Fire Mage Raid Guide

11.1 - Undermine(d)

Last Updated:March 3, 2025|Changelog|FAQ

Welcome to the Fire Mage Raid guide for the World of Warcraft patch 11.1! This guide covers everything you need to know to understand your character! Are you starting out and leveling up from 70? Check out the leveling guide!

Overview

Patch 11.1 - Undermine(d)
Fire Mage
Fire MageRaid
Single-Target
Strong
AoE
Strong
Utility
Excellent
Survivability
Excellent
Mobility
Excellent
Fire Mage Raid Best in Slot

Hero Talents

Patch 11.1 - Undermine(d)
Fire Mage
  • Sunfury is the main hero talent used in both single and AoE scenarios. Frostfire is competitive, but falls behind slightly in most scenarios.
Sunfury
Frostfire
  • Spellfire Spheres
    • This is the core mechanic of Sunfury. Every Hot Streak! spent gives you a Spellfire Spheres and when you reach 6, it empowers your next Pyroblast. It then gives you Glorious Incandescence which gives you plenty of Fire Blasts to work with while also giving you more Fire Blasts.
  • Invocation: Arcane Phoenix
    • Your Spellfire Spheres are spent through this talent. The bird popularly known as, "Arlo" is going to take the generated Spellfire Spheres and cast quirky spells such as Arcane Barrage and Flamestrike.
  • Memory of Al'ar
    • After Combustion ends, you are granted Hyperthermia for 2 seconds, and an additional 0.5 seconds for each exceptional spell it had cast. This provides a satisfying end to your Combustion, letting you spam cast Pyroblast.
  • Frostfire Mastery
    • The core mechanic of Frostfire revolves around these two mastery buffs. They passively give you stats and when they reach max stacks, empower your Fire Blast and Phoenix Flames.
  • Imbued Warding
    • This should be your default pick as you are already able to move during your Ice Cold. There could be some niche situation that pops up that you need both Ice Block and the ability to move where the other talent is going to shine.
  • Severe Temperatures
    • A nice little passive increase to your Frostfire Bolt.
  • Isothermic Core
    • This talent makes Meteor almost mandatory compared to Sunfury. The free Comet Storm you get almost doubles the power of Meteor.
  • Frostfire Empowerment
    • Empowers your Frostfire Bolt and makes it instant cast while also granting you max stacks of Excess Frost and Excess Fire. You receive a Frostfire Empowerment every time you enter a Combustion including a Sun King's Blessing. However, you do not receive this if you finish the Sun King's Blessing cast while still in Combustion.
  • Excess Frost and Excess Fire
    • These are the main gameplay altering talents within the Frostfire tree. Reaching max stacks of Excess Frost causes your next Phoenix Flames to also cast Ice Nova at 200% effectiveness. Reaching max stacks of Excess Fire cause your next Fire Blast to also cast Living Bomb at 150% while also reducing the cooldown of your Phoenix Flames.
      • The rotational impact these talents have on your rotation is pretty simple. Make sure to spend each proc before casting your next Frostfire Empowerment proc to make sure you do not munch them.

Talents

Patch 11.1 - Undermine(d)
Fire Mage
Sunfury Single-Target / Cleave
Sunfury Fire Mage Single-Target Build

When to use this Spec

This is the main spec used by Fire Mage's in Raids whenever there are few or zero targets during the encounter.

Gameplay Altering Talents

Discover all talents that significantly alter your gameplay within the Spec and Class Talent trees. This section gives a concise overview of these talents and their applications but for a more detailed look check out the Rotation and Deep Dive sections below.

Spec Tree

  • Unleashed Inferno
    • Finally, after a couple of years Sun King's Blessing is not taken in all forms of content for Fire Mages! Sun King's Blessing is behind in single and AoE scenarios currently.
  • Phoenix Reborn
    • This is a returning tier set turned into a talent. This talent gives you more Phoenix Flames charges and empowers them.
  • Kindling
    • This is a big part of why Fire Mages have Combustion up so often. This talent ends up reducing your Combustion to around a minute cooldown.
  • Hyperthermia
    • Allows you to spam cast Pyroblast while this buff is active. This gives you a nice break in the gameplay whenever this procs or when you receive this buff from Memory of Al'ar.

