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Hello everyone, this is going to be a guide for PvP Fire mages playing on Wrath of the Lich King servers. Everything that follows is based on my personal preferences and my personal experience playing as fire. I'll be taking you step by step through gearing up, talents and useful tricks an' tips. Without further ado, here's the table of contents:
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Table of Contents:
1. Introduction
2. Talents
3. Glyphs
4. Statistics and Gear
5. Enchants
6. Gems
7. Professions
8. Macros
9. Playing a Fire Mage
10. Fire Mage 1v1
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Introduction
Fire Mages! One of the funnest classes to play on WoW granted they've got the reputation of not being very effective in PvP due to their low survivability and relatively low damage output, but once you've mastered your fire mage, you'll realize that it's an investment well worth the trouble!
As a Fire mage you're always relying on your luck. You've got several luck dependent procs which will be discussed below these include disarms, speed increases, ignites and of course hot streaks. Fire is very crit dependent, and that's a problem because in Wrath of the Lich king, resilience lowers the chance a target can be critically hit- which means as a fire mage, you won't be critting as much as you want to. As you progress in PvP, opponents will also be harder and harder for you because of their increased resilience. Do not fret though, we'll learn to make the best out of the situation down below.
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Talents
The talent build I'm using is as follows:
CLICK HERE
Fire mages traditionally go down the arcane tree for support because of Arcane Shielding and Improved Counter Spell. Arcane Shielding is especially important, since as fire, you might be forced to use your Mana shield a lot, and you will go oom quite early (mana consumption to damage ratio is pretty imbalanced as fire, at least above 35% HP).
Arcane Fortitude is also pretty neat versus melee classes, giving you approximately 3% damage mitigation as a fully geared fire mage. Magic Absorption is likewise very useful against casters. All in all, the arcane tree is the best way to go for competitive fire mage playing.
Onto the fire tree. Let's discuss why I did not spec into some talents:
[Burning Determination]:
It's a very good talent when you're facing more than one opponent, but otherwise it's practically useless. That's because the immunity from silences lasts for only 20 seconds, and most silences have a cooldown of over 20 seconds anyway, so this talent becomes useless in 1v1 situations unless you're facing Shamans (with Wind Shear- a silence with a cooldown of 6 second) or Rogues (with Kick, a silence with a cooldown of 15 seconds).
[Burning Soul]
I'm a fan of this talent myself, but I felt it useful to put my points elsewhere. Although the talent seems to be for Pve, the reduction of pushbacks while casting fire spells is very good, especially when you're down to 35% hp and want to hurl that finishing pyroblast. But alas, I wanted to spend my points only where it's absolutely necessary, and as a fire mage, most your spells are instant casts anyway, so you won't be casting too much.
[Empowered Fire] 3/3
It's a good talent, and I understand why most players would spec into it 3/3 (for the increased damage of Pyroblast), but I didn't feel it was as necessary as some of the other talents I chose to take, and so I only specced into 2/3. In any case, if you do spec into this, it's only for the Pyroblast. As a fire mage, you won't be Frostfire bolting or Fireballing unless the enemy is significantly away from you, or he's CC'ed for a sufficient duration.
[Improved Scorch] 3/3
I only put two points in here because 2 is optimal. The 1% crit increase for scorch is insignificant, and 66% chance of applying the debuff is enough for you. It's a good talent, but not at 3/3.
[Firestarter]
This has more to do with my play style. I don't like applying Aoe's. It just feels awkward to have to use your mouse to damage the opponent. I don't feel it's a necessary talent either.
Now let's discuss why I chose to spec into some talents rather than any of the above, I will be focusing on the more "controversial" talents:
[World In Flames]
It's an awesome talent, and with enough crit, almost always guarantees you a hotstreak after every Living Bomb explosion. The increase of the Dragon's Breath, Blast Wave and Pyroblast crit chance is also stupendous, and significantly increases the damage output of those spells- not to mention procs Ignite more often! At 2/3, 4% more crit is just awesome.
[Fire Power] 4/5
I felt that 5 talent points was too much to lose for only a 10% increase in fire damage, so I specced it at 4/5. An 8% increase in fire damage is still significant in my opinion.
[Flame Throwing]
An increase of 6yards for your fire spells is a life saver, it means you can DPS warlocks from a range further than their fear, it means you can kite melee more easily and it means people in battlegrounds can't run away from you ^^
[Molten Fury]
Only two points for a 12% increase is a bargain you cannot ignore! It means those pesky healers won't be able to heal themselves so easily, and it also means that coupled with [Fire Power], you do 20% more damage to low health targets. All in all, this talent will benefit your dps, and at a cost of only 2 talent points, it's difficult to resist.
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Glyphs
There's really not much variation when it comes to Glyphs:
For your Major Glyphs you want:
[Glyph of Evocation]
This gives you health generation with your mana generation while channeling Evocation. Basically your only self heal while in combat. A must have for PvP.
[Glyph of Polymorph]
It removes all DoTs from the pollied targets since fire does have DoTs, you want to be able to polymorph your opponents even if they've got an Ignite or Living Bomb on them- just incase. It's also great in arenas, if your partner has a DoT on an enemy that you're going to switch from and CC.
