Cataclysm Classic Fire Mage Leveling

Fire is a great all-round leveling spec. Generally it is great at dealing single-target damage, later on, when you have access to instant-cast Flamestrike, it is great for AoE leveling and soloing dungeons due to the high burst AoE potential of Fire. The mobility and Mana sustain from Mana-free Scorch when you have Firestarter is great to avoid downtime.

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Leveling has been greatly eased for casters in Cataclysm. Instead of visiting your class trainer every few levels for new spell ranks, spells automatically grow stronger with each level. Class trainers are only visited to learn spells. At level 10 your talent tree unlocks, giving you a talent tree to choose from, your talent tree specific ability ( Pyroblast! for Fire) and the first talent point. The next talent point comes at level 11 and from then on every uneven level, until level 81. From level 81 on, you gain talent points every level again. If you can, use any heirloom you can get, for the reasons above.

From level 10 to 11, the first 2 points should go into Burning Soul. If you use all the Intellect buffs and heirlooms stated in the preparation segment, going for Master of Elements first is better, because you crit more often and deal more damage, making spell interrupts less likely. Otherwise, start with Burning Soul.

From level 10 to 17, the first 2 points should go into Burning Soul, followed by 3 points into Master of Elements. If you use all the Intellect buffs and heirlooms stated in the preparation segment, going for Master of Elements first is better, because you crit more often and deal more damage, making spell interrupts less likely. Otherwise, start with Burning Soul.

From level 19 to 27, your next few points will either go into Ignite or Fire Power (only 2 points!). If you level with heirlooms, consumables and Intellect enchants take Ignite first, otherwise you will want to take Fire Power first.

At level 29, if you have used the level preparations on this page, take Hot Streak. Should you experience Mana issues while leveling, start off with Improved Scorch instead. For AoE leveling, start with Blast Wave.

From level 29 to 31, if you have used the level preparations on this page, take Hot Streak followed by Blast Wave (strong AoE spell with a 3 seconds slow effect!). Should you experience Mana issues while leveling, start off with Improved Scorch instead. For AoE leveling, start with Blast Wave.

From level 29 to 35, if you have used the level preparations on this page, take Hot Streak followed by Blast Wave (strong AoE spell with a 3 seconds slow effect!), then Improved Scorch. Should you experience Mana issues while leveling, start off with Improved Scorch instead. For AoE leveling, start with Blast Wave.

From level 29 to 38, if you have used the level preparations on this page, take Hot Streak followed by Blast Wave (strong AoE spell with a 3 seconds slow effect!), then Improved Scorch. Should you experience Mana issues while leveling, start off with Improved Scorch instead. For AoE leveling, start with Blast Wave. Finish this off by taking the final point in Fire Power, unlocking the next tier of talents.

At level 39 continue with Firestarter. This talent allows you to cast Scorch while moving and for free ( Improved Scorch), which is amazing!

From level 39 to 42, continue with Firestarter. This talent allows you to cast Scorch while moving and for free ( Improved Scorch), which is amazing! Combustion is your big DPS cooldown if you need to nuke a target, based on all your damage over time effects on the target. Please note that at this level your crit rate will be quite low, making the Combustion talent weaker at this stage. However, you need this later anyways and there are no significantly better filler talents at this stage.

From level 39 to 46, continue with Firestarter. This talent allows you to cast Scorch while moving and for free ( Improved Scorch), which is amazing! Combustion is your big DPS cooldown if you need to nuke a target, based on all your damage over time effects on the target. Continue with Improved Hot Streak. Please note that at this level your crit rate will be quite low, making the Combustion and Improved Hot Streak talents weaker at this stage. However, you need them later anyways and there are no significantly better filler talents at this stage.

From level 39 to 48, continue with Firestarter. This talent allows you to cast Scorch while moving and for free ( Improved Scorch), which is amazing! Combustion is your big DPS cooldown if you need to nuke a target, based on all your damage over time effects on the target. Continue with Improved Hot Streak and Impact. Please note that at this level your crit rate will be quite low, making the Combustion, Improved Hot Streak and Impact talents weaker at this stage. However, you need them later anyways and there are no significantly better filler talents at this stage.

At level 49, Dragon's Breath is your new frontal AoE spell.

At level 49, Dragon's Breath is your new frontal AoE spell. From level 51 to 54, this is followed by Improved Flamestrike, which makes your Flamestrike an instant spell and creates a Flamestrike at your position for free whenever you hit 2 or more targets with Blast Wave.

At level 49, Dragon's Breath is your new frontal AoE spell. From level 51 to 54, this is followed by Improved Flamestrike, which makes your Flamestrike an instant spell and creates a Flamestrike at the Blast Wave position for free, whenever you hit 2 or more targets with Blast Wave. From level 55 to 60, put 3 points in Molten Fury. This gives you a 12% damage boost to all enemies below 35% health.

From level 61 to 68 spend 4 talent points in Critical Mass, which is more of a single-target talent, and Pyromaniac, which is an AoE talent. If you do mostly questing and single-target damage, go for 3 points in Critical Mass and 1 point in Pyromaniac. Otherwise go with 2 points in Pyromaniac and 2 in Critical Mass.

