How to: Fire Mage

womp

Legend
This short guide is to encourage ppl who have thought about going fire to do so. Fire mages have one of the highest burst damage in the bracket if played right and it's a mystery to me why there are so few of them out there.

So how to play well as fire in the bracket?

Most ppl who think fire think crit rating, WRONG! you should aim for a MAXIMUM of 25% crit rating (i have 23.3), here is why:

All mages gain [shatter] when attacking a frozen target (frost nova). Shatter doubles ur crit chance and adds 50% on top of that. a 25% crit chance means you have 100% crit vs frozen targets.

You MUST gear towards maximizing your spell power, more precisely your fire spell power.
You MUST spec into POM (Presence of Mind - 1.5 min CD) - makes your next cast instant.
You MUST be lv24 in order to get [inferno blast] which is an auto-crit instant cast that replaces fire blast at 24.

As a fire mage, you can take on a p2p hunter 1 on 1 and expect to win as long as they don't trinket the frost nova (or are too slow to trinket it). You must also have Presence of Mind ready.

Close the gap with blink--> frost nova --> POM pyroblast (crit) --> inferno blast (auto crit) -->2 crits =instant pyroblast (deals 25% extra dmg) --> if* target is still alive arcane blast/ice lance him altho most players with ~2000 hp will be dead after that second pyroblast.

**ALWAYS REMEMBER TO WAIT FOR YOUR SPELL (pyroblast or fireball) TO HIT YOUR FROZEN TARGET BEFORE USING INFERNO BLAST OR ELSE IT (inferno blast) WILL CONSUME AND BREAK THE FROST NOVA BEFORE YOUR OTHER SPELL HITS. Inferno Blast hits the target instantly upon use and has no travel time.

Dealing a crit with a fire spell will proc hot streak, getting two hot streaks twice in a row with fire abilities allows the use of an instant Pyroblast which deals 25% extra dmg. If you crit with inferno blast, but fail to crit with your next fire spell (frostfire bolt included) you lose your 1 hot streak stack and have to start over. If you want to reliably set up a burst without the use of Presence of mind, then you should cast inferno blast (gain 1 stack) and follow up with spamming ice lance or arcane explosion until Inferno blast is off the cooldown(8 seconds). failing to crit with non-fire abilities will not remove your stack of hot streak, likewise critting with non-fire spells will not generate a hot streak.

I always recommend that you get close and dirty when you gain an instant pyroblast proc via hot streak. Frost nova your target to assure a crit and nuke him. pyroblast crit-->inferno blast crit--> another pyroblast.

One more thing to remember is that inferno blast spreads your pyroblast dot to enemy players within 10yds of your target. It is a strong dot dealing a little more than the initial pyroblast dmg over time.

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Hope this will encourage a few mages to try out fire because its awesome :)

Here's my character for gear / enchants: Satski @ Bleeding Hollow - Community - World of Warcraft
 
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Also, I highly recommend rolling a Blood Elf because of the extra intellect AND aoe silence which comes into many uses as a fire mage since you want to be in close range for your bursts.
 
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