Why You Should & Shouldn't Play Fire Mage in Dragonflight Season 2 - Patch 10.1

Posted 2023/04/30 at 1:49 AM by Preheat

Need help choosing a new Class in Season 2? Check out all the released articles in the 'Why You Should Play a Spec' series below:
Why You Should Play a Spec in Dragonflight Season 2 Series

Blood DK
Frost DK
Unholy DK
Havoc DH
Vengeance DH
Balance Druid
Feral Druid
Guardian Druid
Restoration Druid
Devastation Evoker
Preservation Evoker
Beast Mastery Hunter
Survival Hunter
Arcane Mage
Fire Mage
Frost Mage
Brewmaster Monk
Mistweaver Monk
Windwalker Monk

Holy Paladin
Protection Paladin
Retribution Paladin
Discipline Priest
Holy Priest
Shadow Priest
Assassination Rogue

Outlaw Rogue
Subtlety Rogue
Elemental Shaman
Enhancement Shaman
Affliction Warlock
Demonology Warlock
Destruction Warlock
Arms Warrior
Fury Warrior
Protection Warrior

UpdateUpdate: as of 4/28/23 Fire Mage Mastery: Ignite is nerfed by 6%. This comes with news that Fire has apparently had a pretty big bug with Mastery: Ignite in simulations causing it to overperform by around 10% for the entire expansion. Alexstrasza's FuryUnderlight Conjurer's BrillianceOnyx AnnuletSeal of Diurna's ChosenWhy You Should Play Fire Mage in Dragonflight (and Why You Shouldn't)PyroblastsDefias PillagersMastery: IgniteCombustionRune of PowerSun King's BlessingKindlingCombustionMastery: IgniteSun King's BlessingPyroclasmPyroblastIce FloesArcane IntellectSun King's Blessing

Why You Should

Why You Shouldn't

Why You Should Play Fire Mage in Dragonflight Season 2nice buffsPyroblastFire BlastFireballScorchSlow BurnImproved ScorchCauterizeAlexstrasza's FuryFire was recently buffed by around 9%, and has a good tier bonus which makes it a winner.Searing TouchIce BlockCauterizeAberrus, the Shadowed CrucibleFirestarterFrom the AshesAlexstrasza's FuryAlexstrasza's FuryAt this time, I expect Fire to be the meta pick for Mages in Raid and Mythic+, but with the recent Mastery: Ignite nerf Arcane will have higher Single Target.Underlight Conjurer's Brilliance

Mage Fire 10.1 Class Set 2pc (2) Set Bonus: Phoenix Flames applies Charring Embers to all enemies it damages, temporarily increasing their damage taken from you.
Mage Fire 10.1 Class Set 4pc (4) Set Bonus: When your direct damage spells hit an enemy affected by Charring Embers 20 times, gain 2 free charges of Phoenix Flames with greatly increased damage.

Phoenix FlamesPhoenix FlamesHaving this full tier bonus is an increase of around 12%, making it the best of the Mage tier bonuses in Season 2. Phoenix FlamesFrom the AshesPhoenix FlamesAlexstrasza's FuryAlexstrasza's FuryPhoenix FlamesDragon's BreathDragon's BreathHot StreakPhoenix FlamesCauterizeArcane IntellectTime WarpPortalConjure RefreshmentDragon's BreathBlast WaveRemove CurseSpellstealSun King's BlessingPhoenix FlamesAlexstrasza's FuryWhy You Shouldn't Play Fire Mage in Dragonflight Season 2HyperthermiaTime AnomalyFlamestrikeLiving BombMastery: IgniteSun King's BlessingCauterizeFlamestrikePyroblastCombustionSun King's BlessingSun King's BlessingCombustionCombustionPyroblastIce FloesIce BlockTempered FlamesSlow BurnTempered FlamesEven if the class is tuned high and the damage is good, it still has serious problems.

Comment by Zero01OneTy Preheat for the guide. I was searching for conformation of my misery and found it in your "more of the same..." words. I couldn't have put it better myself!Comment by ShadowMooCowpreheat is the man and best mage everComment by Thurisaz2511"Why You Should Play a Spec in Dragonflight Season 2 Series" section/box is not getting updated with new articles. Could someone take a look at it? I'd prefer to check this box on the newest article instead of scrolling through 10 pages of Wowhead news to find whichever spec interests me. Thanks!Comment by TrumpcatAll 3 Mage specs are disappointing to play because in addition to all the conditionals that must be met for you to be able to deliver a decent output, such as the tank pulling around your class playstyle or boss fights presenting you with ideal phasing and cleave opportunities to a degree at which no other spec has to deal with, you also have major dysfunctions in each of the three specs:
Unreasonably long and fragile setup (Arcane); the numerous short duration buff uptime tracking (Fire); "ignore your own procs and abilities" (Frost) combined with a lack of talent builds and utility.

