Fire Mage PvP Rotation and Playstyle — The War Within (Season 1)

The main role for a Fire Mage is simple: use your large crowd control toolkit and mobility to lock down healers. When they are crowd-controlled, use your explosive Damage to burst your target down. In The War Within, Fire Mage's role in Arena has not changed. It is still very heavily based on landing crowd control, then isolating and bursting down a target rapidly.

There are two "roles" a Fire Mage has in arena.

The first role is locking down the healer. You will push in and get crowd control on the healer ( Dragon's Breath into Polymorph). The second role is bursting on the main target. When the enemy healer is in crowd control, and you have burst cooldowns, Fire Mages have a burst rotation that requires almost no casting, thanks to instant Pyroblast from Heating Up procs.

Fire, when talented into Ring of Frost, has three different spell schools. Why is this important? If you are interrupted when casting Fireball (Fire school) you can start casting Polymorph to crowd-control the healer. Polymorph is in the Arcane school, and because the enemy team already interrupted you, you are free to cast Polymorph. If the team also interrupts that, you can cast Ring of Frost on the healer or melee that might be sitting on you. Ring of Frost is in the Frost school. It is the combination of this toolkit and the explosive Damage Fire has that makes it so viable.

The entirety of the Fire Specialization heavily revolves around the instant cast damage and Crowd Control the toolkit has to offer. Fire Mages will often see themselves positioning offensively for crowd control on key targets when their teammates have a coordinated stun or other crowd control effect to also pair with the use of Combustion. After the Fire Mage's offensive damage rotation, it will often use mobility to run and look to reset or slow down the game. Usage of Shifting Power and Pyrokinesis to reset cooldowns, as well as using Polymorph to stay alive.

Set a table for your team. Mage food actually restores health and Mana faster than normal food and water from vendors. Use Invisibility to guarantee your opener without any interruptions.

Make sure to use Arcane Intellect on your teammates. It can be dispelled by abilities like Purge or Spellsteal, so be prepared to apply it often. Use Blazing Barrier when the gates open and refresh it often, typically off cooldown, so you can absorb some of the incoming Damage.

It is also important to note that you can use Remove Curse to remove spells like Hex, Agony or Curse of Tongues.

There are a few things to keep in mind.

• We have Flame Accelerant for the fast-cast Fireballs. Keep this talent in mind, although it works passively. If it is not a guaranteed cast, refrain from using the quick-cast and instead Combustion, if you get kicked before your Combustion window, you will do no damage on your offensive go.
• Use Meteor efficiently. This means making sure to use it when your teammates are prepared to burst with you and not waste it when they are not. Typically, make sure the target is stunned or locked down so they are not able to kite away from the Meteor.
• Rotate your critical strikes, Heating Up procs, and Hot Streak instant Pyroblast procs with your Fire Blast.
• Use Fire Blast and Phoenix Flames with Fireballs to get Hot Streak procs.
• You can combo a Firestarter Fireball with a Fire Blast to get a fast Hot Streak proc, this works especially well with Tinder.

Understanding how to generate and spend Heating Up procs is crucial for maximizing your Damage as a Fire Mage. These are generated by getting a critical strike with a fire ability. If you get 2 critical strikes in a row, you get a Hot Streak buff. This makes Pyroblast instant, and it deals double Damage. Here are a few ways to generate the first heating up proc.:

• Fire Blast is a guaranteed critical strike. Because it always crits, it is important to save these charges for when you get a Heating Up proc, so it will turn into a Hot Streak buff.
• Phoenix Flames is an instant ability that has a chance to critical strike. Use this if you are having a hard time casting and trying to get a Heating Up proc. Be careful, as this ability can break CC-like Polymorph on enemies nearby.
• Fireball is a casted ability that is not a guaranteed critical strike, but you will use it often to reduce the cooldown of your Combustion.
• Scorch can be used while moving and does not have a guaranteed critical strike. This can be used to generate the first Heating Up proc, but it is unreliable and does quite low Damage.

So now that you have a Heating Up proc, you now need to get a second critical strike to get a Hot Streak buff. This is where Fire Blast is important. This ability is instant and always critically strikes. Use Fire Blast, and you will get the Hot Streak buff. Once you get it, use it on an instant Pyroblast. Note: the instant Pyroblast can critically strike, so be ready to use another Fire Blast to get another Hot Streak buff.

The opener refers to your team's opening crowd control chain and Damage done as soon as you get out of the gates. The main goal in the opener is to force your enemies to use their cooldowns. If the enemy healer uses their trinket in the opener, they are in trouble for your team's next setup. When the diminishing returns on your Polymorph have faded, they will have little to no outs for the incoming crowd control you and your teammates have for them.

Likewise, if an enemy DPS uses their trinket, you can crowd-control the healer and stun the DPS without a trinket. This means they can be burst down in a stun and possibly killed. Here is what your opener should look like:

1. Use Invisibility in the starting room.
2. Use Dragon's Breath on the enemy healer and start casting Polymorph for crowd control.
3. If an enemy interrupts your Polymorph, use Ring of Frost.
4. Use Spellsteal to steal any HoTs on your main target.
5. Start casting Fireballs to get a Heating Up proc.
6. Use your burst rotation.
7. After your burst, perform your do sustained damage rotation until your burst cooldowns are available.