Class Tree

  • Shifting Power
    • This spell is used after your cooldowns to get them back quicker.
  • Time Anomaly
    • Be ready to react to the procs you get from this talent, they can impact your rotation differently depending on when they proc.
  • Mass Barrier
    • Make sure to use Mass Barrier to help your dungeon teammates out.
  • Shimmer
    • This talent node is the main reason mage in general has such high mobility. Being castable while casting and ignoring the GCD, it is essential you manage your Shimmer well to achieve 100% uptime on DPS during any encounter.

Hero Talents

  • Imbued Warding
    • Defensively stronger than the other option.
  • Elemental Affinity
    • Has more synergy with fire than the other option.
  • Severe Temperatures
    • Numerically the best pick as you do not cast Frostfire Bolt much.

Rotation

Patch 11.1 - Undermine(d)
Fire Mage

Tier Set

  • 2-Set: Your spells and abilities have a chance to hit a Jackpot! reducing the cooldown of Combustion by 2 seconds. Casting Combustion always hits a Jackpot! at 200% increased effectiveness.
  • 4-Set: When you hit a jackpot! your damage is increased by 15% for 7 seconds. If you would gain a Jackpot! from Combustion, the duration is increased by 100%.

Overall a simple tier set that fits the gambling theme very well. This ends up making Unleashed Inferno a more favorable pick due to even more Combustion creating a positive feedback loop that never stops. Enjoy your 30-40 second Combustion cooldown.

Single-Target

Frostfire

Opener

  • The goal of your single target opener rotation is to enter Combustion as quick as you can while reacting to your Pyroblast crits.
Fire Mage Single-Target opener in Raid
  • If the precasted Pyroblast did not crit, cast a Fire Blast during the fireball cast and then also activate Combustion during the Fireball cast.
  • If the precasted Pyroblast did crit, then activate Combustion during the fireball cast.
  • Combustion is castable while casting other spells and is off the GCD.
  • Fire Blast is castable while casting other spells and is off the GCD.

Priority List

This is a general priority you aim to maintain throughout the fight which differs depending on whether you have Combustion up or not.

Combustion Priority List

Combustion is Fire Mages main cooldown and with how much uptime you can obtain on Combustion with Unleashed Inferno, maximizing these windows is crucial to playing fire mage correctly.

  1. Cast Pyroblast with Hot Streak.
  2. Cast Fire Blast with Heating up.
  3. Cast Phoenix Flames with Heating up if you have Phoenix Reborn or to prevent overcapping Phoenix Flames.
  4. Cast Phoenix Flames.
  5. Cast Scorch .

Outside of Combustion Priority List

  1. Cast Shifting Power after Hyperthermia.
  2. Cast Fireball if Combustion is up within 10 seconds. Do not use any Fire Blasts unless you would otherwise over cap on charges during this time (this is known as pooling).
  3. Cast Pyroblast with Hot Streak.
  4. Cast Fire Blast with Heating up if you are not pooling.
  5. Cast Phoenix Flames.
  6. Cast Scorch if the target is below 30% health.
  7. Cast Fireball.

Hyperthermia Priority List

Generally during Hyperthermia you are only casting Pyroblasts. The only exception is weaving in Fire Blasts when you have Heating up during some conditions.

  1. Cast Pyroblast with Hot Streak
  2. Cast Fire Blast with Heating up if you are about to cap on charges.
  3. Cast Fire Blast with Heating up to maintain Feel the Burn.
  4. Cast Fire Blast with Heating up if Shifting Power is up or almost up.

How to use Hyperthread Wristwraps

You ideally want to use Hyperthread Wristwraps when two out of three of your last GCD's are Fire Blasts and you have no more Fire Blasts to use, for example

AoE

Frostfire

When using the recommended build, the rotation is exactly the same as single target. Because of Ignite, your damage is passively spread when casting Fire Blast to the mobs surrounding the main mob you are targeting. This means that you target the boss and Pyroblast away.

Deep Dive

Patch 11.1 - Undermine(d)
Fire Mage

Ignite

An important aspect of doing damage with the Ignite builds is to swap your Ignite off of your priority target before that target dies or you need to swap. You can achieve this by having your last global be a Fire Blast before swapping targets. By doing this, fire mages do not lose any damage if their priority target dies or they need to swap off of a target to another one.

Shimmer Cast Immunity

Shimmer is very unique as it gives the caster a small grace period of being able to cast spells while moving. This lets Mages perform some technical maneuvers in order to lose zero damage during knockbacks or other events where casting is required and the Mage needs to move small steps. At a basic level, you achieve this by first casting a spell, using Shimmer, taking the small step then standing still and resuming casting. When using this on a knockback, you first start casting a spell, use Shimmer right before the knockback and Shimmer again as soon as the knockback goes off. If done correctly, the cast should not have cancelled and you have achieved full uptime during a knockback without Ice Floes!

