On this page, we list your Fire Mage coreabilities and how they should be used together (rotation) in World of WarcraftMoP 5.4. We also explain whento use your various cooldowns. Then, we go deeper and present all the subtletiesthat you will need to know if you want to excel at playing a FireMage.

The other pages of our Fire Mage guide can be accessedfrom the table of contents on the right.

1. Single Target Rotation↑top

The rotation of a Fire Mage consists in the following priority list.

1. Refresh Invoker's Energy or refresh Rune of Power.
2. Use Combustion when you have a high Ignite DoT present.
3. Cast Pyroblast when Pyroblast! and Heating Up are up (see next section for explanations).
4. Apply your Mage Bomb (Tier 5 talent) or refresh it just before it expires.
5. Cast Inferno Blast when Heating Up procs and Inferno Blast is off cooldown.
   • Inferno Blast will always crit, upgrading Heating Up to Pyroblast!.
6. Cast Fireball.
7. When moving, cast Scorch instead of Fireball.

See our Opening Sequence for instructions onwhat to cast when the fight starts.

1.1. Heating Up Trick

When upgrading Heating Up to Pyroblast! with Inferno Blast,do not use the instant-cast Pyroblast just yet. Keep casting Fireball untilyou get another Heating Up. When this happens, cast Fireball again immediatelyfollowed by your instant-cast Pyroblast. Fireball and Pyroblast will land on the targetat the same time and if any of them is a critical strike, then your current Heating Upwill be upgraded and will give you another instant-cast Pyroblast.

1.2. Tier 6 Talent

Invocation is your best Tier 6 talent and is very straightforwardto use. Cast it before the pull to get Invoker's Energy up andrecast it every time it expires.

Make sure that, during Evocation, you do not haveto refresh Nether Tempest.

If you chose Rune of Power as your Tier 6 talent, thenmake sure that your Rune of Power is always active and that youstand in it at all times.

1.3. Cooldown Usage

Combustion is your only real DPS cooldown. It createsa new DoT on your current target that will tick for 20% of the IgniteDoT already present on this target.Combustion does not take Living Bombor the Pyroblast DoT into account anymore. Always use Combustion afterlanding a big critical hit (or a series thereof) with Pyroblast.

Alter Time returns you to your current location, health, mana, buffs, anddebuffs when you cast it a second time or after 6 seconds. We advise you to alwaysuse it in conjunction with a powerful trinket proc/on-use effect (the duration of whichwill be extended for 6 seconds) or when Pyroblast! is up (to have it up again 6seconds later). Alter Time also works with Presence of Mind (if you chose itas a Tier 1 talent). Finally, you can use it to bypass encountermechanics, for example before receiving a large amount of damage or a dangerous debuff.

Proper usage of Combustion and Alter Time is crucial for achievinghigh DPS as a Fire Mage, especially when you combine these two abilities with Presence of Mind. Make sure to read our more advanced sectionon the usage of Combustion, Alter Time, andPresence of Mind.

Mirror Image is a very small DPS cooldown, which you should usewhen the images can attack the boss for their entire duration (30 seconds).

2. Multiple Target Rotation↑top

As we explained in the Talentspage, choose your Mage Bomb according to how many enemies you are facing andwhether they are stacked or not.

When fighting 2 to 4 enemies, keep your Mage Bomb up on all of them.Keep your Pyroblast DoT up on all of them by targeting them successively with yourinstant-cast Pyroblasts. If the targets are stacked, simply use Inferno Blast tospread your DoTs.

When fighting 5 or more high health enemies, they willnormally be tanked together, so use Cone of Cold (glyphed) on cooldown, apply yourMage Bomb on as many of them as possible, and use Arcane Explosion as a filler.

When fighting 5 or more low health enemies (that is to say, enemieswho will not leave long enough for your Mage Bomb deal its full damage), use Cone of Cold on cooldown and spam Arcane Explosion as a filler.

