Burn Baby Burn!!

Fire, Mage's claim to fame spec. Despite Fire being widely viewed as a common and general spec, its quite unique in many respects. In addition, there is one quality of the Fire spec that most users and even some Mage's aren't aware of. When I first discovered this, I thought that Fire spec mage's where below Arcane and there was no hope in sight to return Fire to the powerhouse spec THAT it once was. But Blizzard in its omniscient glory, heard our cries for help and finally changed the Fire spec for our benefit. Today, Fire is one of the most important raiding specs and is renowned for delivering some mind-numbing DPS and ass-thumping AOE.

The main perk to being fire is this ability:

Ignite Rank 5

Your critical strikes from Fire damage spells cause the target to burn for an additional 40% of your spell's damage over 4 sec.

Now some might say this isn't that impressive, that its a lot of hype for nothing. The thing you wanna know is that it stacks. Each crit adds damage to it. For this example we will be casting 4 fireballs to a target dummy:

Fireball Rank 16 hits Target Dummy for 14000 (Critical)

(40% of this is 5600. Over 4 seconds it burns every 2 seconds so thats 2800 each tick.)

Ignite Burns Target Dummy for 2800.

Fireball Rank 16 hits Target Dummy for 16000 (Critical)

(40% of this is 6400. Over 4 seconds it burns every 2 seconds so thats 3200 each tick.)

(Now since there is already 1 tick of 2800 it adds to that damage. 6400+2800=9200/2=4600 each tick.)

Ignite Burns Target Dummy for 4600.

Fireball Rank 16 hits Target Dummy for 18000 (Critical)

(40% of 18000 is 7200. Each tick would be 3600. 7200+4600=11800\2= 5900 each tick.)

Ignite Burns Target Dummy for 5900.

Fireball Rank 16 hits Target Dummy for 20000 (Critical)

(40% of 20000 is 8000. Each tick would be 4000. 8000+5900=13900\2 = 6950 each tick.)

Ignite Burns Target Dummy for 6950.

As you can see the more you crit, the more damage is added. Now this is dependent on Blizzards great RNG (Random Number Generator). Also on if you crit 4 times in a row. Now if the stacks are lost then you lose all the damage.

Now aside from Fireball which is your main nuke that all mage's get at level 1, you get 4 other spells to add to the damage.

1: Fire Blast

Blasts the enemy for 925 to 1095 Fire damage.

2: Living Bomb

The target becomes a Living Bomb, taking 1380 Fire damage over 12 sec. After 12 sec or when the spell is dispelled, the target explodes dealing 690 Fire damage to all enemies within 10 yards.

3: Pyroblast

Hurls an immense fiery boulder that causes 1190 to 1510 Fire damage and an additional 452 Fire damage over 12 sec.

4: Scorch

Scorch the enemy for 376 to 444 Fire damage.

(Notice how each one says Fire damage.)

Now as with arcane there is a talent that gives you the ability to send out a Pyroblast instantly. This basically gives you an instant nuke ability.

Hot Streak Rank 3

Any time you score 2 non-periodic spell criticals in a row using Fireball, Fire Blast, Scorch, Living Bomb, or Frostfire Bolt, you have a 100% chance the next Pyroblast spell cast within 10 sec will be instant cast.

Having these in your armory makes you a huge pain in the ass of any boss. Each one of these delivers something unique to complement your special talent.

A Damage-Over-Time spell, Living bomb becomes the best AOE dps ability that you can use. Mainly because it has no limitation on how many targets you can apply it to AND its ability to become crits (when glyphed).

Pyroblast can become instant, and allow you to strike for excessive amounts of damage to earn DPS numbers that would make any caster jealous.

Scorch should be used if there is no warlock available with improved shadow bolt or frost mage (which should be never).

Fire Blast is used to keep your dps going if you need to move. Use it when its up to get a quick burst of damage. You mostly want to use it at the end of a fight. to get a last strike in.

And thats it! Fire rolled out for all to see its crazy power! Next topic will be Frost and its power in raiding!