Cast Harder, Not Smarter - Fire Mage Class Changes and Tier Set Review

Posted 6 days ago by Preheat

Some of these articles were released earlier than others, and may be out of date now.

Blood DKUnholy DK

Devourer DHVengeance DH

Balance Druid

Aug EvokerDevastation EvokerPreservation Evoker

Survival Hunter

Fire Mage

Mistweaver MonkWindwalker Monk

Shadow Priest

Assassination RogueOutlaw RogueSubtlety Rogue

Enhancement ShamanRestoration Shaman

Class Changes

Developers’ notes: Our goal with these changes is to shift the relative value of Fire’s steady-state damage versus Combustion window burst. It is important that time spent outside of Combustion remains meaningful and impactful to your overall performance.

Pyroblast damage increased by 15%.
Flamestrike damage increased by 15%.
Apex Talent: Fired Up (Rank 1) now grants 2% increased Fire damage for 8 seconds (was 4% for 12 seconds).
Apex Talent: Fired Up (Rank 2) now increases Fire damage by 5%/10% (was 3%/6%).
Apex Talent: Fired Up (Rank 3) chance to occur during Combustion has been slightly reduced.

Developers’ notes: We’re making some adjustments to Mage defensives with the goal of improving Mage survivability as a whole and slightly reducing the power of Glacial Bulwark.

New Talent: Improved Warding – Damage taken from area of effect attacks reduced by 4%.
Temporal Realignment has been updated – Now immediately heals 20% of your health and heals an additional 30% over 6 seconds.

CombustionPyroblastFlamestrikeFired UpTier Set

2-Set Bonus: Pyroclasm causes Flamestrike and Pyroblast to always critically strike.
4-Set Bonus: Pyroclasm reduces the cast time of Flamestrike and Pyroblast by 20% and its damage bonus is increased by 20%.

PyroclasmSunfury ExecutionFire BlastmoreHot Streak

Comment by TheRaggI was leaning hard towards going Fire Mage in Season 2. Then Blizz revealed that the Set revolves around Pyroclasm and that thought instantly died. Having to hardcast Pyros just feels very off. Being Sunfury yet again, also not my favourite.Comment by Kaliz123As a non mage player, isn't hardcasting pyro not enjoyable and something they have complained about?Comment by Arcmage79"We’re making some adjustments to Mage defensives with the goal of improving Mage survivability as a whole and slightly reducing the power of Glacial Bulwark". So, Frost mage will die even more than before, and how does nerfing Glacial Bulwark make mages more tanky ? Make it make sense Blizzard, gutting frost mages defenses will not make all mage specs survive better . Man, someone really hates mages this time..... Thanks Blizzard!Comment by kevincuomoWe need some actual class Devs that know how to play the game at a high level and know wtf is going on.. this is getting so old and annoying.Comment by MAXDEEPSwish these spec reviews weren't .... timegated
no shot they aren't all written, and I'd rather read about the class I play
but wowhead gotta wowhead I guessComment by thirty8overhead
> ⌘+F "pvp"
> 0 results
Comment by TastelikelemonIn a game where there is constant movement , a class change to require to stand still and do long casts = total nightmare of an experience. Back in the days there were a lot of range spells for every range class that allowed the class to stay competitive despite high movement , over the years Blizz changed that so its completely awful nowdays to play such hard-long-casting classes. There is a reason they dont allow BM nor SPriest to go on top of dps meters and they destroyed Affliction over the years , as they either allow full cast while moving as BM or super fast casts in to sustained dot damage as SP which makes one life much easier on high movement bosses.Comment by SituationI'm genuinely baffled by the decision to lock you into a talent no one is playing and probably most fire mages don't want to play. Anytime they make a spec more anchored to standing still the less likely I am to play it. Like the reason everyone plays bm isn't cause the class fantasyComment by MossysnailLET fire burn out already, this is like trying to light a wet candle, IT'S NOT gunna happen blizzard! go back to the drawing board and

R E D O

IT

R I G H T

🐌Comment by josephxpIf we are forced to take Pyroclasm this tier because of the tier set bonus I'm simply not going to main Fire Mage like I usually do. And depending on Arcane and Frost tuning I might not be maining Mage since Legion. :(Comment by throcha
> ⌘+F "pvp"
> 0 results
Comment by KlokworkKrowish these spec reviews weren't .... timegated
no shot they aren't all written, and I'd rather read about the class I play
but wowhead gotta wowhead I guessComment by PeacemoonCombustion is a really fun cooldown and I hope Blizz don’t change that playstyle too much. I do agree that Fire outside of that could see some improvements. Crits are basically combo points for fire mages, and Blizz need to make crit rating a better secondary stat for them.

Elemental have some traits that help crit boost spells that are guaranteed to crit, and Fire should do the same.

Not overly fond of tier sets that lean heavily into a niche talent that people don’t take. Blizz might be wanting to play test some changes here.Comment by TeknofariousAbsolute worst set bonus. Anyone else think a set that uses capstone talents that only procs 15% of the time off a hot streak is useful? You're just wrong. On average, you'll get 1 Pyroclasm per minute. Atrocious.
Confirms what we already assumed: devs don't play their own game.Comment by HolliHonestly thought I was done with hard cast pyros after Sun King's blessing. I hate them! Seriously why take something people complained about and re-introduce it? ugh.Comment by Skullhawk13Even as a giga casual in casual leveling content pyroclasm just feels atrociously bad. I'm glad my main isn't fire, I'd riot.Comment by selkiesidheNo One Likes To Hard Cast Pyro, BLIZZARD!

Same for Aimed Shot (meaning no boost to its cast speed, not necessarily insta). Its awful. Stop trying to make those things so gawd awful already. >_<Comment by DakzixFire mage in WoW is wild to me. A class/spec for a mage flinging fire spells should be wildly popular on the level of ret paladins simply because of its premise, regardless of how well it actually performs. A fireball slinging caster is just the core fantasy for most DnD-like games and for so long in WoW's life, mage captured that.

But it's one of the least popular specs in the game right now and aside from a brief stint of being exceptionally powerful at the start of S2 in TWW, it's been an incredibly unpopular spec for a good while now.

For that to happen, I think the devs just really need to go back to the drawing board for this spec design.Comment by Raxus502Blizz: "don't play mage"Comment by Skullhawk13Fire mage in WoW is wild to me. A class/spec for a mage flinging fire spells should be wildly popular on the level of ret paladins simply because of its premise, regardless of how well it actually performs. A fireball slinging caster is just the core fantasy for most DnD-like games and for so long in WoW's life, mage captured that.

But it's one of the least popular specs in the game right now and aside from a brief stint of being exceptionally powerful at the start of S2 in TWW, it's been an incredibly unpopular spec for a good while now.

For that to happen, I think the devs just really need to go back to the drawing board for this spec design.