- Author: Amery
- Date: July 8, 2022
- Updated: July 19, 2022
- Expansion: WotLK Classic
Fire Mages have 2 builds that are considered viable: the Torment the Weak build, and the Frostfire Bolt build
Notable Talents
Focus Magic: Increases the target’s Chance to critically hit with Spells by 3%. When the target critically hits the casters chance to critically hit with spells by 3% for 10 sec. This talent is incredibly strong when two mages trade it back and forth giving each other a total of 6% critical chance.
Torment the Weak: Frostbolt, Fireball, Frostfirebolt, Pyroblast, Arcane Missiles, Arcane Blast and Arcane Barrage deal 12% more damage to snared or slowed targets. In raids Frost Death Knights will apply a constant slow to bosses making our spells do 12% more damage.
Hot Streak: Any time you score 2 non-periodic spell criticals in a row using Fireball, Fireblast, Scorch, Living Bomb, or Frostfire Bolt, you have a 100% chance the next Pyroblast spell cast within 10 sec will be instant cast. This talent is what makes fire incredibly powerful once we start getting more crit making nearly every spell crit and casting a instant Pyroblast every other spell.
Living Bomb: The target becomes a Living Bomb, taking Fire damage over 12 sec. After 12 sec or when the spell is dispelled, the target explodes dealing Fire damage to all enemies within 10 yards. With the Glyph of Living Bomb it’ll be possible for Living Bomb to crit before it explodes.
Talent Builds
This is the standard Fire spec (18/53/0), known as the Torment the Weak build, or TTW for short. Combined with crit (and RNG), it is one of the strongest DPS specs in Wrath of the Lich King — assuming fights go on long enough for your damage to ramp up.
This is the Frostfire Bolt spec (0/54/17), or FFB for short. This build is a bit less Mana intensive than the TTW build and has Icy Veins. It will generally deal less damage on bosses than the TTW build, however.
Glyphs
Major Glyphs
For the 3rd major glyph slot, you’ll want a different glyph depending on your spec:
- Glyph of Fireball (Torment the Weak Build)
- Glyph of Frostfire (Frostfire Bolt Build)
Minor Glyphs
You can use any Glyph in the last minor glyph slot — they’re not really that impactful.
About the Author
can someone explain me the Burnout talent? when i crit without this talent my crit is 200% of normal hit? after talent its 250%? and your non-periodic spell criticals cost an additional 5% of the spell’s cost what does this mean? can you give me example. thank you
It wasn’t until Cata that spell crits became baseline 200%. Normal crit is 100% + 50% crit bonus so 5/5 Burnout affects your crit bonus by 50% so you get 100% + 50% + 25% (which is 50% of the 50% crit bonus) for a total of 175% damage. This doesn’t sound like a lot but when you consider that your Ignite talent is adding a full 40% bonus of this 175% you are getting 245% crit damage compared to the baseline 150%.
The second part about “non-periodic spell criticals” is referring to any crit that isn’t part of a DoT will cost 5% more mana. This isn’t much of a negative because of the several other mana regeneration talents available in the build in Master of Elements/Empowered Fire/Pyromaniac/Magic Absorption/Arcane Concentration.
Hi Amery, thanks for the great and detailed mage guides! I was experimenting with the Frostfire build a bit – what do you think of this one? https://www.wowhead.com/wotlk/talent-calc/mage/-0355032012303331053120311351-023303001_001vrn11q1y21xkk31rj441wne51rj5 (59/12 instead of the traditional 54/17).
arent bosses slow immune? (talking about ttw talent)
(posted to wrong section)
Well, I tried it on the PTR. Fire has some serious mana issue in ST, but not in AoE. And to be honest… I really don’t think Fire will be weak in AoE. I would always consider to give up World In Flames and one point in Playing With Fire for Blastwave, Dragon’s Breath and Firestarter for massive AoE damage.
its for leveling yes or pvp