Phoenix Flames vs Fire Blast

Understanding the differences has a steep learning curve when playing Fire Mage for the first time. Fire Blast is off the GCD, castable while casting and instantly hits the target when you cast it. Phoenix Flames on the other hand, is on the GCD, not castable while casting, and has a travel time before it hits the target. This drastic difference can cause issues because of the gameplay loop between generating and spending Hot Streaks. Since you use Fire Blast fairly frequently, you might expect Phoenix Flames to behave the same but, it is the polar opposite. The best advice is to expect these "rhythm disruptions" during your Combustion and become more comfortable with waiting for your Phoenix Flames to hit the target.

Losing damage from distance due to Phoenix Flames travel time.

Phoenix Flames has a very slow travel time. Depending on your haste and distance from the boss, this can cost you damage. You lose damage because you can be in a position where you are waiting for your Phoenix Flames to hit the target while your global is ready. The simplest way to fix this issue is to be closer to the boss. Another way you can fix this issue is by doing something called, "Phoenix Flames Weaving." This is only doable when you have high haste and are forced to be far away from the target. After casting Pyroblast during your Combustion, you are going to have a Heating up. You can then cast Phoenix Flames into Fire Blast into a Pyroblast Pyroblast combo. You can achieve this because you send the Pyroblast before the Phoenix Flames hits the target. This completely negates the time you lose by waiting for your Phoenix Flames to hit the target while your GCD is ready. Here is what it should look like.

It is important to remember that this is only doable with 100% or higher haste and you need to be at least 20+ yards away from the target.

Understanding Mechanics

Rotational min-maxing is just one aspect of mastering a specialization, but there are numerous other key mechanics that influence your performance. Use the following guides to improve them.

Liberation of Undermine

Patch 11.1 - Undermine(d)
Fire Mage

The following tips are mainly applicable to Heroic Bosses. Mythic tips are released after our progression concludes.

← Scroll for more Bosses

Vexie Fullthrottle and The GearGrinders
Cauldron of Carnage
Rik Reverb
Stix Bunkjunker
Sprocketmonger Lockenstock
One-Armed Bandit
Mug'Zee
Gallywix
Fire Mage Vexie Fullthrottle and The GearGrinders talents in Raids

Offensive Cooldown Usage

  • Your Combustion timings can change from pull to pull depending on procs and available uptime. It is best advised to send on cooldown.

Boss Tips

  • Use your Shimmer and Alter Time to get away with Spew Oil quickly and not spawn it close to the boss.
  • Use your defensives whenever you're affected by Incendiary Fire.
Fire Mage Cauldron of Carnage talents in Raids

Offensive Cooldown Usage

  • Your Combustion timings can change from pull to pull depending on procs and available uptime. It is best advised to send on cooldown.

Defensive Cooldown Usage

  • Rotate your defensives for each Scrapbomb soak. You get only 3 Scrapbombs per phase meaning you can cover call of them easily as a Mage by alternating Greater Invisibility, Ice Cold and Mirror Image with Alter Time.
Fire Mage Rik Reverb talents in Raids

Offensive Cooldown Usage

  • Your Combustion timings can change from pull to pull depending on procs and available uptime. It is best advised to send on cooldown.

Boss Tips

  • Use your defensives on Sound Cannon or when you're about to get hit by Resonant Echoes.
  • If you can't make it to an Amplifier before Blaring Drop hits you during the intermission, you can just blink through it with a Shimmer. Similar can be also done with an Alter Time which is also safer due to it teleporting you for a longer distance.
Fire Mage Stix BunkJunker talents in Raids

Offensive Cooldown Usage

  • Your Combustion timings can change from pull to pull depending on procs and available uptime. It is best advised to send on cooldown.

Boss Tips

  • Look out for Scrapmasters and interrupt them whenever they are casting Scrap Rockets. Counterspell is the best interrupt in the game by far and you, as a Mage, should be never slacking with kicks like that.
  • Use your defensives whenever you're afflicted by Incinerator.
Fire Mage Sprocketmonger Lockenstock talents in Raids

Offensive Cooldown Usage

  • Your Combustion timings can change from pull to pull depending on procs and available uptime. It is best advised to send on cooldown.

