FIRE MAGE FUNDAMENTALS COURSE

FIRE MAGE PLAYSTYLE

Welcome to our Fire Mage Damage Course for The War Within, which is custom designed to equip you with all the essential knowledge needed to excel in PvP. In this introductory video, we're going to be exploring what to expect from the Fire Mage playstyle and what's changed going into The War Within.

Fire Mage embodies the Mage archetype. With its explosive burst potential, it excels at dishing out massive damage in a short period thanks to Combustion.

Now, as expected with a Mage, it has strong crowd control, while its mobility and defensive abilities make it incredibly slippery and really hard to kill. Fire Mage stands out as the most aggressive of the three Mage specializations, often pushing into the enemy team for crowd control to secure the win.

If the thought of sitting back and waiting for dampening doesn't appeal to you, Fire Mage might just be the perfect choice. What makes Fire Mage even more exciting is its incredibly fast-paced burst rotation, thanks to Fire Blast being castable, while casting other spells.

This unique mechanic allows you to string together multiple abilities in quick succession and maximize your burst. The Frostfire Hero Tree is an exciting new addition.

With the new Frostfire Bolt talent, even if you're locked out of fire spells, you can still deal some pretty serious damage. Now, what makes this tree even better is its ability to proc instant cast Frostfire Bolts, which further enable you to set up devastating ghosts.

This synergy adds depth to the playstyle and opens up new opportunities to close out the game. game. The main downside of Fire Mage lies in its heavy reliance on cooldowns and the occasional RNG factor given that our critical strikes outside of combustion reduce the cooldown of combustion.

Failing to secure a kill during your combustion window really oftentimes means that your chances of closing out the game become very slim until the next combustion. This makes it absolutely crucial for Fire Mages to time their cooldowns well and capitalize on kill windows if you want to win the game.

Now that you have an understanding of the playstyle for Fire Mage, it's time to take a look at your goals inside of Arena.

FIRE MAGE GOALS

Welcome back! In this video we're going to be outlining some key goals for Fire Maves that you should aim to follow throughout your games.

These are the objectives that top players strive to achieve in each and every match. Our first goal is to never waste Combustion.

Combustion is one of those cooldowns that you simply just cannot afford to waste. Since our win condition heavily relies on a single ability, it's crucial to make sure we're using Combustion at the right moment to maximize its impact.

Now what you might be wondering is, how do I know when that right moment is to use Combustion? Well generally, the best time is when the healer is CC'd.

If we watch this clip we can see that the mage gets a full polymorph on the healer before using Combustion. This forces the paladin to use both Bubble and Blessing of Protection.

While you can use Combustion without CC in certain situations, such as when the target's low health or when everyone is stacked, your ideal opportunity is always going to be when the healer is polymorphed. This provides us with the highest chance of securing a kill during our burst window.

Our second goal is pretty simple, keep moving. As with other mage specializations, fire mages are pretty squishy if you just stand there and tank damage.

This is why we have a variety of cooldowns to help avoid damage, such as Blink, Frost Nova, and Alter Time. Even better, most of our abilities are instant cast, and Scorch is even castable while moving.

Our final goal is to make full use of your crowd control. Mages have some of the best CC tools, and they're all available in the game.

So if you're interested in getting a little bit more information about how to use them, make sure to check out our video on the link in the description. If you're interested in getting a little bit more information about how to use them, make sure to check out our video on the link in the description.

And if you're interested in getting a little bit more information about how to use them, make sure to check out our video on the link in the description. And if you're interested in getting a little bit more information about how to use them, make sure to check out our video on the link in the description.

For the enemy to interrupt, except for Polymorph, which can make it harder to set up CC, it's a good idea to always start your CC chain with Dragon's Breath before Polymorph. By using Dragon's Breath first, you prevent the enemy from interrupting your CC chain.

This is even better if you can get multiple targets into the Dragon's Breath, as this can lead into a mass Polymorph or Ring of Frost if talented.