At Level 69, start with Living Bomb. This new DoT is strong for both single-target and AoE damage and works with Combustion.

From level 69 to 72, start with Living Bomb. This new DoT is strong for both single-target and AoE damage and works with Combustion. Continue with completing Impact.

From level 69 to 74, start with Living Bomb. This new DoT is strong for both single-target and AoE damage and works with Combustion. Continue with completing Impact followed by Pyromaniac.

From level 69 to 79, start with Living Bomb. This new DoT is strong for both single-target and AoE damage and works with Combustion. Continue with completing Impact followed by Pyromaniac. Afterwards, we continue with the Frost tree. For single-target and questing, place 3 points in Piercing Ice. If you AoE level, place 2 points in Shatter and use that threefold crit rate from freezing your foes with Frost Nova.

From level 69 to 82, start with Living Bomb. This new DoT is strong for both single-target and AoE damage and works with Combustion. Continue with completing Impact and Pyromaniac. Afterwards, we continue with the Frost tree. For single-target and questing, place 3 points in Piercing Ice, then 2 points in Netherwind Presence in the Arcane talent tree. If you AoE level, place 2 points in Shatter and use that threefold crit rate from freezing your foes with Frost Nova. Follow this up with 3 points in Piercing Ice.

From level 83 to 85, Improved Cone of Cold is your first choice when AoE leveling for the extra freezing effect and Shatter. Finish with Ice Floes to reduce the cooldown of Frost Nova and Cone of Cold. Should you mainly single-target level, finish Netherwind Presence and continue with Arcane Concentration.

As your Prime Glyphs we recommend taking Glyph of Fireball, Glyph of Pyroblast and Glyph of Molten Armor. Glyph of Evocation, Glyph of Blink and Glyph of Dragon's Breath are great Major Glyphs. For Minor Glyphs Glyph of Slow Fall, Glyph of Conjuring and Glyph of Arcane Brilliance are solid choices. Please note, that all of these Glyphs are also great for end-game content.

If you prepare the following steps, you will zoom through levels. These preparations are not mandatory, but highly(!) recommended. The prep is absolutely worth the time spent, even if only for one alt. Furthermore, you can use them on any caster alt. First of all you want to start by using heirloom items, as well as enchants. For the first few levels, we also recommend white quality items with strong enchants on them, until you find better items. The enchanting part will give you an extreme time benefit while leveling. Of course you could go even crazier on enchants and prepare them for each level (there are even better enchants from TBC for level 35+ items), however, this guide will focus on the low hanging fruit. Especially in the lower levels, the benefits from preparation works wonders.

Item	Source	Enchant
Tattered Dreadmist Mask	1500 Gold, Guild bonus
Tattered Dreadmist Mantle	2175 Justice Points, Heirloom Vendors
Tattered Dreadmist Robe	2175 Justice Points, Heirloom Vendors	Enchant Chest - Greater Stats
Ancient Bloodmoon Cloak	1200 Gold, Guild bonus
Dread Pirate Ring	Win Kalu'ak Fishing Derby, Dalaran
Dignified Headmaster's Charge	3500 Justice Points, Heirloom Vendors	Enchant Weapon - Mighty Intellect
2x Discerning Eye of the Beast	2725 Justice Points each, Heirloom Vendors
Alliance: Thin Cloth Gloves	Vinasia in Darnassus	Enchant Gloves - Minor Haste
Alliance: Thin Cloth Shoes	Vinasia in Darnassus	Enchant Boots - Minor Speed
Alliance: Thin Cloth Bracers	Vinasia in Darnassus	Enchant Bracer - Greater Intellect
Horde: Tattered Cloth Gloves	Lauren Newcomb in Undercity	Enchant Gloves - Minor Haste
Horde: Tattered Cloth Boots	Lauren Newcomb in Undercity	Enchant Boots - Minor Speed
Horde: Tattered Cloth Bracers	Lauren Newcombin Undercity	Enchant Bracer - Greater Intellect

The heirlooms give you a total 40% bonus XP, which equals 40% less time spent leveling. For all enchants you will need only the following few materials and an enchanter (or you just buy the scrolls off the AH):

• 1 Small Radiant Shard, Aquamarine, Lesser Nether Essence each
• 2 Large Radiant Shard, Wildvine each
• 6 Greater Eternal Essence (transform one into 3 Lesser Eternal Essence)
• 8 Large Brilliant Shard
• 26 Illusion Dust

For consumables you want to prepare Wizard oils, as they work on heirlooms in Cataclysm. Minor Wizard Oil (Lvl 5+), Lesser Wizard Oil (Lvl 30+), Wizard Oil (Lvl 40+), Brilliant Wizard Oil (Lvl 45+) and Superior Wizard Oil (Lvl 58+), and are cheap to make. They persist through death as well, should you die while leveling.

