Fire Mage DPS Spec, Builds, and Talents — The War Within (11.0.5)
On this page, you will find out the best talents for each tier for your Fire Mage in World of Warcraft — The War Within (11.0.5). We also have default talent lists for various types of content, such as raiding or Mythic+. If you play with Warmode on, we have your PvP talents covered as well.
If you were looking for WotLK Classic content, please refer to our WotLK Classic Fire Mage talents.
Best The War WithinTalents for Fire Mage
Note that these builds are generic recommendations for various content. For more specific recommendations for the Raid and Mythic+, check out the dedicated pages below.
While optimizing talents on a contextual basis is the highly recommended method of setting up your build, the talent build listed below works great for general purposes. Keep in mind that there is a lot of flexibility when it comes to especially the general Mage tree, so we highly recommend reading the rest of the page for more context.
You can easily import the talent trees below into the game with the "Copy export string" button.
Best Talents for Fire Mage
Best Delve Talents for Fire Mage
This build is focused primarily on doing Delve content. It is very similar to the Mythic+ tree, however, it focuses a bit more on defensives and kiting since you do not have a dedicated healer. Although Brann does provide some healing, the enemies can hit relatively hard, and additional defensives and kiting are very valuable in Delves.
Best Single-Target & Cleave Talents for Fire Mage
Below is the "standard" Fire Mage single target build. It is also decent at doing cleave damage via Mastery: Ignite.
AoE/Mythic+ Fire Mage Talent Tree
Flamestrike-based AoE versus Cleave-based AoE builds
Disclaimer: Flamestrike based builds currently go out of mana if an encounter lasts longer than ~100 seconds. I expect this to get fixed very shortly after 11.0.5 launches, but good to keep in mind that the Flamestrike based build cannot be played on prolonged fights, like Mythic+ packs that live for a long time.
Fire has the option to choose between 3 main AoE builds:
- Mastery: Ignite Cleave Build;
- Flamestrike Hybrid AoE Build;
- Flamestrike + Living Bomb Pure AoE Build;
The Ignite based build never casts Flamestrike, and instead does its AoE damage by doing its single target rotation and spreading Mastery: Ignite. Due to this, it does better priority target damage, at the cost of some AoE damage. It also does better boss damage.
Both Flamestrike based builds, as the name implies, use Flamestrike as their Hot Streak spender, instead of Pyroblast, which comes at the cost of priority damage.
Within Flamestrike based builds, there are 2 variations. One that invests into all of the Living Bomb related points alongside Quickflame, and one that only takes Majesty of the Phoenix + Quickflame + Mark of the Fire Lord as AoE talents, allowing it to still take a significant amount of single-target talents.
The Flamestrike + Living Bomb based build does the most AoE damage at the cost of the most amount of single-target damage. The AoE damage is significantly better than any other Fire AoE build (10%+ over the pure Flamestrike build, and even more over the Mastery: Ignite build), but it also suffers the most on single-target damage.
The pure Flamestrike damage is a good middle ground. It does neither the best AoE damage, nor the best single-target, but it also does not do the worst at either.
Which build you go highly depends on the damage your group needs. Mastery: Ignite build for best single-target and priority damage, Living Bomb + Flamestrike build for best AoE but worst single-target, or the Flamestrike build for a middle ground. If you are unsure, I recommend the middle-ground Hybrid build.
Mastery: Ignite-Based Hybrid AoE Build
This build does the best single-target DPS while still providing decent AoE damage.
Flamestrike Based Hybrid AoE Build
This build is a good middle-ground between the Mastery: Ignite based Cleave build, and the pure Flamestrike + Living Bomb build.
Flamestrike + Living Bomb Based Pure AoE Build
This build does the best AoE DPS while giving up the most amount of single-target DPS.
For more information on Mythic+ talents, you can check out our dedicated Mythic+ page below.
