Fire Mage 101

Fire mage


Fire is an incredibly well-designed tree. The talents interplay with each other throughout the tree in such a way that the entire spec just feels incredibly cohesive. Based around damage over time effects and area of effect spells, the fire tree provides exceptional and consistent multi-target DPS but still packs a punch even when there's only one enemy to be blown up. But what can't overstated about the fire tree is this: It's really, really fun to play. You may not get the gigantic crits of arcane or the PvP dominance of frost, but you will get moving Scorches. And moving Scorches are the shiznit.

Base spec Fire 3/32/3




This build nets you every DPS talent and grabs Piercing Ice's crit increase and Netherwind Presence's haste buff from the frost and arcane trees, respectively. The three points in Burning Soul are for pushback protection, something that's only beneficial if you're actually getting hit regularly. If you don't get a lot of pushback normally, you might want to redistribute those points elsewhere. This build leaves you with three floating talent points to put wherever you wish.

Basic rotation Like most other rotations in Cataclysm, fire's is priority-based but varies depending upon the situation at hand:

Living Bomb (if not already up)
Combustion (if off cooldown and if Living Bomb, Pyroblast, and a large Ignite DoT are all up on your main target at the same time)
Pyroblast! (if Hot Streak has procced)
Fireball (or Frostfire Bolt with glyph if your mastery is high enough that it becomes better than Fireball)
If there are multiple tanked targets within range of each other, cast Fire Blast whenever Impact procs to spread your DoT effects to those additional targets. During movement phases, spam Scorch and maintain Living Bomb.

In short, this means you keep Living Bomb up at all times, spam Fireball (or Frostfire Bolt) until Hot Streak procs, then cast Pyroblast. When all of your major DoT effects are up on your main target and Combustion is off cooldown, Combust the living crap out of it. Add water, stir, bake for 45 minutes at 375 degrees, and serve hot. Enjoy!