This is a complete guide for
Fire
Mage in WoW forever. It will cover everything from leveling, endgame, bis lists and rotations. The guide will be continuously updated as we make new discoveries in WoW forever.
Fire mage/sorcerer/wizard has always been the peak fantasy for every caster player in any RPG. The thought of sending a big
Pyroblast that crits and
Ignite the enemy is just one of the best feelings in the game.
Fire received some interesting changes, with most notable by far being
Frostfire Bolt. It counts as both
Frost and
Fire, which means that it benefits from both fire and frost talents. It opens a lot of strong possibilities with
Fingers of Frost,
Critical Mass,
Heating Up and
Ice Shards. Deep
Fire is currently the highest simming single target DPS spec for
Mage, followed up by
Frostfire Bolt mage.
Overview
Guide Variants
Fire mage is by far the weakest leveling spec for
Mage. It's not mana efficient, you won't have any crit for
Ignite and the only good early fire talent was reworked into
Improved Fire Blast.
So we would strongly recommend to check out our Frost or Arcane out for leveling instead. However if you are a big fan of
Fire gameplay here is a spec and gameplay recommendations for you.
One of your early game goals should be to craft (or buy on AH)
Lesser Magic Wand. In Gear further down, we will specify best ways to obtain this without AH available.
Arcane Missiles (Rank 1) was bugged on the latest beta patch - You would always get all 3 missiles off, even if mobs were hitting you. Effectively meaning they granted you spell haste. Be the lookout if it's fixed or not, if it's still the same it's a very powerful spell for early leveling.
Frostfire Bolt is lvl 40, so it wasn't in the beta, so wasn't tested in-game. Damage per mana is not looking appealing though, so it wasn't added in recommended rotations. But feel free to test it out yourself.
Talents
- 10-14:
Accelerant - 15-19:
Ignite - 20-21:
Burning Soul (2/3) - 22-23:
Improved Fire Blast - 24:
Pyroblast - 25:
Heating Up - 26-27:
Precision (2/3) - 28:
Burning Soul (3/3) - 29-31:
Incineration (3/5) - 32-34:
Critical Mass - 35-36:
Incineration (5/5) - 37-39:
Master of Elements - 40-41:
Improved Scorch (2/3) - 42:
Combustion - 43:
Improved Scorch (3/3) - 44-46:
Fire Power - 47-49:
Arcane Resilience - 50-51:
Wand Specialization - 52-53:
Arcane Subtlety - 54-58:
Arcane Concentration - 59:
Precision (3/3) - 60:
Blast Wave
Gameplay & Rotation
Recommended rotations - won't be the best in every scenario
Level 1-8:
1. Cast
Fireball
3. Finish off with wand when mob is low
8-14:
1. Cast
Fireball until mob reaches you
2. Cast
Arcane Missiles until mob is low/dead
3. Finish off with wand /
Fire Blast
If
Arcane Missiles (rank 1) is fixed, just do step 1 and 3. On beta
Arcane Missiles (rank 1) would cast 3 missiles, even if pushback. So take notice if you get all 3 missiles off or not.
14-24:
1. Cast
Fireball
2.
Frost Nova if mob reaches you with high HP still
4. Get distance and
Fireball
3. Finish off with wand /
Fire Blast
25-60:
1. if 3 stacks
Heating Up always
Pyroblast (if 2 stacks running out also cast
Pyroblast)
2. Cast
Fireball (If high hp mob and you have 0
Heating Up procs it can be worth to open with
Pyroblast)
3. Cast
Scorch +
Fire Blast while
Fireball is in the air
4.
Fire Blast on cooldown
5. Cast 2-3
Scorch
6.
Frost Nova if mob high HP still, get distance and finish with
Scorch /
Fireball /
Fire Blast/ Wand
Gear
Getting your wand
Getting your
Lesser Magic Wand early is one of the most impactful things for your levelling.
There are 2 ways to get this asap on launch, the key objective is to acquire a
Lesser Magic Essence:
1. Pick up
Skinning. Buy Skinning Knife from vendor. Skin mobs you encounter. Only learn spells you really need (You can even skip frostbolt if needed). The enchanting trainer have limited supply
Lesser Magic Essence (2) on each layer, so with this strategy you need to be very fast to get there. You should be able to have 8 silver at level 5 already, after selling your leathers.