Before you start using your burst rotation, keep in mind that your Combustion and Fire Blast are off the Global Cooldown and instant. This makes Fire Mage's burst very hard to counter. Be careful, however, because Combustion can be Purged, and so maybe CC the enemy that can use Purge or Spellsteal

1. Start with a Hot Streak proc.
   • To trigger it, either use Fire Blast twice, or use Fire Blast after landing a Critical Strike.
2. Use any of your on-use damaging trinkets.
3. Cast Frostfire Bolt.
4. Use Blood Fury if you are playing an Orc.
5. Use Combustion.
6. Use Meteor.
7. Use Pyroblast.
8. Use Fire Blast.
9. Use Pyroblast.
10. Use Fire Blast
11. Use Pyroblast.
12. Use Fire Blast.
13. Use Pyroblast.
14. Use Phoenix Flames.
15. Use Pyroblast.
16. Use Phoenix Flames.
17. Use Pyroblast.
18. Use Phoenix Flames.
19. Use Pyroblast.
20. Use Fire Blast.
21. Use Pyroblast.

Make sure to use Pyroblast when you have Combustion active to ensure that it is a critical strike. A common mistake is to assume it will not be a critical strike and instead waste the Heating Up proc on a different spell. Always assume your Pyroblast will be a critical strike while Combustion is active.

Sustained Damage is damage you deal when your burst cooldowns are not available. Fire Mages have very strong sustained damage due to Glass Cannon. After using Combustion, you should focus on reducing its cooldown by casting Fireballs, maximizing your Mastery: Ignite tick, and keeping your teammates alive with Polymorph.

1. Use Fireballs when you have the Flame Accelerant buff. This will make your next Fireball a much quicker cast and can generate a Heating Up proc.
   • If you are using Pyrokinesis, this will also reduce the cooldown of Combustion everytime you cast a Fireball.
2. When you get a Heating Up proc, use Fire Blast to get a Hot Streak buff.
3. Use Pyroblast when you have a Hot Streak buff.
4. Use Phoenix Flames if you cannot cast and are trying to generate a Heating Up proc.
5. Utilize Hyperthermia procs and Time Anomaly to maximize heavy sustained Damage during downtime while Combustion is not available.
6. Use Polymorph on any DPS that are being disruptive to you or your teammates.
7. Cast Frostfire Bolt.
8. Use Flamestrike if the enemies are running behind a pillar.
9. If you get kicked on a Fire or Arcane spell, you can use Frostbolt and Frost Nova to slow and root the enemies.
10. Use Scorch to move around and get in a better position to cast those Polymorphs. There is also the potential to get a Heating Up proc.

The overall goal is to maintain distance and maximize consistent Damage while resetting Combustion. The consistent damage of Fire Mage overall is quite weak. However, you can use it to get enemies slightly lower in HP, but more importantly, use it in tandem with Kindling and Pyrokinesis to reduce your strongest offensive cooldown. When you get a Heating Up proc, you want to use follow it up with a Fire Blast. This will result in getting a Hot Streak proc. There is a chance for Pyroblast to deal critical Damage, which means you can again use Fire Blast to generate another Hot Streak proc. This is the power of Fire Mage — instant rapid-fire Damage that cannot be stopped.

Ice Block is your main defensive ability. If you have run out of Shimmers and have no other ways to kite or survive, use this spell. This will protect you from all damage.

Cauterize is a passive ability that gives Fire Mages a "second life", preventing you from dying on a 5-minute cooldown and instead burning your health for 6 seconds. It also increases your movement speed. This is very useful when you are about to die, and it helps you get away from enemies.

Blazing Barrier is a slightly weaker form of Ice Barrier. However, it deals damage when you are struck by melee attacks. It is best used typically off cooldown to mitigate maximum amounts of incoming damage.

Alter Time may seem like a confusing ability at first, but it is really straightforward. The first time you press this ability, it remembers how much health you have and your location. The second time you press it, it will return to the same location with the exact health you had when you first pressed it. This should be used when you feel like you are about to take damage or about to be stunned. This ability can be Purged, so be mindful.

Although Mirror Image deals damage and slows enemies, it should primarily be used as a defensive cooldown. While the images are active, you take 20% less damage. Taking direct damage will break 1 of the 3 mirrors. If the images stay alive for the entire duration, you will get this damage reduction for 40 seconds! Use this when you do not have Alter Time and you see the enemy using their burst cooldowns.

Blast Wave is a knockback that gives Mages an additional way to get away from melee players. Use this when melee have connected you with heavy damage cooldowns or you need to kite and run. Talented into the Volatile Detonation talent allows Blast Wave to send enemies extremely far away and can even be used to knock off maps like Blade's Edge or Mugambala.

It is advised to use Macros to use abilities on enemies or allies without having to target them. For this reason, we have a page dedicated to them.