So, I’ve been a fire mage main since sometime in Cataclysm and always loved it… until SKB. I hate it enough that for the last 4 seasons I stopped playing my mage altogether in favor of my demon hunter and paladin. But with season 4 upon us, my heart is pulling be back home to my mage. This season seemed like a good time to try since the stakes are so much lower.
So, I’ve watched guide after guide. I’ve installed all the weakauras. I’ve practiced at the dummies and run a few low level mythic+ dungeons. It seems like no matter what I do, I’m doing darn near tank damage. I can’t get a grasp of the playstyle. Now, I’m not a great player… but before SKB I was usually at least a blue or purple parse type of person. Now, I’m probably gray!
Has anyone else has similar woes and overcome them? Do you have any tips that might help me find that eureka moment? Thanks!
Unfortunately, I can’t offer any advice as I’ve never used SKB for much the same reasons you underlined (and as a direct consequence not played Fire much). However, there are some good news on that front. Blizzard have acknowledged that the playstyle that SKB incentivizes can be frustrating and that there is no real viable alternative to it. With that in mind they’ve decided to nerf SKB while also buffing UI in TWW. This will not only make UI competitive but also likely the superior choice if you also decide to spec into Sunfury.
Yeah, I’ve been watching the alpha and am pretty excited about the way Sunfury seems headed! I will say I just did some gear adjustments which moved my haste from around 2.2k to around 5k and WOW! what a difference that made!
So I’m not trying to be cutting edge at all and found a super lazy way: take the talent that decreases pyro’s cast time to turn it into your main nuke. It’s fun and spammy. I’m totally willing to eat all the hate from the haters. It helps hyperthermia if you have it because more crits outside of combust = more hyperthermia. I’m pretty sure it doesn’t even out with losing the combust time entirely or the mastery bonus on it, but your damage is also way more consistent.
Also you need 3 non-critting fireballs in a row for the crit bonus to even out against the improved pyro, which i think is rare, so you’re doing more damage outside of combust windows, it’s definitely more forgiving than the current meta.
Fire feels very clunky these days. Some things I could point out that I didnt immediately understand when playing this season:
- always prioritise SKB when its up
- always use meteor during combust
- always prioritise shifting power after combust
- hard cast flamestrike with skb with packs of 3+
- save a charge of phoenix flames when getting close to tier set proc
- store fire blasts leading into combust or skb
- use DB in many moments you need a heating up proc