FIRE MAGE DAMAGE PRIORITY

Welcome back! Now that you have a broader understanding of both the playstyle and the goals of a Fire Mage in the Arena, the next step is learning how to deal damage effectively.

It's important to remember that this is not going to be a rotation here, it's a priority system. What this means for you is that the abilities at the top of this list should be prioritized over those further down below it.

Our highest priority is casting Pyroblast with Hot Streak. We never want to waste Hot Streak procs or even any potential critical strikes that could lead to a heating up proc.

Therefore, we should cast Pyroblast as soon as possible to maximize our number of Hot Streaks during a game. After that, we Fireblast or Phoenix Flames if you're about to overcap charges.

We don't need to pool these charges to be conservative with them since the spontaneous Combustion talent refreshes our charges when we use our cooldowns. This means if we let these charges overcap, we're going to be wasting our time on the game.

This means we're wasting potential cast and heating up procs. Next up is Frostfire Bolt.

You can instant cast it when you proc Frostfire Empowerment. On top of being instant cast, it'll also give you maximum stacks of Fire and Frost Mastery, which will significantly boost your damage.

The reason this is lower than Pyroblast is that while it has a lot of great benefits and can hit hard, it can also critical strike, which means we don't want to waste any potential heating up procs. Next, we have Scorch with a Heat Shimmer proc.

This proc is a great way to increase your damage by increasing your damage by a lot. This proc guarantees that Scorch is going to be a critical strike, deal 300% increased damage, and even boost your movement speed.

This, of course, guarantees a heating up proc. After that, we have Fireblast and Phoenix Flames, which are used to chain off of a heating up proc.

These spells always critical strike, which means that you will get a heating up proc. You might be wondering why we don't always just cast two of these in a row.

The reason here is simple. If we burn through our charges of Fireblast and Pyroblast too quickly, we risk leaving gaps where we're forced to sit on heating up procs without being able to use them.

Next, we have Frostfirebolt again, but this time, only if you have the opportunity to free cast. With the introduction of Frostfirebolt, it has replaced the traditional Fireball ability.

However, the good news is that it benefits from any talents that previously buffed Fireball. Finally, we circle back to Scorch, this time without any procs.

When you need to kite or reposition, Scorch is going to be our best ability. This can be cast while moving and can help us generate heating up procs on the go.

FIRE MAGE HERO TALENTS: FROSTFIRE

Hey everyone, welcome to the next video in our Fire Mage damage course. As you likely know by now, while talents have mostly stayed the same in The War Within, one major new feature is the introduction of Hero Talents.

Our only real choice is Frostfire and this won't drastically change your gameplay, since most talents in the trees are passive and they replace your iconic Fireball ability. Let's explore how this tree works.

The core talent of this tree is Frostfire Mastery. This talent allows you to accumulate up to 6 stacks of Fire Mastery and 6 stacks of Frost Mastery, with each stack buffing your stats.

You gain a stack for each spell you cast from either the Fire or Frost school, with your stacks resetting after 14 seconds. In practice, it's unlikely you'll reach the maximum 6 stacks for both schools of magic consistently.

However, there are some talents designed to help you maximize your uptime with these stacks. But first, let's talk about Frostfireball.

When you talent, Frostfirebolt replaces Fireball. However, it still benefits from any talent in our tree that interacts with Fireball.

The good news is that casting Frostfirebolt grants you a stack of both Frost and Fire Mastery. Even better, the Frostfire Empowerment talent gives us a chance to proc an instant Frostfirebolt, but that's not necessarily where the benefits end.

Not only does it deal more damage, but it also grants full stacks of both Frost and Fire Mastery, while also refreshing the duration of these buffs thanks to the Flash Freezeburn talent. This means you don't have to worry about timing your cast to avoid wasting any damage.

Now, when we proc full stacks of Frost and Fire Mastery, we also get bonuses from the talents Excess Frost and Excess Fire. Excess Frost causes your next Phoenix Flame cast to trigger Ice Nova, and it even reduces the cooldown of Meteor by 10 seconds.

