First of all, I want to clarify that I am neither a main nor an expert in Fire Mage. I’m just another player who decided to try the spec because I love its fantasy and theme, thinking it would be a fun experience—only to end up feeling frustrated and disappointed.
Overall, seeing my DPS consistently at the bottom in the content I played, due to the “only having damage during Combustion” design, combined with the fact that I had to play with extreme focus and was heavily punished for any mistake in my Hot Streak sequence, made me increasingly discouraged. On top of that, the spec feels incredibly gear-dependent, which makes starting a new patch or season with it feel even worse. Eventually, I gave up on the spec entirely last week.
I have to admit, it made me really sad because the fantasy of a fire-wielding mage is incredibly cool for an RPG. But having to put in so much effort to execute everything perfectly, only to barely match the DPS of a Fury Warrior smashing two buttons, felt really disheartening.
That’s why I wanted to hear from players who have been playing Fire Mage for a long time—do you enjoy the spec in its current state? Would you change anything or rework it to make it less reliant on Combustion and more consistent overall? I don’t know how the spec has been in the past, but was there ever a time when it felt really good to play? If you could change something, what would it be?
Mostly yes. I love the fluidity and pacing (Fireblast while casting was such a cool design move); I love that it’s not (really) a builder/spender spec; I love how incredibly mobile it is; I love the minimal button bloat; and honestly Combustion is really satisfying.
I think our AoE could use a little love. Flamestrike remains incredibly clunky, and it’s unclear why it can’t be made to cast on target. Ignite is great for free cleave, but I wouldn’t mind a talent that let you opt out of its spread in exchange for more pure ST, since we’re kind of tuned around passive additional spread damage. I also don’t entirely love the Living Bomb / Lit Fuse direction - being completely passive, it just feels like there’s no agency/engaging gameplay around it, and it sort of just competes with ignite for the same niche of free spread damage.
On the Combustion uptime issue, I would really love to see some sort of mechanic for use outside of Combust. I’d totally dig a re-envisioning of Greater Pyro into an empowered spell unaffected by Combust for example. Anything so you’re not just spamming Fireball when Combust is down. (Might also make crit a viable stat as well.)
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I totally get you. Despite all the downsides I mentioned, I think that after Warrior—my main—Fire Mage has been the most fun spec I’ve ever played in the game, and definitely the most enjoyable ranged spec. Having so many instant casts and being able to pull off a bunch of things while moving feels absolutely amazing.
Playing with a warlock for example feels super strange after being able to send 999 pyroblasts while running lmao.
Fire has two different playstyles. Single target cleave and then there is M+ aoe build. Sadly, we can’t have both in one talent build. My issue with fire is damage is really low until you get enough haste and mastery in your gear. Every single person I teamed with who tries to play fire does horrible damage. Even myself. It is not that we all suck. We have the 4 piece tier, but our stats are garbage. Fireball cast timers are too long because of the lack of haste, mastery is not ticking high enough and fireball/pyroblast hit like a wet noodle even with combustion on. I find I do more damage as frost by a lot with the imperfect stat setup I currently have.
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Yup. I’m one of them. I’m super happy that Arcane is getting a flat 8% damage buff next patch on the 25th.
Fire is so damn clunky and the only times I do damage is in Combustion. Its pathetic.
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This is my main and primary issue with Fire (second is AoE/Flamestrike).
If you don’t have perfect stats you can’t do damage. Any other spec in the game if you don’t have perfect stats you can still do very competitive damage.
With Fire I can do a perfect rotation but I’ll do 300k+ more dps as Frost because my stats aren’t perfect.
Fire needs to fix how reliant on stats it is, that if you don’t have perfect stats you can do good dps.
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With S2 the devs added a couple more seconds to Fireblast cd and took away a charge of Phoenix Flames so that when it’s played as Sunfury, with 4 set and optimal stats, you have just enough resources to do the optimal damage they want you to do. Anything coming short of that is rough, while I enjoy playing fire, I would definitely not be coming into the spec this season if I didn’t already have good gear from S1 when it was easier to play.
