Fire Mage Class Guide - MoP Classic

Welcome to our Mists of Pandaria Classic (MoP Classic) Fire Mage Class Guide for Phase 1, it focuses on getting you up to speed with the Spec for PvE content, Dungeons and Raiding. The guide includes key information for what has changed going into MoP, the best Talent builds, Major Glyphs, your Rotation, Gearing and Consumables for Fire Mage.

Table of Content:

• Changes from Cataclysm to MoP
• Talents
• Rotation & Abilities
• Gearing & Consumables

What’s New for Fire Mage in Mists of Pandaria Classic

Mage is another class that got a lot of changes from Cataclysm to MoP. Even if the core gameplay doesn't seem to change that much, you have a lot of new options, spells that are deleted, changed, moved to all the specs or now exclusive to certain specs. Here are the most important changes for Fire mages:

• No more reagents needed for Slowfall and Tables.
• The different Armors now give better offensive stats and stay through death.
• Remove Curse removes all the curses on the target.
• Deep Freeze and Shatter are available to all specs.
• Alter Time is a new offensive Cooldown.
• Combustion now stuns and has a shorter Cooldown.
• Fire blast is replaced for Fire mages by Inferno Blast.
• Burning Soul is a new passive.
• Flame orb has been deleted.
• Nether Attunement is a new passive, giving more mana.

Is Fire Mage Good?

Mage is and will always be one of the best caster in World of Warcraft. What will change however, is specialization strength. Fire is the safest long term investment, as it will be one of the best specs in the later tiers. But, in early tiers… Not so much, this might be one of the worst if not the worst DPS spec in the game. This is because Fire needs a lot of secondary stats. You can’t have huge amount of crit in early tiers, so your life is pretty hard.

Best Talents & Glyphs for Fire Mage in MoP Classic

With the new revamped talents, we will provide you with 2 talent builds, one for Dungeons and one for raiding. Don’t forget that, with the new talents, a lot of utility options can be changed depending on the fight or dungeon.

Fire Mage Raiding Talent Build

Fire Mage Talent Builds have a lot of interesting utility choices, but the DPS choices are pretty set in stone. Invocation, Living Bomb and Presence of Mind are the best choices in single target. In raids you can swap Living Bomb for Nether Tempest if you need to cleave and even Frost Bomb in fights with a lot of adds.

Regarding utility, Temporal Shield is a strong cooldown, but Ice barrier is easier to play around if you don’t really want to think about your defensives. Cauterize is a cheat death, which has insane value but, if you want to mitigate big damage intake, Greater Invisibility is a better choice.

Best Fire Mage Raid Glyphs

Regarding Major Glyphs, you will want to obtain Glyph of Rapid Displacement, Glyph of Combustion and Glyph of Inferno Blast. For fights with cleave, you can take Glyph of Cone of Cold.

For Minor Glyphs, the only one worth getting above all the other is Glyph of Momentum.

Fire Mage Dungeons & Challenge Mode Talent Build

In the Dungeon Talent Build, you can swap utility talents as you feel, like you would in the raid build. The biggest debate here would be Nether Tempest vs Living Bomb vs Frost Bomb. Even if you can spread Living Bomb, it tends to lose value with each extra target. Frost Bomb on the other hand is the exact opposite, as it's only a DPS upgrade if you have 5+ target for a vast majority of the dungeon. Nether Tempest is the best compromise.

Best Fire Mage Dungeon Glyphs

Regarding Major Glyphs, you will want to obtain Glyph of Cone of Cold, Glyph of Combustion and Glyph of Inferno Blast. You can play with Glyph of Arcane Explosion if you want even more AoE.

For Minor Glyphs, the only one worth getting above all the other is Glyph of Momentum.