This section is about picking the standard Fire Mage Talents. For an overview of the Hero Talent Trees, check out the page below.
Picking Mage Class Talents
The general Mage tree is extremely flexible. It is almost entirely personal preference, apart from a couple of key DPS nodes. You have many more points available than you need to get all of the DPS nodes, leaving you with many options in terms of survivability, crowd control, and utility. Below, we will highlight some of the key nodes that are important for DPS and suggest some of the best non-DPS nodes. However, even after that, you can assign a bunch of points as you see fit.
Tier 1 (Rows 1-4) Mage Class Talents For Fire Mage
Talents for all situations
Talent | Reason for taking |
---|---|
Overflowing Energy | A large DPS boost. |
Incanter's Flow | A large DPS boost. |
Shifting Power | A large DPS boost. |
Ice Block | One of the best defensives in the entire game. |
Mirror Image | A great defensive tool useful in all content. |
Alter Time | A very strong defensive and mobility tool in one, useful in all content. |
Optional / flexible talents
Talent | Reason for taking |
---|---|
Spellsteal | A good pick if there are buffs you can steal that are either beneficial to you, or make the content easier by removing it from the target. |
Remove Curse | A good pick if there are curses you can dispel. |
Winter's Protection | Can be useful if you need the reduced cooldown to be able to solo soak a specific raid mechanic. If combined with Ice Cold and Cryo-Freeze it also becomes a very strong damage reduction tool. |
Incantation of Swiftness | Can be useful for skipping content, like trash packs in dungeons, or open-world enemies |
Tempest Barrier | A minor defensive tool useful in all content. |
Arcane Warding | A minor defensive tool useful in almost all content. |
Tier 2 (Rows 5-7) Mage Class Talents For Fire Mage
The tier 2 talents contain almost entirely utility/mobility talents.
Talents for all situations
Talent | Reason for taking |
---|---|
Tome of Rhonin | A straight up DPS boost |
Tome of Antonidas | A straight up DPS boost |
Shimmer or Ice Floes | Both are extremely strong mobility tools. This choice is largely a personal preference. Ice Floes ultimately allows for more movement without losing DPS, but it comes at the cost of losing out on the burst movement (without having to give up a global cooldown like Blink does) that Shimmer provides. Generally, Ice Floes is preferred when running Sun King's Blessing, otherwise, Shimmer, but both are great choices regardless of whether you run Sun King's Blessing or not. |
Optional / flexible talents
Talent | Reason for taking |
---|---|
Dragon's Breath | Very good crowd-control ability, especially useful in Mythic+ to interrupt spell casts. Also picked for DPS if running Alexstrasza's Fury. |
Diverted Energy | A decent survivability tool useful in all content. |
Master of Time | A decent survivability and mobility tool useful in all content. |
Quick Witted | A good pickup in content where you need the reduced interrupt cooldown, like Mythic+ in a low interrupt group. |
Slow | A good pickup to assist in kiting, especially when solo. Generally not too much usage in group content, though. |
Cryo-Freeze | A very good self-healing tool when playing solo or a very strong defensive in all content when combined with Ice Cold. |
Reduplication | Can be useful if it would give you an additional usage of Mirror Image for a specific high-hitting ability, but usually hard to proc this. |
Reabsorption | Adds a relatively useful self-heal onto Mirror Image, but it is usually hard to proc this. |
Blast Wave | Great crowd control that can be extremely useful in Mythic+ and open-world content, for its ability to AoE interrupt enemy spellcasts |
Volatile Detonation | Used to further increase the ability to kite with Blast Wave, but should be careful in grouped content to not knock enemies into additional enemies and pull more than planned. |
Mass Slow | Can be used to kite packs of mobs in Mythic+, in some cases, or good for open-world content. |
Ice Nova | For even more crowd control. Also, technically a minor DPS increase when moving as it can be used when on the move if you have no Ice Floes / Shimmer ready and no other instants. |
Ring of Frost | For even more crowd control. |
Tier 3 (Rows 8-10) Mage Class Talents For Fire Mage
In this tier, we unlock some of the strong final nodes as a priority, whereas the rest is flexible.
