Fire Mage DPS Gear, Legendaries, and Best in Slot (Legion 7.3.5)

Table of Contents

• +Introduction
  • 1. Class Overview
  • 2. Patch 7.3 Changes for Fire Mage
  • 3. Patch 7.2.5 Changes for Fire Mage
  • 4. Fire Mage Strengths
  • 5. Fire Mage Weaknesses
  • 6. Fire Mage Viability in the Current Patch
  • 7. Contents
  • 8. ChangeLog
• +Easy Mode
  • 1. The Basics for Fire Mage
  • 2. Talent Choice for Fire Mage
  • 3. Stat Choice for Fire Mage
  • 4. Basic Rotation for Fire Mage
  • 5. ChangeLog
• +Spell Summary
  • 1. Fire Mage Spell Summary
  • 2. Main Resource for Fire Mage
  • 3. Mastery for Fire Mage
  • 4. Important Procs for Fire Mage
  • 5. Basic Abilities for Fire Mage
  • 6. DPS Cooldowns for Fire Mage
  • 7. ChangeLog
• +Builds and Talents
  • 1. Talent Choices
  • 2. Talent Cheat Sheets for Fire Mage
    • 2.1. Tier 21 4-Piece Bonus
    • 2.2. Without Tier 21 4-Piece Bonus (Single Target)
  • 3. Tier 1 (Level 15) Talents for Fire Mage
  • 4. Tier 2 (Level 30) Talents for Fire Mage
  • 5. Tier 3 (Level 45) Talents for Fire Mage
  • 6. Tier 4 (Level 60) Talents for Fire Mage
  • 7. Tier 5 (Level 75) Talents for Fire Mage
  • 8. Tier 6 (Level 90) Talents for Fire Mage
  • 9. Tier 7 (Level 100) Talents for Fire Mage
  • 10. ChangeLog
• +Artifact Traits and Relics
  • 1. Artifact Progression for Fire Mage — First 35 Points
    • 1.1. Early Point Investment
    • 1.2. Second Golden Trait
    • 1.3. Final Point Investment
  • 2. Patch 7.2: 35+ Trait Path for Fire Mage
  • 3. Relic Priority for Fire Mage
  • 4. ChangeLog
• +Netherlight Crucible Relic Paths
  • 1. General Optimization Advice for Fire Mage
  • 2. Tier 2 Upgrade Priority for Fire Mage
  • 3. Tier 3 Upgrade Priority for Fire Mage
  • 4. ChangeLog
• +Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities
  • 1. Ability Priority List for Fire Mage
  • 2. Important Notes for Fire Mages
    • 2.1. Effectively Creating Crit Trains
      • 2.1.1. Spells That Do Not Trigger or Cancel Heating Up
    • 2.2. Phoenix's Flames
    • 2.3. Flamestrike Usage
    • 2.4. Rune of Power
    • 2.5. Blazing Barrier
    • 2.6. Scorch
  • 3. Core Concepts for Fire Mage
    • 3.1. Combustion Usage
    • 3.2. Critical Strike Chains
    • 3.3. Movement Management
      • 3.3.1. Quiet Movement
  • 4. Opening Sequence for Fire Mage
  • 5. ChangeLog
• +Stat Priority
  • 1. Stat Priority for Fire Mage
  • 2. Stat Priority with Tier 21 4-Piece Bonus for Fire Mage
  • 3. Fire Mage: Getting a Better Understanding
    • 3.1. Statistics Explanations
  • 4. ChangeLog
• +Gems, Enchants, and Consumables
  • 1. Gems for Fire Mage
  • 2. Enchants for Fire Mage
  • 3. Consumables for Fire Mage
  • 4. ChangeLog
• +Macros and Addons
  • 1. Addons for Fire Mage
    • 1.1. ElvUI
    • 1.2. Weak Auras
    • 1.3. Boss Mods
      • 1.3.1. BigWigs Bossmods
      • 1.3.2. Deadly Boss Mods
    • 1.4. Name Plates
      • 1.4.1. KUI Nameplates
      • 1.4.2. TidyPlates
    • 1.5. Damage Meters
      • 1.5.1. Skada
      • 1.5.2. Details
    • 1.6. Extra AddOns
      • 1.6.1. Mik's Scrolling Battle Text
      • 1.6.2. DeathNote
      • 1.6.3. Doom CooldownPulse
      • 1.6.4. Angry Assignments
  • 2. Macros
    • 2.1. Generic Macros for Mages
      • 2.1.1. Stopcast Blink
      • 2.1.2. 1-Button Block
      • 2.1.3. Block Cancel
  • 3. ChangeLog
• ×Gear, Legendaries, and Best in Slot
  • 1. Tier 21 Set Bonus for Fire Mage
  • 2. Recommended Legendaries With Antorus Gear for Fire Mage
  • 3. Tier 20 Set Bonus for Fire Mage
  • 4. Best in Slot List for Fire Mage
  • 5. Trinket Notes for Fire Mage
  • 6. Evaluating Upgrades Using Stat Weights
  • 7. Racial Bonuses for Fire Mage
  • 8. Legendaries for Fire Mage
  • 9. Loot Competition
  • 10. ChangeLog
• +Battle for Azeroth
  • 1. Foreword
  • 2. Fire Mage Base Mechanics Changes in BfA
  • 3. Fire Mage Baseline Abilities — Changes in BfA
  • 4. The BfA Fire Mage Talent Tree
    • 4.1. Level 15
    • 4.2. Level 30
    • 4.3. Level 45
    • 4.4. Level 60
    • 4.5. Level 75
    • 4.6. Level 90
    • 4.7. Level 90
    • 4.8. BfA Fire Mage Talent Setup
  • 5. Fire Mage Azerite Traits
  • 6. Fire Mage Base Rotation in BfA
  • 7. Multi-Target Rotation for Fire Mage in BfA
  • 8. ChangeLog

