Planning on making a kul Titan fire mage when kul Titans come out. How are they in BfA? Are they fun? I play Windwalker and Demonology and find them pretty fun. Are they strong?
For pvp fire mage is very strong right now. Having three schools to cast from almost guarantees that you can free fast no matter what they interrupt plus the burst damage is great.
For pve (raid) fire mage is… Alright. Mage in general is not a top performer of dps when it comes to BoD. However, groups always need intellect buff.
For pve (mythic) fire mage is decent. It has decent aoe burst and great single target burst. Frost provides a little more utility with the constant slows since fire has none, but you still have dragons breath and frost nova.
Oh, and it is very fun in my opinion.
In my opinion, fire is the absolute funnest spec. PvP is great, and pve is alright. I love how every spell adds a small dot that spreads. Thematically, it interests me. Also fast pace casts, very mobile, lots of crits. Does very well with extra adds (aka rhastakhan, but thats kinda it in BOD tbh).
Frost has the highest numbers, but is so boring imo.
Fire CAN work in raids, our fire mage is always pulling good numbers, but is also a god at the spec.
For more consistency frost is the best to run, but if you’re just going to be having fun running heroic raids/ low keys fire will be just fine to run if you pick up the right traits and talents.
Fire mage is one of those specs where you have to be really consistant and geared properly, with the ability and knowledge of the spec very well. I love it to death, I’ve loved playing it for 8 years now.
Yes frost does on average do better numbers in PvE, but certain bosses, Fire will easily beat Frost, while some fights Frost will easily win. All depends on the fight.
PvP wise, Fire is in a great place as others have said. in rated bgs you can pretty much just spam greater pyro (I hate doing this) but if you know your burst rotation with combustion well, you can damn well near 1 shot someone if you greater pyro then burst hard.
(Side note greater pyro CANNOT and i mean it canNOT crit. The amount of times where i see someone cast combustion then cast greater pyro, in RATED pvp, amazes me.)
The perfection of the spec really matters in Mythic PvE, but anything other than that its okay, just make sure you follow the proper traits to go for.
Mythic + dungeons is iffy with Fire, I haven’t tried it yet but it can be okay.
In a raid setting, Arcane actually pulls the “highest numbers” in terms of useful damage. The catch here is that the two hardest bosses, Mekka and Jaina, have two final phases that matter far more than the rest of the fight, which puts Fire on par with Arcane. At that point, the spec you choose for Jaina and Mekka will be determined by your available Azerite pieces and how comfortable you are with each spec. At the same time, Frost is undoubtedly our worst spec on these two specific fights. Partially due to Fire having an execute, Arcane simply having much higher ST than Frost, and Arcane/Fire having a lot of their damage frontloaded into cooldowns that recover during Mekka’s intermission, or can/should be saved for Jaina’s.
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Fire is good enough at this point to be competitive in just about every setting. It started off poorly in BfA but has since caught up.
I will say that fire has a higher skill cap than frost or arcane. You can lose a lot of dps by, say, accidentally casting a scorch when you should’ve cast a fireball and losing a heating up proc that might’ve turned into a hot streak pyroblast. You also need to be judicious with coordinating combustion and meteor as well, and making sure you only flamestrike on 3 or more targets.
Fire also has a Cheat Death mechanic in Cauterize, which is a nice perk that tends to keep me alive.
Competitive relative to other Mage specs under certain conditions, yes, but by no means is Fire a competitive spec in general raiding.
I’d head on over to the Arcane Dream and Altered Time Discord servers to get your questions about Fire answered truthfully and with insight; the Mage forum has been generally incorrect about spec strengths for a few years now.
Fire’s power and niche currently comes from it’s ability to execute low health mobs; sure, you can pull numbers above the execute range but a Mage who is equally geared and skilled at all 3 specs who is playing Fire will never outperform Arcane and Frost outside of execute. Arcane demolishes Fire on single target fights and Frost obliterates Fire at AoE and has stronger single target damage. To make matters worse for Fire Arcane can also specialise for execute damage.
If you’re not progressing on mythic though then play whatever you enjoy, after all you aren’t in Method.
Warcraft logs is showing some frost mages in the top 50 for mythic mekka so I will have to respectfully disagree that frost cant pump on mythic Mekka. Frost is definitely nowhere to be found on Mythic Jaina however.
I love playing fire and do well in PVP, but raids, not so much. My guild carries me although raids and dungeons are new to me so with practice I hope to get my DPS up.
Last night was so bad I switched back to arcane for awhile. Not a fan even though I played it a lot in the past. I leveled up as frost, maybe I will give that one a try again.
At this point it is a little frustrating.
I love the fire playstyle.
Only reason I am doing competitive PvE DPS is that i outgear everyone else in my guild by 10-15 ilvls. If we all had equivalent gear my dps would be dead last.
It’s not about what can or can’t do great DPS, it’s about playing the averages. Mekka parses are all about not getting mechanics anyway, and aren’t really a big determiner in what is a generally better choice.
Your point about frost being an inferior pick for mekka as it stands is still incorrect. Frost is a great pick for mekka if that is the spec the mage is most skilled/comfortable with. The movement on that fight is not overly punishing and frost is able to sit still and turret just as well as any other mage spec.
I main Fire in Mythic. Now that everyone is around the same ilvl, I usually come last on every boss except conclave, or champions due to some minor random cleave. Mage has had nothing but nerfs and is usually lower to last in every BFD boss fight. We make up for it by providing lust and intellect. We are a support /buff class now for shadow priests and warlocks. Thank you blizzard.
Arbitrarily uneven measurements of player skill is not something that should be considered when comparing specs in a vacuum, otherwise you’d have statements like “pre-buff Beast Master being an inferior spec still stands as incorrect because you might be skilled/comfortable with the spec.” An anecdote that’s the exception to the average doesn’t make a general statement false, it’s just arguing a separate point.
All three specs by this point do more than enough damage, but there are quantifiable differences in the relative boss-by-boss performance of each spec. Obviously I’m not here to judge what other people play, I play almost exclusively 1 spec. If someone is much more comfortable with Frost more or has far better Azerite for it, I’m sure it’ll probably beat Arcane in most situations.
There is much fun to be had in the pvp world.
even though i play frost i generally think that fire is in a good spot where it is in most scenarios