Games Marketplace - Odealo
0.00 25 (Click on the icon to view details)

Articles

The Best Fire Mage PvE DPS build

The Best Fire Mage PvE DPS build

Widely popular DPS Specialisation for the Wizard Class

Fire Mage PvE DPS Build
Odealo's Pocket Guide
Updated for Patch 8.2.0

You can find all our Pocket Guides for other World of Warcraft classes right here: Best WoW Builds

Spec Overview

"There is nothing like the sight of the World burning" - this is a pretty common opinion among Fire Mages. These masters of the Fire element have specialized themselves in reducing their enemies to ashes, by unleashing wild flame magic spells on them. Fire Mages are strong ranged damage dealers who excel at doing the Encounter-specific tasks, thanks to their incredible mobility kit. They are also great at finishing off wounded enemies.

 Pros  Cons
 Great mobility kit  Cannot control its Cleave Damage well
 Strong Single Target sustained Damage  Weak against spread out targets
 Can Cleave multiple stacked enemies without sacrificing any Single Target Damage  Somewhat lackluster in Damage over Time department
 Very Strong Burst Damage capabilities, especially in execute phases  


Odealo is a secure trading platform for MMO gamers. It is a gamer-driven marketplace for WoW Gold, Items, and Power Leveling services.

 

Statistics Priority

  1. Intellect - This is Fire Mage's primary statistic. It provides him with Spell Power and increases Damage done by his spells.
  1. Mastery - Fire Mages Mastery: IgniteMastery: Ignite makes your target burn for an additional 6% of the Damage done by your FlamestrikeFlamestrike, MeteorMeteor, PyroblastPyroblast, ScorchScorch, Fire BlastFire Blast, and FireballFireball over the next 9s. Reapplying this effect adds the remaining damage to your new Ignite. It also gives your IgniteIgnite a chance to spread to another nearby Target every 2 seconds. This stat is especially great for Cleave and AoE situations.
  1. Haste - Decreases your Global Cooldowns, and increases the speed of your Casts. Haste also reduces the Cooldown of your Fire BlastFire Blast and increases the tick rate and explosion speed of your Living BombLiving Bomb.
  1. Versatility - Straight up Incoming Damage Decrease and Damage Done Increase.
  1. Critical Strike - Increases your chance to deal Double (critical) Damage with spells and abilities. Critical Strike synergizes well with your PyroblastPyroblast and FlamestrikeFlamestrike, thanks to the Hot StreakHot Streak passive.

 

The Best Talent Choices

Searing Touch
Level 15: 
Recommended choice - Searing Touch
Searing TouchSearing Touch - Damage of your ScorchScorch is increased by 150%, and it Crits 100% of the time. This Talent boosts your Damage output significantly, especially during Execute phases and provides you with a nice instant Cast filler spell that can be used for avoiding downtime while relocating.

FirestarterFirestarter makes your PyroblastPyroblast and FireballFireball always Crit against Targets above 90% of their total Health. This is a situationally good Talent that could be selected if an Encounter warrants it.

PyromaniacPyromaniac gives your Hot Streak Hot Streak empowered FlamestrikeFlamestrike and PyroblastPyroblast casts an 8% chance to reactivate Hot StreakHot Streak immediately. This talent is too RNG dependant to be worth consideration in most encounters.

Shimmer
Level 30: 
Recommended choice - Shimmer
ShimmerShimmer - It is a great upgrade over the BlinkBlink ability; Shimmer Shimmer has 1 more charge, can be cast off the global cooldown, and does not interrupt your spellcasting, but it has 5s more cooldown (the 20s instead of 15s) and does not break stuns. This Talent will improve your mobility greatly and will allow you to dodge Raid mechanics quickly, without losing DPS.

Blazing Soul Blazing Soul causes your BlinkBlink to surround you with the Blazing BarrierBlazing Barrier that absorbs Damage equal to 20% of your total Health for the 60s. This Talent boosts your survivability slightly but is a lot less flexible than the ShimmerShimmer.