Excess Fire, on the other hand, boosts your next Fireblast, making it deal extra damage, cleave to nearby targets, and reduce the cooldown of Phoenix Flames by 10 seconds. What this means is that when you consume Frostfire Empowerment, we're getting both buffs.

Isothermic Core is an interesting talent because it now causes Meteor to cast a Comet Storm at your targeted location. This can significantly boost your burst damage, but the best part is that it's something we don't need to actively manage.

Now let's talk about our Choice Nodes. Though, to be honest, they're not really Choice Nodes.

Let's explain why. First, you can cast Ice Barrier.

This is a good choice for your There's not much reason to take this talent, so we're definitely going to skip it. The next option is Elemental Affinity versus Flame and Frost.

Elemental Affinity is the best pick, as it passively reduces the cooldown of any Frost spell with a base cooldown of 4 minutes. This means you're going to get value all game.

Flame and Frost just resets the cooldown of any Frost spell with a base cooldown of 4 minutes when you cauterize. This means you could go several games without getting any benefit from this talent.

Our final node is between Severe Temperatures and Thermal Conditioning. Thermal Conditioning simply reduces the cast time of Frostfire Bolt, but since we're not typically sitting there hard casting all game, this talent offers limited value.

Instead, we opt for Severe Temperatures, which gives our spells a chance to increase the damage of Frostfire Bolt by 10%, stacking up to 50%. This adds to our burst potential when we use these stacks with Frostfire Empowerment.

FIRE MAGE BURST SEQUENCE

Here we're going to be going over your burst rotation on Fire Maid, which is going to allow you to score far more kills when you use your cooldowns.

To begin this burst rotation, we're going to first be using Meteor, which, because of our Frostfire Hero tree, will drop a hard-hitting Comet Storm on the target, dealing a huge chunk of damage on our target's area.

Following this, we'll then immediately use Combustion in combination with the instant Frostfire Bolt proc that it gives, allowing us to build up a heating up proc. Once we've done these two steps, we're going to start pumping out Fire Blast, Phoenix Flames, and Pyro Blast as often as possible.

However, that goes without saying that you should make sure to prioritize consuming any extra Frostfire Bolts or Heat Shimmer procs when they come up over Fire Blast or Phoenix Flames as they just do so much more damage.

From here, we'll then keep using Fire Blast to turn our heating ups into hot streaks, and then consume our Fire Blast to turn our heating ups into hot streaks, and then consume our hot streaks with Pyro Blast. After this, we'll just be rotating between Fire Blast and Pyro Blast till we run out.

And then once we run out of Fire Blast, we'll then do the same thing with Phoenix Flames and use Fire Blast when they become available, as we often get random procs from Time Anomaly resetting their cooldown.

FIRE MAGE OPENER

Let's move past the theory and get to the practical. In this next part of our Fire Mage Damage Course, we're going to be guiding you through the best strategies for how to approach openers.

We're going to cover the goals, thought processes, and the decision making, drawing insights from Rank 1 Mage, Kalvish. Regardless of the composition we're up against, the approach to the opener is relatively consistent.

The primary goal is to maximize our burst window while avoiding unnecessary interrupts and minimizing incoming damage. Before the gates open, make sure that you're using Conjure Refreshments and Arcane Intellect, although you can skip the Conjure Refreshments and Solo Shuffle since healers can't drink.

The first thing you're going to notice once the gates open is that the Mage doesn't immediately start with Invisibility. Greater Invisibility offers 60% damage reduction for 3 seconds, and the Mage chooses to save it.

This is a good practice unless you're fighting something like a Rogue and you want to avoid getting CC'd, although this isn't always necessary. First, you're going to notice that the Rogue is not always necessary.

First, you're going to notice that the Rogue is not always necessary. First, you're going to notice that the Rogue is not always necessary.

