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Fire Mage Guide — Class Guides · WoW Burning Crusade

Fire damage and crits: Ignite, Combustion and stronger fire spells.

A cloth-wearing caster who deals Arcane, Fire and Frost damage from range, controls enemies with Polymorph and frost spells, and conjures food, water and portals. More about the mage

Class
Mage
Roles
Damage
Used for
Raids and dungeons, Player versus player
Top talent
Dragon's Breath
Popular builds
2
Version
WoW Burning Crusade

How to play

Fire is the top mage raid spec for much of The Burning Crusade: Fireball as filler, Scorch to keep Fire Vulnerability on the boss, Ignite and Empowered Fireball for damage, Molten Fury for targets below 20% health, and Combustion for burst.

Molten Armor adds crit; Fire Blast covers movement; Dragon's Breath and Blast Wave handle packs that reach you.

Fire's weaknesses are threat and fire-immune enemies, but TBC has few of the latter.

At a glance

Single-target damage
Damage to groups
Survivability
Utility for the group
Solo play and leveling
Ease of play

Rated 1 to 5 against the other specs in WoW Burning Crusade.

Rotation and priorities

  1. 1Molten Armor.
  2. 2Scorch to five Fire Vulnerability stacks (if no one else does), then keep them up.
  3. 3Fireball as your main spell.
  4. 4Combustion with trinkets and Bloodlust.
  5. 5Fire Blast while moving.
  6. 6Dragon's Breath and Blast Wave against packs that reach you.

Strengths and weaknesses

Strengths

  • Top raid damage on long fights.
  • Molten Fury rewards the execute phase.
  • Strong area damage.

Weaknesses

  • High threat.
  • Fragile, with less control than Frost.
  • Damage swings with crits.

Stats and gear

Stat priority

Most valuable first. Bars compare each stat with the best one; a cap in the note means the stat drops off once you reach it.

  1. 1

    Spell damagefire damage counts

  2. 2

    Hitto 16%, less Elemental Precision

  3. 3

    Critical strikefeeds Ignite

  4. 4

    Spell haste

  5. 5

    Intellect

  6. 6

    Stamina

What to look for

  • Spell damage, hit and crit; fire damage gear counts.
  • Tailoring's Spellfire set is a strong pre-raid choice.
  • Spell damage gems.

Items worth chasing

  • Icon of the Silver CrescentSpell damage, and more on use.
  • Quagmirran's EyeA spell haste proc.
  • Spellfire RobeCrafted robe with fire and arcane damage.

Builds

Each bar splits the build's talent points by tree.

  • Arcane
  • Fire
  • Frost

  • Molten Fury Pyromancer

    DamagePvE
    2/48/11

    Raid Fire: Molten Fury and Empowered Fireball for big Fireballs, Improved Scorch for the raid's fire vulnerability, and Icy Veins from Frost.

    • Pyromaniac 3/3
    • Combustion 1/1
    • Molten Fury 2/2
    • Empowered Fireball 5/5
    • Dragon's Breath 1/1

    Open in the talent calculatorTheorycraftingTalent order by level

  • Dragon's Breath Duelist

    DamagePvP
    20/41/0

    Fire for battlegrounds: Blast Wave and Dragon's Breath control melee, Combustion and Pyroblast deliver burst, and Arcane Fortitude adds armor.

    • Blast Wave 1/1
    • Pyromaniac 3/3
    • Combustion 1/1
    • Molten Fury 2/2
    • Dragon's Breath 1/1

    Open in the talent calculatorTheorycraftingTalent order by level

Key talents

  • Dragon's Breath · top talent, up to 1

    Targets in a cone in front of the caster take 382 to 442 Fire damage and are Disoriented for 3 sec. Any direct damaging attack will revive targets. Turns off your attack when used.

  • Playing with Fire · tier 5, up to 3

    Increases all spell damage caused by 3% and all spell damage taken by 3%.

  • Critical Mass · tier 5, up to 3

    Increases the critical strike chance of your Fire spells by 6%.

  • Blast Wave · tier 5, up to 1

    A wave of flame radiates outward from the caster, damaging all enemies caught within the blast for 160 to 192 Fire damage, and Dazing them for 6 sec.

  • Blazing Speed · tier 6, up to 2

    Gives you a 10% chance when hit by a melee or ranged attack to increase your movement speed by 50% and dispel all movement impairing effects. This effect lasts 8 sec.

  • Fire Power · tier 6, up to 5

    Increases the damage done by your Fire spells by 10%.

  • Pyromaniac · tier 7, up to 3

    Increases chance to critically hit and reduces the mana cost of all Fire spells by an additional 3%.

  • Combustion · tier 7, up to 1

    When activated, this spell causes each of your Fire damage spell hits to increase your critical strike chance with Fire damage spells by 10%. This effect lasts until you have caused 3 critical strikes with Fire spells.

  • Molten Fury · tier 7, up to 2

    Increases damage of all spells against targets with less than 20% health by 20%.

  • Empowered Fireball · tier 8, up to 5

    Your Fireball spell gains an additional 15% of your bonus spell damage effects.

Fire abilities by level

When each ability arrives: trained abilities at the level a trainer first teaches them, talent abilities (gold frame) at the first level the talent can be taken.

Related

Other mage specs: Arcane, Frost