2. Second option is going
Skinning again. Together with
Skinning we temporarily pick up
Leatherworking. Gather leather so you can disenchant for a chance of
Lesser Magic Essence. 3x
Light Leather = 1x
Handstitched Leather Vest. If you are not in a hurry we recommend crafting a good amount.
Lesser Magic Essence have 20% to drop each disenchant.
7x
Handstitched Leather Vest (21
Light Leather) = 80% chance of getting at least 1x
Lesser Magic Essence
10x
Handstitched Leather Vest (30
Light Leather) = 90% chance of getting at least 1x
Lesser Magic Essence
The potential problem here is we need to drop
Leatherworking for
Enchanting after crafting. So if you get unlucky you will only get
Strange Dust and no longer have any leather or leatherworking.
Lesser Magic Wand is crafted from
Enchanting and requires skill level 10. Easiest and cheapest way is to do 1xRuned Copper Rod &
Enchant Bracer - Inferior Stamina until skill 10 where you learn
Lesser Magic Wand (1x
Lesser Magic Essence + 1
Simple Wood)
3. If you are not playing on launch, you can save yourself this headache and buy it on the Auction House for around 5 silver most likely.
General gearing while leveling
Keeping your wand "up to date" will make your life easier.
Greater Magic Wand is the one you can aim for after
Lesser Magic Wand. First big dungeon quest wand you can be on the lookout for:
Deepblaze (Alliance - Halls of Thanes - Quest starts from "Dark Iron Map" which drops from Dark Iron Spy in South-east Dun Morogh) and
Sizzle Stick (Wailing Caverns - "Deviate Eradication" Quest starts in the room above the cave).
Next big wand is
Gravestone Scepter - Quest is picked up inside Blackfathom Deeps, from the NPC "Argent Guard Thaelrid". You can look to do BFD around level 25.
At level 30 we can pick up "Journey to the Marsh" from our class trainer. It's a longer quest chain which awards us
Icefury Wand,
Nether Force Wand or
Ragefire Wand. Pick up the wand appropriate for your spec. This quest won't be possible to solo at level 30, you need to group up or wait until you are around level 36 - even then it won't be that easy.
Unless you have a very clear route or plan for your leveling, it's worth it to do most dungeons once for quests and loot. Gear from dungeons will make your mage experience smoother, as there are certain points we feel a bit weak.
Stat Priority
1. Hit until hit cap
2. Spellpower
3. Crit
4. Haste
5. Int
Consumables
Various consumables, which will help you on your leveling journey.
Cooking for well fed buffs, even the level 1 recipes gives you the new 5% xp buff. Such as
Brilliant Smallfish.
Obviously
Healing Potion and
Mana Potion on you throughout the game will get you out of some sticky situations.
Some of the lower level elixirs are
Elixir of Wisdom,
Elixir of Minor Spirit,
Minor Arcane Elixir &
Minor Mageblood Elixir. These are crafted by
Alchemy, you can also pick them up on the auction house cheap usually. All these elixirs are great for leveling as a mage, if you decide to go
Herbalism Alchemy is a classic choice, so you can craft your own consumables throughout the game.
The lowest level weapon oil you can obtain is
Minor Wizard Oil, which is from
Enchanting.
Generally on your first character consumables will be a luxury, but getting the well fed buff for 5% extra mob HP should be doable via
Cooking and quests.
Professions
We still have a lot to discover when it comes to BIS professions in PvE.
Tailoring Very likely have some pre-bis BoP crafts
Engineering Historically always come out ahead in both PvP and PvE.
Those 2 professions is our assumption to be best for
Mage at max level.
You can always level with gathering professions (
Herbalism,
Mining,
Skinning) and re-roll later if you wish. Historically on fresh classic servers
Skinning is used to vendor leather, for extra early gold.
Herbalism &
Mining to make gold at max level or supply your own materials to level your other profession.
First Aid Is also nice to pick up, especially when playing solo. In WoW forever it also allows you to craft healing potions, which makes it even more attractive.