Talents for all situations
Talent | Reason for taking |
---|---|
Time Anomaly / Inspired Intellect | The strongest of the final nodes. We usually suggest picking Time Anomaly. However, if you do not like the randomness of Time Anomaly, you can pick Inspired Intellect for a minor DPS loss. |
Greater Invisibility | One of the best defensive tools in the game. |
Mass Barrier / Mass Invisibility | Provides quite a lot of defensive power for your group if you take Mass Barrier. Since the cooldown is not shared with Prismatic Barrier, it is a useful defensive tool even when solo. Mass Invisibility can be a very strong tool for Mythic+ to skip packs. |
Temporal Velocity | A decent mobility tool. It is not that great of a talent on its own, but it is on the path to some very strong other nodes, so it's pretty much always taken. |
Optional / flexible talents
Talent | Reason for taking |
---|---|
Ice Cold | Turns Ice Block into a very strong defensive cooldown that does not come at the cost of any DPS but removes the immunity aspect from it. Generally, we suggest taking this if you do not need the immunity aspect of Ice Block, as it lasts 6 seconds, and you are unlikely to sit in Ice Block for that long. Additionally, when combined with Cryo-Freeze, it also becomes a very strong self heal that you do not need to sit in Ice Block for to get the benefit of. |
Displacement | Provides mobility, but is usually pretty difficult to pick up without giving up one of the major nodes. |
Barrier Diffusion | A minor boost to your survivability that works in all content. |
Accumulative Shielding | A minor boost to your survivability that works in all content. |
Displacement | A decent mobility and defensive tool. Difficult to take without giving up one of the capstone nodes, but if you are skipping a capstone node, it is a very useful mobility + defensive tool. |
Frigid Winds + Ice Ward | These nodes give you even more kiting power. Not very useful in most group content, but strong when solo and on the way to Ice Cold. If you are not taking Ice Cold, these two talents should be skipped for most group play. |
Time Manipulation | Can be useful if you are doing content where you really need the extra crowd control. |
Fire Mage Talents
In this section, we will go over the Fire Mage Talents. The focus of this section will be PvE content.
Tier 1 (Rows 1-4) Fire Mage Talents
This section sets up a lot of the core components of the spec.
Talents for all situations
Talent | Reason for taking |
---|---|
Fire Blast | A key spell that is required for the functionality of the spec. |
Phoenix Flames | A large DPS boost is required to continue the talent tree. |
Fervent Flickering | A large DPS boost in all content. |
Call of the Sun King | A large DPS boost in all content. |
Scorch | A large DPS boost in all content. The only exception is if you are doing content where the enemy never drops below 30%. In that scenario, the talent can theoretically be skipped, but it is still useful just for the movement aspect alone. |
Surging Blaze | A large DPS boost in all content and unlocks multiple other talents. |
Optional / flexible talents
Talent | Reason for taking |
---|---|
Firestarter | Good DPS boost as long if the enemy remains above 90% health a large amount of time. For example, if a raid boss has a large shield at 100% health that you need to burn through first. |
Pyrotechnics | Taken on single target or cleave based AoE builds, but skipped on Flamestrike based builds. |
Majesty of the Phoenix | Can be taken if running a Flamestrike / single-target hybrid build, but skipped in the best performing AoE Living Bomb / Flamestrike build. |
Lit Fuse | Taken for the highest performing AoE Living Bomb / Flamestrike build, but skipped for everything else. |
Tier 2 (Rows 5-7) Fire Mage Talents
Talents for all situations
Talent | Reason for taking |
---|---|
Flame On | A large DPS boost in all content. |
Critical Mass | A large DPS boost in all content. |
Combustion | Fire's key DPS cooldown. Massive DPS boost in all content. |
Wildfire | Decent DPS increase on both single target and AoE, numerically stronger than other options. |
