Fire Mage

Ranged damage

Fireball crits build Heating Up for a faster Pyroblast, and your own Improved Scorch stacks lift every Fire spell. Crit-driven, and weak until Heating Up at 25.

Fire casts Fireball (or, from 40, Frostfire Bolt) and fishes for crits. Every non-periodic crit from Fireball, Frostfire Bolt, Fire Blast or Scorch adds a Heating Up stack that takes 25% off your next Pyroblast's cast time, up to 75% at three stacks, for 20 seconds. Improved Scorch stacks 3% more Fire damage, five times, but only for your own spells now. Ignite adds 40% of a crit as a burn. From 40, Combustion raises Fire crit until three more crits land. Fire has no hit talent of its own, so it borrows Elemental Precision from Frost.

Strengths and weaknesses

Fire strengths and weaknesses

Strengths	Weaknesses
Crit-driven damage, with Heating Up cutting up to 75% off Pyroblast's cast time	Weak until Heating Up at 25, and Fire only gets Pyroblast as a pre-pull opener before that
Ignite adds a burn worth 40% of each crit	A miss loses Ignite and Heating Up procs, so hit matters early
Improved Scorch stacks lift all your Fire spells	Pyroblast is never instant, and three stacks still leave a 1.5 s cast
Combustion from 40 raises Fire crit until three more crits land	Improved Scorch helps only your own spells
Burning Soul cuts Fire threat by 30% and protects casts from pushback	Fire has no hit talent of its own and borrows Elemental Precision from Frost

Stat priority

1. Spell power
2. Hit
3. Crit
4. Intellect
5. Haste
6. Spirit

Rank spell power > hit > crit > haste > Spirit > MP5. Hit matters early, because a miss loses Ignite and Heating Up procs. Alternatively, put Fire damage and spell power first, then Intellect. Crit feeds Heating Up, Ignite and Master of Elements.