[Guide] Mage - Playing with fire!
The owner of this guide who goes by the name "Nefti" is no longer active, but guide is being preserved due to the quality of it.
1. About
This is a guide for the mage fire specialisation (PvE) for version 4.3.4.
2. Introduction
The mage is a caster class that specializes in burst damage and area of effect spells. Their primary role in a group is damage dealing and crowd control through the use of Polymorph, temporarily changing humanoids and beasts into harmless critters. At end-game levels, mages' damage is supplemented with spells like Counterspell, Remove Curse, and Spellsteal. Mages' utility spells also include conjuring food and drink and the ability to teleport to major cities and open portals for party members. As damage casters, primary stats are intellect, spell power, spell hit rating, spell haste and spell critical. Mages do not benefit any damage increase from spirit anymore and this stat should not be focused on. The Spirit is used only for Mana Regeneration since Cataclysm.
3. Specialisation
Maybe most of you remember the fire mage from Wrath of The Lich King, well... Things are not quite different now in Cataclysm. First thing is to remember we don`t use Frostfire Bolt anymore. In Cataclysm we use Fireball. The second thing is to have a efficient talent tree. I recommend this one:
3. Glyphs
Prime: Glyph of Pyroblast; Glyph of Molten Armor; Glyph of Fireball.
Major: Glyph of Evocation (This glyph is strongly suggested); Glyph of Polymorph; Glyph of Blink; Glyph of Dragon's Breath orGlyph of Blast Wave.
Minor: Glyph of Conjuring and Glyph of Arcane Brilliance. The third glyph is your choice. I use Glyph of Slow Fall so I don't have to worry about reagents.
4. Gear
As a Mage, you are stuck with cloth gear. That's the gear that no one else wants because it's less protective. The primary stats for all casters is Intellect. This is the stat that mages live and die for. Next in line is Hit until the Hit cap. Hit increases your chance to hit target, and it is very important when it comes to raiding. At level 85, 17% (1742) hit will cap you against raid bosses. Thankfully, only 6% hit is required to be capped on Heroic Dungeon bosses. Being hit capped means that you will not miss a boss (unless some fight mechanic forces you to do so.) The interesting thing about hit, however, is that as soon as you're hit capped, it becomes worthless. As a side note, it will be extremely difficult to become hit capped before raids.
There currently is some debate in the community as to what the best stat is between Critical Strike Rating and Haste Rating. The answer seems to be: it depends on your character's gear level. You can base your priorities on haste caps. Haste caps refer to particular values of haste which increase the number of ticks of your damage over time spells (DOTS):
- At 5% spell haste, you get 11 ticks on Combustion, instead of 10.
- At 12.5% spell haste, you get 5 ticks on Living Bomb and Pyroblast, instead of 4.
- At 15% spell haste, you get 12 ticks on Combustion, instead of 10.
- At 25% spell haste, you get 13 ticks on Combustion, instead of 10.
- At 37.5% spell haste, you get 6 ticks on Living Bomb and Pyroblast, instead of 4.
If you can easily reach 25% spell haste, then this should constitute your soft haste cap. Otherwise, 15% will be your spell haste cap. When considering your soft haste cap, do not forget to take into account the 5% spell haste raid buffs (Moonkin Form from Balance Druids, Mind Quickening from Shadow Priests, or Wrath of Air Totem from Shamans).
- Before you reach the 25% or 15% spell haste cap, consider Haste Rating just as important as Critical Strike Rating.
- After you have reached the 25% or 15% spell haste cap, consider Critical Strike Rating more important than Haste Rating.
Mastery: This stat is considered MUCH worse than Haste and Critical Strike. Unless you are over hit cap, reforge mastery to one of the other two stats. However, keep in mind that the value of these stats shuffle A LOT based off of your current gear.
Order: Intellect > Hit (Until 17%) > Haste > Critical Strike > Mastery
5. Enchanting and Gemming
6. Professions
Alchemy: +80 Intellect (Mixology with Flask of Draconic Mind)
Blacksmith: +80 Intellect (Two extra gem sockets with Brilliant Inferno Ruby)
Enchanting: +80 Intellect (Two Enchant Ring - Intellect)
Engineering: +96 Intellect (The average Intellect received from Synapse Springs)
Herbalism: +480 Haste and roughly a 3000 heal to self on a 2 minute cooldown (Lifeblood)
Inscription: +80 Intellect (Felfire Inscription)
Jewelcrafting: +81 Intellect (Three Brilliant Chimera's Eye)
Leatherworking: +130 Intellect (Fur Lining - Intellect)
Mining: +120 Stamina (Toughness)
Skinning: +80 Critical Strike (Master of Anatomy)
Tailoring: +143 Intellect (Lightweave Embroidery)
7. Single Target Rotation
In my opinion, Fire mages have one of the greatest rotations in the game.
You'll want to start your fights with Pyroblast. This will put Critical Mass on the target, which increases your chance to critical by 5%. Next, throw out your Living Bomb, followed by Flame Orb. Keep both Living Bomb and Critical Mass up on the target at all times. Now you will basically Fireball your brains out. If movement occurs, use Scorch. Fireball to 80% mana, use Mana Gem, Fireball to 30% mana, Evocate, Fireball some more, while using Scorch if your mana happens to start to run low. All of this while keeping Living Bomb and Critical Mass on the target and using Combustion, when you have stacked on your target: Ignite, Living Bomb, Pyroblast and of course Critical Mass. Combustion is the Fire mages 2 minute cooldown. It has a very interesting mechanic. Remember Combustion is affected by Time Warp or Bloodlust/Heroism.
Tip: Volcanic Potion can come in handy anytime. I prefer using it before Combustion.
8. Area of Effect Rotation
Here are some tips to help out:
Keep Living Bomb up Blastwave and Flamestrike = Impact (Most of the time, a Blastwave cast will net you an Impact proc.). Try to save Impact until you have the most DoTs on your target, but don't let it wear off. If you're running low on Mana, use Scorch.
9. Recommended Addons
- Combustion Helper - The goal of this addon is to allow easy optimizing of the mage spell, Combustion. It tracks all relevant Damages Over Time on your target, your cooldown of Combustion so you'll be able to use the talent with maximum effectiveness (Recommended)
- Mage Nuggets - Mage Nuggets is a utility with many useful nuggets to make the lives of mages easier. (Optional)
- OmniCC - OmniCC is an addon that adds text to items, spell and abilities that are on cooldown to indicate when they will be ready to use. In other words: it turns all the standard analogue cooldowns into digital ones. (Optional)
This guide contains information from several sources. Please do not post anything that has nothing to do with the mage class. I do not recognise this guide as my own.