Defensive Cooldown Usage

  • Use your defensives on overlaps of Sonic Ba-Boom and Foot-Blasters explosions.

Boss Tips

  • Use Alter Time right before Beta Launch goes off to quickly reposition yourself.
Fire One-Armed Bandit talents in Raids

Offensive Cooldown Usage

  • Your Combustion timings can change from pull to pull depending on procs and available uptime. It is best advised to send on cooldown.

Boss Tips

  • Use defensives whenever the Reel Assistants cast Withering Flames on you. This together with Pay-Line explosions is dangerous.
  • Interrupt Overload! as late as possible to avoid potential Withering Flames casts.
Fire Mage Mug'Zee talents in Raids

Offensive Cooldown Usage

  • Your Combustion timings can change from pull to pull depending on procs and available uptime. It is best advised to send on cooldown.

Offensive Cooldown Usage

  • Your Combustion timings can change from pull to pull depending on procs and available uptime. It is best advised to send on cooldown.

Stat Priority

Patch 11.1 - Undermine(d)
Fire Mage

Understand your secondary stat priority and the tertiary stats needed for optimal performance during Raid boss fights as a Fire Mage. For more detailed information, visit the Stats and Attributes guide.

Fire Mage Stat Priorities in Raid

Higher Item level items are better in most scenarios. For an accurate representation of what item to equip you should use Simcraft! A static "Stat Priority" is just a starting point and can easily shift depending on your individual gear.

  • All secondary stats are affected by diminishing returns. Click here to learn more!

Tertiary

  • Avoidance - Great stat to reduce the damage intake of "Area of Effect" abilities.
  • Leech - Provides additional healing through damage dealing. The damage of your pets does not heal you thus Leech is a great tertiary for you since most of your damage is coming from your own spells.
  • Speed - Niche tertiary that can be very useful and has been proven useful in the past. Makes playing certain mechanics a lot easier.

Gear

Patch 11.1 - Undermine(d)
Fire Mage
Best in Slot
Farmable Alternatives
SlotItemLocation
HeadAspectral Emissary's Crystalline CowlTier / Catalyst
NeckSemi-Charmed AmuletRik Reverb
ShoulderAspectral Emissary's Arcane VentsTier / Catalyst
CloakConsecrated CloakCrafting
ChestAspectral Emissary's Primal RobesTier / Catalyst
WristHyperthread WristwrapsOperation Mechagon: Workshop
GlovesPunctured Apiary GlovesCinderbrew Meadery
BeltRingmaster's CummerbundOperation Mechagon: Workshop
LegsAspectral Emissary's TrousersTier / Catalyst
BootsAspectral Emissary's SlippersCatalyst
Ring 1Miniature Roulette WheelThe One-Armed Bandit
Ring 2Wick's Golden LoopDarkflame Cleft
Trinket 1Eye of KezanChrome King Gallywix
Trinket 2Mug's Moxie JugMug'Zee
WeaponFleshcrafter's KnifeTheater of Pain
OffhandVagabond's TorchCrafting

Below you are presented with a good list of farmable alternatives that are obtainable outside of WoW’s weekly lockout system. While replaced in time as you progress, these offer immediate character power.

SlotItemLocation
HeadInventor's Ingenious TrifocalsOperation Mechagon: Workshop
NeckStrapped Rescue-KegCinderbrew Meadery
ShoulderMoneymaking BusinessmantleCinderbrew Meadery
CloakCloak of Questionable IntentTHE MOTHERLODE!!
ChestSaboteur's Rubber JacketOperation: Floodgate
WristHyperthread WristwrapsOperation Mechagon: Workshop
GlovesPunctured Apiary GlovesCinderbrew Meadery
BeltRingmaster's CummerbundOperation Mechagon: Workshop
LegsRowdy Reveler's LegwrapsTHE MOTHERLODE!!
BootsHyperthread BootsOperation Mechagon: Workshop
Ring 1Bloodoath SignetTheater of Pain
Ring 2Wick's Golden LoopDarkflame Cleft
Trinket 1Signet of the PrioryPriory of the Sacred Flame
Trinket 2Sigil of Algari ConcordanceThe Rookery
WeaponVoltaic StormcallerThe Rookery

Trinkets

Below you can find active and passive alternatives to our recommended trinkets. Do note that some trinkets are better than others depending on the raid boss.

Active Trinket alternatives

  • Signet of the Priory
    • Strong on-use trinket.
  • Soulletting Ruby
    • Strong on-use trinket.

