ghank
OG
After loving frost with my 38.9 mage Pizza (no I am not the Pizza, I am a Pizza), I gave fire a chance after talking to Exasperation in my guild. With frost I noticed I rarely ever ran out of hp before mana. Frost is so tanky and can escape everything. The shatter damage was pretty nuts. But I do have to say fire tops that. I now run out of hp before mana typically. And since I mostly queue solo, it seems to suit my style more. There's a lot to learn still as I have a few days playing fire, but the damage is pretty sweet. I did a writeup the other day about playing affliction lock, so I thought I'd do the same for fire, and others can chime in as I am still a noob.
Combos:
Well the ole sheep, get 26 yds distance, pyro, fireball, fireblast, scorch x whatever until dead. Fireball will catchup with pyro and unsheep. If you are closer go pyro, scorch, fireblast, scorch x.
If you don't have 6 seconds, sheep, fireball, scorch, fireblast scorch x.
Nova then fireball, fireblast, scorch x. Or sometimes I will sheep when I get some distance and do the pyro routine.
Sheep x 50. Yesterday I had a troll mage's hp down to nothing and she got a sheep off. In defiance she sheeped me around 50 times all back to back. Didn't know you could do that? You can rank 1 sheep for 60 mana. Sometimes when I get pissed or in a mood, I'll keep someone sheeped / nova'd for as long as possible to keep them out of the game. Yes Offensive, that means you.
Basic Casted DPS:
Scorch 77 dps
Fireball 95 dps (untalented 3.5 sec cast)
Pyro 84 dps
Fireblast is instant and not casted
This is rated damage (including dot) not including spellpower divided by cast time.
Damage Per Mana:
Scorch 1.44
Fireblast 1.2
Fireball 1.50
Pyro 2.1
Again rated damage (including dot) divided by mana cost. As you can see, Pyro is very efficient but hard to get a 6 second cast off.
Fireball is the clear DPS winner, however scorch has 2.3 more chance of the stun effect because of quick cast time. I really wish I could talent into fireball to reduce it .5 seconds, but I cannot spare the 5 needed points.
Tactics:
Fire is best used at distance in my opinion. If you can hide behind something, on the roof, or in a bush and free cast, it's pretty awesome. Even with a healer on your target, you can often out damage them. Especially if you open up with the pyro or fireball and then fireblast which often take more than 50% hp. But do know fireball and pyro can be seen traveling from you. Scorch and fireblast do not travel in the air and don't give away your position.
Hut buff! With the 30% damage buff yesterday, my fireblast crit for 750 and fireballs are in the 700s. Numerous times I took on 3 horde, sometimes with the flag, and killed them all with a blast wave, sapper, cone of cold, nova, etc.
Learn the distance with blast wave and cone of cold. You can kite melee for a long time and fireblast em into early retirement. Frost bolt is a slow cast without the talent and not as easy to pull off, although you can still use the rank 1.
FAP this. Sheep the FC who used a FAP, until it wears off. Fuck em!
Always keep one of the enemy sheeped! Often as I am casting away, I'll spot someone healing or not being attacked and I will target them. As soon as my cast is done I cast sheep on them, then target the 1st one again. Wait 8-10 seconds then resheep. 3v3 becomes 3v2 which quickly becomes kill the sheep now.
When your team punches your sheep, chastise them. Or educate them, please don't touch my sheep. Often I'll tell them beforehand so I can do my combo. I love the pyro combo. You can feel the little sheep sweating knowing the slaughter is coming.
Counterspell the healer when they are 50% done casting the heal. Then sheep em into eternity. Or focus scorch and fireblast on the healer. They will be stunned eventually and can't keep themselves up and someone else.
Kamikaze Mage! I have gone through 90 Goblin Sapper Charges in the last 3 days lol. Find a group of enemies (3 or more) that are close together. Nova them in place, blast wave, sapper, cone of cold, arcane explosion until you and them are dead. Last night I hit the EFC for 706 with a sapper and he was dead as a door nail. If you don't have sappers, you can still do some awesome AOE to a group. Blast Wave and Sapper is 1k +/- AOE dmg in a second. Hitting a group of 5 enemy is 5k DPS lol. If you group with another fire mage, you can tag team that for double the fun.
