Fire vs Frost for Mythic+

Classes Mage
1

Hello guys,
I’m here asking for some advices. I primarily run m+ (10+ keys) and pvp when playing WoW, and I find that for mythic+ frost mage seems better. I am by no means saying I am a good player, but whenever I played fire or play with a fire, the keys failed. However, I feel fire is much more fun and engaging compared to frost.
I wonder how fire is doing in 8.2 in general, and how I can make fire works for mythic+. I am really looking for some honest advices. I want to have fun with this game, yet I mainly pug for keys and I never want to mess up anyone’s keys or be carried.
Thank you in advance!

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2

Fire and frost are both more than capable for m+.

Personally, I prefer frost because I like the playstyle, the utility, and the aesthetic better. It also helps that I do a lot more damage as frost.

I average like 32k over the course of a dungeon, usually sustain 40k + on the boss fights that don’t require a lot of movement.

I personally haven’t fiddled with fire too much but it is parsing well and is absolutely a good choice if you prefer it.

3

I guess one of my concern is how do we aoe as fire mage? Do we solely rely on our mastery or we hard cast Flamestrike :-/

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4

I have run only Fire and mostly do M+ around your level. Frost seems better for sure, this said the AOE issue seems lower now, reaping is gone and fire bring actually good burst that may be better suited for Beguiling.

The main difficulty for fire AOE is finding a target in the group that has enough health to stack a big ignite.

Also Lucid really make the spec play better, any fights that requires a lot of movement make fire shine, it is very common that other classes cannot keep up on a full movement fights.

So not perfect but better.

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5

I run flame patch talent and use my hot streaks on flamestrike for 2+ targets, if they will live for and stay in the patch.

During combustion phases i still just use pyroblast for big ignites.

Edit: just wanted to clarify, i do not, nor do i recommend, hardcasting flamestrike

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6

Yeah… don’t hardcast flamestrike. *

I’m not sure which build for fire is best for m+ but ignite + procced flamestrike + meteor seemed to do the trick pretty well for the few I ran as fire.

Someone more experienced with fire mage could help you more. Like I said earlier, I’m way more of a frost guy. :slight_smile:

Edit: * because you do under certain circumstances. Oops!

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7

Look at Warcraft logs mythic 15+

Seems to me fire is leading, not sure why, or if it’s just higher-level gear or some trinkets. IDK, but seems fire is outperforming frost.

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8

You absolutely do though, especially if you took Flame patch

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9

Do you for real? I’ve never seen anyone do it before.

This is why I added that caveat at the end though. :stuck_out_tongue:

10

I hear that fire is doing well as well. Hmm probably gonna try fire for mythic+ soon since I’m really bored with frost right now. Yet, I think frost helps with mechanics more. For this week apparently frost has an easier time helping kill orbs.
I read the guide on wowhead, and they say hard cast Flamestrike whenever there are more than 3 targets with Flame Patch talented. Icy Veins, on the other hand, says only cast instant Flame Strike :-/

11

https://www.altered-time.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=6917&sid=85f59d7859b5ee1dae949665f57466fa

Here’s a big write up on fire mages from the altered time discord. There is a bit at the bottom on when to hard cast flamestrike.

Join that discord if you haven’t btw. I went from grey and green parses to purps and oranges as frost by following their advice.

Edit: Editted because I overlooked that bit at the bottom earlier and feel silly now. :sweat_smile:

12

I think on higher keys (15+) fire is doing well with decent mastery and the ads living longer (longer ticks of ignite).

I’m pretty comfortable running M+ as frost. I’m scurred to try it as fire lol.

13

That website helps me understand a lot more about Fire mage :slight_smile: thank you very much mate

14

Yeah I heard that fire is doing better with pre-planned pulls (basically guild groups etc). But I primarily pug for keys since most of my guild do not take the game serious any longer (just log on and run one or keys for weekly chest). Yet I think fire is much more fun and prolly try it in m+ soon :smiley:

15

So i was in the same boat as you, not hardcasting flamestrike.
I asked in the mage discord last night if you do or not, and the answer was a pretty positive yes.

Tonight when I get home (Hawaii time🤙) im gonna test this on dummies/a 10+ key. My dps has been pretty good without doing this, i hope this makes it even better!

I will post my results.

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16

Im lazy, so i take living bomb. I go sungle target talents otherwise.

for large packs, ive found it better to meteor then chain damage into 1 mob foe bigger ignites. when it works its great… when you dont crit its below tank damage… the essence really made fire fun. i still believe you can do more overall damage with frost… but im bored of frost right now.

17

btw, isnt my mog cute!!!

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18

Great guide! Thanks for sharing :slight_smile:

19

Just tested
3231113

Did 2 minutes on the 3 target dummies using standard rotation, starting with combustion. I RoP’d both meteors in my 2 minute window, and never capped on RoP. I didnt use heroism either time.

First run, i used fireball as filler and used my hot streaks on flamestrike. I pulled 40k DPS.

Second run, i hardcast flamestrike and used fireblasts at 2 charges to get hot streaks during hardcasts. I pulled 38k dps.

I imagine with 4 mobs, hardcasting would have pulled more dps.

Running m+ though, its not very common to be casting on a grouped up pack that isnt moving for 2 straight minutes. I think i might continue to do the tactic ive always done, and count on ignites/fireball and just use flamestrike with hotstreaks.

Note, i have yet to test this in a +10.

Edit: tested again per below:
Did another run on the 3 dummies, did not cast RoP, meteor, combust, trinket, or hero. 2 minutes of normal casting.

Using fireball as filler then flamestrike on hotstreak, 24k dps

Hardcast flamestrike, 24k dps.

Interesting.

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20

I’ve always preferred frost for m+. Not only is the damage impressive, but it has a lot of utility. Freezes and slows (cone of cold being the best in the game) help the tank out in tight situations, and can help with affixes like bolstering where you need to keep some mobs farther away from each other.

The only affix it doesn’t seem to work well with is sanguine, given the mobs need to move a bit faster out of the blood pools, but it’s generally not a big deal.

With the new +10 affix Beguiling, I also like having an unlimited instant cast like ice lance to keep the enchanted emissaries at bay. And glacial spike crits with splitting ice is addicting.

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