WoW Wrath Classic: Fire Mage PvE Guide (WotLK)

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Table of contents

Mage Specialization PvE Guides

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Intro	Best Race	Best Professions
Talents	Major Glyphs	Minor Glyphs
Skill Rotation	Macros	Stat Priority
Enchants	Gems	Consumables
Best In Slot Gear

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Introduction to Fire Mages in Wrath of the Lich King Classic

Fire Mages are some of the highest damage-dealing spell-casting classes in Wrath of the Lich King Classic. While their performance in Player vs Environment encounters is not the greatest starting out, once they obtain better gear their damage starts to skyrocket. The play style is fairly simple, casting only a few abilities in both Single and Multi-Target encounters. They only need to react to one prompt for increased damage and managing mana and cooldown usage is very straightforward. This specialization is great for players who enjoy watching the screen light up with fire and will enjoy focusing on the game and not overly complicated class mechanics.

This guide is specifically intended for level 80 players focusing on PvE end-game content in WoW WotLK: Classic.

Best Race For Fire Mages

For Horde, the only race that provides any significant advantage is Trolls for their Haste buff: Berserking. While Haste is not the greatest priority for Fire Mages none of the other races provide any benefit.

For the Alliance, Humans are typically the go-to race for Fire Mages due to the slight improvement to the Spirit stat with The Human Spirit. This combined with Molten Armor and Glyph of Molten Armor improves Critical chances. They also have Will to Survive, and while very strong in PvP has limited uses in PvE. Draenei are the second most common pick due to a 1% increased Hit Chance from Heroic Presence. However, this only applies party-wide and doesn't stack when there are more Draenei in the party. Gnomes have Expansive Mind for an increase in Intellect and Escape Artist, which is less useful than the Human Racial.

Best Professions for Fire Mages in WotLK

The top professions for Fire Mages to have are Engineering and Tailoring. Engineering provides many useful tools and buffs that increase damage. Tailoring provides the best in slot back piece enchantment and can also create some decent cloth armor pieces.

Here is a table that shows the benefits that each profession provides that are specific to Mages. Each of these recipes can be learned from the respective profession trainer.

Profession	Benefit:
Engineering	Enchants: Boots: Nitro Boosts Gloves: Hyperspeed Accelerators Back: Springy Arachnoweave Bracers: Frag Belt Can be used in addition to Eternal Belt Buckle. Explosives: Global Thermal Sapper Charge and Saronite Bomb
Tailoring	Back Enchant: Lightweave Embroidery
Inscription	Shoulder Enchant: Master's Inscription of the Storm
Leatherworking	Leg Enchant: Fur Lining - Spell Power
Jewelcrafting	3 Jeweller's Gems: Runed Dragon's Eye
Blacksmithing	2 Extra Sockets: Socket Bracer Socket Gloves

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Best Talent Build For Fire Mages in WoW Classic Wrath

There are two standard talent builds for Level 80 Fire Mages. Both are viable in terms of damage however one specializes in the Arcane Talent Tree for sustained damage while the other specializes in the Frost Tree for burst damage.

Fireball Build - Sustained Damage

fire mage talent build wotlk wow wrath classic — Talent Calculator Tool used to create this image provided by https://www.wowhead.com/wotlk/talent-calc/mage

The first build that is most commonly seen goes into the Arcane Talent Tree to pick up Torment the Weak to improve Fireball and Pyroblast damage. If there is a Holy Paladin with Improved Concentration Aura players can move 1 point out of Burning Soul and place it into Firestarter for better mana conservation during AoE fights.

Frostfire Bolt Build - Burst Damage

This build is often seen when fights aren't lasting very long and Fire Mages could now make use of Icy Veins. Skills chosen here improve the damage of Frostfire Bolt and therefore replaces Fireball in the rotation.

fire mage talents frostfire build wotlk wow wrath classic — Talent Calculator Tool used to create this image provided by https://www.wowhead.com/wotlk/talent-calc/mage

Another variation seen from this build, (highlighted in pink), is made by going even deeper in the Frost Tree to pick up Cold Snap which will give a second use of Icy Veins. The burst damage is higher but sustained damage falls off if fights last longer than about a minute. Players with this build forego using Living Bomb in their rotation and will suffer mana problems in longer fights due to dropping Master of Elements.

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Best Major Glyphs for Fire Mage

The Major Glyphs that provide Fire Mages the biggest increase in damage are as follows:

Glyph of Fireball or Glyph of Frostfire for increased damage of Fireball or Frostfire Bolt depending on your talent build
Glyph of Living Bomb for increased critical strike damage of Living Bomb
Glyph of Molten Armor for increased critical strike rating based on Spirit when Molten Armor is active.

