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Fire Mage Guide for WoW Forever

How to play Fire Mage in WoW Forever, with a Hot Streak leveling build, raid and AoE specs, and when to spend Combustion and Pyroblast.

MageFireLevelingPvERaidsDungeonsAoEDPS

By stillsixty staffUpdated

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Variants

Overview

Fire is the Mage spec that turns critical strikes into more critical strikes. In WoW Forever that loop has a new engine: Hot Streak. Every non-periodic critical strike from Fireball, Frostfire Bolt, Fire Blast or Scorch grants a 20-second buff that takes 25% off Pyroblast's cast time, stacking three times. At three stacks a six-second Pyroblast becomes a 1.5-second Pyroblast, and the whole spec is built around getting there as often as possible.

Everything else in the tree feeds that loop. Critical Mass and Incineration raise your crit chance, Ignite burns for 40% of every crit, Master of Elements refunds mana on crits, and Combustion now lasts for four critical strikes instead of three. At 60 you take Missile Barrage from Arcane, so your Fireballs also roll for free, double-speed Arcane Missiles.

Fire trades Frost's control for raw damage. Your kills come from big crits instead of freezes, and you pay for it with less safety when a pull goes wrong. If you enjoy watching numbers climb and you're willing to manage your own threat, Fire is the spec for you.

Strengths

  • Strong single-target damage at 60, with Hot Streak Pyroblasts, Ignite and Combustion all scaling off the same crits.
  • A burst window on demand: Combustion adds 10% crit with every Fire hit until four crits land, and those crits build Hot Streak toward a 1.5-second Pyroblast.
  • Fast leveling kills. A Pyroblast opener, two Fireballs and a Fire Blast end most fights before the mob does anything meaningful.
  • Blast Wave gives you an instant AoE with a 50% daze, and Flamestrike covers packs from range.
  • Great mana value from Master of Elements and Clearcasting, so your crits pay for your next spells.

Weaknesses

  • Very little control. Fire has no freezes of its own, so a bad pull leans on baseline Frost Nova and Blink.
  • Fire-resistant targets, such as fire elementals, cut your damage hard. Against them you switch to Frostfire Bolt.
  • High threat. Crits are big, and you need Burning Soul and good judgment in 10- and 20-player raids.
  • Improved Scorch is personal in Forever, so every Fire Mage keeps up their own five stacks.
  • Long casts. Pyroblast without Hot Streak is six seconds, and Fireball is three seconds even with talents.

What's new in Forever

New in Forever
  • Hot Streak (tier 4, requires Pyroblast): non-periodic crits with Fireball, Frostfire Bolt, Fire Blast and Scorch grant a 20-second buff that cuts Pyroblast's cast time by 25%, stacking up to three times. It doesn't need two crits in a row, and it never makes Pyroblast instant.
  • Wake of Fire replaces Improved Fire Blast in tier 1: 2 seconds off Fire Blast's cooldown, and killing a non-trivial target gives your next Fire Blast within 30 seconds +50% critical strike chance.
  • Incineration adds 6% critical strike chance to Fire Blast, Scorch, Ice Lance and Arcane Blast.
  • Improved Fireball now also shortens Frostfire Bolt.
  • Improved Scorch stacks Fire Vulnerability for your own Fire damage only: 3% per stack, five stacks, 30 seconds.
  • Combustion lasts until you land four non-periodic Fire crits, up from three.
  • Master of Elements refunds 30% of the base mana cost at 3/3. Impact stuns on 10% of Fire spells at 3/3.
  • Frostfire Bolt is trained at 40, with new ranks at 50 and 60. It counts as both Fire and Frost damage and is checked against the lower of the target's two resistances.
  • Missile Barrage from Arcane procs from Fireball and Frostfire Bolt, 20% of the time.

Talents

The leveling build. Improved Fireball speeds up your main spell, Wake of Fire and Incineration make the first Fire Blast after every kill crit more often than not, and from 25 those crits stack Hot Streak for a faster Pyroblast on the next pull.

