2 min to read

Fire Mage

How to play and improve!

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Before you start the guide

Pro-tip: Practice on the target dummies in Ironforge/Thunderbluff unless you specifically need to practice the Improved Scorch phase of your rotation. Use your mage portal to go your respective city. Right where you teleport in there will be a class trainer you can use to reset all of your cooldowns and debuffs. To do so talk to them, enter the proving grounds, start any trial, right click your character portrait and select “Leave Instance Group.” Thank me later when you practice with Time Warp

Order of learning:

  1. ABC’s
  2. Zero GCD / CWC
  3. Munching / Overcapping
  4. Double Pyroblast
  5. Combustion Priority
  6. Combustion Entries
  7. GCD’s in combustion
  8. Filler
  9. Cooldown & Proc Usage
  10. Defensives
  11. Tier Sets & their impact
  12. Addons/WA’s

Why did I write this guide?

With all the other guides present for Fire mages, why would I write another one?

Simple really, because while I quite enjoy the guides presently available and their authors (who are amazing people by the way), I found they just weren’t as effective in delivering a systematic “how to improve” over just delivering accurate information. This is mostly due to the guides either being restricted in the method and format they are created with or guides wanting to focus on APL specific accuracy. Neither of which are things I disagree with, but I personally felt there must be a better way for others to learn that can’t just “intuit” what they’re supposed to do. (Like me)

Many mages frequently read the priority lists and guides available, yet still have trouble digesting the information. That’s where this guide comes in. It’s purpose is to present and help you digest that information into actionable items you can use to actually improve. If you go through this guide from top to bottom, making sure you practice and understand each section as you go, you will grow and perform as a fire mage from 0 knowledge, to a deep understanding of the spec!

What’s the difference between this playstyle, and the APL playstyle?

The only major difference between the two is where we place Fireblast inside Combustion. The APL playstyle is very fluid, uses Fireblasts aggressively, generally floats at lower amounts of Fireblasts through Combustion, and requires a wealth of experience and foresight to perform well with. This playstyle uses a “combo” based style to deliver the same effectiveness, floats at higher amounts of Fireblasts through Combustion only running out when you reach the very end.

Acronyms you should know:

Why don’t I see a BIS list?

Because frankly, “BIS lists” are bullshit. Use Raidbots Droptimizer / Top gear options and find your best gear that way. Stephen Hawking is dead, so there’s no human left alive who can actually do the math off the top of their head for gear.