Blast WaveBlast Wave knocks back, damages and slows down (by 70% for 4 seconds) all enemies within 8 yards around you. It is a good Crowd Control Talent, that provides you with an additional Kiting tool; it has 25-second Cooldown. That being said, it is useful mostly in Mythic+.

Rune of Power
Level 45: 
Recommended choice - Rune of Power
Incanter's FlowRune of Power -  an Active Ability that lets you place said Rune of powerRune of Power on the ground which increases your spell damage done by 40% for 10 seconds if you stay within 8 yards from it; has two charges and 40-second recharge timer. This is the best choice for Burst Damage as well as sustained damage output, but using it in some encounters might get tricky. If fights require you to move a lot, and you lose a good portion of Rune of powerRune of power's uptime, consider choosing Incanter's Flow Incanter's Flow instead.

Incanter's FlowIncanter's Flow gives you a sustained damage bonus that starts at 4%, builds up to 20% over 10 seconds, and then resets back to 4% just to start building up again. This talent doesn't restrict your mobility, and therefore could be selected instead of the Rune of Power Rune of Power for very dynamic encounters.

Mirror ImageMirror Image summons 3 copies of you, which cast spells at your Target and gain Enemy's attention; Copies last for the 40s. This, while "classic" gives the worst overall damage boost, especially in AoE heavy encounters, and should not be picked.

Flame On
Level 60: 
Recommended choice - Flame On
Flame OnFlame OnGives your Fire BlastFire Blast an additional charge and reduces its recharge time by 2s. Thanks to Fire BlastFire Blast's synergy with the Hot StreakHot Streak this Talent is the best choice for Single Target DPS that also boosts your AoE Damage potential, as it provides you not only with more Hot StreakHot Streak procs, but also greatly increases your control over them.

Alexstrasza's FuryAlexstrasza's Fury causes your Dragon's BreathDragon's Breath to contribute towards Hot StreakHot Streak, and always deal Critical Damage. This is a very strong option for AoE-heavy encounters, but it requires you to be in the melee range.

Phoenix FlamesPhoenix Flames is an active ability that has 3 charges and 30-second recharge time. It deals solid Damage to your primary Target and some splash Damage to all enemies around it; Phoenix FlamesPhoenix Flames always deals Critical Damage. This Talent provides you with solid Burst AoE Damage and should be chosen if an Encounter requires it.

Frenetic Speed
Level 75: 
Recommended choice - Frenetic Speed
Frenetic SpeedFrenetic Speed -  Your ScorchScorch ability now also increases your movement speed by 30% for 3 seconds. This provides you with some extra mobility, which comes in handy in almost all Raid encounters.

Ice Ward Ice Ward grants a second charge to your Frost NovaFrost Nova ability.

Ring of FrostRing of Frost lets you summon a Ring on the target location; up to 10 enemies entering the Ring will be incapacitated for 10 seconds.

Both of these Frost-related Talents melt in comparison to the Frenetic SpeedFrenetic Speed and the utility provided by it (see what I did there...?).

Conflagration
Level 90: 
Recommended choice - Conflagration
ConflagrationConflagration -  Your FireballFireball now also applies an 8-second Damage over Time effect to your Target; this Talent also causes all Targets affected by your Mastery: IgniteMastery: Ignite or by Talent's DoT effect to sometimes flare up dealing Damage to all nearby enemies. This is the best choice for Single-Target DPS and encounters with limited AoE.

Flame PatchFlame Patch causes your FlamestrikeFlamestrike to deal additional Damage over 8 seconds to all enemies within its area of effect, by igniting the ground that it is cast upon. This is a good option for dealing with large waves of Targets, that can be grouped up.

Living BombLiving Bomb applies a short DoT effect on your Target. After the effect ends, the Bomb explodes, damaging all enemies within the 10yd radius, and affecting them with Living BombLiving Bomb. This is the best choice for 10+ Targets, and it also allows you to deal with your priority Target more effectively (as it doesn't require you to spend Hot StreakHot Streak procs on it) than Flame PatchFlame Patch does.