Split 0/21/0 · 21 points at level 30 · Open in calculator

Arcane

0 points

Fire

21 points

Frost

0 points

Talent order

  1. Levels 10–14: 5/5 Improved Fireball. Cuts 0.5 seconds off every Fireball. From level 24, when Fireball becomes a 3.5-second cast, that is a 3-second Fireball, and it carries into Frostfire Bolt at 40.
  2. Levels 15–16: 2/2 Wake of Fire. Fire Blast comes back every 6 seconds instead of 8, and after each kill your next Fire Blast gets +50% critical strike chance for 30 seconds.
  3. Levels 17–19: 3/3 Incineration. +6% crit on Fire Blast and Scorch. Combined with Wake of Fire, the Fire Blast you use on the next mob crits more often than not.
  4. Level 20: 1/1 Pyroblast. Your opener. A six-second cast from 35 yards, fired before the mob knows you exist.
  5. Levels 21–24: 4/5 Ignite. Every Fire crit burns for 32% more over 4 seconds. These points also unlock tier 4.
  6. Level 25: 1/1 Hot Streak. The build comes online. Each stack takes 1.5 seconds off Pyroblast's cast time, up to three stacks, and the buff lasts 20 seconds, long enough to carry into your next pull.
  7. Level 26: 5/5 Ignite. Ignite at 40%.
  8. Levels 27–29: 3/3 Master of Elements. Your Fire crits refund 30% of their base mana cost. Fewer drinks between pulls.
  9. Level 30: 1/3 Critical Mass. +2% Fire crit, and the first step toward Combustion.

Flexible points

  • Getting interrupted by melee hits while you finish a mob? Take 1–3 points of Burning Soul instead of Master of Elements. At 3/3 your Fire spells ignore 70% of pushback.
  • Often fighting two mobs at once? Take Impact at 21–23 instead of the first three Ignite points. A 10% chance to stun on every Fire spell is extra safety when you pull two mobs at once.

Races

Best races

Alliance: Gnome. Expansive Mind gives 5% more maximum mana, and Eureka! makes your next three damaging spells cost 10% less mana and deal 10% more damage (2-minute cooldown). Its three charges go to your next three damaging spells, whatever they are, so trigger it just before a Hot Streak Pyroblast. Escape Artist breaks every root and snare and makes you immune to them for 3 seconds.

Alliance raiding: Human. Sword Specialization gives +2% critical strike chance with every spell while you hold a sword. In a spec that builds Hot Streak from crits, that passive works on every cast. Will to Survive breaks a stun every 3 minutes.

Horde: Troll. Berserking gives 10% casting speed for 10 seconds every 3 minutes. Use it with Combustion so the window's Fireballs land faster. Beast Slaying adds 5% damage against Beasts while leveling.

Horde burst and PvP: Orc. Blood Fury gives 10% Spell Power for 15 seconds every 2 minutes. Use it on cooldown rather than holding it for Combustion. Shatter Curse removes and blocks Curses and Banes and cuts Magic damage taken by 15% for 8 seconds.

All playable races

  • Human: Sword Specialization, The Human Spirit, Will to Survive, Perception.
  • Gnome: Expansive Mind, Eureka!, Escape Artist, Engineering Specialization.
  • High Order Skyborne (Alliance, new): Wind Blessed for 1% Haste, Elemental Insight for 5% damage against Elementals, Read Ley Line to double your health and mana regeneration, and Walk on Air to glide for 10 seconds.
  • Troll: Berserking, Beast Slaying, Regeneration, Rapid Regeneration.
  • Orc (new): Blood Fury, Shatter Curse, Hardiness.
  • Undead: Will of the Forsaken removes Charm, Fear and Sleep; Touch of the Grave gives your spells a 10% chance to drain health; Cannibalize restores health and mana from corpses.

Rotation

Single-target pull

  1. Open with Pyroblast from 35 yards. With Hot Streak stacks left from the last kill, it's a 4.5-, 3- or 1.5-second cast.
  2. Follow with Fireball while the mob runs in. Train every new Fireball rank.
  3. When the mob is in 20 yards, cast Fire Blast. After a kill, Wake of Fire makes this one crit more often than not, which starts your Hot Streak for the next pull.
  4. If the mob reaches you with health left, Frost Nova, step back, and finish with Fireball or Fire Blast.
  5. Wand anything under 10% health instead of starting another Fireball.

Chaining pulls

Hot Streak lasts 20 seconds and Wake of Fire lasts 30. The fastest leveling happens when you pull the next mob right away: your first Fire Blast crits more often than not, you walk in with Hot Streak stacks, and your opener is a 3-second Pyroblast instead of a 6-second one. Drink only when you have to.

Two mobs

Polymorph the second mob before you damage it, kill the first, then pull the sheep with Pyroblast. Damage breaks Polymorph, and Pyroblast's burn ticks for 12 seconds, so never Pyroblast a mob before you sheep it.