Avoid Flamestrike. It is only worth using if there is nothing elseavailable to DPS and enemies will soon spawn and be tanked at a predefined location.

3. Armors↑top

Your only viable choice of armor is Molten Armor.

4. Optional Read: Mastering Your Fire Mage↑top

While the rotations we gave in the previous sections will yield very goodresults, there are a few things you should be aware of, in order to play yourFire Mage to its full potential.

4.1. Pyroblast and Heating Up

A critical strike with Fireball, Inferno Blast (which is guaranteed tocrit), Pyroblast (instant-cast or not), Frostfire Bolt (which isnot normally part of your rotation), and Scorch will grant you Heating Up. Scoring a second critical strike in a row will transform Heating Up into Pyroblast!, granting you an instant-cast,mana-free Pyroblast.

Heating Up and Pyroblast! are two different buffs, which isan important distinction as you can have them up at the same time on a target.This means that if you score a third critical strike in a row before usingyour instant-cast Pyroblast, this critical strike will not be wasted.If, however, you score a fourth critical strike in a row without using yourinstant-cast Pyroblast, then your new Heating Up will transform into Pyroblast! and override your previous buff, effectively wasting it.

Note that Critical Mass multiplies the critical strike chance of your Fireball, Frostfire Bolt, Pyroblast, and Scorch spells.It makes it easier to get instant-cast Pyroblasts.

4.2. Ignite

Mastery: Ignite is your Mists of Pandaria Mastery. It increasesthe damage that Ignite does on your target. Ignite is a DoT that is applied and refreshedwhen you deal damage with Fireball, Frostfire Bolt, Inferno Blast, Scorch,or Pyroblast. In Cataclysm, it used to be only triggered by critical strikes.

As you can see in the tooltip,when Ignite is refreshed, it creates a new 4-second DoT and whatever remained onthe DoT that was refreshed is added to the new DoT.

4.3. Combustion, Alter Time, and Presence of Mind

When cast, Combustion creates a new DoT on your target. Every second, it will tickfor an amount that represents 20% of the current value of your Ignite DoT.

Your goal is to always cast Combustion with a high Ignite. Thisis not always possible, but at times, you can reach very high Ignite valuesby properly combining Alter Time and Presence of Mind. This is a keyaspect of playing a Fire Mage to its full potential.

Barring any encounter-specific requirements, you should beusing Glyph of Combustion, which gives your Combustiona 90-second cooldown and a 20-second duration. This way, every othercast of Combustion will benefit from the very high Ignite valuesyou can reach thanks to Alter Time.

When casting Pyroblast, it always takes a bit for your Igniteto be refreshed (because Pyroblast needs to travel to the target), so you maysometimes find yourself casting Fireball when your Ignite becomes highenough for Combustion. For this reason, we advise you to usea /stopcastingmacro for casting Combustion.

4.3.1. Tips for Combustion when Alter Time is on Cooldown

Between each cast of Alter Time, you will be able to cast Combustion once. This will not be a very damaging Combustion,compared to the ones you will cast in combination with Alter Timeand Presence of Mind, but you should still try and get the bestout of them.

To get a high Ignite without Alter Time, do the following.

1. Set up a situation where you have Heating Up and Pyroblast!up at the same time (usually, by upgrading a Heating Up with Inferno Blastand casting Fireball until Heating Up procs again).
2. Use our Heating Up trick to consume your Pyroblast! and increase your chances to get another instant-castPyroblast.
3. If you get another instant-cast Pyroblast, then cast itand cast Combustion. If you do not, you can cast Combustionanyway or use Presence of Mind+ Pyroblast to try and increasethe value of Ignite. Note that this does not always work, unlessthe Pyroblast from Presence of Mind critically hits (these instant-castPyroblast do not get the +25% increased damage buff that theinstant-cast Pyroblasts from your critical strikes do get).

