7.2.5 Fire Mage PvE guide

[Domagojf]

Introduction
Hello and welcome to the new 7.2.5 Fire mage PVE guide. Ever feel like you want to pull insane amounts of damage on continous aoe packs, but still pull respectable single target? Look no further as you've found the spec you seek. Fire is a very dynamic spec to play and brings numerous benefits to the table. However it can be lacklustre at times due to poor itemization and lack of legendaries. That being said it's one of the most fun specs to play in Legion after being reworked quite a bit compared to past expansions with a lot of dependancy on legendaries regarding single target. I'm Cryo, kick back and enjoy my Fire mage guide targeted towards PvE.



Talents
Talent choices are very flexible, with some obvioulsly being better than others. I run these talents for most of the time during PvE encounters and keys.






Talent choices
Tier 15



Pyromaniac is a severely underpowered talent, very RNG reliant and doesn't bring a significant benefit to damage.
Conflagration is usually the go-to talent for Mythic+ keys below +15 and on keys that will be done pulling large groups of trash.
Firestarter is usually the go-to talent for raiding as it brings quite a substantial increase on single target and ensures a beefy Ignite heading into Combustion in the opener.

Tier 30



Shimmer is always the go-to talent, it's the only talent that fits into the toolkit of a fire mage.
The other two talents are extremely clunky to use and are not worth taking in any situation.

Tier 45



Mirror Image was used in Nighthold do to heavy movement fights which required high sustained single target damage, however mirror image is currently very weak due to the T20 set bonus for fire.
Rune of Power is the go-to talent for Mythic+ and farm kills in raids with short kill times. It's not recommended to use this talent in ToS due to heavy movement fights where Rune of Power's maximum benefit cannot be used entirely.
Incanter's flow is the go-to talent for raiding and long boss kill timers with a lot of movement involved.


Tier 60



Alexstrasza's Fury is a very clunky talent to use and it results as a dps loss on single target, even with Darckli's dragonfire diadem, but can be proven useful on large AoE packs.
Flame On is the go to talent for all situations, it heavily simplifies the rotation with single target and aoe damage gaining very big benefit from it.
Controlled Burn is a very weak talent not worth using in any serious situation.


Tier 75



Frenetic Speed is the go-to talent for raiding because it brings valuable movement speed which is great for dodging boss mechanics. This talent is also very helpful for Mythic+ during Volcanic weeks.
Ring of Frost is only worth taking in PvP situations.
Ice Ward is the go-to talent for Mythic+ as it brings great utility and ensures the lockdown of certain trash.


Tier 90



Living Bomb is the go-to talent for Mythic+ and generally in fights that spawn a lot of trash.
Recommended dungeons to play this talent are: Lower and Upper Return to Karazhan, Court of Stars, The Arcway, Black Rook Hold, Cathedral of Eternal Night, Maw of Souls and Eye of Azshara.
Unstable Magic is the only real single target talent in this row. It's not a very strong talent as it does less than 1% of damage on single target.
Flame Patch is used in very specific situations, such as pulls containing 2-5 targets, on pulls bigger than those Living Bomb outshines it heavily.
Recommended dungeons to play this talent are: Darkheart Thicket, Vault of the Wardens, Neltharion's Lair, Halls of Valor.

Tier 100



Kindling is the go-to talent for raiding and Mythic+ as it heavily reduces the cooldown of Combustion and provides the highest damage increase in this tier.
Cinderstorm was only used frequently during Emerald Nightmare and has not seen much play since then due to its' low damage.
Meteor has seen a lot of play in Nighthold due to the bursty nature of fire mage, but has been used less and less since then. Currently it provides a lesser damage increase than Kindling does, thus making it a considerably worse talent choice.


 
Stats

Raiding
Mastery>Haste=Critical Chance>Versatility
In raiding the most important thing to remember is to keep a constant dps output and ensuring the biggest possible ignite ticks on your target, which is done by obtaining a large amount of mastery gear. As the number of targets rises, mastery gains an even bigger priority over haste.
As stat percentages go the optimal single target stats would be: 40% Critical Chance, 25% haste, 25% mastery and 10% versatility. This gearing path ensures a steady output of pyroblasts for a beefy ignite throughout the entire fight.

Mythic+
Mastery>Versatility>Haste>Critical Chance

Mythic+ is very different for fire mages than raiding stat-wise. Haste and Critical Chance pose only as a means of continuing your damage after Combustion windows. Mastery and Versatility ensure the highest hitting amount of Ignite ticks on trash packs.

Relics
For raiding the best relics are by far Pyroclasmic Paranoia relics as they bring a very big damage increase both directly and through Ignite.

For Mythic+ if you want to completely disregard raiding you should go for 3x Everburning Consumption relics as they will ensure huge burst windows during Combustion.

Gear
You should aim for t20 4-piece at all costs as it brings a very big damage increase in single target and a useful increase for AoE.
For trinkets by far the best options are Unstable Arcanocrystal and Tarnished Sentinel Medallion. Other good replacements are a high ilvl version of Whispers in the Dark, Terror from below and if possible a high ilvl mastery/haste/crit stat stick.



General playstyle/Rotation

Your opener should be:
1. Fireball until Heating up.
2. Combustion during your Fireball cast.
3. Pyroblast>Fire Blast>Pyroblast>Fire Blast>Pyroblast>Fire Blast>Pyroblast>Phoenix's Flames>Pyroblast>...
4. These will bring you to the ending of your Combustion period, ensuring a beefy Ignite which you should strive to keep up.
5. Outside Combustion periods utilize your Fire Blast and Phoenix's Flames properly to ensure instant cast Pyroblast.
6. Try to pool your resources heading into Combustion ensuring a higher quality burst, this will most likely separate the good and bad Fire Mages.
 
