Hey all,
Really want to get my mage going and get to higher keys and such. Every guide I look at says frost or arcane are tops, but I honestly have always loved fire mage through the years, but fire doesn’t seem to get as much respect, at least until higher keys where DoT’s can do better.
I really want to play fire, but will I be discouraged by lower numbers than I am currently seeing with frost?
Just play fire! I strictly play fire and I don’t care how “meta” the spec is. All classes and specs have their ups and l downs as content evolves. Fire mages were top tier before now they are not. That’s fine though. I enjoy the play style and I’m progressing through content. Unless you’re trying to do worlds first or push the absolute highest key levels then any spec is viable. No spec is so severely under tuned that it can’t do most content. It’s a game, have fun, and just play what you like. The Internet is a giant echo chamber of negative comments if a certain class isn’t absolute top tier. Just enjoy your game. If you want proof that fire mages can do high end content look up pumptastic or on YT. They do high end keys and raids. Pump is all fire mage stuff and hopefull does the other specs too.
Yeah none of the “guides” say it is not viable, just kind of feeling out other players.
Would you say you enjoy fire more than frost? Frost just feels like I am spamming ice lance a ton, and a free flurry does not feel very exciting to have proc, as opposed to my main, a Ret paladin, and when I get a few free Divine Storms in a row it feels great.
I know I could try it myself, just a little short on time with a newborn, and just curious of others opinions.
I like fire over frost, once you get the hang of it. Only thing is that you’ll really want Ice Floes over Shimmer to smooth out the hardcasting, and you’ll want to macro that with Shifting Power (and a separate keybind for Floes/hardcasted Pyro). It has a good feedback loop, with Combustion leading you right into SKB, which in turn reduces Combustion CD. The only frustrating thing can be losing SKB between packs, and having to go in without Combust or SKB - generally less of an issue with raid, mechanics aside.
Im pretty much only doing Mythics, not because I dont want to raid, its just a hard time commitment that is hard for me to do
Play the game to have fun above all else! Fire is the most difficult of the three (imo) so that’s why it doesn’t get as much respect, but a good fire mage absolutely destroys!
Just did a dungeon as fire…It seems kinda fun with crit sprees and getting lots of free pyroblast, but my damage was terrible…im sure i have lots to learn
Side question: does anyone know if Set gear changes for what spec you are? I want to potentially keep trying fire, but acquiring set gear and investing in it with the revival catalyst seems like a big investment if it doesnt update with spec
How was it on boss fights and what kind of dungeon or key level was it? I just finished leveling this mage and while doing some dungeons my trash dps was low because everything just died before ignite could do much but I was usually topping boss damage.
I think at lower key levels where melee and specs with a lot of front loaded damage just delete things in seconds it’s kind of hard to get a good feel. I have way more fun with fire on ST than frost atm but I’m still gearing this alt up so dungeons have been more enjoyable as frost. I feel useless on trash pulls with fire right now but it’s definitely more fun! Once I get more gear I plan on switching to playing mostly fire.
It was +2 or +3 Jade Temple, which has pretty tough mob pack types for non-burst (1 big and lots of little guys). My damage was decently better on bosses, but still nothing great.
It was my first time fire, with a random set of talents I found online, and with 5 minutes of a youtube guide. It still did feel a lot less intuitive than frost, especially when it comes to AoE.
fire is very good right now.
its a difficult spec and will take a lot of time to master. but you can get it to a workable place pretty quickly i think if you practice
You will always do better playing a class/spec that you like, and I firmly believe this.
Yeah I’d advise avoiding the AoE/flamestrike side of fire barring some changes - it’s a way clunkier combustion rotation that only shines in massive pulls / with a tank that’s going to keep everything in your flame patch, and you lose out on a good chunk of ST damage.
This week is also probably one of the worst for fire - with quaking/spiteful/thundering, dealing with SKB/rune is a huge PITA. Tempted to switch to frost this week or just stick to raid until next week.
Frost is very comfortable to play, especially in m+. You throw instant frozen orb, then instant blizzard, then you spam instant ice lances and only after you have nothing instant you might cast SOME frostbolts. Maybe dps is not the best, but atleast you can dodge all those swirls and keep dealing damage
Frost AoE DPS is actually pretty competitive on bigger pulls, it’s just the safer 4-6 target M+ clump of mobs that we aren’t the greatest on. Our utility more than makes up for it though.
I re-crafted all my gear to haste/mastery after playing arcane all season and I really enjoy fire. You can easily swap between fire/frost depending on the affixes. This week with quaking/spiteful it will be really hard to learn fire mage so I’d recommend trying it out next week.
Except if you take the frostbite talent on sanguine week. Then your tank yells at you a lot.
Totally agree! Play whatever spec you have fun with. I play fire, don’t care what anyone else says. I have in the past been out DPS’d by the tank and by the healer… (LoL). I have also been on top. Spend more time worrying about boss mechanics and learning how to stay alive. You’ll end up doing way more overall DMG if you are the last one alive each time.