Another use for the DoT removing capabilities given by using this glyph, is when Polymorph is reflected from Warriors. it removes all DoTs from you as well, which is great.
[Glyph of Scorch] or [Glyph of Living Bomb]
The Glyph of Scorch increases your Scorch damage, which is your filler spell while Glyph of Living Bomb gives your Living Bomb ticks the ability to become critical strikes (although the ticks do not proc Hotstreak even if they do crit). As mentioned earlier, when you reach competitive levels, you will not be critting on opponents as much, so glyph of Scorch is more useful. In my opinion, the Glyph of Living Bomb is better for Battlegrounds and World PvP, while Glyph of Scorch is better for Arenas and Duels. You have the choice between either. If you're going to Crit stack with your gems and gear however (instead of spellpower stack), then I feel Glyph of Living Bomb would be a better investment.
For your Minor Glyphs you want:
[Glyph of Slowfall]
You don't want to go around hunting birdies to get the snowfall reagent do you?
It's a great buff, especially in battlegrounds and world pvp. It's also a good buff to use when you're facing another mage, a shaman or a warlock, since it's one more buff they have to devour/spellsteal/purge from you before they can get to your important buffs- such as your wards. It wastes much less time and effort to have the glyph at hand.
[Glyph of Fire Ward]
Adds 5% chance of reflect to Fire ward. 'nuff said.
[Glyph of Frost Ward]
Adds 5% chance of reflect to Frost ward. 'nuff said.
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Statistics and Gear
Here's where it gets a little in the gray
Traditionally fire mages want as much crit as possible but since you won't be critting at competitive levels, i feel it makes much more sense to prioritize spellpower over critical strike rating, and as such, my stat priorities are:
Hit > Spellpower > Crit > Resilience > Spell Penetration >Stamina > Intellect > Haste
When you're near BiS fire mage pvp gear, you want:
Hit: Atleast 104 (4% hit chance) - this is ESSENTIAL, and must be your primary focus before anything else. You don't want to miss those pyros. Don't stack too much hit after 104 hit rating though, it's a waste of other stats.
Spellpower: 3100 is optimal, you can stack more, but try not to do it in expense of critical strike rating. Try not to go lower than around 3000 spellpower.
Critical Strike Chance: At least 36% passive crit (42% fire crit with the above talent set up), I feel 38% passive crit (44% fire crit) is optimal. You can stack more, but don't do it in expense of Spellpower. Remember, you won't be critting much anyway, so you might as well replace crit with spellpower.
Resilience: As a fire mage, you're really squishy, so the more resilience the better. 1200 resilience is optimal, you should be aiming for atleast 1100 resilience though.
Stamina: You want to have round about 26k - 29k HP. Again, to add to your survivability.
Intellect: Try not to have less than 20k mana. You will go oom too early otherwise.
Spell Penetration: 110 - 130
Haste: 0. You don't need haste as Fire Mage. The only use for haste is that it decreases your GCD, but other than that it's useless (since most your spells are instant casts).
As for Gear, the good thing about Fire Mages is that PvP gear is great (since it offers spellpower, crit, resilience and extra stamina). So you won't be needing as many PvE pieces.
You need to have a plan to satisfy the 104 hit requirement though, and that can be done by including one PvE hit piece, coupled with the usage of [Loop of the Endless Labyrinth] HC (drops from Lord Marrowgar in 25 man Heroic Difficulty mode of ICC).
You can use one of the following pieces along with the ring:
[Deathfrost Boots] (from tailoring). The easiest out of the options. You can get one from the auction house.
[Pendant of Split Veins] HC (drops from Professor Plutricide in 10 man Heroic Difficulty mode of ICC),
[The Lady's Brittle Bracers] HC (drops from Lady Deathwhisper in 25 man Heroic Difficulty mode of ICC).
Get ONE of those pieces + [Loop of the Endless Labyrinth] HC and you should have enough hit.
The rest of your items should be Critical Strike Rating PvP items- I can't stress this enough, you don't need PvE pieces- resilience and stamina is required as a PvP Fire Mage. Until you can get one of the above pieces, replace one of your crit pvp offset pieces with a hit offset piece.
The best weapon for you is the 3v3 [Wrathful Gladiator Mageblade] or [Bloodsurge, Kel'Thuzad's Blade of Agony] coupled with [Wrathful Gladiator Endgame] as offhand.
For trinkets, use Medallion of the Horde/ Alliance (153 Resilience is great), and either [Corroded Skeletal Key] (From the Emblem of Frost vendor, worth 60 EoF) or [Phylactery of the Nameless Lich] (Drops from Sindragosa in 25 man difficulty mode of ICC). Corroded Skeletal key greatly enhances your survivability and the Phylactery greatly enhances your damage output. Both are equally viable depending on your playing style, but I feel the Phylactery is slightly better if you're stacking critical strike rating (coupled with Glyph of Living Bomb), while the Corroded Skeletal Key becomes more viable with spellpower stacking (coupled with Glyph of Scorch).
Either way, in arena, I would probably use [Phylactery of the Nameless Lich] as a second trinket if my partner is a healer, and [Corroded Skeletal Key] for any other set up.
If you're an OP human, you can obviously use both Corroded Skeletal Key and Phylactery of the Nameless Lich :(
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Enchants:
Your usual PvP caster enchants:
Head: Arcanum of Burning Mysteries (+30 spellpower, +20 Critical Strike Rating) Available in Vote Shop!