Players using the Cold Snap Burst talent build should use Glyph of Mirror Image instead of Glyph of Living Bomb for extra burst damage.

Best Minor Glyphs for Fire Mage

In the images above there are only two Minor Glyphs that have any impact on performance in PvE content.

Glyph of Arcane Intellect for reduced mana cost of Arcane Intellect and Arcane Brilliance.
Glyph of Slow Fall to never run out of Light Feather for Slow Fall. Particularly useful in encounters like Malygos.

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Fire Mage Skill Rotation In Wrath of the Lich King

To start, players should always have Molten Armor active before and during the fight as it increases Critical Strike Rating. At the beginning of a fight, just before combat starts players can use a Potion of Speed and cast Pyroblast for a slight damage increase and be able to use another potion during the fight. If there is no Warlock in the group to provide Improved Shadow Bolt cast Scorch to apply the Crit debuff from Improved Scorch.

For usage of cooldowns, it is important to take advantage of them with Molten Fury when the target is below 35% HP. Use Mirror Image, Combustion, and Icy Veins (if talented) during this execution period, or if the fight is shorter use these when Heroism/Bloodlust is used.

Use Evocation if you run out of mana, ideally timed during moments of downtime or before burst damage is required.

Fire Mage Single Target Rotation

The majority of the time will be spent casting Fireball, however there is still a priority to maintain debuffs and make use of instant cast Pyroblast with Hot Streak procs. The Single Target Damage rotation is as follows:

Scorch to maintain Improved Scorch if needed.
Living Bomb (reapply once expired)
Pyroblast when Hot Streak occurs (don't cancel current cast of:
Fireball or Frostfire Bolt (depending on talents)
Fire Blast if moving
Evocation if out of mana

Fire Mage AoE Rotation

For the Area of Effect DPS rotation in encounters with multiple targets (more than 2), the skill rotation will vary depending on the length of the encounter and whether or not you need to be mobile.

Stationary fights over 12 seconds:

Living Bomb on 3-4 targets
Blast Wave
Flamestrike (Rank 9)
Dragon's Breath
Flamestrike (Rank 8)
Blizzard until dead

For fights that don't last longer than 12 seconds omit the usage of Living Bomb as it will not take advantage of the explosion at the end.

Mobile fights:

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Useful Macros for Fire Mages

The use of macros improves the quality of life by performing certain actions automatically. Players can activate trinkets and cooldowns with a single button press, saving time and ensuring they all get pressed in the right order. This is built into the game through the Macro menu (type "/m" and hit <Enter> in the text chat bar).

Ensure Ignite Occurs From Pyroblast Not Fireball.

#showtooltip
/cqs
/cast Pyroblast
/cqs

This uses the /cqs (Clear Cast Sequence) to add a brief delay Fireball and Pyroblast to ensure that Ignite occurs from a potential crit from pyroblast instead of fireball

Activate All Cooldowns and Cast Fireball

#showtooltip
/cast Combustion
/use 14
/use 13
/cast fireball

Use 14 is the Top Trinket Slot

Use 13 is the Bottom Trinket Slot

Players can add "/cast Icy Veins", "/use 10", and "/cast Berserking" as well if it does not cause haste capping.

Use 10 is the Hand Enchant Hyperspeed Accelerators

Cast AoE At Cursor

/cast [@cursor] Blizzard

and

/cast [@cursor] Flamestrike(Rank 9)

/cast [@cursor] Flamestrike(Rank 8)

Players can also use the "Castsequence" macro to have one button rotate the usage of the stand AoE rotation.

/castsequence [@cursor] blast wave, flamestrike(Rank 9), dragon's breath, flamestrike(Rank 8)

Cancel Current Cast to Counterspell

#showtooltip counterspell
/stopcasting
/cast Counterspell

Use Mana Potion or Runic Mana Injector and Cast Arcane Blast

#showtooltip
/use Runic Mana Injector
/use Runic Mana Potion
/cast Arcane Blast

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Fire Mage Stat Priority In Wrath of the Lich King Classic

Fire Mages tend to excel over Fire and Frost in the early phases of the expansion as they get two talents that provide the most important stat: Hit Rating.

This table outlines the stats that Fire Mages should aim to prioritize.