Improved Combustion / Spontaneous Combustion | Both of these are large DPS boosts in all types of content. At perfect play, Improved Combustion is better. It is also better if there is downtime in the content you are doing, for example Mythic+, where you need to walk to new packs, allowing you to recover cooldowns. Spontaneous Combustion can be taken for a small DPS loss, but a bit more quality of life, as you will not have to pool any cooldowns for Combustion. |
Intensifying Flame | Good single-target DPS increase, while easy to pick up in AoE based builds without giving up AoE damage, so also picked in AoE builds even though technically providing minimal DPS. |
Feel the Burn | Good DPS increase on both single-target and AoE. |
Optional / flexible talents
Talent | Reason for taking |
---|---|
Ashen Feather | Taken on single target or cleave based AoE builds, but skipped heavy AoE builds. |
Improved Scorch | Taken on single target or cleave based AoE builds, but skipped heavy AoE builds. |
Inflame | Taken on single target or cleave based AoE builds, but skipped heavy AoE builds. |
Heat Shimmer | Taken on single target or cleave based AoE builds, but skipped heavy AoE builds. Does not provide that much damage, and can be switched for many other talents if preferred. |
Controlled Destruction | A decent DPS boost. Taken in most content, but if you are doing content where you are constantly fighting new enemies, it can be skipped. Generally, it is still worth taking in Mythic+ even though you fight new enemies often, as long as the packs do not die very fast (e.g., less than 10 seconds). For low keys, it can be skipped. |
Quickflame | Taken if running a Flamestrike based AoE build, otherwise skipped. |
Mark of the Fire Lord | Taken if running a Flamestrike based AoE build, otherwise skipped. |
Explosive Ingenuity | Taken for the highest performing AoE Living Bomb / Flamestrike build, but skipped for everything else. |
Tier 3 (Rows 8-10) Fire Mage Talents
Talents for all situations
Talent | Reason for taking |
---|---|
Kindling | Large DPS increase on both single target and AoE, numerically stronger than other options. |
From the Ashes | Large DPS increase on both single target and AoE, numerically stronger than other options. |
Fevered Incantation (1x) | Decent DPS increase on both single target and AoE, numerically stronger than other options. 1 point is always taken, but the second point is skipped in heavy AoE situations. |
Fiery Rush | Large DPS increase on both single target and AoE, numerically stronger than other options. |
Phoenix Reborn | Large DPS increase on both single target and AoE, numerically stronger than other options. |
Sun King's Blessing / Unleashed Inferno | The best capstone node available. Unleashed Inferno as Sunfury, Sun King's Blessing as Frostfire. |
Optional / flexible talents
Talent | Reason for taking |
---|---|
Pyromaniac | Decent DPS increase on its own, but mostly picked to get to Hyperthermia. Picked for all builds except very heavy AoE builds. |
Hyperthermia | Large DPS increase on both single target and AoE, numerically stronger than other options. Picked for all builds except very heavy AoE builds, as it takes too many points to reach. |
Molten Fury | A large DPS gain in any content where enemies die at a normal pace. However, if you are doing content where the targets never go below 35% health, it should be skipped. Also skipped for heavy AoE builds. |
Fevered Incantation (2x) | Decent DPS increase on both single target and AoE, numerically stronger than other options. 1 point is always taken, but the second point is skipped in heavy AoE situations. |
Fire's Ire + Explosivo + Blast Zone | Skipped in all builds except very heavy AoE builds. |
How To Use Fire Mage Talents
Multiple talents require a change to your rotation to use them optimally. You can find more information on how your rotation will look after selecting your talents on our rotation page below.
If you are looking for in-depth explanations of what each talent does, we suggest reading through the spell summary page.