Cooking Is more relevant than ever, since the Well Fed buff now gives you 5% experience from mobs.
Fishing Is worth picking up if you have some extra time, it allows you to easily obtain fish for
Cooking and have plenty of 5% well fed xp buffs available.
Suggested Races
Alliance
Alliance got 3 mage races (
High Order Skyborne,
Human,
Gnome). We currently recommend
Gnome for most players.
Skyborne
Wind Blessed - 2% passive haste is quite strong.
Read Leyline - Was nerfed after beta went down. No longer scales with
Innervate. Should still scale with water and
Evocation. Quite good leveling racial still, potentially good in high pace dungeons/raids too.
Walk on Air - Can situationally be very useful, also lets you control your character midair.
Elemental Insight - Not unlikely some raids will contain elementals giving you a passive 5% damage increase.
Human
If you value PvP highly
Human is a fine option. The 2 other races are stronger in PvE.
Ruthless - Passive 1% crit
The Human Spirit - With no improved
Divine Spirit in this version, it's very minor for mage, but still "nice to have"
Will to Survive - Very strong PvP racial, and potentially also useful in some PvE encounters
Perception - Increases your stealth detection drastically, good talent vs
Rogue &
Druid
Gnome
Gnome is once again the recommend race for alliance
Mage, strong in both PvE and PvP.
Escape Artist - Escape artist got a solid buff. It is now instant and gives you 3 seconds immunity to movement impairing effects (Roots, slows)
Expansive Mind - 5% more mana, specifically nice if you are planning to play
Arcane
Eureka! - A new on use for gnomes. 10% damage increase and 10% mana cost reduction. Can be used with cooldowns such as
Combustion or
Arcane Power in PvE, or big
Shatter setups in PvP.
Engineering Specialization - Less backfires on engineering devices. Can't really say how relevant this will be yet.
All 3 are currently simming very close to each other in PVE ,so pick what you think you will enjoy playing the most.
Horde
For horde we recommend
Orc
Blood Fury - Primary reason to play orc. Increases your spellpower by 10%, which will keep scaling as the game goes on. Can be used with big cooldowns such as
Combustion and
Arcane Power
Hardiness - Shorter stun duration, mostly useful in PvP facing
Rogue or
Paladin
Shatter Curse - Defensive cooldown which could come in handy in PvE, but more often in PvP facing
Warlock or
Priest.
Tips & Tricks
1. If you are playing on launch, unequip your staff. You won't be able to tag mobs with
Fireball and staff has a very long swing timer.
2. Buy
Refreshing Spring Water (lvl 1+) &
Ice Cold Milk (lvl 5+) from vendor early on while leveling. It's much more efficient than crafting your own. Until you get higher level the only time worth crafting water is if you are on a boat or zeppelin.
3. Get your
Lesser Magic Wand ASAP! Wanding also allows us to enter passive regeneration state earlier
4. In WoW Forever we still have the "5-second rule", meaning our passive regenaration doesn't start until 5 seconds after a finished cast. This makes wanding to finish off mobs even stronger, since you will start your regeneration from spirit faster. Especially strong with
Read Leyline.
4. Only buy spell you will use, you need all the silver you can save for water & potential
Lesser Magic Essence
5. Keep up your well fed buff when possible +5% experience from mobs
6. Know when your key spells gets a new rank, and train when convinient with leveling route
Fireball (Lvl 6 and every 6th level after that)
Frostbolt (Lvl 4, 8 and every 6th level after that)
Arcane Missiles (Lvl 8 and every 8th level after that)
Arcane Blast (Lvl 30-40-50)
Arcane Wrath (Lvl 36, 48, 60)
7. With a lot of players on launch you will often encounter a lot of people waiting for the same mob, we recommend making a macro similar to this:
/cast [target=NAME] Fire blast
Change NAME to the mob you are waiting for, and bind have this macro bound to some keybind including scroll wheel on your mouse. This will greatly improve your chances of getting the tag.
8. Spammable wand macro: /castsequence reset=target !shoot, !shoot
9. If you are playing
High Order Skyborne get an addon, which shows you leylines around the map!
Changelog
30/10/26 - Version 1.0