General Information

This page is a gear reference for Fire Mages. It lists your best items and Legendaries, gives you gearing advice, and shows you how you will be competing for loot with other classes.

The other pages of our Fire Mage guide can be accessed from the table of contents on the right.

About Our Author and Reviewer

This guide has been written by Furty, who has an illustrious history in the World of Warcraft raiding scene and race for World First. He has been a member of guilds such as Serenity, Midwinter, and many more, and is currently raiding in Future. He plays most classes at the highest level. You can follow him on Twitter and watch him play on Twitch.

This guide has been reviewed and approved by Rinoa, a Fire Mage theorycrafter for Altered Time who is also a raider for Pieces.

1. Tier 21 Set Bonus for Fire Mage

The Tier 21 set bonus enhances the duration and effectiveness of our Combustions.

• 2-piece bonus: Increases the duration of Combustion by 2.0 seconds.
• 4-piece bonus: Combustion also increases your Critical Strike damage by 10% for 14 seconds.

It is essential to obtain your 4-piece bonus as fast as possible. Take note that the stat priority shifts heavily when using the 4-piece bonus; Critical Strike becomes the most valuable stat by quite a margin. The talent setup also shifts dramatically towards giving us the most potent and frequent Combustions.

2. Recommended Legendaries With Antorus Gear for Fire Mage

On fights lasting 3-6 minutes the combination of Marquee Bindings of the Sun King and Shard of the Exodar will award the highest damage output at the expense of mobility.

Using Marquee Bindings of the Sun King with Koralon's Burning Touch allows for great mobility outside of your Rune of Power when the boss is below 30% health. This can be a great choice on certain progress fights.

Marquee Bindings of the Sun King and Pyrotex Ignition Cloth allows for very short Combustion cooldowns at the expense of overall single target damage. This can be exceptional if you need more frequent Combustions to deal with priority adds. This setup is also a clear winner on fights with a lot of cleave and AoE.

