WoW Fire Mage guide: Talents, races, Shadowlands covenant, stats

World of Warcraft‘s Fire Mage is one of the class’ most powerful specialisms, but which talents should you take in order to maximize your DPS in WoW? Here’s a guide to everything you’ll need to incinerate the competition.

Choosing a class in World of Warcraft dictates how your entire game will play out. From the spell-slinging Elemental Shaman, to the silent but deadly Shadow Priest; there’s a whole host of different specialisms to get your head around.

If you’re looking for a more traditional character, you may be attracted to the classic Mage, who manipulates nature to their will. You can take three different paths: Arcane, Fire, and Frost, but we’re going to focus on the most devastating of them all; Fire.

So, here’s a guide to the talents you’ll need to become one of WoW’s greatest Fire Mages, as well as how to pick your race and Shadowlands covenant.

The fearsome Fire Mage deals massive burst damage on the battlefield.

Arcane, Fire, or Frost Mage?

Of the three specializations, the Fire Mage certainly deals the most damage, but this comes at a cost. The character is plagued by lengthy cooldowns, made even longer due to the major nerfs back in Patch 9.1.

In terms of damage and ease of play, we’d recommend Frost Mage. Not only is it incredibly powerful, but it’s also much more forgiving at lower levels. Arcane is also pretty strong but requires a little more skill to play.

It goes without saying, though, that you’re reading this guide because you want to play Fire Mage. If the specialism really calls to you, then you should play it. After all, there’s nothing worse than grinding on a class you hate!

Best races

While many see race as secondary to the class itself, some are simply built a little bit differently. Below we’ve listed a guide to the best races for your Fire Mage:

Alliance	Horde
Mechagnomes	Troll
Dark Iron Dwarves	Orc
Dwarves	Pandaren
Draeni	Nightborne

Importantly, race doesn’t play a huge role until the endgame, so if Undead or Human is more your style, you should run those.

WoW Fire Mage: Best Talents

Talents are the core of any build, and for the Fire Mage this is no different. Getting the right set of spells is crucial to maximizing your damage output, so be sure to acquire these traits on your journey:

Talent	Level Acquired	Description
Searing Touch	15	Scorch deals 150% increased damage and is a guaranteed Critical Strike when the target is below 30% health.
Shimmer	25	Teleports you 20 yards forward, unless something is in the way. Unaffected by the global cooldown and castable while casting.
Rune of Power	30	Places a Rune of Power on the ground for 12 sec which increases Combustion damage by 40% while you stand within 8 yds.
Flame On	35	Reduces the cooldown of Fire Blast by 2 seconds and increases the maximum number of charges by 1.
Frenetic Speed	40	Casting Scorch increases your movement speed by 30% for 3 sec.
Conflagration	45	Fireball applies Conflagration to the target, dealing an additional (6.6% of Spell power) Fire damage over 8 sec. Enemies affected by either Conflagration or Ignite have a 10% chance to flare up and deal (6.75% of Spell power) Fire damage to nearby enemies.
Pyroclasm	50	Consuming Hot Streak has a 15% chance to make your next non-instant Pyroblast cast within 15 sec deal 240% additional damage. Maximum 2 stacks.

Kindling can also replace Pyroclasm if you’re looking to reduce the cooldown for Combustion.

Fire Mage: Best stats to level

If there’s one stat you’re going to need a lot of, it’s Intellect. Responsible for increasing your spell power and damage, this is essential to the Fire Mage’s bursty playstyle.

Secondary to this, you’ll want to try and center your gear around Critical Strike, Haste, Mastery, and Versatility.

Critical Strike and Haste work in tandem, as Haste allows you cast spells faster, in turn increasing the likelihood of doing additional damage with Critical Strike. These two stats also synergize with Versatility, which increases damage and healing, as well as decreasing the amount of damage taken.

Mastery upgrades your Mastery: Ignite, which is an essential tool for chunking down enemy health bars over time with burn damage.

The spectacular moonlit vistas of Ardenweald are where the Fire Mage should plant their roots.

Fire Mage: Best Covenant in WoW Shadowlands

One of Shadowlands’ unique mechanics is the Covenant system, which gives the player the opportunity to join one of four factions. Joining a Covenant will net you two Covenant-specific abilities, as well as some extra bonuses on the side.

Choosing a Covenant is essential to completing the main story quest for Shadowlands, so we recommend you go with:

Night Fae Mage Abilities:
- Shifting Power: Adds huge damage buffs, as well as decreasing cooldowns by 10s over 4s, allowing you to sling spells faster than ever before.
- Heart of the Fae (Runecarving Ability): Allows you to activate Shifting Power while moving. Each enemy hit by Shifting Power grants you 1% Critical Strike and Haste, up to 10% for 15 sec.
- Soulbind with Dreamwaver.
Venthyr Mage Abilities:
- Mirrors of Torment: Conjure three mirrors to torment the enemy for 25 sec. Whenever the target attacks, casts a spell or uses an ability, a mirror is consumed to inflict (60% of Spell power) Shadow damage, and their movement and cast speed are slowed by 15%. The final mirror deals (151% of Spell power) Shadow damage to the enemy, Rooting and Silencing them for 4 sec. Reduces Fireblast cooldown by 4s each time a mirror is consumed.
- Sinful Delight (Runecarving Ability): Mirror of Torment’s cooldown is reduced by 3s for every Fireblast used.
- Soulbind with Theotar.

Of the two, we’d recommend Night Fae simply because of the huge CDR that’s associated with it. Fire Mage abilities are characterized by long cooldown times, so this negates that concern entirely.

So that’s our WoW Fire Mage guide! Now that you know which Talents, stats, and races to run, you’ll etch yourself into history as Azeroth’s firey hero in no time.

Looking for some more class builds, though? Check out our dedicated guides:

Elemental Shaman guide | Resto Druid | Shadow Priest