PvP Talents (War Mode)
Since Battle for Azeroth, there is the option to enable "War Mode." Enabling War Mode grants the following benefits:
- PvP talents enabled in the outdoor world.
- 10% increase in World Quest rewards at max level.
- 10% more experience gained while leveling.
- Earn Conquest Points, which can reward gear every week.
With the benefits of enabling War Mode for leveling and PvE content, it is recommended enabling the feature to maximize your leveling and rewards at max level. However, doing so will enable PvP combat and the possibility of being attacked by members of the opposite faction while leveling or doing World Quests exists.
Fire Mage War Mode Talents
In this section, we will rank the War Mode talents for leveling and outdoor content.
- Glass Cannon gives you a significant damage buff. The reduced health is usually not a problem in open-world content.
- Ring of Fire puts up a relatively large circle that burns enemies who walk into the outer part of the circle, doing significant damage.
- Greater Pyroblast is a very hard-hitting spell, especially on high-health enemies, and it will greatly increase your damage against high-health enemies, like world bosses or rares.
Changelog
- 21 Oct. 2024: Updated talents for 11.0.5 changes. Split AoE talents in to 3 different builds.
- 02 Oct. 2024: Updated Flamestrike vs Ignite choice to further emphasize that Flamestrike does more overall DPS.
- 24 Sep. 2024: Added Flamestrike based aoe builds now that it is more viable due to the latest buffs
- 14 Sep. 2024: Updated M+ talents to run Improved Scorch instead of Scald for more boss damage without giving up any meaningful AoE damage, and switched Fire's Ire to Molten Fury for all builds due to being slightly more DPS in most scenarios.
- 09 Sep. 2024: Removed pre-season talents, and updated AoE talents to no longer spend 2 points on AoE talents that add only 0.1% DPS at the cost of single-target DPS.
- 29 Aug. 2024: Updated disclaimer for AoE build to be clearer.
- 28 Aug. 2024: Fixed a typo.
- 24 Aug. 2024: Added Delve Talent Tree.
- 21 Aug. 2024: Updated for The War Within.
- 23 Jul. 2024: Updated for The War Within Pre-Patch.
- 07 May 2024: Reviewed for 10.2.7.
- 22 Apr. 2024: Updated best talents based on tier changes from Season 4.
- 19 Mar. 2024: Updated for Patch 10.2.6., made Flame Accelerant a default node instead of Alexstrasza's Fury
- 09 Mar. 2024: Updated suggested Flamestrike talents slightly, and added more information on picking between Ignite vs Flamestrike builds.
- 15 Jan. 2024: Reviewed for Patch 10.2.5.
- 19 Nov. 2023: Updated talent tree to pick Alexstrasza's Fury by default due to optimisations found.
- 06 Nov. 2023: Updated suggested talents due to 10.2 changes.
- 04 Sep. 2023: Changed talent layout to be easier to navigate.
- 14 Jul. 2023: Added disclaimed that Living Bomb should not be used on single target.
- 10 Jul. 2023: Updated suggested talents after the Fire rework for 10.1.5.
- 03 May 2023: Added note about the suggested talents being based on having 2 and 4 set.
- 01 May 2023: Updated suggested talents based on 10.1 changes and cleaned up some talent advice.
- 20 Mar. 2023: Updated for Patch 10.0.7.
- 16 Feb. 2023: Removed old note.
- 24 Jan. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.0.5.
- 11 Dec. 2022: Reviewed for Dragonflight Season 1.
- 28 Nov. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight launch.
- 25 Oct. 2022: Split talent suggestions up into Night Fae and non Night Fae section.
- 24 Oct. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight pre-patch.
More Mage Guides
Guides from Other Classes
This guide has been written by Dutchmagoz. Dutchmagoz is a Mythic raider in one of the top raiding guilds, Turtles and the owner of the Mage Discord server, Altered Time, where he is involved in all things Mage, and you can reach out to him directly for feedback or questions about the guide.
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