When damage is reliant on combust, but the increased shortage of resources means you have to withhold combust if a pack is halfway down so you’re not coming up short on the next pack, I think it’s poor design. This is less of a thing in higher keys where you can get multiple combusts per pack, but there should be room for players to play their class outside of optimal conditions and less of a barrier to entry.
It is primarily about Haste, though. Preheat (writer for Wowhead’s Fire Mage Guide) had a video recently where he was simming and showed his perfect stats, and his haste was at 28k+. For reference, mine is 25k (40%) and it still feels like it’s not enough, which to me is wild.
I feel like in recent years Blizz has been waging a war on haste in general, and you have to fight an uphill battle every patch/expansion in order to get the gameplay fast enough to feel natural and smooth. In Legion my Fireball casts were nearly down to 1s cast times with around 30% haste, now it’s stuck at 1.6s, so hardcasting is a pain.
Bottom line from me, it’s fun to play with good stats, but cutting resources to force players into optimal spec/stats (I had more fun with Frostfire in S1) is an unfortunate design choice. Also, Legion had an npc that allowed players to remove the orbs from on top of your head, please bring that back, they look idiotic.
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Nope, Blzzard ruined the spec for PVP because its weak and stupid. I get 2 charges of fire blast that crit for 300k meanwhile ice lance crits for 700k and I get unlimited charges.
For PVE they made it convoluted and not fun.
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Yeah, using myself as an example—I never really tried to main a mage, but I had a level 80 and decided to play it this season. I have to admit, it was exhausting. Even after optimizing everything as much as possible and making very few mistakes, my DPS still lagged behind other players with equal or even lower gear.
It’s kind of sad because, in my mind, mages are always a mainstream class in any RPG. You’d expect them to have a more beginner-friendly playstyle, allowing casual players to deal decent damage without too much struggle—while still maintaining the class’s depth for those who want to optimize further.
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You’ve got 33% haste and 4-piece. If you are doing terrible damage it is because you are not playing the spec right.
Feel like I’m taking crazy pills, current fire mage is some of the most fun I’ve had on any class. I do amazing damage for my terrible itemization and having only the 2-set.
3 Likes
I love playing current Fire. The high APM is tiring sometimes though, but it’s probably the most fun I’ve had playing it in a long time.
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I have to agree. Current iteration of fire mage is great. So glad to not be feeling obligated to playing Sun King’s Blessing. Unleashed Inferno really rewards proper play, and that is the gameplay that makes current Fmage so good.
People complaining about lack of damage outside of combustion should perhaps give SKB a shot if they are having problems appropriately using/timing combustion and don’t want to play Frost.
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With SKB it improves damage outside combustion? How exactly (Really want to know, was loving to play as fire mage)
It doesn’t, really, but it gives you more access to combustion which is where the skill-gap lies for most inexperienced fire mage players.
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I see. I think i’ll try it. I loved to play as fiire mage in this season, even being hard af, it is a ultra fun spec to play
I literally hate Sunfury. If Sunfury was the only hero talent for fire mage, I would not play mage. I cannot overstate how much I actually hate sunfury
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Interesting, I find there’s not much to like or dislike about Sunfury as Fire. It feels mostly* set & forget. S1 Frostfire felt insanely involved in comparison.
*mostly, before anyone comes at me about timing your meteorite/fb recharges lol
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I wish the damage was more consistent across the board instead of being the way it is. Like don’t get me wrong, the instant casts feel pretty good, but lining up procs and stuff to do your best damage is pretty tricky, and when you’re on CD everything STINKS. Like, just phishing for procs with fireball spam is great, but your damage is so garbage when you’re doing that, that it feels bad. Personally not a fan of the phoenix spell having a lot slower of a projectile.
If they wanted to just turn the spec into BM #2 and just have you be a mobile caster full time I think that’d be real cool, fire’s the only caster I like cause it has probably the least amount of stand and cast.
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