Furthermore, Elixirs are also easy to come by and have a great effect. We recommend: Elixir of Wisdom (Lvl 10), Elixir of Greater Intellect (Lvl 25), and Flask of Distilled Wisdom (Lvl 50), Flask of the Frost Wyrm (Lvl 75), Flask of the Draconic Mind (Lvl 80+). Feasts, such as Seafood Magnifique Feast can be used by level 1 characters. If you have a good friend or a second account to place a feast for you, harness this power. This buff is extremely strong, giving you 90 Stamina and Intellect for an hour. Apart from feasts, buffs from cooking are generally rather weak.

Another tip for leveling is to level Engineering, but this takes a bit more time than the other steps do. It is one of the two best professions a Mage can get and you need it for your endgame content anyways. Furthermore, it gives you access to Iron Grenades (Lvl 20), Thorium Grenades (Lvl 35), Saronite Bombs (Lvl 50) and other useful stuff. Make sure to always max out your Engineering Skill while leveling, especially since you plan on AoE leveling.

Having First Aid as a helping leveling profession goes without saying. Do not sleep on this, you can use high level bandages early (see the "Requires ..." tooltip), as you can learn high ranks of First Aid early on. For instance, Expert First Aid - Under Wraps does not have a level requirement, only a First Aid skill requirement, making Heavy Runecloth Bandage usable at level 10. At level 35, when you do the First Aid quest for the skill of 300 (Triage), you can use Master First Aid - Doctor in the House afterwards, level to 350 skill and use Frostweave Bandage. At level 65 you can visit the Northrend/WotLK tailoring trainers to skill up to 450 and use Heavy Frostweave Bandages and Embersilk Bandages. Level 75 is required to finish your First Aid training and to use Heavy Embersilk Bandage and Dense Embersilk Bandage.

Please visit the class trainer from time to time to learn the highlighted core-spells. Learning all the other spells not mentioned here is optional, but does not hurt.

• Levels 1-4 — It is not worth learning spells yet, just level.
• Level 5 — Fire Blast
• Level 10 — Pyroblast! and Counterspell
• Level 12 — Evocation
• Level 14 — Polymorph
• Level 16 — Blink
• Level 18 — Cone of Cold (AoE ability)
• Level 22 — Arcane Explosion (AoE ability)
• Level 24 — Self-Teleports to major cities
• Level 26 — Scorch
• Level 30 — Ice Block and Remove Curse.
• Level 34 — Molten Armor
• Level 38 — Conjure Refreshment
• Level 42 — Group-Portals to major cities.
• Level 44 — Flamestrike
• Level 48 — Conjure Mana Gem
• Level 52 — Blizzard (AoE ability)
• Level 58 — Arcane Brilliance
• Level 66 — Teleport and Portal to Shattrath (Iorioa in the middle of Shattrath).
• Level 74 — Teleport and Portal to Dalaran (Archmage Celindra in Dalaran).
• Level 81 — Flame Orb
• Level 83 — Ring of Frost
• Level 85 — Please visit your class trainer to learn all spells!

First of all, there is no real rotation, as the best spell used often depends on the situation you are facing while leveling. Thus, this guide provides a rough guideline of when which spell is smart to use:

For single-target combat, Fireball is your main spell for leveling Fire Mage. At level 26, you can start adding Scorch to your repertoire. If you want to have an additional DoT, or have 3 points in Critical Mass, you may also consider opening a fight with Pyroblast!. Combustion can help you finishing high-health enemies quickly, if the Pyroblast dot, Ignite and Living Bomb are on your target. This can also deal massive AoE damage, used with an Impact Fire Blast. With Scorch, Firestarter and Improved Scorch, you can kite enemies for an eternity, while continiously doing damage at 0 mana cost. This is a great feature of the Fire talent tree and minimizes your downtimes. Remember to always use your Pyroblast! when the talent activates from a crit, it is free damage.

In AoE combat, you can be very creative with Living Bomb, Flamestrike, Blast Wave, Dragon's Breath and the Combustion combo mentioned in the single-target rotation. At later levels, you can make use of the Shatter and Improved Cone of Cold talents. Cone of Cold does damage and freezes your enemies for 4 seconds, Frost Nova does the same, just for longer. While frozen, your spells have a 3x higher crit chance against those targets. As a last resort, you may also use Blizzard and Arcane Explosion for AoE damage.

In both AoE and single-target situations, make sure to always have a Mage Armor ( Molten Armor from level 34 on) and your Arcane Brilliance (Level 58+) up. At level 81, learn Flame Orb and use it on cooldown! Ring of Frost is learned at level 83 and is a great tool for CCing mobs and for AoE, too. Blink, Slow Fall, Polymorph and Ice Block can be life-savers. Evocation can be used every 4 minutes to restore 45% of your mana. Teleport spells to the major cities of your faction can be learned at each citie's Mage trainer from level 24 on. These can greatly reduce your travel time.

Congratulations on hitting Level 85 in Cataclysm! Now that your leveling process is over, you can learn more about Level 85 Fire Mage gameplay by reading our fully detailed guide below.