Shoulders: Greater Inscription of the Storm (+24 spellpower + 15 crit) Available in Vote Shop!
Back: Spell Piercing (+35 Spell Penetration)
Chest: Exceptional Resilience (+ 20 Resilience)
Wrists: Greater Spellpower (+30 spellpower)
Mainhand: Mighty Spellpower (+63 spellpower)
Feet: Nitro boosts (Awesome speed increase and +24 crit) or Tuskarr's Vitality (speed increase +15 stamina)
Pants: Sapphire Spellthread (+50 spellpower, +30 Stamina) Available in Vote Shop!
Belt: Eternal Belt Buckle (1 more gem slot) and Frag Belt (yes, you can have both on one item)
Hands: Exceptional Spellpower (+28 spellpower)
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Gems:
Well, you want to Gem based on your stats. Your main focus while gemming is Spellpower, Crit and Spell penetration. I donÔÇÖt feel gemming any other stat is necessary. To get to the 3.1k optimal spellpower level, I feel the gemming should be as follows:
Red: Runed Cardinal Ruby (+23 Spellpower) OR Mysterious Dreadstone (+12 Spellpower, + 13 Spell Penetration)
Blue: Mysterious Dreadstone (+12 Spellpower, + 13 Spell Penetration) OR Radiant Eye of Zul (+10 Critical Strike Rating, + 13 Spell Penetration)
Yellow: Potent Ametrine (+12 Spellpower, +10 Critical Strike Rating) OR Smooth KingÔÇÖs Amber (+20 Critical Strike Rating)
If you're spellpower stacking, take the first set of gems from each color, if you're crit stacking, take the second set of gems from each color. You can add one Rigid KingÔÇÖs Amber (+20 hit) gem if youÔÇÖre using the non HC versions of the Hit pve pieces I mentioned above, and one Stormy Majestic Zircon (+25 spell penetration) if youÔÇÖre low on Spell penetration.
If you have Jewelcrafting as a profession, replace three Runed Cardinal Rubies (+23 Spellpower) with Runed Dragon's Eye (+39 Spellpower) if you're planning to spellpower stack. If you're Crit stacking, replace three Smooth KingÔÇÖs Ambers(+20 Critical Strike Rating) with Smooth Dragon's Eyes (+34 Critical Strike Rating).
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Professions
Well this greatly comes down to what youÔÇÖre going to do with your mage. Either way, as a profession for mages in general, I highly recommend Jewlcrafting. You can make your own gems, which will cost you virtually nothing since you can buy the mats for 10k honor, and the DragonÔÇÖs Eye gems give you an amazing boost in stats.
Now, if battlegrounds and world pvp is what you enjoy the most, then engineering is an obvious must-have for a second profession. Great 3 second stun frag belt, great nitro boots and a whole load of other nifty items.
If youÔÇÖre going to try and play competitively with your fire mage, then other more viable second professions are blacksmithing (for the two extra sockets), enchanting (for the ring enchants) or tailoring (for the cloak enchant- but you might need to replace your crit wand with a spell penetration wand, since you lose Spell Piercing (+35 spell penetration). Herbalism is another okay choice for the self heal it gives you.
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Macros
Here are some useful mage pvp macros:
Polymorph Macros
When you keybind this, it will cast polymorph on your target, and it will cast polymorph on a focused target if you hold-down shift while casting polymorph:
Code:
#showtooltip Polymorph
/cast [modifier:shift, target=focus] Polymorph; [target=mouseover,harm] Polymorph; Polymorph
or the following macro, which simply casts polymorph on a focused target:
Code:
#showtooltip Polymorph
/stopcasting
/cast [target=focus] Polymorph
Counter Spell Macros
Useful against healers, and works exactly the same as the polymorph macros above. Additionally, these Counterspell macros will stop your current cast when you want to silence someone in the middle of one of your casts- e.g.
You polymorph an enemy player and begin casting Frostfire bolt-> he trinkets it and begins casting on you-> by using this macro you halt your Frostfire bolt and immediately cast Counterspell.
Code:
#showtooltip Counterspell
/stopcasting
/cast [modifier:shift, target=focus] Counterspell; [nomodifier:shift] Counterspell
or
Code:
#showtooltip Counterspell
/stopcasting
/cast [target=focus] Counterspell
Useful Stop-Casting Macros
The following macros will give their respective spells the ability to stop your casts to cast the macroÔÇÖd spell (for any emergency interrupts).
For Blink:
Code:
#showtooltip Blink
/stopcasting
/cast Blink
For Fire Ward:
Code:
#showtooltip Fire Ward
/stopcasting
/cast Fire Ward;
For Frost Ward:
Code:
#showtooltip Frost Ward
/stopcasting
/cast Frost Ward;
Iceblock Macro
Please donÔÇÖt use your mouse to right-click the Iceblock buff in order to remove it :P
By using this macro, the button you keybinded iceblock with can be pressed again while youÔÇÖre in the block to get you out of it.
Code:
#showtooltip Ice Block
/stopcasting
/cancelaura Ice Block
/cast Ice Block
Spellsteal/ Remove Curse Macro
Useful macro. It will cast spellsteal if youÔÇÖre targeting an enemy player, and remove curse if youÔÇÖre targeting a friendly player or your self.
