally I think the requirement on actually getting the minor bonus is very steep. From my experience( About 9 months doing mostly Icc and Toc ) I've hardly found any encounters in which it was needed to have dots on adds.
I have to admit I havn't been looking at many dungeons from cataclysm yet because mostly I want to go in Cataclysm fresh as it is the first time for me to get a big expansion on the game. Will bossfights in Cata have a lot more adds involved then how it was in WOTLK?

I'm looking forward a lot to play my mage when cata hits, but I was really hoping the Fun factor would be bigger and as Blizz stated a lot of talents would be more useful and fun. Personally I would take Molten shields 1/1 and Blazing speed 1/2 over pyromaniac, just to increase the fun factor of playing a fire mage. Also I still highly doubt the 2% haste will make that big of a difference. I guess we will have to w8 and see how the cata raids will shape up.

Heres hoping plenty of fire/frost/arc aoe in bossfights!

[-Atlass-]

Am I the only one who is annoyed by the Pyromaniac talent?

This is the one I plan to raid with...
http://wowtal.com/search/?q=mage#k=Wwl979LIz.a21.mage

[Deleted]

This is the one I plan to raid with...

Whoo! I'm not alone in it

Although will it be needed to spec into mana reducing talents in firespec? As I understood mana was pretty much a non issue.. at least in the PTR that is.

[DirewolfX]

I'm undecided on Pyromaniac at 85, but I plan to take it at 80 for one reason: Val'kyrs on H LK. 10% haste when we really need the burst will rock.

At 85, I'm torn between Imp. Flame Strike, Pyromaniac and Cauterize.

[Deleted]

D'oh. Kept looking at the talent calculator and it says 1%/2% buff for pyromaniac.
Yeah 10% makes a lot more of an option than what I was thinking of

[Plexiforce]

Imo heres my spec for 80
http://wowtal.com/#k=RsnZtqt.a21.mage
Imo imp scorch isnt necessary for dps
imp flamestrike isnt helpful except on trash
pyromaniac on valks and Spirits 3rd phase
Blast wave for valks when they all group in beginning
and cauterize is a must say some random thing happens like soul reaper and you would die
or maybe some dumb ass bites you on BQ and kills you, i could go on and list more.

[Fujisaw]

arent there enough "lets talk about how good fire is" threads?

[takolin]

Whoo! I'm not alone in it

Although will it be needed to spec into mana reducing talents in firespec? As I understood mana was pretty much a non issue.. at least in the PTR that is.

It's not an issue at 80 due to high crit rates so that Master of elements helps, but with lower crit rates your regen will plummet. Quite a few people have stated that they run oom quite fast as fire in molten armour on the beta and they don't like the idea of using mage armour in a fire spec as our crit rates are low enough as it is.