Cataclysm Classic Fire Mage Rotation and Cooldowns

Before diving deeper into a rotation, make sure you always have Molten Armor up. There are weakauras to help you remind you if any of your self-buffs is missing.

The Fire Mage single-target rotation is more of a priority list:

• Cast Pyroblast! whenever Hot Streak is up.
• Cast Flame Orb whenever it is off cooldown.
• Apply/refresh Living Bomb. Always let it explode before refreshing.
• Apply/refresh Critical Mass with Scorch.
• Cast Fireball. If you have to move, cast Scorch.

Which AoE rotation you use depends on how long your targets live.

• For fights that last only a few seconds, use a Blast Wave > Dragon's Breath > Flamestrike rotation.
• If a fight last long enough for you to cast a few Pyroblast!s, cast a few until you get crit for an Ignite. Continue with Blast Wave, so Flamestrike gets cast automatically (with the talent). If your Impact gets reset, spread the DoTs with Fire Blast. Continue with Dragon's Breath and Flamestrike.
• If the fight lasts long enough for Living Bomb to explode, apply your single target rotation on one of the enemies and use Impact/ Blast Wave whenever they are off cooldown. If your mana allows it, you may also refresh the Flamestrike debuff by casting Flamestrike. If you plan on using Combustion for AoEing, cast Pyroblast! instead of Fireball.

Be reminded that Flamestrike is a very mana intensive spell. Whenever you can, use Blast Wave should be used instead due to its Mana efficiency, casting Flamestrike automatically for free.

Combustion and Mirror Image are your only DPS cooldowns for Fire. Combustion is the elephant in the room. It sums up the damage of Ignite, Living Bomb, and the DoT from Pyroblast! and creates a new DoT without consuming the latter three effects. It is important to use Combustion when you have a big Ignite, as Living Bomb and Pyroblast! DoT have static damage, based on your gear. Further, use Combustion when Time Warp/ Heroism/ Bloodlust is active, as most of your beneficial procs (e.g. from trinkets) will happen in the first 1-20 seconds of Time Warp, increasing your Ignite. Another reason to pop Combustion during Time Warp is, that it benefits from haste and will do additional ticks. If you are Troll, which is highly recommended for Fire, you should also use Berserking right before Combustion, to get additional haste. The total damage will be a lot more, as if you pop Combustion outside of Time Warp (Time Warp + Berserking if Troll). If possible, spread Combustion to other enemies with Impact (triggered by Fire Blast). Using an addon/Weakaura to keep track of your Ignite ticks is recommended. Combustion is off the global cooldown.

Mirror Image does a little extra damage, but you need to make sure they do not die from random damage, or the cooldown will not be worth it's use. Mirror Images can also be used to mask your threat, allowing you to continue pumping. But be careful to not overaggro, reset your threat with Invisibility, if you must.