Code:
#showtooltip Spellsteal
/Cast [harm] spellsteal; [help] remove curse; remove curse
Blast Wave Knock Out Macro
One of my favorites :D
This macro allows you to kill people while theyÔÇÖre flying up on their flying mounts. Just go up to them and use the macro, which dismounts you and casts Blast Wave. If you hit them with blast wave, they will fall down to their deaths while you can use Slowfall to gracefully land back down.
Code:
#showtooltip Blast Wave
/Dismount
/Cast Blast Wave
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Playing a Fire Mage
Playing as a fire mage involves a lot more strategy and a lot less burst- since the damage output is so low. YouÔÇÖve got a wide variety of CCÔÇÖs and interrupts in your arsenal so use them to full potential.
Some spells you need to know about:
Pyroblast: Your main spell. ItÔÇÖs got a ridiculously long cast-time, so youÔÇÖll only be hurling it at enemies when you proc a Hotstreak (after getting two critical strikes in a row). Under 35% health however, it becomes a 1.5 second cast, which immensely increases your damage output- use it whenever you get the chance.
Frostfire Bolt: A decent spell with a three second cast time. Does decent damage and additionally gives your target a snare. Only use it when the target is far away from you, or after a dragonÔÇÖs breath or a polymorph. Be especially careful when using this versus a Mage, warlock or Shaman, because when youÔÇÖre School-Locked because of it, youÔÇÖre locked out of both the Fire and Frost schools of magic.
Scorch: Your filler spell. Use it to apply the Improved Scorch debuff every thirty seconds (increasing your chance to critically hit the target by 5%). Since itÔÇÖs only a 1.5 sec cast, itÔÇÖs a useful way to proc a hotstreak, although you shouldnÔÇÖt be spamming it because itÔÇÖs not very mana efficient.
Living Bomb: A great DoT which explodes with aoe damage after the DoT duration. The explosion towards the end can also allow you to proc a hotstreak. ItÔÇÖs especially useful versus players with pets/minions since pets/minions donÔÇÖt benefit from resilience.
Be careful though, the explosion triggered towards the end, might break any nearby CCÔÇÖed targets.
Fire Blast: An instant cast fire spell which does decent damage. With an impact proc, it can also stun an enemy for 2 seconds.
Blast Wave: A radial attack which radiates from the mage pushing all targets around the mage back. Useful for interrupting casts and pushing melees off the mage. It can also be used to push enemy players off cliffs and flying mounts :D
DragonÔÇÖs Breath: A frontal cone of fire which disorients all targets infront of you for 5 seconds. Useful for interrupting casts, and stunning melees to kite them. A constant way I see this talent being misused is when mages cast it, then cast a Blast Wave immediately after. While I understand the impulse because both of them are short range attacks that deal moderate amounts of damage, you really shouldnÔÇÖt be wasting a 5 second opportunity with an instant cast spell. After DragonÔÇÖs Breath, you have enough time to even cast a Frostfire Bolt (great damage, and a snare), Polymorph, or make a distance by foot to kite a melee.
Cone of Cold: A frontal cone which snares all the targets it affects. A nice snare. Again, use it for kiting.
Frost Nova: A radial root which radiates from the mage, freezing all targets around the mage. Your main kiting spell.
Ice lance: Nice spell for eating up Shaman Grounding Totems and warrior Spell Reflects.
Rank 1 Frostbolt: Quick snare. Always have it keybound. Not to mention it makes for a nice fake-cast.
Iceblock: Makes you immune for 10 seconds. Useful to avoid powerful enemy procs or get out of a CC. Four minute cooldown so donÔÇÖt waste it.
Polymorph: A mageÔÇÖs main CC, allowing you to humiliate the opponent by turning them into an animal for 10 seconds :D (with diminishing returns of 5 seconds on second application, and 3 seconds on third application). Cast frostfire bolt if youÔÇÖve just polymorphed a target the first or second time, and cast scorch if youÔÇÖve just polymorphed them for the third time. Watch out, the target regains all of itÔÇÖs health once itÔÇÖs polymorphed!
Spell steal: Removes a buff from an enemy and add it to yourself. Fun to use, and useful versus priests, other mages and paladins.
Remove curse: Removes a curse from a friendly target or yourself. This includes the various Warlock curses along with a ShamanÔÇÖs Hex!
Mirror Images: Create copies of yourself which cast Frostbolts to snare your enemies. Useful in confusing your enemies since they lose you as a target, and especially useful versus melee since it gives you an automatic snare while you can worry about kiting and dpsÔÇÖing. Three minute cooldown.
Invisibility: A nice survivability spell, that can also be used as an opener to many fights. Three minute cooldown.
For buffs, Fire mages have:
Combustion: A buff which increases the critical strike bonus of your Fire Spells by 50% and increases your Critical Strike Rating by 10% stacking up until you get 3 consecutive Critical Strikes. At a two minute cool-down, it does huge damage. Use it wisely. DonÔÇÖt waste it on DragonÔÇÖs Breath and Blastwave since they donÔÇÖt contribute to Hot-streak- after Combustion, try to stack it using Scorch, Living Bomb and Fire Blasts- to guarantee a Hot-streak.