Passive Trinket alternatives

  • Reverb Radio
    • Good passive stat proc trinket.

Embellishments

  • Writhing Armor Banding
    • Empowers any Nerubian embellishment by 100%.
  • Darkmoon Sigil: Ascension
    • Gain a random secondary stat stacking up over time.

Remaining Sparks

  • Crafted items are 636 item level and regular items are 639 on max item level therefore it's not beneficial to equip crafted items outside of your 2x embellishments unless you don't have access to other high item level gear on that slot.

Simcraft

To find the best combination of gear available to you or identify the best possible upgrades, visit our Simcraft guide to learn how to utilize Simcraft easily and effectively.

Consumables

Patch 11.1 - Undermine(d)
Fire Mage
  • Phials
    • Flask of Tempered Swiftness -- maximum DPS.
    • Flask of Tempered Versatility -- less DPS but more survivability.
  • Food
    • Feast of the Divine Day
    • Feast of the Midnight Masquerade
  • Combat Potion
    • Tempered Potion
  • Health Potion
    • Algari Healing Potion -- a big burst of healing
  • Weapon Oil
    • Algari Mana Oil -- default
    • Oil of Deep Toxins
  • Augment Rune
    • Crystallized Augment Rune
  • Sockets
    • Versatile Emerald
    • Culminating Blasphemite -- Unique, use one of each gem color to enhance your Culminating Blasphemite.
      • Quick Sapphire
      • Quick Ruby
      • Quick Onyx

Enchantments

HeadS.A.D.
NeckMagnificent Jeweler's Setting 2x
CloakEnchant Cloak - Chant of Winged Grace
ChestEnchant Chest - Crystalline Radiance
WristEnchant Bracer - Chant of Armored Avoidance
S.A.D.
WaistS.A.D.
LegsSunset Spellthread
BootsEnchant Boots - Scout's March
Ring 1Enchant Ring - Radiant Haste
Magnificent Jeweler's Setting 2x
Ring 2Enchant Ring - Radiant Haste
Magnificent Jeweler's Setting 2x
WeaponEnchant Weapon - Authority of the Depths
Fire Mage Enchantments in Raid

You buy S.A.D. from the Great Vault Vendor to add sockets to your Helm, Wrists & Waist.

Races

Patch 11.1 - Undermine(d)
Fire Mage

For min-maxing a Fire Mage in raiding, different racial traits can provide a tremendous benefit to your character. If this is not your top goal, picking a race that fits your style works just as well.

  • Stoneform -- Dwarf
    • Dispels Magic and Bleed debuffs. Has been useful in the past on some bosses with Bleeds.
  • Rocket Jump -- Goblin
    • Do a small jump in the direction your character is facing.
  • Berserking -- Troll
    • Strong DPS racial but lines up somewhat with Combustion.
    • Reduce the duration of movement-impairing effects by 20%. This was only useful once in the recent history of progression raiding but is still worth noting.
  • Blood Fury -- Orc
    • Strong racial for damage because of Blood Fury which lines up with Combustion.
    • 20% reduced stun duration on you which can be useful in some situations.
  • Spatial Rift -- Void Elf
    • Spawn a shadow traveling into your facing direction, and activate it again to teleport to it.
    • Maximum range of 100 yards.
Fire Mage Race sims for Raid

Recommendation

In general, it's safe to say that if you care about min-maxing your DPS, you should go with the highest DPS racial. That being said, the story is a bit different if it's about progression raiding. Some help out massively to speed up the progression on certain bosses. Notably, Dwarf with their Stoneform helped out on Tindral Sageswift and Fyrakk the Blazing in the latest Race to World First by having easy access to dispelling yourself at crucial points of the fights mentioned.

Macros

Patch 11.1 - Undermine(d)
Fire Mage

Discover recommended macros for Fire Mage during Raid encounters and watch a quick video guide on creating simple macros for your character.

Macro Import Guide Video

Flamestrike

#showtooltip
/use [@cursor] Flamestrike

Addons

Patch 11.1 - Undermine(d)
Fire Mage

Below, you see a screenshot of the author's User Interface for their Fire Mage, outlining which addons are used and how they are utilized in Raids to make your life easier.

Fire Mage Raid UI
Fire Mage User Interface in Raids

Changes this Patch

Patch 11.1 - Undermine(d)
Fire Mage

FAQ

Patch 11.1 - Undermine(d)
Fire Mage

Credits

Written By: Hopeful, Wolfdisco

Reviewed By: Wexi

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