In any case, do not delay this cast of Combustion, becauseit would just end up delaying the much more damaging Combustion thatyou would get when Alter Time is available.

4.3.2. Tips for Combustion when Alter Time is available

Thanks to Alter Time, you can get many instant-cast Pyroblasts in a row, allowing you to build a very high Ignitefor your Combustion. Proceed as explained below.

1. Set up a situation where you have Heating Up and Pyroblast!up at the same time (usually, by upgrading a Heating Up with Inferno Blastand casting Fireball until Heating Up procs again).
2. Cast Fireball and immediately pop your Alter Timemacro.
3. Depending on whether your spells score critical strikes on not, you willbe able to cast a number of Pyroblasts before finally consuming Presence of Mind (which is cast by the macro). When this happens, use your Alter Time macroagain and keep casting Pyroblast until you finally consume Presence of Mind again.
4. Cast Combustion. Note that you should always cast Combustionbefore the Pyroblast from Presence of Mind hits the target, because thesePyroblasts do not benefit from the +25% increased damage that instant-castPyroblasts from your critical strikes do get. So cast Combustion whilethe Pyroblast from Presence of Mind is traveling.

4.3.3. Presence of Mind

Presence of Mind should always be used on Pyroblast to help createa high Ignite DoT on your target before casting Combustion.

4.4. Opening Sequence

We advise you to use the following opening sequence (or opener).

• Before the pull:
  1. cast Evocation for Invoker's Energy (-6 seconds);
  2. cast Mirror Image (-4 seconds);
  3. use your Potion of the Jade Serpent and start casting Pyroblast (-3 seconds);
  4. apply your Mage Bomb (Tier 5 talent).
• After the pull:
  1. spam Fireball until Heating Up procs;
  2. when Heating Up procs, queue Inferno Blast after Fireball to upgrade Heating Up to Pyroblast!;
  3. resume casting Fireball until you get a Heating Up on top of your proc of Pyroblast!;
  4. proceed as we explained above for getting a high Ignite for Combustion using Alter Time and Presence of Mind;
  5. perform your regular single-target rotation.

5. Changelog↑top

• 05 Mar. 2014: Added a number of tips from Vykina in the rotation sections and in the sections about Combustion and Presence of Mind.
• 11 Sep. 2013: Removed tip about switching to Mage Armor for Combustion (no longer valid with 5.4 nerf).
• 10 Sep. 2013: Patch 5.4: nothing to change.
• 01 Jul. 2013: Added Evocation to opening sequence.
• 07 Jun. 2013: Updated multiple-target section after 2 weeks of Patch 5.3 raiding.
• 25 May 2013: Living Bomb is now the best option for single-target situations.Multiple-target rotation still needs to be updated, but another lockout of testing is needed.Added a tip regarding using Mage Armor during Alter Time to increase Combustion's damage.
• 20 May 2013: Patch 5.3 update: nothing changed (may need to review AoE rotation after a few days of raiding).
• 17 Apr. 2013: Update after Blatty's review of the guide.
  • Improved single-target rotation.
  • Improved AoE rotation.
  • Added section with a lot of tips for setting up Combustion.
  • Added opening sequence.
  • Emphasised the importance of Blazing Speed over the other two Tier 1 talentsin the talents cooldown section.
• 29 Mar. 2013: Moved advice to use Scorch while moving directly into therotation section at the beginning of the article. This will make it clearer.
• 10 Mar. 2013: Made multiple-target rotation explanations clearer so that itcan no longer be understood that Inferno Blast spreads Living Bomb.
• 07 Mar. 2013: Patch 5.2 update.
  • Updated multiple-target rotation to reflect the fact that Glyph of Inferno Blast (formerly Glyph of Fire Blast) now spread DoTs to an additional nearby target.
  • Updated value of Invocation's buff: was 25%, is 15% now.

Builds, Talents, and Glyphs

Buffs, Debuffs, and Useful Abilities