Fire Ward/ Frost Ward: Fire Ward absorbs fire damage, frost ward absorbs frost damage. With Molten Shields they also have a 30% chance to reflect any spell damage!
Fire Ward should be used against: Fire Mages, Warlocks, Elemental Shamans, Survival Hunters.
Frost Ward should be used against: Frost Mages, Enhancement Shamans, Death Knights
Amplify Magic/ Dampen Magic: Amplify Magic increases the healing you receive, but at an expense, also increases the spell damage you receive. Useful for when youÔÇÖre with a healer and youÔÇÖre facing melees. Dampen Magic does the opposite in decreasing the spell damage you receive, but also decreases the healing you receive. Use either depending on your opponent. If youÔÇÖre facing casters, then Dampen magic is the obvious choice.
Arcane Intellect/Brilliance: A long term buff which increases your intellect for an hour. Have it on at all times.
Mana Shield: A shield that drains mana instead of HP. Don't have it on you early on in most fights, and don't spam it until you're below 35% HP. As fire you'll go oom very quickly, and spamming this will just add to your already existing problem.
And of course, the three armors...
Mage Armor: Possibly the most OP PvP long-term buff in the game. Increases your resistances (by A LOT if you're using the build provided above), increases your mana regeneration while casting, and most importantly; HALVES all magical harmful effects done to you. So magical stuns and disorients, fears, curses, damage over time effects, and polymorphs last much less. Not to mention the halving of all silences done to you. It even halves a hunters' silencing shot, dks' strangulate and snares (chains of ice!) and a paladin's repentance. Use this as your DEFAULT armor. So unless you're facing a warrior, rogue, beast mastery hunter, survival hunter, or feral druid; use this.
Ice Armor: Make sure you keybind this and not keybind Frost Armor- which is a different buff for low level mages. It is a decent buff against melee classes. It increases your armor, as well as increases your frost resistance, on top of all, it will snare any melee enemy that hits you for a short period of time. Use it against warriors, rogues, beast mastery hunters, survival hunters, and feral druids. If you're facing anything else, have Mage armor on.
Molten Armor: Increases your crit chance by an amount proportional to your spirit, induces some fire damage to enemies that attack you and reduces the chance you can be critically hit by 5%. In my humble opinion, absolutely useless compared to the other armors. You might want it on when you're on a demolisher dps'ing the enemies away for some extra damage, but other than that it is useless in pvp. Not to mention that if the enemy does attack you while this thing is on you, the damage can eat up your precious combustion if it crits. In short; don't use this.
As for procs and tweaks to already existing spells, you have:
Hotstreak: A proc which gives you an instant Pyroblast after two consecutive critical strikes from Frostfire bolt, Scorch, Living Bomb or Fire Blast. Your main DPSing mechanism above 35% hp (after then, Fiery Payback comes into play, and you no longer need to wait for two critical hits, since Pyroblast becomes a 1.5 sec cast).
Blazing Speed: A proc from incoming melee attacks which increases your movement speed by 50% for 8 seconds. Very useful for kiting.
Impact: A proc which gives your next Fire Blast, the ability to stun the target for 2 seconds. Most useful for interrupting casts, but can also be used for a chance to get away from a melee.
Fiery Payback: A talent which gives you a chance to disarm melees attacking you! It also reduces the cast time of Pyroblast to 1.5 seconds when youÔÇÖre below 35%- donÔÇÖt forget you have this!
Molten Shields: A talent which gives your fire and frost wards a 30% chance in reflecting spells. Very annoying versus destruction warlocks, shamans, death knights and other mages. Use it to full potential :D
The basic fire mage mechanic is to CC the enemies with Polymorph, DragonÔÇÖs breath, Blast Wave, Impact, Frost Nova or Cone of Cold, and cast Scorch, Living Bomb and Frostfire Bolt until you proc a Hotstreak, to deal some serious damage with Pyroblast. The basic rotation switches around when youÔÇÖre below 35% hp, when Pyroblast becomes a 1.5 second cast thanks to Fiery Payback, and you can do some insane dps then.
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Fire Mage 1v1
Here are some tips versus specific classes in 1v1 duels.
Warriors:
Before the duel make sure you have Ice Armor along with Fire Ward buffed (in case he reflects your fire spells).
As the duel begins, cast Invisibility. While youÔÇÖre fading out the warrior will charge at you and by the time he gets to you, youÔÇÖre already invisible so he wonÔÇÖt be able to damage you at all. Wait out the slows his charge had on you then pop out of invisibility and polymorph the warrior. If he trinkets the polymorph just dragonÔÇÖs breath him and re-polymorph. Move away from him (donÔÇÖt use your blink just yet), re-apply polymorph, and cast frost fire bolt or scorch. Continue dpsÔÇÖing the warrior and only use blink to avoid his intercepts- use your roots and snares (like Frost Nova and Cone of Cold) in addition to Blast wave and DragonÔÇÖs breath to get away if he gets too close- but donÔÇÖt waste your blink!
Iceblock the warriorsÔÇÖ bladestorm if heÔÇÖs arms. If youÔÇÖre losing health, you can frost nova him to evocate and in a worst case scenario, you might need to polymorph him. You can either use ice lance to eat his spell reflect, or if heÔÇÖs rooted with frost nova, use polymorph to polymorph yourself and get back your HP.