First, you're going to notice that the Rogue opens with a sap, and that's when the Mage starts to push out. When playing with a Rogue, it's smart to sit back and let them get out stuns and crowd control on the enemy team before you engage so that you don't get interrupted or out-pressured.

With the Warrior and the Red Paladin CC'd, the Mage casts Mass Polymorph on both DPS to prevent any interruptions when they go for CC on the healer. Now that the healer is in a full kidney shot, the Mage blinks to the healer for a full polymorph.

At this point, you're going to notice that we haven't dealt any damage yet. The key here is setting up the perfect opportunity for combustion, which goes back to our goals.

We can't just randomly use combustion without CC, as doing so risks breaking CC or missing the ideal window. Now that the Monk is in a full polymorph, the Mage commits to combustion and starts dealing damage.

This forces the Paladin's trinket along with the Monk's trinket and Cocoon. This highlights exactly why good CC is so dang crucial.

If the healer wasn't in CC, they could have simply used Revival or Cocoon to stop the entire go without trading any trinkets. As combustion nears its end and the Mage has fewer instant cast available, you're going to notice how their damage significantly drops off.

We pretty much are never going to kill without combustion. At this point, the Mage focuses on surviving, using blink to kite, and waiting for the next combustion go.

The opener strategy, no matter the combustion, is simple. Apply CC to the healer, use combustion, and focus on surviving until the next go.

FIRE MAGE WIN CONDITION

Alright, so far in this course we've outlined our goals in the arena, provided you with a straightforward damage priority, thoroughly explored each and every ability, and even covered how you should be approaching openers.

Now it's finally the time to bring it all together and demonstrate precisely how you should use all of this knowledge to win you games. The Fire Mage as we've discussed through its goals and opener primarily secures victories through combustion windows.

However, this doesn't mean that combustion is the only path to victory. Thanks to Polymorph, Fire Mages have the ability to set up CC chains that enable their teammates to close out games.

It's important to keep in mind that PvP is a team effort. Your role as a Fire Mage extends beyond just your singular damage output.

If you notice your teammates using their cooldowns, be ready to blink in for a Polymorph. By coordinating your CC with their offensive cooldowns, you can create game-winning opportunities even outside of your own combustion windows.

So let's begin by reviewing how we can secure a win by assisting our teammates when we don't have combustion available. Here we can see that the Mage uses Dragon's Breath on the Healer and immediately follows it up with Mass Polymorph.

Since the Healer has no Trinket available, they're not going to be able to save the Rogue. With the Healer locked in CC, the Mage drops a Meteor.

At the same time, the Rogue follows up by dropping a Smoke Bomb and activating Shadow Dance. To help secure the kill, the Mage uses all of their Fire Blast and Instant Cast to help close out the game.

This demonstrates that even without combustion available, a well-coordinated team effort can still secure the win. Now the moment you've been waiting for.

How do we win with combustion? It's actually pretty similar to how we win without combustion, with the main difference being that we'll be the primary damage dealer during the go.

First we see the Mage setting up a Polymorph off the Kidney Shot. As always, we want to set up crowd control before committing to any go.

This gives us the opportunity to ensure the healing is done. This is a good way to get the damage done.

The Healer can't save the kill target. Once the Monk is in a full Polymorph, the Mage casts Combustion.

Without a Trinket, the Monk has no cooldowns to save the Warrior, and while the Warrior uses their Trinket to try and escape, it's simply not going to be enough. This showcases the power of Combustion when combined with the right setup.

The right timing and the right coordination are crucial to locking down your opponents and securing the win, much like we discussed in Goal 1. At the end of the day, it's clear that whether we have Combustion or not, we're going to have to wait and see.

We're going to have to wait and see. Whether we have Combustion or not, our win condition really revolves heavily around securing good crowd control.

While our burst is significant, it's rare for us to win purely with raw damage. Most healers are capable of healing through our damage.

This is why CC becomes so so crucial, as without it, we simply can't expect to win.