Meteor
Level 100: 
Recommended choice - Meteor
MeteorMeteor - Calls down a MeteorMeteor on heads of your Enemies, dealing high amounts of Fire Damage to all Targets within the 8yd radius, and leaving a patch of burning ground that damages enemies standing inside of it for 8,5 seconds. It has 45-second Cooldown and a 3-second after cast delay. This Talent is the strongest choice for Single Target Damage, as long as you are able to hit your Target with it reliably. It is also really strong in AoE situations if Targets are grouped up, and stationary.

KindlingKindling makes your PyroblastPyroblast, Fire BlastFire Blast, and FireballFireball critical hits reduce the Cooldown of CombustionCombustion by 1s. This Talent is a good choice for dynamic encounters that feature multiple Targets, and/or frequent burn phases, but it does not outperform MeteorMeteor most of the time.

PyroclasmPyroclasm is a passive ability that activates 15% of the time when you spend your Hot StreakHot Streak proc, and causes your next non-instant Pyroblast Pyroblast to deal 225% bonus Damage; it stacks up to 2 times. This might be a decent choice for encounters that feature 1 Target that moves around a lot.

 

The Basic Rotation

At its base, Fire Mage's rotation revolves around trying to score 2 Critical Hits in a row in order to activate the Hot StreakHot Streak. This is done mainly by using the Fire BlastFire Blast after scoring a single Crit (single Critical Strike gives you the Heating UpHeating Up status).

Use the following priority list to maximize your Single Target Damage output:
  1. Rune of Power if Combustion available
Combustion ► Rune of Power
  1. Meteor on Cooldown if the Rune of Power is active
Rune of Power ⇒ Meteor
  1. Combustion on Cooldown
Combustion
  1. Rune of Power on 2 charges or when about to gain a second charge
Rune of Power
  1. Pyroblast with a Hot Streak proc
Hot Streak ⇒ Pyroblast
  1. Dragon's Breath with Combustion active if Fire BlastFire Blast is not available
Combustion ⇒ Dragon's Breath
  1. Fire Blast after scoring a Critical Hit (after you gain the Heating Up status)
Heating Up ⇒ Fire Blast
  1. Scorch for Hot StreakHot Streak generation if Target is < 30% Health
Scorch
  1. Fireball
Fireball
  1. Scorch to avoid downtime
Scorch
Use the following priority list to maximize your AoE Damage output:
  1. Rune of Power if available
Rune of Power
  1. Meteor on Cooldown if the Rune of Power is active
Rune of Power ⇒ Meteor
  1. Combustion on Cooldown
Combustion
  1. Flamestrike with Hot Streak active
Hot Streak ⇒ Flamestrike
  1. Fire Blast after scoring a Critical Hit (after you gain the Heating Up status)
Heating Up ⇒ Fire Blast
  1. Dragon's Breath
Dragon's Breath
  1. Fireball to avoid downtime
Fireball

 

Tips and Tricks for Improving your Gameplay

  1. Stack and manage your Cooldowns. Rune of PowerRune of Power has a very strong synergy with CombustionCombustion, so if CombustionCombustion comes back up when you don't have the Rune active, delay it to cast them both at the same time. Also, you should NEVER activate your cooldowns if there is a movement phase coming up, as Rune of PowerRune of Power requires you to stay stationary, for its duration, to be effective!
  1. Always be casting! Utilize your instant-cast spells during movement to avoid downtime - this will increase your Damage output considerably.
  1. Always analyze and try to improve upon your mistakes, because practice makes perfect.


Odealo is a secure marketplace for WoW Gold and Items where trades are made by regular players with the use of real money.

 

END NOTE

This is an early version of our guide, we plan to upgrade upon it, and add further sections. So please leave your suggestions in the comments section below. We would also like to state that this is meant as a pocket guide and therefore we will not go into too much detail (however, if we are missing some information that is important to you, please let us know, and we will gladly add it).

Pictures used in this article are the intellectual property of Blizzard Entertainment Inc.