Rogues:
Before the duel make sure you have Ice Armor buffed. Having Mana Shield up might also be useful since the rogue will get the first hit on you. You might also want to have combustion buffed in the beginning.
The rogue will start with a sap. Wait through it. When heÔÇÖs out and attacking you, donÔÇÖt panic. Frost nova the rogue, then blink. If he has it specced, he shouldnÔÇÖt be able to shadow-step while heÔÇÖs rooted. You can also use mirrors to ruin his first shadowstep.
From then on, continue kiting him while dpsing him. Iceblock his shadow dance and try to stay away from him when he cloaks. If youÔÇÖre going low on health, donÔÇÖt be afraid to polymorph him midfight and evocate. Rogues shouldnÔÇÖt be able to do much on you once theyÔÇÖve exhausted their cds.
Make sure to keep Living Bomb on him at all times. ItÔÇÖs going to be a quick fight so maintain your focus.
Hunters:
Before the duel make sure you have Mage Armor buffed (it halves the duration of silencing shot), as well as Fire Ward if youÔÇÖre facing a Survival Hunter (it absorbs damage from explosive shot). If youÔÇÖre facing a Beast Mastery Hunter, have Ice Armor buffed instead. Having Mana Armor and Combustion buffed in the beginning of the fight is also helpful since you want to burst him down quickly.
Versus Marksman and Survival hunters, as the duel begins, cast invisibility. If the hunter uses freezing trap in the beginning of the game, youÔÇÖll be frozen, but invisible- so he canÔÇÖt really do much to you. If youÔÇÖre not caught in his trap, simply approach the hunter while youÔÇÖre invisible as fast as possible, and pop out of invisibility. Use frost nova to root the hunter and proceed on dpsÔÇÖing him. As long as youÔÇÖre close to him, he canÔÇÖt do serious damage to you, so try to stay close as much as possible. Try to avoid using blast wave (since it will knock him away from you), and rely more on dragonÔÇÖs breath, cone of cold and frost nova. During Deterrence, donÔÇÖt waste time casting any spells and use it as an opportunity to get close to the hunter.
Versus a Beast Mastery hunter things are more complicated, and you have to pay attention to your positioning since you want to kite the pet and at the same time get close to the hunter- itÔÇÖs essentially a 1v2 fight. Iceblock or use invisibility on his Bestial Wrath. After the pet enrage, try to keep the pet pollied/rooted with frost nova, and use the above tactics to kill the hunter. Engineer nitro boots are very helpful in this fight since they give you the capability of kiting the pet while simultaneously getting close to the hunter.
Death Knights
Before the duel begins make sure you have Mage Armor and Frost ward buffed up. It is essential that you maintain frost ward for this fight (for a chance in reflecting his frost attacks- especially his Chains of Ice)
If possible, try to start the duel away from the death knight. This can be achieved by moving away from him by foot, by mount, or by starting with invisibility so he canÔÇÖt follow you around. Gain as much distance as possible. Begin dpsÔÇÖing the Death Knight right away- you wonÔÇÖt get a chance to polymorph a decent Death Knight. Try to maintain a living bomb on both him and his minion- since his minion has no resilience, you are more likely to get hot streaks from it.
DonÔÇÖt waste your blinks until after he uses Death Grip, otherwise heÔÇÖll just pull you back. Save your trinket for his PetÔÇÖs stun. When he uses Anti-magic Shield, donÔÇÖt waste time casting, and just try to get as much distance from the death knight as possible.
You want to pressure the Death Knight sometime mid-fight, so use Combustion along side with your Mirror Images to get him to waste his Death Pact.
The Death Knight will pop his Gargoyl if you pressure him enough. You want to have had the Death Knight use up his Death Pact by then. If the Death Knight is low on health, just finnish him off. If he isnÔÇÖt, snare the death knight, gain distance, and switch over to the Gargoyl. Kill the Gargoyle as quickly as possible! DonÔÇÖt forget, you can use Counter Spell to silence the Gargoyl for 4 seconds (alternatively, you can silence the Death Knight to avoid him casting spells on you for 4 seconds while you kill the gargoyle). If he uses Death Pact while youÔÇÖre killing the Gargoyl, just polymorph the Death Knight and continue killing the Gargoyl. YouÔÇÖre going to have to try and kill the Death Knight all over again without any CDs.
ItÔÇÖs a tough fight, especially when a gargoyl is involved. Maintain control and distance from the death knight, and youÔÇÖll have a good chance in winning. DonÔÇÖt forget, you can still blastwave the death knight away from you even when he has Anit-Magic Shield on, so use it well.
Paladins
Before the duel begins make sure you have Mage Armor buffed up (it halves the duration of the PaladinÔÇÖs stuns).
For Retribution and Protection Paladins: As soon as the duel begins, silence the paladin with counter spell (to make sure he canÔÇÖt stun you) and cast polymorph. If heÔÇÖs close to you, move away from him then reapply polymorph. Set the fight up by stripping off all his buffs. Then, re-apply polymorph, and cast Frostfire Bolt/ Scroch and continue dpsÔÇÖing while kiting him. Blink, trinket or iceblock his stuns. If he uses Divine Shield to get to you, just use invisibility to get away. Note: Paladins have a talent which reduces the duration of disorients, so your DragonÔÇÖs Breath wonÔÇÖt last as long as usual with some of them. Save your silence for their heals. Kiting is the key to winning the fight.