Mana and downtime

  • Keep Arcane Intellect and Frost Armor up. Frost Armor becomes Ice Armor at 30.
  • From 27, Master of Elements refunds mana on every crit. Fire Blast after a kill crits most often, so it pays for itself.
  • From 20, Evocation runs your mana regeneration at 16 times its normal rate for 8 seconds, on an 8-minute cooldown. Bank it for the pull that runs long, and drink between pulls.

Stat priority

Leveling

  1. Spell Power
  2. Intellect
  3. Spirit
  4. Stamina

Spell Power adds damage to every Fireball and Pyroblast, and at 10–30 even small amounts are a large share of a spell's damage. Intellect gives mana and crit, and crit is what powers Hot Streak. Spirit cuts your drinking time.

Gear

Wands

Wands don't scale with Spell Power in Forever, so buy on damage per second alone. Enchanters craft the four you want:

If you're not an Enchanter, buy these from one. Every wand on the list is a big step up from the last, so upgrade the moment you reach each level.

Armor and consumables

Take any cloth with Spell Power first, then Intellect and Spirit. Elixir of Fire Power from level 18 adds Fire damage for 30 minutes, and Lesser Arcane Elixir from 25 adds Spell Power. Use both for dungeon runs, not for questing.

Professions

Tailoring and Enchanting is the Mage pair. Tailoring makes your cloth gear and bags from 1 to 60, plus the Robe of the Archmage at the end. Enchanting disenchants the cloth you outgrow and makes every leveling wand you want, from the Lesser Magic Wand at 5 to the Greater Mystic Wand at 30.

For gold, level with Herbalism and Skinning or Herbalism and Mining, then switch to Tailoring and Enchanting at 60. The AoE build farms cloth and herb routes in packs, which funds the switch quickly.

Group play and dungeons

Your job in a group is damage first, then crowd control and interrupts.

  • Watch threat. Fire crits are big numbers. Let the tank land two or three attacks before your first Fireball, and open on the tank's target, not a loose one.
  • Polymorph one caster or runner when a pull is more than the tank can hold. Polymorph works on Beasts, Humanoids and Critters.
  • Counterspell healers and casters. Counterspell locks the whole school for 10 seconds.
  • AoE on trash: Flamestrike the pack once the tank has everything, then Blast Wave when they bunch up. Blast Wave pulls anything that wasn't tanked, so hold it until the pack is on the tank.
  • Remove Lesser Curse clears one Curse or Bane from any party member.
  • Food, water and portals. Conjure water for your healer before you enter, and make portals at 40.

In a raid, your Fire Vulnerability stacks help only you. Every Fire Mage in the raid Scorches the boss for themselves.

Tips

Read the Hot Streak buff

Hot Streak is a duration, not a crit streak. A non-crit between two crits doesn't clear it. Look at the stack count before every cast, and cast Pyroblast when its shortened cast fits.

Pyroblast is still six seconds

Hot Streak shortens Pyroblast but never makes it instant. With no stacks, don't start a Pyroblast on a mob that is already hitting you: every hit pushes the six-second cast back.

Chain your pulls. Wake of Fire gives your next Fire Blast +50% crit for 30 seconds after a kill. Pull the next mob inside that window and the Fire Blast you cast as it runs in usually builds a Hot Streak stack.

Fire resistance is real. Against fire elementals and bosses that resist Fire, cast Frostfire Bolt instead of Fireball. It uses the lower of the target's two resistances.

Scorch your own target. Improved Scorch is personal in Forever. Another Mage's stacks do nothing for you.

Combustion lasts four crits. Don't waste it on a pull that dies in two casts. Save it for a target that lives long enough to take a full Hot Streak Pyroblast.

Macros

Wand macro: starts wanding and never cancels it by accident when you press it twice.

Wand
#showtooltip Shoot
/cast !Shoot

Counterspell that stops your current cast first, so you can interrupt out of a Fireball.

Stop and Counterspell
#showtooltip Counterspell
/stopcasting
/cast Counterspell

Polymorph your focus target, or your current target if you have no focus.

Focus Polymorph
#showtooltip Polymorph
/cast [@focus,harm,nodead][] Polymorph

Flamestrike at your cursor, with no targeting circle to click.

Cursor Flamestrike
#showtooltip Flamestrike
/cast [@cursor] Flamestrike

Burst button for Trolls: Berserking and Combustion on one press. Blood Fury and Eureka! run on shorter 2-minute cooldowns, so Orcs and Gnomes press them on their own.

Combustion burst
#showtooltip Combustion
/cast Berserking
/cast Combustion

Changelog

  • Guide published with Level 30, Level 60 Raid and Level 60 AoE builds.
  • Refreshed the page title and summary.

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