Fire Mage

Playstyle & Rotation

We no longer have a rotation of sorts, we simply cast Fireball until we gain Heating Up and then cast Fire Blast to gain Hot Streak and spend this on an instant Pyroblast. Outside of this simple mechanic, we have multiple cooldowns that need managing and synchronising well to achieve high burst DPS moments.

In general gameplay outside of cooldowns, when you have a Hot Streak proc, you shouldn't use it instantly. Instead you should cast a Fireball immediately followed by an instant Pyroblast at the same time, as this will increase the chance of gaining further Heating Up/Hot Streak procs as there is a small second grace time where Heating Up will not be removed if one spell crits and the other does not.

Note that a Pyroblast or Flamestrike that was cast from Hot Streak will deal double the normal Mastery: Ignite damage than one that was hardcast, so you should never hardcast these spells unless you have Marquee Bindings of the Sun King equipped.

Opener - Single Target Build

• Precast Mirror Image at 3sec.
• Prepot with Potion of Prolonged Power.
• Precast Fireball.
• Use Combustion just before your Fireball cast ends to ensure it Crits, unless you are playing Firestarter.
• Use a charge of Fire Blast to gain Hot Streak ready to burst.
• Cast Meteor inside Combustion so that it will land at 5 stacks of Pyretic Incantation.

Opener - Mythic+ & Cleave Build

• Prepot with Potion of Prolonged Power.
• Precast Fireball.
• Precast Cinderstorm.
• Cast Rune of Power.
• Cast Combustion just before Cinderstorm cinders hit the target, which causes you to gain 5 stacks of Pyretic Incantation instantly.
• Cast Phoenix's Flames.
• If your precast Fireball did not Crit, use a charge of Fire Blast to gain Hot Streak ready to burst.

The opener from here using either talent build is simply generating Pyroblast casts from both Fire Blast and Phoenix's Flames like so, fitting in as many Pyroblast casts as possible during Combustion:

• Pyroblast
• Fire Blast
• Pyroblast
• Fire Blast
• Pyroblast
• Phoenix's Flames
• Pyroblast
• Phoenix's Flames
• Pyroblast

Remember that Fire Blast is not on the global cooldown, meaning that you can perform Fire Blast -> Pyroblast combos in one global while Combustion is active. Outside of cooldowns, make sure that you never cap on Fire Blast stacks where possible, to generate the most Hot Streak procs. When Combustion is coming off cooldown soon, you should start to save up Fire Blast charges so that you have 3 available as you use your cooldowns.

The first charge of Phoenix's Flames can be used on the pull to help generate the first Hot Streak proc as shown above in the cleave opener. You must ensure that you always have at least two to three charges available for Combustion and you should find yourself mostly using this spell during Combustion or Rune of Power windows. Phoenix's Flames also does decent splash damage to nearby targets so in some situations it may be worth using up charges for burst AoE instead. Ideally you never want to sit on 3 charges of Phoenix's Flames for very long, however it is acceptable to hold onto all charges if Combustion is coming off cooldown soon.

Potion of Prolonged Power should always be used before combat so that you gain another usage later in the fight. Your second Potion of Prolonged Power should be used alongside another Combustion and cooldown usage during the fight.

Meteor should always be used before casting Combustion as to not waste a GCD while cooldowns are active. Unfortunately, the cooldowns of these two spells don't sync up well, meaning that you can only use one Meteor cast in between Combustion uses. So you will have one Meteor with cooldowns, the next should be used around when it comes off cooldown (trying to time with cleave and Rune of Power if talented where possible), and saving the third use for Combustion once again.

Mirror Image should also always be used before casting Combustion as it gains the benefit of 100% Crit rating dynamically, similarly with Time Warp.

When playing with Rune of Power, you should always have a charge available to use immediately before casting Combustion, other uses should be timed with either cleave/AoE situations or damage increase phases, making sure that you never sit capped on 2 charges.

When Cinderstorm is talented, you should always use it just before Combustion to maximise on Pyretic Incantation stacks as described in the cleave opener. Outside of Combustion you should use Cinderstorm on cooldown wherever it fits naturally into your rotation (do not waste potential Hot Streak procs to cast Cinderstorm!).

Cleave & AoE

Mastery: Ignite is now automatically spread every two seconds to nearby targets meaning you have no DoTs to worry about. Whenever more than one target is present and stacked you should apply Living Bomb on cooldown wherever it fits in your rotation (do not waste potential Hot Streak procs to cast Living Bomb!). It is preferable in AoE situations to cast Living Bomb on the mob with the least health, increasing the chance that it explodes faster due to the mob dying. Cinderstorm should also be used on cooldown after Living Bomb, making sure that the targets already have the Mastery: Ignite DoT present for Cinderstorm to deal 30% increased damage.

Dragon's Breath should be used off cooldown if it will hit 3 or more targets, unless you have Darckli's Dragonfire Diadem equipped, in which case it should be used on any number of targets each time it is ready.

Hot Streak should be spent on Flamestrike over Pyroblast when there are 4 or more targets, however during Combustion you should always use Pyroblast unless there are 6+ targets, as you will spread a higher Mastery: Ignite to all targets with Pyroblast, compared to each target having a small Mastery: Ignite from Flamestrike. If Flame Patch is talented, you should use Flamestrike over Pyroblast on 2 or more targets if they will stay in it's AoE patch for adequate time.

Mobility

For mobility you should always maximise on Shimmer charges to maintain DPS uptime. Outside of this we can cast Scorch instead of Fireball, although it does low damage, but thanks to Frenetic Speed, you will gain some additional movement speed.