Druids
For Balance Druids: Before the duel begins make sure you have Mage Armor buffed up. DonÔÇÖt waste your cds until after his starfall. Preferably, donÔÇÖt waste your dragonÔÇÖs breath either. A balance druid is only dangerous during starfall, so hereÔÇÖs a few things you can do to mitigate the effect of starfall:
1. You can iceblock it.
2. Root/snare the druid with Frost Nova or Cone of Cold, and move out of range.
3. Use dragonÔÇÖs breath and wait out the duration of dragonÔÇÖs breath. This will waste most of his starfallÔÇÖs duration so you can take some hits from it while your Mana Shield is up (or Corroded Skeletal Key if you have it). DragonÔÇÖs Breath + Frag Belt from engineering will essentially ruin his starfall for him- but this tactic is vulnerable if the druid decides to trinket your CCÔÇÖs.
After the first starfall, use all your cds on the dudu, and that should kill him. Save your silences for his heals.
For Feral Druids: Before the duel begins make sure you have Ice Armor buffed up. The druid will open up with pounce. Blink it. He will then charge at you. Blast wave him away, then pop your cds (Mirrors and Combustion) and kite him. You should aim to chop down nearly all of his health while your mirrors are on the field (theyÔÇÖll help you kite him, which is very important). ItÔÇÖs all about kiting. Save your trinket for his cyclons. Save your Counterspell for his heals. Watch out when he turns into a bear, heÔÇÖll be able to charge at you and silence you.
Warlocks
Before the fight begins make sure you have Mage Armor buffed up, along with Fire ward (absorb and reflects his destruction spells) and Slowfall (a trash buff for his Fel Hunter to devour).
This is a tricky fight if the warlock has a Fel Hunter up with him (which nearly all of them will if theyÔÇÖre facing a mage). YouÔÇÖre going to have to fake-cast alot to avoid being silenced. Sometime during the fight, you want to also spellsteal his buffs.
ItÔÇÖs slightly easier if youÔÇÖre facing a destruction warlock. Keep fire ward up and hope for reflects- if not youÔÇÖll get some absorbs at least. Have a living bomb on both him and his pet (you might hopefully kill his pet sometime during the fight). Try to save your Counterspell for his fears, and save your Blink for his shadowfury.
Start the fight with your back facing the warlock and with you at a considerable distance away. The warlock will likely start with a shadow fury, just blink away. And since your back was facing him, you'll blink out of the range of his fears/damaging spells, so you've effectively ruined his opener.
Since fear has a short range, while your CCs (dragon's breath/blast wave) are on cd, you can get close for some damaging. And you can move out of his range again when they're off cd. Before you move out of range, use snares and roots like cone of cold or frost nova so that the lock can't get close, and while you're in range, throw at him that Rank 1 Frostbolt from time to time to maintain that snare effect (it also makes for a decent fake cast if he so happens to interrupt it). While you're kiting the lock, you'll be mainly dependent on living bomb for damaging him.
Versus an affliction warlock, you can use your Counterspell on his affliction spells, since you lock the shadow school (which includes fear), in expense of this, you have no way to protect yourself against his attacks so your health will go down pretty quickly (not to mention that affliction can heal themselves).
The key to winning is to play the fight strategically, and to focus on CC and not damage.
Shamans
For Elemental Shamans: Before the fight, make sure you have Mage Armor buffed up, along with Slowfall (a trash buff for him to purge). The main anti-mage mechanic a Shaman has against you is his 6 second silence (yes, Shamans can silence you every 6 seconds), as well as a grounding totem which basically shields him from your attacks.
The fight will probably begin with the shammy having a grounding totem on the field. You wonÔÇÖt be able to polymorph since his totem will get in the way, not to mention his silence. So what you do is begin the fight with a dragonÔÇÖs breath. After the dragonÔÇÖs breath, use ice lance if the shaman has his grounding totem up, and then polymorph him. Spell steal his buffs, reapply polymorph, then cast frost fire bolt, and continue dpsÔÇÖing. Save your silences for his heals.
Do not start the fight with fire ward, since the shaman can just purge it from you. Try to apply the fire ward when heÔÇÖs casting the Lava Burst or when itÔÇÖs in the air heading towards you. If fire ward is on cd, use Iceblock but donÔÇÖt sit in it for too long- you donÔÇÖt want to give him a chance to heal.
As with warlocks, stay close to the shaman so that youÔÇÖre able to use dragonÔÇÖs breath and blast wave. Ice lance his grounding totems.
For Enhancement Shamans: Before the fight make sure you have Ice Armor buffed up, along with Frost Ward.
Like all other vs melee fights, the secret to winning this is kiting. YouÔÇÖre also going to have to fake cast a lot here due to the shaman's silence.
Due to Frost Power, Enhancement shamans can root you from a distance using Frost Shock. With Frost Ward up, you have the chance to reflect the root, giving you a serious kiting advantage.