Rotation for Fire Mage in MoP Classic

Single Target Rotation & Priority

1. Maintain Molten Armor.
2. Maintain Invocation.
3. Use Presence of Mind on Cooldown. Spend it on Pyroblast.
4. Use Alter time on Cooldown, when you have a free Pyroblast and Presence of mind active.
5. Use Combustion on Cooldown if your Ignite on your target is from a Pyroblast. Usually, you want to build a big Ignite by casting multiple Pyroblast to have a huge Combustion.
6. Use Mirror Image on Cooldown.
7. Maintain Living Bomb.
8. Cast Pyroblast if you have a free instant Pyroblast and if Heating Up is active (Heating Up is the middle ground, one more crit and you get a free Pyroblast). When you do, try and cast Pyroblast at the same time as a Fireball.
9. Use Inferno blast when Heating up is up to get a free Pyroblast.
10. Cast Fireball.

AoE Rotation & Priority

1. Maintain Nether Tempest, Living Bomb or cast Frost Bomb on Cooldown.
2. Spread your DoTs using Inferno Blast.
3. Continue with Single target rotation.

With 5+ Targets, just spam Cone of Cold and Arcane Explosion while maintaining Frost Bomb.

Fire Mage Opener

Regarding Openers, there is a precise cast sequence you want to achieve. The goal of the opener is to build the biggest Ignite possible to have the best Combustion as possible.

Use Evocation and Mirror Image before the pull, pre-cast Pyroblast, apply Living Bomb, Fireball, Inferno Blast on the first Heating up, Fireball to get another Heating Up (you should have free Pyroblast + Heating up at this stage), Presence of Mind, Alter Time, Pyroblast as much as possible, when you don’t have anymore Pyroblast re-cast Alter Time, spend the other Pyroblast you have and then Combustion for big damage.

Best Gear & Stats for Fire Mage in MoP Classic

Best in Slot (BiS Gear) aren’t as big in Mists of Pandaria Classic. Reforging is the new hype, so you can tailor your gear better than before.

The gear you should aim for are: Trinkets, Tier Sets and Weapons.

Fire Mage Best in Slot (BiS) Gear in MoP Classic (Pre-Raid)

The best weapons you can find pre-raid in the first phase are:

• Inscribed Crane Staff, from Inscription.
• Je’lyu, Spirit of the Serpent, from Sha of Doubt, Temple of the Jade Serpent.
• Headmaster’s Will, Darkmaster Gandling, Scholomance.

The best off-hands you can find pre-raid in the first phase are:

• Inscribed Red Fan, from Inscription.
• Bottle of potent potables, from Hoptallus in Stormstout Brewery.
• Scroll of Whispered Secrets, a BoE.

The best pre-raid trinkets are:

• Relic of Yu’lon, from Inscription.
• Vision of the Predator, from Striker Gad’ok, Gate of the Setting Sun.
• Ghost Iron Dragonling, from Engineering.
• Flashfrozen Resin Globule, from Vizier Jin’bak, Siege of Niuzao Temple.

Fire Mage Best in Slot (BiS) Gear in MoP Classic (Tier 14)

Upgrading your character with the best gear is an important part of increasing your damage.

Below is a BiS Gear List containing your theoretical Best in Slot (BiS) Gear for Fire Mage. This information is based on the MoP original release and PTR data, and so is subject to change. But this list should give you a good target for gearing.

There can be some key stat breakpoints and targets that you need to hit for maximum performance. You can find those in the Stats Section below, and use reforging to adjust your gear stats to achieve them.

MoP Classic Fire Mage Stat Priority

Your best stat is Intellect which should be your first priority. Then, Hit Rating and Expertise to reach a 15% chance to hit.

After that, you want lots of Critical Strike! After that, Haste is better than Mastery.

Best Consumables, Enchants & Gems for Fire Mage in MoP Classic

The following tables outline the recommended Consumables, Enchants and Gems for Fire Mage in Raiding and Dungeon content.

Consumables

Enchants

Gems

We hope this guide helped you improve your Fire Mage Gameplay and better understand the spec. To check out all of our MoP Classic content, such as Class Guides, Tier Lists and more, you can browse our full library of MoP Classic Guides.