Fire Mage Stat Priority
1.	Hit Rating (up to 17% Spell Hit Cap)
2.	Critical Strike Rating
3.	Haste (until haste capped)
4.	Spell Power
5.	Intellect
6.	Spirit

WotLK Stats Explained For Fire Mages

Hit Rating Explained For Fire Mages

Reaching the Spell Hit Cap for Bosses (17%) is one of the most important stats to prioritize for all spell-casters. Since 100% of the damage Mages deal is Spell based, their damage will suffer if they can't hit the target, and the other stats will be useless. However, if a piece of gear has significantly higher stats but is missing the required Hit Rating that would put the player slightly below the Spell Hit cap, then it can still be taken into consideration for upgrading as the other stats might make up for it.

Each point of Hit Rating translates into approximately 0.038% Hit Percent.

Increasing your chance to hit by 1% requires 26.23 Hit Rating.

Aside from Hit Rating on equipment, there are three additional sources that can reduce the amount of Hit Rating required.

Buff (1%): Heroic Presence
- The Draenei passive racial trait provides a 1% to party members only, not the entire raid.
Debuff (3%) : Misery or Improved Faerie
- Shadow Priests or Balance Druids will almost always choose their respective talent and provide this debuff on the target.
Talents (1-3%) : Precision
- Only the Fire Mage talent build that selects Frost Talents will have Precision .

Because of these external sources of Hit Rating, the composition of the group may change the way that a player will choose to obtain the required Hit Rating to never miss a spell against a Boss. This table details the different ways players can reach the 17% Spell Hit Cap.

Hit Percent From Buff, Debuff, and/or Talents		Hit Rating Needed From Gear
0%		446
1%	Buff	420
2%		394
3%	Talents or Debuff	368
4%	Talents, or Debuffs, and Buff	341
5%		315
6%	Talents and Debuffs	289
7%	Talents, and Debuffs, and Buff	263

Critical Strike Rating for Fire Mages

Crit is one of the most important stats for Fire Mages as it enables Hot Streak to occur more often. Fire Mages also have Burnout and Combustion to provide even more damage and critical strike chances to ensure maximum damage from instant cast Pyroblast .

Spell Power for Fire Mages

Spell Power directly increases the damage of all spells . This is key to increasing the raw damage value of all spells cast and is further improved by talents such as Empowered Fire which improves Fireball and Pyroblast .

Haste Rating for Fire Mages

Haste Rating increases the casting speed of spells which over the course of an encounter increases the total amount of spells cast. The Haste Cap is defined by the 1.5 Second Global Cooldown ( GCD ); it can be only reduced to 1 second. This means that any spell that has its cast time faster than 1 second will be limited by the GCD and therefore reduce total DPS.

As Fire Mages generally only look for Crit on their gear, the Haste cap is rarely exceeded.

Intellect and Spirit for Fire Mage

Intellect and Spirit are roughly equal for Fire Mages. Intellect it increases the Mana Pool, Critical Strike Chance. Spirit does provide Critical Strike Chance with Molten Armor and Glyph of Molten Armor and is slightly increased further for Fire Mages who chose the talent Student of the Mind from the Arcane Talents.

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Best Wrath Classic Enchants For Fire Mage

The table below shows the best enchants and their effects for each equipment slot for Mages. These enchants do not require any profession and can be provided by other players. Both the head and shoulder enchants require reputation with a faction in order to purchase and use them. We've also included the source for each of these enchants should you have the profession and are wondering where to find it.

Slot	Enchant	Effect	Source
Main-Hand	Staff : Enchant Staff - Greater Spellpower	+69 Spell Power	Enchanting (450) Recipe Purchased from Vanessa Sellers
	Enchant Weapon - Black Magic	Chance to increase Haste Rating by 250	Enchanting (440) Recipe Purchased from Vanessa Sellers
	Enchant Weapon - Mighty Spellpower	+63 Spell Power	Enchanting (435) Recipe Purchased from Vanessa Sellers
Off-Hand	Shield : Enchant Shield - Greater Intellect	+25 Intellect	Enchanting (395) Recipe Purchased from Vanessa Sellers
Head	Arcanum of Burning Mysteries	+30 Spell Power and +20 Crit Rating	Reputation: Kirin Tor - Revered Archmage Alvareaux
Shoulders	Greater Inscription of the Storm	+24 Spell Power and +15 Crit Rating	Reputation: The Sons of Hodir - Exalted Lillehoff
Back	Enchant Cloak - Greater Speed	+23 Haste Rating	Enchanting (430) Recipe Purchased from Vanessa Sellers
Chest	Enchant Chest - Powerful Stats	+10 All Stats	Enchanting (440) Recipe Purchased from Vanessa Sellers
Bracers	Enchant Bracers - Superior Spellpower	+30 Spell Power	Enchanting (440) Recipe Purchased from Vanessa Sellers
Gloves	Enchant Gloves - Exceptional Spellpower	+28 Spell Power	Enchanting (440) Recipe taught by Trainer
Waist	Eternal Belt Buckle	+1 Gem Socket to Belt	Blacksmithing (415) Recipe taught by Trainer
Legs	Brilliant Spellthread	+50 Spell Power and +20 Spirit	Tailoring (430) Recipe Purchased from Archmage Alvareaux Requires Kirin Tor - Exalted
Boots	Enchant Boots - Icewalker	+12 Critical Rating, +12 Hit Rating	Enchanting (385) Recipe taught by Trainer
Boots	Enchant Boots - Tuskarr's Vitality	Minor Movement Speed Increase (8%) and +15 Stamina	Enchanting (440) Recipe Purchased from Vanessa Sellers