When you are counter spelled, sheep, use arcane missiles or frost spells. When spell locked, wand away, bomb em, or death ray time.
When in a hurry, I will pop a mana pot and or gem to top off instead of drinking. Drink when you have time. Buy mana pots every time they are cheap.
Mage vs mage: you see frost mages start with frost bolt, then when counter spelled, they sheep, then get into combos. Fire is the same way. Don't open with poly, if they are watching. They will silence you then poly you. Or cast poly then interrupt it so they waste their silence.
I also get a fair amount of resists without the talents to reduce. So when you do get a key resist on something like a poly, be prepared to repeat.
I use healbot to help remove curses off team players, and to buff them with AI. Put dampen magic on pets and solo players aka people without a healer.
Don't bother putting on Arcane Intellect when the fight is close to the gy. it'll take a good chunk of your mana and you'll never get it back, just Ice Armor. Also, after rezzing I put on my 3 buffs, hit the hut for mana top off, and buff my team as I juice up running. And don't buff others if you need the mana soon. I see priests fort everybody them oom after a couple heals, not smart. When I hit the enemy tunnel I should be almost full mana.
Use level 1 Arcane Explosion, or the macro below, to find stealthed enemy. My macro uses rank 1 until I enter combat, then top rank AE:
#showtooltip
/cast [combat] Arcane Explosion; Arcane Explosion(Rank 1)
Best Practices:
Always keep Mana Gems handy, both kinds, and mana pots and bandages.
Always keep stacks of food and water and offer it to the team before starting.
I always have Ice Armor, Arcane Intellect, and Dampen Magic up (unless I am FC with a healer).
Get WSG rations (AB too) asap as it takes a long time to mana up. Buy and use Moonberry Juice until you get them as the water you make takes over a minute to top you off.
Gear:
Self buffed I have 1657 hp, 2989 mana, 151 fire damage / 101 other damage. It's a little glass cannonish. I have 4 pieces of gear that have no stamina including the Staff of Jordan.
Unfortunately these days Ally lose 80% of pugs or more. Horde are all twinks all the time. Being fire gives me a chance to at least get some kill in before we lose. Somebody said Fire is good if you pug and I agree. The damage output at least allows you to do something to help, or at least it feels good getting a kill during the serial losses. But at least we have 30 second to 5 minute short queues for the time being.
Combos:
Well the ole sheep, get 26 yds distance, pyro, fireball, fireblast, scorch x whatever until dead. Fireball will catchup with pyro and unsheep. If you are closer go pyro, scorch, fireblast, scorch x.
If you don't have 6 seconds, sheep, fireball, scorch, fireblast scorch x.
Nova then fireball, fireblast, scorch x. Or sometimes I will sheep when I get some distance and do the pyro routine.
Sheep x 50. Yesterday I had a troll mage's hp down to nothing and she got a sheep off. In defiance she sheeped me around 50 times all back to back. Didn't know you could do that? You can rank 1 sheep for 60 mana. Sometimes when I get pissed or in a mood, I'll keep someone sheeped / nova'd for as long as possible to keep them out of the game. Yes Offensive, that means you.
Basic Casted DPS:
Scorch 77 dps
Fireball 95 dps (untalented 3.5 sec cast)
Pyro 84 dps
Fireblast is instant and not casted
This is rated damage (including dot) not including spellpower divided by cast time.
Damage Per Mana:
Scorch 1.44
Fireblast 1.2
Fireball 1.50
Pyro 2.1
Again rated damage (including dot) divided by mana cost. As you can see, Pyro is very efficient but hard to get a 6 second cast off.
Fireball is the clear DPS winner, however scorch has 2.3 more chance of the stun effect because of quick cast time. I really wish I could talent into fireball to reduce it .5 seconds, but I cannot spare the 5 needed points.
Tactics:
Fire is best used at distance in my opinion. If you can hide behind something, on the roof, or in a bush and free cast, it's pretty awesome. Even with a healer on your target, you can often out damage them. Especially if you open up with the pyro or fireball and then fireblast which often take more than 50% hp. But do know fireball and pyro can be seen traveling from you. Scorch and fireblast do not travel in the air and don't give away your position.
