A mage was my original class in vanillla and I’ve always played a fire mage. I really love a lot about them. However, I’ve now leveled every class and most of the specializations of each of the classes to 120 (pre shadowlands) and now most of them to level 60. By far, the most difficult class to solo with is mage, and specifically fire mage. I just really have a difficult time with it. Accidently pull a couple of extra mobs and I’m dead. Invisibility almost never works, I have no way to heal, I just die all the time. I can easily solo stars with any other class but often can’t with a fire mage. I can do better with frost and bosses by kiting, but not fire. What could I be doing wrong?
Before you start with L2P, yes, that’s what I’m asking about. I’ve definitely played it a lot but it just is so difficult compared to any other class that I have to be thinking that I’m doing it wrong.
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What is your rotation? I’m sure you looked at Icy Veins or Method’s guide online? IMHO with the exception of the combustion phase, fire is very lackluster. Especially in solo content, group content is where fire is king.
Fire Mage is a bit tough to solo with because you do so little damage outside of Combust. So it’s tough to pull more than a couple mobs without Combust up. First step is obviously get comfortable with the Combust rotation and then kinda accept that you can pull an elite or a pack every ~2 min and in between Combusts you gotta pull small.
Also sure you’re utilizing Alter Time and Mirror Images as defensives, Alter is basically a free full heal if you use it correctly and Images can buy you some time. And use Dragon’s Breath as an interrupt, particularly on non-interruptible abilities (i.e., when counterspell won’t work). If you’re in a panic throw out a Frost Nova and get some distance or run away.
Even at 225 ilvl without Combust I have issues soloing an elite mob or packs of 20k+ hp mobs, btw.
Mage needs the ability to heal. DPS needs healing ability and the class needs a healing spec.
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I don’t think fire mage is a good spec for open world or solo content, since our damage is non existent outside of combust. change to Arcane and it’ll be way better, you’ll hit like a truck all the time, and if you want even more damage you can touch of magi and AP to quickly burst the mob down.
And arcane has a 2min cd instant invisibility for tough times, the perfect spec.
This doesn’t necessarily mean you’re doing anything wrong, since fire is completely pathetic outside of combust. We have traditionally levelled in frost spec because it offers consistent and reliable damage as well as superior kiting ability. As mentioned above, arcane is also a very nice option for levelling if you want to play with more burst because unlike fire, arcane can still do decent damage outside of its primary cooldown.
Greater Invis needs to be available in all three specs. It used to be a 90% damage reduction but was nerfed for PVP and sadly it carried over to PVE as well. That was done in Cata or Maybe Mists. With the advances in the game today it should be no problem to have it go back to 90% for PVE and stay at 60 in PVP. They never look to fixing that issue and its a shame, and of course sloppy game design to let a PVP negatively affect the PVE side of things. As many have noted fire has no pop outside combust, but once you get the toon geared you’ll have fun with it.
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Mage is out of those class that I just can’t do OW or Targhast with… Tried and it never work or I died. Unles other melee class or even priest that can heal or chuck mobs down (or even go tank spec). Mage is like kill the mob before they reach you or you going to take some damage. Doesn’t work really well in TG.
This doesn’t mean you’re doing anything wrong. Mages are horrible at solo PvE when you’re undergeared or similarly geared as a zone.
Bear in mind that most field elites/bosses are immune to slows. In SL particularly, MANY normal mobs and elites/bosses have abilities that make them instantly jump onto/behind you as well.
Arcane is the “best” mage spec for solo PvE, but that’s not saying much honestly. It’s got Greater Invi (shorter cooldown, instant) to quickly drop threat or pick up a quest item and yeet. If you access war mode, then it also gets Temporal Shield (a ‘heal’) and another group Invi which you can also use if you’re soloing as well.
Is one of my issue I have not made my mage my main yet. I simply hate doing any OWnor TG on her. Other class I have no issue even as a priest. Melee is a cake walk bit mage for some reason don’t do well lol maybe I an too use to melee where I can just kill mobs after mobs with no down time
To me learning mage has and always been mastering movement. I can solo Wrath of the Jailer and other high HP elites in the maw as fire. Probably easier as arcane.
I need help lol. All I know is frost Nova teleport back and keep firing but doesn’t work well in packs IE TG… or elites
There’s just literally no lazy pulls. For any pull. Pre-cast shield. Pre cast all available buffs. Pull with frosbolt then fireballs.
It’s not a faceroll class where you can push any button and win. You need to treat every moment in combat like an optimization puzzle.
Then drink and eat and do it over again. Eventually you’ll get so overpowered that you can burst down anything under 100k in one combustion cycle.
Honestly this is the primary reason I quit my Mage. I don’t really enjoy Frost / Arcane, and Fire is just awful outside of Combust.
Blizzard has this obsession with long cooldown burst windows. They’ve gimped several classes outside of CD’s, and it makes the game incredibly boring. Fire Mage is a perfect example of it.
Mage is one of my easiest Torghast runs and has been since 190+. Basically any build around Triune + random damage abils or Fire Juggler and you’re golden. Fire Juggler and combusts on any boss means they never touch you. With higher ilvl fire juggle isn’t even necessary anymore cause everything just dies too fast. Lower ilvl you can still get by but Fire juggler is almost mandatory. We’re not talking TC right cause that’s a whole nother beast but the Triune ward build in TC should get the job done too.
So run with fire spec and not frost?
My friend really likes frost chipper and runs frost as an Arcane Main.
I ran a few as arcane and could do it but it seemed to take longer. Combust CD seems to be up for basically every other pull as fire. And fire juggler is just such cheezemode. I blasted a floor boss up into the sky so high once that it bugged out and reset…
When kiting you should be comfortable strafing away while having LOS over your left or right shoulder and being able to use instants like fire blast or casting scorch at the same time. Alternatively you can have face away and have back turned from target with no LOS during movement then jump 180 instant cast and back while maintaining momentum but I don’t use it much unless it is DB or CoC because spell input comes out slower due to the jump.
The strafing method above greatly is enhanced via talents against mobs that are immune to CC like the 500K to 1 million HP mobs in the maw. Frenetic Speed as fire gives you a 30 percent speed boost. Against Borr-geth you can spam scorch while strafing to gain enough distance so when he stops to cast you can launch a greater pyro or farm combustion back with fireball (sorry non WM mages!). When he stuns you melee just blink and repeat going on other direction but be mindful of aggroing mobs if space isn’t clear and distance so he doesn’t reset. I run Triune btw otherwise you’ll lose a chunk of your health without the shields if you get hit.
In TC since mobs are CC-able, the fire version of arcane’s Chrono Shift is flame strike from Searing Touch to go along with Frenetic Speed. With these talents you have 100 percent net speed boost (70% from flame strike slow debuff on mob plus 30% from scorch speed buff on you). So you would open with AoE combustion and then farm instant flame strike whichever mob goes below 30% percent. You can apply the strafing method while infinitely kiting packs.
You could always build more defensive, the Triune Ward adds a lot of defensive power and you could use a more defensive soulbind, allowing those shields to heal you and your ice block to fully heal you and bring a ton of healing potions.