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Best WotLK Gems For Fire Mage

Fire mages should prioritize Red Spell Power Gems even when the socket bonus is not great. In the case of Meta Gem activation with Blue Sockets required, the prismatic gem is best or a purple gem with the prefix "Purified" will also suffice. Yellow Sockets are a good place to get some extra Hit Rating if needed, otherwise, prioritize "Reckless" Haste Gems.

Slot	First Choice(s)	Effect	Alternate Choice(s)	Effect
Meta	Chaotic Skyflare Diamond	+21 Critical Strike Rating and 3% Increased Critical Damage	-	-
Blue	Nightmare Tear	+10 All Stats	Purified Dreadstone	+12 Spell Power and +10 Spirit
			Enchanted Tear	+6 to All Stats
			Purified Twilight Opal	+9 Spell Power and +8 Spirit
Red	Runed Cardinal Ruby	+23 Spell Power	Runed Scarlet Ruby	+19 Spell Power
Yellow	Rigid Stormjewel	+20 Hit Rating	Rigid Autumn's Glow	+16 Hit Rating
	Reckless Ametrine	+12 Spell Power and +10 Haste Rating	Reckless Monarch Topaz	+9 Spell Power and +8 Haste Rating
	Veiled Ametrine	+12 Spell Power and +10 Hit Rating	Veiled Monarch Topaz	+9 Spell Power and +8 Hit Rating

Mages that have Jewelcrafting (350) should always use 3Runed Dragon's Eye when possible.

Blacksmithing (400) provides 2 extra sockets with Socket Bracer and Socket Gloves

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Best Consumables To Use For Fire Mage In Raids For WotLK

Another way to squeeze out more damage is by using consumable items. Only Flasks persist through death, but having food buffs and potions at the ready for each encounter will ensure peak performance. We've listed the best option first and also some alternatives that are not as good but are still worthwhile to have nonetheless.

Flask :

Flask of the Frost Wyrm
Alternatives:
- Spellpower Elixir , Elixir of Draenic Wisdom , Adept's Elixir , Elixir of Mighty Thoughts

Food Buff :

Fish Feast
Alternatives:
- Tender Shoveltusk Steak , Firecracker Salmon , Snapper Extreme , Great Feast , Dalaran Clam Chowder , Shoveltusk Steak , Smoked Salmon

Potions :

Depending on the encounter Potion of Speed may push a player past the haste cap with Heroism / Bloodlust , Trinkets, and Cooldowns all at the same time. In that case Potion of Wild Magic would be better.

Alternatives : Runic Mana Injector , Runic Mana Potion for mana preservation.

Scrolls :

Scrolls provide a buff that is shared with and overwritten by similar class buffs. The scrolls below that benefit mages most need only be used when that particular class is not present.

Scroll of Protection VIII is a lesser version of a Druid's Mark of the Wild .
Scroll of Stamina VIII is a lesser version of a Priest's Prayer of Fortitude .
Scroll of Spirit VIII is a lesser version of a Priest's Divine Spirit .

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Best In Slot Fire Mage Gear Wrath Classic

Players looking to maximize their damage potential in Dungeons and Raids in Wrath Classic will need to equip the Best in Slot items for their class and specialization. We've created a list for all Mage specializations in one article, highlighting the absolute best items, but also similar options that are either just as good or very close to the top item.

Clicking the link below will bring you to the Best In Slot equipment for Mages in WoW Classic Wrath of the Lich King.