Fire Mage

Heating Up and Pyroblast

Blizzard's deep dive describes Heating Up as Forever's take on Hot Streak: non-periodic crits with Fireball, Frostfire Bolt, Fire Blast and Scorch each take 25% off your next Pyroblast's cast, up to three times. The client adds that Fire Blast grants an extra stack whenever it deals damage, so Wowhead says each Fire Blast gives one stack, or two on a crit. Blizzard renamed Hot Streak to Heating Up on 1 October (ForeverDB), and the 16 October build turned Wake of Fire into Improved Fire Blast, dropping its crit proc (ForeverDB).

Talents by level

The Icy Veins order comes from its levelling calculator; ForeverDB's build predates the 16 October rework. Icy Veins' main guide shows a different level 30 build with two Arcane points in Missile Barrage. Icy Veins' text says to rush Heating Up and Master of Elements and not to hurry Ignite while your crit chance is low. Wowhead's level 30 guide rates Improved Scorch highly for high-health targets and suggests Incineration and Elemental Precision with Legacy bonus points.

WoWSims carries two level 60 Fire builds: "Fire", with 32 Fire points up to Combustion plus 16 Arcane and 3 Frost, and "FFB", with 29 Fire and 22 Frost (see the hybrid builds section).

Rotation

Levelling at up to 30:

• Icy Veins: open with Pyroblast (Fireball before 20), then Fireball, and use Fire Blast to finish. With Flame Throwing you can pull from 41 yards. Avoid overkill: finish low mobs with Scorch or your wand.
• Wowhead: on high-health targets, cast Scorch five times for Improved Scorch, then Fireball, and Pyroblast at three Heating Up stacks.
• ForeverDB's own simulator at 30 puts Scorch and Fire Blast on cooldown and keeps Fireball's burn on the target; Fireball, Scorch and Fire Blast deal 56%, 21% and 20% of the damage (ForeverDB PvE).

AoE: with a tank, Flamestrike, then Blast Wave and Arcane Explosion. Solo, gather the mobs, Frost Nova them, drop Flamestrike, then Blast Wave or Cone of Cold and finish with Arcane Explosion. Icy Veins warns against costly AoE on fewer than four targets and against overlapping your slows.

WoWSims at 60 (APLs), "deepFire":

1. Pre-cast Pyroblast.
2. Evocation below 10% mana.
3. Scorch until the target has five Fire Vulnerability stacks, and refresh them when under 5 seconds remain.
4. Cooldowns such as Combustion once five stacks are up.
5. Pyroblast at three Heating Up stacks.
6. Fire Blast on cooldown.
7. Keep one Arcane Blast stack rolling; Arcane Missiles on Missile Barrage.
8. Fireball as filler.

The "ffb" list is the same without the Arcane steps, fills with Frostfire Bolt and holds Fire Blast while Fingers of Frost has two charges. Both match the guides' core of Scorch stacks, Fire Blast and fast Pyroblasts; the simulator adds Arcane Blast upkeep from its Arcane points.

Gear and consumables

• Stats: Icy Veins ranks hit first until capped, then spell power and crit, and calls Spirit underrated for levelling. The Fire section has no hit talent, so ForeverDB points to Elemental Precision in Frost. ForeverDB's simulator at 30 values crit, hit and haste about equally, at roughly a fifth of a spell power point each.
• Level 30 items (Icy Veins): Spellpower Goggles Xtreme (Engineering), Scorn's Icy Choker, Bloodmage Mantle, Tailoring's Flame Gown, Flame Leggings and Fiery Slippers, Belt of Arugal, Gaze Dreamer Pants, Acidic Walkers, Dark Horde Band and Ragefire Wand from the Mage quest at 30.
• Professions: Icy Veins' main guide names Engineering the best profession for Fire, with Tailoring second; its levelling page recommends Tailoring and Enchanting.
• Consumables: Wizard Oils, Spellblasting Potion, Briny Seafood Stew and mana gems (Icy Veins); Lesser Arcane Elixir tops ForeverDB's simulator at 30 (+4.8%).

Where the guides disagree or aren't sure

• Outdated names: Icy Veins' Fire pages, last updated 16 October, still describe Hot Streak and Wake of Fire's crit proc. Its talent calculator already shows Improved Fire Blast.
• Strength at 30: Icy Veins calls Fire enjoyable to level; Wowhead found it the slowest of the three at 30 for lack of crit.
• Deep Fire or Frostfire: Wowhead says deep Fire needs more gear but feels more consistent, while the Frostfire hybrid starts stronger but scales less; it is too early to say which is best.
• Engineering's Nitro Boosts: Wowhead's overview calls them a reason Engineering is best, but ForeverDB reports the Nitro Boosts tinker was removed from the 16 October client files.