3. Tier 20 Set Bonus for Fire Mage

The Tier 20 set bonus grants the chance for free criticals and empower your future casts with each critical.

• 2-piece bonus: Fireball has a 15% chance to cause your next Pyroblast or Flamestrike to be a guaranteed critical strike.
• 4-piece bonus: Pyroblast and Flamestrike critical strikes increase the damage of your next Pyroblast or Flamestrike by 10% for 8 seconds.

The 2-piece is not fantastic but the 4-piece bonus is quite strong. The 2-piece devalues Critical Strike slightly, however, the 4-piece ensures that it is still our most reliable stat. The 2-piece alone is likely not worth using over higher item level or better itemized offpieces, but once you acquire enough pieces to use the 4-piece you should switch over immediately.

4. Best in Slot List for Fire Mage

With the existence of Titanforged and Mythic+ dungeons, there is no such thing as a hard Best in Slot anymore. This is more of a guideline for the best pieces to keep an eye out for in your raid or dungeon (if applicable). Be smart, and if you find higher item level pieces with valuable stat combinations do not hesitate to upgrade to them.

Slot	Item	Source
Helm	Crown of Relentless Annihilation	Garothi Worldbreaker
Neck	Chain of the Unmaker	Argus the Unmaker
Shoulders	Fallen Avenger's Amice	Aggramar
Chest	Runebound Tunic	Eonar
Cloak	Runebound Cape	Antoran High Command
Wrists	Blood-Drenched Bindings	Varimathras
Gloves	Runebound Gloves	Kin'garoth
Belt	Cord of Blossoming Petals	Eonar
Legs	Runebound Leggings	Imonar the Soulhunter
Boots	Lady Dacidion's Silk Slippers	Portal Keeper Hasabel
Ring #1	Seal of the Portalmaster	Portal Keeper Hasabel
Ring #2	Zealous Tormentor's Ring	The Coven of Shivarra
Trinket #1	Aman'Thul's Vision	Argus the Unmaker
Trinket #2	Acrid Catalyst Injector	Kin'garoth

5. Trinket Notes for Fire Mage

Due to the prevalence of high item level trinkets and titanforged rewarded from Mythic+ dungeon grinding there are a variety of suitable options when it comes to trinkets. Using the list below you should be able to extrapolate whether or not something is an upgrade for you. Trinkets at equal item level, in order of priority, are as follows:

1. Aman'Thul's Vision
2. Unstable Arcanocrystal
3. Acrid Catalyst Injector
4. Tarnished Sentinel Medallion
5. Brinewater Slime in a Bottle (Critical Strike or Mastery)
6. Terror From Below
7. Whispers in the Dark
8. Tome of Unraveling Sanity
9. Spectral Thurible
10. Charm of the Rising Tide
11. Erratic Metronome
12. Horn of Valor
13. Devilsaur Shock-Baton

6. Evaluating Upgrades Using Stat Weights

You can evaluate upgrades side by side using a simple napkin math formula:

For example, using the stat weights from our Stats page, a pair of boots with 380 Mastery, 1150 Haste, and 976 Intellect, we can calculate a DPS value of:

This does not give an exact DPS value, but can be used to calculate the relative value versus another piece. For example, if we have a second pair of boots with 450 Haste, 970 Versatility, and 976 Intellect, we can compute the DPS value for that second item using the same formula, before comparing the results:

We can clearly see that 2422.3 > 2343.0, and therefore, the first pair of boots are the stronger upgrade. We also know that Mastery is a stronger stat than single target weights indicate, further reinforcing this conclusion. This is the quickest, best, and most reliable way of determining whether or not you should use one upgrade or another, despite the fact that stats weights are very approximate and change with respect to fight type, fight length, and the values of your other stats (synergetic scaling).