Legendaries

Recommended Legendary Combinations:
AoE
Darckli's Dragonfire Diadem + Sephuz's Secret provides the highest burst for AoE situations.
Darckli's Dragonfire Diadem + Shard of the Exodar are used when your group has a Sated effect and you can use Time Warp for yourself. Basically, you want to use this gear set once before the next time your group wants to use their next Time Warp effect. If you don't have a Sated effect and want to use Bloodlust for a pull, you should not use Shard of the Exodar and instead use Sephuz's Secret to stack the haste effects.
[center][color=green][size=20]When to use Pyrotex Ignition Cloth?
Use the gloves in preparation for large AoE situations when you want your Combustion be up. The purpose of using gloves it to gain an extra Combustion usage on a smaller pack or reduce the cooldown of Combustion so that it can also be up for a bigger one, NOT to gain more Combustions throughout the dungeon.


Single Target
Marquee Binding of the Sun King + Shard of the Exodar are very strong on short boss fights that allow you to get multiple uses out of a Bloodlust effect or to allow you to use a Bloodlust effect on upcoming trash mobs without Shard of the Exodar equipped. I recommend this set for most dungeon bosses and on farm kills in raids.
Marquee Binding of the Sun King + Koralon's Burning Touch are very strong on longer boss fights that let you get value out of belt. Especially strong if you want to save a use of Combustion for an upcoming pack instead of using it on the boss or as is the case for most bosses during progress, they have an extremely long kill time which gives the belt a lot of value.
When to use Pyrotex Ignition Cloth:
For mini-bosses or other single target scenarios where reducing the cooldown of Combustion is more important than the effect of the Shard of the Exodar or Koralon's Burning Touch.
Example Scenario: Use gloves on Felbound Enforcers in Court of Stars so that you can use Combustion on both the Felbound Enforcer and the mini-boss that comes after.
On bosses where you want to make sure you have Combustion up for a dangerous or important part of the fight.
Example Scenario: Use the gloves on Serpentrix in Eye of Azshara to ensure you have Combustion for each add phase.














Improving as a Fire Mage
Fire Mage strenghts
Fire mage's strengths are built into its utility kit and damage. We provide Dragon's Breath, Frost Nova, and a near-permanent 50% slow through Flamestrike. We also provide Ice Block, Spellsteal, and Blink that allows us to make many mechanics trivial. Apart from its utility, Fire Mage is able to provide some of the highest numbers compared to most other DPS classes in the majority of dungeons. We have access to some of the highest on-demand burst thanks to Combustion and Rune of Power.
Fire Mage also doesn't lose much in terms of damage when you want to focus on a single target or AOE talent build, which makes us more consistent than other classes throughout a dungeon. The amount of damage you are able to do as a fire mage is VERY dependent on your legendaries. You should have several equipment sets key bound and ready to be swapped from pack to pack. Fire Mage can also survive virtually any incoming damage on boss fights thanks to various Legendary options. This is a very big deal when pushing high keystones, as some classes will start dying to some abilities at a certain level.
Fire Mage Weaknesses
The biggest weakness of Fire Mage is the lack of an AoE stun or silence. The only things you can do to combat this are to either play as a Blood Elf for Arcane Torrent or become an Engineer so that you can use Cobalt Frag Bomb & Frag Belt. As dungeon levels get higher and higher, the extra AOE silence and disorients can go a long way.
Common Mistakes and Tips
Common mistakes I see Fire Mages make is not using their basic abilities. Don't be stingy with your Blink usage! In many scenarios, you should be using Blink as a DPS increase or even for the healing dot from your artifact trait Cauterizing Blink. Know what enemy abilities do Physical vs Magic damage; Blazing Barrier can help greatly reduce physical damage. Know that most enemies can be interrupted by Dragon's Breath. In some situations, it is better to use it for utility instead of damage.

The biggest tip I can give someone is to keep practicing. You won't always know when to use your cooldowns or which gear sets to use for specific pulls and/or bosses the first time you go into a dungeon. Play with similar groups and develop strategies as you go. Keep playing, so that you know what the best thing to do in each different scenario is.

Useful Macros

Places your Flamestrike at your cursor. At high haste levels it's easy to lose time between casts having to click, this macro limits that.
/cast [@cursor] Flamestrike

Uses Ice Block the first time you press the button. Cancels the debuff the next time you use it.
/stopcasting
/cancelaura Ice block
/cast Ice block

Stops your casting so that you don't have to move to interrupt your cast and use Counterspell.
/stopcasting
/cast Counterspell

Interrupts your focused target. Useful when you don't want to switch off your current one.
/stopcasting
/cast [@focus,harm,nodead][] Counterspell

Focus Scorch - Useful when using Koralon's Burning Touch and you are focusing a priority target but want to scorch another mob <30% health.
/cast [@focus,harm,nodead][] Scorch

Recommended addons
BigWigs/LittleWigs: Extremely useful addon for boss encounters.
Weakauras 2: An addon without which a proper UI isn't complete, known as probably the most useful addon in WoW. (a few useful weakauras)
Details! Damage Meter: Tracks several things for your party such as damage, healing, deaths, etc. Very useful for finding out information about encounters throught a dungeon.
ELVUI: A bundle of joy, it turns a default UI into a heavily improved one in a matter of seconds. It's extremely customizable and can be tailored to fit any screen size.


If you have any further questions feel free to whisper me in game @Cryogenic-Felsong on the horde side.