PvE Fire Mage DPS Stat Priority & Reforging

Fire Mages in Mists of Pandaria prioritize Critical Strike Chance and Haste, followed by Mastery, as their most potent stats besides Intellect and Hit. This is due to how patch 5.4.8 affects Mastery: Ignite and Combustion, with Haste providing more value over Mastery for optimized damage output at certain breakpoints.

Stat Priority

1. Intellect
2. Hit Chance (Until Cap)
3. Critical Strike Chance
4. Haste (Until Soft Cap/Breakpoint)
5. Mastery

Intellect is a primary stat for Fire Mage, providing them with increased Spell Power and Spell Critical Strike Chance. While the stat no longer provides Mana, it is the primary source of Spell Power and is innately found on all suitable gear for Fire Mages. This stat should be stacked as much as possible through gems, enchants, and consumables.

Hit Chance is a secondary stat that ensures your spells land against higher-level mobs. In Mists of Pandaria, Expertise also contributes to the amount of Hit Chance you will have as a Caster specialization. You will need a 15% Hit Chance to never miss against level 93 bosses, with each 340 Hit granting a 1% Hit Chance. Due to how Expertise now affects casters, some races will have increased Hit Chance when using specific items due to their racial bonuses.

Critical Strike Chance is by far the most important secondary stat for Fire Mages. It directly synergizes with your kit, allowing you to trigger the Heating Up effect, which is required for Pyroblast!. Critical Strike Chance also allows all of your DoT effects to land Critical Strikes, including Living Bomb, Ignite, Pyroblast, and Combustion. However, the stat is no longer required to proc Ignite. Since Ignite is still based on the value of the Spell Damage that triggered the effect, you will want to stack as much Critical Strike Chance as possible to trigger powerful Ignite & DoT ticks.

Haste is a stat that has major implications for Fire Mage, affecting multiple aspects of its gameplay. As a base, Haste reduces the cast time required for your spells. Spell cast time can’t be reduced below 1.0 seconds, which is known as the Global Cooldown Limit. Haste also increases your Mana Regeneration through the Nether Attunement passive effect. However, not all spells are similarly impacted by Haste, meaning that spells with long cast times require far more haste to reach the 1.0-second mark.

Furthermore, and most importantly, besides lowering your overall cast speed, Haste also affects how many times your Damage-over-Time effects tick, with each Haste Percentage being known as a breakpoint. Not all Fire Mage spells have the same breakpoints, and each functions differently. Ignite is the only effect that doesn’t receive additional ticks; it is always capped at 2 ticks.

The following stats are the breakpoints without the 5% increased Haste buff.

• Each 425 Haste will result in 1% Haste.

Lastly, Mastery is a stat that directly improves the Mastery: Ignite effect. Increasing your Mastery will directly increase the total percentage value of your Ignite. This stat is trickier to balance when compared to Critical Strike Chance and Haste. You will want to prioritize it last after reaching the 2 Ticks breakpoint for Combustion. You will want to reach at least 18-20% Mastery in total for Ignite to be effective.

Reforging

Reforging can only be done on secondary stats, meaning you can’t acquire more Intellect through it! As a Fire Mage, you will want to primarily reforge your secondary stats into Hit, followed by Critical Strike Chance to increase the chance to proc Heating Up. After that, you will want to prioritize Haste until you reach the +2 combustion ticks breakpoint. Trying to get the +3 ticks breakpoint is possible. However, the Mastery tradeoff will most likely result in a DPS loss since it cuts up the value of Mastery: Ignite.

1. Hit (Until Cap)
2. Critical Strike Chance
3. Haste (2 Combustion Ticks breakpoint)