7. Racial Bonuses for Fire Mage

Sims done in pre-raid gear (840 ilvl), credit to Frosted.

Racial benefit is pretty minimal for Fire (currently), so it is recommended you just play whatever makes you happiest.

8. Legendaries for Fire Mage

Marquee Bindings of the Sun King alters the playstyle in a unique fashion. After consuming a Hot Streak, there is a 15% chance your next non-instant Pyroblast will deal 300% increased damage. This means you will be hardcasting Pyroblast occasionally when using this legendary for the increased damage. This legendary should always be used if you have obtained it.

Shard of the Exodar causes your Time Warp to not give you Temporal Displacement, and you can also use your Time Warp while affected by Temporal Displacement and benefit from the active effect. Basically, you get an extra Bloodlust/ Heroism once every 5 minutes. This is the best legendary to pair with the Marquee Bindings of the Sun King for single target encounters.

Pyrotex Ignition Cloth causes Phoenix's Flames to reduce the remaining cooldown of Combustion by 9 seconds. This is the clear winner for fights with a lot of cleave and AoE, or encounters where more frequent priority damage is a necessity.

Koralon's Burning Touch increases Scorch damage by 350% and is a guaranteed Critical Strike when the target is below 30% health. This item has exceptional utility value when you are playing with Frenetic Speed. This is a good choice on progression encounters with high movement in the execute portion of the fight, such as Aggramar.

Darckli's Dragonfire Diadem increases Dragon's Breath damage by 100% and ranged by 25 yards. While it has low value for single target, it is exceptional for cleave and AoE and instantly bursting down large packs of adds; it is one of the best legendary items for 4+ targets.

Soul of the Archmage is a ring that grants the Flame On talent while in the Fire specialization. Currently quite mediocre and of middling value, but not an attractive choice amongst the top options.

Contained Infernal Core is a shoulders item which casts a Meteor for every 30 Fireballs and/or Pyroblasts that are cast. Not very strong overall as the damage is so infrequent and it is difficult to line up with cooldowns and/or trinkets.

Kil'jaeden's Burning Wish can be a very strong DPS increase on AoE if these opportunities present themselves. While it is overall a fairly weak choice for single target, it could be a contender for parsing due to its "padding" potential on manufactured mass AoE scenarios. As it takes up a valuable trinket slot it generally results in a lower overall contribution than the other legendary options on a standard fight.

9. Loot Competition

Regarding the loot you will get from raid or dungeon bosses, you will compete with other classes in the following cases:

Item Type	Competing Classes
Tier Tokens	Death Knights, Druids, Arcane/Frost Mages, and Rogues
Cloth Armor	Arcane/Frost Mages, Priests, and Warlocks
Amulets Cloaks Rings	Everyone
Trinkets	Balance Druids, Arcane/Frost Mages, Shadow Priests, Elemental Shamans, and Warlocks

10. ChangeLog

• 12 Jan. 2018: Updated legendary items.
• 28 Nov. 2017: Updated best in slot for Antorus.
• 27 Nov. 2017: Added Tier 21 section with recommended legendary combinations.
• 20 Jun. 2017: Added Tomb of Sargeras best in slot, updated trinket list, and added Tier 20 section.
• 12 Jun. 2017: Added Soul of the Archmage and Contained Infernal Core to the Legendary items section.
• 27 Mar. 2017: No changes needed for Patch 7.2.
• 06 Mar. 2017: Updated weights calculation with new stat weights.
• 20 Jan. 2017: Fully updated BiS list and legendary options.
• 29 Nov. 2016: Updated trinket best in slot.
• 30 Oct. 2016: Added a full trinket priority list to help readers extrapolate whether their titanforged trinket is actually an upgrade.
• 29 Aug. 2016: Updated for Legion's launch.
• 19 Jul. 2016: Removed trinket sims and added BiS recommendations.
• 18 Jul. 2016: Updated for the Legion pre-patch.

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