okay so i’ve recently tried to start playing fire in m+. played a decent amount of it in pvp during legion and really enjoyed it and just got the itch.
only problem is, my dps is hot doody. i mean seriously hot doody. like 25k overall at 455 ilvl doody. i know i’m missing bracers but i’ve poured over the guides i can find, videos and written, and i’m thinking like okay i have a decent understanding. but my dps is WAY too low for my ilvl and i’m obviously making some major mistakes.
logs here for a 10 KR that we just failed:
warcraftlogs dot com/reports/Ja87wHj4kDdnvQ2c/#fight=last)
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i forgot to switch character first but this is him. inspect armory if you’d like but im not really looking for “hey man its all gear” like i know im making huge mistakes.
A guild member runs fire and does INSANE damage. He says the BEST fire mage item is the wrists from King Mechagon. If you don’t have those, you probably don’t want to run fire at all.
He recommends Font Of Power from heroic Azshara as well, and mentioned a pvp trinket with an “on use” ability… he didn’t mention which one though.
I usually play Frost, but I was picking his brain about Fire and that’s how he said to set it up.
Also, he said you should have all three pieces with Blaster Master as well. I see you have two, but he recommended all three.
yeah its bracers from king mech, font/big badge from pvp. but also, thats not an excuse for my damage i promise. something is way off.
having all that stuff would definitely make my burst windows better, but i think the biggest problems im having is outside of cooldowns where that stuff isnt gonna help anyways.
Well like I said, he said without those pieces, you might as well not even run Fire.
I’ve tried to do it without those pieces and I can’t even come close to what he does.
I can’t even beat my Frost damage on my Fire spec.
Fire mage is literally all about the burst window. You can do okay in downtime, but it’s 95% about Combustion.
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Fire relies most on pre-planning and group coordination to get the great numbers because you’d need the tank to pull a decent number of mobs while your Combustion is ready to find the perfect burst windows. In unorganized groups I don’t see Fire doing well.
Edit: Just to be clear I think in an unorganized group all the specs will suffer but since Fire benefits the most from pre-planning it will also be adversely affected the most when this isn’t allowed.
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Your secondary stats seem way low… I was in the same boat with fire, never got the wrists so went back to Arcane. Arcane should be viable in SL so idc anymore and will stick with it.
hey fire is one of the most gear dependent specs in the game. if you don’t have bracers at least you won’t be getting enough pyroblasts in your combustion window that makes it shine. bracers and and on-use trinket with rune of power is a big portion of your combustion damage.
Mechagon Bracers are a whole playstyle change and effectively required for fire, they’re really necessary to the spec. Lucid Dreams level 3 is also pretty important.
So at this point in the expansion, it’s pretty pointless to try to get good at fire without the above mentioned stuff. Also, soon corruption is going away, so say good bye to god tier mastery. I’m low to many at 53% standing still, and that’s going to shrink a TON when corruption goes away with pre-patch.
To answer how to do well enough on fire you need
- Things to not die from other people too quickly, so 15 and up keys are a must. 18 and up even better. At lower keys, people are so geared right now, that your only good combustions will be against the bosses or if you happen to be in a group that isn’t very good.
- minute mage build with world vein and kindling is the most fun on it i have had, since you get big combustions during your wrist window and smaller combustions every other combustion, which still lines up every time with RoP and WV essence.
- You absolutely have to use your combustion, either big or small, on a mob inside of a pack that both will not die in 5 seconds. You need to hit something with your full combustion rotation and then also have stuff around it live for a while in order for you to see the best numbers. This is why it shines in higher keys.
So, all that being said, there really isn’t enough time in the expansion to make the most of fire for the next month if you’re starting right now.
I can’t wait to be a frost mage again in a couple weeks, and frost is looking sweet in shadowlands with some legendaries enhancing the ice lance frozen orb way that I like to play it. So, take that info and do with it what you will.
Good luck.
Don’t be afraid to use Combustion on trash packs as long as it will be up on boss pulls.
People vastly overinflate the value of the bracers. Having/not having the bracers does not somehow make or break your ability to compete on meters. Are they a significant increase? Of course. Are they the difference between topping meters or residing in the basement? Of course not. The nice thing is that ilvl doesn’t matter all that much when it comes to them so any lower version still provides the on-use effect.
With that out of the way, there are a few things that will make a break your damage. As others have said, the vast majority of our damage comes from ignite. If you are doing lower level keys or mobs are just dying too quickly, you’re missing out on a huge portion of your damage. In between combustion pulls, if the mobs die too quickly or the tank pulls the mobs out of your flamepatch, your dps will plummet.
Unfortunately, a lot of your performance will be tied to the tank’s willingness and ability to pull around your cooldowns. If the tank only pulls 2-3 mobs at a time, your dps will suffer. If they only pull larger packs every 3-4 minutes, that’s a ton of damage you’ve lost out if you don’t get to use combustion.
However, if you keep the tank apprised of your combustion timer and they are willing to pull aggressively when it’s ready, knowing that you can absolutely melt a pack with a full combustion, and if the mobs live long enough, you’ll see your damage topping charts easily.
At this point in the expansion though, I don’t know that you should really worry about it. Masterful corruptions are a huge part of the build and you can’t buy enough to really make a difference. Play around with fire to see if you enjoy the playstyle but know that things will be changing in just over a month.
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The tank has to pull around your cds. If combustion isn’t up they shouldn’t be pulling big packs.
Also, fire is trash in lower keys. Everything Dies in a trash pull before you can finish combusting.
Blaster master x3 also.
I would suggest minute mage build if your tanks aren’t the most reliable or knowledgeable. You will have combust for literally every pack in almost every dungeon
Let’s see. it’s almost too late for you to gear up. Just roll a different spec. Fire needs: Bracers, Font, Badge, Blaster Master x 3, 9x Mastery Corruptions, Superior Intellect Potion on every combust, High Mastery on each piece of gear and gem slots on each piece of gear, and even after you acquire it all, it requires planning (knowing when to use font, knowing how to maintain 3 stacks of Blaster Master, and knowing when to use or hold combust) and most importantly coordination with your tank, so even then, if you do a lot of pugs it might suck unless the stars align.
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Play frost for low keys.
You’ll have an insanely easier time getting mythic + dungeons under 15 as frost.
If you insist on playing fire however…
Playing lucid dreams major + meteor in low keys is incorrect since the enemies will die before your ignite gets to a high enough level; worldveine + kindeling would allow you to combust more often.
(Required) You should also be using a weakaura tracking your blaster master duration remaining and stacks to allow you to weave and extend it as long as possible.
The tank will need to play around your combusts. They will need to do larger pulls when your combust is up and smaller pulls while it is down.
Gear wise
3x blaster masters are required as fire
If you don’t have that don’t play fire.