The gameplay has remained stale since Legion and the class feels like it's been messed up by the various borrowed powers over the past 3 expansions, some of which were baked into the talent trees without a robust design vision as to how they play together with the rest, allowing for a single optimal, if clunky, playstyle that's remained the same for several years now. In the end, if you do put up with all the complexity, unintuitive gameplay, lack of build variety and lack of distinct utility, you do not end up excelling at any content, furthermore, to deliver your not-so-great damage you need keys over 20 as simply the targets below that die too fast for your elaborate setups and buff uptimes to deliver good damage consistently (assuming you're in group with decent DPS players).Comment by pr0paGandhiI was hoping for Alexstraza's Fury to become viable when I read the set bonus. I was also hoping there was maybe a chance to get out of SKB.

But yea
"I sincerely hope the next time I write something like this for Fire Mage, I can tell you that we are making progress."

Me too and I hope the time you write this at isn't 6 months away. I've never been so unhappy with my almost 20 year old main.

Would love to see a comparison of how many design changes each spec got in DF. Like, not just tuning numbers, but changing stuff about spells and talents. There's probably a handful at the bottom of that barrel including the entirety of the mage class.

While Ion gives interviews about how proud they are of their of their balancing ("We are doing plenty of regular changes (to 3 specs)") I'm just totally lost at the thought that the most enjoyable expansion (as far as getting to do what content I want) is by far the worst as far as the design of my class goes with RADIO SILENCE on the issue. It's utterly embarrassing, especially while they're riding on the "listening to player feedback is so great" wave. If listening to players is such a fantastic experience to Blizzard, they should take a look at mage forums.Comment by PreheatTy Preheat for the guide. I was searching for conformation of my misery and found it in your "more of the same..." words. I couldn't have put it better myself!Comment by TheGoldenElmI love my mage but it can be filled with frustration. Maybe someday we'll have actual choices in our build... But hey, that tier set looks sweet!Comment by seijulalaI've been playing mage for 16 years, this is it for me, all 3 specs are in an awful state, not worth playing the game anymore.Comment by the9tailPlays the mostly same as it did in Season 1 (if you like that).
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Plays the mostly same as it did in Season 1 (if you don't like that).

If its on both sides its not an advantage/disadvantage...Comment by RomanDarkI don't main Mage and I may not do the tippy top of damage, but I get by pretty well on Incanters Flow, Alexstraza's Fury and Hyperthermia instead of SKB for an endless stream of instant cast crits. And when I do have to press fireball it's buffed from not casting it for 8secs. With this build I never have to worry about being interrupted or moved off my rune or whatever. As I said, might not be viable for world first race progression, but fun nonetheless.Comment by DekardcaiinCompletly accurate assessment of fire mage. Letting possible new fire mages know about the high skill ceiling required to play a spec with great damage if played perfectly but low damage if the rotation is inturupted or delayed is very important. Not having a heal to recover health outside of healing during ice block is a turn off for me. (But Id happily invite a fire mage to group content) As most players, I can occasionally make a mistake. And most other specs have some, or many, powerful self healing abilities or passives to recover. If you primarily do raid or M+ with the same tank, and that player has chosen to tank as Protection Paladin and is a really good friend of yours, you'll never, ever, need to care much if you are hurt but not dead, as the Protection Paladin can bring anyone within 30 yards from no health to full health about once every 2 seconds. This full dps health pool amount of healing from one word of glory feels divine to cast, and can free up dps to worry less about their health bar and more on spreading ignite to all the mobs like a boss.Comment by Scaryfox'Fire Mage is the only ranged specialization to have a cheat death built in.' Do the other Mage specs or Hunters not exist to him? The last I checked, FD is baseline. Still, that set bonus sounds pretty sweet.Comment by PreheatPlays the mostly same as it did in Season 1 (if you like that).
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Plays the mostly same as it did in Season 1 (if you don't like that).

If its on both sides its not an advantage/disadvantage...Comment by Preheat'Fire Mage is the only ranged specialization to have a cheat death built in.' Do the other Mage specs or Hunters not exist to him? The last I checked, FD is baseline. Still, that set bonus sounds pretty sweet.Comment by ablockI wonder, since I'm still newish to mage (2-3 months, finally managed to kill mythic raz last week.) if Fire is going to be enough better than Frost that I should really focus all my attention now on Fire, or just stick with what's comfortable.Comment by PeesneezeI wonder, since I'm still newish to mage (2-3 months, finally managed to kill mythic raz last week.) if Fire is going to be enough better than Frost that I should really focus all my attention now on Fire, or just stick with what's comfortable.Comment by AussilioNevermind.Comment by toast042Comment by JubikusYeah this makes me sad. Frost being more of the same didnt dissappoint me. With fire it feels like they looked at the stats saw that everyone was using certain legendries and covenant abilities and then baked those in without any reguard on weather or not the players liked them or just used them because Math said they were better by too much of a margin and left us with no alternatives in the spec trees. It just felt like they desighned it by the numbers and didnt take the time to look in forums/reddit/Mage discord to see what players actually liked. Honestly i dont think ive ever seen mage reprisentation this low even when in Battle of dazar alor raid where all 3 specs were like in the bottom 5 dps for the raid.Comment by artharonixGod I wish mages would get a redesign already... Especially fire with it's complete overreliance on combustion to do anything whatsoever...