Hut buff! With the 30% damage buff yesterday, my fireblast crit for 750 and fireballs are in the 700s. Numerous times I took on 3 horde, sometimes with the flag, and killed them all with a blast wave, sapper, cone of cold, nova, etc.
Learn the distance with blast wave and cone of cold. You can kite melee for a long time and fireblast em into early retirement. Frost bolt is a slow cast without the talent and not as easy to pull off, although you can still use the rank 1.
FAP this. Sheep the FC who used a FAP, until it wears off. Fuck em!
Always keep one of the enemy sheeped! Often as I am casting away, I'll spot someone healing or not being attacked and I will target them. As soon as my cast is done I cast sheep on them, then target the 1st one again. Wait 8-10 seconds then resheep. 3v3 becomes 3v2 which quickly becomes kill the sheep now.
When your team punches your sheep, chastise them. Or educate them, please don't touch my sheep. Often I'll tell them beforehand so I can do my combo. I love the pyro combo. You can feel the little sheep sweating knowing the slaughter is coming.
Counterspell the healer when they are 50% done casting the heal. Then sheep em into eternity. Or focus scorch and fireblast on the healer. They will be stunned eventually and can't keep themselves up and someone else.
Kamikaze Mage! I have gone through 90 Goblin Sapper Charges in the last 3 days lol. Find a group of enemies (3 or more) that are close together. Nova them in place, blast wave, sapper, cone of cold, arcane explosion until you and them are dead. Last night I hit the EFC for 706 with a sapper and he was dead as a door nail. If you don't have sappers, you can still do some awesome AOE to a group. Blast Wave and Sapper is 1k +/- AOE dmg in a second. Hitting a group of 5 enemy is 5k DPS lol. If you group with another fire mage, you can tag team that for double the fun.
When you are counter spelled, sheep, use arcane missiles or frost spells. When spell locked, wand away, bomb em, or death ray time.
When in a hurry, I will pop a mana pot and or gem to top off instead of drinking. Drink when you have time. Buy mana pots every time they are cheap.
Mage vs mage: you see frost mages start with frost bolt, then when counter spelled, they sheep, then get into combos. Fire is the same way. Don't open with poly, if they are watching. They will silence you then poly you. Or cast poly then interrupt it so they waste their silence.
I also get a fair amount of resists without the talents to reduce. So when you do get a key resist on something like a poly, be prepared to repeat.
I use healbot to help remove curses off team players, and to buff them with AI. Put dampen magic on pets and solo players aka people without a healer.
Don't bother putting on Arcane Intellect when the fight is close to the gy. it'll take a good chunk of your mana and you'll never get it back, just Ice Armor. Also, after rezzing I put on my 3 buffs, hit the hut for mana top off, and buff my team as I juice up running. And don't buff others if you need the mana soon. I see priests fort everybody them oom after a couple heals, not smart. When I hit the enemy tunnel I should be almost full mana.
Use level 1 Arcane Explosion, or the macro below, to find stealthed enemy. My macro uses rank 1 until I enter combat, then top rank AE:
#showtooltip
/cast [combat] Arcane Explosion; Arcane Explosion(Rank 1)
Best Practices:
Always keep Mana Gems handy, both kinds, and mana pots and bandages.
Always keep stacks of food and water and offer it to the team before starting.
I always have Ice Armor, Arcane Intellect, and Dampen Magic up (unless I am FC with a healer).
Get WSG rations (AB too) asap as it takes a long time to mana up. Buy and use Moonberry Juice until you get them as the water you make takes over a minute to top you off.
Gear:
Self buffed I have 1657 hp, 2989 mana, 151 fire damage / 101 other damage. It's a little glass cannonish. I have 4 pieces of gear that have no stamina including the Staff of Jordan.
Unfortunately these days Ally lose 80% of pugs or more. Horde are all twinks all the time. Being fire gives me a chance to at least get some kill in before we lose. Somebody said Fire is good if you pug and I agree. The damage output at least allows you to do something to help, or at least it feels good getting a kill during the serial losses. But at least we have 30 second to 5 minute short queues for the time being.