When the shaman gets close, use blink, dragonÔÇÖs breath, blast wave, frost nova or cone of cold to get away. Save your silences for his heals. The problems begins when the enhancement shaman pops out his wolves... you want to be able to aoe CC them using dragonÔÇÖs breath or frost nova, while continuously kiting the shammy. Popping mirrors when the shaman uses his wolves is the usual way I do this. As an added bonus, sometimes the wolves are confused, and switch targets to attack a mirror image- giving you ample time to get away.
Priests
For Shadow Priests: Make sure you have Mage armor buffed before the duel.
You wonÔÇÖt be able to beat a priest while heÔÇÖs LoSing you around a pillar, so youÔÇÖre going to have to try and corner him into an open field if you want to stand a chance.
Start the fight by counterspelling the priest so that he canÔÇÖt silence you/ shadow-word death you, and polymorph him. If he trinkets the polymorph, re-apply it. Then steal all of his buffs and cast frostfire bolt/scorch. Immediately after, dragonÔÇÖs breath the priest, and cast another frostfire bolt/scorch on him. Pop your cds (Combustion and Mirrors) from the very beginning of the fight. Early on in the fight, silence him when he uses Vampiric Touch, but towards the end save your silence for his heals. Keep a distance from the priest when his Psychic Scream is off cd (if youÔÇÖre far away from the priest, and he comes towards you, thatÔÇÖs an indicator that he wants to fear you... just Blast Wave him away or Blink away when he gets close enough and hopefully he wastes his scream on nothing). Trinket Psychic Scream if youÔÇÖre caught in one.
Ice block his silence to avoid a vampiric touch, and try not to waste your mana with mana shield. Use evocation during the priestÔÇÖs dispersion.
Mana management is the key to winning this fight.
Mages
An interesting fight. This is a very ÔÇÿbuffÔÇÖ oriented fight. The opener decides the outcome of this one. Before the duel make sure you have Mage Armor buffed up, as well as Frost Ward if youÔÇÖre facing a frost or arcane mage, and Fire Ward if youÔÇÖre facing a fire mage. Have Slowfall buffed as a trash buff for them to spell steal as well.
The classical opener most mages go for is counter spelling the enemy player then polymorphing them to spell steal their buffs. A good way to avoid this opener is to use invisibility from the very beginning of the fight. As youÔÇÖre fading out, the enemy mage will waste his counter spell on you, but he wonÔÇÖt be able to polymorph/spell steal anything from you because youÔÇÖre invisible. You can then pop out of invisibility, and casually polymorph them (since they canÔÇÖt interrupt it), then spell steal their buffs.
You can also try and pop your mirrors from the very beginning of the fight to confuse the enemy mage and avoid getting pollied, of course, you wonÔÇÖt be able to poly them either, but you gain a few seconds of confusion to initiate an attack. You can also use an engineerÔÇÖs frag belt to stun the enemy mage while he casts polymorph. Then proceed on by polymorphing them. In any case, you donÔÇÖt want to be the one wasting your counter spell on an opener, save it for the mageÔÇÖs casts. If you do get polymorphed in the beginning of the fight, just trinket it since itÔÇÖs going to be the only CC worth trinketing for the rest of the duel.
Save your counter spell for the mageÔÇÖs casts, maintain your wards, and make sure the enemy mage doesnÔÇÖt have fire ward up (especially if theyÔÇÖre specced into Molten Shields and have a chance to reflect your fire spells). Fake cast when their counter spell if off cd, and try not to waste your mana with Mana Shield.
Try to stay close to the mage to be able to use DragonÔÇÖs breath and Blast Wave, so donÔÇÖt let them kite you with blink- i.e. only blink after the enemy mage uses their blink. The inverse is true when you're facing another fire mage (try to stay back when their dragon's breath is off cd, and stay close when it's on cd).
The opener and mana management are key to winning this one.
Healers
This includes Holy Paladins, Restoration Shamans, Discipline Priests, and Restoration Druids (from order of easiest to most difficult to deal with).
To cut a long story short, you will not be able to beat an equally geared and skilled healer as a fire mage. You can CC them long enough for say, your arena partner to kill another target for sure... but your damage output is far too low to beat a healer. Regardless if you must face a healer on your own the best chance youÔÇÖve got is to manage your mana and cds smartly- seperate them into two phases.
Phase 1 is when mid fight, while you still have a significant portion of your health remaining, and Phase 2 is towards the end of the fight, while you have under 35% health.
They are basically two burst phases, aiming to exhaust the healersÔÇÖ cds in Phase 1 and kill them in Phase 2 using your 1.5 second Pyroblasts. Use Combustion in phase one, and Mirror Images coupled with your 1.5 second Pyroblasts in phase two. Save your Counterspell for their long casts, and donÔÇÖt use Mana Shield under any condition- you need to manage your mana very carefully (not to mention that you want to go down to 35% HP). Use your Mana Gems very early on in the fight (say when your mana is 75% down) so that you can get a chance to re-use another one during Phase 2. If things get hopeless, try to CC the healer and evocate to rinse and repeat the above.
Like Priests, you donÔÇÖt stand a chance at all if the healer is LoSing you, so try and move the fight to an open field.
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That's all folks!
If you've got anything else to add/fix, feel free to respond to this thread or send me a PM.
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thank you bro it is very long comment I am trying to finish :D
